Micro-Project 7: Video Selfie | Paralysis

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We can be scared of many things, the imagination as innocent children distorting our happy reality. In the end, the dictation of our own imagination become the root of our own fear. We cannot gain full control of it.

 

 

Title: Paralysis

Location: Home

Music: Pokemon- Lavender Town Theme Song (Backwards)

Questions: How can the video selfie be used to alter identity? How might video be used to conceal identity? How do the objects that surround you contribute to your sense of identity?

My inspiration is derived from a photographer named Nicolas Bruno. He recreates his dreams during sleep paralysis (ever since he was 15) through photography. He is admirable and unique because not only he touches upon the genre of horror (which artists usually feel uncomfortable to contact with), he also explores how to visualize nightmares and fears, a feat difficult for many.

Nicolas Bruno Photography

Nicolas Bruno Photography

Nicolas Bruno Photography

Nicolas Bruno Photography

I filmed this video in my home, because it is the place where we always go back to; our safe abode. Nevertheless, it is also the place where our fears take root in because we can often find fear in the place where we take comfort in (bed, closets, bathroom, the garden, etc.). It is the most terrifying when even your safest haven is attacked by your fears and there is now no more back-up plan for you to hide in.

Furthermore, I emphasize this scariness by filming in complete darkness, highlighting how even in the place you call home, there is no light for you to go to- it’s an eternal darkness, and a trap you can potentially never get out of.

I also put on a Noh mask, which is a mask I am frankly quite terrified of ever since I was young. I want to use the idea where you become your own fears because your own imagination and ideals are what dictates what you are afraid of.

Next, I added one of my best friends; squawky chicken. It is a toy that I like to play with, which shows how childish I really am and perhaps, also the inner child in me. This chicken is a great personification of me in my opinion- childish, friendly in bright colours- usually a very comforting companion for me especially when I am bored and lonely. However, this time, I placed it in a scary and dark environment- not friendly at all, and the usual comical face of the chicken becomes one of petrifying terror. In a sense, I am transforming my comfort into my fear once again. It is as though the chicken (me) is trapped and has no way to escape because my own fears are overpowering me in the place I once call home.

Altering my identity through letting me conceal who I really am, and allowing me to change into another thing afterwards?

The video selfie helped me to alter my identity because it gives me an opportunity to become someone entirely different. It allowed me to express a message which I would usually not be able to convey in real life. It conceals my identity because it is not live and physical, meaning that should I show this video to a random person on the street, they will not be able to figure out who I am, and cannot do so either. In this video, I am no longer Joey, but a creepy masked guy with a terrified chicken. I would also say that the darkness and the concept of home being engulfed with fear contributed to the idea that I am my own nightmare, and the chicken is a personification of myself.

 

Thank you and sorry if you got scared by the video. Have a cookie!

Micro-Project 4: Exquisite Glitch

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Here are my eyes.

I don’t really know what happened, but I was reduced from a human being to some sort of micro-organism or amoeba.

 

Describe how this process of collective image creation and decomposition creates a glitch transformation.

How is each transformation creating a new form of its precursor?

Micro-Project 3 – Tele-Drift by Tanya and Joey

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Posted by Joey Chan on Monday, 29 January 2018

Micro-Project 3- Tele-Drift (FB Live Collaborative Video)

Brief Description:

For our micro-project 3, we used Facebook live to create this video about a girl going about her day. The video was made within ADM, with Joey stationed at the basement and Tanya at an outside bench.

Objective:

The objective of this video was to capture two perspectives of a girl as she carried out her daily activities as a University student; Joey filmed the first-person perspective while Tanya filmed the second-person perspective. To do this, we had to make sure the timing of our actions was synchronized. For example, when we wanted to show the girl throwing her paper ball behind her shoulder, Tanya had to watch Joey’s side of the Facebook live split screen to know when to continue the arm motion.

This concept of a Third Space was actually a platform for long-distanced intimacy in my opinion. One is able to connect to another person despite a physical distance being there. By using a platform where we can react simultaneously and almost immediately to each other, we can become side by side through a digital screen.

The reason we decided to film such a mundane scene (a girl doing her daily things) is because it is something that is usually not seen, and not shown to other people. It is a scene that is personal, and is not considered something desirable to be displayed (other than for proud parents and teary-eyed professors who are amazed that there are actually students who do study). Hence, it provides a more intimate feeling when both Tanya and I, two separate people, work together to enact a one-person scene. We violated personal space by creating a third space where two people get to experience how it is like to be a single person.

Overall, it was more difficult to carry out than we thought, especially since distance kept us from communicating efficiently to one another. Nonetheless, through scripting, some practicing, and a few retakes, we managed to get a more synchronized version of what we had in mind. However, it was still difficult to carry out our actions at the same time due to the video buffering on one side and the error carrying forward onto the other person’s video perspective. Also, videoing with only one hand also resulted in a lack of stability in the video we wished we could have avoided.