Claudio's Thesis - printing page: Difference between revisions

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CHAPTER 2: STUDIO DIARY

21/11/2023 - An anecdote from last year. (1)

For the "Writing through editing" workshop last year, we were asked to make a short video piece using footage from an online Dutch archive. I made a piece titled A cameraman filming aka FILMINGWATCHINGBURNING. Digging in the archive, I found a rather intriguing clip from the archive showing two cameramen filming each other on top of a skyscraper being built in New York in the 1920s. Its self-reflexive nature immediately attracted me: its subject was not New York's vertical growth - which stayed, literally - in the background, yet the very act of filmmaking, of making images of the world, by means of cameras, on film. The subjects were the two filmmakers, filming each other while filming the world in front of them. I built my piece around that clip, editing it together with other footage - this time intentionally looked for, not found - to develop that self-reflective nature even further. A film projector, a film strip burning, as well as various shots of eyes. I intended to weave together the act of seeing/watching, the act of capturing the world through film, and a more intuitive notion of burning - light burns the chemicals on the celluloid, eyes burn when they stay open for too long, or, also, a burning desire and need to see things. Along the whole piece, with varying intensity, I layered a flickering effect, as a device to make the moving image apparatus sensible to the viewer, to recall the blinking of the eye, to trigger the physical perception of moving images and further play with the provoking idea and feeling of burning eyes.

In the first half of the piece, I crafted a sequence featuring a fast edit of footage of the two cameramen, images of eyes and text-on-screen playing with variations of the words EYES WATCHING / WATCHING EYES. All of a sudden, the screens goes black, abruptly. After a few seconds, a new text-on-screen appears, white letters on black: EYES BURNING. A hard flickering sequence - white and black frames only - follows, emphasizing even more the sensation of burning eyes. The same text stays on screen, floating through the flickering frames. Then, a blurry countershot image of a projector beaming light towards the camera appears - as if it was the source of that flickering sequence, and brings back the piece to figurative imagery. The piece then goes on.

When the screen goes black, the viewer's eyes - until then overstimulated by the mass of fast edited images - are caught unprepared. On that sudden pitch black, afterimages appear, the flickering effect seems to continue, and what is felt is the physical trace of the images seen before, their backlash on the viewer's retinas. Then, on that same black, the text appears. EYES BURNING. A subtle yet precise description not only of some of the images seen before - eyes looking at the camera, shedding tears - but also of the actual physical sensation built and triggered by those very images, the way they have been edited, the way they are felt by the viewer in that specific moment of the piece. A coincidence, a coming together of what is seen, perceived, meant.

The editing of that sequence was rather intentional, yet the witnessing of such effect was rather epiphanic, unexpected and striking. I feel this is an effective reference point in showing me a direction I want to pursue in my future practice, and that contains, in a nutshell, some elements whose use and potential I want to explore in making this new project. Abstract, minimal imagery, working with light as a raw material, self reflection on the medium, embodied/physical/haptic experience of images. Engaging and challenging the viewer's experience of moving images, their position in regards to them, both on a conceptual level and on a physical one. Making the viewer conscious of the experience of seeing, of being, challenging their perception, working on liminal, extreme states/conditions of images; blindness and sight, visibility and invisibility. These are all elements I am interested in addressing in my work.

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-==='''<big>CHAPTER 1: ''(INTRO)''</big>'''===
+==='''<big>CHAPTER 2: STUDIO DIARY</big>'''===
-'''20-11-2023'''
+===='''21/11/2023 - An anecdote from last year. (1)'''====
+For the "Writing through editing" workshop last year, we were asked to make a short video piece using footage from an online Dutch archive. I made a piece titled ''A cameraman filming aka FILMINGWATCHINGBURNING.'' Digging in the archive, I found a rather intriguing clip from the archive showing two cameramen filming each other on top of a skyscraper being built in New York in the 1920s. Its self-reflexive nature immediately attracted me: its subject was not New York's vertical growth - which stayed, literally - in the background, yet the very act of filmmaking, of making images of the world, by means of cameras, on film. The subjects were the two filmmakers, filming each other while filming the world in front of them. I built my piece around that clip, editing it together with other footage - this time intentionally looked for, not found - to develop that self-reflective nature even further. A film projector, a film strip burning, as well as various shots of eyes. I intended to weave together the act of seeing/watching, the act of capturing the world through film, and a more intuitive notion of burning - light burns the chemicals on the celluloid, eyes burn when they stay open for too long, or, also, a burning desire and need to see things. Along the whole piece, with varying intensity, I layered a flickering effect, as a device to make the moving image apparatus sensible to the viewer, to recall the blinking of the eye, to trigger the physical perception of moving images and further play with the provoking idea and feeling of burning eyes.
-This text is titled (''INTRO).''
+In the first half of the piece, I crafted a sequence featuring a fast edit of footage of the two cameramen, images of eyes and text-on-screen playing with variations of the words EYES WATCHING / WATCHING EYES. All of a sudden, the screens goes black, abruptly. After a few seconds, a new text-on-screen appears, white letters on black: EYES BURNING. A hard flickering sequence - white and black frames only - follows, emphasizing even more the sensation of burning eyes. The same text stays on screen, floating through the flickering frames. Then, a blurry countershot image of a projector beaming light towards the camera appears - as if it was the source of that flickering sequence, and brings back the piece to figurative imagery. The piece then goes on.
-''(INTRO)'' is a general outline of the starting point of my graduation research project, ''BLIND SPOTS, LIGHT TRICKS/TRACES, FLASHES AND FAILURES''. It will present its premises, the topics that the project will try to cross and address, the questions driving it, the tools I plan to use, the attitudes I will rely on.
+When the screen goes black, the viewer's eyes - until then overstimulated by the mass of fast edited images - are caught unprepared. On that sudden pitch black, afterimages appear, the flickering effect seems to continue, and what is felt is the physical trace of the images seen before, their backlash on the viewer's retinas. Then, on that same black, the text appears. EYES BURNING. A subtle yet precise description not only of some of the images seen before - eyes looking at the camera, shedding tears - but also of the actual physical sensation built and triggered by those very images, the way they have been edited, the way they are felt by the viewer in that specific moment of the piece. A coincidence, a coming together of what is seen, perceived, meant.
-''(INTRO)'' is a self-analyisis of where I am at right now. Now that I have written a first Project Proposal and I am starting to grasp what I am dealing with yet I know much will change and evolve.  Also, it will serve me as an exercise to devise an effective and convincing way to present and frame my intentions at the assessment in January.
+The editing of that sequence was rather intentional, yet the witnessing of such effect was rather epiphanic, unexpected and striking. I feel this is an effective reference point in showing me a direction I want to pursue in my future practice, and that contains, in a nutshell, some elements whose use and potential I want to explore in making this new project. Abstract, minimal imagery, working with light as a raw material, self reflection on the medium, embodied/physical/haptic experience of images. Engaging and challenging the viewer's experience of moving images, their position in regards to them, both on a conceptual level and on a physical one. Making the viewer conscious of the experience of seeing, of being, challenging their perception, working on liminal, extreme states/conditions of images; blindness and sight, visibility and invisibility. These are all elements I am interested in addressing in my work.
-During the first year I focused on a rather broad yet quite specific field of research, which I would frame as the theory and practice of image-making, and, conversely, of the experience of images, considered in their complex implications - technological/technical, material, semiotic, affective. In other words, I have been concerned with exploring the conditions of possibility of images by lingering on their limits. This project belongs to the same research path.
-''BLIND SPOTS, LIGHT TRICKS/TRACES, FLASHES AND FAILURES''  will be an elemental exploration of fundamental questions about seeing and being: the way we see, what we see, why we see, and where we stand in relation to this. It will question the experience of the world by seeing it, through and as light, on images and screens, their materiality - as physical/analog and virtual/digital objects, and the related quest to find meaning and stand in between these, living the tension between nihilism and the sublime. A personal reflection on the experience of seeing as well as a (self)reflection on the possibilities of the medium of (moving) images.
-''BLIND SPOTS, LIGHT TRICKS/TRACES, FLASHES AND FAILURES'' will take the form of a cumulative, open-ended, expansive work on visual material from different sources and with different qualities. Its subjects will be:
-''piercing light leaks and dark black holes, over- and under- exposed shots, webcam shots of empty beaches, blinding flashes and fast flickers, windows, curtains, screens, empty/lost eyes, pixels, digital noise, black and white blank frames  [tbc...]''
-collected and choreographed together in short, stand-alone sketches/fragments. An annotation process will run parallel, unfolding meaning in written form, producing text material that will end up in this thesis work and in the final piece for the show.
-''BLIND SPOTS, LIGHT TRICKS/TRACES, FLASHES AND FAILURES'' will find its outcome at the graduation show as an experimental moving image work, in an installation form. I envision it either as a single-screen compilation or a multi-channel installation comprising of different speculative parts, mutually interconnected yet self sufficient. They will be exercises-of/attempts-at/challenges-to the act of seeing. For me while making, for the viewer watching.
-Hereafter, I compile an expansive list of keywords that will somehow be called into question by ''BLIND SPOTS, LIGHT TRICKS/TRACES, FLASHES AND FAILURES:''
-seeing/not seeing
-showing/hiding
-seeing/watching/staring/gazing
-vision/blindness
-visibility/invisibility
-materiality/abstraction
-edges/borders/thresholds/margins/limits/interfaces
-errors-glitches-artifacts-failures
-flashes, flickers
-immateriality-materiality in/of (digital) images
-blind spots
-gaze/image/screen
-physicality of images and image-making devices
-depth/surface
-lenses, sensors, screens, human eye structures
-software/hardware, digital/analog, virtual/physical
-technology/the technical
-nihilism/sublime
-I want to have a sculptural and open-ended approach. A DIY, “non-finito” approach of constant sketching. Making rapid, rough, short sketches, yet consistently, as a way to explore possible forms and meanings. To keep eyes open, to open eyes.
-I want to work with images in a more dirty, reckless, less polished way. Not carelessly. But carefree. I am more interested in establishing a process and a practice rather than in making polished projects. Develop a practice against - or devoid of - the fear and the fetish of the final result. It is the way of working that I feel more at ease with and I believe it can be the most effective one in exploring and reaching the core topics and interests of my work. This does not mean I am not interested in reaching points in which I can show completed works to an audience. I see this ongoing practice as the source of a body of pieces whose meaning is made by their whole, and whose whole will be the foundation for the making of my final graduation piece. While I will still be using found footage, I want to be more behind the lens again, making and working with my own images too.