Week 2 workshop and tutorial
In Monday’s lecture with Tim, we looked at time in a broad sense, in relation to music, rhythm, motion, film and visual arts. I thought that thinking about the link between time and motion and how things can be in sync was interesting. Regulated time for doing things like work and bus times and tv schedules are obviously very human designed, but there is time everywhere in nature as well, from migrating patters the sun going down etc..
After the information we got, the task we were given was about creating mini-ideas in one minute based on a phrase related to time. For example, I picked out a phrase from a hat that was ‘make up for lost time’ and then I just had a minute to write and draw my thoughts. We did this a few times with different phrases. I found it useful to get my brain active and come up with related themes quickly.
The final part was to come up with an idea of a workshop or project in a pair with someone else in the group. ‘Time and place’ was the saying we had to use. I paired up with Mike and we came up with an idea about time and place that was related partly to my project. The plan is to photograph and video me running in the same place, with different exposure lengths in photography, aperture sizes in film. The thinking was showing how the same view and scene can look different when playing with different times of settings. We think we might actually bring this idea into existence by working together sometime next week.
In the individual tutorial, we talked about goals and things to improve on. A particular topic was research, as I find that a weak point as I have found my project difficult to find relative artists to study for.
My three things to do are:
Experiment with film editing and sound recording.
Explore long exposure lengths and different perspectives in photography and film.
Develop a holistic research strategy considering all aspects of running and time.
My project
What I have done:
I have started by just documenting my runs and training sessions, this time using videos not photos. I have started by just doing it on my own and without using any complicated tripods, selfie stick or go pro and just put my phone next to the track. The clips obviously don’t mean or say much on their own, but the idea is that I am building up a bank of moving images that I will edit together and then have some sort of audio over.
What I think:
I prefer the videos to the photography I was doing last semester. Even though they are still quite simple, my focus now is on documenting the actual process and trying to portray are more visceral feeling than an abstract one. For me, looking and the video clips of running make me feel quite emotionless or not really thinking much which is how I maybe felt while I was running at that point. That struggle of trying to make the viewer feel how you felt could be interesting.
What next:
Next Wednesday I have a session booked with Chris Illif to look at editing software and go through the basics of it on a mac. Also, I am planning to meet up with Mike on Monday so that we can create some clips and photographs of my running using long shutter speeds as part of my project experimentation. I am going to document more of my runs with my phone by filming but use more perspectives and different angles. I need to start thinking about sound as well.
Research and context
Eadweard Muybridge:
Muybridge (1830–1904) was a British photographer known for his work on photographic studies of motion, and work in motion-picture projection. He is best known for his pioneering use of chronophotography, capturing phases of movement, of animal locomotion. He used multiple cameras in order to capture all the moments of an animal’s stride. He also developed the Zoopraxiscope, a predecessor to a movie projector, which was a device that could display multiple photographs in quick succession so that it becomes a moving image.
I am drawn to that famous set of his images which accurately depict the racehorse’s stride. He also documented the motions of runners, as shown above, and dancers and others as well as other animals. I think that my exploration of how I can display my running motion using different exposures and framing is very reminiscent of his work. It is all related to the study of motion and time and how things look at speed. The experimentation and route that I go down could get very analytical and look at my stride and repetition in a similar way as what Muybridge did.
So glad you are carrying on with running, would be crazy not to. Really like the first video, the repetition and the sound, love the sound when we don;t see you, so out of sinc and image not sound, sound not image, I think the film was sticking so this is what happened for me. The running track up at the sports centre, is such a good space, site, can be connected to the Arts Centre somehow, this would be a good site specific project. I think i prfer that site to the other sites in the video’s – something very paired down and aesthetic about it.