EXPERIMENT 3

SUMMARY / STATEMENT OF MEANING EXPERIMENT 3

INITIAL EXPERIMENTATION:

I played with the concept of a primitive animated flip book with manual copied frames of a video. This has potential, however, I would need to establish a more rigid framework to plan the experiment for a better result, as the current result was awkward, and uneven in flow, so not suitable for further development….deemed a failure!

I also experimented with various forms of reflection and video, viewed at the end of a 1.2m PVC tube. While there is potential for future development of this approach, it was deemed to be outside the scope of the available timeframe for this project.

CHOSEN EXPERIMENT / EXPERIMENTS

I then approached Experiment 3 with the plan to explore video taken during Experiment 1 in terms of a permeable / open system around the visible and invisible from reflections of that which is hidden from view (my metaphorical ‘underground’)

I also recalled exploration of artists who are known for installation works that utilize reflection as a key component such as:

Dan Graham

Natasha Johns-Messenger

Lucy Humphrey

and later

Mel O’Callaghan

I began by importing a number of videos and working in Premiere Pro to slow down, crop, overlay, reverse and experiment with the software.

Reflections from participant walking on floor.

To view video click on ‘WALKING’ link below

WALKING from Anne Levitch on Vimeo.

2. Reflections of both indoor and outdoor environment

I worked mostly with two approaches as per stills above:

While I progressed each approach, the results were not opening up deeper meaning for me and I was feeling like I had hit a wall of mediocrity…!

I needed to sit and ponder a while….

Chance allowed my eye to fall on an installation in the corner of my studio, and my brain lit up. One of the video options would work really well if viewed in a confined space. I could adapt a component of that installation to act as an enclosed viewing ‘oculus’….a simple adaptation but a great improvement….and a different video …

The Assignment summary advised that:

‘ When a work is constructed then the space it exists within is part of that experiment as is the observer.’

The space within the oculus would be ‘the space’ the experiment exists within and the observer was a critical element in this ‘environment’….I was happy at last and found a way to continue with this approach…….

I also realised at this point that …the camera was both a mirror and a permeable membrane!

I felt this was an important understanding……and could open other possibilities.

It could be an advantage in experimenting with the open system / permeability of image.

The video I chose to work with was around ‘breath‘

Click on ‘BREATH’ to play video in the link below:

BREATH from Anne Levitch on Vimeo.

Wind is the ultimate permeable element, visible only as a consequence of raging storm or gentle zephyr. It is invisible until it ‘damages’ (referencing Leina’s work here) or effects something tangible.

At this stage, I also recalled having seen the work of Mel O’Callaghan who had recently exhibited a performance work at ARTSPACE, that combined breathwork performed in semi reflective glass ‘booths’. She had worked with the concept of trance breathing.

The Greek word psyche, was derived from the verb psycho ‘to blow‘. The video combines the action and the subject, as reference to the reflective membrane of separation from the other, the underworld. Here, the membrane allows visibility but remains invisible. The insular viewing environment isolates the viewer / observer and creates a dialogue between the blower and the viewer, watching how the blow draws attention to an invisible membrane between the two. This is why the breath is not felt by the observer….the membrane rattles and shakes but remains intact. Can the wall, the membrane be removed, destroyed, collapsed?

The observer witnesses an open system within a closed viewing system. The one emphasising the other.

I feel there are many layers to this simple work, that will slowly make themselves evident. The immediate response is just the initial layer. Time will reveal others that are interwoven with the psyche, the collective unconscious, memory, and breath as vital life force, as spirt.

This work has used me to put it together. I am at the mercy of my subconscious, or, is it my connection to the collective unconscious.

Perhaps time will tell.

I recalled having recently read a paper by Derek Whitehead about ‘Poiesis and Art Making: A Way of Letting-Be’ in which he stated that:

‘poiesis – that which “pro-duces or leads (a thing) into being” – may enable practitioners in the varying art forms, and aetheticians who reflect upon them, to come to a deeper sense of how artworks work: that they realize themselves inter-dependently of the formative conditions of their inception. ….at a philosophical level I argue that poiesis may be seen as a liberating force which seeks to engage the multiple conditions of contemporary aesthetic reflection, and at a practical level I argue that the poietic act may be seen in those undercurrents of artistic activity that impel us toward a space of ‘unitary multiplicity…’

…could this space of ‘unitary multiplicity‘ be a reference to the collective unconscious?

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