Practicalities
It’s all getting very real! I’ve had my technician session to specify my build for the degree show – with its new wall and a plinth to hide the projection kit, borrowed the projector, media player and long extension cable that I will be using for the show, and begun my risk assessment. Despite my anxiety whether to show just the projection, or include other works, I’m preparing for either eventuality, and have:
* ordered spotlights in time for PAT tests next Wednesday (to light any non-projection work – UCS has none to lend),
* ordered fire retardant white net curtain fabric to make my projection screen,
* ordered a bench for my projection viewers to relax on (Turner Contemporary provided one for the Francis Alys projection in their RISK exhibition – it really helped focus viewers’ involvement in his projection, and hints at the personal/domestic remembering experience of the old ciné viewings),
* bought a tiny audio adapter which should mean the projector can broadcast sound without a separate speaker, keeping the electrics simple.
I should have time for plenty of practicing and experimenting to see what works well. I’ve played with the new projector/sound set up at home, and it’s defeated me all over again, so I’ll be with the technicians again on Monday for another lesson…
Editing and SOUND
I’ve been continuing to practice with my projections, and have noticed the animation clips made on my phone are different speeds from one another, and the between-clips I created in iMovie are both slower than all these, and have different size frames. So I’ve been re-making and editing on my phone in its Stop Motion app, and reloading these new clips into iMovie to start a new version of the whole projection. Here is one of the very short between-clips I plan to use.
I was so struck by James Coleman’s Untitled, 2011-15, and its hypnotic pulse soundtrack that I am considering using sound too. I fret that it will be too descriptive for my viewers, so I am experimenting first. The only sound I think will be appropriate is the sound of a projector like the one that would have projected my original ciné frame sources. I wonder whether it will create the impression that I am just mimicking that film process, and distract any viewer from noticing how the clips (hopefully) challenge them to find meaning, and how they can’t help doing that, yet also relish the way their brain does it. But Coleman’s loud ‘pulse’ did sound like a heartbeat, as well as the crank of a turn – and those narrative ideas did not interrupt my experience of his piece, they enhanced it.
I’ve found great 8mm projector recordings to download free at Freesound.org, and downloaded these to play with my clips. I want them to play quietly on my loop, and edit them in on my new iMovie version, then watch them on my laptop. I think they are not distracting, but actually add to the feeling of occasion and make me focus on the images more. When I get the UCS projector going properly, I can try it again to make sure. Sound may work.
As I play again and again with my clips, I wonder whether they really do what I hope. Some of the images are particularly indistinct. Will my audience ‘get’ them? Should they need the blurb I’ve prepared for our Degree Show catalogue to be able to enjoy them? Would that be enough anyway? Would I rather they enjoyed them in their own way without my direction anyway? Well, that is essentially what my project has been about – we all have a personal perception, however things appear to anyone else, and each person finds their own sense in what they experience or remember. This is a dilemma that keeps nagging me. I will only know once it’s up and running in my space. For now I think I will see whether different paintings of my source frames work better as ‘animated’ clips for projection. Now I’ve worked out how to make the clips more efficiently, I should have time to experiment. I’m beginning with this clip which has very cool colours:
I’m going to try re-making it with this much more colourful version of the same ciné frame:
