Essay notes and quotes - A VJ Centered Exploration of Expressive Interacti

 Film captures and portrays the “elusive details” of situations [3] that other methods of presentation, such as a vocal or textual description, may miss.

By presenting our ideas through film we therefore enable the VJs to observe their practice from our point of view and consequently engage with and discuss it with this perspective in mind.

VJ practice is both public facing and personally significant

Qualitative research determines outcomes through their participants and is very much driven by the outlooks of these practitioners

We stress how the technical challenge posed by the presentation of 3D visuals limits the ability of the VJ to improvise and experiment in the moment of performance

this narrative is illustrated by a graffiti artist whose sketch pad is projected behind the passages. The audience responds to this evolving narrative by entering further passages of text; as such a dialogue develops between the performer, graffiti artist and the audience.

Andrew and Toby discussed a desire to evoke particular experiences within the audience.

 Andrew explained how the 3D visuals in his performance were designed to stir up feelings of astonishment or amazement.

ambiguous materials could create thought provoking experiences:

“A bit of footage will be very blurred and you will just get a sense of what’ s happening and it’ s all about building up your own sort of thoughts about what’s happening or what the story is about.” (Andrew)

Significant weight was attributed to the desire for a meaningful performance... re- contextualizing found footage.

Why do narrative based films work well with music performance?

Participants spoke of wanting to “get hold of” and“grapple with” media. This implies a desire for interaction that provides a sensation akin to being in direct contact or touching and molding media as if it were an artifact in the physical world.

Paul illustrated an existing device that affords Haptically Direct interaction. He compared how the turntable gives him the sense of touching and feeling the sound in the videos he is manipulating:

“I've got this really gestural interface that is a turntable I can really feel the sound in the video, whereas if you've got something that’s plastic, costs about 80 quid and you are trying to, I dunno. You don't get the same kind of feel, experience, interaction.

An immediate response to an action was considered essential to many.

“The latency, well it’s not ideal especially for scratching so I'm trying to move away from time-coded vinyl.” (Paul)

“I want something that I can directly grapple with the media that I'm dealing with. At the moment I have a planar flight deck of buttons and knobs and that has got nothing to for effecting and controlling what you want to do

A live performance was described by the VJs as providing the opportunity to experiment and improvise with the creation and manipulation of visual media. Improvisation was described in wholly positive terms by participants who associated it with satisfaction, interest, play and artistic freedom:

Essay notes and quotes - More Brilliant than the Sun

 

"You can theorise words or style, but analysing the groove is believed to kill it's bodily pleasure."

"There is a none too veiled hostility towards analysing rhythm at all. Too many ideas spoil the party. Too much speculation kills 'dance music' by 'intellectualising' it to death."

Animation scenarios & storyboards

1. Kid at skate park learning for the first time with helmet, pads and gnarly clothes. Trial and error begins. Another kid of similar age and his little brother show up. As the little brother zooms around the skating bowl on his scooter, the other two introduce themselves and start learning together.

2. Moody old man sitting on the train reading the news. He glances down from his story to see a baby beaming up at him. The innocence he sees in the baby's face instantly makes him feel lighter and happier. He smiles back and carries his smile with him to the net person he sees. The. cycle of smiling goes on.

3. Spider plant grows to music. Jazzy melodies continue the process of growth and repeats.

4. Character sits in dark, gloomy library to study. As a meditative practice, he plugs headphones in and listens to the sound of nature. Despite. his surroundings, the audio transports him to a more calm place.

5. A blind man walks through a garden in the pouring rain. From the sound of the water hitting different surfaces around him, like porcelain pots and leaves, he is able to map his surroundings.

6. Meteor falls in pond. Fish with legs begin to clamber out of the muddy water and walk off into the land.

7. An empty student house. In the cupboards, potatoes are growing limbs at a tremendous rate. They begin to take over the house, using appliances and having a 'free house' party.

8. Barry Poppins saving children stuck on rooftops

9. Basement floods. Sleeping tenant emerges as a amphibian 

10. Person walking sees a magpie that is alone and lost. Because of the superstition the person becomes sad. Suddenly 20 magpies join the party and squawk happily together.

Notes:

- Good to engage in projects which take a matter of minutes to make because it helps not to get too hung up on the execution of projects, but on the story and making short narratives resonate with audiences. I can carry this into my major project by takin each step slowly. Making sure small details can connect the story together nicely.

-Consideration of camera angles and aspect ratio need to be used for the major project to have shots realised in the right way. Using rule of thirds and lighting considerations will help with compositions.

 

Untitled MA Film Treatment & Mood Board

 Untitled MA Film Treatment & Mood Board

George Orwell

The world is being shaped in Orwellian fashion, adopting many of the Totalitarian/dystopian priciples taken up in 1984. The themes of surveillance, suspicion and subservience are very much the establishing factors when the film begins.

Furthermore, in a nod to animal farm, anthropomorphic characters will be in power.

Shutterstock.com. 2021. Surveillance Camera Stock Photo (Edit Now) 572187. [online] Available at: <https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/surveillance-camera-572187> [Accessed 16 December 2021].

Shutterstock.com. 2021. [online] Available at: <https://www.shutterstock.com/search/1984+orwell> [Accessed 16 December 2021].

Interesting to blend modern issues of the pandemic with Orwell's dystopian depiction of his future. Governments demanding complete subservience while tracking people is not far off people's attitudes towards the pandemic. The Orwellian themes have been brought back into a modern context for this treatment and have been tweaked by application of music.

Night in a dystopian Britain. The camera pans across decadent buildings and progresses slowly into more impoverished areas. Graffiti and dilapidated flats pop up everywhere. The streets are quiet as it is late and there are Government imposed curfews. Intersectional shots of police standing guard over the empty city. A quiet street lined with lamps and tannoys is gently lit. Despite the quietness our protagonist steps out to catch some air outside the front door. He pulls out a cigarette and begins to smoke. 

Camera pans down under the street line and winds through underground passages. Characters appear walking down the tunnel, which bears resemblance to the London Underground. Technology dominates the background, tucked into the walls. They arrive at their radio booth and begin. Lights begin appearing; flashing, pulsating and increasing.

(Cut back to protagonist)                                                                        sound seeps through the streets via tannoys and radios, slowly gaining in volume until synthesised noises are echoing throughout the street. The inquisitive protagonist walks slowly from tannoy to tannoy as the sound builds. Eyes appear at windows. They suspiciously follow the protagonist as he walks.

The music begins broadcast from every radio and television. People at home are awe struck and confused but excitement grows. The televisions show waveforms. The broadcast is happening nation wide.

                                                                                           Meetings begin in the wide corridors and busy rooms of the Government building. People with the heads of pigs wearing formal attire are chaotically bickering. A large projector is in the background emitting the waveform to emphasise their anger at their radio interception. One of the politicians speaks in the ear of a Police Officer who, in turn speaks into his walkie talkie. Police are dispatched to settle the growing excitement in the city.

(Cut back to protagonist location)                                                                                 

 2 Silhouettes appear walking behind the protagonist. They draw closer and closer in the cover of darkness. The protagonist darts down a narrow alleyway to avoid them but more appear. They pin him to the wall. Simultaneously through the narrow crack visible which opens onto the Main Street people begin. to walk past. There is revelry in the air. The protagonist breaks from their grip in their lapse of concentration. And runs to vanish into the crowd. Wide shot of the ever growing crowd, all unified and heading in the same direction.

The hoard of people who have dispersed in the streets all congregate under a bridge decorated with graffiti. Members of the radio station have orchestrated the movement. Sound systems blare the music out inciting festive behaviour (dancing, creating art) through the increasing showcases of creativity at the venue, emphasise the antithesis of what the Government is suppressing and the positive outcomes of it. Our protagonist enters and throws off his identity concealing garments. Together, people who were afraid to show individualism are showing their true colours.

Enraged, Government operatives try to shut down the movement. The attempts are futile. Police line up, arresting who they can, but overall the uprising is too large to safely control.

The next morning, the message has been received throughout society that Government oppression cannot hold strong, as citizens have demonstrated their rights to act as a community, abandoning their preconceptions of suspicion and self preservation.

Moore, A., Lloyd, D., Whitaker, S., Dodds, S., Rizzi, L., D'Aliasi, L. and Weare, T., 2017. V for vendetta. Novara: RW edizioni.

The V For Vendetta graphic novels and film have somewhat inspired this film. Thinking about an extreme version of Britain, post-covid, that coukld be Totalitarian in nature. Rights to protest are gone. State leadership is unquestioned

Shallcross, P., 2021. [online] Available at: <https://twitter.com/PhilShallcross/status/1304170690589974528/photo/1> [Accessed 15 December 2021].

Notes:

- As research and story develops, the story may change

- Continue to think about how the sound and visuals can influence viewers. Narrative is important but also making sure movements are carefully thought about to relate to sound. This will help with primary research for multimodal, immersive, experiential animation

- A discussion needs to be had with Heath (Music Producer) in order to get his insights into sound for film and the tone for the music.

- Dystopian/Utopian imagery is good in this mood board. Make sure relevant visuals stick in the creative practice. Look more into Modernism - Utopian artefacts, landscapes, interiors, people.

- Valuable to look at roaring 20's for ideas, but some of the principles will probably be left such as ideas about prohibition, underground Jazz clubs and the 'Red scare'. These will not be at the forefront of my research. However it was valuable to look at these ideas to shape the dystopian world. Some details will be carried on like the underground club scene. The Jazz influences from the roaring 20's may also become useful. Putting stock into the importance of the black community within the music scene throughout time will be good to reference in the visual style and further background research.

Essay notes and quotes - The fundamentals of Sonic Art

 The fundamentals of Sonic Art

The fundamentals of Sonic Art - As a book, recognises the multifaceted nature of sound within art. As it can take many forms, it includes works from numerous sonic artists who work from white noise to music and probe it’s different effects. A catalogue of different ideas.

How do artists use their practice to lead their research?

Page 20

Around the first Ice Age was the first recorded time where acoustic spaces may have been used with multimedia. “Several researchers have also noted that cave paintings are often found to be in locations where the local acoustics have unusual qualities, and this has led to speculation that these places may have been venues for early forms of multimedia events.”

“No single work can hope to provide a comprehensive and detailed approach to a subject that is so diverse, and that has so many facets.”

Page 27

“What I like about the untidy mess of communications produced by the new technologies is that nothing is prescribed, nothing is complete and above all there is no pretence. Everything is wild, experimental, precarious…” Michael Jafferennou, ‘Digital and Video art’

Much like the invention of the synthesiser, developments in sound design were made at random. Through trial and error and failed products, sounds were manipulated and synthesised in very experimental ways. I want to lead with my practice and note my observations about how to add multimodality to sound using visuals. I want to push the boundaries of experimenting with sound

Max Eastly, page 48

Definition of music “comes from inside human beings or that it comes from something observed outside. I use that as a working tool because I can relate to the emotion of music but I’m also drawn to the external, the non-human, the inanimate.”

“With the kinetic things, you can’t look at them and say that you know the personality that made them but, with the music, you can sense me as an emotional, feeling person, so one is animate and the other is inanimate - it’s working with these two tensions I suppose.”

Look into Ryoji Ikeda and A/V musicians and VJ’s

How do practitioners experiment with visuals to explore soundscapes and music?

Looking at responses to multimodal experience opens up a new dimension of processing because it invites viewers to be part of the outcome the work creates. Page 32 “clearly , when one looks at a painting and it stimulates a response, there is a degree of interaction but this process does not affect the picture itself so we have only a very limited form of interactivity.”

“The eye points outward and the ear draws inward. It soaks up information”-Janek Schaefer, Page 42

Designing sound for film and video

"The true sound designer must be immersed in the story, characters, emotions, environments and genre of the film. With their contribution the audience will be led down the path in an integrated, yet often subconscious manner toward an experience that is authentic and human, a metaphor for life experience itself. Using all the tools of music, psychology, acoustics and drama,  the art of orchestration comes." Page 91

"The role of the sound designer has moved from the periphery to the heart of the filmmaking process." page 91

 

"sound design is now a process that begins before an inch of film has been shot and continues until the completion of final mixes." page 91

"central position in the narrative of a film" page 91

"The days of a fully converged multiple medium may not be far away."

sound out of a single outlet is known as MONOPHONIC

"One cannot design a structure to amplify sound: the energy that is in the original voice or instrument is all that there is. However, good design can make the most of this by focussing and concentrating the sound, or can control or modify it by reflecting it in different ways or using resonating objects that vibrate in sympathy." page 37

Untitled film initial presentation

 Collating my ideas for a production which lasts the academic year was daunting. The important thing was to call on my interests in order to maintain interest and enthusiasm throughout my MA studies.

Design relating to sound has been at the forefront of my visual media and research. Therefore creating a visual spectacle to a piece of music was a given. My previous studies into visuals for electronic music performance will feed into my studies for this year as I continue to experiment with how sound can be processed more effectively with visual stimuli. 

Research in previous projects has led me to considering multimodality in film. Michel Chion's book, Audiovision: Sound on Screen provided me with different outlooks on sound design in film. 3 quotes drove some of the outputs I created on how to accompany music and visuals:

1. “Sound renders the perception of time in the image as exact, detailed, immediate”(Chion, M. and Gorbman, C.,p.13)

 2. “Sound vectorises or dramatises shots, orienting them toward a future, a goal, and creation of a feeling of imminence”

(Chion, M. and Gorbman, C.,p.14)

3. “Sound endows a shot with temporal linearisation”

(Chion, M. and Gorbman, C.,p.3)

Essentially these quotes drove my work to explore the spectrum of using audiovisual synthesis, ranging from exactly timed visual cues to fluid animations to accompany more drawn out, synthesised sonic noises.

My explorations will continue further into multimodality within my research and practice. This is a good starting point to influence my ways of thinking and practical outcomes (the visuals in the film which will be produced).

While looking at this topic as intellectualising its audiovisual backdrop, I will also be taking a narrative based approach to the film, while also working with music. Some elements I will have to question on this journey is how multimodality is something everyone engages with constantly with all sensory observations. Therefore this film will need to harness the way we think about it in some way. This will be achieved through a combination of secondary research and the methodologies of other practitioners in the same field alongside my own practice and findings which are gleaned from experimenting with how the topic works.

These slides demonstrate The initial research for the visual/narrative side of the film. The detail is yet to be established. To make it relevant, I have imagined a dystopian world which will address the Government's ethics during the pandemic in an exaggerated way. I feel encouraged to look more into ideas of Utopia and Dystopia from this.

Mock ups of a character in the film. While presenting, it was pointed out that the character has clothes covering his identity. This theme could be a good one for characters as it hints to the mask culture we are all familiar with now. As a side note, I always observed the lack of expressiveness one can give to as passer by with a mask on. This is an idea which could be explored in the film.

Notes:

- Multimodal and Sonic art/film

- How do professionals use music in animation?

- Utopias and Dystopias research to feed into visual style

- Graphic novel for style and themes (V for Vendetta, Sin City)

Presentation of Research + Animation using Paper

Question

I have been skimming over a book which highlights music history into new developments and transitions from genre to genre. Kodwo Eshun's More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures into Sonic Fiction has begun my thought process and made me consider how elements of music such as breaks in beat, progressions and climaxes can be replicated by visuals and layered onto the music to create an emphasised emotional resonation within an audience or viewer. Using this theory, an animator could create visual stimulus which creates a reflection of what is being received initially through the audio.

Context

Eshun's commentary on music makes it seem almost tangible and certainly as something that can be experimented with like an artistic medium. Artists such as Underground Resistance and A guy Called Gerald seemed at the forefront of pushing the boundaries of musical cognition. Eshun comments on their work, saying they "do what you do with paint, but with music... It's all valid... De-realising the boundaries between live and synthetic noise". This quote resonated with me because it validates any experimentation into sound as a valuable practice. I want to push this theory, making visuals which further explore how music can become visually expressive too. (I'm sure anyone with Synesthesia would agree)

Method

Choosing a piece of music with attributes such as fluid, synthesised sound, definitive breaks, and repetitive beats would be a good start. Following this, I can work on visualising these sounds using different cognitive methods (other research will back this up, previously I have looked at Michel Chion's Audio-vision: Sound on Screen). Furthermore primary research will involve exhibitions involving visuals and light shows (potentially Chris Levine at Houghton Hall). I can observe stimuli from these and listen to audio. Through this I can record my personal findings, edit videos which demonstrate my theories and show them to others to back up my research and create statistics on how different people view them.

Exercise - separate important information from my writing to make studies more concise

Kodwo Eshun's book: More Brilliant than the Sun: Adventures into Sonic Fiction has opened up my ideas about transcending musical comprehension. His notes on music's ability to open up the senses like "growing a third ear" make me theorise about extending this idea into visual applications over music. In the same way that elements of music can resonate in an audience, using theory about sonic art and sound design will extend the theory behind emotional responses to music, inviting viewers to be stimulated in a multi modal way.

Eshun's analogies on the development of music makes production seem like an artistic medium in the way that it can be synthesised and edited. His interests lie in people who have pushed the boundaries and invite new ways of hearing. When you produce, you "do what you do with paint, but with music... It's all valid... De-realising the boundaries between live and synthetic noise". Using animation, I hope to explore ways in which to engage musical interpretation with timed visuals and imagery. 

Different sounds can warrant different visual cues; direct beats can have tightly timed actions such as footsteps, more fluid sounds can be matched in less direct ways by gentle movements and transitions. Tony Gibbs' book The fundamentals of Sonic Art & Sound Design observes that By observing and listening in my every day practice. Audiovisual relationships will be informed and, in turn influence my output. This will be a video which summates my research in some form of multimodal spectacle, wherein animations will be dictated by music

Paper in Animation - Beginning to test my theory

Much alike to a lot of the live visuals we see in performances today, I have made my paper animation have simple transformations to work in conjunction with my chosen piece of music. The head bops have the purpose of being tightly timed with the kicks and drum beats within the music, giving a visual representation of each sound. This is a basic approach to multimodality.

Working with paper as a medium was good practice. Sometimes adding limitations to your animation is a good thing. It can ground your work and help to not overcomplicate things. Also depending on what world you are creating, limitations are sometimes a good thing to consider, especially when you can create anything you want within animation.

The animation itself could have been improved on. With this style, timing is important, and compared to the digital precision achieved by A/V visuals, the Timing of movement in my film is quite off in relation to the music. However, I am working on creating key frames in After Effects which react directly off sound. This should help me with demonstrating beats as movements in a more uniform way.