FRAGMENTATION

he fragmenting camera.

Stationary camera

in motion

the 'strip'

The broken reflections of the key visual attractions along Rupert Street to Peter Street.
The images formed on the box-a visual device that creates the broken reflections of the streetscape. The broken images forms a complete stretch by using specific viewpoints.

With the key visuals.

-multiple viewing angles

-single viewing angle

The ocular - I

scenes 01 and 02... in progress..

The Ocular Zwischenraum -updated

What?

Zwischenraum[1]

Every object or scene in nature has two aspects to it – the interior and the exterior. There exists a connecting element or a packet that fuses the two rather distinct layers. It may also be interpreted as a `passage’.

The connecting packets of disjoint scenes in a movie or the elements in a cityscape are usually invisible to the common eye. It is these elements that contain a larger story and that maintain the continuity of the unheimlich[2] union.

While exploring the various portions of Soho, differentiated distinctly by the functions of the occupying spaces, I came across the stretch of Rupert Street – Walker’s court and Peter Street. This street possessed some highly contrasting activities that seemed to be juxtaposed onto the streetscape, still co-existing fruitfully. This juxtaposition led to the study of the connecting elements or passages that make possible the unheimlich union. It seems necessary to make these passages visible, thereby making a whole new sequence from these passages.

In my project I am going to deal with these passages in the space time continuum[3].

Why?

An entire movie or storyboard can be formed out of the diagrammatic representation of the connecting elements. It has the potential to give rise to an entirely new by product from a normally unintentional source.

More often the ignored parts of a sequence are the links or connecting elements. The mystery lies in the disjoint elements of a sequence. The connecting elements thereby have the power to broadcast secrecy. These connecting packets or passages determine the relationship between the real and the virtual.

By giving a visible form to this, we are able to express the relationship between the two disjoint stories. This could even be unheimlich. The unheimlich union of two or more elements the real and the virtual can define the interstitial realm of the space.

Thus one of the main intention would be to make the unseen visible by giving the interpretation of the in-between space a form. Also, to form a new complete circle/storyboard from only the connecting passages.

How?

I would like to begin by exposing the connecting elements of a trailer video “passages”, which depicts various scenarios shot in Taiwan. The graphical representation of the interpretations gives birth to the interstitial passages that connect the various scenes together.

The uncanniness can be brought in by the forced juxtaposition of a scenario different from the original source.

The whole juxtaposition of the two different elements viz. the connecting packages of a video and the streetscape of Soho brings out the invisible interstices that can exist around us in nature.

By using the trailer “Passages[4]” as a reference, draw the interpreted connecting packets of the disjoint scenes. Make a new storyboard by using just the connecting elements. This story board when placed in a particular streetscape in Soho would define the “element of surprise” I experienced in the street. This would make the connecting passages in this stretch visible to the normal eye.

Hence, the Zwischenraum that exists in the particular streetscape of Soho becomes ocular[5].

References/Influences

1.       Singh, Tarsem – The Cell (2000) movie – graphical representation of the mind of a psychotic killer.

2.       Hirst, Damien – artist – reference for depiction of horse split into sections by glass panels (scene from The Cell).

3.       Nerdrum, Odd – Norwegian figurative painter – based on anecdote and narrative

4.       Giger, Hans Rudolf ‘Ruedi’ – Swiss surrealist artist – set designer for Alien.

5.       Quay, Timothy; Quay, Stephen; (Brothers Quay) – stop motion animators

6.       Romanek, Mark – director – music videos:

a.       Closer (1994) by Nine Inch Nails

b.      The Perfect Drug (1997) by Nine Inch Nails

c.       Bedtime story (1995) by Madonna

7.       Sigismondi, Floria – director

8.       Freud, Sigmond, ‘The Uncanny’ – essay (1919).

9.       Deleuze, Gille and Guattari, Felix –  ‘The Actual and the Virtual’ essay, translated by Albert, Elliot Ross

10.   Salcedo, Doris – installation at International Istanbul biennial 2003.

11.   ‘Liquid City’ – Marc Atkins / Iain Sinclair

---

[1] German term for  the space in between / interstice

[2] A Freudian concept of an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange.

[3] Not sure about the usage. Unclear if time is going to be a factor at this moment

[4] Link – http://vimeo.com/7410185, passagesfilm.blogspot.com (source of video)

[5] Perceived by the eye

Zwischenraum / Passages

Zwischenraum[1]

Every object or scene in nature has two aspects to it – the interior and the exterior. There exists a connecting element or a packet that fuses the two rather distinct layers. It may also be interpreted as a `passage’. In my project I am going to deal with these passages in the space time continuum[2].

The connecting packets of disjoint scenes in a movie or the elements in a cityscape are usually invisible to the common eye. It is these elements that contain a larger story and that maintain the continuity of the unheimlich[3] union.

An entire movie or storyboard can be formed out of the diagrammatic representation of the connecting elements. It has the potential to give rise to an entirely new by product from a normally unintentional source.

More often the ignored parts of a sequence are the links or connecting elements. The mystery lies in the disjoint elements of a sequence. The connecting elements thereby have the power to broadcast secrecy. These connecting packets or passages determine the relationship between the real and the virtual.

By giving a visible form to this, we are able to express the relationship between the two disjoint stories. This could even be unheimlich. The unheimlich union of two or more elements the real and the virtual world can define the interstitial realm of the space.

I would like to begin by exposing the connecting elements of a trailer video “passages”, which depicts various scenarios shot in Taiwan. The graphical representations of my interpretations can give birth to the interstitial passages that connect the various scenes together.

The uncanniness can be brought in by the forced juxtaposition of a scenario different from the original source.

The whole juxtaposition of the two different elements viz. the connecting packages of a video and the streetscape of Soho brings out the invisible interstices that can exist around us in nature.

References/Influences

1.      The Cell – movie by Tarsem Singh – graphical representation of the mind of a psychotic killer.

2.      Damien Hirst – artist – reference for depiction of horse split into sections by glass panels (scene from The Cell).

3.      Odd Nerdrum – Norwegian figurative painter – based on anecdote and narrative

4.      H. R. Giger – Swiss surrealist artist – set designer for Alien.

5.      Brothers Quay – stop motion animators

6.      Mark Romanek – director – music videos:

a.      Closer (1994) by Nine Inch Nails

b.      The Perfect Drug (1997) by Nine Inch Nails

c.       Bedtime story (1995) by Madonna

7.      Floria Sigismondi – director

8.      ‘The Uncanny’ – essay by Sigmond Freud (1919).

9.      ‘The Actual and the Virtual’ essay by Gille Deleuze and Felix Guattari translated by Elliot Ross Albert

10.  Doris Salcedo – installation at International Istanbul biennial 2003.

11.  ‘Liquid City’ – Marc Atkins / Iain Sinclair

---

[1] German word meaning the space in between / interstice

[2] Not sure about the usage. Unclear if time is going to be a factor at this moment.

[3] A Freudian concept of an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange.

inside the mind

from the movie 'cell'

transitions?

A collection of transitions in progress.

unheimlich

The Uncanny (Ger. Das Unheimliche -- literally, "un-home-ly") is a Freudian concept of an instance where something can be familiar, yet foreign at the same time, resulting in a feeling of it being uncomfortably strange. http://www-rohan.sdsu.edu/~amtower/uncanny.html Das Unheimliche (essay)
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unheimlich


Weird, uncanny
en.wiktionary.org/wiki/unheimlich

metropolis - to see

Watch Metropolis 1927 - Restored Trailer in Entertainment  |  View More Free Videos Online at Veoh.com


info on the film
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metropolis_(film)

Timecode

Zwischenraum

zwischenraum - interspace / interstice / interstitial

(http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/deutsch-englisch/Zwischenraum.html)

Interstitial / Interstice

Interstitial Spaces

what is it about?
- give form to the in-between layer
- study the relationship between the inside and the outside
- the layer that manages the relationship
- stretch it? stress it? break it? re-form it?

why?
- expose the hidden layer and its attributes in-order to generate new reactions and aspects about the space

how?
understand transition or interstitial spaces on the basis of
- features/nature (state, porosity, fluidity, malleability, adhesivity, adaptability, texture, critical mass, density, strength, elasticity, capability to produce light/sound/energy)
- charteristic in/ reactions to living/non-living scenarios
- use / need and how they are utilised by the sandwiching membranes

zwischenraum - interspace / interstice / interstitial
(http://dict.tu-chemnitz.de/deutsch-englisch/Zwischenraum.html)

veils..

- wave pattern of attraction / visual excitement
- network of strokes - resembling thoughts / reactions
- the network binds the veil / mask with the object behind
- colour coding based on the visual aspects of colour

Questions:

1. study the binding network?
2. study the concealed element/space?

- a veil also takes a ripple form
- ripples can also cause some sort of flux or the binding energy causes flux

Flux - surface bombardment rate

- Forces binding the veil to the surface/object bombards the object
- surface / object deformation??

To do:
- surface bombardment depiction??

Big question:
- where is this leading to?

Another point:

- does the network of energy maps create another mesh/veil in the in-between space?
- does the space be considered as a twilight zone? Neither here nor there? A creation of a new object which is in between visible and concealed?

- energy bombardment creating a chaotic mess in the space between the veil and the concealed object/surface
- formulate a language for the chaos???

drux flux

a film by Theodore Ushev
flux - surface bombardment rate

The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction Walter Benjamin

Play of light and stroke

An analysis of the George Melly painting led to the images below.

A careful look at the use of strokes and colour.

 

The language of strokes and colours

An attempt at the similar play of strokes on a street

colour has certain psychological effects on the human mind. Various colours create or stimulate a certain sense or activity in oneself.
Can this play of colour or strokes or combination of both be used to manipulate the mind?
Does this play of colours and strokes have enough strength on its own to stimulate the mind of an observer?
The third question would be, will this be a long lasting effect, or short termed?

Some of the screens which can be later used as a material or can become part of the streetscape.

--
The outcome: The play of colour and strokes does have an effect, but it is not a long lasting one. Maybe the effects of the strokes and colours can be used to demonstrate pictorally a relations between two objects.

george...

 

As I walked throught the national gallery, it was this image that grabbed my attention. It is a painting of the jazz musician George Melly, by Maggi Hambling. What attracted me most about this is the technique and the dynamic nature of the image.

Links:

http://www.maggihambling.com/Works/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Melly

http://www.npg.org.uk/collections/search/portrait.php?search=ss&firstRun=true&sText=george+melly&LinkID=mp06066&rNo=3&role=sit

masks

In african art and folklore - masks are used as a sensory means of broadcasting secrecy. An oxymoron.
The idea of broadcasting 'secrecy'.

The visible parts of a mask viz., the artworks, form etc. transmit knowledge through secrecy. These have the power to stimulate, arrest and even move the observer much before he tries to identify to enter the world withing the masks. Masks capture the perceived reality, and at the same time give form to the unobserved reality, the transcendental world.

Masks can be like a catalyst that fired the emotions of the observer. It can create an impression of a performance. One should be tempted to decipher and decode what lies underneath the visible.

Juxtaposition of sound and image

Sound and image... in motion..
the sounds behind soho
sound of buses hidden by buildings..
conversations unheard on the streets...

observations...-soho

Construction workers
Pigeons on pavement
Couple looking for vintage magazines (I later realized they were walking in the opposite direction)
Main with suitcase
Old man walking towards queens theatre
Sounds of metal cutting (I named the recording at drilling)
Yoshino is open so early
Samurai sushi + bento open
Avenue Q – lady smoking in front of the closed entrance doors
Sound of vehicular traffic
Apollo theatre doors / shaded passage – ideal spot for smoke / sandwich break
Territorial behavior
Lady in RED walked up and down Rupert street and vanished into winnet street
Cars parked
Man walking through – in no hurry
Shops seems closed from Rupert street end
Video library open
White horse pub – open
Bocca di lupo – coffee shop visible only if u walk through archer street
Archer street studios – ground floor has a hair salon – a very old man, very meticulously cutting a person’s hair – a tanning salon (receptionist looking bored in life) – and the third partition is the entrance to the upper floors
Studio’s existence is doubtful, as there are two ‘to-let’ signs
Apparently, area is subject to increased police activity tackling drugs and prostitution!!!!! How ironic???
Other streets look like there’s more probability of the above said activities
be@1 bar + windmill international + the lyric – two bars sandwiched in between a gentleman’s club
Street light maintenance
People walking towards Shaftesbury and towards Brewer Street – nobody is in a hurry – Monday morning blues??
Stage door open
Awfully quiet
The lyric bringing in plants from the outside
Freebird burrito shop set up.. 5quid for a burrito!!!
Prowler – visitors more during the day
2 indians looking around sex shops
Less crowded times
People walking leisurely
Two guys in suits looking around for strip clubs trying to be inconspicuous but unsuccessful I guess
View of ‘mamma mia’ from the end of Rupert
Food joints attracting crowd as lunch time approaches
Outside snog – corner with bollards – man taking smoke break from shopping / walk
Market – flowers
Fruits
Vegetables
Colourful bags + leather
Shops behind hidden by the mid street stalls
Leather + junk accessory shop
Everybody facing the wider sidewalk – retro shops – vinyl shop – hair salon
All coexist
I’m making people around me curious – they probably think I’m either a cop or a nosy journalist or nosy activist
Most likely, a suicide bomber – from the looks of the corner sex toy shop
People using walkers court as a link passage
2 people discussing the ongoing construction and their opinion on what is happening

Pitch No. 1229
Pitch No. 1228

Dirt is black in London – why?
Why not brown? Red? Green?

Snog is always lit. that space remains constant at all times of the day

Tisbury court
Strip clubs
Live girls
Straight into old Compton street
6 pound haircut

Such bliss – SOHO in the morning

Rupert street – man collecting change from telephone booths
Painters in the corner – white overalls and red tshirt – one of them with a very serious expression. What was he thinking?
2pm – police patrol – walkers court empty for the moment – after they left – life’s back to normal there
More and more tourists taking picture below the soho revue bar
St. annes churchyard garden – perfect spot for lunch break – serene, green and right in the middle of soho
food kiosks on Rupert street vanished
Bag man still present
Crowd changing attitude and colours
More relaxed environment
More joyful….

Party on….

moving images

patrick keiller
    -London (1994)
    -Robinson in Space (1997)

Darren Aronofsky
    -π (pi) (1998)

Christopher Petit
   - Unrequited Love (2006)