H2 Out by Tony Oursler 2006

Fibreglass sculpture
142 x 127 x 76 cm
I find his work fascinating and would love to see it in an exhibition but all his exhibitions seem to be in America.

Purple Dust 2006 by Tony Oursler

Fibreglass sculpture
127 x 127 x 127 cm
Dvd Projection

'Corps Etranger' (Forign Body) by Mona Hatoum

With the assistance of a surgeon she passed a fiber optic video camera through her body to create a video self-portrait.

The Final Video........at last!!!!!!!!

The video we are happy with so i hope it will look ok when we project it.

Entrails Carpet by Mona Hatoum 1995

The body is often present in Hatoum's work. A carpet would evoke feelings of comfort and warmth. The rubber shapes could be large loops of wool but they look more like human entrails which are repelling. I found the surface interesting as i could cover the ball shape with insulation foam to make it appear as a brain . This would fit in with the idea that we are inside the brain dealing with inner thoughts and dreams.

Ideas for projection.

It was interesting today to see other peoples ideas and blogs. The more i look into the video installations the more i am finding it interesting. It's just the technical side of things i find off putting. When we went into the art studios i was very inpressed when we were looking at projecting on to different surfaces and a whole load of new ideas came to mind. Maybe this lesson should've been at the beginning. The papier mache ball looked good with images projected on it so i was happy it had not been a waste of time. I am going to attach some fishing wire and cover it with mod rock.Although i quite liked Kits idea of using latex. It may give a matt finish and look more human. Although an eye ball is shiney. Not sure how to acheive that, maybe gloss paint. Anyway we will give this some thought over the next few days. Liked the idea of blocking off the edges of the film with cardboard with a hole in it so that there is no extra fim and it is all concentrated on the ball. We will have to experiment with the projection to decide on angles and distances and whether we need two projectors.

The Final Video........at last!!!!!!!!

This is the video we are happy with so lets hope it looks well when we project it.

Progress.

We went into college and added the mask film to the end and added more sound to certain parts of the video. We have'nt agreed on the sound for the last part so Ally is recording some tonight from her piano. Hopefully we will finished it tomorrow. Then we will have to concentrate on the projection looking right. Added the last coat of paint to the ball ready for tomorrow.

Video so far with more sound and film changes

The video is about the Minds Eye and how we visualise images in our brain. So it starts with a journey into the eye,the body and brain and then random images that are dark,worrying and dreamlike but then change to happier thoughts. We are still editing and testing different sounds at this point.

Working on the ball shape

Joining the two halves together was not easy! Used double sided tape to join the middle together then i will do a few more layers of papier mache and paint it. I have ended up with a few bumps and dents but there is one good side to project on to. If the projection works i may cover the ball with modrock to make it stronger.

Imagination, dead image 1991 by Judith Barry

A 5 channel video projection, mirror and wood. Not sure how she has used the mirrors but i like the effect of the head being inside the box.

First and Third by Judith Barry using a beam projector

This projection is a series of interveiws about the thid world and reflects the immigrant experiences. What interested me was the way the head floats. Judith Barry used a beam projector which does not create a cone of light and so allows the images to appear to float.

Tijuana Projecton

Faces of women wanting to escape Mexico are projected on to a very large dome.They say the are escaping hell for another kind of hell.

Researching projections.

I have been looking for other artists other than Tony Orsular that project on to round or domed surfaces. Krzysztof Wodiczko has projected on to large buildings and for the Tijuana Projection it is the domed surface which interested me. He says he does lots of sketches to make sure the faces fitted on to the dome. We have no idea as to whether our video will fit on the ball shape and how close the projector will have to be.

Still making ajustments

We have been in college today to add more sound and because we have been watching it over and over certain parts of the film have been taken out and i am going to film the mask again for the ending. We could not use the footage from the beginning because we wanted to put two effects over it.(Reverse and old film)The computer did'nt like this. On Monday we will hopfully put the finishing touches to the video so that we can experiment with projecting on Tuesday.
The papemache ball is coming along, i now have two halves and i will now attempt to put them together.

Bright Light Through Trees

More camcorder footage to create the eerie atmosphere. Walking through these woods was spooky.

Sea

More footage used in the video. This is Morecambe Bay on a very windy day. I could hardly hold the camcrder still but it seems to have added to the atmosphere we wanted.

Video so far with some sound.

Finding sound to go with the video is not easy as it sets the scene and gives it the atmosphere we want to create. There are parts that have no sound yet and others need some fine tuneing with how loud or how quiet it should be.The speakers are not very good at college and also we have to consider other people. Not sure about the music at the end of the video as it starts to look like a pop video and its quite well known music. Ally is experimenting with her piano and guitar to create the sounds we are looking for.Also after looking at the video again i think towards the end there needs to be something to show we are coming back out of the persons thoughts and eye maybe reversing some footage from the beginning.

Making the mould for the ball.

Covered my excercise ball with clingfilm then covered half the ball with papier mache to create a half dome shape. I will repeat this then join the halves to make a ball. This will represent an eye ball for us to project on to.

Undone ribbon

This is one of my favorite parts of the video it is to signify the feeling of being undone or everthing going wrong. When we filmed the ribbon it was quite hard to make sure the ribbon did'nt pull too fast or too slow and stayed central.

Thoughs of projecting the video on to a ball shape.

We have completed our video and have started finding the sounds to go with it. Parts of the video may change as each time we watch it we have made some changes. Maybe putting sound to it may make us change it again! The idea of projecting it on to a ball shape is taking some thought as we are not sure what the out come of this will be. We are taking the excercise ball and making a papier mache mould and putting two halves together like an easter egg to make a ball. This then will be light enough to suspend from the ceiling with fishing wire if we want to and if the ceiling is low enough. Had an idea of projecting two videos at the ball from opposite sides so that the ball was covered in images. Again not sure this would work because of two bright lights shining at each other with just the ball in between.

Sleepwalking

This part of the video was inspired by Gary Hill 'The Crux'. He strapped video cameras to his body which was what i thought of doing early on to get unusual camers angles. I filmed my feet walking and i think it works well in the theme as it gives a feeling of sleepwalking.

Video so far without sound

Tree

The Barn

Drugs don't work.

More minutes on the Video.

We have now completed 3 minutes of video. I am going to embed some of the raw footage used so far. We are useing a combination of our own videos, stills and Youtube excerts. The video starts with a mask face then closes into the eye and effects give the illusion of entering the brain where your mind plays games. We have compiled snapshots of images that the brain maybe thinking about or have in its memory banks. We are hoping to give the idea that when we are thinking the brain conjures up many images that often have nothing to do with what we should be concentrating on.

Brain Video

Video found on YouTube that shows electric pulses flowing down veins. This maybe usefull as an effect on our video.

Mask video

Video of a festival mask. At the moment this is the beginning of our video. We have made it black and white and old 'looking' film to create an eerie atmosphere.

Getting it together

Worked on our video yesterday. Converting the video files to Mp4 worked so we were able to use some footage taken with the Handycam. We spent a good five hours working on IMovies and managed to produce one minuet of video that we were fairly happy with! This is going to take much longer than we thought. Anyway we seem to have agreed on which direction the film needs to be going so we are collecting more footage today to work with tomorrow.

Progress

Went into college to meet with Ally and Robyn. We tried to download our videos and stills on to the mac.Robyns and Allys worked ok but the videos i had on my video camera just would not load up. I had burnt them onto a DVD, this didnt work, we then tried a CD rewriter and a USB Stick, these didnt work. Maybe it didnt like the format of the files so i have now converted them to MP4. We will try again tomorrow.

Back in the land of the living!

I have never had 'real flu' and i dont want it ever again! At last i am in the world of the living! Met with Ally and Robyn to discuss our ideas so far and it seems we have come to some similar ideas seperatly. Before christmas we talked about working together on this project and our research has come together to form the beginnings of the video. We are all interested in human emotions and like the 'Minds Eye' idea as a basis to work. We are now looking for footage and sound to make our video.

Lightening

Lightening effects maybe interesting projected on to the ball to suggest the idea of brainwaves.

Lightening

Music wuth the bubble effect

If you watch the Oil Lamp video ignore the christmas music that plays although it does sort of go with the bubble movement! That was the sound that came on the television while filming. I like the bubble effect, it could look good projected on to the ball with water sounds.

Oil Lamp Effect

More thoughts for the new year.

Well its new year and through all the celebrations my 'video ideas' kept creeping into my mind. I have been looking for sounds such as heartbeats, bubbles, water,breathing etc(Natural sounds that would be inside the body.)Been fiming the oil lamp that gives lovely flowing bubbles that look similar to blood.So will put this on my blog soon.