Chapter 5

I've been thinking about ideas in which i can use to make my experimental video. After watching Koyaanisqatsi, it's giving me some ideas and shots in which i can use for my own work. There's a shot used where they're filming the road which has been sped up in post-production. I think this would be very effective to do at night as the lights from the cars would make it look like lasers. Also its a calm and relaxing thing to watch and shows how night driving is an enjoyable experience. The concept behind this idea could be thinking about time and how traffic can be very fast and the next thing, its really slow! I may also play around in reversing the footage as well as playing it fast and slow.

Koyaanisqatsi

Director: Godfrey Reggio. Duration: 1hr 23mins

Visual Images

At the beginning of the film there are images of an old cave with tribal drawings which zoom out for a while before it cuts to shots of the grand canyon. The camera moves over the canyon very slowly. We then see three different shots involving buildings. One of the shots shows the camera moving around New York buildings, then we see shots of some really old buildings and then we see big buildings that are being demolished.

Audio

With the cave drawings at the beginning, there is some tribal/ritual music and also chanting which gives some atmosphere to the scene. With the shots where the camera movement is very slow, the audio used is violins an old-fashioned classical music but quite up-beat. Then with the fast paced shots such as the destruction of the buildings, the tempo of the music changes and really slows down and is really calm.

Concept

I think the concept of this video is seen as slightly weird but also very effective. We see images of destruction and bad things with calm and peaceful music. Why is this? There's also a contrast of old buildings and new buildings and shots being played very slow and then others really fast. I think the film is showing a glimpse of how our world has changed over years. A lot of people are left wondering what the film is about as there's no speech or acting. After thinking about this film, i think Godfrey Reggio is trying to get us to look at these shots at a different perspective.

4. The use of exhibition space to create meaning

If a piece of artwork was shown in different spaces, it would have a different meaning each time you look at it. For example, if a peaceful picture of swans in a lake was shown in school canteen, people wouldn't appreciate the image as much as they would in a different location. People in a canteen would be loud and having banter with their friends and when they look at this picture, it would have no strong meaning to them. However, if this picture was to be displayed in a gallery on a wall of its own, people are there to look and admire the pictures as they feel it's a place of importance. This environment will give more of a meaning to the one in a school canteen.

After visiting the Tate Modern gallery I could see how space would create different meanings. It was also interesting to see how other people would view the art. I went to see a piece of video work by Paul McCartney called Material Gestures, which we were warned, contained very sexually explicit images. The room we entered was dark and quiet and people didn’t really go far into the room, they stayed near the exit. This may be because they felt disturbed and not comfortable to explore further into the space. Not many people stayed in the room and looked shocked by what they were seeing. As a group we felt happy to be right in he middle of the room and felt comfortable to even share a joke about what we were seeing. If we were to watch this video in a different environment such as the street, I think people would be even more disturbed and disgusted. This is because at the moment its being shown in a dark room, warning you about what you’re watching but if you were to watch this in the open world and come across with no warning, people would end up upset and angry.

I'm not sure though whether the nature of this video is even acceptable for a gallery as i couldn't quite understand what the meaning of it was. Even so.. if you were to show something of this nature, it would be best suited for as gallery as its in a quite location and out of the way, not attracting attention to itself.

Dollface - Andrew Huang

The craft of Andy Huang's Dollface is computer annimated and has a lot of concept ideas behind the animation. One concept is that television is giving us the audience the idea that by changing the way we look, it will make us feel more comfortable and happier as a person. This is an example of how media can brainwash us into changing who we are.