Week 3 Wednesday

The question this week relate to the Ontograph and what it does. For me it shows the true effects and costs of the technology and resources we take for granted. As well as the advances in thinking that was required.

As far as what I have learnt this week, I am unsure, I fealty like despite the exercise we are generally still approaching this from a human perspective, not surprising seeings that that seems to be the nature of being human. I hope to be able to accomplish the next submission with more success.

Week 2 Friday – Ontography

I would say that this class has modified my thinking a little. Perhaps more. From the point of view of the human race I would certainly say that in the short time I have been taking this class I think of our species differently, it is selfish, not consciously, but our entire way of life, civilised life, is based on the assumption that the earth is a bottomless pit that we have complete dominion over and we can only see things from our own narrow perspective. What we can get out of it. That is why a desk is seen as a desk rather than a piece of wood or food for insects. I like this sort of thinking because there’s no denying it, it is pure logic and research.

Wednesday Week 1

I’ve learnt a few amusing things about my classmates, which broke the ice a little. However I am a little dismayed at the prospect of using Korsakow again, Because it’s horrendous. It’s painfully annoying.

I am happy, however, at the prospect of doing studio based work, whatever that may be.

Adrian mentioned ‘Tacit Knowledge’ which I briefly studied in TAFE.

Final assessment Begins…….

Final Korsakow assignment starts now.

We’re focusing on body language, in particular focusing on the feet and their reactions when confronted with interview questions. We feel that focusing on the feet will eliminate prejudices of appearance a little and will enable the audience to engage more freely with what the subject says.

Korsakow # 3

So this week I finished putting together my sketch film in korsakow.

korsakow # 3

Everything went pretty smoothly, no dramas. Isn’t crashing or anything so that’s a relief, and I’ve been ensuring that everything stays where it’s supposed, in regard to file organisation.

This is what it looks like now.

korsakow4

So that’s the sketch film!

Essay

Erin Rosenberg, Carla Reid and Megan Whytcross’ “Body Of Memories” (2012) is an interesting piece that explores the theme of memories. They do this with the inclusion of visual motifs of the human body hence “Body of Memories”. For a Korsakow project it is quite structured. It begins with it’s title in the first clip. Quilte linear to begin with. Then the theme goes in phases, depending on your choices as to what you click on.
The interface is easy to grasp. It is presented in a formation of nine boxes in three rows of three, the central box contains the current playing clip that you are viewing. The other 8 contain thumbnails of the other potential clips you can select to continue the film. It’s a simple layout that makes it easy to ensure your audience can clearly see their options in content.
Hands are the most common visual in this film. It exposes gestures, strange habits that the interviewees have whilst they’re telling their stories. Sometimes to an alienating level, the gestures don’t match the memory being exposed. One of the more distressing stories revolves around a nurse and her attempt to save a patients’ life, unsuccessfully. Whilst explaining this she appears to be creating a dance number with her hands, as though the fingers were legs, marching to a beat. Very strange. This is a good example of how hands are used in the film. All of the hand clips seem to convey a story that the person recounting said story took part in, in an active way. The nurse tried to save her patient, a young woman got married, another young woman gets a tattoo of her husband’s name tattooed on her arm. All are action oriented stories.
Then we are shown a different visual. The eyes. Now the memories turn to those of a visual nature. Those recounting stories with theirs eyes in shot usually have a story related to something they saw and how that has become a thing that they will always remember. One woman tells of a time when her young daughter fell in to a pool and sank to the bottom. As she went to help her she recounts the look of utter helplessness on her daughters face and how much it terrifies her. It’s haunting and distancing at the same time.
If I have a complaint about “Body of Memories” it is that after a while the visuals seem to mean less and less in an almost misleading way. To the point where the visuals don’t compliment the anthology of memories and the themes don’t remain consistent. Perhaps I’m missing something. Perhaps that’s the ultimate meaning of the film, that there is no pattern in life and that you’ll only remember some things.
Though I don’t think that the film is entirely successful at conveying a message, it does do a great job of conveying emotion, the nurse’s story is an easy example. However as far as patterns go I wasn’t able to detect a pattern in it’s themes but there was a pattern in it’s visual motifs, body parts make up the whole of the memories. But the stories being told felt like they had little relevance to each other despite their visual similarities, it left me highly conflicted as to the meaning of the film as a whole, which is more frustrating than enticing.

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