During this week after reflecting on Caitlin’s feedback comment on my notebook, I decided to take a week and take a step back to analyse my idea, its aim, and wether I am projecting it in the most efficient way possible. I sometimes dive into the process to fast without considering the possibilities within my idea, so during this week I focused on going back to the research vertex of the triangle and questioning my project to see what were its weaknesses and possible things I had to change before moving forward.
I realised I had dived into the idea of combining photographs and texts on the walls and a shortfilm projection in the centre of the room but I hadn’t considered any other curatorial possibilities. I found that after doing some research on famous exhibitions, and installation works, I had perhaps not thought quite outside of the box when it came to display so I decided to brainstorm again ideas of how to make the exhibition an actual experience of space where the audience would be critical about their own occupancy of it. After some brainstorming I came to the conclusion that the image of the photographs was not needed and it grounded the exhibition to a 2D plane instead of a 3D embodiment of space. That’s why I decided to move away from photography and base my exhibition on text that is printed on textiles and therefore can be folded across the room and people can be literally moving through space, and with a live projection of lights. Whilst the people walk through the text I want to create a structure or think about a way that a projection of a experimental short-film can be folded by audience members in a way that its a shared performative live installation across the room, which resonates in every plane of it.
These are some photos of the brainstorming of the curation options of the exhibition:
This are some photos of my visual curatorial research:
After the brainstorming and artist research I decided to dive deep into two artists that inspire my idea of a light performance:
- Jeanne Liotta
The second week of this semester we were invited by my experimental cinema tutor to a performance by the experimental American filmmaker Jeanne Liotta. The first half of the session consisted of a normal screening of some of her films at the cinema, but in the second half of the session we were placed in a different room and she did a beautiful performance with lights and a combination of different mundane objects interaction with it live. The projection performance is called Path of Totality, it is basically a 16mm film loop with no images whatsoever running through a projector in a rhythm of intermittency, while the artist moves light out into the space and beyond the frame. Visual concepts of light latency, peripheral vision, and cosmic imagination are activated through the use of simple objects and external water lenses, as one might use a flashlight and an orange to demonstrate the relationship between the sun and the Earth. The art of projection is posited as essentially mimetic of the cosmos — light source, screen, and reflection.
Watching this extended notion of cinema was truly magical, I can honestly say I have experienced something close to a solar eclipse. The way Liotta left the confinement of the frame and created a semi-light performance/semi-film projection seemed incredibly powerful to me. The wide scope of abstract imagery she was able to create with just a couple of everyday objects was also a great realisation of how little things you actually need to abstract light in beautiful ways.
I consider this experience as a spatial and visual one as well as a great inspiration when thinking about how I can do a light projection and try to get ideas about it.
2. Niccolas Schoffer – Chronos 5
Looking at the book Biennals and Beyond- Exhibitions that made art history, I came across Niccolas Schoffer installation Chronos 5. This piece caught my attention immediately, its warm colors and play with light and sculpture took me back to childhood memories of lamps that projected shapes all over the room. Apart from thinking that the sculpture in itself is beautiful, I was entrapped by the idea of playing with light using the simplest materials to interact with the space.
Niccolas Schoffer was a Hungarian-French cybernetic artist. His work is based on theories of the American philosopher and mathematician Norbert Weiner. His work expands a wide range of media and is a quest for dematerialization of the artwork and pursuit of movement and dynamics. He worked with the immaterial media space, light, time, sound, and climate which he called the five topologies.
His Chronos series is a combination of cybernetic sculptures from when he was interested in chromodynamics. At first, he got into spatiodynamism, a dynamism creating a sensation of dematerialization through the perception of movement. After that he opened them to light with luminodynamism, which unfolds energy and aesthetic potential, and to time with chronodynamism, in which artworks move in space, light, and time with a precise program and with almost infinite and unpredictable possibilities. This also awoke my interest in creating an interplaying installation of light and space with a wide range of possible outcomes that the audience could interact with and create a different sort of space.
In terms of creation I have been working through and selecting videos that I created on the lighting studio, and I have moved away from my initial ideas of complex abstractions from ripples in water, which was my initial thread to follow from the theme of resonance. Instead through experimentation I realised I prefer the play of reflections of lights on the water when moving the light or moving the water. Considering the film as only an element within the exhibition itself I have also reached the conclusion that I want to keep it quite simple as it only needs to serve as a base from which to abstract form so the simpler it is the wider range of possibleities there will be to play around with it.
This are examples of the unedited material:
I also followed Caitlin’s advice to take things from 2D to 3D so I have started creating a model of the exhibition to actually see how my ideas would look like:
WORKSHOP:
During this week’s workshop I had a lot of fun, we were instructed to cast a spell to ourselves to get us creating and in the making of our project. Dylan and I decided to give each other a song we didn’t know before, with his eyes closed he had to write down the lyrics that resonated with him and I instead had to use whatever was laying in the room to rearrange it to change the space they were inhabiting. I really enjoyed my spell casting process and I take it for the future for whenever I am in a creative rock or just bored to have a way to start creating.
Hi Sofia, excellent work here – well done. In both week 4 and 5 you’re developing your idea well and are showing some good research. You’re showing excellent independent practice research. Can you articulate how the work you’ve selected relates to and informs your own ideas for your exhibition? You have a clear idea which is interesting and well articulated. Moving forwards, leave time to reflect on your creative rationale. Why are you doing this? What is the significance of this project? Your practice based research is excellent and you’re reflecting well on what works well and doesn’t. You’re clearly in production mode, learning new technical skills, which is good to see. The water and light experiments are excellent, and the macquette you’re making to visualise the space will help you develop a clear spatial plan. Where you reference the work of Kant, Nietzsche be sure to introduce and define their ideas, and then explain why they are of interest to you, and how they are informing your own thought. Explain the significance and why they interest you. Overall, very good research and reflection, with excellent practice based research. Make sure you stay up to speed with your posts and post week 5 this week. Looking forward to seeing more next week and the following!