Martin(LB)-project proposal

What do you want to make?
I would like to make a film in 5 acts exploring the theme/tensions of how meanings, narratives and faiths emerge from material objects and symbols. In the film I want to weave between topics of my family and regional histories, speculative narratives of the future, the materiality of the human body, interactions and conquests of nature/the unknown, and the mediation of experience through digital media (this last element I am still deciding whether and how to include). Each of these topics I am currently planning to dedicate an act in the film to exploring. Narratively, I want the film to sit somewhere between an essay and a diary and stylistically as a stream of consciousness. The film will consist of found/archival footage along with my own footage, field recordings, and auditory compositions.

How do you plan to make it?
I plan to write a narration in order to provide explanation for the associations made as well as a narrative/argumentative backbone for the film. I however still need to decide the voice by which the film will be narrated. I also plan to research several narratives and histories that I wish to weave into the film. For this I want to read a book my grandfather wrote retelling the local history of his region in Poland, as well as several works of Polish/Slavic science fiction and literature. I also want to research archival material from the regions of my family to see what I may find there. Furthermore, I wish to record a significant amount of footage of my own. I would like to shoot a portion of this footage in areas that relate to my family history as well as footage that relates to the technological themes I have been researching up until now. Finally, I would also like to compose a musical score for the film.

What is your timetable?
I will start by writing a draft of the narration as I believe this will help me structure the presentation of my ideas for the film. Next to this I also want to develop the themes and associations that I wish to explore in a written form. This I want to do as it will help inform and structure the narrative arc of the film and be of use to the development of my thesis.
Following this, I want to begin making experiments with recording the narration and editing it together with other elements of the film. During this phase I want to establish a range of techniques and aesthetics I can use to develop the visual language of the film.
After having taken these steps I hope to have a clearer picture of what the film will be and then hope to take steps to collect all the footage I want and arrange it together with the narration and score.

Why do you want to make it? Relation to previous practice
Up until this point I have mainly been occupied with research and writing on the relations of ideology, media theory, and phenomenological experience. I have worked on several experiments to try and interrogate these topics, the largest and most ambitious being my (currently unnamed) installation piece using ultrasound sensors, an Arduino board, and sculptural elements of latex and metal to create an instrument whose sound reminisces that of a European church organ. This project runs closely to my primary research interest that I have been developing, namely, to explore the politics and narratives implied in the construction of digital interfaces. This being said, I see this project as an attempt to build a novel interface as a speculative act; it is an example of the alterities I am trying to imagine.
Moving forward, I would like to explore these aforementioned themes by employing imagistic media. In doing so, I wish to make a project about these themes as opposed to a project that embodies or enacts them. I am choosing this approach as I believe it will allow me to weave together the complex web of associations I am exploring in a form that is more easily intelligible and has emotional resonance.

Relation to a larger context
Worldbuilding, ideology, politics of materials and interfaces.

References/bibliography

• Envisioning Power, Eric R. Wolf
• The Birth of Tragedy, Friedrich Nietzsche
• The Medium is the Massage, Marshall McLuhan
• Gramophone, Film, Typewriter, Friedrich Kittler
• Male Wielkie Historie, Marian Paduszynski
• Solaris, Stanislaw Lem
• Mirror, Andrei Tarkovskiy
• Nous n’avons jamais ete moderne, Bruno Latour
• Identity and Agency in Cultural Worlds, Dorothy Holland
• Donna Haraway?
• Hegel?