4D Final Project: Poetics of Time

Proposal

LIFE TEMPO

Describe the art Project

What is it about?

LIFE TEMPO is about describing a day in my life using different rhythms, supported by a constant metronome tempo.

What has inspired you?

Rudy Mancuso’s Circle of Strangers and TehChing Hsieh’s One Year Performance

Are you trying out a new concept or a continuation of a previous project?

The concept and idea is completely new, but I am taking the transitions from my previous project (wake up at the start and fall alseep at the end)

What do you intend to communicate to your audience?

I want to give a fresh take on daily tasks and change how people see mundane chores.

What is innovative and new about it?

Combining something boring (chores) and something fresh (rhythms)

Objectives and activities of the Art Project

What are you going to make or produce?

A film.

How are you going to produce it?

By using a camera on tripod.

What is the type of work?

Media-based, film.

What is the dimension?

18:9 screen ratio

What is the length of time of this experience you are creating?

1 minute 30 seconds

Art Materials and Equipment for the Art Project

Describe the materials you are going to use.

Camera, tripod, household items, shoes, clothes

What tools will you be using?

Camera.

Mounting and Installing the Art Project

Describe how you will install the Art Project.

I will be projecting it on the main screen of the classroom.

 

Concept

I wanted to explore the notion of biological time, by creating rhythm in a day in my life. I wanted to show how a person’s mundane tasks can be seen in a different perspective. For example, washing clothes, eating, wearing clothes etc in a certain rhythm, playing with fast ones, such as semiquavers and slower ones such as crochets.

I used a constant tempo that does not change for the whole video, which can signify the consistency of time ticking, heart beating, etc that still continues despite how fast or slow we do our tasks. And the tasks that are done in their certain rhythm correspond to the feeling i feel when i do them and the time of day in which i do these tasks. This allows me to play with how fast or slow time passes without changing the original tempo.

Inspiration

Rudy Mancuso ‘Circle of Strangers”

 

TehChing Hsieh ‘One Year Performance 1980 – 1981’

Tehching Hsieh’s one year time piece, to me, is the best way to demonstrate biological time, through the hourly punching of the time clock, and leaving his hair to grow for that 1 year.

"Rhythmanalysis" by Henri Lefebvre

“Rhythmanalysis” talks about a method for analyzing the rhythms of urban spaces and the effects of those rhythms on the inhabitants of those spaces. Lefebvre’s concept of rhythm concerns the repetition of a measure at a frequency. He identifies two kinds of rhythms: cyclical rhythms, which involve simple intervals of repetition, and alternating (or linear) rhythms. Lefebvre posits that the human body is composed of several rhythms; in order to observe rhythms outside of the body, the rhythmanalyst must use her or his own rhythms as a reference to unify the rhythms under analysis. Properly put, the rhythm is the conjunction of the rhythmanalyst and the object of the analysis.

 

Final Video

Reaction to video and feedback

(Thank you everyone for the constructive feed back) :))

 

Overall improvements
  • More sounds should be incorporated in the smaller areas
  • Create an overall rhythm and have sounds that surround the whole video instead
  • More intricate rhythms?

 

 

 

In-class Exercise: Project 3 Re-visit

Rhythm

Regularity in terms of sounds: footsteps, birds sounds, heavy breathing

Irregularity in terms of sounds: cat roar, jumping and falling into the leaves

Regularity in terms of video: Background, character design

Irregularity in terms of video: Character running

Repetition: Start and end

Movement

Successional movement in terms of direction girl is walking

Oppositional movement when girl collides with cat

Attack: girl vs cat

Sustain: Cat roaring

Causality

  • Easy to track
  • Expectations: attacks by cat

Duration

I think it may be just right, but the part where the cat roars may be too long.

Project 3: Impossibilities of Being

Concept

I wanted to portray a story in a world where humans have shrunk, while other elements of the world remain the same (buildings, animals, plants, etc.) and show the interaction between these tiny humans and their new environment. Being very small in size, with no home, they are forced to live in survival-mode, sourcing for food and shelter while avoiding predators. This film follows a girl who explores her new environment and escapes the jaw of a cat.

Through this film, I want to challenge myself to view my everyday environment in a whole different perspective, while creating a cute film with action.

Lo-Fi Storyboard

Hi-Fi Storyboard

Soundscape and test sounds

Final Video - FOREST CHILD

 

 

In-Class Exercise: Soundwalking

Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-uSjga77EAo

Experience

For this soundwalk, Jia Rong and I decided to take the sounds of how we interact with the different facilities of ADM.

My favorite clip from the soundwalk would be the one where I recorded Jia Rong eating a packet of almonds (Sound 8). There is a contrast between the sharp crunch of her biting an almond in half and the constant soft sound of her chewing a few almonds. In addition, the rustling of the packet and the opening of the ziplock on the packet is extremely loud as compared to the silent background, thus providing a form of emphasis.

This experience has provided me a more detailed perspective of how we perceive hearing and listening. What we usually hear as daily white noise of us interacting with the facilities of ADM has become sounds that we chose to listen to when we started to record and pay more attention to the little details of each sound. It was fun and enriching at the same time 🙂

Project 2: The Subverted Object – Lipstick

Component 1: Literal Meaning of object

For this component, I wanted to emphasize on the original context and function of lipstick.

The first picture shows the usual cosmetics that lipstick is associated with, such as eyeshadow. Through the placement of many other types of lipstick, i want to show variety in the colours of lipstick which is available and how everyone uses different types of lipstick depending on the event they go to.

The second picture shows a third person perspective of me putting on lipstick, as the action of me applying lipstick is shown through a mirror instead of directly from my face. The context is shown to be a room and i have other cosmetics placed at the side of the mirror, which shows that that table is a place that i usually put on my makeup before i leave the house.

The third picture shows a first person perspective of the application of lipstick. It is taken at eye-level to show the point of view which i see when i am staring at the mirror while i put on my makeup and lipstick and the redness of the lipstick, in contrast to my skin, brings attention and focus to my lips.

 

Component 2: Subversion of object

In this component, I have subverted the function and appearance of lipstick to portray the ugly side of beauty.

In the first picture, I subverted the lipstick into paint by cutting off the lipstick pigment and using a palette knife to smear it on a piece of paper. The action of cutting, mixing and smearing of lipstick emphasizes on the thickness of the lipstick, suggesting how much makeup is being put on women’s faces everyday. However, putting heavy makeup does not necessarily enhance the beauty of a person, despite what the stereotypes are suggesting. Thus, this picture can also bring about the crushing of stereotypes of beauty, to promote natural looks as the prime form of beauty.

In the second picture, I subverted the lipstick into a blade and used different shades of lipstick to show the freshness of the wounds on my wrist. The subversion can suggest how people who get criticized for their looks and beauty resort end up hurting themselves for the sake of looking beautiful (e.g through plastic surgery, intense dieting, etc.) and it is almost as hurtful as self-harm, shown through the cutting of the wrist, and if the cut goes too deep, the person will die. This image can be shown as part of a campaign to go against harmful methods of achieving “beauty” when there is no gain towards the injured party.

In the third picture, I subverted lipstick into nails to show the viciousness of trying too hard to achieve the “ideal beauty look”, that it leaves a mark ( scars, burn marks, stretch marks ), which is shown literally through the scratch marks made with the lipstick nails. This picture can be part of a campaign to show awareness of the danger of certain beauty products or methods.

Component 3: Addition of text

In this component, I have decided to use the third picture from my component 2 to create a poster about self defense. The primary audience is women and the message behind the poster is talking about how women should learn self defense, for moments when they get harassed. The anchorage in the words “Don’t be a victim. Fight back.” helps to support the image where the scratching can be seen as a way of protecting oneself in a harmful situation. The relay is the small text at the bottom showing worldwide statistics of women who have been harassed and thus telling women to take the initiative to learn how to protect themselves.

Improvements to the poster can be made through changing the context, such as making a mark on a man’s arm or showing injuries on the woman’s hand.