umasvideojournal2021

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In a time when successive generations of technology amplify human presence at distances far greater than the reach of hand to touch or voice to space, what becomes the place and form of making at the scale and pace of the individual body? How does making participate in the recuperation and recognition of embodied knowledge?  What are the places and forms for live, tactile, visceral, face-to-face experiences in a media saturated world?  How--in making present what is absent--does the practice of art articulate the joint between the word and the body as it links the scale of individual action to collective presence and social imagination?

In abc·video, the fingertip erases the alphabet, and then, through technological means of video reversal, appears to rewrite it, letter by letter, sound by sound. The most individuated mark of the body, the fingertip, dissolves the printed alphabet, its speech and sound, into the realm of touch.

The fingertip, “which is the most individuated mark of the body,” erases the alphabet and rewrites it. This process is emphasized by the way the video is edited to run forward and in reverse. This video would become a touchstone for Hamilton as a reference to the relationship between written language and tactile experience.

- Ann Hamilton

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Assignment 2 

‘Touch’ 2021

A sound performance

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Assignment 1 

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Stills from footage of week 3 in class activity (edited film was lost on broken harddrive) 

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Prompt #4 Hannah Raisins video ‘Recall’ 2016 https://vimeo.com/226688303 Write up your impressions of the show/screening/online presentation in your video journal with reference to how the work was framed by the way it is presented, how you are positioned as a viewer, how sound and light is dealt with, where the   framed to think that the surface in the film is the lense, after the viewer realises this is not the case, i became a viewer that felt was trapped in a box looking out at this person/performance. - As a viewer i am positioned... to perceive the performer intimately, to be in close proximity with the performers body, as the viewer i am positioned to feel as if i am in the immediate and same environment as the performer. However i only realise that i am in a kind of seperate space, when the artist starts to crack eggs filled with golden syrup on to the glass, realisng the performer and the viewer are seperated by the a glass box or screen and the camera lense. The viewer is positioned to feel as if they are inside theyre body while being on the outside. - How sound and light is dealt with.. The light appears to be like a spot light. The sound is no sound is this video. - Where the artist and their work sits in context to other video art practice local and international. feminist, gender inquiry interesting in engaging in performance art “Her practice playfully subverts social expectations and cultural conventions around gender and identity.” themes in her work: the body, gender and environment

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prompt 6

Find a piece of video with an interesting soundtrack – describe it carefully and think about how it works with the images.

Umma’s Tongue–molten at 6000° 2017

Is it naturalistic?

The sound track is naturalistic, it appears as if the singer/or story teller is mouthing - or is supposed to be singing the lyrics of the sound track.

Is it an abstract relationship?

The relationship is semi abstract as the green screen background of molten lava adds a surrealist element with the figures of indigenous / people/ women.

Is it emotional or unemotional?

The soundtrack is a beat focused ‘catchy’ hip hop score, on its on its unemotional however the content of the lyrics and the narrative gives an emotive effect.

Pace, tempo, volume, musicality, naturalistic, artificial, diegetic, non-diegetic etc

The beat brings a co-hesion and syncs with the words, emphasising the words beign sung. The edited melodic, vilon/distorted vocal sound functions like a hook. It is a non-diagetic sound track.

What effect does the soundtrack produce with the images?

The sounds track produces a melodic association to the imagery that impacts the audience to remember imagery in association with the video - like a music video clip

Watch the same footage without sound and compare the effect.

Although there the subtitles without listening to the soundtrack i had the melody in my head as i listened to it silently reading the subs.

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WEEK 3 PROMPT 9/8/2021 Picnic Places by Robert Nugent

Its hard to imagine a place that we occupy as being being absent, the things we use like picnic tables on the side of the road to have no use. ‘Picnic Places’ is entering a apoclyptic imagination of so called australia post-climate change or after severe change of weather patterns due to capitalism.

The video leaves me questioning what will become of this place, not in a urgently and over the top we must save the planet way. In a more descrete way. 

Picnic places, is exploring country/place in so called Australia, focusing on thematics of colonial history, set in the future looking back at relics and organic and man-made materials of the land, listing/ examining plant species along side industrial materials and some abondoned trash. Describing the purpose of the all materials in the landscape how they serve a purpose. 

The video work is narrated in a foreign language, sometimes the narrator is whispering creating a eerie effect. Before i read the description, i knew the video was making some kind of commentry on colonial history on stolen land. 

The contrast between big conctrete public chairs and picnic areas, in a desolate environment with out much spotting of humans, creates a loney atmosphere. The camera positioning centring, trees and plants and landscaps and held stable shots contributes to this lonely atmosphere, as if your the only person one there in this vast, sometiem arrid and lush landscapes. 

The use of sound played a large role in telling this story, guiding a sense of a journey in being in a ‘absent’ land the, the mystery of an abondened place and the fear the end of the world. 

Seeing a video work like this online opposed to in person, made it slightly more difficult to really absorb in to the short video. The kind of empty land, feel with the narration was more absurd and initally i felt like i really had to understand what was going on and i had little idea what was actually happening until i read the full description. I think if this work i had viewed in a gallery space i might have been more focused and aware of entering the space were the film was viewed and a sense of quiteness and maybe a dark space would have meant more concentration.

Picnic Place, 2020 ‘still images’

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Prompt 2 FKA twigs Cellophane Music Video

Take note of the following:

the number and frequency of the cuts

1. 67 cuts 

2. [ every 4 - 8 seconds ]

the duration between the cuts

Before the song begins 4 second cuts. 

Song intro: 17 seconds ---- then 5/4 seconds a cut.

Middle section of song with cgi has varying cut lengths

 - seven and even longer at times

- what purpose each cut serves

Each cut serves to tell time or the passing of time, telling a story.  

- are transitions used or are they hard cuts?

Mainly hard cuts.

- how is time and space established via the cuts?

-Time and space is established from the movement of twigs who appears to transcend the pole that shes dancing on, a cgi surrealist landscape unravels in the high ceilings of the theatre interior. An animated dragon like human face creature greets twigs. At this point the floor beneath her dissolves and the entire familiuar interior environment disappears, including the pole that has been the central axis for her acrobatic, pole dancing. the protagnist Twigs is left spinning, twirling and falling all at the same time through a kind of imagined black hole and boundless space, Twigs is used as a the centrepoint as the whole environment drastically changes with a the aid of CGI edits. 

- Space is created through the elusion of travelling through up and down to different spaces, entering and moving through space. Time is establihed from cut to cut.

- what are the relationship between shots - graphical, compositional, aesthetic

? not sure, what this means.

[The video transgresses 3 main settings, the cuts differenciate 3 distinct environments. The first environment is a familuar theatre hall, the protagnist appear to present from behind curtains, she approaches the pole that is centred on the stage.]

- how does sound work with or against the cuts?

As a music video clip, the video has been established for the song. As the video becomes more uncanny and surrealist, the song intensifies and is more complicated from the simple musical compostion at the beggining of the clip.

watch video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkLjqFpBh84

stills from Cellophane FKA twigs 2019