Process of Project 1

Heck Yes! I have completed the first of three projects in my Experimental Media class and have thoroughly enjoyed the process! Let’s get down to business. For our first project in Experimental Media, we opened with a discussion about pushing the boundaries of expression through new media, focusing initially on one of the earliest experimental film projects, Dziga Vertov’s Man with a Movie Camera. Created in 1929, Man with a Movie camera was a silent documentary film that employed almost every editing technique used in Classical Hollywood film today. Vertov was experimental for his time because he pushed the boundaries. He tried to capture something beyond the capacity of human vision. He was the first to create a mid-ground between form and narrative and enjoyed that he could make the film “go anywhere.” Having watched this film and learned the artist’s implications, we were given the goal of using a camera to shoot experimental footage, trying to document in some way “what the eye could not.” We manipulated the camera in several ways, by changing the subject and perspective, altering the lens, changing the process of development etc. Some students chose to work in film photography, some choose to incorporate digital and digitally altered film and others, like me, chose to shoot video.
I was excited to attempt to push boundaries, thrilled that I might in some way pioneer something new. We rented equipment and I started experimenting with an underwater camera, taking some experimental shots while jumping into the St. Mary’s river. I considered it exceeding human vision to achieve a seamless focus as a person moves in and out of the water, kind of like the experience a pair of goggles might give you. After the first experimental shoot, we were introduced to a series of lens alterations which change the way light is received by the camera. This alteration in process was intended to shed light on the endless array of creative choices an artist can make along the way to a finished product. In my second experimental shoot, I incorporated a few of these techniques; adding an extra lens, using the reflective side of a compact disk as a frame, using a prism to alter light, etc. Having never experimented with video, I took over two hours of footage with no intention other than to capture exciting video unlike what I typically see. Using both a regular video camera and a flip video with an underwater housing, I experimented with how moving water might direct light into the camera and achieve a unique image on video. I played with the camera above and below the surface of the water using both natural lighting and artificial lighting by means of flashlights and glow sticks.
My project slowly came together as I tried new things in iMovie, contrasting images in sequence, manipulating the film’s temporal unity, and making other creative choices with regards to how the film would be received. Although there were many unique sounds accompanying the footage I had taken, I felt that a musical element was necessary to help the progression of clips read as a whole. I searched through my own music library looking for something that affected me in the same way that I was trying to affect the audience. During that time period, I was reacquainted with my own tastes and what patterns I found there. I found that I am less interested in meaning and narrative in my music choices and that I also sometimes disregard basic form looking for an abstract quality; some “flavor” that I enjoy but have never experienced before. This is often ephemeral as well, because I sometimes download songs and, after listening to them a few times, I have no idea what attracted me to them in the first place.
By some divine presence or merely coincidence, at the exact time that I was mulling over these details, I was reunited with an iPod that I had lost a year ago. It was cracked and barely holding together but it could still play. This was a whole new world of music that I had not considered for my video. I considered the experience so pertinent to discussion of altered processes and hybridization of media that I had to choose a song from it in my video. I found a song named “When the Sky Ends” by an experimental digital artist of the 90’s, The Flashbulb, which I found to be particularly moving but also analogous to a dream space. I researched the artist to see what possible connections I could make. Although The Flashbulb is declared bipolar and has an array of drug problems, but he is a professionally trained jazz musician who creates fantastic compositions using both physical instruments and electronic synthesizers. They consist of ambient sounds created by guitars and technical percussion tracks generated by computer programs. In concert, The Flashbulb plays actual guitars which he inputs into a midi device to alter the sounds mathematically on the computer. He focuses his music on experimentation and his own acid-induced psychedelic experiences, much in the way that artists like Jimi Hendrix did. He also considers himself an escapist, always looking for the greener grass on the other side. I found this to be pertinent to an experimental dream project
In iMovie, I edited the video using some cross fades, some fade to blacks, and some jump cuts as well as cropping and trimming the clips to produce smooth transitions. This was an important step in my process because it was the platform for what I considered the experimental element to my project.