Panel presentation
A clear concise statement of the concept or controlling idea as if you were addressing a commissioner/sponsor
Our project is based on the idea of breaking the concept of personal space
Barriers stop individuals from interacting
taking their time. (People seem to be rushing through life not taking notice of those around them)
giving a chance to the audience to “get to know “ a stranger with whom they are forced to share a public space
How you propose to present the finished project and who it is intended for – i.e. the target audience + media
We have decided that the most appropriate and accessible space for our work is a pub daytime (Yates)
in which we will set up 3 human silhouettes with screens instead of faces:
the screens will show short clips of changing faces,
when one decides to sit next to a silhouette the video will stop on one random subject thanks to sensors, and it will be footage of that person,
if the audience decides to put the connected earphones in, he will be able to ear the person’s thoughts, and altogether having an insight of who they are freed from social boundaries and etiquette.
We intend on using people and their genuine thoughts.
To avoid the pressure the camera has on people we had decided to use the free writing technique to understand the subjects stream of thoughts.
We have decided to use real people and their actual thoughts instead of scripting them. This overall makes our project less constructed and more similar to everyday life. Instead of using actors
a) How you are going to organise the creation of the project –tasks, timescales and individual roles/responsibilities
We didn’t feel it was necessary to set specific roles but that as there are only two of us and we have pretty much the same experience it was best to collaborate on every aspect of the project.
We have already found a location and right now we are in the process of recording and filming our subjects, next step is to build the silhouettes and edit.
"The technique involves continuous writing, usually for a predetermined period of time (often five, ten, or fifteen minutes). The writer writes without regard to spelling, grammar, etc., and makes no corrections. If the writer reaches a point where they can't think of anything to write, they write that they can't think of anything, until they find another line of thought. The writer freely strays off topic, letting thoughts lead where they may. At times, a writer may also do a focused freewrite, letting a chosen topic structure their thoughts. Expanding from this topic, the thoughts may stray to make connections and create more abstract views on the topic. This technique helps a writer explore a particular subject before putting ideas into a more basic context.
Freewriting is often done on a daily basis as a part of the writer's daily routine. Also, students in many writing courses are assigned to do such daily writing exercises".
Christiana and I tried to write our thoughts following this technique and the written part was quite successful, the thoughts are random and with gaps but certain parts feel very realistic and free, here's a segment of what I wrote:
However we have decided not to go with this technique because when we have tried to record ourselves reading what we wrote we noticed that it loses its natural aspect and it just sounds as if we were reading from a book.
Monument 1980–1 marks a continuation of Hiller’s interest in lost or forgotten identities. The work was prompted by her discovery of a neglected Victorian monument to civilian heroes in a little-known park in the City of London. The artist photographed and enlarged the park’s memorial plaques and arranged a selection corresponding to each year of her own life. She situated a park bench in front of the photographs, inviting viewers to become an element in the work while listening to its soundtrack.
The use of sound in the work was an innovative development at the time. On the soundtrack the artist suggests there is an unacknowledged uncanny aspect to sound recording, which allows the dead to speak to us.
Monument 1980–1
41 photographs, park bench with audio component
Each speaker in the installation Witness 2000 transmits a voice telling a story. A wide variety of languages represent testimonies from all over the world. The witnesses describe the experience of an encounter with UFOs or creatures from other spheres. A range of similarities emerges in the descriptions and in the type of language used to describe the experience. An inexplicable vision that might in previous centuries have been described as a religious experience is articulated here in the language of science fiction. Whether imagined, real or hallucinatory, the testimonies demonstrate an essential need for belief in the possibility of a further dimension, in something beyond the rational.
Witness 2000
Approximately 400 speakers, 10 audio tracks, each with multiple recordings; wires, lights
Courtesy the artist
X35135
I find that Monument shares our will of allowing the audience to know someone's identity, where Susan Hiller has decided to focus on long-forgotten Victorian everyday heroes we have decided to use absolutely normal people that are still alive but would inevitably be forgotten in time. As in Monument, our audience will be invited to share a very intimate moment with our characters but instead of being guided through the experience by the artist, they will be left free to make what they want out of the piece.
Observing this artwork has helped us to be braver and to accept the consequences of using real people and realistic thoughts, and to realize that if the audience finds listening to our "sample people" boring that will not be considered as a failure because what is relevant is that they have still taken their time to get involved with our silouhettes, we are not trying to entertain people but to make them reflect about a seemingly insignificant everyday reality which affects us more than we realize.
Witness has had an impact on the way we have decided to present our piece: the beauty of Hiller's artwork is its simplicity and linearity and personally I found it very elegant, this has made me wonder wether we should achieve a simpler and/or more elegant look for our silouhettes, however we haven't had any ideas on how to improve them so far.
Working title: Ghosts
Our project is based on the idea of breaking the concept of personal space that often devolves into barriers stopping individuals from interacting, giving a chance to the audience to “get to know “ a stranger with whom they are forced to share a public space (like a pub, cinema, bus stop or road) and taking their time to morph another forgettable face into an individual.
We plan to accomplish this by creating an installation that converges film and new media into a form of interactive experience mixed with a familiar environment ; that will allow the audience to explore a common issue –such as the interaction with strangers in one situation that has been experienced by most people- and giving the audience the possibility to change said situation through the use of art and media, this will allow them to be free of the social limitations that would be present outside the art installation.
Human silhouettes (which we will create) with screens as faces, will be placed in a public space; displayed on the screens will be a loop of always-changing faces that will be forgotten as soon as they are seen, but the participant will be encouraged to sit next to the silhouette, by doing so (thanks to a sensor) the video will stop on a specific subject and this will allow the participant to connect to the person and even get a peak into their intimate thoughts (through headphones).
This is meant to remindthe audience that by taking time out of our lives to acknowledge others, the social barrier that often force us into our solitude will be weakened.
E. Degas “Absinthe drinker”
This impressionist masterpiece summarizes perfectly the issue that we are going to deal with: how people in public spaces can be so close and yet so distant, with seemingly insurmountable barriers between them.
The main influences on our work so far are Degas’ painting (as explained above). Bill Viola in the way he portrays people’s feelings and emotions, with a seemingly simple and minimalistic style and yet incredibly powerful and direct.
