I engaged in:
1. creation of movement material based on a designed ATE
2. collection of physiological data 3. translation of data into sound and creation of a sound score 4. recording of photo, video and audio material 5. editing a video encompassing still image and sound |
Each steps evolved as follows:
1.
In order to create movement material, in other words to find excuses to move that I could track back and observe, I consolidated a set of tools and a series of instructions to follow and generate something to work from. The tools were based on the capacity to find clarity in feeling the internal organs of my torso, and train my ability to initiate movement from the muscles surrounding each of the organs independently. I exercised feeling the organs through self-touch; connection of two or more organs together through visualisation, and movement in isolation through breathing directed to the organ of interest. The instruction I chose to follow was to connect two organs to form a relationship with one another. For example: by setting the intention to move my left lung in relation to my bladder, I found possibilities to move the rest of the body in space. The relationship was explored with attention to effort qualities, which (according to Rudolf Laban's effort graph) have to do with flow, weight, speed and direction. An underlaying intention within this task was to start from a seated position on the ground and stand up on my feet within a given time of 5 minutes.
2.
I was interested in the use of the body as a potential source of influence of a setting, and I decided to work with the physiological and psychological changes that I could observe in the performance of a task. There is a flow of thought and a variety of physical efforts that are involved in the execution of a task, and I was drawn to use these as factors to create material that could feed back into the performance.
I wanted to retrieve both the physiological and the psychological data by myself, so I sourced an Arduino-One and a GSR sensor. Played about with the Arduino software to get and store data. I got overwhelmed by the knowledge I needed to acquire before being able to make appropriate use of the software, and realising that my intention was not to become an expert at Arduino (for the time being) but to use it as a means to obtain what I needed (which was data), I decided to find out if someone had been on this mission before and had made a shortcut for me to use for this purpose. I found an open source application named eSense, which allowed me to connect a GSR sensor to my phone directly with a mini jack. At this point I only needed to build the sensor and plug it into my phone.
So I went on to research how to build a sensor that can be wired to a mini jack entry, and I found an online tutorial. I dug into my cables box, found what I needed, and put one together to test on the app. It worked. So I had my means to source data.
I wired myself up to my home made GSR sensor connected to my smartphone and recorded the physiological changes occurring in my body through the app.
I was interested in the use of the body as a potential source of influence of a setting, and I decided to work with the physiological and psychological changes that I could observe in the performance of a task. There is a flow of thought and a variety of physical efforts that are involved in the execution of a task, and I was drawn to use these as factors to create material that could feed back into the performance.
I wanted to retrieve both the physiological and the psychological data by myself, so I sourced an Arduino-One and a GSR sensor. Played about with the Arduino software to get and store data. I got overwhelmed by the knowledge I needed to acquire before being able to make appropriate use of the software, and realising that my intention was not to become an expert at Arduino (for the time being) but to use it as a means to obtain what I needed (which was data), I decided to find out if someone had been on this mission before and had made a shortcut for me to use for this purpose. I found an open source application named eSense, which allowed me to connect a GSR sensor to my phone directly with a mini jack. At this point I only needed to build the sensor and plug it into my phone.
So I went on to research how to build a sensor that can be wired to a mini jack entry, and I found an online tutorial. I dug into my cables box, found what I needed, and put one together to test on the app. It worked. So I had my means to source data.
I wired myself up to my home made GSR sensor connected to my smartphone and recorded the physiological changes occurring in my body through the app.
3.
In order to generate a sound score from the physiological data, I needed to convert the numbers I had exported on an excel sheet into sound. I moved quite quickly from gathering data from eSense to record a hand-picked bass string, to one made on Sound Plant with the recordings of each open string's sound dragged onto the software's keypad, to a digitally generated score (from the same excel source) on the open source app TwoTone, to an altered final version made with the help of Audacity, to which I edited the TwoTone instrumental score interweaving it discretely in and out of the track. TwoTone allowed me to choose in which instrument, key, octave and tempo the numbers in the spreadsheet would be translated to sound. For Audacity I exported several versions of the sounds in different instruments: bass, piano, guitar, violin. With this orchestra I composed and edited the score for the video.
On the psychological aspects of changes, I recorded my thoughts after each practice, responding to the questions:
-what is the sensation given by the relationship of the two chosen organs?
-what is the emotion associated with that sensation?
-does the relation of the two organs create an urgency? if so, what is it?
I saved my responses through a recording interface and edited the sound material [click HERE for recording sample]
-what is the sensation given by the relationship of the two chosen organs?
-what is the emotion associated with that sensation?
-does the relation of the two organs create an urgency? if so, what is it?
I saved my responses through a recording interface and edited the sound material [click HERE for recording sample]
4.
I setup a white and empty space (as I wanted to keep the focus purely on movement) as a shooting set, played the score and performed the task. I captured this having a camera set to take photos of gestures of my movement on a self-timer.
I setup a white and empty space (as I wanted to keep the focus purely on movement) as a shooting set, played the score and performed the task. I captured this having a camera set to take photos of gestures of my movement on a self-timer.
The choice of location came as a result of the desire to work in a setting that would not be as neutral as a white cube. The reason for this being that my initial intention was to work from internal (the task) as well as external (the circumstance) stimuli to inform my movement as I was performing.
I brought in a standing lamp to improve the lighting of the space, and a tripod and setup a mini-studio by the far end of the damp basement, where I performed my movement and learned more about what the camera could do for me.
At this stage I had image, voice and sound available for me to move in the direction of a video. I watched and listened to all the gathered material to see what the wholeness at this point constituted.
5.
Editing:
I approached video and audio editing very similarly to how I would be choreographing.
I looked at the material through the lens of Rudolf Laban's structural model for movement analysis (which is very present in my practice), and looked at three factors of the spectrum: body, shape, space.
At first I made a selection of images by taking into consideration the expressivity of the movement captured in each, the exposure and what that contributed, and separated them in two groups: brighter and darker, and within this I looked at close ups and distant shots, sharp and faded ones, closed and open body positions, just as I would with movement material in respect to Laban's dynamic qualities (based on weight, flow and spatial trajectories).
This formed the bases for a few sketches I made with Final Cut that showed what the animation of these images could bring up.
5.
Editing:
I approached video and audio editing very similarly to how I would be choreographing.
I looked at the material through the lens of Rudolf Laban's structural model for movement analysis (which is very present in my practice), and looked at three factors of the spectrum: body, shape, space.
At first I made a selection of images by taking into consideration the expressivity of the movement captured in each, the exposure and what that contributed, and separated them in two groups: brighter and darker, and within this I looked at close ups and distant shots, sharp and faded ones, closed and open body positions, just as I would with movement material in respect to Laban's dynamic qualities (based on weight, flow and spatial trajectories).
This formed the bases for a few sketches I made with Final Cut that showed what the animation of these images could bring up.
After altering the sounds, changing values and effects to move it toward an aesthetic that could enhance the 'air' of the performance, I looked for more resonance and added layers to match the quality of sound present in the setting I was working in (a damp resonating basement) and edited that together with the images into a Final Cut project.