Fuzzynarrators-report

From XPUB & Lens-Based wiki

Thematic Project 3: Navigating Borders and Contours: From Direct Address to Fuzzy Narrators

Report introduction (by Colm)

The task at hand here is to explain the mode of address of the report of this thematic project: Navigating Borders and Contours: From Direct Address to Fuzzy Narrators but not introduce the topic itself. We write this report as means to keep trace of, give access to and in a sense, archive the happenings. We're doing this for ourselves (the participants / students) but also for who ever you may be, reading this now.

We found ourselves shortening the name of the thematic to a simple 'Fuzzy Narrators', because the full title is long, but also because the two word version encapsulates a majority of the items raised, while remaining blurry enough to properly represent the vastness and intangibility of the theme. It's about fuzziness, in narration. It's about narrators being fuzzy. Interchange accordingly.

We viewed and discussed a wide array of pieces that purposefully used non clarity as a means to tell, or in some cases, untell a story. Texts were read, in order to nurrish the talks and discussions we had about these techniques. For a more factual point of view on items, readings, pieces, see the 'archive' section at the end of this page.

Meanwhile, we chose to embrace the topic of the project, within this report, and give non factual accounts of experiences of the three days spent together. We're keeping a minimal structure, one of chronology, but the rest is up to the individual reporter. We're putting things inside envelopes.
C.O.


Orwellian version

I will explain the mode of address of the report of the thematic project: Navigating Borders and Contours: From Direct Address to Fuzzy Narrators but not introduce the topic itself. This report aims to keep trace of, give access to and archive the events. We do this for ourselves (the participants / students) but also for whoever you may be reading.

We shortened the name of the thematic to 'Fuzzy Narrators'. The full title is long, and the two word version represent most of the items raised, while remaining true. It's about fuzziness, in narration. It's about narrators being fuzzy. Interchange accordingly.

We viewed and discussed lots of pieces that used non clarity, to tell. In some cases, untell a story. We read texts, nourishing the talks and discussions we had about these techniques. For a more factual point of view on items, readings, pieces, I refer you to the 'archive' section at the end of this page.

Meanwhile, we embraced the topic of the project, within this report, and give non factual accounts of experiences of the three days spent together. We're keeping a minimal structure, one of chronology, but the rest is up to the individual reporter. We're putting things inside envelopes.
C.O.

Day by day personal accounts

Monday AM (by Max)

Monday mornings – there are a lot of songs dealing with this theme1. Therefore I don't need to go into deep here. Fact is: Monday is funday. Above all when a new thematic seminar starts. In this case "From Direct Address to Fuzzy Narrators" with Tina Bastajian. After we had introduced oneselfs in turn, Tina gave us an overview of the next three days and of the (historic) origins of the narrator, his role(s), his change over time and his reliability ("Sometimes you have to lie to tell the truth." - Robert Flaherty [circa 1922]). It was very interesting to see the techniques and developments, by means of which people have told immersive stories. We watched clips of some apparatuses (like the Zoetrope, the Mutoscope or the Lanterna Magica2) and some events (like the Hale's Tours3) because it is always better to have some visual material when talking about visual topics.

To think outside the (western) box we also had examples of the eastern narrator, for instance the so called Benshi. A Japanese performer and narrator who provided live narration for silent films. During the film the benshi stood to the side of the screen, visible to the audience, spoke for the characters on-screen and played multiple roles4. We then switched to Neo-Benshi, an art-form where the artist speaks live alternate voice-overs for movies. More to the topic Benshi will be discuessed after lunch, so keep on reading to Pleuns text.

Following this launch presentation we started to unveil our "fuzzy objects". As a small assignment for this day we had to bring two research ‘objects’ which relate in some way to our work, research interests, working methods, etc. Pleun introduced us to Mark Lombardi diagrams: large scaled visualisations and each node (= name) or connection of the diagrams is drawn from news stories from reputable media organizations. So people get connected to other people. As an example Pleun mentioned that George W. Bush is connected nearly directly to Osama Bin Laden (with only one stopover). But we couldn't examine this because the quality of the image material was too bad.

After the lunch break (I had a salmon sandwich) we will continue with the presentations of our fuzzy objects, talking about Benshi and Neo-Benshi and Tedesco's performance.

M.W.

Orwell.png

Orwellian version - Monday AM (by Max)

Monday mornings – many musicians have covered this theme1. I don't need to go into deep here. Fact is: Monday is funday. Above all when a new thematic seminar starts. In this case "From Direct Address to Fuzzy Narrators" with Tina Bastajian. After we introduced oneselfs, Tina gave us an overview of the next three days and of the (historic) origins of the narrator, his role(s), his change over time and his reliability ("Sometimes you have to lie to tell the truth." - Robert Flaherty [circa 1922]). It was interesting to see the techniques and developments, by means of which people have told immersive stories. We watched clips of some apparatuses (like the Zoetrope, the Mutoscope or the Lanterna Magica2) and some events (like the Hale's Tours3).

To think outside the (western) box we also had examples of the eastern narrator, for instance the so called Benshi. A Japanese performer and narrator who provided live narration for silent films. During the film the benshi stood to the side of the screen, visible to the audience, spoke for the characters on-screen and played multiple roles4. We then switched to Neo-Benshi, an art-form where the artist speaks live alternate voice-overs for movies. We will discuss more on this topic after lunch. Keep on reading!

Following this launch presentation we started to unveil our "fuzzy objects". We had to bring two research ‘objects’ which relate in some way to our work, research interests or working methods. Pleun introduced us to Mark Lombardi's diagrams: large scaled visualisations of connected persons. The connections between the people are based on news stories from rputable newspapers. As an example Pleun mentioned that George W. Bush is connected nearly directly to Osama Bin Laden (with only one stopover). But we couldn't examine this because the too bad quality of the image.

After the lunch break (I had a salmon sandwich) we will continue with the presentations of our 'fuzzy objects', talking about Benshi and Neo-Benshi and Tedesco's performance.

M.W.

Monday PM (by Pleun)

After the break Tina continued showing us historic examples of the origin and use of the narrator. Below the list of video's we watched, each with a small description of what they are about.

  • Video: El automovil gris by Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes (link)

"El Automovil Gris" is an example of narration in cinema, in which the narration becomes a performance.

  • Video: Roxy Power - Neo-Benchi

Roxy Power is a neo-Benchi in LA, in this case narrating "Rebel without a Cause" in a very over de top manner.

  • Video: Barberella Neo Benshi: (link)
  • Video: Cameo, Margaret Tedesco’s (link)

As pre-reading we had read a text about Tedesco's performance. After actually seeing footage of the performance we discussed what we expected and if that expectation was met.

"There is a value in this representation, reinterpretation, when interpretation meets her personal opinions, her personal memories." "She doesn't cross the line of being unreliable, while we want her to be."


The small assignment for today was to bring fuzzy objects. The objects and questions around them were:

  1. Pleun showed her objects in the morning (see morning)
  2. Max's objects: 1. Arduino servo motor, 2. Upside down smiley emoji face
  3. Nadine's objects: 1. The Christmas Fox: Ghost Writer by Tim Mackintosh-Smith (Author)
  4. Colm (sound): 1. "Its a film made by someone who thinks you're as smart as he is.", 2. Git commit list
  5. Samira: 1. Archives of previous years of work in film school, 2. The tribe - Miroslav Slaboshpytskiy http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/oct/17/the-tribe-review-deaf-mute-miroslav-slaboshpytskiy
  6. Stone: 1. Breadboard arduino LED prototype: lights as individuals, individuals as a group, 2. Analog musician (also a bit of electronic constructs) Maywa Denki
  7. Julia: 1. The object was an area of empty space.
  8. Natalie 1. Picture of transparent screens and projections, Wiki page for transrational language experiments done by Russian futurists.


Extra examples: Fluxus — Projectionnist instructions
Nostalgia — Hollis Frampton (1971)

Tuesday AM (by Natalie)

The first thing that came to my mind how to crack this essay about Tuesday morning session that I don't have clear memories of is, obviously, to restore chronology. Trite, but effective. We met Erin Latour to discuss Fuzzy Narration in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictree. I remember we started from talking about comics, what is minor literature its specificities. Probably I can connect comics to all other things we discussed, but from my point of view, comics stay aside from the conversations we had during that morning. The main topic almost all the lecture was subjectiveness. There is not truth, objectivity doesn't exist. That was the statement, made and almost proven during the lecture. Nevertheless, we feigned that it does and discussed what it could be. We began from difference between memoir and autobiography, we had discourse on truth, speculated on subjectivity, intersubjectivity, and objectivity, watched "Une Minute Pour Une Image" by Agnes Varda, argued about Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictée.

Tuesday PM (by Julia)

On Tuesday afternoon, 26th of January, we find ourselves completely bewildered and shattered. There is no truth, She said. No truth! And She said it so lightly as if She’d complained about Rotterdam's wind messing her hair up. You, dear reader, have to understand the impertinency and cruelty of Her deed. We are a group of kids, young idealists who cannot yet swim without knowing the ground underneath them. And that wicked woman, Tina Bastajin, who just flew into our young lives straight form Her sunny San Francisco, abruptly informed us that the ground doesn’t even exist. And then She said, pull your sleeves up and do something about it. We were lost. No objectivity, no transparency, no future! What type of intellectual production might embrace this apocalyptic state of affairs?

Stone, my courageous Chinese friend responded first to this offensive challenge with a short movie with subtitles and some ‘shit premiere filters’ that spoke about soap bubbles. Bubbles, but not only. You, dear reader, need to know that Stone is the kung-fu master of soap bubbles. In her hands bubbles would glitter and cut the air like the sharpest knives. Yes! This video has taught Tina Bastajin a lesson. Her face stayed puzzled through insecure applause. I am sure she had seen the truth in the bubbles’ eyes yet she would never admit that in front us. Max, the Rottweiler within our innocent heard, thrown another punch by making a reference piece to the video of a tram going down a San Francisco street we had watched the previous day. ‘Hale's Tours of the World’ introduces the first simulation of the virtual journey that used to be shown at the amusement venues in the early 20th Century. Max with boldness, typical for the alpha man, added 100 years to the early 20th century production by replacing a tram with a car (!) and applying the most reliable source of knowledge, Google maps, on top of that. Tina Bastajin’s face went pale with shock. But She was a though player. She would never give herself away so easily. Then it was my turn to attack. Fighting down my dread of the monster, I dared to politely ask for Her wallet. The wallet was given to me together with repugnance, disdain, and hatred smouldering in the monster’s eyes. Basing on it’s content I could tell everything about this sneaky creature yet I choose not to. Armed with my chief weapons, deep fight in the mighty god and cruel pragmatism, I decided to use this occasion to reveal some fatal stories about Her future fate including a distant moment of “dying alone.” This prognosis turns out to be TRUE for 99,999% of humanity so who is laughing now, Tina Bastajin? In deed, She stated to sweat. She awkwardly cackled, “I need to buy a new wallet hi hi hi”. Pleun, knowing that we catch Her off guard, immediately reacted by reading out loud a very long text in Dutch. This tall and inglorious girl is indeed Dutch which helps, both in reading Dutch texts as well as taking the Dutch king’s speech out of context. Like invisible boa snake, Pleun managed to lull our guileful and cunning enemy into a false sense of security. Her nervous giggle had braked down into a wheezing noise. And that is precisely when Sara, our lethal weapon of nuances, fired out her linguistic cannon aiming straight between monster’s eyes. Exchanging casual yet conceptually loaded dialogs with Samira (the secret companion of the heavy blow) she managed to stun the beast by the usage of time codes and disturbing political undertones. <Media omitted> Sara kept on reaping. With each reiteration of this paralysing spell Monster’s limbs got more and more numb. Media omitted. Shakiness combine with fury. Media omitted. The smell of sulphur hanged in the air. The monster was drooling. Her uncontrolled burping realised a few units of spoken language together with embers. “That is so nice Sara, it belongs to the white cube”. I can only suspect that She was trying to verbalise "the white cube". Her gaping throat as well as Her entire body was completely taken over by convulsions. She could not longer handle the intensity of our intellectual crossfire. We all knew that this creature was falling apart in front of our eyes. Some sort of a viscous substance was dripping off Her hairy scull and muzzle. Till that very moment I was sure that it was a mixture of sweat, tears and mascara. Yet, as I recalled the traumatic memories of the morning session with Tina Bastajin, the monster wasn’t wearing makeup. Yet, something was dripping. Dripping heavily. Without any sign or signals of warning, Nadine and Samira started to unveil their promiscuous strategy of allusion. Our two seductive cats just started their game. They presented maybe somewhat unfinished yet conceptually crashing project inspired by the ghost-writer figure. They intended to impersonate this ambiguous profession by sitting in a graveyard under the cover of an old bed sheet. Ominous as it sounds, the deed was to be executed this upcoming weekend. Even Ewan McGregor, the main character in Polanski’s “The Ghost Writer” would spend entire day wallowing in jealousy and self-pity hearing this project. Dazzled and beleaguered Tina Bastajin could only belch a puny fire for the last time “That is such an interesting idea, girls.” And then She inertly squatted down. The sound of pitiful sob resounded throughout the large project space reverberating between walls and cold radiators. But the bloodthirsty cats haven’t finished yet. They launched the video “Can a computer write poetry?” Apparently, it can. While the playful video presenting the flaws of speech-into-text conversion went on, monster’s claws, tails and fur stared to fall out. We watched how this disfigured, bold, and dripping creature was crowing toward the computer stand in the corner of the room spiting at us with Her poisonous mucus. That is exactly when fearless Chloe stepped in. This rebellious punk diva knows how to deal with the tenacious inferno. She began with the innocuous whisper that bit after bit unfolded the magic of her narrative strategy. “Once upon a time, there was a small girl who had a feeling of not belonging to …basically anything.” Chloe cruelly pushed that sensitive button.” Then she wildly went on improvising Johnny Rotten’s famous lyrics, yet replacing the word “ anarchist” with “protagonist”. While Chloe was subtly implying the anarchistic doctrine upon the writhing monster, we could smell the sweet odour of decomposition. Chloe’s enchanting voice delivering her new movie script was rhythmically interrupted by sounds of dripping and moan. Not minding the monster’s caustic waste matter spilled all over the floor Colm, the prince of crystal ethics, appeared on his perfectly bleached horse to ultimately slay the dragon. With disarming honesty he posed the question; why would anyone slosh around in mud of fussiness, obscurity, and deception? How unjust, how infamous it is to the great unwashed? Why cannot we express our agendas directly and straightforward? Otherwise the rabble might not get it… While this brave young boy was reading out loud his words of truth freshly posted on Github the monster had changed the entire consistency of its compact solid. The mud of fussiness, obscurity, and deception was still trying to insidiously response to Colm’s triumphal crusade. Random spits of Tina Bastajin’s smelly gunk lied in ambush against us. Even badly melted, She still craved for our young souls. At that moment we knew that we must destroy every single atom of this gluttonous substance. Someone had to press the red button. And there she was, Nataliya Sinelshchikova, our Moscow expert of the final atomic solution. Nataliya does not beat around the bush. Equipped with a comprehensive knowledge of Soviet totalitarian methods as well as a crushing commend of Eastern European accent (that she hasn’t yet recognized as a virtue) she got down to business. Our team, knowing that Nataliya’s slender body can produce an explosive force comparable to the detonation of more than 2 million tons TNT, ducked and covered behind classroom’s tables. Her presentation was like a mild atomic flare enshrouding Chernobyl. She spoke about Zaum: Russian linguistic experiment initiated by futuristic poets of the early 20 century. Zaum language was a significant contribution into the filed of poetry and translation, that later on inspired many post-war avant-garde movements including Dada or Surrealists. To quote one of his founders, Aleksey Kruchenykh: “Zaum allows for fuller expression where the common language of everyday speech binds”. As Nataliya continued with her “fuller expression” of the nuclear onomatopoeia, shivering atoms of Tina Bastajin’s ooze recognized their fate. The blast effects and super-lethal ionizing radiation had caused immediate thermal death of 90% of Her substance. The lucky 10% curled up to the Mac station to deal with numerous complications like: infertility, blood disorders, and, ultimately, fatal third-degree burns. It was a matter of seconds. We all stared a big count down. Ten. Nine. Eight…. The monster was evaporating and shrinking till the last “zero” that our lips joyful sang. Even Pavarotti could not sing it batter. Stone, who couldn’t hold the excitement any longer, hiccupped with few rainbow-hued bubbles. We won. We won again. Together. Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all Ye know on earth, and all ye need to know [sic!].


Kul's Orwellian version

On 26th of January we find ourselves lost. Tina Bastajin informed us that, there is no truth. Then She said, do something about it. What type of something, we wondered. Stone, responded first with a video. It was about soap bubbles, but not only. Tina Bastajin’s face clouded. Max threw another punch. He showed Google street view. He made his point. A car is not a tram. 2016 is not 1916. Tina Bastajin’s face went pale with shock. Then I asked Her to give me the wallet. She did that. Basing on it’s content I informed her that she will die alone. Pleun read out loud the king’s speech. It was the Dutch text and the Dutch king. Tina Bastajin made a wheezing noise. Sara said <Media omitted> few times. We smelled sulphur in the air. Something was dripping. Nadine and Samira spoke about ghosts and writers. (Something will soon happen in a graveyard.) Tina Bastajin sobbed. “Can a computer write poetry?” Apparently, it can. Tina Bastajin wallowed in convulsions in a corner of the room. Chloe informed us that she does not belong to anything. Tina Bastajin started to decompose. Colm wrote and then read “why?.. and what for? “ The monster spited with smelly gunk. Nataliya carried on with the final nuclear solution. She spoke about Zaum that equals to the blast effects and super-lethal ionizing. The 90% of substance died right way. The lucky 10% struggled with numerous complications. It was a matter of seconds. Ten. Nine. Eight. Stone hiccupped with few rainbow-hued bubbles. Zero. We won. Beauty is truth. Truth is beauty. [sic!].

Wednesday AM (by Stone & Chloe)

We discussed the narration of essay film, which is in between fiction film and non fiction film, narration based on the author's point of view, exposed the gap between narration and reality. We watched following essay films as examples and discussed this form of narration.

Karen Mirza and Brad Butler’s video The Unreliable Narrator (2014)
https://vimeo.com/97740538
narrates the 2008 Mumbai attacks, sourced from CCTV recordings and Bollywood films, switched the different angles between the attackers and their controllers. The author's description as a narrative thread, however the images could not match the description well which made the narration more fuzzy.

Johan Grimonprez's film Dial H-I-S-T-O-R-Y (1997)
used clips from archieve footages, science fiction films, home video and reconstituted scenes, traces the history of airplane hijackings as portrayed by mainstream television media.

Jon Rafman’s film Still Life (Betamale)
https://vimeo.com/jonrafman
With the main scene of disgusting computer desks covered in bits of food and cigarette ashes, surrounded by energy drinks and dirty dishes, the main character which is a fat man with panties covering his face, pointing two guns at his own head. Most of the footages are selected from the website: 4Chan. The film shows us the darkest and the most alternative part of web.

Alain Resnais’s Night and fog (1955)
This documentary short film shows the history of Nazi Germany's death camps of the Final Solution and the hellish world of dehumanization and death. With the linear timeline and objective voice-over, audience are able to understand the concentration camp with very specific introduction and documentation. Colour images are applied showing things happened during present time and space, and black and white images are applied showing the past. This two occasions negate and query each other.

Wednesday PM (by Sara)

“How is history written? By whom? And for whom?” This is how Solveig Gade started her essay on performing archive, taking two collectives as her material of reference; Rimini Protokoll, a collective founded in 2002 by three German artists, and The Atlas Group, which, counter to common belief, only comprises one member, Lebanese artist Walid Raad. And this is where our discussion on the third day of the thematic seminar proceeded.

Watching at Rimini Protokoll’s work, Call Cutta, in parallel to Walid Raad’s discursive project, The Atlas Group, we examined the relations between narrative, visual-photographic, and spatial components that created an alternative approach to history and to historical events.

In Call Cutta, Rimini Protokoll staged a number of situations where call center agents (experts in their field of work) from Kolkata would call a participant in the performance; a German person living in Berlin. The purpose of the call is to guide the participants through their own city. The caller, who had never been to Berlin and whose identity is concealed, speaks with confidence and ease, borrowing elements from personal experience to narrate the city. The Indian and the German conversation partners start to share a piece of their respective histories on one geographic location. It is as if one is re-enacting or travelling in both space and time, experiencing history at first hand, establishing a relation with the other, with colonialism, Nazism, and globalization: creating the power of alternative histories.

When it comes to the The Atlas Group, and considering the fuzzy history of Lebanon’s 30 years of violence, one more element is added to the question posed by Rimini Protokoll. It is how create history from scratch, in the absence of a major narrative, rather than trying to create alternatives. As Lebanon's 15-year-long civil war supposedly ended with a general amnesty law, it was a general amnesia that was forced on the war-torn country. How can you think of the past, when the past has willingly erased itself? How can you talk about traumatic events when an entire nation is suffering some sort of forced forgetfulness?

Walid Raad tried to create an "archive" of the war. He collected notebooks, home videos, documents, letters, memories that belong to people, ordinary people affected by years of destruction. He performed those archives over the years; using his collection as a screenplay to his 10-year-long performance, and both time and space seem to bend and adapt to the representation of the irrepresentable.

Footnotes

Monday

1 Monday Morning - Melanie Fiona, Monday Morning - Christina Aguilera, I Don’t Like Mondays - The Boomtown Rats, Mondy Morning - Tupac, Easy like Monday Mornings - Lionel Richie, Monday Morning - Fleetwood Mac, Monday Morning - The Velvet, Monday Morning - Maroon 5, Monday Morning Love - The Rolling Stones.

2 Lanterna Magica: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w1XkqtzLfKo

3 Hale's Tours: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THofINfihrI

4 El Automóvil Gris / The Grey Automobile - Teatro de Ciertos Habitantes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61Y7isIqv2I

Archive (by everbody)

Pre-reading assignments

for Monday

for Tuesday

  • Anne Anlin Cheng. "Memory and Anti-Documentary Desire in Theresa Hak Kyung Cha's Dictée" File:Cha by cheng 1.pdf in MELUS, Vol. 23, No. 4, Theory, Culture and Criticism (Winter, 1998), pp. 119-133
  • Sinha, Amresh. (2004) 'The Use and Abuse of Subtitles', in Atom Egoyan and Ian Balfour (eds) Subtitles: On the Foreignness of Film, MIT Press, 172-190. Link to PDF [5]
  • Timothy Barker. (2010) 'Aesthetics of the Error: Media Art, the Machine, the Unforeseen and the Errant.' In Mark Nunes (Ed.). Error: Information, Control, and the Cultures of Noise. File:Aesthetics of Error.Barker.pdf
  • Marie-Laure Ryan. Beyond Myth and Metaphor: The Case of Narrative in Digital Media [6]
  • The Glitch Momentum
  • Some Musings on Iterations and Encounters - re: Call Cutta(s)

for Wednesday

  • Solveig Gade. 'Performing Histories Archiving Practices of Rimini Protokoll and The Atlas Group' [7]
  • Jeffrey Wallen. 'The Lure of the Archive: The Atlas Project of Walid Raad' Comparative Critical Studies, 8.2-3, 2011[8]
  • Rike Frank. 'When Form Starts Talking: On Lecture-Performances' Afterall Journal, 33, Summer 2013. [9]

In thematic narrative examples & material (non exhaustive — will be augmented when slideshow pdfs are received)

Day 1

Day 2 (really needs pdf refs)

Erin Latour talk

  • "Une Minute pour Une Image"
  • Jill Bennett
  • Theresa Hak Hyung Cha
  • FLUXUX
  • Dierter Roth - Literaturwurst
  • Henri Bergson - Duration
  • Sujin Lee

List of material produced by students on PM of day 2 ?

Day 3

Retrieved from "https://pzwiki.wdka.nl/mw-mediadesign/index.php?title=Fuzzynarrators-report&oldid=95661"