Claudio's Draft Project Proposal

Draft project proposal as of 23rd oct 2023

Steve's comments and suggestions

[Here I have made an edit of the intro and have some comments on your thesis outline. Your version of the proposal is pretty strong on form and not so strong on content and material: what raw images and material will you use?; why that imagery and material in particular? What is your stake in this? Why do you want to do this? Why should I want to watch it?]

You are building on existing practice, in the proposal, talk about how you work, what are your routines and preferences? What do you like to do? Bring in previous work; bring in examples of other practitioners. It is difficult to prescribe an experimental process. Reading this draft, I think you want to give yourself permission to experiment. Actually, I don’t think you need to justify how you work to anyone. You are dealing with stuff which is very abstract and at the same time very material, which is an exciting place to be. I think sentences like: “I want to push images to the edge between seeing and not seeing, between representation of the world and presentation of the medium” are very powerful, and are enough to build a final project around. For the proposal, you can describe how have you tried to do that and, between now and the assessment, make pieces which do that.

For the thesis, I advocate an analysis and annotation of your own work and the work of others who attempt something similar to you. In the third part of the outline you propose this, but I think it should be front and center of your approach to the thesis. Respect your own process and use the thesis as an opportunity to investigate then depth of that process. In the thesis, simply describe what you do and then discuss, with others and yourself, why you made the choices you did. Anyways I’ve made a few suggested changes to your draft proposal]

1. What do you want to make?

[TITLE] (10 mins) will be an experimental collage-compilation film exhibited as an installation. It will comprise a mix of edited appropriated imagery (still and moving), original footage, as well as DIY animation techniques. I want to take a sculptural approach to moving images that will showcase a conceptual-minimalist aesthetic, which is revisited through the mediation of contemporary and digital technologies. [TITLE] will be the result of a recursive, non-linear process which will determine a fragmented, cumulative, open-ended, yet structured form. It might also have a slight essayistic undertone, which however I intend not to be not its main mode of address.

I want to push images to the edge between seeing and not seeing, between representation of the world and presentation of the medium. I want [TITLE] to give form to a personal reflection on the world as well as a (self)reflection on the possibilities of the medium, dealing with such themes as:

nihilism/sublime, visibility/invisibility, opacity/transparency, blind spots (in vision, images, perception), gaze/image/screen, materiality/abstraction.

[<<I see a set of binaries here, the important thing is what they mean to you and why they matter to you. There is a moment when something which signifies something gives over to pure affect. These binaries seem to be at that point of division. Your final project may be an exploration of that moment (where something becomes nothing; where figure becomes ground; where signal becomes noise). ]

Claudio's draft

1. What do you want to make?

This project will consist of a moving image piece, between 8 and 15 minutes in length.

I envision it as an experimental collage-compilation film to be exhibited in an installation form. It will be made as a mix of appropriated - and edited - imagery - both still and moving, original footage, as well as DIY animation techniques.

It will likely be the result of a recursive, non-linear process, rather than of a scripted series of steps. This will determine a fragmented, cumulative, possibly open-ended - yet structured - form.

It will be made with a sculptural approach to moving images rather than a narrative one. It will showcase a conceptual/minimalist attitude, revisited through and merged with a more contemporary and digital approach. It might also have a slight essayistic undertone, which however I intend not to be not its main mode of address.

I intend this piece to give form, through a hands-on work on/with images, to some of the topics and thoughts that my overall practice is currently concerned with and that I will try to articulate in my thesis, as well as a way to confront myself with the influences that make up my artistic background. Matching form and content is a key goal for me.

I intend this piece to give form to a personal reflection on the world as well as a (self)reflection on the possibilities of the medium itself, dealing with such themes as:

nihilism/sublime, visibility/invisibility, opacity/transparency, blind spots (in vision, images, perception), gaze/image/screen, materiality/abstraction.

I’m interested in challenging the way we see, what we see, why we see, where we stand; pushing images on the edge between seeing and not seeing, between representation of the world and presentation of the medium, while having them to physically affect the viewer’s way of seeing.

I’m interested in navigating the tension, the fine lines between pure abstraction and mere materiality, between reflection on the world and self-reflection on the medium, between seeing everything and not seeing anything, between nihilism and the sublime. the subjects / actors / raw materials of the film will be blind spots, blinding images, lights leaks and darks holes, overexposure and underexposure, flashes and …., windows, curtains, screens, eyes, retinal structures, flashes, piercing lights, pixels, fast flickers, black and white blank frames, grids,

[... add something more specific]

the subjects / actors / raw materials of the film will be blind spots, blinding images, lights leaks and darks holes, overexposure and underexposure, flashes and …., windows, curtains, screens, eyes, retinal structures, flashes, piercing lights, pixels, fast flickers, black and white blank frames, grids,

2. How do you plan to make it? What is your workflow?

I envision the piece to be a fragmented yet structured collage of a series of moving image sketches that give form and explore the core topics of my research.

In accordance with my usual practice, I will make it by editing together a mix of appropriated imagery - both still and moving, original footage, rough animations. Images in which my own figure is involved could also be featured - as a way to physically situate myself in the topics I am dealing with - to embody them.

Some specific formal choices will be made, for which I will try to give account in my thesis, such as a rather gritty black-and-white and a recurring flicker effect. It will oscillate between  contemplative, slow-paced sections and hectic, fast-paced ones.

Another formal device that I intend to use is the repetition and variation of/on the same set of images, its hypnotic/hallucinatory potential.

Text will be featured only as an image/graphic element.

In terms of the display form, I envision it as a rather large-scale projection on a screen in an exhibition space, possibly with some extra, complementary elements - byproducts of the making process?

I would like several elements to converge together in making this piece: the found footage-based practice that I developed during the first year; a more raw, instinctual yet meaningful sketching practice; a sculptural, DIY approach to imagery as a material to work with; influences of structural/conceptual filmmaking tradition as well as more contemporary references.

I will begin with specific ideas and images in mind, but always keep my eyes open and be therefore ready to welcome and foster unexpected encounters, surprising shifts, unwanted byproducts of the process. I would like to retain this fragmented, open, cumulative process, embrace it as a form in the final piece.

I also want to limit my need/urgency to make things clear through theory-infused text - in the form of subtitles or voiceover - and rely more on the power of images alone to convey meaning.

3. What is your timetable?

My way of working is relatively loose and non-linear, based on a daily practice of research, sketching, experimentation, led by intention as much as by chances and encounters along the way. I can’t - and don’t want to - follow a scripted workflow. For these reasons, it would be hardly useful - and truthful - to plan a proper timetable for the project.

I intend to draft a 1-to-3 minute fragment for the assessment in January, to present and discuss, yet in a partial form, the formal/aesthetic and thematic characteristics of the project.

I will then rely on the momentum given by my own, personal drive as well as by the inputs from mentor groups and tutorials. I believe this to be enough to finalize the project in time.

4. Why do you want to make it?

I applied to this course to devote my practice to working with moving images.

During the first year I challenged this intention, questioned my position and understood that my attitude is that of a visual artist working with images as materials rather than a filmmaker who tells stories. It therefore makes sense for me to make a final project that reflects this stance.

The goal that I would like to achieve through this project is to define and sharpen the field of my research and practice, my own position in it as well as my own (visual) language. I feel this is necessary to be ready to step into “the wild world out there” after the end of the course.

During the first year I focused on a rather broad yet quite specific field of research, which can be framed as the theory and practice of image-making, and, conversely, of the experience of images, considered in their complex, layered implications - technological/technical, material, semiotic, affective/existential - with particular regard to to the digital realm - but not exclusively. In other words, my work has been concerned with the conditions of possibility of images by constantly lingering on their limits. I want my final piece to be a consequent outcome of this research.

Despite not being evident at first sight in its topics and outcomes, this practice is driven by a rather intimate involvement, which ultimately has to do with an existential struggle to find and take a personal stance in the world. A quest for meaning that clashes with a fundamentally nihilistic position, which is very philosophical but also very physically felt in first person. A struggle that I can’t (yet) fully define or describe but that drives me daily.  It hardly shines through but it’s there, and in making this project I would like to bring it more into sight.

5. Who can help you and how?

My approach is rather solitary and do-it-yourself. I work on my own most of the time.

However, I acknowledge the importance and benefits of presenting my work at intermediate stages and receiving external feedback on it. I strongly feel the need for this at specific stages of the process, and I intend to use mentor group sessions, Monday tutorials and meetings with my classmates in this way, to gather external, fresh opinions and to point out strengths and weaknesses of what I’m making.

I will also certainly need and rely on the great expertise of the tutors for the specific technical issues that will come up along the process.

6. Relation to previous practice

This project belongs to the same trajectory that I developed during the first year. However, through making it, I would like to define more specifically the field of research that I am moving in, its key concepts and questions, so as to develop a more precise, clear, sharp and personal position.

Another goal that I would like to achieve through this project is to develop a more personal visual language. In the past year, I worked mainly making short essayistic pieces as outputs of a rather structured, research- and text- based workflow, but I realized it is a way of working that I do not feel fully connected to. In making this project I want to embrace an approach to images that is more sculptural - a DIY craftsmanship sketching approach. It is the way of working that I feel more at ease with and I feel it could turn out to be the most effective one in exploring and reaching the core topics and interests of my artistic work. I want to work in a more dirty, less polished, reckless way.

Also, while still using found footage, I would like to work more (again) behind the lens, making and working with my own images too, which is something I didn’t do much during the first year.

7. Relation to a larger context (in progress)

thesis work - to clarify larger thematic interests that the final project works with / from which it stems

mainly, referencing two main fields/areas

certain philosophical topics lines of thoughts

minimalist-conceptual-structural filmmaking influences

contemporary video artists

8. References (in progress)

THREE TEXTS

Jean François Lyotard - On Sublime and Nihilism - from

Louis Marin - On opacity and transparency in pictorial representation - self reference

A concrete experience of nothing Paul Sharits's flicker films WILLIAM S. SMITH -

or: Structural filmmaking, peter gildan