User:Emily/Thematic Project/Trimester 02/02
" It's Not Plagiarism. In the Digital Age, It's 'Repurposing.' "
"The simple act of moving information from one place to another today constitutes a significant cultural act in and of itself"
-- Kenneth Goldsmith
(author of Uncreative Writing : http://www.veramaurinapress.org/pdfs/Kenneth-Goldsmith_uncreative-writing.pdf)
PROPOSAL
A four-folded book storing images and texts(subtitles) from Roman Polanski's 1967 film, The Tenant. The images and texts are extracted when characters mention time phrases. I considered those fragments as event units (usually)containing people, behaviour, and time. And then I reassemble them in the form of book. With the action of turning pages, readers can view the images and texts in different order, and build their connections within all those elements.
GOAL:
I considered books as a storage of certain amount of information/data. Traditionally fiction books or films are structured by storyline. What I plan to do within this photo book project is to provide my book/storage with existed images and texts but in different structures. Here, with structures, I would like to consider it in a more digital way, like how to structure a database model (please see structures below).
APPROPRIATED COTENT:
I choose a 1967 film The Tenant directed by Roman Polanski as the content for my photobook project. In the film, the character Trelkovsky faces internal battles suspecting his neighbours want to turn him into Simone who is the previous tenant of his house and committed suicide by throwing herself out of the window. The reason why I choose this film is that it reminds me an experimental short by Antony Balch, written by William S. Burroughs, Bill &Tony, in which Balch and Burroughs use the same exact dialog, transposing lines from one to the other.
Both of the characters in these two films are like "containers" storing multiple even contrary information.
Trelkovsky&Simone vs Bill&Tony
- The Tenant
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wjkRaFklrfY&list=PLjT3Z589ba7NemSgtbWvaQjxP_tsFy0IG&index=13
- Bill&Tony
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFrTAJUQKq4&index=3&list=PL0-HMlqadcRtvS6cj1wAsvl96e4vGL3QZ
- Cinematography: Antony Balch
- Screenplay: William S. Burroughs
- Cast: Antony Balch, William S. Burroughs
- 1972, UK, 5' 11", Color
Digital content:
I extract all the sentence contains "know" from the Tenant: https://vimeo.com/120958032
other: I removed the audio of "know" : https://vimeo.com/120958138
CONTEXT
Work with exist image and text:
Content Repurposing:
RESEARCH&SOURCE
- CUT-UP:
- method of Tristan Tzara
- - Take a newspaper.
- - Take a pair of scissors.
- - Choose an article as long as you are planning to make your poem.
- - Cut out the article.
- - Then cut out each of the words that make up this article and put them in a bag.
- - Shake it gently.
- - Then take out the scraps one after the other in the order in which they left the bag.
- - Copy conscientiously.
- - The poem will be like you.
- - And here are you a writer, infinitely original and endowed with a sensibility that is charming though beyond the understanding of the vulgar.
- Fold-in is the technique of taking two sheets of linear text (with the same linespacing), folding each sheet in half vertically and combining with the other, then reading across the resulting page, such as in The Third Mind.
- The ultimate cut-up machine is a digital version of the cut-up technique popularized in the late 50's and early 60's by William Burroughs. Building on the traditional approach of slicing up and re-aligning newspapers, the ultimate cut-up machine uses a digital interface to help you create new words and phrases from today's news. -->http://www.christopherarcella.com/cutups.php
- (haevn't read) Naked Lunch (sometimes The Naked Lunch) is a novel by William S. Burroughs originally published in 1959. The book is structured as a series of loosely connected vignettes. Burroughs stated that the chapters are intended to be read in any order.[1] The reader follows the narration of junkie William Lee, who takes on various aliases, from the US to Mexico, eventually to Tangier and the dreamlike Interzone. The vignettes (which Burroughs called "routines") are drawn from Burroughs' own experience in these places, and his addiction to drugs (heroin, morphine, and while in Tangier, majoun (a strong marijuana confection) as well as a German opioid, brand name Eukodol, of which he wrote frequently).
- (In 1991, David Cronenberg released a film of the same name based upon the novel and other Burroughs writings.)
- Simon Morris: learn to read differently --> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AHdQ8rtW8mE
- "words on the surface at print itself, on the card mount, on the frame, and on the wall of the gallery; Thus the letters flow from left to right, both inside and outside the frame suggesting that this new form of reading will require an expanded approach to the activity and a new form of critical engagement."
PROTOTYPE PROCESS
(notice: a reminder that something need to change in code)
- In order to cut precisely by subtitles(videogrep/moviepy), I spend much time on the revisal of subtitles, matching each sentence to exact period.
basic check: extract every sentences characters speak "know" --> https://vimeo.com/120958032
I found it a bit fun, then I removed all the voices of "know" manually --> https://vimeo.com/120958138
Regarding time limited, for this photobook project, I will only use this film.
Extract time phrases from subtitles, here below is all my content:(num=times)
- now = 91 - 66 = 25 (notice: the search function in videogrep hypersearch or in word/page, "now" will also be extracted in "know" etc.)
- night/midnight/nightmare = 22 (notice: the same that when search "night", videogrep/word will also include "midnight", "nightmare" etc.)
- day/days/today/yesterday/Thursday/Sunday/Saturday = 19
- time = 12
- morning= 11
- evening = 5
- afternoon = 3
- later = 3
- month = 3
- soon = 3
- moment = 3
- hour = 3
- second = 1
- minute = 1
- week = 1
- at once = 1
Besides, I want to search numbers that may mention as precise time:
python videogrep.py --input /Volumes/DATA_BASED/MOVIE-DIALOGUE/The\ Tenant.srt --search 'number' --search-type hyper --test
Notice: here hyper search only detect English number phrase, one instead of 1.
- 195
- 00:20:00,031 --> 00:20:03,333
- The patient died
- at 4:20 pm Yesterday
- 364
- 00:38:45,944 --> 00:38:48,624
- came home at 3:00 in the
- morning after one drink too many...
- 882
- 01:43:55,712 --> 01:44:00,615
- I'll be back around 8:00.
- I've left your breakfast ready.