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CRITICAL EVALUATION – HYPERBOLIC DOUBT- ELLIOTT ELDER – DIGITAL AND DOCUMENTARY

Progression/Development

I would argue the wisest realisation concerning my approach to creating work occurred at the very beginning when planning what I was to create. Before I had consolidated on a medium or even a theme I had pinpointed that I wanted work with a sense of chronology to it and this has been something I have stayed true to until the end. What I had got wrong however was understanding why I enjoy it and gravitate towards it so much. At first my explanation was that as a designer, adding a new dimension to my previously static work (time) would give me a new element to control. This however is wrong, through documenting work in a blog, I had forgotten my love for words and “telling stories”. Although one could easily argue that ofcourse a static image can too tell a story, the sense of reveal, build up and payoff leans on the aspect of time in order to be truly utilized. I think the idea of “time” explains why I gravitate towards the creation of audio and music too.

In terms of the concept behind my work, this has had a tilt in direction. Initially intended as an “explanation of perception and theories behind it” I have instead shifted focus towards a theme of “doubt” and collated theories under this idea of uncertainty behind common facts we accept as true. I think this was a wise change in direction as my previously planned explanatory work, although is interesting to me and certainly brings up interesting discussions, it does boil down to simply an explanation. Basing my work off of the verb “doubt” instantly creates a very engaging theme with the audience that is able to be analogous to everyday life, bridging the gap between the hyper-theoretical philosophy to the real nature of the media and politics.

Problem solving

Creating work concerning the hypothetical disconnect between the mind and external world was from the start planned to be represented through digital and non-digital approaches, which still stays true when looking at my final creation, however some processes were changed and replaced due to a change of heart in terms of presentation.

Through pixilation and using heavily grainy camera film, the two contrast one another creating a (hopefully) clear visualisation of the relation the two have/don’t have between one another. There were many physical problems to overcome too such as analogue TVs and old cameras. Demographics were tested on a diverse age range.

Experimentation and exploration of new processes

Working in digital 3D, more considered print, motion and “scoring a script” were all approaches I had never truly attempted before this project, and engaging in them all was challenging. I also found the venture into interactivity as exciting too. Again I have experimented in work that requires the user to create a series of inputs but without any consideration for why  this is effective. As someone with a desire to create communicative work, exploring the transformative world of the videogame LSD allowed me to understand the level of viewer engagement interactive media can have.

Primary research

The physical presentation of my work was a key area in terms of inspiration from my primary research as well as a huge collection of problems to be solved. Working with dated technology in a modern world of wireless and HD served as both a problem to overcome in terms of presentation as well as a refreshing take on how to present digital art. This appreciation for presentation of work was equally inspired by the visual aesthetic of fluxus artist: Nam Juke Pain as well as Wolfgang Tillmans’ recent tate exhibition.

    Secondary Research

Linking to this, my self-directed study aided me in understanding this gravitation to time based media and plot. Studying music videos was actually a more helpful source than I first expected. Initially my head I understood that as someone who aims to create something that incorporates audio and video, it would be wise to observe something which considers both. However when looking into detail at for example Porter Robinson’s “shelter” or Mura Masa’s “1night” it was made clear to me that the connection between these two sensory inputs were where the “magic happened” in terms of increasing the effectiveness of the meaning behind the work. A key turning point when making my work relevant and potent was when examining Adam Curtis’ hyper normalization.

Academic Research

I think an area of weakness in my work is the documentation of my self-directed study, less so towards the audio and visual side and it’s links to the concepts as I feel like this area of study was engaged in at a fairly intensive detail, but a lacking area of documented study was my understanding of philosophical theory behind the visuals I was creating/script I was writing/music I was composing. Although such studies did took place I do feel like there was less of a written focus on Descartes. Russel and Hume than there should have been. I’d definitely say that picking a topic I am highly passionate about made me very keen to ensure I was factually and visually correct/appropriate.

Planning/Organisation

Although loose chronology of when things were to be done was set out, the creation of work would occur in sudden bursts of productivity followed by lulls of searching for the correct equipment/successful process. However one may argue that this could stem from the unmodular nature of a scripted documentary created on dated technology laid out in a specific way. I think these lulls of productivity on the practical front however did give me plenty of time to stew over the theoretical side.

Final evaluation

I have learnt so much in terms of how to physically present my work in a more considered way as opposed to putting it on a usb stick and handing it to someone and calling it a day. Expanding my knowledge on the philosophical nature of epistemology and the very process of creating, and scoring a mini documentary has been both a difficult, rewarding and eye opening learning process. I’m glad that I didn’t over-do the interactive elements of my work, I feel like there is enough there to be engaging without taking away focus of the subject matter.

Working with audio and visuals has been sheepishly attempted before without as much consideration and adding voice and a script to this combination only added to the consideration required when understanding how to create cohesive and engaging work. I think the final outcome was something that suggests some really interesting philosophical questions without being too difficult to digest without watering down my source material.

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setup instructions for invidulators

HYPERBEOLIC DOUBT - Setup instructions

 Hello :^) first of all, thankyou for setting up my installation for the day – much appreciated

Any issues feel free to contact me - 07484195595

Please put this paper on top of one of the Xboxes once set up and then place it on top of the centre tv at the end of each night for the next person.

Instructions going from left to right

·        Turn mains on at the back (both switches)

TV 1 (silver) – connected to the far left white Xbox (directly behind)

·        Turn on xbox connected to dvd and wait 10 seconds

·        Open the disk tray and then close it again (button furthest to the left connected to the disk tray – this triggers the dvd to play

·        Turn TV on and cycle through the channel to AV

·        The tv cable may have fallen out so you may have to plug that back in

 TV 2 (centre main tv)

·        Do the same with the centre xbox in the back bay

·        Turn TV on – press TV/AV/DVD button to channel AV1

TV 3 (middle left) Follow instructions for TV 1 as it is the same model TV

·        The xbox is the same process but the eject button is the small icon on the top left of the xbox (it’s just a touch sensitive)

TV 4  (far left)

 Same but it’s a dvd player so just eject and uneject to trigger video to play. The button is rubbish so might need convincing. The cable is also terrible so if the image on screen seems dark give the scart video cable a wiggle and see if it fixes it.

Cycle through channels until you see the visuals on screen.

 THANKYOU!!!!!

Elliott :^)

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the finished documentary

compiling my:

script

voice editing

score

typography

photography

animation

The video was created with the idea that people will be browsing across work and can jump in at any time and catch an argument in its singularity, segmented by visuals that clearly shift on topic change for example when talking about indirect realism the visuals shift into more digital looking video signals, created by filming my crts up close. Music changes also signal shift in topic or point.

I’m really pleased with the outcome. I definitely think the voice ties the work together fantastically.

A lot of consideration took place in terms of how busy the visuals should be with plenty of opportunities for the viewer to shift his/her attention to the other three videos surrounding him/her allowing him/her to interract with them.  I also made the video less visually busy at the more complicated elements such as when discussing logic and the future as these are the two hardest arguments to follow.

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example of source visual for when I touch on my videos relevence on todays politics and media emphasising the robotic lack of humanity that these characters can possess

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finished physical layout with all four tvs playing test dvds that only have one visual each (to test that all the players are working with each TV) (strange image flicker is caused by the strange interraction between a camera and CRT tv - this effect has been explored before and shall be continued to be explored

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stronger magnets have been sourced. I've decided for presentation as a way to display to the audience that the metal is magnetic I shall simply hammer two nails into my central plinth, one to hang the headphones from and one to attatch the magnet to.

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The process of “double filming” is something I am currently creating source materialvl of for my documentary on the section concerning indirect realism.

As explained before in my reading of college books the concept of indirect realism states that we perceive the world like a camera. Our sense data or what our brain sees is in fact just a representation of the external word, not how it actually exists, making it more believable in theory but also allowing us to argue its trustworthyness.

That being considered filming the screen serves as a perfect, subtle visualization of this theory: Our minds eye sees an indirect feed if the external world just as we are seeing a video of a screen showing something that it is visualizing to us. The barrior between the external world in the visual is represented as digital technology and pixels. (apologies for the music had no idea this was a thing until I saw it up)

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visual theme/composition notes

As shown visually in sketches and mock ups, the work heavily conists of an offblack with visuals dotted around the space in a rather unexpected way. I feel like this both contributes to the analogies in the video (with the constant reference to ‘windows’) aswell as keeps the viewer engaged as the person is constantly in need of darting his/her eyes around the screen.

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recording notes

I tried recording using a male voice, however it got very lost in the low, distorted bassy music. I therefore used a friend who is studying drama with an equal interest in philosophy to read the voiceover. I intend to use a vast majority of swift cuts in audio 1) to reduce runtime 2) to add to the eerie feeling to the work.

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Now I knew my process of creating my digital media works, I was able to be much more confident when producing work.

Sadly, due to size limitations/safety in electrical devices I had to scale down the quantitiy of TVS to four with a central documentary and three surrounding works. The three videos will be looped and played and looped, surrounding the viewer watching the documentary with the title being flashed on all the screens. I made the videos intentionally differing  in length, this means that they will desync over and over, you’ll never see the same three images at the same time. The visuals are all split between videos depending on which sense organ they represent. The audience will then be able to interract with these visuals, distorting the image creating a visual metaphor for the themes of the documentary, not trusting our senses doubling up with not trusting the screens we use for viewing media. Whats interesting is that the magnetisation stains the TV until turned off for a considerable amount of time. Those who interract witht the video will leave their mark for the day.

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plinths/dvd encase prepped and physically laid out.

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now I have burned a test dvd and got it running on a crt setup I am confident in the viability of my workflow. I've decided to dvd burn in a menuless setting meaning all visuals/doc will continually loop. Doing this however puts me at risk of blurring the beginning and end of my work (my one criticism of the documentary at the design museum) and so I therefore am creating distinct beginning and end markers.

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sheet 2

a much cooler colour pallette on this film, i like some of the very lo fi results of this film and adds to the general sense of distortion A huge source if inspiration for a vast range of my photography work stems from Daedo Moriyama and his street photography work. .

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how i am creating my visuals for the video

after scanning the films in, I line up the four images in photoshop and create short 6 image animations from the four image shots (a seemless cycle through as the end two reverse the animation back to frame one) I then export the images out and sequence them in sony vegas before burning them onto a dvd.

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video/audio compilation work

clips/ audio:

Arial

Nimslo gifs

an intentionally corrupted gif

Sketch 5 (audio)