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Our Group Proposal

Main Idea:

Our idea for this narrative site specific location is a set up in a post apocalyptic abandoned Singaporean bunker. The premise is that the room once belonged to a family of 3, and was abandoned after an unseen environmental calamity. The audience’s role will be to explore the space and slowly see what happened to the previous occupant, contemplate their place in the world, and possibly how to get out of the confined space.

The focus of the set will be on lights, sounds, and interaction.

Themes:

    • Existentialism (Feeling like a small person in a big world)
      • We want the audience to question who they are in the world and make them feel ‘small’, by showing them how people can just get up and disappear, leaving behind everything they value, and thus making them question if anything they do really matters if they can be wiped off the earth so easily.
    • Memories
    • Change (Isolation, loss)
      • In our hectic world, we are only able to slow down and think only when everything we know is gone. No distractions and no one around. This is when we are truly ourselves.
      • Forces the audience to slow down and think about themselves once all people/distractions are not in their immediate surroundings

Planned location:

  • ADM print room on second floor
  • One of the crit rooms
  • A small room

Lights:

  • Use of projection with video documentations of previous occupants, different portraits in black and white grain (Surveillance type)
  • Galaxy projection
    • Painting on transparency like in the project “Stellar”
    • To create another dimension within the same space. It also makes the room look futuristic which fits our post apocalyptic bunker set
    • It also gives the feel of floating away from your current reality into one of contemplation and reflection
  • Putting coloured transparency or cellophane paper against flashlights to create a coloured lightbox effect.

Sounds:

  • Futuristic sounds (Soft siren whine, radio noise, fan whirring)
  • An omnipresent narrator narrating in an ASMR style
    • ASMR as it can be comforting when tranquil, but as well as discomforting when you’re in a crisis
    • Undecided whether it will all be the same voice or different person to each object

Interaction:

  • Mirrors/reflective surfaces, seeing your reflected self everywhere
    • You are only with yourself.
    • Emphasizing the feel of isolation and the audiences’ place as a human being in a world larger than they thought before. In the room, there are no people, only the items they left behind and ghost images of the audience themselves.
  • Tangible items strewn around them that can be picked up
    • Triggers a unanimous, nostalgic emotional memory in audiences
    • E.g. A worn-out doll, old music box, plane ticket etc.
    • At the same time, the narrator will be narrating a memory associated with each of the items around the audience

References:

  • Stan Brakhage “Stellar” – Inspired to steer our light logistics according to his methods as well as to obtain the galaxy feeling which is crucial for our theme, so as to evoke a sense of loneliness and isolation in a vast space.
  • Black Mirror (Mirror/ reflective surfaces), our theme is similar in exploring memories and loneliness.Methodology:
  • Audience is brought into a dark room and made to lie down on some mats (childcare type)
  • They open their eyes, facing the ceiling projection of the slowly shifting galaxies
    • Story is that since civilisation (people around you) is gone, it’s easier to pay attention to the environment around you with no rush.
  • Around them are objects belonging to others, but most likely will trigger some sense of nostalgia and own memories to come forth. It makes you think of your own life. Your existence.
  • The narrator will be giving some history behind each of the object under the guise of the previous owner, prompting the audience to consider what the object means to them
  • The whole experience in own space is subjective. It is for you to explore your own existentialism and existence.

Really hope that our installation will be really awesome!! SO EXCITED!! 😀
Stay tuned to our documentation post soon!!! ;D

Cheers,

Seng Yi Ling

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Appropriation, Re-appropriation and Re-contextualization

Allie Mc Burroughs by Evans Walker in 1933.
Levine re-appropriates masculine works of Evans Walker in 1981.
Mandiberg re-contextualizes Levine‘s work in 2002, in a way that the work was so many times replicated to economical reasons. Even to the point of printing out the certification; the limited edition work has loses its value.

Its not about the image anymore. It is about the meaning behind the work of that era it was created.

When we share, everyone wins

Creative Commons is an online platform which is open to sharing, remixing and reinterpreting your work. Makes the creative more creative.

Your work is not a finished product. It acts as a chain. People respond to your work.

So when is it ethical and non-ethical?
Crediting your work? Ask for permission from the original creator?

Like DJ remixes, their works is based off other’s work. There ain’t no single author anymore.

Without attributing the song to the original? Copying without making any changes? Is that considered as a ripoff?

EVERYTHING IS A REMIX
Even the iconic movie series: Star Wars is a remix from films such as Yomjibo, The Searches , The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Empire of Dreams, Metropolis, Silent Running etc. etc.

Creation require Influence, without the creating of Star Wars, there would be lesser influence on the films we have today…

Creativity doesn’t come from Magic. It comes from Copying. You can reference artists’ works without shame!

Q: Describe a future form of postproduction art that does not exist today but that you can imagine twenty years from now.
My Answer: Though this may seem extremely far fetched and crazy, I would like to think that in 20 years from now, remixing would be more tangible. Where there is a giant table like Iron Man does and the search box where the machine can sense what kind of content you want to create: Showing up related searches which are relevant to your thoughts and ideas. And when you obtain these ideas and original art works, the source will be permanently linked to your track/film/images. It is rather invasive but, hey… sharing is caring right. #CreativeCommonslol
But like what my classmates shared, you can only imagine the future forms if you know the medium used in the future. Anything is possible.

Hui Min and I had a discussion regarding Creative Commons’ sharing platform and how willing are we to share our works with others. She is rather open about sharing her work to inspire someone, and she thinks it is quite an honor for her if she manages to do so! 🙂 Whereas for me, I am rather concerned about sharing my work (Which may be inspire from other sources as well. nothing is original anymore.) on this site as I feel that there is no control on the World Wide Web. I have no idea who would be using my work or how they are going to use it. It is like throwing my child into the vast universe for them to dissect. It bothers me. However, if it is within a closed community for sharing, I would be more willing.

Vidding
Remix and Mash up

The choice of the song transforms the character of Spock in Kandy Fong’s fan video of Spock in Star Trek using VCR.

Tan Pin Pin sliced 40 years of NDP footages into 7 minutes with varying background music. The political message how has NDP footage changed from the 60s till now. The style of performance, has a very North Korean vibe: Structured move. Despite the change in presidency, the ethics and idea of promoting racial harmony is the same. She doesn’t show blatantly her statement of her view of the government on her film. Using national day footage, she is not creating new work but she is mocking a conscious choice in what to include in her footage, thus creating a new meaning to her work.

Omer Fast cuts the clip of new anchor’s words from NEWS to words that he need to form a political message that the media doesn’t tell you everything. Reusing old footage would be more impactful than if he were to create new footage. The CNN anchors always look very impassive and reassuring to the viewers. By cutting the footage like these, the anchors looks more emotional and vulnerable.

Jonathan McIngosh‘s Buffy VS Edward. Why did he remix his works and used Buffy with Edward to talk about Feminism? Most people think that Edward is a charming romantic male character, but he is in fact… a stalker. By using Buffy, the feminism message is emphasized as in Twilight, Edward is this dominant male figure and Buffy diminishes that in McIngosh’s film.

Conclusion

What makes a good or bad remix?
Good remixes has a purpose and intention. The message is clear in the remix works. Otherwise it’ll just a cut duplicate of the original work. It is not necessary about the Medium. It is what you want to say.

Why do the artists appropriate existing works?
Old footages has context that is more relatable. There is direct immediacy. There is a adding on of the artist’s message onto the original meaning of the film. There is no need for introduction to be for one to be assimilated to the film. Remixes need no introduction as they are using existing content that is familiar to the masses. It can also act as a form of critiquing the ideology. The artist is the philosopher.

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5 elements of Cinema

  1. Sound
  2. The Medium of Film
  3. Site, Space
  4. Audience
  5. Screen

There is always a template. A 3 act structure in a story. However in Expanded Cinema, the audience in this expanded cinema gets rid of the structure, the spoon feeding of the story and they finds out the ending themselves. The audience would be more active rather than passive.

Doug Aitken
Doug Aitken (b. 1968) has created a body of work that explores the evolving ways people experience memory and narrative and relate to fast-paced urban environments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUfn1X2i_cM

Chapters of Black Mirror

  1. Departure
  2. Losing Baggage
  3. Tropical Conspiracy
  4. New Condition

The location at which the installation and performance art is held on a vessel in an open sea.

Main actress and other performers performs live on screen with 3 screens around her. The story goes in a way the actress travels from one point to the other.

The character is on an unexplained journey from one place to the other via plane, car and on foot. The character only interacts with herself as she leads a life of a journey alone.

Why use a vessel in an open sea?? Boat cause maybe it is a mode of transport. Maybe a metaphorical mean of isolation? Like a lonesome boat in vast sea. Hence, location as to where the installation is held is important. In addition, the artists statement of her works are important as the audience of that country he presents to may not get the context as it is not relevant to them.

Making reference to an old film which the song is constantly played throughout is ‘Only have eyes for you’.

Why he uses that song? It is a very old popular song. And covers of this song by others makes this popular. Spectators will find familiarity when they drive past that video screening

History of Avant Garde film

1920s have limited resources and cameras were not easily accessible unless you have resources and money. Whereas, 1960s is a period of change. Feminist movement, Cold war, Technology is on the rise, cameras are more easily available.

Ruyi showed us a couple of clips and asks us for the emotions we felt through watching these clips. And as usual, since the emotion is subjective to each film, everyone had different thoughts and feelings for each clip.

Ralph Steiner

 

For this clip, there was a mixture of emotions for me. It was soothing and at the same time uncomfortable.

I believe the artist was intending to match the movement of the gears to the music or vice versa, and many of the time where I felt was soothing was when the gears or mechanism fit perfectly with the music. (The OCD in me is acting up)

However, I felt uncomfortable at times because the mechanism and music don’t go well together. IT IS OFF BEAT. Or when the note is prolonged, I’d expect a ‘clunk’ sound but it did not give me that satisfaction. ( The OCD in me is acting up again)

Hans Richter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b972EQOOEoY

Visuals can be music as well, even without music. In our heads we would have created a sound that goes with the moving images. We see music.

Stan Brakhage
“Film is like poetry rather than visual arts.” – Stan Brakhage

Brakhage uses material experiment in his films where each film is like mark making. The film strip acts as a canvas and not medium for story telling.

Multiple Screens Experiments

With the use of multiple screens, audience is immersed and bathed in your work in that space; or even overwhelmed by the information provided given if that is the artists intention.

Omer Fast

What you will look when you walk around the story. The authority of the story is question. Different modes of story and reconstruction of the Journalism whether the recounting of stories are reliable.

Left side of the screen doesn’t match with the soldier’s story. It makes you question Omer Fast as well as the Soldier’s account.

The message Omer Fast may be trying to express is that what the media shows to you can be very deceiving. Actors casted, exposes the lies . It is a take to mocking journalism as the abrupt cuts of the videos, locations of scenes and audio is all fake and post edited to how Omer Fast wants it to be.

Other than sexism, the female figure on the right is not using any word in her singing. She is evoking sounds that expresses what she is feeling inside. The male figure on the left has words to express himself and he does it with ease, and with a live audience listening to him. Women are not suppose to perform live infront of an audience as it is against societal norms of where she comes from.

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Hello! This assignment 2 Image Sequencing: Time and POV comes in 2 parts!

Part 1: Parallel Storytelling

Write and film two scenes with content that will intercut meaningfully and provoke audience to see a connection.

Intercut, cutaway and POV can be added to create a new narrative

For part 1, my group (Yu Qing, Hui Min and Yit Ling) and I came up with a story unanimously in our group we named it as ‘ Curry Murder ‘ and filmed it together! After filming the scenes, we each sieved out the good and bad takes for each scene and shared amongst each other before we parted ways (not totally) and moved on to part 2!

Part 2: Additional Voice Over

Working with part 1, we each individually have to write and record and alternative voice-over(VO) track from different POV/narrative voice. Whereby we can include additional shots for our intended edit (Cutaway and POV shots). We are also required to rework our script to at least 1 out of these POV below.

  1. 3rd person POV (Objective/Limited/Omniscient?)
  2. 1st person (Interior Monologue)
  3. Narrative Voice (stream of consciousness/Epistolary Voice)

Methodology

Working on Part 2 on my own now, I thought I should narrow down on what my next steps should be before I proceed with my individual quest into Part 2.

Sequence of Events to complete part 2

  1. Settle on the parallel storytelling scenes and order.
  2. Choose which POV to use. And reason why.
  3. Choose which scenes do I want to include Voice Overs.
  4. DIY Foley sounds
  5. Adobe Premier Pro edit.

Choosing the POV

Narrative Voice: The narrative voice is the teller’s voice.

1st person POV: Narrator uses ‘I’ in every moment as seen through the character’s eyes. The narrator is the character.

3rd person (Limited): The narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one character. Much like a stalker, know what the character feels and think, addresses others as ‘they’ ‘him’ and ‘she’.

3rd person (Omniscient): The thoughts and feelings of multiple characters can be shared through a God like POV

3rd person (Objective): Employs a narrator who tells a story without describing any character’s thoughts, opinions, or feelings; instead, it gives an objective, unbiased point of view. Often the narrator is self-dehumanized in order to make the narrative more neutral.

I decided to do the brainstorming part on paper and write out the script I want to use as narration.

Parallel Sequence

Creating my own Sounds.

Because we were tasked to create our own sounds, I did some research as to how to replicate the sound using different methods. And watching clips on people rendering Foley Art was really inspiring.

I am really awestruck by what goes behind the cameras. Because it is something we don’t take much notice of, this reinforces how good the Foley artists are in their jobs to the point the sounds created are seamless. In addition, the same sounds can be created using cheap and alternative materials. Like hooves of a horse walking can be made using toilet plungers stuffed with cloth, instead of recording a live horse walking in the pace you want.

Sounds I recreated using the art of Foley and Dubbing

I was not able to borrow a Zoom Mic from the school as they were all booked, hence I improvised with whatever I had! 😀

I used my trusty phone recorder and hid in the Sauna cause I needed a sound proof environment to do my recordings. And no, I did not turn the lights in the Sauna on because my laptop may die in the heat… Oh yea, AND SO WOULD I.

Couple arguing fade in and out: Recorded my own voice and used Adobe Premier Pro Audio editing effects such as tuning the Pitch.

Cutting Body scene: Squishing a wet towel

Cutting carrot and potato sounds: Scratching the tissue box

Feet shuffling sound: Rubbing waxy side of tissue box with water.

Keeping body scene (Hand in bag + Box): Rubbing plastic bag and hitting the box.

Using Adobe Premier Pro, I arranged the different types of Audio clips and Video Clips neatly and accordingly to have an easier viewing and editing experience.

FINAL PRODUCT

And here I present to you, the final product of Assignment 2!

Film Title: Love Served in a Bowl

Theme: You can have your lover’s body, but not necessarily her heart.

Set-up: In a married couple’s home

Credits:

Yu Qing – Wife

Jeff- Husband

BGM used: By Night – Sophie Hutchings

Thanks for reading till the end of my post!!

And I am very thankful for being able to work with such lovely group mates and cast! \^.^/

Cheers,

Seng Yi Ling.

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FIELDTRIP DAY~

On the 28 Feb 2017, our 4D class went on a field trip to Art Science Museum to take note of the use of space/screens/sounds/experiential storytelling, that can serve as inspirations to the Final Project! 😀

In this fieldtrip, I was floored by how much interactivity is involved in the exhibits. Especially the Future World and Into the Wild exhibits as audiences of all ages are welcomed to participate.

I took a vlog to document my trip as I find that pictures themselves cannot convey the experience as well as a video. So do forgive me if the video seems really informal and non-professional as my objective was to document the experience, and not to shoot it in a cinematic film like project ^^

Along the way, I also made some annotations in the video to document my learning points and what I felt could be incorporated into the final project, ENJOY!

Stay tuned to my second post for the fieldtrips!! 😀

TATA FOR NOW~ 🙂

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GOOD AFTERNOON! This post concludes the FINAL of Part 1 Project 2 of Zine: Neighborhood Explorer presentation!

This is the infographics on Telok Blangah that I have finalized 🙂

The data I have placed in my infographics are mainly from the Qualitative data (Personal Recounts)that I have gotten from interviews and secondary sources of the exact location names or address online that they have recommend me to visit.

Concept : Present it as a schedule like guide as to how an elderly in Telok Blangah gets by in a day.

Tone: Light Hearted.

Methodology

  1. I used Haettenschweiler Font as the header and the body text .
  2. Colors used are neutral palletes of scenic blue and green, as well as monochromatic blue for the walking stick.
  3. Attempted to use different shades of the same hue to create depth.
  4. Main illustrations are created using vectors and exporting images into vector online.
  5. Icons are used as bullet points for each category of activity.
  6. Joy mentioned that a my initial idea of using a cane may be misinterpreted as ‘Immobility’ instead of ‘Elderly’. Hence I changed the type of walking stick to the one with legs that elderlies, as I really required vertical semiotic that represents elderlies.

I was inspired to use time stamp and used this two infographics obtained from Pinterest. I extracted the range thing } from the chili infographic to mark out the time line.

Classmates’ Comments and Feedback

Joy’s Comments and Feedback 🙂

  • Joy said that this is her first time seeing my illustrations digitally, good job!.
  • Liked that I staggered the information according to timeline. And that giving it a range does give us a guide to when they can execute their activity. However looking at it as a whole it can be seen that it is a day in the life of any elderly and not specifically unique to Telok Blangah elderly.
  • Site specific icons can be created instead of using a generic bird to represent “Recreational Activity”. Something recognizable for instance the location of the bird watching location or certain food from Telok Blangah acting as marker would be better.
  • Colors for “work” reminds her of Watsons logo. Joy worries for potential misinterpretation in my infographics.
  • Text is still cramped even though got drop shadow, hence readability of text is still difficult :(. Typeface that you used is used is better for display type for headers instead of body text. Generally texts on infographics still need to be readable. When you can’t see your text well due to the background colour, it is a cue that text is required to be changed.
  • Location names are long as “Telok Blangah” is repeating in many of the bullet points, hence re-emphasising the crampness. Putting a main header : “Telok Blangah”, in general and just list down may reduce the crampness.
  • Style is quite unique and there is still space that can be explored.
  • Shaf liked the concept of day in the life cause she don’t know  what old people do in genera But font though, it is still hard to read :(.

With that I conclude the completion of ZINE part 1 here and I’ll see you again in PART 2 😀