Reflection:
First week of class already hit the ground running. The opening presentation during the first class was provocative in challenging my own perception around specific adjectives, by getting to deep dive into the ways each word was being used. Specifically, how said words were an internal manifestation of an experience towards something meaningful, before proceeding to do a deep dive into the psychology in how we use specific adjectives. There were several examples in class that I found immensely insightful, such as listening to a particular ‘grace’ track and thinking about the schemas for which I would associate the track with. Another fantastic example which got me thinking about my creative process, was the Shinjuku Thief video, where the combination of video and sound made me vividly think of a noble man walking down a fantasy corridor at night, before stepping into a portal where he would be whisked away to a mountain to observe the northern lights by himself. These two examples were thought provoking about the abstract ways we can connect sound and visuals to our imagination based on our previous experiences, making me think about the ways I can build tension in the audience for my project, and experiment with the ways expectations can be broken through a flat video format.
Research:
For my initial research, I conducted a dive into learning about the various tools that I could experiment to create a multi-sensory experience. As I have never had the opportunity to use the D-Box chairs, I plan to watch a movie at Highpoint this semester, so that I can think about the ways it adds to the cinema experience. I also looked at various lighting shows beyond the examples demonstrated in class, with TeamLab’s installations being a standout example of immersive, beautiful experiences that utilises interactive, digital artwork displays that span entire rooms. In wanting to further understand and develop ideas around surrealism, I attended NGV’s, Melbourne Now exhibition, where they had an entire room dedicated to surreal installations, which has been inspiring in thinking about tackling subject matters that relate to Australia and feminism.
Surrealism Artworks
There was a particular exhibition that utilised vibrating chairs called “Sudden bursts of Nasty Laughter”, developed by Claire Lambe, which added a new layer of immersion to particular scenes, such as when the main character was skateboarding, that the vibration allowed the user to feel more engaged with the visuals. Amongst the rest of the displays I noticed reoccurring the ways surrealism has been expressed through abstract imagery, utilising key shape language to make topics identifiable, before proceeding to warp and distort them is incredibly fascinating, which I hope to explore in my own piece this semester.
Sudden bursts of Nasty Laughter Installation
Progress:
For my initial research, I revisited some of my own personal works, and thought about the ways I could meaningfully expand on the ideas in this studio. Thinking about how colour theory and lighting can provide a heightened experience throughout video formats, I’ve decided to explore a combination of AI generated images and stop motion style editing to, styled similarly to one of my previous projects. Having had time to develop my own AI model over the last year will allow me to create a higher fedility piece, which will utilise a greater level of frame by frame AI generation that will overlay original footage, to make a cohesive, surreal project. Wanting to expand on the multisensory experience beyond a flat video format, led to me to have discussions with my tutors in class, where I could explore lighting options to add to my project. I’ve then proceeded to watch tutorials on the lighting system Pharos provided on canvas, and a few additional YouTube tutorials. I am now currently in the process of exploring a video conversion on Pharos, so that I can make the lighting system display visuals that would link up with a video, and, due to the way that the Capitol’s lighting system is rigged, would lead to an abstract, immersive display that will change with the visuals.
Lighting Up Your week 