Reflection:
This week was really focused on the progression of my primary task, my Surrealist AI generative video that would span across several minutes. I found my development and understanding of my readily available tools to be more efficient compared to the start of semester, with the capacity for developing my video speeding up significantly, which made it rather fun working on my project. I’ve found ways of manipulating the prompts to get more exact results and utilising a batch image system to do pass overs over multiple stills that I found problematic all at once. This honestly feels incredibly satisfying, especially as the rest of the semester begins to ramp up in workload, I feel a need to be as efficient as possible with my time to make the best work I possibly can. In class this week, I found my feedback to be positive, yet, also interesting, in that one of my tutors suggested that after about 40 seconds of continuous exposure to the video, that the effect of being drawn in began to feel comfortable, despite the changing imagery. Another point was also brought up about the selection of music, which is a primary mode of communicating the feeling of the surreal, and the sense of mystery as the audience undertakes my experience. Currently, by reutilising the music piece I found earlier in the semester, it wasn’t providing the same level of effectiveness, I believe this is due to a combination of the timing and momentum of this work being different, while also going on for an extended duration rather than a brief 30 second demonstration. In having these discussions with my tutor, it served to provide me the opportunity to revisit collaboration within my project, in which I’ve now been able to secure a music composer within my class who I will begin to work with throughout the remaining weeks. What I’ve been thinking about though, is what exactly do I want the soundscape to be? As while working on my project, I developed an AI generated audio track that was a mishmash of various songs, and I feel it created a compelling experience for the current duration of my project. As I continued work on my project this week, I’ve been thinking about whether this current project would be more effective as a shorter piece, utilising the work I’ve already developed to this point, and then developing a secondary piece with my newfound composer to create an entirely different feeling experience. This question is something that I will be discussing in my upcoming class presentation this week and based on the feedback that I receive on my current projects state, I’m confident it will give me enough to think about to make an informed decision by the tail end of the coming week.
Research:
My research this week has been primarily focused on revisiting and refreshing on the research that I have already conducted throughout the semester for my upcoming presentation on Tuesday. In particular, I’ve gone back to revisiting my surrealist and immersive study, where I want to emphasise “the unbridled imagination of the subconscious” (Voorhies, 2004), as this quote is what has significantly inspired the creative potential of the project as I explored my own subconscious feelings through the prompts I fed into my video. What has been a point of re-exploration for me though, has been investigating the themes of “Sexuality, erotic desire, and violence” (Cramer, Grant, 2020), and thinking about how appropriate it might be to develop this within my project. The primary reason for thinking about this, is sexuality and eroticism tends to provide a level of discomfort, and by piling on such confrontational imagery alongside choreographing “a filmic experience that requires empathy” with my use of loose, abstracted “Narratives, characterisation, framing and composition of the image,” (Jones & Dawkins, 2018) it may deter the power of the surreal, and shift it from a surreal experience, to an overwhelming one. Something I am keeping in mind as I revisit my previous research, is to keep the emphasis “upon the private world of the mind, traditionally restricted by reason and societal limitations, to produce surprising, unexpected imagery“ (Voorhies, 2004). I currently feel that as my project already reaches an interpretive ‘centre of the universe’, that the possibility and element of surprise for the images that can be displayed will lose it’s effectiveness. This is why as I continue to work on my project, I will be focusing on “‘how one relates to and absorbs objects into one’s own experience’(2017, 74), rather than an outward-facing process of relating to others outside of one’s own experience” (Jones & Dawkins, 2018), ensuring I keep an empathic approach to my design process as I begin to experiment with the modes of perspective in my video.
Dr. Charles Cramer and Dr. Kim Grant, “Surrealism and Psychoanalysis,” in Smarthistory, https://smarthistory.org/surrealism-and-psychoanalysis/ (March 24, 2020)
Sarah Jones & Steve Dawkins “Walking in Someone else’s shoes: creating empathy in the practice of immersive film”, 2018, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330601770_Media_Practice_and_Education_Walking_in_someone_else’s_shoes_creating_empathy_in_the_practice_of_immersive_film
Voorhies, James. “Surrealism.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/surr/hd_surr.htm (October 2004)
Progress:
This week’s progress was significant, as I was able to, slowly, and steadily, manage to complete the first half of my major project, which took many hours of work across multiple days to be able to achieve. The result has come to approximately 2,200 uniquely rendered images, all upscaled to 1080p, at 24 frames per second, for a video that comes to one minute and thirty seconds. This is a major milestone in the project, and, based on the feedback I’ve received, I may not have much room left to be able to expand upon this project. I am currently in the process of investigating techniques to recontextualise the visuals and surprise the audience with the direction of the video, such as creating different modes of perspective, or even adding an element of surprise within the final minute to give the audience a true sense of the vastness of the imagination. How I aim to do this? Time travel. I am currently experimenting with speed ramps, and alternative prompt generation over batches of images, so that as the audience undertakes the experience in it’s finale, I can build a true, heightened multisensory experience that plays on not just one form of immersion, rather, providing the audience engagement through creative delivery and surprise till it’s conclusion.
I have also begun touching base with my music composer, where we have begun to discuss musical direction for my project, and shared music tastes. It seems I’ve found a great collaborator, as my composer and I share similar ideas for the project, such as the use of ethereal noises, chimes, and ambience to create a level of immersion, while utilising vocals to bring out a sense of vastness. As I continue into the current week, I will be finalising the scope of my current project and deciding on whether I wrap it up into its climactic ending or expand the videos duration with alternative pacing. I also plan to make some adjustments to my work on the BPD theatrical production, where I will be redeveloping one of the visuals for an extended 30 second sequence, with the removal of specific characters so that the scene can be used to enrich the background for the stage performers. The coming weeks will be chalk full of work to keep me busy, and it’ll be essential I use the days ahead to carefully reassess the scope of my projects, so that I can ensure everything can be made to a quality that I am satisfied with.
Lighting Up Your week 