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