F4D II Project 3: Time, Space & Body – Final

Project Proposal

“All Animals Are Equal, But Some Animals Are More Equal Than Others” is an installation that talks about the double-standards of individuals who take pity on the killings of domesticated animals, yet still feel fine consuming meat like beef, pork and poultry. It serves to evoke the disgust of the killings of animals, regardless of it being domesticated animals or farm animals. Many individuals feel the disgust of the population in China’s annual Yulin festival, in which thousands of dogs and cats are murdered and eaten, using terms like ‘cruel’, ‘revolting’ and ‘condemn’. It is a wake up call and also a reminder to everyone that these animal slaughters are the result of the what we demand on our plates.

 As quoted from an article found in The Independent written by Emma Henderson, the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) Director Mimi Bekhechi mentions “Whether a dog, a pig, a chicken or a fish, no animal wants to suffer and die for our plates, and we urge everyone to condemn the slaughter of animals for meat.” My message to the audience is that if they prefer to keep their omnivore diet, they should empathize all animals equally; all killings are equally brutal.

Concept & Ideation

As I was browsing through social media, I came across different articles about the killings of domestic pets and the petition to stop Yulin’s Dog Eating Festival. I find it irritating to see that people are bothered by these sins but not remorseful for eating meat in their daily life. I wanted to bring up this irony back in their faces. Perhaps it has never crossed their mind on how the meat are being processed, thus, serves as a motivation for my installation.

Process & Challenges

It was challenging to portray the idea of double standards as there are many different opinions from everyone. There was a mixture of brutal animal killings and double standards, they are of different topics, hence I have to figure out the delivery method to bring out my message. I intended to show video footages of animal slaughters and gory silicone animal figurines on a table. However, the silicone animal figurines may seem too plain and unrealistic. Hence, Bridgel recommended me to present it with raw meat.

I experimented with silicone casting on animal figurines, but the proportion of the ingredients didn’t work out.

Thus I tried to paint over the animal figurines as it retains the texture.

However, it doesn’t present the gory appearance I wanted. Thus, I went to the wet market to find raw meat.

To bring out the gory part, I experimented with Red Dye, but it turned out pink instead.

I had to keep the meat for a few days before the day of installation, I am afraid that it will rot and turn pungent. Thus, I had to keep them in the freezer.

Final Installation

On the day of the installation, I looked for Pheng Yew for the booking of location as I couldn’t find Bharat the week before. I borrowed a table from the Animation Archive room with the help of Pheng Yew as I couldn’t gain access to the Crit Rooms (faulty card readers perhaps). Pheng Yew helped me out a lot on the day of my installation and I’m really grateful for that.

Setting up of the installation:

A white table cloth will be draped over the table and clean plates to resemble a clean dining table. Raw meat (Pig Trotters and Raw Chicken) will be placed on the table to show the undecorated form of food that we eat in our daily lives. A monitor screen will be placed in the center, slightly behind the plates, to show the animal slaughters of both domesticated and farm animals. I have attached my laptop to the monitor with a HDMI cable and the sound will be played out from a portable bluetooth speaker. I set up 2 cameras (font and back of the installation) to capture the movement and reaction of the audience.

Video Footages Shown on Screen:

Audience Reaction to the Installation:

Reflection

Many of them were disturbed by the brutal animal slaughters in the video and are very upset by it, but there were some who can take the violence. Some of them were confused by the message from the installation, argued that:

  1. They are all videos of animal slaughters.
  2. Why just killing of dogs vs farm animals? There are other animals like crocodiles, snakes, etc.
  3. We, humans, are the apex of the food chain, so it’s alright to kill farm animals for food.

What I am trying to present is the mentality that everyone should hold, that all animal killings are equally brutal. Dog slaughters are just one of the examples I could find from the web, it is just a representation for domesticated animals. If they think that it is alright to kill farm animals for food, then why not kill their pet companions for food?

Ms Lei commented that my installation is outright gory, giving the shock factor; it may have two different outcomes, and I should think about that.

  1. Some people may be too sensitive and turned off by the video and totally shut off their thoughts and feelings, which might result them of just walking off and not thinking about the topic/message.
  2. The intended result of people getting the message and think about not eating meat.

My thoughts on the first comment is that if they becomes too sensitive, choosing to shut off all thoughts and feelings about the installation, wouldn’t that show that they just want to avoid the subject matter?

F4D II Project 3: Time, Space & Body – Research

Video Installation is a contemporary art form that combines video technology and installation art, making use of the surrounding environment to affect the audience.

Bill Viola

He worked with video tape recordings, architectural video installations, sound environments, electronic music performances, flat panel video pieces, works for television broadcasts

His works revolves around human consciousness, related or link with Life and Death.

One of his works, “Anthem” (11:30mins), include insides of fruits that relates to the insides of the human body. He explains that this work is “our deepest primal fears, darkness, and the separation of body and spirit”. His camera technique is using a fixed camera pointed at one direction, to keep the focus.

What makes his works controversial? It triggers the audience to evoke certain emotions, fears or disgust towards his work and questions his intentions. Its graphical content emphasises on his dark theme throughout his works, although everyone knows that the production is fake. However in “Anthem”, there is a real heart beating of a body being cut up, this upsets the audience further.

Wolf Vostell

He worked with prints, videos, environment and installation art. He has worked with Paik and Maciunas too.

One of his works, “Elektronischer: Happening Raum (Happening Room)”, 1968. It was recorded in a spaced out room with objects scattered around the room which most of them moved in one way or another. The items in the room includes: Classic Televisions with weird tools attached to them which moved, old pile of clothing which looked rugged and dirty, a lot of meat and pipes on the floor, blood stained cloth, ski equipments and sharp weapons.

The television showed what seems to be of key relevance about a past event, which includes a lot of meat battering.

What makes his works controversial? He puts his audiences to be thinking “What? Why?” about his artworks (random meat battering and the amount of blood in the video). It may be reflecting on his views on the political society.

David Wojnarowicz

He was a photographer, painter, writer, filmmaker, performance artist.

One of his works, “Fire in my Belly”, 1987. He may had put religion down by having Jesus Christ with insects that are crawling all over the figure. There were dripping blood, figurine of Jesus Christ covered with insects and rotting hand in the installation. His techniques with camera included sudden transitions and playing with lighting (flicker).

What made his works controversial? It made a majority of his audience upset, where he added the imagery of Jesus Christ in his video installation. Many think that it was irrelevant to do so.

Tony Oursler

He was a multimedia and installation artist. He has worked with video, sculpture, installation, performance and painting.

His works revolved around the theme of visual technologies influence and even modify our social and psychological selves. He mostly work with projections, combining it with interesting fibre-glass shapes and structures, as well as natural environment. He uses trees and smoke as gallery spaces.

What made his works controversial? He experimented with methods of removing the moving image from the video monitor using reflections in water, mirrors, glass and other devices. Later, he moved to projecting his works on trees and smoke for his public work: Influence Machine in 2000, as commissioned by The Public Art Fund and Artangel.

4D II Project 2 – Soundscape

Soundscape

Artist Statement

This soundscape is composed to bring the audience through a personal take on a typical bus ride, conveying an emotional journey. The soundscape starts with boarding of the bus and ends off alighting the bus – like having a beginning and end to every story. There are 3 events that take place during the bus ride – A noisy environment, a missed opportunity and being lost in thoughts. This soundscape expresses a dialogue between the external factors of the environment (Objective Sound) and internal thoughts of an individual (Subjective Sound). The sense of depth is subjective as every individual has different take on what sounds he/she wants to focus on. Notice the difference and contrast of the 7 categories of sound in the soundscape. Each element is portrayed as a contrasting comparison and a transiting process.

Concept Development, Research, Film/Artist Reference, and Challenges

I was inspired by Hildegard Westerkamp’s Talking Rain and Zul Mahmod’s contemporary genre and experimental edge. I was interested in experimenting in foley techniques, to create sounds from different mediums. Thus, sparking the idea of dialogue between Objective Sound and Subjective Sound.

Some of my initial ideas included journey on the train, journey in a car, state of mind in a quiet place and physiological factors like being famished. However, I feel that there is more interaction and variation in a bus ride compared to being on a train. There is more external factors and dynamism if one was to be on a bus ride.

Thus, I recorded an audio clip of a bus ride as the background, experimented with foley – heartbeat using a towel, and created the ambient sound of thoughts using synthesiser in Logic Pro.

As I do not have much experience with Audio Engineering, I had to experiment with the vast amount of controls in Logic Pro. When I was editing the heartbeat sound, I had to experiment with the EQ of the flapping towel sound. I do not have a music background, hence, coming up with the ambient sound of thoughts was tricky as I do not know how to pick the notes in a chord to harmonise them.

4D II Project 1 – Alter Ego

Storyline

Upon my brother reaches home, there are a few items that are left around the house deliberately. Knowing his habits of using the toilet roll to dry his hands after washing, I left a note on the toilet paper, leaving him a message of my intention, concerns and reasoning of my actions. The items displayed in the film subtly shows my hints of who were in the house and where I will seek my refuge to. The look of the film is black and white, the filter out the unnecessary elements that will potentially distract the audience or mislead them. The soundtrack of the film is Irene Adler’s Theme from Sherlock which I feel that it is very relatable because it feels that there is a feeling of losing something valuable (in Sherlock, he loses the trust he have in Irene Adler). For my film, I feel that I could not take the chaos in the family, and feel that I should find my own dwelling, in order to find peace and tranquility.


Concept and Challenges

My alter-ego is Sherlock Holmes from BBC Sherlock, I find myself sharing some similar traits as him. Sherlock is mysterious, quirky, independent and witty; thus I portrayed the elements of mystery and not wanting to implicate others in this film. In coming up with the concept, I was stuck between choosing either Sherlock Holmes or Barney Stinson. I find myself having different personas in different kind of situations and felt that Sherlock was more relatable in my current phase in life. Initially, I wanted to have a very slow paced film like shots in Sherlock, but due to technical limitations, I had to compromise with the frame rate. One of the challenges I had while shooting the video is the sound quality of the footages and the background noises when I record using the Zoom audio recorder. Thus, I had to record the sounds at night where there are less activities in my neighbourhood. Another challenge for me was also what items to include in the film that will reflect where I will be going or dwelling. I wanted the hints to show in a subtle manner, like how John Watson develop his cognitive skills through his time with Sherlock.

Task 1

Sherlock Holmes (Sherlock) – Benedict Cumberbatch

Harvey Spectre (Suits) – Gabriel Macht

Barney Stinson (How I Met Your Mother) – Neil Patrick Harris

Dominic Toretto (Fast and Furious) – Vin Diesel

Shaun (Shaun of the Dead) – Simon Pegg

 

Task 2

Jack Ma

Emma Watson

Walt Disney

Rowan Atkinson

Rene Descartes

 

Task 3

Randy Peh

Nicholas Chan

Skandan

Carlton Chng

Zack

 

Task 4

Sherlock Holmes: Observant, attention to details, mind palace, quirky.

Barney Stinson: Confident, Daring, Care for his friends

Jack Ma: Adventurous, Strive for the better

Emma Watson :Firm, believe in Feminism

Randy Peh: Attention to details, forward looking

Nicholas Chan: Established, Flexible, Resourceful


Storyboard

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