User:Nicole Hametner/Graduate Research Seminar 2013-TM4.01

Introduction

The research proposal I developed in the second trimester is definitely what I want to deepen in the last year of my master studies. For that I will investigate technical aspects of the digital moving image during the shooting, the postproduction, the installation of the final projection as well as look at the technical construction of the video image. The self-referential language allows asking abstract questions about the dematerialization during the analog digital conversion and the loss of indexicality, what leads to a philosophical approach to the image and the notion of time. Besides that I will reflect about the form of the video installation, the role of the observer and read some theory of cinema.

In the final video installation the spectator finds itself in a delineated space surrounded by large projection screens. The perception lies in the center of my investigation and is challenged by an initially slight disorientation, comparable to a situation at night in a forest where the eye has to adapt to the low light. Filmed night shots appear on the screens, one with a view of large buildings, another one with a scene of the harbour and one with a view of the seaside. Though instead of having the blinding lights of the city and the industry in the center, the dominant part will be the dark zones in the picture. Together with a slight underexposure of the video there will be temporal moving noise, flickering of pixels, which provokes a vibration in the shadows. The aim is a composition of different low light areas, a result of more or less abstract images of an urban, industrial and natural landscape. In addition to these three landscapes there will be projections of filmed portraits, either timed in direct reaction to the night shots or screened simultaneously in a rather loose and open rhythm to each other. For this second part I create a sequence of photographic portraits of women recorded with an additional counter zoom. Concretely the photo camera moves backwards while zooming in or the other way around. Afterwards the looped time sequence presents one image after the other with an interpolation between each one to ensure the illusion of a continuous movement. I use this effect with a black background to focus only on the alteration on the faces. The modification of the perspective provokes an illusive movement, barely recognizable.

My interest lies in a confrontation of photography and video, from stillness towards moving image, shifting from analog to digital. I want to focus on their media specificity, by which I mean their mechanism, their materiality, how time behaves and where the question about the origin of the image leads. These reflections allow me to articulate thoughts about absence/ presence and disappearance, night/ perception and psychoanalysis and generally the border of the visible. (With the ambition to achieve a good balance between theory and practice to strengthen the completion between concept and production > thesis…)

The crucial unique instant while triggering the photograph turned into duration while using long time exposure, what I used a lot in my previous works. Now through thinking about the construction of the electronic image the factor of time again plays an important role and emerges the idea that the image as such is never present as a whole. This intriguing insight links to the role of the observer, its perception and the question where the actual image is created and what does it mean if it never exists all at once? These reflections about the conception of the moving image increase my interest for the origin of the image, which can be understood as foundation that drives me in my research. (construction of the image/ origin of the image/ disappearance/ existential questions/ latent image/ perception/ how time behaves/ instant and duration/ metaphorical meaning of the process/ philosophical and poetic aspects of their media specificity)

Relation to previous practice

How does your research connect to previous projects you have done? Remember to briefly explain or describe related projects as the external is not familiar with your work.

It is useful to address the points raised by tutors in the feedback from your Self-assessment at the end of trimester 3 and to draw on your 'essay on method' written in trimester 3.

Relation to a larger context

Meaning practices or ideas that go beyond the scope of your personal work. Write briefly about other projects or theoretical material which share an affinity with your project. For example, if you are researching urban interventions, you might talk about Situationist approaches to psychogeography, urban tactical media and activist strategies of reclaiming the streets. Or, if you want to explore the way data is tracked, you might touch upon the politics of data mining by referencing concerns laid out by the Electronic Frontier or highlight theoretical questions raised by Wendy Chun or others. (Keep in mind that we are *not* expecting well formulated conclusions or persuasive arguments in the proposal phase. At this juncture, it's simply about showing an awareness of a broader context, which you will later build upon as your research progresses.)

Practical steps

Describe how you will go about conducting your research through reading, writing and practice. In other words, through a combination of these approaches, you will explore questions or interests you have laid out in your general introduction. In this section you can help us understand how your project will come together on a practical level and talk about possible outcome(s). Of course, the outcome(s) may change as your research evolves, but it's important to have some idea of how your project might come together as a whole.

References

A list of references (Remember that dictionaries, encyclopedias and wikipedia are not references to be listed. These are starting points which should lead to more substantial texts and practices.) As with your previous essays, the references need to be formatted according to the Harvard method.) See: http://pzwart3.wdka.hro.nl/wiki/A_Guide_to_Essay_Writing#The_Harvard_System_of_referencing

Feel free to include any visual material to substantiate, illustrate or elucidate your proposal. For example use images to reference your work or that of others.