Still photographs of video project showing methods and materials used.

Performance – Body - Spaces you inhabit proposal

My performance will consist of me in front of the classroom with a stool set up in front of me with three fresh chilli peppers on top. I will begin my performance by eating a chilli pepper. I will then address the class when saying that I need someone to go out and buy me a drink or provide a glass of water to fill to help assuage the burning sensation created by the chilli pepper. I will provide another student with a video camera that is somehow connected to the projector in the classroom. With the camera, that person will follow the person with the glass as they go out to get me a drink. The intended result will be to have me in front of the class suffering the effects of the chilli pepper while suspense is created by the anticipation of desperately wanting a glass of water and being able to see the progress of the journey to bring me water projected on the screen behind me. Participation may also be asked of a student prior to the performance to handcuff me and hide the key and told only to retrieve it after a countdown of five minutes. The difficult part about this presentation will be trying to find a means to project a live feed from a wireless camera onto the projector in front of class.

Experiencing the body, self-reflection

Since the writing of my proposal to the completion of my project, many changes have taken place. My initial intent was to use green screen to create an illusion of movement through space with the body. This was the premise for my project which has remained the same despite the final project being different than the proposal for it.

Initially, I wanted to create the illusion that as the image more closely approached the subject, the viewer would sense that we are entering into the body of the person. A green screen was set up with lights to illuminate it. A test shot was taken with the materials to see if the effect was achievable in the editing room. After spending some time editing to quickly create a rough version of what I wanted to do, I realized that the effect was not as powerful as I imagined. I realized that it was not such an intimate exploration of the body as I wanted. Because I was using green materials such as fabric and cardboard, it was the materials being explored, not the body.

I was getting really frustrated and as me and a friend were playing around with the materials, I came up with the idea of separating the head from the body to put more emphasis on the body. I often think about how sometimes I feel disconnected from my body. By this I mean that I feel like I do not have control of my mind because it thinks without me choosing to think. When deep in thought, I often I am thinking about something while my body does something automatically without even being conscious of it. This disconnection between mind and body is often the result of stress, confusion or inattentively.

To create the effect of disconnection I decided to take two different shots where in one, we block the body with a green shirt to create a floating head and in the second shot, block the head to create a headless body. We made sure that in the first shot the head stayed above the mid line in the frame. In the second shot the body stayed below the midline so that we may combine both shots without them interfering with each other. The movements that were recorded were random and so we were entirely sure how the outcome would look. Co-ordination between the two shots would go against the idea of disconnection because we wanted disco-ordination, disorientation. The editing was fairly simple and the end result proved better than expected. The head and the body are moving randomly in different directions which make for a visually interesting interplay between the two. I feel that it creates a good sense of confusion and that the message of disconnection between the mind and body is clear.

I feel good about the end result. I am quite interested in different aspects of creativity such as painting, drawing, music, films and writing but this is the first time that I have been able to represent this idea. The concept of consciousness is something that I have been thinking about for a long time and so it was satisfying to be able to express it through this project.

Experiencing the body

My project for this assignement will consist primarily of the use of green screen, a video camera and editing to create an illusion of movement through space. The effect that I intend to create is a vortex like experience where the camera continues to move in forward only to enter another image continuing this effect. A good example that is similar to my intended outcome is the music video by The White Stripes“Seven Nation Army”. Along with the green screen, I will have other green coloured materials and objects such as construction paper and clothing. I will hold, manipulate or wear these objects while standing in front of a green screen. The person manipulating the camera will begin from a long shot and physically bring the camera in forward towards me as I am holding or wearing a“mini-green screen”. As the camera approaches to the point where the green object is taking up the entire image, I will appear in the next image once again holding another “mini-green-screen” thus repeating the effect creating the vortex. I will create the video with editing software and project it in front of the class which will only require a screen projector connected to computer or a DVD player connected to a TV.