I haven’t written over the last couple of days because my time has been so stretched, and my thoughts are so embedded and confused that I haven’t been able to talk about approach, nothing seems too clear right now. Its been busy, bus, busy over this residency – and now I need time out to reflect – more in reflecting than doing. My thoughts are scattered, trying to reflect – and the reflection is at a space that I still haven’t been able to translate into words. But now, I guess I will try. Start thinking about what has happened over the last ten days.
I have shot 5 different portraits, each a really amazing journey of attempting to read people, give and take. I have enjoyed the journey, the people have given and shared and often exposed a lot. I then have sat and analyzed and categorized that footage – more as looking at narrative and science of what an emotion is. This process has felt harsh – as if I am fragmenting a lovely relationship, objectifying it, making it into a production.
Over the Lighthouse Residency I have been developing new ways of looking a displaying video, both with the pixy project and experiential electricae with the rapid prototyping group at Solent Universiy.
Over the last couple of days I have tried to understand pixy and how it reveals and image, and what images may break through the challenges of the pixy display. Last week I tried shooting for Pixy, concentrating on voice and movement. Much of that didn’t work at all. We worked out the screen liked closeness of the face, really cropped in – it liked a sort of swaying movement in order to capture glimpses of a face. I created many different video tracks to put through – few worked. Pixy likes great lighting and my recent video portraits have been shot in a studio with one light – I decided to be more adaptable and respond to content and not be so focused on the technicalities of lighting. In the end we were down to two men – one called Kevin and the other Simon. Not particularly long portraits – they repeat themselves pretty quickly. I have a bout 35 portraits now. Some of these are a few hours long.
