Holland Power
Week One
Cinematic Device
Monday 18.07
Today we were introduced to the new brief for the semester - Cinematic Space: Centre for Moving Image studio. This initial introduction gave us insight into how we can develop this brief and how to interpret the brief. For the first class exercise we discussed pages 17-21 of Public Intimacy by Giuliana Bruno, I really enjoyed reading this chapter, where a lot of the information within the writing was new to me and allowed me to dive deeper into researching terminology that Bruno was using.
words like: 'museographic' which really interested and while first reading I would have never understood. Through reading this I have been more connected to the idea of cinema, and the sequencing of space, how deep the ideas behind the cinematic world really go. It has made me interested to learn more. In this reading Bruno talked in context of architecture a lot, which has made me think more into the spatial context of film.
One sentence that caught my eye was a quote by Raul Ritz which was integrated into the reading, ' Cinema is a mechanical mirror that has a memory' or better yet, because it is in this mirror screen that the architecture of memory lives.' which makes me Analyse and see film/cinema in a different aspect, where before cinema was just movies to me, but Bruno has made it more clear that it goes so much deeper.
Thinking about this aspect of memory, I want to explore cinematic/ pre cinematic devices that play with the idea of memory, how film is a memory, how film translates to a captured memory.
Moving Forward
After Mondays Class I started to think of some questions that could influence my thinking after reading Giuliana Bruno's Public intimacy chapter,
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how can we express the connection between film and memory? Does film become an inner look into our brain? Our Minds?
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Does Cinema corrolate to what is inside our minds? How does internalised cinema project our memories, is there a way to develop this perspective? From this exploration it has made become more interested in the perspectives from developing film, and how cinema internalises our memories.
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From this exploration it has made become more interested in the perspectives from developing film, and how cinema internalises our memories. Our task we were asked to research cinematic devices, and reference these findings, where this research can become a steeping stone into developing our own cinematic device.
Cinematic Inspiration
Your happening, has happened, will happen, 2020
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Olafur Eliasson
Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga
I found this piece really moving as it shows a cinematic type of movement between where you are and where you are going, almost representing a past, present and future type of metaphor. The exploration of movement and how it becomes an interactive space.
I feel this piece really connects to the idea of a cinematic device, and interests me in the colours Eliasson uses, where I would want to dive deeper into understanding the choices for these colours. These colours remind me of the primary colour wheel, is there a connection to our past, present, and future happenings.
Meandering River – audiovisual art installation
Onformative
This installation covers the idea of how audio represents location and space within our surroundings, where the landscape is created by real-time visuals generated by an algorithm and music composed by an A.I, this piece makes me think of how our landscapes and surroundings change over time, where we get a glimpse into the past present and future
I've started to think how audio is also a major part of cinema and film, and how cinematic space can change because of the audio within. Audio-visual is a new practice that interests me, how you can make something that is only head seen as well, how might this play into the idea of a cinematic device
Cinematic Illusion, August 2020 - April 2021
Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver's
MoMa
This piece creates a immersive moving image event created by beaming images from 18 slide projectors. This space acts as a 360 environment transforming frame by frame, where the space is also transformed through light, sound, and moving bodies, where the participants become an aspect of this device. This piece becomes an aspect of how cinema can shift reality, and how images can become a moving image when incorporating colour, sound and light. This makes me think how much goes into cinematic films, how all these components make a film so much more intricate.
Exploration
From my exploration of cinematic devices, I feel I have explored a lot of different aspects of how cinematic devices can have all very different purposes and outcomes, having a relationship to memory and distortion is something that makes me quite interested when looking at devices, as well as breaking down the components of a device, how different aspects such as light, sounds, and sequence all work together, some more than others. I started to sketch multiple different devices I could create where this became a fast acting exercise to develop all my ideas onto one page, putting all my ideas into one place.
Wednesday 20.07
I couldn't make it to class as I had tested positive for covid, this set me back but I started to explore different cinematic devices I could develop gathering inspiration from my exploration into cinematic devices and artists models. I started to explore all areas where I could develop my thinking, exploring colour theory, camera lenses , audio visualisation. I feel stuck in what direction to move towards as there are so many possibilities in which I can explore. I want to try and get feedback, or experiment physically with these ideas and find which one I am more drawn towards.
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Through this exploration I feel lost with what direction to go in when thinking about developing a device, I want to create a cinematic device that manipulates what we see and how we interpret a space, how am I going to push beyond the boundaries of what we see at first glance.
Questions to consider..
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- how to change what we see at first impressions? pushing past what we just see
- what ideas show I evoke?
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From my first ideation I started to explore deeper, refining my ideas and focusing on a concept
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Sue suggested to watch films for inspiration where I became inspired by the mirror dimenson scene from Dr Strange (2016) directed by Scott Derrickson, this scene remidned me of a kaleidoscope, and the idea of shifting perspective when looking through a lense, how it can distort vision and alter your perspective when looking at a specific sequence.
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I started to explore the idea of developing a kaleidoscope device, but wanted to push beyond just developing a kaleidoscope. From my cinematic device exploration I become interested in the idea of sound mapping, and audio visual, pulling inspiration from Cinematic Illusion by MoMa, I found a website that allows you to develop a sound map using colours
https://soundcolorproject.com/
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I became interested in developing a device that connects the idea of altering perspective and seeing the site through sound and audio. By combining the aspect of a kaleidoscope and sound mapping allows to see the site through a different perspective and alter perspective.
Device Development
I started by using m mirror board and cutting into 3 long strips that are the width of an iPhone 12 Pro, this allowed me to ensure that my phone would fit on top of my device and wouldn't fall into the device. I used cloth tape to connect the pieces of mirror board, ensuring to equally tape both ends of the kaleidoscope so it was stable enough to handle the the weight of my iPhone
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I created a second kaleidoscope so I could contrast the difference of effect without the sound mapping to interrupt the perspectives differently. I found it interesting that the smaller sized Kaleidoscope created more dimension when looking through even though it was smaller
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Next Week:
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Im excited next week to test my device in the site, and visit the site for the first time. I want to dive deeper into the ideas behind looking at the space in a different perspective, ideas how how this perspective can be interpreted. I want to focus on the colour that this sound mapping may bring, maybe I could isolate the sounds and sound mapping to look at how these two devices become one.