Fourth version

The light, The orange (4thversion):

Introduction:

The light.

It’s the temperature, it’s the color, it’s the space, it’s what you see in front of the screen, it’s what you hear without the screen, it’s changing, it’s not changing, it’s bright, it’s overcast.

The orange.

It’s the beat, it’s the rhythm, it’s the orange, it’s the arm, it’s the rotation, it’s the repetition, it’s the difference, it’s interesting, it’s boring, it’s normal, it’s unusual, it’s concentration, it’s an escape.

In this thesis, it mainly focuses on the sense of participation in simple form and repetition, which is related to my final project research, as well as leading to the following issues: What is the minimalistic way to attract an attention? Duration in a simple and repeating structure. Meditating experience in simple form and repetition.

When it feels that time slows down, when the surroundings turn quiet, when the environment becomes different or when there is simply not much to do. I start to observe and re-observe things surrounding me. However, what could attract my attention is not something huge or intense, but something slow and subtle. I see it’s an exploration of the connection between me and the environment or community, it’s a sense of participation, a feeling of being involved. However, in a quite subtle, slow process and repetition.

By doing research of simple and repeating form, I found structural films are mostly involved with the concept. Structural film do not document various film procedures, the film produces certain relations between what the camera is aimed at and in what way that image is presented. This kind of film focuses and analyses the structure and the procedure of the film, in a way it’s the purest way of how an object or image is presented. Therefore, it’s not necessary for structural films to be involved with specific narrative or storytelling. Structural film attempts to be non-illusionist, as P. Adams Sitney defines the structural film in his book “Visionary film,” it is a “cinema of structure in which the shape of the whole film is predeterminded and simplified, and it is that shape which is the primal impression of the film”. In a way related to what Frank Stella said of his paintings in 1964, “What you see is what you see,” a phrase that exemplified the minimalist movement. However, is it always so or it’s also possible to transfer “what you see is what you see” to “what you see is not what you see”? In the article <Structural Films: Meditation through Simple Forms>, it says: Usually, in a structural film, the form is so simple that the viewer does not have to spend much energy on understanding their place in the work. Therefore, leading to the next issue for the thesis: simple form/ minimalism. Furthermore, how does minimalism work in video art?

Furthermore, the process of the development of my concept, in the paper, it would be elaborated about my very early concept and research on my project, additionally, the change and development of it, where it led me to and where it would lead me to. Moreover, the further thinking, for example: how it comes and expands to anti-entertainment, as well as the relationship between anti-entertainment with my project.

Structure & Minimalism:

-This chapter will describe structural film and its attributes, i.e.: fixed camera position, flicker effect, looping printing, repetition, etc. Furthermore, to analyze different film in this format such as: Hollis Frampton’s <Lemon> and Warhol’s <Sleep>, and the impacts to my personal project. Moreover, the relationship between structural film and minimalistic art.

1.Structure:
a). Flicker:
(Briefly intro)
b). Repetition:
-Repetition;
How repetition forms new meanings and new ways of perceiving reality.
- Difference & repetition;

2.Minimalism

3.Time matters:
Time &duration.

Time plays a quite crucial role in time based artworks, especially in structural films. Thus, how do structural film artists deal with time in their works? How do they materialize time through moving images? What time tricks can they play, furthermore the impacts? This chapter will mainly discuss about these. Small changes make big or small differences.

4.Feeling bored? Is it supposed to be boring? (not sure about this paragraph yet)

This part will analyze the subtle relationship between boredom and non-boredom, how those structural filmmakers deal with the relationship in their works and how they deal with the challenge oThe senseations.

The sense of participation:

Meditation through simple formats. What are the mental influences from watching those artworks? Is it important to build this obvious or subtle connection between the artwork and viewers?
The fact that an illusion is created by a representation becomes the subject of the film. This meditative process cannot be achieved if there is a story or many different forms that viewer has to make connections with; there has to be a simple form.

Abstraction & Sound:

How do artists nowadays utilize and develop simple formats in their own works in a digital format.
Analog and digital, media exchanges.

The light, the orange:

This chapter will focus on analyzing my final project. How do I choose the content, scenes, objects and the reasons/ stories behind.
Creating & accepting: Additionally, to compare and analyze the difference and similarities between camera shooting and computer graphics. Computer generated moving image / graphics and camera shooting moving images.
Moreover, to analyze the difference and relationship between my work and other structural works such as: Hollis Frampton’s <Lemon> and Warhol’s <Sleep>.

Bibliography:

The MIT Press & Whitechapel Gallery, [2017], <Boredom, Documents of Contemporary Art>.
Hollis Frampton’s Lemon Analysis—The Nature of Film and Vision
Ways of Seeing, Structural Films: Meditation through Simple Forms
Peter Gidal, Structural Film Anthology, Theory and Definition of Structural/ Materialist Film
“Structural Film,” as Technique of History, Jonathan TD Neil
Who’s afraid of structural film, Jonathan TD Neil
Film as film: formal experiment in film 1910-1975, Birgit Hein, chapter “The Structural Film”
Structural Digital Video, Clint Enns
Abstract Video:The Moving Image in Contem, Sep. 2015,Gabrielle Jennings