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what i've learned

from the installation:
-Have to be open for last minute changes
-Good to have an exhibition on a crossing spot
-technician have always something else to do when you need them even when you have inform them in advance
-every projector looks different (try them all before)
-when everything is prepared (movies stored on the devices and software install) you still need one full day for setting the installation and an hour to take it down
-consider the temperature of the room and how you will adjust it, in advance

from the project:
-Premiere is like final cut pro but it is bad fort slow motion
-I developed an effective methodology with which I feel secure
-you need more time for editing and reflection than for shooting
-you can never predict if you go out with the camera what you will capture on the tape- there are things you gonna meet that you can't imagine- so go for a walk with the video camera regularly
-you can stabilize every footage but you loose quality- tripod or other support is useful
-if you shoot something that you want to slow down shoot more frames per second
-internet has all the answers on editing
-a video file is better played on a computer than on a dvd player
-how to author a dvd
-be obsessive with details and don't listen to those who say don't

comments

me

rear view

front view

table and cake

infrared view of the installation

the wiring of the spy camera to the vhs recorder, although I started recording I stopped after a while because the camera wasn't sensitive enough for the lighting conditions and the area where viewers were seating it was recorded as total black
but now I know how easy it is to use and wire a spy camera so I will use the experience in the future

one of the posters in place

progress 7

Setting up the installation:

I had planned to use 4 screens but all together they where 10 meters wide
So I decided (with the help of Andy) to use only the 2 bigger ones (2.80m each) and to project 2 videos in each (from different projectors)
I chose to do so because:
-I preferred the installation to face the door
-I wanted to have plenty of free space and if I would had to fill 10 meters wide -screens projectors had to be very far from the screens
-I wanted images to be big enough to be captivating and small enough in order to be viewed simultaneously

It was really difficult to have the videos projected perfectly in line and what Andy suggested (to use a laser light) it could help

One of the projectors didn't have a mode for back-projection, I was ready to go back to premier and flip one of the videos horizontally but then I realized that the walsall video doesn't have a left or right side

research on artists 2

www.storyrooms.net
I rent the dvd of the exhibition and I found the most interesting the following 2
in Andrea Zapp I found interesting the way she is using live projection and sculpture, the way she is playing with scale and the notion of the private space and also how she challenges the boundaries between spectacle and spectator
in Tan Teck Weng I liked the way he used technology in order to allow the user to interact with familiar space, I would like the footage of the miniature room to be even more realistic

untelevision issue 3 is a video tape I watch recently but was issued in 1993, I found most of the work dated, ironic and boring but
Siobhan Hapaska in her video pours endlessly sugar into her mouth (a minimal and beautiful way to talk about sobriety)

40 years of video art was an exhibition and now there is a very nice book about it
among others it showcases and discusses the work of Robert Wilson, Angela Melitopoulos and Heike Baranowsky

discussion with Alan Mahar

As I wrote on a previous post I showed my work and discussed with Alan Mahar on the 10th of May.
I chose to ask him for feedback since he is an artist and a very good teacher and also because he is not a visual artist that means that he can see the work more clearly, from a relative distance and his comments will be only about what he sees in my work and will not be influenced by his own personal artistic obsessions ( a common problem when you ask feedback from an artist using the same medium)
Our meeting was 1 hour long and I recorded it in order to have the time to study the details of his suggestions.
I wanted to see:
*how he would react on the silence (the lack of sound) -- he wasn't disturbed by it and he thought in silence it is easier to concentrate on and be driven by the visuals and that with music the impact would be lighter
*what he would think about the idea of the triptych -- and his first question was why I chose to have them in triptychs --
*what connections he would see between the videos in each triptych and also between the two triptychs -- the main concept that he found connecting the 6 videos was the concept of movement
*for how long he could stay watching the videos before wanting to speak- he stayed watching for a long time and I started first to speak, this showed me in a way that what he was seeing interested him and also that I will have to seriously consider to put seats across the projections
*before starting the projection he asked me what is the work about and I told him that he would have to answer that (I did it because I didn't want to influence his thoughts and comments)

The discussion helped me to decide:
-on the name of the installation
-that I don't want to provide viewers with a text on what is the work about ( since when they don't have a given text they become more active viewers and they find their own way to relate with the work)
-

progress 6

The video installation will be on the 30th, in the green room, from 11.00 to 16.00, the apple minis are ready, I will document it with a spy cam writing on a vhs tape, posters are posted from Thursday around Gosta Green, I send also emails informing people.
And my research on the person which is portrayed on the statue (snow video) showed that he is John Dalton, an English chemist and physicist who died in Manchester in 1844 of paralysis.

curators' words

Roger M. Buergel
documenta 12
"From an exhibition which I call political I expect that it will educate and cultivate its public, that is, draw it out of the attitude demanded by the mass media, which amounts to us being very well informed but unable to act."

Michael Werner
"My interest is not the product,my interest is on the position the artist maintains over a period of time and position is the total sum of what he represents, of what comes out of him... It is important to maintain a position which is closely related to his own reality"

Mary Boone
"Quality has to do with an authentic radical position, has to do with obsession, has to do with clearly defined and intellectually exclusive ideals and has to do with spirituality"

video stills 4

a still from a new video

cranes like puppeteers

'A puppeteer is a person who manipulates an inanimate object — a puppet— in real time to create the illusion of life. A puppeteer can operate a puppet indirectly by the use of strings, rods, wires, electronics or directly by his or her own hands...The puppeteer's role is to manipulate the physical object in such a manner that the audience believes the object is imbued with life.' from wikipedia

progress 5

Organizing the installation:
Room 301 has been proved really busy so in order to have the time to prepare and run the installation as I want I decided to change room. I was between the photography or the green studio. Since the green has a more clear shape and the photography is a passage for Martin's office, I chose the green room
the green color doesn't affect the color of the projection
the projection reflects light to the floor and that gives a slightly green color and a relaxing atmosphere to the room
In order to have a projection around 1.70m wide I need to have the projector in 3m distance from the screen
Since I need that distance from the wall all 4 pieces need to be in line and this changes for once more my plans (to have 2 videos left, 1 right across the door and 1 on the right)
So I will not use the snow triptych and instead I will only use the statue/snow
The good thing for having the videos in line is that I can place seats facing them and this will allow people to spend more time with the projection
I need 8 (ideally identical) poles for the 4 screens
I don't need the cutouts of the steps to lead to the room because the green room is in the middle of everything
I started working on the poster and tomorrow I will finalize it and I will put it on the boards
I still need to arrange for the documentation of the installation
Send emails to invite people
The title of the installation is:
towards a position: four studies on movement
I created an email account: studiesonmovement@gmail.com
I reedited the snow/man video because in big scale it seemed shaky
I need to put quick time pro in the apple minis, Andy helped me with that and I hope tomorrow it will be shorted

trial projection

From the trial projection I realised that:
1) the quality is far better when video plays from a computer than from a dvd player
2) title safe area is still visible when a video is placed and screened by an authored dvd
3) when making an authored dvd, videos are written on Mpeg4 format and this sometimes messes up the interlacing
4) In the video I play in slow motion, in the export in which I applied frame blend there is flickering in every line that is still and in the export in which I didn't apply frame blend every movement appears flickering
5) The Lady, Walsall and Crowd videos are far more powerful when screened in big scale
so:
1) I will play the videos from apple-cubes
2) I will not author the dvds I will just transfer the data-videos to the apple-cubes
3) I will not use the triptych of 'inertia' but instead I will screen the 3 videos individually one next to the other in big scale (2meters wide)with the triptych of the snow as it is
4) Since I didn't want the quality of the Lady video to suffer from the slow motion I decided to reedit it. Although I reedit and export the lady video in every possible way available in premiere the results were not satisfactory. Through internet research I found out that premiere is always problematic with slow motion so I experimented with Final Cut Pro and after exporting the footage more than 20 times with different settings I finally came to a result close to my expectations.

progress 4

-May the 10th I had a very productive meeting with Alan Mahar (my ex-tutor, writer and publisher of Tindal press)over 1 hour I screened my 2 video-triptychs and we discussed in detail about the form and the content. His comments helped me a lot to understand what people see in my work and also deciding on my next steps
*details about the meeting on next blog
-Nathan was kind enough to lent me his copy of 'Moments in time, on narration and slowness' a wonderful book about the philosophical and artistic discussion on the way time is perceived (currently out of print)
-Darren taught me how to author a dvd
-I did a new trial projection
*details on next blog
-I reedited the lady video
-Martin showed my the screens available for my back projection, they are 4 in total, 2-2,3 meters wide
-Room 301 where I want to place my video installation is free only on Wednesdays, I'm planning to do it on the 30th of May, there are 3 small and 2 big windows which I need to blacken
-I still have to decide: 1) if I will have available seatings in the installation 2)how I will document the exhibition (spy camera?)
and also to design my publicity documents for my exhibition

research on artists

Chris Welsby
Steve McQueen
Mariella Neudecker
Dalziel+Scullion
Grace Weir
Robert Wilson
Angela Melitopoulos
Heike Baranowsky
Christoph Girardet/Matthias Muller
Douglas Gordon
Keith Arnatt
Doug Aitken

video stills 3

stills from videos I am working on the last month:

TS Eliot

This a small part of The Four Quartets:

Time present and time past
Are both perhaps present in time future,
And time future contained in time past.
If all time is eternally present
All time is unredeemable.
What might have been is an abstraction
Remaining a perpetual possibility
Only in a world of speculation.
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.
Footfalls echo in the memory
Down the passage which we did not take
Towards the door we never opened
Into the rose-garden. My words echo
Thus, in your mind.
But to what purpose
Disturbing the dust on a bowl of rose-leaves
I do not know.
Other echoes
Inhabit the garden. Shall we follow?
Quick, said the bird, find them, find them,
Round the corner. Through the first gate,
Into our first world, shall we follow
The deception of the thrush? Into our first world.
There they were, dignified, invisible,
Moving without pressure, over the dead leaves,
In the autumn heat, through the vibrant air,
And the bird called, in response to
The unheard music hidden in the shrubbery,
And the unseen eyebeam crossed, for the roses
Had the look of flowers that are looked at.
There they were as our guests, accepted and accepting.
So we moved, and they, in a formal pattern,
Along the empty alley, into the box circle,
To look down into the drained pool.
Dry the pool, dry concrete, brown edged,
And the pool was filled with water out of sunlight,
And the lotos rose, quietly, quietly,
The surface glittered out of heart of light,
And they were behind us, reflected in the pool.
Then a cloud passed, and the pool was empty.
Go, said the bird, for the leaves were full of children,
Hidden excitedly, containing laughter.
Go, go, go, said the bird: human kind
Cannot bear very much reality.
Time past and time future
What might have been and what has been
Point to one end, which is always present.

Proust

in 'Remembrance of things past' Vol2
"In theory one is aware that the earth revolves, but in practice one does not perceive it, the ground upon which one treads seems not to move, and one can live undisturbed. So it is with time in one's life."

Answers

Why looping videos?
I see my videos as videos of endless conditions
is like time is trapped on an endless loop
Like every step is leading back to the starting point
or like there is not a definite point but there is a definite track/path which we shape and follow at the same time
The woman is balancing her weight, trying to find a position, her stance, a place, a way
The man is repeating his steps starring at the empty space, looking at his watch tracing with his path the shape of the symbol of infinity
The homogeneous crowd is following itself passive and apathetic

why no sound?
I remove the original sound because my aim is not to document an exact moment.
I use a visual incident through isolating it from its surrounding circumstances not in order to document it but in order to create something new
Also when I shoot my videos I feel that sound is recorded 'by accident' because it is not my intention to include it.
sound for me (original or designed)is an element that is distracting the concentration on the visuals, it creates an atmosphere, it imposes feelings, it puts viewers on a mood, sound fills an empty space around us as a presence
with my work I want to communicate only visually with the viewer, and I want both my work and themselves to be alone and exposed, little silent breathing entities

why back screen?
back screening because I want people to walk freely in front of the projections without worrying about blocking them

Text?
I've written a small statement for assessment's purposes but I don't like to offer hints or answers to the viewers, I want them to invest the time and wonder themselves on the whys of my work,
and I don't care about viewers that don't have time to invest and are interested only in obvious and impressive works that need no involvement from the viewer

Titles?
I still can't decide If i want to have titles or not. Titles give a direction to the work but I like the idea of allowing the viewer to freely interpret with the visuals his own way

Are they a series?
In the triptychs images are there one next to the other in order to create associations.
The one triptych with the other are not a series since 2 cannot be a series it is a pair, but it is not final yet that they gonna be 2 projections maybe they will be 3

ideal screening conditions?
Ideally I would like to screen my work in public spaces like the new video screens that are in London subway for advertisements. People expecting to see one more advertisement and instead to see a piece of video art

Progress 3

this is the second triptych


Although I have decided to have 2 projections
I'm starting considering having more (3)
After the last self-reflection to my work I started thinking of changing the snow triptych and next to the video of the statue to put the image of the lighthouse and the one from the library. What those 3 videos have in common is that they are like videos of stillness and there is only one little detail that makes the time apparent, a detail that I see functioning as a pulse or as a chronometer.
At the same time I am shooting new videos almost daily and It is to difficult to not consider to include some of those as welll.
I enjoyed the discussion with Nathan that made me feel I am on the right direction since he agreed with my references. He reminded me of Steve Mc Queen that I've seen his Turner prize work and I really enjoyed. He recommended books and as he sees my work as a work about slowness the books are:
'on narration and slowness'
'slowness' Milan Kundera
'hare brain, tortoise mind'
He found the snow triptych interesting and he told me to reconsider before changing it
And also he said that in the triptychs the eyes are focused more on the center so he found that the way my character in my second triptych moves from left side to the right side is an interesting way of guiding the viewers gaze to the other 2 videos

Viola Migration 1976

Video
Text on video

this piece I see it is as an illustration of the artist's note: 'Every part of a space contains knowledge of every other'
By using the title 'Migration' the artist adds a new element to the work and invites the viewer to broader interpretations.

It is so difficult for me to decide upon a title. I know the importance of it that's why I always hesitate to conclude in a final one and I use descriptive working titles. There is a very nice text by Barthes for the significance of titles in an art piece. I'll find it and I'll post it.

In general although I respect Viola, I'm not that keen on his work
it is intellectually driven and is like it is made out of decision and not out of need
sometimes he gives me the impression that with his work he wants to talk to me, to explain things
I prefer artists that they create they work as a diary and a confession to themselves and not like a public speech
I prefer works that don't talk to me but move me, not works that you need to understand but instead works that you feel

vivid

Today it was the opening for a new show at vivid
On show was the work of 3 artists: Ian Upton, Ravi Deepres and Ana Rutter
Very interesting work but somehow strangely arranged into the given space. It feels more like 3 individual shows put together in the same space.
The work of Ana Rutter feels very close to what I'm exploring now. There is a series of 5 back projections on small screens that are perfectly attached (like the slide on a slide mount) on a fake wall.
The construction is absolutely perfect, the screen feel like feather-thin light boxes that project videos.
Anna's work seams to 'play' with our understanding of the still and the moving image.
Anna's videos are 5 peaceful, panoramic, pictorial landscapes in which nothing happens (birds fly through and the light changes slightly),
the only way we realize that this piece is contemporary is by the medium, aesthetically I would say that it is something Turner might had done if he had lived today,
Although as photographs they wouldn't have moved me, as videos somehow they become small meditations about time, they make me wonder about nature, and the way pure landscapes are of the last few sights that we share as common with the people that lived before us
It is also clever and nice that she has a bench across here work where you can seat and stare on 'the landscape'

Questions

On Monday the 30th I was in a process of interrogating my self about my project.
The questions were:
Why looping videos?
why no sound?
why back screen?
Text?
Titles?
Are there a series?
Do they relate? and how?
ideal screening conditions?

answers and decisions for changes on next blog