THE NUMERICAL STRUCTURE OF EXISTENCE: April 2014

Friday 25 April 2014

FILM: Muscles

This films depicts the number of "main" muscles in the human body. This film is a little more edited than the others - I did this because I wanted to have a stylized look to the film to engage the viewer. This is relevant to my project as it investigates the literal numbers that create us as human beings.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m7LDnabbeTY

VIDEO SET: Counting steps

This set of films shows the amount of steps and all of the journeys that I make when travelling around my school. These films are designed to be naturalistic and unedited (similar to Lars Von Trier's filming style) as they are depicting a real life events that happen to me on a daily basis - Therefore, I felt the need to edit these films was unnecessary.

Counting steps 1: http://youtu.be/vemCij4iD2k
Counting steps 2: http://youtu.be/6KVQ2-FiugU
Counting steps 3: http://youtu.be/yE_62TxQG4w
Counting steps 4: http://youtu.be/-Hz_JmZhjEk
Counting steps 5: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhI6o3QKbYU
Counting steps 6: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mBlng6oqT7w
Counting steps 7: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8FR0Z41IVeE
Counting steps 8: http://youtu.be/1h69SH7_gvE
Counting steps 9: http://youtu.be/PUEaNRr1d0Y
Counting steps 10: http://youtu.be/VyKmaQXwPG8
Counting steps 11: http://youtu.be/y2bB8KMpKBE
Counting steps 12: http://youtu.be/L2MMm7r383I

FILM: Timing part 6 - Shave

This series of films looks into time. Bringing focus onto time, this set of films explore the way that we live our lives constantly (almost obsessively) fixated on time whether it be deadlines, times of meetings, the time it takes to do something, e.c.t. - Time determines who we are, where we are, and how long we spend on something.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5v0yfBQKC8

FILM: Timing part 5 - Sip

FILM: Timing part 4 - Toaster

FILM: Timing part 3 - Tea

FILM: Timing part 2 - Brush

FILM: Timing part 1 - Alarm

PERFORMANCE ART: Walk

This piece is about the human desire to rush into the future whilst missing and not appreciating the present moment.

This is a performance art piece in which I walked the length of Castlepoint Shopping centre in slow motion (the entirety of the piece lasted 41 minutes. I decided to wear all black to add to the professionalism of the work and the reasoning behind being covered in flour was to fit in with my slow movement (making me look ancient - this could also be interpreted as looking like a stone statue representing a broken society caused by not appreciating the present).

*THIS PIECE WAS DESIGNED TO BE WATCHED FROM START TO FINISH IN IT'S ENTIRETY.

This performance piece takes inspiration from Marina Abramovic. Like her My aim was to push the overall focus onto the audience. Making them think about themselves and their current fast paced lives.

Thursday 24 April 2014

ARTIST RESEARCH: Lars Von Trier

Lars Von Trier began making films at age eleven. Von Trier suffers periodically from depression, as well as various fears and phobias, including an intense fear of flying. As he quipped in an interview, "basically, I'm afraid of everything in life, except film making."[4] His first publicly released film was the 1977 experimental short The Orchid Gardener and his first feature came seven years later with The Element of Crime (1984). Among many prizes, awards and nominations, he is the recipient of the Palme d'Or (for Dancer in the Dark), the Grand Prix, and the Prix du Jury at the Cannes Film Festival.

The reason that I have decided to research into this film maker as he is one of my favourites and I really like his style and feel that it is effective in creating interesting atmospheres withing his films.

One film by Von Trier I greatly enjoy is 'Dancer In The Dark' (2000). This film is so beautifully shot and carefully edited together that it creates a dynamic two hour long emotional journey for the viewer. The film was created as an "unconventional musical" - meaning the songs are not joyful and the ending is extremely far from happy. The songs sung in the film were used as a dream-like escape for the lead character Selma. The film was shot in a way that the "real world" was filmed with hand held cameras and the shots are a bit de-saturated, the song sequences were filmed using tripods and multiple camera dollies and are very colourful to mirror the dream imagery.

I would like to use this style within my own film work during this project as I personally really enjoy the aesthetic look of the filming style.

Below are screen captures from DANCER IN THE DARK

ARTIST RESEARCH: Simon Evans

Simon Evans was born in London (1972) and currently lives and works in New York. Exhibitions of Evans' work have been held at Grand-duc -jean, Musee d'Art Moderne, Aspern art museum, and many more.

Simon Evans' work mostly consists of simple materials being arranged and assembled into beautiful pieces of art - materials include pencil shavings, maps, paper, and diary entries - all obsessively documenting parts of his life. His text-based drawings, weavings, and embroideries share confessional, often humorous observations.

A piece by Evans titled 'EVERYTHING I HAVE' has great relevance to my project. In this piece he took a photo of every single item that he possess, then cataloged everything on a large poster. Each photograph included on the piece has a few small notes included ranging from the price of the item, the date he bought it, e.c.t. This has relevance as it is categorizing his life into a numerical form (Which is the theme of my project), this work brings attention down to its absolute basics as the photographs are to small to see any real detail to the items photographed however bring focus to the quantity.

I plan on recreating this piece on a much smaller scale. I plan to document all of my clothes, shoes, books, and objects in my desk through film.

ARTIST RESEARCH: Marina Abramovic

I have chosen to look at this artist as she works in a way I wish to work in my project. I admire the ways in which she connects to her audiences through performance – just by being present in the piece. She uses her body as her medium to invoke different reactions and emotions from the audience viewing the piece.

Performance art is something that I am extremely interested by and I will experiment with this art form in the duration of my project.

This is also a way to be able to connect with an audience; enabling the viewer to interact and experience my work first hand rather than looking from a distance (E.g. a painting).

In her piece "The artist is Present", Abramovic sat in MoMA in a chair for three months. The chair was opposite another chair and the audience were invited to sit with her, looking into her eyes whilst doing so. I feel that this piece was about turning the viewer into the one being viewed - Making the audience ultimately think about themselves as the focus of the piece.

Through studying Marina’s work, I have learnt about techniques she uses during her performances, before and after, and day-to-day life. Over the course of her career she has developed the ‘Abramovic Method’. This method was developed by Abramovic to help centre the mind, body, and creativity. This form of meditation is used as a way to help enhance performance,

The Numerical Structure of Existence (Statement Of Intent)

Numbers define who we are. Numbers are what makes us 'us'. Without the infinite amount of digits our existence is impossible.

This project will delve into the vast range of integers that create us and our lives; from the amount of times we repeat an action or a word, the amount of money spent on something, how long it takes to do something, and many more.

I want to make this project autobiographical as this will save a lot of time when collecting results during the planning stage of my project (these results will be in note form). I will attempt to document my life in a way that is interesting and aesthetically pleasing to the viewer.

I will create films (based on the initial results collected from my life) as it will help further to visually communicate my concept.

Some of the films that I plan on creating for this project are going to be very simplistic - focusing mostly one the subject and the number that accompanies it. These films will feature common activities that I experience. I plan on experimenting with Lars Von Trier's filming techniques and style.

I also plan on creating performance art pieces in the style of Marina Abramovic. Personally, I love the relationship between the audience and the artist that Performance Art pieces create - being a performer myself I feel that I will be very successful working in this medium.