The main idea behind this project showing how I have grown through this entire semester being more open and expressive in terms of speech, ideasandbodylanguage. I will use the mediumofphotographyandvideoediting to show the interlacing & difference between the past and present me. At the climax of the soundscape, I will breakthrough the wall that I have been confined to and afterward show the changed me. It was a big step out for me thus the project is titled “Stepping Out”.
My intention to was to use the lights, sounds and attractive visual to transport the people who are watching to another time and space. The visual helps to create a distinct atmosphere as compared to our usual classroom.
EditedTime
I played with edited time mainly in the first part of the video, where I have a seriesof photographs showing each at a different timing. I visited time by having the objects appearing at the rhythm. The rhythm of the picture appearing and disappearing shows circular repetition of time.
Each photo has a different amount of screen time, I used flashes and irregularity to create anticipation. Building the music and image from a slow pace to fast pace, all the way until it reaches the climax and drop the beats. By doing this I am attempting to show linear narrative, where an event or something that happen in the past, present and future.
Experience Time
The act of approaching my audience and inviting them out plays with causality. The seats where the audience is sitting at is where their comfortzone is, by inviting them out to the middle of the class (causality – thecause), leaving their comfort zone. The mainpurpose of having this segments allows the audience to experience letting go of their themselves (causality – the effect).
Feedbacks
Li Xin: The motive behind the video was clear. It shows her stepping out of her comfort zone and we get to see a different side of her. I enjoyed the video i as it is very relatable to us as well. We usually would only want to show the good and glamours side of ourselves
Jia Xi & Mark: I feel that Mark experience back in time as he revisits his past experience. I think the music and the setting put him into his pageant time.
Gwendolyn: We were so caught up in the lights, music and visual that we were unconscious of time. We did not count the time because the atmosphere we were put. We felt we were brought out of the usual time place, it felt that i was being transported to another dimension.
FINAL
To view the video password: Our Prof Name (one word) Cringe alert *beep bop*
2. Describe the Art Project
What is it about? What has inspired you? Are you trying out a new concept or a continuation of a previous project? What do you intend to communicate to your audiences? What is innovative or new about it?
The main idea behind this project showing how I have grown through this entire semester being more open and expressive in terms of speech, ideasandbodylanguage. I will use the mediumofphotographyandvideoediting to show the interlacing & difference between the past and present me. At the climax of the soundscape, I will breakthrough the wall that I have been confined to and afterward show the changed me. It was a big step out for me thus the project is titled “Stepping Out”.
I got the idea behind the project “Poetic of Time” when I was exploring on the ideas & ways that I can go further in exploring & expressingmyself. Since this was the last project that we can literally any form of installation or performance art, thus I decided to go all out and try my best.
I remember my first 4D project – CuratingSelf (click here for the link) where I mention my interests in dance and journalling my daily moments… and insecurities that I have. I was generally shy and felt that everyone will judge me if I do something out of the norm. I have always stayedinthatcomfortablebubble of mine and felt extremely uncomfortable when all the attention were on me. As I worked on my foundation projectors and my dance CCA through this semester, I think I have become slightly more open and expressive with my words and bodylanguage. Also revisiting Project 3 – Anxiety (click here for the link), I took a step out by acting & puttingmyself in the video (which was something that I have been avoiding) for the past years of my life) From that project I got a few positive feedback and it really encourages me to move forward and explore more in that aspect.
I was good with the idea of showing time through an editedvideo and that is when I decided to add the element of a live performance in front of the whole class. (omg *breathes). I think it was something new to me as I have neverhadthechance to try syncing a danceperformance with the backgroundvisuals. I have already foreseen the difficulties I will face trying to matchthepositions of the dancers to the video. This means lots of experimentations and testing. I know it is going to be hard to take a step out but I embraced the change and I am going to like it.
What I want to show is the change that I went through and my intended message that I wanted to convey is for those who are more reserved or shy (it is totally fine) that it is possible to be more expressive to take a step out as I did.
3. Objective and activites of the Art Project
What are you going to make or produce. How are you going to produce it. What is the type of work. What is the dimension. What is the length of time of this experience you are creating.
I am going to make a series of photographs and stitched them up by videoediting. I plan to use a projector and project my video at the back of the class with the tables pushed to the sides. Perhaps an external led light will be good to match the atmosphere of the class to my video, trying to create an environment where they can be immersed.
EditedTime
I played with edited time mainly in the first part of the video, where I have a seriesof photographs showing each at a different timing. I visited time by having the objects appearing at the rhythm. The rhythm of the picture appearing and disappearing shows circular repetition of time.
Each photo has a different amount of screen time, I used flashes and irregularity to create anticipation. Building the music and image from a slow pace to fast pace, all the way until it reaches the climax and drops the beats. By doing this I am attempting to show linear narrative, where an event or something that happen in the past, present and future.
Experience Time
The act of approaching my audience and inviting them out plays with causality. The seats where the audience is sitting at is where their comfortzone is, by inviting them out to the middle of the class (causality – thecause), leaving their comfort zone. The mainpurpose of having this segments allows the audience to experience letting go of their themselves (causality – the effect).
My intention to was to use the lights, sounds and attractive visual to transport the people who are watching to another time and space. The visual helps to create a distinct atmosphere as compared to our usual classroom.
Sketches & Planning
Initial Idea: A series of objects that are seen in my daily lives that have meaning behind it. A series of objects that are going to represent different intensity, emotion, subverted message.
Possible Objects such as Knife – Cutting food, Weapon symbolize the relationship between the girls is at the edge of a cliff. Someone getting hurt. An implied message can be formed if the next frame shows red color liquid.
A draft timeline that I worked out for an overview of the video.
4. Art Materials & Equipment for the Art Project
Materials Needed (Carrying everything to and fro was “fun”)
Projector
Adaptor
Extension Cord
Speaker
Laptop
LED Light
A friend
Lights off, project the video at the back of the foundation class.
Tools Needed
Premiere Pro
Adobe Photoshop
Camera (iPhone 7+)
5. Mounting and Installing the Art Project
6. Art Project Design - Mock-up of the artwork
Soundscape – I edited the soundscape to have the low medium high point and a climax to flow my entire video. I think the sound is quite crucial as it sets the mood of the entire atmosphere.
A sketch draft of my idea where I incorporate the dance/catwalk into the video.
Mockup Timeline of the Art Project
Walks into the center of the projection
(Siti) Close the lights, (Whitney) “Please switch off all your mobile devices and laptop as the following is highly confidential. Thank you.
(Stella) Play the video
(Whitney & Siti) Dance weirdly in the scene
Catwalk to the front of the class, pose pose pose
Each get one classmate to come in front to pull them to the stage
Second pair
Last Pair
(Whitney & Siti) Walks in by the side and bow
Finalize Concept
This is the breakdown of the pictures that I have used and my underlying message behind it.
Old TV – Desktop – Laptop – Phone – Polaroid
The difference between the past and present are separated by the colored and black and white filter effects applied. The photobooth is commonly used to take photos of themselves (especially with the heart shape filter) I also want to use the countdown timer of the photo booth where the sounds go “ti ti ti click”. I added emoji on my face on the 3rd picture to further emphasize that I avoid putting my face on the screen. I show the change by taking “unglamorous” photos of myself (7th frame) in contrast with the (6th frame)
The 1stframe shows a champagne popping, I wanted to integrate what I learn in Project2 – Subverting Images and Text(click here for the link) so I decided to use a popping champagne instead of a lock or key which also symbolize the releaseorfreedom. Moving on to the 2nd frame I added a rather aesthetic background, this part is when my friend and I will be posing in front of. The 3rdframe consists of many different objects. Pineapple cut out with a shiny disk inside, a dishwashing sponge on an ice cream stick. I place them there to show the weird and uncommonly use of the items. I also place myself in the composition, this was a photo I used for my previousproject. The 4thframe I choose to use an endless loop of a humanfigure to show me traveling into my inner thoughts. The 5th frame, where the soundscapehitstheclimax, to make it an impactful one, I use cracking of a mirror and finally breaking it to show mybreakthrough.
Putting it to the test
1st Feedback from classmates:
The song is good and is pretty hype with the strong beats. I think the ending part where the catwalk supposes to be can have an extended version of the song because then you can be invited as many audiences to the stage as you want.
Can add the LED light to further set the atmosphere.
Trying to sync the timing for the dance and catwalk.
(Test with an audience)
2nd Feedback:
It was much more interesting and meaningful than the previous narrative. What is the meaning behind the champagne popping?
Belle: Yes I did notice the pattern of the first few sequences of photographs where all framed up in one way or another, then afterward after the popping of the champagne showed the release and the breakthrough shown by the mirror smash. I think it is pretty easy to get the underlying message from those photographs.
(Belle) I was surprised as I was sitting in the audience when I suddenly got invited to the stage. My first initial thoughts were why do I need to be part of this setup? The thought disappear after I went up, my mindset changed and I decided to just do it.
Working on the feedback:
I think I need to try my best in order to hype up the crowd so that they may feel a little more wanting to be involved with this.
Should I have text on the screen that prompts the audience that I am going to call some people got to have a try of the cat walking.
I came across this installation titled “Tape Recorders” by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer.
The idea concept behind this piece of installation was touching on the topic of, visitors at art galleries have always seemed to drift from artwork to art within a short amount of time, sometimes their attention span only lasted 5 seconds. This art piece plays with that concept of putting attention to how much time they spend at each artwork by making it interactive. This requires an additional element of – the audience to participate.
The audience has to be there physically in order for the tape to reach it’s peak of 3m and comes crashing down. His intention was clear and made, measure the time people actually spend looking at each artwork.
He used experienced time and measurement time for this project.
Swallowed Whole (2014) Heidi Kumao
The artist plays with editedtime as she visits the time when she broke her back. She uses rhythm and the repetition of the images and sound in her video. The additional soundscape that she uses pushes the experience of the audience to the next level. The breaking of her bone sounds so painful and when it was constantly repeated the pain adds on. I was inspired by the way she edited her video how she managed to convey those unbearable feeling through her short video.
Brainstorm a list of 20 places that you have never been before
Winter, Autumn
World War 3
Back in ancient periods
Conscience
Paralyzed
DayDreams/ Dreams/ Nightmares
Northern Lights
Conscious
Being an insect, bird
Moral Values
Being a flower, Potato
Illusion, Delusion
The Atlantic Ocean
Magic Magic Magic
Telephone
Psychopath
Smoke
Harry Potter
Clock/Time
CartoonShows
Narrowing down & ideation for some places.
Conscious (Moral Values) Brighter and calming sounds can use to represent the right decision to act upon while darker heavy sounds represent the wrong decision.
DayDream (Musical box, Clouds, Giggles, Heavenly like atmosphere, Peaceful)
I decided to choose “Anxiety” as my concept for this project.
Everyone will experience anxiety at some point in time. It can be hard to tell the difference between anxiety disorder and normal anxiety. I do feel some anxiety during stressful periods, but personally, I have not experienced anxiety disorder first hand. I believed the symptoms are a hundred times more intense of normal anxiety.
More than often, we always brush off things that they could not visually see, unlike other disease or illness. Mental disorder has always been hard to spot and discovered by another individual. It seems to be a taboo to raise the issue and they will rather suffer in silence than to speak up.
Thus I wanted to venture into how it really feels like to have a true anxiety disorder. Anxiety takes places mentally, it is a place that Ihas never been before.
I watch video on people who have talked about their anxiety and this is my interpreting their anxiety.
Artist references
Short Film About Anxiety – Mikey Murphy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXiqond9hmYA
This was one of the videos I stumbled across as I was looking into how anxiety feels like. He plays with the visual of the film, where he flashes the main character sitting in the room and the next second he is in pain underwater. This gives me a good idea of how I should arrange my scenes and the visual effects that I can play with complementing my sounds.
Raven Kwok – 1194D^3
The visual here does a fantastic job in complementing the sounds he uses. The black and white color shceme in contrast to the super colorful scenes shows the big difference between the two moods. I think it would be good to apply this contrast between the reality and the anxiety world so that it is clear to the audience.
Storyboarding
#1st attempt Lo-fi Storyboard
1) Main character looking at herself in the mirror to ensure herself she can do it. She walks into a crowd in school.
Visual: Middle Closeup, Longshot, Middle shot
Sounds :
Foreground – Footsteps getting heavier each step
Midground – Soft ticking, breathing sounds
Background – Crowd talking noisily
2) The symptoms of anxiety start showing
Gradually transit into a faster pace
Sounds :
Foreground: Heavy breathing, heart beating faster
Background: Stalking, Creepy music
Visual: Close up, Extreme close up
3) Climax most intense point of her anxiety
Visual: Quick Flashes, Blurry, Double image
Sounds :
Foreground: Non-diegetic sounds, Diegetic
Background: Intense, Fast beats
4) Main character took a breather on the rooftop alone.
Visual: Longshot, slow panning, space.
Sounds :
Foreground: Slowing down of heartbeat, footsteps. Heavy to light breathing
Background: Calming music, lighthearted
#1st attempt Hi-fi Storyboard
Recording my sounds
Some of the sound clips that I have recorded by myself.
Feedback by Serena: My sounds are messy and do not have a smooth flow, it stops abruptly hahahaha *sweats*
After the initial draft, I felt that the introduction of the character in the crowded environment was taking up too much time, leaving lesser time for me to show the anxiety world in the main character. I decided to move the scenes around to leave more screen time for expressing the world of anxiety.
AFTER CONSULTATION
#2nd attempt Lo-fi Storyboard
Exploring non-diegetic sounds & diegetic sounds.
I am intrigued by the idea of matching using non-diegetic sounds. When the sound does not match the visual, it will create an interest in the audience leading the feeling uncomfortable as it isn’t right. This off feeling sets the audience into an uneasy mood, which is my main aim for me to express anxiety.
Diegetic Sounds that I am going to use
• Running Footsteps
• Heavy Breathing
• Crowd Talking
• Clock Ticking
Non-diegetic sound that I am going to use
• Gentle waves, Water splashes (Visual: Main character running)
- The sound of the crash then fades away and the listener is just left with silence, giving the feeling of isolation or abandonment, the sound of rain further emphasizes these negative feelings.
• Clock Ticking (Visual: Flipping through a book)• Gun trigger (Visual: Lightstick turn on)
- I tried to explore changing the sound of the “trigger” then tight and suffocating feeling.
• Metal Chain (Visual: Ribbon tightening on hand)
- I play around with the left and right sides during the metal chain part. I adjust the reverb effect to a big hall, which has more echo. I played with the left and right audio, so when the audience listens it seems that the chain is being dragged across the room, then finally the sudden tightening of the ribbon.
• Crushing of Glass (Visual: Crushing empty bag oe stepping on empty water bottle)
- Showing how an indivudal feels so suffocate and pressured during their attack
• White Noise (Visual: Main character in the state of anxiety attack)
- This sound is commonly usde to express creepy silence or no thoughts in the main character's head. However I want to express the chaos in her head thus I reduce the lenght of white noise used in the video.
#final Lo-fi Storyboard
1st half of the Soundscape (Visualise it with the above storyboard)
I rearranged my storyline as I think by arranging them like this, I am able to play around with the mood of the video better.
Using the raw audio I have records and some taken from royalty free websites. I have explored premier pro various audio effects and tried to apply them to my raw sound clips. As mention by Serena during the consultation that my sounds were all over the place. This time I took extra note on the transitions to smoothen out between each audio clips so that it doesn’t feel choppy.
Reverb Effect - Gives a little echo, depth into the audio by simulating of the sound of the audio playing in a room, hall, cathedral.
Constant Gain Transition – Gain crossfade at constant rate in and out.
Constant Power Transition – Smooth gradual dissolve transition, audio decrease slowly then quickly at the back.
Exponential Fade Transition – fades out first clips smoothen with a logarithmic curve while bringing up the second audio clip.
Final Timeline – 1st halfFinal Timeline – 2nd half
I tried to use the layering method to slowly build up the intensity of the anxiety emotion. After introducing the first element, before adding the second element, I will lower the volume for the first element and it fades into the background or midground. It was super hectic and confusing to have too many layers and parts.
FINAL VIDEO – Anxiety 1min 16sec
Feedbacks
Feedbacks: (Welp, I didn’t expect to have a good response, I thought my sounds were all over the place, but I guess that is the main point of it heh.)
Why not try to merge the two worlds between each frame? Instead of separating them into the first scene (walking in school), second scene (the world of anxiety) and the last scene (back to reality), it would be more intriguing to intersect the two worlds. The challenge would be how to differentiate the 2 worlds as they intersect each other.
The color scheme of the 2 worlds can be more obvious. (Initially I wanted to make everything that happens in the world of anxiety to be black and white, however, I felt that it will dull the impact of the chaos.
Random thoughts on my classmate’s projects
Gwendolyn: Using non-diegetic sounds as she puts on her makeup. It was really interesting to see her applying lipstick while having a matchstick being lit sound effect. It was sizzling hot when she added the fire at the end as she finished applying her lipstick. The concept was strong and powderful (get it, cause she’s wearing makeup). I hope to see more out of this concept.
Siti: It would be very interesting if the main character plays the roles of the patient, doctor, guard.
Debbie: Be more daring to try and exaggerated the cutesy sounds.
In the first photo 1A, it depicts the main purpose of an iron. In the second photo 1B, I tried to capture the texture and qualities of an iron. I decided to focus on the flat triangular metal part. In the third photo 1C, I presented the iron in its most familiar environment, on the ironing board. For each photo, I decided to have variety in terms of close up, long shot and extreme close up
Component 1AComponent 1BComponent 1C
Component 2: Connotation
Component 2A
The subverted message for component 2A was to change the object that an iron usually irons. Since iron removes wrinkles by smoothing them out, I switched out ironing clothes to ironing a woman’s face that is full of wrinkles. This can be used for promoting an anti-aging cream as it implies the product to be as effective as an iron.
Component 2B
For the second subverted message, I photoshop the iron terracing a hill. I added smoke behind to make it seems like it is functioning. I wanted to show the iron being presented as a useful technology invented to help us.
For the third subverted message, I changed the function of the iron and presented it as a defibrillator. This is inspired by the flat triangular shape of the iron that reminds me of the defibrillator.
However, I misunderstood the instructions for component 2. I should have remove the linguistic from the component 3 and used it as component 2.
Should-have-used-this-in-compontent-2
Component 3: Text and Image
For the final poster, I subverted the function of the iron to a defibrillator. I photoshopped the wires to resemble the curly wires on a defibrillator, this gives a clearer view that it is represented as another object. The white bed sheets and the blue medical gloves give the viewers an idea of it being situated in the hospital. I chose not to include an actual human in the composition as it will be the biggest element in the poster thus diverting attention away from the main object. Instead, I use a silhouette to show the idea of a person on the bed. (applying what I learned in Project 1)
The linguistic play a part to emphasize the main message that I wanted to get across. The words “Exposed Wires” gives confirmation to the audience that the emphasis is placed on the iron’s wire. There is a play on the word “Trip” as it meant both a journey to the hospital and when the wires electric shock the user. Lastly, the word “Hospital” reinforce the scene of the white sheets that depict the person in the hospital.
The overall design and color scheme I wanted was minimalistic, simple and straight to the point. I used a lot of white space to show focus on the iron itself. The wires on each side direct the audience’s eye to the center of the poster, the iron. It was not on purpose but symmetry is used as well.
Feedbacks:
Component 2B could have attempted to explore another idea of subverting the iron to give meaning. (Using the iron to paved out a road? Shows the iron smoothing out the paths representing a smooth journey lies ahead?)
Component 2C – remove the linguistic from the component 3 and used it as component 2. ( 🙁 what a waste, never listen properly to instructions)
Component 3: Even though the audience is able to identify the iron as the main object in the poster. However, the meaning is coming from the wire itself.
Some comments that I really like
Keep a hint of the broccoli’s original form in the cigarette (Yen yee to Jia Eenn component 3)
We need to think about whether the audience requires to have a background knowledge when they look at the poster.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RXiqond9hmYA
