Life Space – Grace Gardiner

Life Space is a Korsakow film which can be accessed here.

Reflection:

The world we live in, is often presented in an orderly, and easily digestible style. We commonly witness representations of it, that present life in a linear format. But in doing so, we edit things out. And the entirety of the truth, can be left on the cutting room floor.

Each moment, as it happens in real time, is a moment of reality. Allowing oneself to witness such truths, enables noticing to occur. A chance to absorb and recognize what is happening before one’s eyes. For one to notice, they must allow time to do so. The practice, requires patience and the ability to un-judgingly observe one’s immediate surroundings, for what they are. To notice, begs an individual to look around them, rather than just straight ahead.

Acknowledging the complex state of the world, provides a creator the ability to explore the greater circumstance in a way that enables a closer portrayal of reality.

To successfully document this on screen, I needed to let each moment of truth present itself in its truest form. The most honest and ‘real’ non – fiction material cannot appear on cue. In these instances trying to mould the desired result, risks relinguishing the raw material, for what it is.

When making media from noticing, it is best to rid oneself of all objectives, and simply trust the unwary process of it all. In ‘trying’ to create an idealistic final product, the creator allows for the consequent in non – fiction work to lose its individual, integrity. I found, it was necesassary to approach this task with an open mind and willingness to make changes at any stage. Doing so, allowed me to work with, rather than against this unfamiliar process.

An idea that I found useful, in the production stages of my piece was a concept from, Adrian Miles that claims stories are ‘teleogical’, and the world isn’t. I used this as a reminder, to trust the process of simply capturing the truth and allowing this to speak for itself. I had to ensure what I presented, aligned with how the world was, rather than how I’d liked for it to appear. Even if, it is in fact, an absolute mess. Once we enable ourselves to take in all aspects of the truth, and envisage the world in its entirety, we can begin to see the full capacity of reality.

From this creative process, I realized the importance of allowing space for the required  noticing to take place. A spectator, watching on to such media contentn, is more likely to connect the dots, pin point characteristics and reach conclusions autonomously, when provided the space to do so. By refraining from feeding them this information – media can encourage the practice of ‘wondering’, allowing an audience to reach such conclusions in their own time.

I began this process, with little idea of where it would lead me. I had no end-point in mind, and approached the task with no set vision of what I was going to make. Therefore, what I produced was as organic and real as it gets. I achieved this, by simply posing a question and letting the answer deliver itself. The process was an inspiring one – that enabled the film, in the direction it needed to go.

A final quote, that I found  to resonat deeply with my understanding of noticing is one, I recently stumbled upon when reading through a self – help, autobiography titled First We Make the Beast Beautiful, written by new york times bestselling author, Sarah Wilson. I believe it’s overarching message, ties in with the true form of the world –  that effectively embraces it to be chaotically beautiful.

I long ago abandoned the notion of a life without storms, or a world without dry and killing seasons. Life is too complicated, too constantly changing, to be anything but what it is. And I am, by nature, too mercurial to be anything but deeply wary of the grave unnaturalness involved in any attempt to exert too much control over essentially uncontrollable forces.” – (First, We Make the Beast Beautiful, 2018)

REFERENCES:
Miles, A 2018, ‘Digital Media and Documentary: Antipodean Approaches’, Palgrave Macmillan, UK

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *