Assignment two

Links to my weekly blog posts: 

Week one: http://www.mediafactory.org.au/juliaadams/2020/07/29/making-embodiment-week-one-julia/ 

Week two: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/juliaadams/2020/08/11/making-embodiment-week-two-julia/

Week three: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/juliaadams/2020/08/12/making-embodiment-week-three-julia/ ‎

Week four: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/juliaadams/2020/08/30/making-embodiment-week-four-julia/ ‎

Weel five: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/juliaadams/2020/08/29/making-embodiment-week-five-julia/ ‎

Weeks six: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/juliaadams/2020/08/30/making-embodiment-week-six-julia/ ‎

Development

Within week three / chapter one of the work it is based around the prompts of sight and silent footage with narration is about looking into the sky and making shapes and playing with light, how this triggers memories and emotions and how it is inevitably always there.My discovery of light and vision this week revolved around my changed perception of vision as something controlled by light. This also directly and intensely influences emotions of images. The more something is blurry the more I wish to find out what it is and the more I feel the texture as I am paying close attention to the image. I explored this primarily through placing green screen effects on my work to see how when different levels of light were taken away what the effect can be.

Week four / chapter two of the work focuses on a girl who is overwhelmed by simple life tasks. When doing the washing within the Landry, she eats a piece of fruit and gets distracted and muddled by the intense sounds echoing throughout the room around her. The cold, stark environment forces the walls to bounce sound and creates a cold static atmosphere. I discovered that the use of echo and reverb within a space is very powerful in communicating the materials and size of a space. The enhancing of this is also interesting within editing as it completely changes the dynamics of the space.

Chapter three / week six’s work is centred around balance. I try to put off the viewer by creating an off entered and unbalanced network of screens. Following editing techniques developed within the past two weeks to create consistency. The work explores familiar things such as legs needed to walk on and water needed to survive in an unfamiliar way. The use of colours and a shadow like depiction of the movements creates this. When trying to evoke a physical environment I found the most successful technique was in the use of sound. The echoing and space that a sound is made within can be instinctively identified and placed in a space.

I hope this material have been framed in a way in which reflect ‘chapters’ of ones life and experience  with struggle. As weeks one to three did not form an explicitly clear theme I decided to continue with a sense of ambiguity but make a purposeful effort to focus on my experience with familiarity and lack of it. In chapter three I tried to show what it is like to perceive familiar things in an unfamiliar way and weeks four and five I focused more on the consequences of doing so. I choice to use a repetitive editing style in order to further maintain a collection of works and close their separation.

Final collection:

Reflection

When searching for themes to identify within assignment one we had a class peer review session in which we all struggled to identify extremely clear themes in my works. Although similarities, these came across more in editing style and aesthetic choices. However, some pointed out my constant reflection on mental health and the effect the isolation has on my story and the people within. I at first viewed this as more of a personal exposure rather than a reflection of current times but I believe my peers to be correct as I reflect heavily on events surrounding my life. The dark nature of the works is consistent in works two and three. Work one was an outlier and I was happy to disregard it as forming my theme as I was most unhappy with its outcome. Much like my classmates, within assignment one I struggled identifying an overwhelmingly clear theme. However, I think the most consistent is the theme around isolation and more specifically how my personal perspective has changed to the things which surround me and now engulf my everyday life. The different media forms also created a lack of continuous aesthetic qualities and for this reason and observation I decided  make all of my media works for my collection cohesive and in video form with a cohesive editing style. I decided to transform these ideas and create a theme surrounding familiarity and how my comfort has transformed into anxiety as this is the theme that interested me most within assignment one. This initial idea developed throughout weeks four to sex through the introduction of the prompts. From this I decided to investigate familiarity in different ways. I looked at how I can be engulfed in it and have things such as the sky feel weighted as apposed to the expected reaction of grounding. In week five I explored how familiarity can be overwhelming in the form of the everyday task of washing. Finally, in week six I explored how familiar things and feeling can visually be misplaced and the lack of symmetry and normality attempts to communicate how familiar things can be scary and evoke anxiety.

The choice to use video as my media form allowed me to create a sense of collection through aesthetic qualities communicated through editing style. The ability for me to show moving image in this way allows me to create more defined links to each work though placement of clips in frame and overlaying footage. This allows a clearer narrative to form and a stronger connection to be seen. The inherent quality video holds of depicting visual movements also effects emotions within the works. For example the layering of moving images helps to communicate a feeling of anxiousness and a sense of being overwhelmed in a way an audio work or still images do not have the capacity to do. Video also gives the opportunity to have a more rounded work with communication channels of ore than one kind. As this is majority of humans reality when perceiving everyday life and the way in which they make use of their senses a stronger connection for the work to evoke empathy within the viewer is created.

Within chapter one / week fours work I believe that the use of childhood videos worked well . I like the stylistic choices I made in editing and hopefully this allows a more cohesive collection of works to form through style as well as theme. I think that the work lacks direction and purpose. I think in my head it made sense and had a narrative but in reality and practice it does not. I wish I had spent more time writing a poetic script in a more creative manner. Within chapter two / week fives work my choice to avoid dialogue within this exercise I think worked well as it allowed the media work to purely communicate the atmosphere with our the distraction or influence of dialogue. I like the layering go footage however, it seems slightly random and uncalled for inplaces. I think the work is not paced well. The beginning is too slow and the ending is too fast. This is not what I planned and makes the work confusing. Within chapter three / week six’s work I think the use of off balance clips in placed in unbalanced ways on screen is most effective in communication balance or loss of. It gives a feeling of uneasiness and unsymmetrical nature inherently invites a unusual delivering of the work. I also like he use of collar and the changes I think it makes it more engaging. Although resulting in not following this weeks prompts I like the music / sound work within the perception as I think it helps create a sense of uneasiness and unfamiliarity. The experimental nature of the work makes it feel more put together with music. I wish there was a clearer narrative within the work. There is not a clear story line and more presents itself as an expression piece rather than a story.

Within the media example of ‘Balance’ (1989) Directed by Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein the combination of both the frame moving and movement within the frame created a heavy sense of lack of balance. As an animation this work was able to be more abstract and therefore I believe was most successful in communicating balance. I also found that there were many types of balance presented within this work. I noticed a balance of power, balance of colour and symmetry as well as physical balance. This combination of more abstract forms of balance all work together and effect each other to the consequential ending. Within the work ‘Air dancing’ (2014) by  Meghan Currie in which yoga was performed I personally wouldn’t have included music and focused more on her breathing and creaks of the floor to communicate weight shift and muscle change. This directly inspired my use of heavy breathing within this weeks exercise. Within the audio piece ‘Gravitational Anarchy’, (30 Nov 2010) by RadioLab WNYC Studios  I found it had a very layered sound design which was the most prominent media technique that communicated balance for me, it really complements the narrators descriptive language for example, linking her leg to an ‘anchor’, and further helped the audience have empathy for her experiences. The distortion of the sound and the layers created an overwhelming sense of uneasy perspective and loss of balance. These sounds feel similar as to what it feels like to find and loose balance, with moments of uncertainty and moments of grounding.

When reading ‘The eye of the storm: visual perception and the weather’, Visual Studies 20, 2: 97-104 by Ingold, T. (2005) page 98 get us to think differently about sight by getting us to notice how we think about sounds and how the way we think about sounds is usually different than sight but it shouldn’t be. We talk about how we hear sounds rather than the object that make the sounds, when talking about sight we say we see the object rather than the actual thing in which we are perceiving which is the light that reflects off the object. This piece allowed me to lower vision on the pedestal I hold it on and align it with other senses such as touch as sound. Both sound and vision have similar ways of perception that this reading exposed me to thinking about.  For example, we hear sound waves and we see light rays, the object we see is the reflection of light rather than just the object itself. (T. Ingold, 2005) This completely changes my ideas surround how I see. With light now as the most important aspect. I plan to directly take this idea and use it as a new way of filming my footage.

I found the reading of ‘Introduction: Your Sound is My Sound is Your Sound’. Acoustic Territories : Sound Culture and Everyday Life, Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, New York: xv-vvvi by LaBelle, Brandon (2010) to be rather confusing to be honest. I was thankful when others in class admitted the same. However I was interested in the class discussion lead by Tyler in which he brought up how to understand sound as a form of energy. I think this is important as it helps to understand the knowledge that sound has power and is thick and can hurt you. This is a new concept for me and is interesting to give sound this power over me and my environment. The complexity of sound and its context is interesting to explore and I plan on doing so through experimentation in different environment and allowing to have the power described in this reading. I also found the exploration of a distinction of noise and sound was interesting, again, I had never through of this concept and leads on from the last point of allowing sound to have importance.

The reading of ‘Embodied Action, Enacted Bodies: the Example of Hypoglycaemia’, Body & Society. Sage PublicationsLondon, 10(2–3), pp. 43–62. by Mol, A. and Law, J. (2004) reading actually broadens the idea of what the body as something that we are continually trying to keep together. Jack lead the discussion for this weeks reading and brought to my attention to Sophies post on the discussion in which she spoke about her experience taking medication. In her post she referenced the quote  “Thus not only their effectiveness in improving one or two parameters, but the broad range of their effects deserves self-reflexive attention. Not all of these effects should be expected to be for the better. In articulating how it is doing, in considering the effects of its activities, medicine would be wise to confront its own tragic character: medical interventions hardly ever bring pure improvement, plus a few unfortunate ‘side-effects’; instead they introduce a shifting set of tensions” (2004, pg. 58). This ignited my own personal experience of taking medication and I enjoyed the discussion sparked in class. I also found really interesting the discussion of the French paradox and this reinforces my new steps of thinking outside the box and the norm to hopefully have a better result. I think this could be useful to the studio’s exploration of how to make media that evokes a stronger feeling of living in the body via igniting the question of how does a body feel and how might I indicate these feelings into media techniques to draw the audience into a more intimate experience.

For assignments three and four my group of Jack, Joe and I have had some brief brainstorming. Within these discussions we have explored the interest of making collaborating in the current worlds environment realistically and with quality. Some ideas we have created to combat this include to use a multi channel work with each of us in one corner of the screen, much like I have explored layering footage within assignment two. Moving onto themes we are interest in, Jack came up with the idea of showing an ear visually and then trying to visually depict sounds. This may be in an abstract way allowing the incorporation of Joes visual imagery developed in assignment two.

References 

‘Air dancing’ (2014). [YouTube video]. By Meghan Currie

‘Balance’ (1989) [Short film] Directed by Wolfgang and Christoph Lauenstein. Material-Verlag

‘Gravitational Anarchy’, (30 Nov 2010). [Radio Podcast]. RadioLab WNYC Studios

LaBelle, Brandon. (2010) ‘Introduction: Your Sound is My Sound is Your Sound’. Acoustic Territories : Sound Culture and Everyday Life, Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, New York: xv-vvvi 

Mol, A. and Law, J. (2004) ‘Embodied Action, Enacted Bodies: the Example of Hypoglycaemia’, Body & Society. Sage PublicationsLondon, 10(2–3), pp. 43–62.

Ingold, T. (2005) ‘The eye of the storm: visual perception and the weather’, Visual Studies 20, 2: 97-104

 

Week four exercise

The embedded work

Synopsis

This work based around the prompts of sight and silent footage with narration is about looking into the sky and making shapes and playing with light, how this triggers memories and emotions and how it is inevitably always there.

My discovery about the experience of light and vision

My discovery of light and vision this week revolved around my changed perception of vision as something controlled by light. This also directly and intensely influences emotions of images. The more something is blurry the more I wish to find out what it is and the more I feel the texture as I am paying close attention to the image. I explored this primarily through placing green screen effects on my work to see how when different levels of light were taken away what the effect can be.

Reflection – What worked well/ What didn’t work so well

I believe that the use of childhood videos worked well within this work. I like the stylistic choices I made in editing and hopefully this allows a more cohesive collection of works to form through style as well as theme. I think that the work lacks direction and purpose. I think in my head it made sense and had a narrative but in reality and practice it does not. I wish I had spent more time writing a poetic script in a more creative manner.

This weeks reading

Within this weeks reading of ‘The eye of the storm: visual perception and the weather’, Visual Studies 20, 2: 97-104 by Ingold, T. (2005) page 98 get us to think differently about sight by getting us to notice how we think about sounds and how the way we think about sounds is usually different than sight but it shouldn’t be. We talk about how we hear sounds rather than the object that make the sounds, when talking about sight we say we see the object rather than the actual thing in which we are perceiving which is the light that reflects off the object. This piece allowed me to lower vision on the pedestal I hold it on and align it with other senses such as touch as sound. Both sound and vision have similar ways of perception that this reading exposed me to thinking about.  For example, we hear sound waves and we see light rays, the object we see is the reflection of light rather than just the object itself. (T. Ingold, 2005) This completely changes my ideas surround how I see. With light now as the most important aspect. I plan to directly take this idea and use it as a new way of filming my footage.

Peer feedback for assignment one

Within the class peer review session we all struggled to identify extremely clear themes in any offer works. Although similarities these came across more in editing style and aesthetic choices. However, some pointed out my constant reflection on mental health and the effect the isolation has on my story and the people within. I at first viewed this as more of a personal exposure rather than a reflection of current times but I believe my peers to be correct as I reflect heavily on events surrounding my life. The dark nature of the works is consistent in works two and three. Work one was an outlier and I am happy to disregard it as forming my theme as I was most unhappy with its outcome.

Self reflection on themes in assignment one

Much like my classmates, within assignment one I struggled identifying an overwhelmingly clear theme. However, I think the most consistent is the theme around isolation and more specifically how my personal perspective has changed to the things which surround me and now engulf my everyday life. The different media forms also create a lack of continuous aesthetic qualities and for this reason and observation I would like to make all of my media works for my collection cohesive and like in video form. I think instead of trying to manifest a theme that is vague and not truly present within my past media woks from weeks one to three I would like to begin a new one. At the moment I think this will be on familiarity and how my comfort has transformed into anxiety as a result as this is the theme that interested me most within assignment one.

References 

Ingold, T. (2005) ‘The eye of the storm: visual perception and the weather’, Visual Studies 20, 2: 97-104

Media exercise – hearing

The finished work

Synopsis 

This week my work focuses on a girl who is overwhelmed by simple life tasks. When doing the washing within the Landry, she eats a piece of fruit and gets distracted and muddled by the intense sounds echoing throughout the room around her. The cold, stark environment forces the walls to bounce sound and creates a cold static atmosphere.

Reflection – what worked well and what didn’t work quite so well

My choice to avoid dialogue within this exercise I think worked well as it allowed the media work to purely communicate the atmosphere with our the distraction or influence of dialogue. I like the layering go footage however, it seems slightly random and uncalled for inplaces. I think the work is not paced well. The beginning is too slow and the ending is too fast. This is not what I planned and makes the work confusing.

I discovered that it was a lot more difficult to communicate the temperature of a room than I expected. I tried very hard to communicate coldness through media techniques but struggled to do so. The colours being relatively monochromatic apart from the bright nature of the fruit which provides light I expected to be more powerful than it is.

What I discovered about the relationship between sound, physical space, and movement

I discovered that the use of echo and reverb within a space is very powerful in communicating the materials and size of a space. The enhancing of this is also interesting within editing as it completely changes the dynamics of the space. The movement within a space is very dependent of mic/ camera placement, I wish I had experimented with this more. Space and lack of it can change a work and the atmosphere within extremely and sound is vital to the communication of this.

This weeks reading

I found this weeks reading of ‘Introduction: Your Sound is My Sound is Your Sound’. Acoustic Territories : Sound Culture and Everyday Life, Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, New York: xv-vvvi by LaBelle, Brandon (2010) to be rather confusing to be honest. I was thankful when others in class admitted the same. However I was interested in the class discussion lead by Tyler in which he brought up how to understand sound as a form of energy. I think this is important as it helps to understand the knowledge that sound has power and is thick and can hurt you. This is a new concept for me and is interesting to give sound this power over me and my environment. The complexity of sound and its context is interesting to explore and I plan on doing so through experimentation in different environment and allowing to have the power described in this reading. I also found the exploration of a distinction of noise and sound was interesting, again, I had never through of this concept and leads on from the last point of allowing sound to have importance.

Media example

Within the media example of the Texture Sounds by Sophie Langley and BBC SFX exercise bicycle recordings I found it difficult to name and identify sounds I was hearing as well as describe them, although slightly easier to describe them in groups such as mechanical or chopping. I think this is because many sounds have similar aspects to them and without context it is difficult to place an extremely specific object and the sound that accompanies it.

References

LaBelle, Brandon. (2010) ‘Introduction: Your Sound is My Sound is Your Sound’. Acoustic Territories : Sound Culture and Everyday Life, Bloomsbury Academic & Professional, New York: xv-vvvi

Langley, S., 2020. Texture Sounds. [online] SoundCloud. Available at: <https://soundcloud.com/sophlangley/texture-sounds/s-npI5RYoSKg3>

Bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk. 2020. BBC Sound Effects – Research & Education Space. [online] Available at: <http://bbcsfx.acropolis.org.uk/?cat=bicycles>

Assignment one

The links to my three blog posts are below:

Week one: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/juliaadams/2020/07/29/making-embodiment-week-one-julia/

Week two: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/juliaadams/2020/08/11/making-embodiment-week-two-julia/ ‎

Week three: https://www.mediafactory.org.au/juliaadams/2020/08/12/making-embodiment-week-three-julia/ ‎

Development

Week one – touch 

Within week one in which the task revolved around creating a narrative while enhancing the sense of of touch I chose to create a short video which revolves around the story of a man who desires to feel music once more. He sits in his old leather chair which sticks to his skin and creaks beneath him. He explores his worn hands and rough skin that feel and sound like sandpaper scraping wood. He misses his youth and energy which has been drained from him by years of life and work. he sifts though records from his past and passes memories and years as he does so. Slowly, he allows himself to time travel and be over taken by the music and feel the rhythm. He hands one of his favourites to his daughter in hope for her to have the same experience he has with the feeling of the record.

Week two – smell 

Within week two I was inspired to be more creative and more personal within my work. This was primarily a result of the peer feedback session within the Tuesday class in which I was inspired by the creative and artistic works of my peers created even in a time and climate as the current. Within the work there is a girl stuck within a toxic cycle created during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is mentally and physically stuck within the walls of her musky bedroom that needs to be cleaned and refreshed. She finds comfort under her sheets with a physical barrier separating her from the world outside. She tries opening her window but the smell of the fresh outside reminds her and teases her of the freedoms of her past life and it overwhelms her senses. Her sense of smell triggers memories of childhood and innocence as well as providing her with a recognition of her depressive state of mind.

Week three – taste 

I was afraid to make an audio piece as I have little experience in doing so. However, I leaned a lot from the experience about creating an atmosphere and sense of space within the work. I thrived off the inherent quality of audio in which allowed me to create and tap into a location I would otherwise be unable to explore in video, a hospital. Within the work, a girl is in her hospital bed, tightly wrapped in sheets and smells of sanitiser and sickness. From 5:45-6:15 it is dinner time in the hospital and that means the environment and what flows in and out of her mind body and senses completely changes. Confined in a bed with a little table she looks forward to the watered down raspberry jelly and its sweetness. She eats it first despite nurses orders. She explores her bland plate of dry chicken, mashed potatoes and soggy broccoli while reminders of life through flavours are triggered by the meal.

 

Reflection

Throughout the past three weeks, my experience from making the weekly exercises has resulted my conceptual possibilities surrounding aspects of embodied knowledge evolving and changing considerably. Through the inspiration of watching media works such as Taste, Maria De Castro 2016 in which invited the world of how intensely feelings, emotions and memories are linked to the sense and embodied knowledge to the incredible readings presented by Sophie my thought process has evolved. I began extremely struggling with the ability to encode narrative within a piece that already focuses on a specific sense. My initial ideas and works were closer to a bad montage than to a short story or creative work that reflected or communicated embodied knowledge. Now I believe I have developed an insight into what embodied knowledge in media looks and sounds like.

Within the first week’s exercise, I planned to create a work that predominantly communicated the sense of touch through isolated diegetic sound similar to that explored within Jan Švankmajer – Descendo Até o Porão (1983) (Down to the Cellar), Czech surrealist filmmaker (15 min) in which the use of sound enhances the sense of touch through the amplified diegetic sound. For example the sound of the girls hand gripping and slipping the wooden handrail is exaggerated resulting in a communication of the texture of the wood to the audience. However, as I went into editing the work I work I realised this was not enough, the work lacked narrative and engagement. I also believe my wish for communication of touch though the use of sound was not overly effective as the mic wasn’t as strong as I expected therefore in editing although I tried to enhance the sounds but overall this didn’t have the effect I intended to the extend I intended. My effort of this can be seen in the texture of the record cover and the way in which the plastic makes an exaggerated dietetic sound which helps communicate its texture. I wish I was able to better capture the sense of touch of the man’s hands. The roughness and ware of the skin was a texture I tried to communicate but overall failed to do. In reflection, I wish I had used extreme close upshots to make this more intimate and personal.

Within the reading of Straughan, E. R. (2012). Touched by water: The body in scuba diving. Emotion, Space and Society, 5(1), 19–26.  an idea I found interesting was the discussion of “mobilising emotions through diving”(Straughan, E. R., 2012: pg 23) in which the explanation of how deep diving can intensely harm the body as a result of the increased pressure is made. I in particular found the line “this somatic alteration is experienced as a sense of euphoria” (Straughan, E. R., 012: pg 23) to be interesting as I felt myself overwhelmed with all the things I do that may harm me but bring me pleasure. This concept is fascinating to me as I see it within society everyday. It evokes the question of why we allow harm to be inflicted on our selves over and over for the result of short lived pleasure. This is hard to answer, much like the questions posed of what it feels like to be engulfed in water and how we might describe this feeling.

Within the second week’s exercise, my initial idea of exploring a garden was altered as a result of my week one peer feedback session. I gained the insight that I was looking at these exercises too literally and I was lacking my own personal style that I have worked hard to develop. It promoted me to question why I have given up on my own creativity and instead have fallen into the trap of simply just trying to complete the requirements and instructions. Looking at the media example of Twyker, Tom (2006) ‘Perfume: the Story of a Murderer’ [Film] further altered my concept by bringing to light the use of media techniques including camera angles being extreme close ups which invites a claustrophobic and inescapable sensation. For example, the man who vomits is captured in this way and therefore results in a overwhelming sense of disgust as you cannot escape the scene. From this I was inspired to include my concept of how in some mental states a sense of being trapped is comforting, for example being under sheets and the smells that are familiar and personal within this environment. The inherent qualities of film allowed me to achieve this developed concept through my ability to place the viewer under the sheets visually while simultaneously describing the smells though audio. I think that this sense of comfort in unusual places was captured in the media work produce. Although I was scared to be vulnerable within the narrative of one in an battle with mental heath I believe this resulted in a more engaging and meaningful piece and narrative. I also like how I put more time in exploring edits and effect on footage and audio which I believe enhance creativity within the piece and individuality. I think that moments of the work do clearly communicate the sense of smell such as the window and smelling of the teddy bear, this connection to feelings makes it more relatable. However, I think that the piece lacks a clear narrative as there is no resolution. Although this was my intent as it is the reality of my feelings right now I think it makes the piece harder to follow and understand. I also think that the camera angles were amature especially when capturing the laying down in the bed. A birds eye angle would have liked worked better. I think that the control of pace is lacking and this further weaken the piece and the engagement of it.

Within the reading of Waskul, D D, Vannini, P, & Wilson, J (2009) The Aroma of Recollection: Olfaction, Nostalgia, and the Shaping of the Sensuous Self, The Senses and Society, 4(1), I was surprised about the complexity of smell described and the somatic workings within the brain and mind. The realisation that although language plays a huge role in social interaction it is smell and senses that define it was surprising for me. This discussion evoked further interest in the reading for me as in my personal experience I have learned to almost inherently associate social interaction and my interaction with humans and objects to envelope purely language. However, this insight caused a reevaluation of my perception and interaction with the world. I explored this concept in the planning of week three’s exercise through brainstorming personal connections I make and how smell is intertwined within this.

Within week three’s exercise, I initially planned to revolve my narrative around eating pan fried dumplings and the mess I make when exploring the different temperature and flavours of the meal. However, when looking at media example of Taste, Maria De Castro 2016. (film) both memory and food were associated within each taste described. For example when describing salty flavours, the sea and being on a boat with an uncle was shown and described in detail. This association enhanced the communication of taste via involving feelings that one can be empathetic with. This inspired me to  change my narrative to one the contained more depth and I took inspiration from the environment of a hospital and the meals provided and the moment and memories they trigger. It was my first experience creating a creative audio piece and therefore was quite challenging for me. However, I found the use of a textured audio environment can be powerful. Using purely audio allowed me to explore an environment that I would otherwise not be able to explore or capture of a hospital. This created my narrative and allowed me to manifest objects and people who were not present such as nurses and hospital beds. This was very exiting for me to discover as in the current social environment feeling unlimited in my location and with my ‘props’ was freeing and liberating. I would have not been able to create or explore this narrative or idea because of this within a video work. As a result of drawing personal connections between taste and memory, although some are more abstract I sense a stronger attachment to the similes described therefore I think this worked well. I also like the use of sound effects alough not quite realistic I tried to create with the tools at my hand. I think the work would benefit from more of these effects, for example when describing the texture of beans and their soggy nature when boiled for too long. I believe the atmosphere is incorrect too, although I experimented with distances from my recording device (my phone) I was unable to create a realistic and believable environment. Therefore I believe the poor atmosphere and sound of distance does not work well in the work.

Within class discussion of the reading Seremetakis, CN (1994) ‘The Memory of the Senses, Part I: Marks of the Transitory’, The Senses Still: Perception and Memory as Material Culture in Modernity Routledge, London: 1-18 Rebecca mentioned the discussion under the heading “Sensory and Historical Multiplicity” (pg.9). I found the conversation fascinating about how memory and senses are connected in the way that they are both involuntary experiences. This concept is also interesting to me and I am grateful to Rebecca for bringing light to it as it is overwhelming to consider my lack of control when living every second over my senses. The knowledge that I may be intensely scarred by my senses and by my memories is terrifying. As an occasional control freak this lack of control over my own body although seemingly obvious is scary to me. I made use of this concept within week three’s exercise by allowing this fear and lack of control to be overcome and give into it in form being vulnerable and embracing the thoughts that come and go as a result of my sense of taste and memory in combination.

My ideas about embodiment in media works are developing heavily as a result of the exploration and production of the making of these three media works. Through inspiration of the media works I have discovered the use of seemingly unrelated visuals or sound such as memories and environments can communicate senses in a clearer way than explicitly showing for example, a meal. This discovery has changed my perception of embodiment within media works as I now am looking to create empathy between the work and the viewer and manifesting a relatable and recognisable connection of what is it like to have embodied knowledge and what it sounds like and looks like.

References

Jan Švankmajer – Descendo Até o Porão (1983) (Down to the Cellar), Czech surrealist filmmaker (15 min)

Straughan, E. R. (2012). Touched by water: The body in scuba diving. Emotion, Space and Society, 5(1), 19–26

Twyker, Tom (2006) ‘Perfume: the Story of a Murderer’ [Film]

Waskul, D D, Vannini, P, & Wilson, J (2009) The Aroma of Recollection: Olfaction, Nostalgia, and the Shaping of the Sensuous Self, The Senses and Society, 4(1),

Taste, Maria De Castro 2016

Seremetakis, CN (1994) ‘The Memory of the Senses, Part I: Marks of the Transitory’, The Senses Still: Perception and Memory as Material Culture in Modernity Routledge, London: 1-18

 

 

Media examples

Taste, Maria De Castro 2016. 

This weeks media examples surrounding the sense of taste give the sense that it is intense to taste within a body depicted. Within the media example of Taste, Maria De Castro 2016. both memory and food were associated within each taste described. For example when describing salty flavours the sea and being on a boat with an uncle was shown and described in detail. This association enhanced the communication of taste via involving feelings that one can be empathetic with. The use of heavily saturated colours and isolated sounds further enhanced the strength of taste. The use of the film beginning with an item of food, an egg, also created a connection to the descriptions unrelated to food and the sense of taste through planting the involvement of food and taste within the piece for the audience.

Eat Drink Man Woman, Ang Lee 1994

The use of music in the media example surrounding asian culture and recognisable and associating sounds enhances the viewers connection to draw on Chinese flavours. This use of music bounces off the visuals of the cooking food and enhances the imagination of the sides and flavours that coincide with asian cuisine. Building on this, the diabetic sounds of the cooking describe the texture of the food further communication the sense of eating. The preparation of the food and cutting of items such as the squid also communicated texture of the food and the sounds in which the knife made while cutting and hitting the chopping board created distinction and differentiation between foods.

Sonic Seasoning, Dave Parsons, Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast ep 23

The use of background noise create ambience placing the listener in the environment. This technique communicated the sense of taste via building up the environment. The use of sound effect like sizzles and crunches emphasises the texture in ones mouth when tasting, For example the Pringle ad and the crunch clearly communicated the texture of the item, this was described as sonic branding, allowing the viewer to imagine he process of eating the food.

 

This weeks reading

Seremetakis, CN (1994) ‘The Memory of the Senses, Part I: Marks of the Transitory’, The Senses Still: Perception and Memory as Material Culture in Modernity Routledge, London: 1-18

Within class discussion Rebecca mentioned the discussion under the heading “Sensory and Historical Multiplicity” (pg.9). I found the conversation fascinating about how memory and senses are connected in the way that they are both involuntary experiences. This concept is also interesting to me and I am grateful to Rebecca for bringing light to it as it is overwhelming to consider my lack of control when living every second over my senses. The knowledge that I may be intensely scarred by my senses and by my memories is terrifying. As an occasional control freak this lack of control over my own body although seemingly obvious is scary to me.

I may make use of this concept within the reading within this weeks exercise by allowing this fear and lack of control to be overcome and give into it. I plan to do this in the form being vulnerable and embracing the thoughts that come and go as a result of my sense of taste and memory in combination.

Peer feedback for week two

Within this weeks peer feedback I really enjoyed watching Joe and Halis’ media works exploring smell. I was inspired by Joes comment on how although we may be limited by the quality of our works as a result of lack of equipment the use of split screen and back and white in editing can greatly impact the quality of the final result and improve the work as a whole. I plan to use this technique in future projects. When discussing Halis’ work both Joe and I loved how strong his narrative was despite the short length of the work. I was very impressed with the use of comedy in the work and found this to incredibly increase my engagement of the piece. Both works capture the sense of smell in different ways that were effective. When discussing my work the feedback I found most helpful was that I should embrace the vulnerability I was afraid to share. I was very nervous sharing this week as I was unsure of my work and knowing how much I can learn and benefit from doing so gives me more confidence for next week.

 

Week three exercise – Taste

Planning and script 

Synopsis

A girl is in hospital and from 5:45-6:15 it is dinner time. Confined in a bed with a little table she looks forward to the watered down raspberry jelly and its sweetness. She eats it first despite nurses orders. She explores her bland plate of dry chicken, mashed potatoes and soggy broccoli while reminders of life through flavours are triggered by the meal.

Finished audio piece 

Self reflection – what worked well and what didn’t work quite so well

Within the week three exercise of creating an audio piece surround the sense of taste I took inspiration from my own life and real experiences, thoughts and connections I have made through the sense of taste. I think although some are more abstract I sense a stronger attachment to the similes described. I like the use of sound effects alough not quite realistic I tried to create with the tools at my hand. I think the work would benefit from more of these effects, for example when describing the texture of beans and their soggy nature when boiled for too long. I believe the atmosphere is incorrect too, although I experimented with distances from my recording device (my phone) I was unable to create a realistic and believable environment. Therefore I believe the poor atmosphere and sound of distance does not work well in the work.

Reflection on only using audio 

It was my first experience creating a creative audio piece and therefore was quite challenging for me. Some of my favourite parts about the works so far have been experimenting with visual edits and being creative in this manner. However, I found the use of a textured audio environment can be powerful and the editing of the audio work although different was creative and rewarding. Using purely audio allowed me to explore an environment that I would otherwise not be able to explore or capture of a hospital. This created my narrative and allowed me to manifest objects and people who were not present such as nurses and hospital beds. This was very exiting for me to discover as in the current social environment feeling unlimited in my location and with my ‘props’ was freeing and liberating. I would have not been able to create or explore this narrative or idea because of this within a video work.

References

Taste, Maria De Castro 2016.

Eat Drink Man Woman, Ang Lee 1994

Sonic Seasoning, Dave Parsons, Twenty Thousand Hertz podcast ep 23

Seremetakis, CN (1994) ‘The Memory of the Senses, Part I: Marks of the Transitory’, The Senses Still: Perception and Memory as Material Culture in Modernity Routledge, London: 1-18

Media examples

This weeks media example of Twyker, Tom (2006) ‘Perfume: the Story of a Murderer’ [Film] and text Suskind, Patrick (2001) Perfume: the Story of a Murderer. Vintage, Random House: pp 1-2 gave the sense that it is overwhelming and grotesque to be a body in the environment depicted. It is dirty and infectious. A body is engulfed in slop both in the form of texture and atmosphere. Imaging being a body within the environment described evoked a sense of repulsion and sickness similar to the feeling when you are about to throw up.

These feelings of what it might like to be in a body in the environment depicted are manifested by the use of media techniques including the dark tone of audio within the film which brings intense diabetic sounds to the forefront and reflects everyday and relatable grotesque sounds. The subjects depicted in combination with the camera angles being extreme close ups invite a claustrophobic and inescapable sensation. For example, the man who vomits is captured in this way and therefore results in a overwhelming sense of disgust as you cannot escape the scene.

Similarly to the film, the text uses relentless descriptive language to create the claustrophobic and overwhelming grotesque feeling. As discussed within my breakout room, it describes the collection of smells vividly but individually with its place of origin. This creates an intense understanding of the smell to the reader.

This weeks reading

Waskul, D D, Vannini, P, & Wilson, J (2009) The Aroma of Recollection: Olfaction, Nostalgia, and the Shaping of the Sensuous Self, The Senses and Society, 4(1),

Within this weeks reading I was surprised about the complexity of smell described and the somatic workings within the brain and mind. Tina wrote in the class discussion “What I personally found interesting was the realisation that although language plays a huge role in social interaction, as stated previously in regards to how impactful our perception of smell is, As quoted by Bull and his colleagues (Bull et al. 2006), Howes (2003) and Stoller (1997) “sensuality is experienced, expressed, remembered and shared in ways that transcend the limitations of linguistic symbolism”.” This discussion evoked further interest in the reading for me as in my personal experience I have learned to almost inherently associate social interaction and my interaction with humans and objects to envelope purely language. However, this insight caused a reevaluation of my perception and interaction with the world.

Peer feedback session

The peer feedback session in which took place in breakout rooms looking at our week one media works surrounding touch was very insightful. I was thoroughly inspired by my peers works and jealousy of their skills and content worked in my favour and promoted motivation for this weeks work. I gained the insight that I was looking at these exercises too literally and I was lacking my own personal style that I have worked hard to develop. It promoted me to question why I have given up on my own creativity and instead have fallen into the trap of simply just trying to complete the requirements and instructions. Although the feedback by my peers of changes to edits and camera angles were very helpful and insightful I gained the most from watching their work and interpretation of the set task. This heavily inspired me to look back at some of my older works from high school and re-learn why I am passionate about making media and my strengths within this.

I used this insight within my approach to this weeks exercise via allowing myself to have more time to edit and play around with the footage a lot more. Although this may be more risky and hasn’t resulted in perfection or even high quality work I am proud of the vulnerability and intimacy shown in the work, which was a direct product of inspiration from my peers creativity.

Week two exercise – video work exploring smell

Planning for the exercise

This week I trialed planning to a lesser extent in order to further enhance my epiphany within the peer feedback session and ignite my creativity, particularly in the editing process. Next week I would like to try and be more creative in my mind and in the planning process to enhance a cohesive work.

Synopsis / written text 

There is a girl stuck within a toxic cycle created during the COVID-19 pandemic. She is mentally and physically stuck within the walls of her musky bedroom that needs to be cleaned and refreshed. She finds comfort under her sheets with a physical barrier separating her from the world outside. She tries opening her window but the smell of the fresh outside reminds her and teases her of the freedoms of her past life and it overwhelms her senses. Her sense of smell triggers memories of childhood and innocence as well as providing her with a recognition of her depressive state of mind.

Embedded video 

Reflection on this weeks media work 

I believe that the media work I created this week surrounding the sense of smell is more personal than last week and I became more vulnerable as a result. although I was scared to do so I believe this resulted in a more engaging and meaningful piece and narrative. I also like how I put more time in exploring edits and effect on footage and audio which I believe enhance creativity within the piece and individuality. I think that moments of the work do clearly communicate the sense of smell such as the window and smelling of the teddy bear, this connection to feelings makes it more relatable.

I think that the piece lacks a clear narrative as there is no resolution. Although this was my intent as it is the reality of my feelings right now I think it makes the piece harder to follow and understand. I also think that the camera angles were externally amature especially when capturing the laying down in the bed. A birds eye angle would have liked worked better. I think that the control of pace is lacking and this further weaken the piece and the engagement of it.

References

Twyker, Tom (2006) ‘Perfume: the Story of a Murderer’ [Film]

Suskind, Patrick (2001) Perfume: the Story of a Murderer. Vintage, Random House: pp 1-2

Waskul, D D, Vannini, P, & Wilson, J (2009) The Aroma of Recollection: Olfaction, Nostalgia, and the Shaping of the Sensuous Self, The Senses and Society, 4(1),