Textonpractice2023

Part 1

Me and Sara talking, Arabella taking notes

He is okay.

What have you been making?

I've been busy with the eye film project. Which has taken me quite a lot of effort to reach the present stage and form. This project is the first step, and first experiment, in making something from the long term research that I've been doing since i've been here. The starting point is North Sentinel Island. This is basically the first step and also, it was important for me to step away from the island itself and realize that the island is not the core of the research. It is just the starting point. The island is a pretext for me to reflect on other topics which are mainly related to image making, image making technology and the implications of these things on our contemporary world. I am gradually shifting to different images, it started just with the island but now i'm trying to wok in a more associative way. It is related to the starting point, but now i'm bringing in stuff that isn't immediately related to the island - maybe it's to do with shapes or something else. This EYE film project is split into three stages, the first idea was not the way I wanted to make things as an artist. I then tried to deconstruct this because it had a really rigid structure.

What do you mean by deconstructing it?

It had a really rigid structure, with introduction and conclusion. I didn't want it to be so didactic and straightforward. It was relying too much on thoughts and subjects. I am not fully satisfied with the final project. But I will work further on this.

The whole idea of the piece was to compare, and bring together two apparently very different images. This was a scan of the Rothko painting from a book, and the images I took from Google Maps. I then staged these images, and built a set with them. I put them in relation, not just as a pure images. I wanted to show their medium and show how they circulate. This is actually the main subject of this research. I reflected on the implications of the mediums. I wanted to somehow bounce between the images themselves, and their mediated image.

What do you want to make next?

I want to make a lot of stuff. I want to continue with the island stuff. I want to create a sort of archive, my images are messy at the moment, not organized. So I want to find a way to catalogue. There is a lot of material and there are connections, but these connections are not obvious at the moment. I want to make these connections stable and clear, I know why the images are together and collected. But I want to make this more specific.

I will start writing then, about these connections.

And, on the side I want to shift a bit from this island subject. I want to develop some strategies (missed?). My old practice has quite a conceptual side, I want to merge this conceptual side with a more free form approach to images and sound. I want to work on thus relation between images, and sound.

What are the subject of these projects? Names?

Loss loss loss loss - is the name of one. This is a film of Jannes Makes called Loss Loss Loss. I downloaded I pirated the film. It took ages. And I thought as it was downloading imagining what would happen if the film was lost somewhere on the internet. This film was a diary of the artist's exile in New York. This resonated with me on a lot of levels. I wanted to connect this lost between (sorry someone was speaking couldn't hear).

The camera gets lost in the original film, and I wanted to make an edit with imagery from the digital internet. Cables. Hard drives.

Do you have another project?

Yes its called Pure Theory. It's a fragment of a video I made, it was a video of a performance I made. I was in Venice, there was a big political event that was happening. There was a helicopter in the sky, I zoomed in on the helicopter. A seagull then cuts across the frame. They are both flying objects. But the helicopter's way of flying is pure theory, a seagull (from nature) cannot fly this way. I don't know how to develop this, but one part of this could be referring to Leonardo Da Vinci's diary. He studied how bird flies, but then stopped around 1500 and then started thinking about making flying machines - which were pure theoretical.

Part 2

First draft of text on practice

Gathering material from previous sessions + trying to cover the following: what have you been making - how did you do it - relation to previous practice - what do you want to make next - why do you want to make it - relation to a larger context - references

(Text on Practice outline 2019-2020)

intention: outline the subject of my text on practice in a freewriting - stream of consciousness - fragmented way for now - to understand what it will be about - will later develop each topic/subject/fragment in a more extensive form

What I have been making

In the past few months my practice consisted mostly in carrying out a research project whose starting point was North Sentinel Island. Spent a lot of time gathering materials from various sources, mostly visual but also text.

Really focused on the island at the beginning, all the possible images and visual hints that I could find.

Then gradually realised that the island is not the core of the research but rather a starting point, a pretext or a catalyst to address wider topics which are my main research interests. Image making, technology of image making, image production, circulation, agencies, the role/position of humans in this.

My research is slowly shifting and opening up to much bigger questions, that the island alone can't answer.

(what are these questions? be more clear in my research interests topics directions)

Past month - EYE film project.

Explain what it is about, where it came from.

I ended up making 3 subsequent versions. Always using the same elements, but in different ways. Very essayistic at first, very rigid, very formal, very straightforward. I realised that it's not what I want to make as an artist. I then tried to deconstruct it. To make it more visual-centered and tried to convey my own thoughts and ideas through the images and the editing process. PLayed more wiht the movements of the images, their juxtapositions, with the color blue, the flickering. Deconstructed the text. From a voiceover it turned into a recollection of footnotes to the images and single words appearing in the center of the screen asking questions. Moved the revelation of the "names" of the two images - right at the begininning, in the middle, then eventually only at the end of the piece.

Partially achieved, feel I can work more on this piece and push it further along these lines. And will try to do so.

How did I do it

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Relation to my previous practice

(Same recurring topics and attitude, but need to develop them more)

What do I want to do next

Carry on my NS Island research by making an archive - find a meaningful/effective way to organize all the visual material that I already have and that I will gather in the future and make their connections more clear, explicit by writing about them. A preparatory work to a later stage of editing and making of a piece (my final graduate project maybe? I feel it will take some time and I don't want to rush it, I want to take all the necessary time to develop it fully)

1 or 2 images - re-edit, make new versions of it, use it as a playground to test and develop my language

Quite a lot of side projects in my mind- shorter/incidental pieces - some are old ideas, some are new, most of them are at the stage of intuitive fragments that have to be further developed. again use them as a playground to test and develop my language. feel the need to make shorter pieces along my main long term research - to keep myself going, to force myself in actually making something with an end - self imposing deadlines (1 per month?) might be useful

Re-edit dubai dispositif - previous graduate project - the concept is good, the form is not - even though it's an old project I still feel it's worth giving it a try - general intentions: make it more legible, reduce the amount of text by selecting the more meaningful parts, probably make it into a shorter but more effective piece. A self-imposed deadline? Submitting it to Architecture Film Festival Rotterdam 2023? (may 10th first deadline, may 31st extended deadline)

How do I want to work next (a personal manifesto for my practice?)

work in a more freeform - associative way

merge conceptual approach/attitude which I feel is at the core of my making (and my way of being in the world as well?), underlying everything I do

with a more freeform / """"contemporary"""" editing style

be specific, precise, rigorous, intentional but at the same time less elegant, less self-restrictive, less linear/structured, less didactic, less straightforward

sound wise - work more on it - I will be doing a residency of 10 days revolving on sound making, will be an occasion to reflect on this neglected yet very important part of my practice

think myself more as a video-artist then a filmmaker?

writing practice - always intend to write more, in two ways:

1 essayistic note-taking as self reflection on my work, use writing to make things clear toi me, to draw connection, to understand why I make stuff and what stuff to make

2 realised that text is important for me as a visual element on screen rather than just a voiceover running under images - fragmented textual elements in my video work as a visual elements along images and sounds - really want to develop text-image relation in my video work

keep better track of my practice by using the wiki in a more consistent way

Why do I want to make it

Because it's a way for me to read the world, to make sense of it, to understand and choose my positioning is it, my stance, my point of view. Might sound a bit selfish and/or arbitrary, but I feel it comes from an innate need

Relation to a larger context

...

References

Currently trying to build a readlist-watchlist page on my wiki to keep track of what I read and watch, to understand how and from what references my practice is shaped, as well as to plan a more consistent and intentional research work.

Conceptual/structuralist filmmaking and artists in general + More contemporary video artists

understand their strategies, their weapons

TALK ABOUT MY FRAGMENTS - LAYERS PRACTICE

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ideas for TOP form

bullet list form

personal statement - manifesto for myself (as sara mgenhaimer in her interview) - mixing every dimension of my being an artist - methods, processes, protocols, intentions

lists of keywords - concepts

include my "statement"screenshots ?

THINKS/WORKS ON/WITH FRAGMENTS-LAYERS-EDGES

list of topics-subjects I'm interested in

list of plansplansplans

WHO AM I WRITING THIS TEXT FOR? IS IT FOR ME? OR FOR SOMEONE ELSE? I'D RATHER WRITE SOMETHING USEFUL FOR ME AND FOR MY FUTURE PRACTICE

A STATEMENT OF INTENTION

A SELF CRITICISM

A MANIFESTO FOR MYSELF

A LIST-SET OF INTENTIONS

agguato a/v

allow myself more freedom in the process

make short test piece, masterpieces will come later

think (a little bit) less, make more

have more fun in making

conceptual yes, but no overthinking

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Structure - planning - a rough draft - rule: keep everything, edit later

(1500 words max)

This text is

a self-consciousness/self-criticism piece about my past practice/so-far practice (part 1 - about past work - kinda linear, essayistic)

a map-ping of my present interests, influences, inputs, ideas (part 2 - about present, unstable thoughts - includes a list of topics-subjects I'm interested in exploring - a list of ideas (titles-short synopsis) for possible future works )

a statement of intentions for the future / a manifold manifesto for myself (part 3 -projections for the future - bullet point list, short form, fragments)

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each part 500 words ca.

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1

PART 1

(SELF-CONSCIOUSNESS)

In the past months my practice/self-directed research consisted mostly in undertaking a long-term research project whose starting point was/is my fascination and interest - that dates back to some years ago - towards North Sentinel, an island in the Indian Ocean whose inhabitants have been hostilely refusing any interaction with outsiders since the 18th century. This has made them "the most isolated tribe in the world", and the island an almost completely unknown place. The only knowledge comes from the very few existing images of the island and the inhabitants - taken at great distance, through telephoto lenses, from boats, planes, satellites. As a visual artist - an image-maker/dealer/gatherer/thinker/tinkerer then - my interest was never the island in an anthropological-ethnographic way, but rather its status as a place/an object whose images are impossible. A tiny (black)hole on the world map, a dust spot on a crisp clear lens, a dead pixel on a 4K screen.

My research initially consisted in trying to retrieve and gather all the existing images of the island, in an intuitive/instinctual yet paradoxical - I am fascinated by the lack of images, by the mystery of this island, but I want to see as much as I can of it - attempt at getting hold of it, grasping it, getting to it, by combining, adding up all of its existing visual representation. I started with the most straightforward, official, institutional sources of imagery. The island from above: a collection/archive of maps from the 15th century onwards - which I cropped and blown-up/upscaled where the island was (or was not), aerial pictures that I could find online and of course Google Earth Pro's imagery. The island from below: photographs/footage taken by ethnographic expeditions to the island in the XXth century - before the Indian government prohibited by law any attempt at making contact with the Sentinelese. In this process, some/three unplanned findings/encounters/discoveries marked the path of my research - (I could write three short stories/anecdotes/fragments - not for text on practice) -

1- the edge around the island (copy-paste-edit from dedicated page) - he discovery of a glitched edge/treshold surrounding the island and marking the fiction-finiteness of google's imagery

2 - discovering amateur/unofficial/informal footage/representation of the island : flight simulator videos-derives to the island to see what is there, articles about the island, with wrong images, reddit discussions, an ebook whose plot is.... , a danger tourist guy tweeting his plans to go on the island (...), various merchandise (t-shirts, posters, mugs) referring to the island, ..., people on yt speculating about the island ... I then slowly came across other types of imagery/representation, more informal, less institutional. Amateur videos taken by passenger planes flying over the island, recordings of the island in a video game flight simulator shared on Youtube. (...) I realised that I was encountering and putting together a plethora of attempts at making those impossible, missing images of the island, which could not just be an obsession of a few people - me included - around the world, but rather speak of a wider state of things, a wider=, collective, rooted in human nature.

3 - the coffee drop on my desk

- and shifted its focus from the island in itself to the widespread attempt at making images of the island, as a catalyst to speculate about bigger topics. They made me clearly realize that the point of this research is human image-making in general - human need of knowing the unknown, making sense of the world by making images of it.

As I state in the EYE piece (see later), a matter of mankind, of image-making, of image-making mankind, of mankind making.

Some keywords that describe/outline the current focus of this research are: (write better, be more specific)

image making, knowledge, desire, attraction, fear, sublime, unknown, visibility-invisibility, (re)mediation, technology, production/circulation of images

I therefore gradually started including in my research images that do not relate directly to the island, but have something to do with it (for instance, paintings by Caspar Friedrich or Mark Rothko), in a more open associative way, which I intend to make my main research method in the future development of this project.

In the context of this research, the EYE Research Lab project was an occasion for me to experiment with some of the materials I had been gathering and the ideas/topics involved, trying to make something - a self-standing piece - out of them. Also, to experiment the language/style that I want to establish as a video artist/filmmaker.

In short, the piece - titled 1 or 2 images (some notes on) - is a 4-minute essayistic/speculative comparison between two of the more outstanding - visually and conceptually - images that I encountered in this process. A painting by Mark Rothko and Google Earth's imagery around North Sentinel Island. One seemingly fully realistic, transparent, the other fully abstract and opaque; one made anonymously, automatically by google satellites, the other made by the hands and eyes of the most famous painter of the XX century. The whole piece is built with and around these two images , and aims at presenting/exposing both their objective differences - in terms of media specificity - and, speculatively, their affinity. What if these images, despite being so different, are gateways to finding answers to the same questions? What if they stem from the same, shared need of mankind to make sense, make meaning of the world through images, by making images of it?

The piece is made of a relatively simple set of elements - the two images, unframed, as images; their mise-en-scene / staged version - that I designed, built and filmed in the studio; a text/script, that I kept on re-editing throughout the whole making of the piece; a layered soundscape made of oceanic and machinery sounds; a blue screen/frame used as a flickering intercut between the two images. I played around with these elements, constantly re-arranging them, their order, their relations, and ended up making 5 subsequent versions of the piece. Similar in the content, yet very different in terms of form and overall structure of the piece.

I feel the EYE film was an effective playground - a serious one though - to try and find my way-voice-stance as a video artist, and to address and deal with some of the subjects that I am more interested in as an artist/researcher. However, I feel I only partially achieved this intention, and I therefore intend to work more on this piece and push it further.

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On the side of this main research path and work, I have been collecting - in the form of scattered notes - ideas for possible projects to develop in the future. I will present some of them later on in this text. They hardly connect directly to my main research but incidentally/tangentially address similar, intersecting, topics and subjects.

In I have also been reconsidering my previous work - a medium-length, found-footage based, speculative film essay titled Dubai Dispositif. I definitively realised that its concept is strong, but the approach I had in making is not effective. I therefore intend to go back to it.

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(SELF-CRITICISM) - what I feel did work - and should be retained, what did not work - and could be improved changed done differently

too self imposing restrictions, frustrating

chaotic, not organized

more methods - archiving practice - I find interesting things to develop, paths to follow but I don't because I lose them along the way, I forget about them, I lose track of the connections and intuitions that brought me there - I have to find a way to make those more stable

maybe too much words and thoughts, overthinking and getting stuck maybe

feels like I never get to the point where I want to get

I feel I can not make things-questions I am looking for clear for me

I feel the need to make more along the way, to experiment more - without the eye film deadline I probably would not have made anything

include in my research practice more collateral/incidental activities - writing, drawing, painting, collages ... they help, they make it richer, they open new directions, they support the research

Also, the conceptual-minimalist approach

working minimally-conceptually

with/through fragments and layers

constantly reediting

interested in edges, in thresholds, between worlds, technologies, ways of being/modes of existence

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...

PART 2

What do I want to do next

How

fragments, layers, edges

Why

Relation to a larger context

References

PART 3 - list - bullet point - freeform

What do I want to do next

How

Why