Final Project - Update

After a lot of deliberations with myself and other people around me I decided to slightly change the idea of the project. Because I struggled so much coming up with a creative idea whilst trying to sort out the logistics of the project, plus working full time at the same time which really doesn't help me think...I reached this stage when I have to change the idea from what I was really enthused about initially. The reason for it is that I know I would be able to do something even though it is so late, but it wouldn't be at the standard that I would like it to be...having this in mind I decided that creating an experimental piece about the space, and how I perceive and how it makes me feel instead of using it as a canvas for my work. Also looking back at this year's experience from the other modules I did, the ones I enjoyed most were the two video pieces I produced from Skye - the bridges one and the experimental one with the sea. What I am doing next is going into the space at different times in the day to get footage and sound. This will be done this week, and next week I will go and start playing around with the footage. As experienced from the experimental pieces from Skye, the ideas came to me once I had all the footage in place and started editing, and experimenting. That process might even help me discover new things about the space through the mediation of it. So at this stage I can't say what I am going to do creatively, or how the film is going to look because that is a secondary process that will evolve within itself whilst doing it.

Final Project idea

In the end I decided to go with the ring road project. I had a more clear rough idea of what I wanted to do with this one. With the other I would have had to work with a choreographer and have rehearsals and so on. I would rather do something simpler but of high quality than try to do something complicated that wouldn't reach the full potential because of lack of time. So the first step was to go around the Ring Road and find the perfect space. As I mentioned in previous posts, first I would need to find the specific space and then plan the rest - the actual video to go with it. The trip around the ring road was surprisingly pleasing. We were following it without keeping to the pedestrian paths, but making our own way cutting trough car parks, jumping over fences and so on. Not the safest way, but it was very enjoyable. This process was best described by Guy Debord when describing psychogeography as "a whole toy box full of playful, inventive strategies for exploring cities...just about anything that takes pedestrians off their predictable paths and jolts them into a new awareness of the urban landscape". And this is exactly what we did, we ignored the paths that were dictates to us, and made our own. Found few interesting and potential spaces and photographed them.

I will use the location of the first picture. It is after all the first one that made me think about this project and first captured my attention few years back. What I like most about it is that it is a space that hasn't been specifically designed to have a meaning or a certain aesthetic, it is a space that was constructed as part of the ring road. In a sense it seem natural. It is man made, but not designed. It feels like a break from all the architecture and buildings that have specific designs and require us to analyze them for their aesthetic and design value. Coventry has a big variety of designs as it has been almost fully rebuilt after the Blitz, therefore most of the buildings are lest thank 80 years old. So having a space that doesn't enforce a certain aesthetic on the people who pass through it feels like a 'breath of fresh air'. Guy Bebord also described Psychogeorgraphy as "the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals". This describes how I experience this certain space as an individual. What I aim to achieve through this project, is to share this experience with the public, and maybe make them think more about the spaces that are so easily taken for granted. The point of art is to first of all rationalize a thought and a feeling that a certain place brings to mind, then externalize it and share it with the public, in hope that they get it and if not adhere to it, at least think about it and appreciate such places more.

Gallery and installation thoughts - final project

I though I would make a post about what I feel that I've gained from the visits to galleries and video installations in the last couple of weeks. I written something about all of them in individual posts, but I feel a wide conclusion is needed. The main idea that i got from all the installations I've seen is that the space where the screening is taking place is crucial. I decided I don't want to produce a film for my final project, that will go on a DVD for the assessors to see and mark. I want to make something out of it. I want to use a space, and respond to it with the medium of video. Produce something that works with it, that is produce as a response to the space, and by having the video there changes the space. I really liked the Beaconfields gallery, that was under a viaduct of a train; the space was completely dark when going inside, and it had the smell of a damp cellar. The roughness of the space worked really well with the screening, and the screening worked very well in that space. The other instalation that I experienced and really enjoyed was the 'Pitchfork Disney Pre-Show' which included some of my videos. The venue was a warehouse that was very flexible in terms of what rooms could be used and in what way. The producers of the theatre piece created a route that the visitors had to go through that would contain hints from the show that would later be mentioned in the performance. Click here to go to post and video about this.

Pitchfork Disney Pre-Show

My videos go showed in the pre-show of a 3rd year final project theatre piece pre-show. I really liked the way they used the venue to work with the piece. It wasn't crucial for the public to see it in order to make sense of actual performance, but it added to it. The pre-show was the walk from the entrance of the building to the performance room; one of my videos got shown on a small tv and the second one was projected in a dark room. I really liked to use of the space. The warehouse was very flexible; I liked the way they described it as 'a blanc canvas that's waiting to be coloured in any way'. This made me think about doing something similar for my final project, having few videos screened in different rooms or spaces in a venue. But I need to work on ideas more. I made this video to show the pre-show and added bits of the videos that got screened as they are not obvious on the recording of the pre-show

Pitchfork Disney Pre-Show from Diana Stefanescu on Vimeo.

Rachel Garfield

At the Baconsfield Gallery in South London, there was a screening of two film by Rachel Garfield. The first one was called "Here There Then Now" (2009). The subject of the film was the role and life of the artist in the contemporary world, and it was an interview an old artist. The film wasn't a conventional documentary or interview. The focus of the video was on the artist's house, and life whilst having the conversation between her and the artist as voice over. I believe this is a very effective way to get the information to the viewer about what it was discussed, but also give background information about the person who is being interviewed by showing visually the place where they live. The subject of the videos were books, pictures, the setting of the house, his visitors - barely even seeing the artist. There was one shot I feel was very powerful, and very well done - there was a close up shot of the wheels of a wheelchair going through the house; this implied that the artist is wheelchair bound, but the film maker chose not to show him in a wheelchair, but to show this close up and let the viewer make all the links. What also really took my attention was the way the film was shown; it was split screen, on two TV's. More importantly, the split screens themselves were the same video but one delayed by few seconds. This was a very effective way of helping the viewer focus on what was important on the screen. The half screen on the left was the first to come up, and the second one on the right slightly delayed. This enabled the viewer to watch the first part and see what the shot was about in general, and then have a second chance to see it again and choose what to look at. It took a bit to accommodate with this, but once I got used to it and I started appreciating it and how well it worked, I couldn't get enough. After I got back home I looked it up online and found a clip of the film on Vimeo, only to realize that the film itself is actually split in four parts on the screen, but working in the same way. The viewer has three chances now to go and look in details at the content of the images.

Here There Then Now (Clip)- Stephen Dwoskin/Rachel Garfield from Rachel Garfield on Vimeo.

Douglas Gordon

There is a screening of two of Douglas Gordon's films at the Warwick Arts Center. I heard about the film he did with Philippe Parreno, called Zidane and it sounded very interesting. I'm not a fan of football, but this sounded like and alternative football match, and something I could watch. It is a 90min film of a football game, but the only focus of the camera is on Zidane. Close-ups and extreme close-ups of him throughout the whole film. When we got to the screening space we were rather disappointed. The curators of the Mead Gallery chose to screen the film on about 20 TV's spread randomly around the space, and the sound of the film going in the background. From what I've been told about the film is the fact that the most interesting part about it is its rhythm, because in some parts Zidane just stands around and in some parts he is very active, so it sounds like a piece of film that should be watched in full, without interruption. So the way they chose to screen it completely disrupted this. Each TV was showing only clips of the film, interrupted and in a different order. If each TV had headphones and was showing the whole film we probably would have considered to stay, but given the set up we didn't stay. But the second film impressed us so much that it didn't matter. It took us maybe about 15min to realize what it was about (we could have read the flyer!!). In the room, there was a big screen which was screening Douglas Gordon's film called "Feature Film", which worked very much like the Zidane film. The subject was an orchestra concert, but the only focus of the film was the conductor. Close ups and extreme close-ups of him conducting; details of his eyes, mouth, hands. At the back of the room, behind the few seats set up in front of the screen, was a small TV showing the film Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock on mute. After 15 min of looking from one screen to the other we realized that the orchestra in the first video was actually playing the soundtrack of Vertigo, and they were timed so the music from the orchestra coincided with the film. Now this was a very interesting because I haven't seen Vertigo, but Sam whom I went to watch it with has. So the experience we bot had of this installation was very different. He could recognize the music, and it reminded him of the film scenes and how they felt when he watched Vertigo. For me the primary focus was the video of the orchestra, and seeing this video first will change my experience of Vertigo when I watch it, as that will remind me of Gordon's film, whereas for Sam everything is the other way around. This only shows how important the viewer is when it comes to encoding and decoding a film, because it is very probable that every individual that watched a video has a completely different perception and experience of it, based on their own previous experiences. The installation worked very well as a structuralist piece I believe, because it deconstructed and re-constructed three different places and times. There was the present of the film Vertigo, the present of the film of the orchestra playing the vertigo soundtrack, and the present of the viewer who makes the links between these three 'presents' that inform, interact and influence each other. Seeing these two pieces made me realize firstly how important the space of the screening is for an installation, and second that when producing my own art films, I need to avoid trying so hard to get a certain message out, because it will never be decoded in the same way by the viewers. My experience of my own work will differ completely from the experience that the viewers will have.

3 final pieces

Video + Sound Video Sound