This week has been spent focusing on the essay. It is great to begin to draw the ideas out. There is still a way to go and it isn’t a process that comes naturally, but like I said last week, it is a process that I am enjoying.

In Tuesday’s online chat we had individual chats with Andy, so I was able to discuss the essay. Andy was asking when a photograph became a photograph: When you push the shutter button, when its stored in the camera or when it is printed.

From reading an article by Cathy Weis on ageism, I am beginning to question if my understanding of embodiment. I have been thinking of embodiment in a linear way, time based due to our biological nature, and if in fact the notion of embodiment is far more diverse, and possibly more like a tag cloud.

I have read recently that can be argued is that rather than disembodying us cyberspace has in fact has embodied us.

This week I also managed to spend a little time on jotting down some notes for a prototype for the final show. Below is a 1^st draft for the final piece prototype:

Prototype draft 1

But having shown it to a couple of friends and discussed the options with them, they advised me against trying to travel down to Camberwell and create an installation.  Their feedback was the ideas in the presentation were too ambitious in relation to my resources and situation.

So had a good think through options and am going to look in to making a non linear narrative piece with Korsakow. That way all my recourses will be directed to a focused and contained piece and the time frame will be more realistic.

So the next step will be to spend a bit of time going back over Korsakow with my sister who knows more about the programming than I do and get up to speed and aim to put another draft presentation for the prototype together in a week or so.

I am comfortable with proceeding with a more contained project, a lot of my worries for the final piece have been based on options of getting down to London.

Korsakow is a structure that feels appropriate as it allows for interaction and the non linear narrative structure is representative of the way digital media has opened up choices and changed familiar processes. It feels as if it may echo some of the ideas above about the cyber world freeing us from a linear time biological lead understanding.

Appreciating why some of the questions we were posed in the early part of this course matter so profoundly, such as who controls the net and the sharing of information. Given how societies have structured and controlled themselves with biological based hierarchies that are in many ways obsolete in cyber space. (These some how are often found re asserting themselves. Like the sexual stereotyping of many avatars).

Just to end on an exciting piece of news about Mail Art One. At the end of last week I was contacted by the gallery director for the DLI gallery who wished to contact one of the contributors with a view to working with them.

I am really pleased about this as it was one of the things I hoped might be achieved through the publication.  Its aim was to be eclectic, democratic open to any one who wanted to could be included. I am glad I stuck at producing it. It feels really good to have facilitated that introduction.

MPR

This project has evolved as a response to my interest in exploring the link between our movements (for the purpose of the MA, specifically non body language movements) and our identities.

My research has come to be  focused  around the link between identity and movement, of embodiment and disembodiment, the materialized, de materialized and the philosophies of Descartes and Merleau-Ponty.

 

Throughout unit one I have focused on constructing a methodology in order to explore these ideas.

Videoing movement, slowing footage down, lifting stills allowed me to make slide shows and short video animations which explore movements

http://www.slideshare.net/susanmort/white-sheet-1

and to ask questions about appropriate ways of filming these movements. E.g. what areas of the body to film, whether or not to include the face, question the role of background and environment?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OkI_7T1LPUg

 

I have been using the following programmes

Credo: for animation from video footage of the body.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YoYR_sMg-F0

Korsakow: to experiment with a non linear format.

 Isadora:  to create a piece where video and physical interaction may take place in real time.

 

Through out August 2009  I attempted to provide a more systematic and structured context for presenting these movements and have done his by attempting to add an empirical element by wearing a pedometer to record the number of steps I take daily and keep a video diary of myself walking for a short period each day.

 

“But in reality the body is changing form at every moment; or rather there is no form, since form is immovable and reality is movement. What is real is the continual change of form: form is only a snapshot view of a transition.”
                                                             —Henri Bergson, Creative Evolution 

 

‘The surface is where the self meets what is other than self.’  Leder, D. ‘The Absent Body.’ The University of Chicago Press 1990 (page 11)

 

The meeting point between our bodies and the surfaces they encounter will be the starting point to explore the link between identity and movement .

In order to continue this I aim to:

1. Develop core project and methodologies employed to a more specific view point.

2.  Create  better definition of key words e.g.: identity/surface/environment/embodiment.

3. Book motion tracking facilities at Newcastle University.

4. continue to produce paper based pieces alongside digital pieces. http://www.slideshare.net/susanmort/steps-august-2009

5. Produce prototype for final piece.

 

 

 This past weeks work has been chaotic and spread out over too many areas. I am still working by making wide sweeping loops over subjects rather than focusing and pursuing directed goals and need to address this. 

 

I spent some more time this week with the Isadora soft wear. There are some areas I can’t seem to get to function and am checking through to see if this is down to using the demo version so all the functions may not be enabled or if I do not understand the required process.

 

Also tried out the newer version of Korsakow this week, but got stuck as it was conflicting with the Credo soft wear, which seems to have dropped some of its files when installed and placed folders in random areas on the computers memory and now isn’t accessing them properly.

 

I am aiming to use the older version of Korsakow for the project using the pedometer and daily film clips. It has been quite hard to film each day and to wear the pedometer. There have been a couple of days where for one reason or another I haven’t managed to get some video. I am trying to work out how to include these days where I am left with an amount of steps taken but no film. I have a couple of weeks left of filming left as I set the time frame of August for the project. I hope to start editing the clips and resizing them for Korsakow next week. Hoping this process will help start to develop a visual style that Andy recommended I start to create during the online chat I had with him.

 

Photoshop is behaving erratically, taking a long time to find files and shutting down unexpectedly in the middle of a process. Think there may either be a virus on the computer, or that the mother board is going as I am having trouble shutting the computer down and a having to resort to pulling the plug on it. This failing to shut down has been my experience with my previous computer when on its failing.

 

I went back to look at the different video file types to see if I can figure a way of working round the loss of quality when saving video clips. Was trying out different video file types on Microsoft slide share as a possible work round to Korsakow. Found that it has to be windows media or it won’t play… so the camcorder’s file type will work for any project based on Microsoft slide share. Initially I was able to save video files from the camcorder as movie files… but not any more. Going through these work arounds this week is confirming that the computer isn’t doing too well.

 

There is the apple to work on but again this means a new learning curve and it has a lot of preinstalled soft wear so unless I remove some of those programmes I won’t have room to put on things like Photoshop or Credo.

 

This brings about that I need to clear the decks some what to prepare for September and try to resolve these conflicting issues and sharpen my basic understanding of the appropriate technologies to go forward to complete the MA.

 

Did manage to get to the DLI and got to see Sumit Sarkar’s – Ananta

 

http://www.kriksix.com/   

 

 

http://www.ananta8.com/watch/making_of/

 

 

Have been reading Drew Leder’s ‘The Absent Body.’ (University of Chicago Press Cicago and London. 1990)

 

 

He states:

 

‘…my body is indicated as the orientational center in relation to which every thing else takes its place.’

 

(Chapter 1  p.22)

 

Also started to print the autumn issue of Mail Art One. The printer is jamming.

 

Over all it’s felt quite a frustrating week progress wise, but the trade off hopefully will be a more disciplined methodology and out look and well worth the effort. Hope to outline the timetable Andy requested next week when I have a better idea of the way forward with the different areas and issues that are cropping up.

This week I have been trying to research further in support of the essay. I have found some useful links to movement and cognition but am getting in to a muddle as there seem so many threads to gentle put in.

 

 

 Thankfully, during my weekly read through of the weblogs, I came across Kevin’s entry titled ‘The Masked Musicians’

 

 http://kevinruraifox.wordpress.com/

 

It was really great to read this break down around context. Thanks Kevin for putting it so clearly.

 

 

Have been exploring Troika Ranch’s ‘Isodora’ download.

 

Looks like it might be a very useful tool if I can get the resources together to use this system. I am not sure though about using a system that still contains bugs as I know I don’t have the skills to easily find work arounds and have learnt that I often over reach myself and need to reign myself in.

 

It would be fantastic to find something similar that would allow this sort of real time application.

 

 

 

 There is a new version of Korsakow which I hope to get to grips with over the next couple of weeks with some further help from my sister.

 

Really like Korsakow. Like how flexible it is because of its non narrative structure.

 

http://www.korsakow.org/tiki-index.php

 

 

Coincidentally, I was contacted by a student at USC about the previous version of Korsakow who is having some of the same issues I experienced.

 

I would like to some how make the final piece combing Korsakow and an Isodora like application to create a real time and interactive projected piece. But like I said that is a tall order.

 

Also had time to pop in to Emptyshop to see work by Sumit Sarkar who is also showing at the DLI. I want to get along there with in the next couple of days.

 

http://county.durham.gov.uk/sites/dli/Pages/ArtGalleryEvents.aspx

u2

                                                         

Working on Korsakow- system over the weekend and using video clips    shot during unit 1 of the field

 

 

 

                                                         

 Currently running the Korsakow system on apple. Working on resizing the video to get  the dimensions right.

 

 

 

                                                                             

 

 Work room and the start of the mail art printing run. Used Canon Eos to take this image. The Dimage took the above 2 photos and constantly under exposes.

unit 2

 

Had a huge surprise in finding a comment posted by Florian Thalhofer the creator of the Korsakow-system this week.  Florian suggested working more instinctively with the system and I tried this and found it flexible and responsive.

 

I will keep playing with the system now and see how things begin to flow and build. Found filming a lot easier.

 

Recalling again how contact improvisation works in a similar way and want to think more about this possible link between these two disciplines.

 

It was quite something to be contacted like that by Florian and again illustrates a really positive dimension to the internet and on line learning.

 

The Canon Eos 30D camera body arrived and am looking forward to getting some time to try it out over this weekend.

 

 

I will try to build its use in to the next of Jonathan’s 3 week modules for reflective practice, which will be photograph and caption.

Unit2 April 2008

 

unit 2

 

 

Feed back for unit 1 came this week.

 

 

The two main points in the feed back were to look at more  rigorous and effective time tabling  and  a better use of  linking categories on to the  blog.

 

        

 

 

The unit 2 out line which was discussed during Mondays chat outlined  4 major tasks to be completed with in 8 months. So am looking to understand and structure the time better this unit and timetable more effectively.

 

 

 

There is a  new wordpress layout… this for me means another learning curve.  Though I had already prioritized  to spend some extra time with it to be able to use the weblog as a more effective tool and tidy up the lists to make them more workable and concise.

 

 

Taking on a paper based mail art project… to offset the digital process…this will be an on going project which I hope will complement the on line sketch book. One direction this could take would be to make it digital and posted on  a cd disc so that people can view download and print items they like. This would mean losing the paper and change the idea a lot. But it may take that course.

 

 

 

The aim will be to produce it every 2-4 months for the rest of the MADA.  I will try and post an invitation to submit work on the wiki in the next week.

 

 

Took a trip to the Baltic Mill Art Gallery, Gateshead, this week to see the installation   piece  ’Run, Black River, Run.’ by Mark Titchner.

 

 Also managed to get some photographs of reflections and shadows which will be added to the MADA sketch book.

 

 

 

 

 Reference videos.

 

Spent some time this week on Youtube looking at music videos. These have been very useful as I feel there maybe a parallel between the online experience and how we experience music and the part it plays in our lives as something intangible that can affect us profoundly and provide a backdrop and even context for key times in our lives.

 

I also looked for music videos that were to do with identity. A major link seems to be the internalizing process that takes place in both online communication and listening to music. Though we share these activities with others we internalize them at a very deep level at the same time.

 

Links for some of the videos are pasted bellow. I wasnt aware until I started watching these videos carefully what a role the lighting, camera work and arrangement played in the Temptation videos. Looked at james Brown clips from the same era and these

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw2uU5LSBN0      David Ruffin/shadows for aspects of an individual and an unusual way of introducing the individual into the frame

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvIw5ZqC1ms    Outkast.Multiple identities or facets of a person 

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=17cmBnziQw4     Wycleff Jean internalizing emotion and then replaying that internalization on to a current situation or environment.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZMxmuBu_GCg Referencing this video clip (watch both songs) for filming techniques. Watch the use of shadows in the second song which are used for the same effect as those in the 1st clip of David Ruffin above. This may have been done intentionally for the David Ruffin video as a refrence to the split with the Temptations, also to provide continuity and  place Ruffin in recognisable production style. But it doesnt detract from the power of the imagery and use of shadows.

 

 

I also found one which relates to the area of copyright and gained permission to cite it for the PGPD.  

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WAb8kMFbXkc  (Not wholly reverent, but makes its point in the way that copyright can have an effect.)

 

The download for the Korsakow-System is still problematic with files not opening due to Windows not recognizing them. Frustrating, but again it adds to the learning process. I am going to try downloading them for Mac and see if that can open them.

 

http://www.korsakow.com/ksy/index.html

 

A few days earlier Andy had forwarded a link to an artist Yolande Harris interesting reference. I know Andy has in the past mentioned  looking at the importence of space to my project and it is an issue I am struggling to incorporate.

 

http://www.rhizome.org/editorial/fp/reblog.php/4230

 

This should be a link for the shadow flowers video completed over Easter and posted to Youtube.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lNHA3CaLqog