A Series of Video Tests
During a conversation with Cynthia it was suggested that I start developing prototypes that take longer to develop. All of my previous exercises were quick to implement, and she felt that if I was able to invest more time into one prototype the results might be deeper and have more impact. With that in mind, I know that I want some type of video element integrated into my thesis work. I thought I would take some time to create a series of video tests, exploring projection, reflection, and my role in the video.
For the first test, I wanted to see how I could incorporate the myself into the old home videos, without being a distracting element. My idea was to somehow “blend” into the footage, creating a live superimposed version of me into the past. I simply became a canvas for the projected image. In terms of my performance within this particular test, I was just watching the video. I know that my expression and stare is blank, but I was attempting to visualize the act of reflection. It doesn’t necessarily look like anything. My intention was that the projected videos on top of me would infer that I was thinking about the past.
Projection Test 1
For the next two experiments I wanted to look at the idea of reflection. I placed a mirror in front of the projector, and had it bounce the image onto another wall. This method distorts the original image and also creates duplicate copies of it. For the first of these tests, I filmed the reflected projected image that was in the corner of two walls. For the second test I filmed the reflection of the projected images in the mirror. Both results are abstracted.
Projection Test 2
Projection Test 3
For my final experiment, I was looking at ways to composite the two videos together. With a simple overlay technique in Final Cut Pro, I was able to give the current self a ghost like quality. Through the movement of the home videos, parts of myself appear and disappear.
Projection Test With Overlay
Ok, some solid prototyping work. Although you do succinctly describe what the visual results of each experiment were, you don’t analyze what worked or didn’t, for you. You are struggling with that audience member who says, “Cool, but so what?” What is that ‘what’? What kind of transformation do you want your viewer to experience (think and feel…or even do?) while looking at individual pieces? While looking at a room full of your works? What happens to YOU, when remembering and forgetting? How is that represented (through either process or content) in each piece? Also make your viewer conscious of — and especially when you are working on a time-based piece — how human memory is experienced? Is it a loop? A continuum? Are there holes, etc.? Not that you have to mimic the way it works, but these might also be useful characteristics of memory to explore.