Today we had Anne and Chris who showed us the art of set building. The idea was to get the 'Flat's' and assemble them together. The flats worked out as 4 flats across and to at the sides joint together. One piece of the wood was the hole/crack that the actor/actress will break through, so we found a Flat that had a door shape carved out of it and nailed in a few pieces of ply wood as we don't want the hole to be too big. Nick previously worked for a theatre, which came in handy when it came to making the set.

Nick working on putting the set together. 

We were then shown the different camera rig's that we could use for example the 'Spyder Dolly', which allows the grip to smoothly move the cameraman along on a track or without. The cameraman can move around on the seat to allow smooth movement. 

Thomas on the dolly. 

The next dolly we were shown was powered by a motor that needs to be charged that powers the movement of the camera and the seat, to allow for smooth up and down movement of the camera. 

We were then shown the green screen and how to light the subject accurately. Katherine experimented with the lights and we managed to discover some interesting lighting techniques that if we could achieve, would look really good for our DFSA advertisement. 

Lauren, our test subject as we experimented with lighting.

Our second meeting with Rosie allowed us to discuss our idea of the visuals further, as last time the idea was still floating around, with major tweaks needed. I believe our group had made a lot of progress since the previous tutorial with Rosie. After discussing our ideas with Rosie, which is that we decided as a group to go back to the original idea, keeping it simple yet effective. 

The basic outline of our idea is a interactive brain that allows an individual or group of people to get involved in touching any of the four main parts of the brain, singularly or all together which will display a simplistic visual piece on the screen and play audio clips. Each part will be quite abstract and simple, not making much sense singularly, however when formed together will allow the user to see the bigger picture. Rosie advised us to go off individually, think of an idea for the visuals and film them using a DSLR. Testing is CRUCIAL. 

Material wise we will need a brain model to work with, made from polystyrene or clay, to allow us to make a mould of it from plastic. This will be made using the Vacuum forming machinery at the university. We also need to discuss the space we want to use in more detail with Rosie, however we know we definitely want it to be in the gallery space rather than a classroom, which came up as an idea when discussing spacing with Rosie. 

Currently our project has progressed a lot since I last discussed it on this blog. Since the pitch with Rosie, we've decided as a group to go back to the original idea of touching a part of the brain which triggers something (A visual element or sound element) and so forth. Here is where our project is currently: 

After research, mostly on Julia's part, we've decided to have a model brain (Made from vacuum forming a mould of a brain, allowing us to have a transparent brain that we can tweak i.e. add light up elements and so forth. We've decided to look at the 4 main parts of the brain that we can visually and sound wise represent on the screen: 

'Frontal lobes - planning and thinking. Monitoring higher order thinking, directing problem solving and regulating the excesses of the emotional system. Self will area, personality. Most of our memory.

Temporal lobes - above the ears. Deals with sound, music, face and object recognition and some parts of long term memory. Also house the speech centres although this is usually on the left side only.

Occipital lobes - exclusively for visual processing.

Parietal lobes - spatial orientation , calculation and certain types of recognition.' 

From several group meeting we've had, we've decided visually we are going to create something quite simplistic and easy to understand. The screen will show a simple situation, such as a man walking down a road past people and cars or perhaps having a conversation, which can easily be broken down into individual parts, 4 main parts of the brain to be more precise. The other lobes, for example the 'Temporal Lobe' will active inaudible speech. 

When only certain parts are touched by the user, and not synced together (all 4 parts touched at the same time) it will only show that element, for example if you only touch the Temporal Lobe, it will only play sound, whereas if you press all 4 elements together it will play sound and visuals in its whole form. 

The whole piece allows the viewer to get involved by interacting with the model of the brain, touching one of four parts and seeing the progression of the piece as they touch more than one element at a time. This allows a multitude of people such as a group of four, two people or even one person on their own to hold down parts of the brain to eventually see the whole, complete piece. 

The representation of the piece is to show that the parts of the brain work together as a whole to form a functioning visual/audible atmosphere for the person, but when separated, the parts of the brain struggle to form something that's whole. 

Visual Research: 

http://www.instructables.com/id/The-Brain-an-external-hard-drive-and-light-sculptu/

For visual research, Julia via our group's regular Skype meetings found a great website were someone made a model brain with LED's lighting it up inside it. This piece was done more as a DIY Sculptural experiment to see if he could make it. The designer, Quentin Thurtle, described it as such: 

"I was asked to make a 1Tb external hard drive in the form of a floor-standing, animated-brain sculpture. When not being accessed, it has a simple red-light pulse. When the hard drive is being accessed, it has a range of light display effects.' 

I like the way that Quentin displayed the piece on a plastic pillar, which makes the piece look professional and visually interesting. Our piece however will be more specific in the LED lights, rather than just using christmas lights that constantly flash. 

Due to Thomas knowing students that do Architecture at the university, and being at a university with talented art student and some amazing facilities such as the workshops I was inducted into recently for our Studio Shoot project, I feel confident in coming together and making a physical brain model that looks visually interesting and works the way I want it to. 

An accurate drawing done by Thomas

1. From pre-modernism to Modernism (mirror/replicate)

Picnic on the Grass- French painting

Perspective-

futurist- show movement (speed and direction)

High Modernism

clement greenberg

From Modernism to Post-Modernism (from subject to experience, understanding what painting is)

Jackson Pollock

Painting- 2-D technique finding colour and shape


Function of painting- Dominant white male

Showing different points of view- Female, mixed race

New view of reality

Most abstract art is done by jewish people

Minimalism- Taking abstract expressionism seriously (specific objects) from admiring to experiencing. Challenging vision coming from a single point of view

Modernism- Flat, colours

Land Art

Documentation of the process- movement (contemporary art)

Nasca lines

pop art- Background, foreground, re-production

Andy warhol

Contemporary art- (mashup of everything, 'not really')

Damian Hurst

YBA

Relational Aesthetics- literal work

Notes from Lecture:

Katharine Hepburn’s  ‘Adam’s Rib’  (1949)

‘Hollywood’

‘Rom-com’, Slapstick

Clever/comedic scripts, good acting.

Beginning, Middle, End

Illusion of reality- War, post-war trauma

Form of ‘Escapism’

Andy Warhol:  ‘Screen Test’  ‘Ready Made’

Still position- Shyness, Paranoia, being watched

Edie Sedgwick

Andy Warhol: ‘Empire State Building’

Still position: Rain droplets appear over time, light changes.

Narrative-less, looking at film rather than narrative

No edits, no actors/actresses, real life.

‘Underground’ work: Bruce Nauman’s ‘Walking in an Exaggerated Manner around the Perimeter of a Square) 1967-68

Interested in what you can do with film, rather than using techniques.

A ‘Niche’ that appeals to a certain audience.

Slow-paced

Narrative-less

What is he trying to say? Meaningless?

Richard Serra: ‘Hand Catching lead’

‘Pointless human action’- Humans seen as objects

Work isn’t realistic, looking at abstract qualities

Music and Rhythm- repetition of grabbing

‘Underground’- context, lifestyle and locations.

‘Avant-Garde’- Theory, art

Paul Sharit:  ‘Touching’ (1968)

Repeated work

Discovering new forms of film

Stan Brakhage ‘Mothlight’ (1963)

‘Interventional’ film

Objects/shapes put onto the actual film

‘Imaginative’ film- hard work

Similar to Jackson Pollock’s work

Malcolm Le Grice ‘Berlin House’ (1970)

Repetition of the movement

Experiment with the actual Film material

‘Chemicals, color’s, light’ make the film

Projected onto a screen through light- ‘Decomposing’ film

Peter Kubelka ‘Amulf Rainer’ (Late 50s)

Lighting- flashing then dark

Trying to find the specificity of the meaning- what is film made of? What is being recorded/shown?

Peter Gidal ‘Room Film’ (1970)

Films an entire room closely through zoom

Michael Snow ‘Wavelength’

Weeklong zoom into the window

Material/Essence of the film

Questioning film as a medium- Narrative, Characters, Time, Setting, and Color.

Changes color over time

‘Abstract’ film

‘Viewer’s experience/participation’- Realization that film is more than just the material.

Marcel Broodthaers ‘A Voyage on the North Sea: Art in the Age of the Post-Medium’ (1974)

Student of Greenberg (Late 60s)

‘Post-Medium’ condition (After Post-Modernism)

‘Museum of Modern Art: The Ego System’ 

What is art?

Pages of a book-  Different visuals (Materials, Paintings)

Different mediums showing the same item (Painting of a boat, photography, material of a boat) combining the elements (Placement, Faded, Movement, Canvas ‘Brushstrokes’)

Contrasting old/new forms of showing work

‘Specificity of the Medium’ (Painting)- Concept film

                                                                                                               

Rosalind Krauss: ''A Voyage on the North Sea'': Art in the Age of the Post-Medium Condition

Understanding as something that can be transferred to other mediums

Specificity doesn’t have to lie within a certain medium- Art is no longer separated, same as film.

‘Define Specificity of art itself’

‘Rules that restructure projection’ – Television Delivers People (1973)

Film is a blend of mediums and layers of conventions- Pointless trying to find specificity

Modernist Movement- Break between what has been built to the current day

‘New categories must be made’- from Art, Film, Sculpture etc to something new.