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week 12

Research:

i.academic research

Malekpour, M., & Motamedi, S. (2021). The Liminal and the Surreal: The Space of Limbo and Dreams in Luis Bunuel’s The Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie. CINEJ Cinema Journal, 9(1), 320–345. https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2021.342

By using these Freudian methods of investigation, surrealists were able to agree that somatic and organic stimuli contribute to the vivid causes of dreams, which in fact exhibit meaning beyond the sedative state (sleeping).

ii.creative practice

lullaby of uncle magritte（2016）by Michael Cheval

Surrealist artists seek to explore the unconscious mind as a way of creating art, resulting in dreamlike, sometimes bizarre imagery across endless mediums. The core of Surrealism is a focus on illustrating the mind’s deepest thoughts automatically when they surface. This thought process for creating art known as “automatism.”

iii.technique research

Bowker, D. (2013). Surreal Photography Creating the Impossible. Ilex Press/ Ivy Press.

hysical photographic techniques can be just as effective in producing an otherworldly, dreamlike image as hours spent in Photoshop. Photographer can use different lenses(fisheye and tilt-lift), filters, and exposure times(long exposure)— individually and in combination— to achieve a range of fascinating surreal effects.

Project Progress:

I suddenly think of a idea of adding more dynamics into my final part of lighting design to create more senses of surreal preposterous. It is about several red particles floating upwards and its motions interrupted by high-frequency flashes of white light. This dynamic is placed on two walls so audience can feel strong impact about noticing this when they’re focusing on scroll down blue and white light curtain in front.

Week 11

Class Reflection:

The treatment of audio endings was recognized.

Research:

i. academic research

Mønster, L. (2018). Dream Poems. The Surreal Conditions of Modernism. Humanities (Basel), 7(4), 112–. https://doi.org/10.3390/h7040112

As regards literature, psychoanalysis has especially influenced Surrealism, which is the modernist movement that has most strongly adopted the dream. Therefore, the concept of Surrealism is important in the discussion of the relationship between dream poems and reality. Significantly, the word Surrealism can be translated into ‘super realism’, which implies that the connection to reality is not denied; on the contrary, it is emphasized, but at another level. This is a level which, according to Freud, is often thought of as ‘under’, but is nevertheless said to be ‘over’ or ‘super’, and as a result of this metaphor alone, it holds a positive value. Breton’s first Surrealist manifesto of 1924 defined the term as follows: “Surrealism is based on the belief in the higher reality of certain forms of associations which, before Surrealism, remained unaffected, in the almighty dream and in the unintelligible play of thought” (Breton [1962] 1972, p. 36). Inspired by Freud’s interpretations of dreams, Surrealism explores and gives a voice to the subconscious. In Surrealism, poems and dreams unite as catalysts for what the Surrealists perceive as the authentic reality of the human being. Automatic writing and dream poems become key literary forms of expression in an art that denies a traditional realistic aesthetic, and instead requires that language adopt the mysterious and illogical character of the dream.

ii.creative practice

Philip C. Curtis; The Wanderers; 1960; oil on board; 17 15/16 x 33 7/16 in. (45.5 x 85 cm) Framed: 22 1/16 x 37 5/16 in. (56 x 94.7 cm); Collection of Phoenix Art Museum, gift of Virginia Ullman

A group of different scale people who wear colorful gowns are walking in various directions on the red desert. Surreal free spirit is shown by unusual body size and non-uniform formations. Blue-green sky and red ground provide a sense of wildness to audience.

iii. technique research

Sinclair, Jean-Luc. Principles of Game Audio and Sound Design : Sound Design and Audio Implementation for Interactive and Immersive Media, Taylor & Francis Group, 2020.

Delivery of stems is quite common and often expected when working with linear media. Stems are submixes of the audio by category such as music , dialog and sound effects. Stems make it convenient to make changes to the mix, such as replacing the dialog, without needing to revisit the entire mix. Having a separate music bounce also allows for more flexible and creative editing while working on the whole mix to picture. It also makes sense to structure our overall mix in terms of music, effects and dialog busses for ease of overall mixing. Rather than trying to mix all tracks at once, the mix ultimately comes down to a balance between the three submixes, allowing us to quickly change the relative balance between the major components of the mix.

week 10

Research:

i.Academic Research:

Hamer, R. D. (2023). Surreal space in René Magritte’s Le Blanc-Seing (1965). Journal of Vision (Charlottesville, Va.), 23(5), 8–8. https://doi.org/10.1167/jov.23.5.8

The impossibility of surreal experiences is able to be created by utilizing the visual brain's prioritization of object integrity and continuity.

ii. Creative Practice

The Reckless Sleeper by Rene Magritte, 1927

By giving concrete form to the abstract notion of "dream" - the stone slabs in which the objects are embedded - Rene creates for the viewer a surreal image built on illogical connections. The depressing color palette awakens in the connoisseur a deep sense of confusion and unease.

iii. Technique Research:

youtube

Foot light is used especially when dancing kids are wearing hat on the stage in order to show their face expressions.

Project Progress:

Finished.

Week 9

Class Reflection:

Milestone Presentation. Darrin suggested me to link start clip of the music to its end as transition. Nik affirmed the application of blackout in the closing section.

Research:

i.Academic Research:

Surrealism: Key Concepts, edited by Krzysztof Fijalkowski, and Michael Richardson, Taylor & Francis Group, 2016. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rmit/detail.action?docID=4556595.

Surrealists developed their own philosophies of the dream, which include “The dream does not remind us of the past but of the future; surrealist works are souvenirs of the future” “Whereas images metamorphose in the space of the dream, events are magnetized in the temporality of wireless time, outside the linear course of history”.

ii. Creative Practice

Through Birds, Through Fire, But Not Through Glass by Yves Tanguy

It depicts Rock-like forms and a strange tower of balloon-shapes, wheel-spokes and stones are inhabiting this overcast dreamscape. “Inconsistent gravity emphasizes the unconscious surrealism in the painting. There is no logic in the gravity of the piece. Objects that shouldn’t be able to stand up are standing. Things stacked on other things which should have no value of balance somehow stay upright. ”(Chisham, 2014) In surreal painting, stuffs do not obey a same discipline. For example, this audio contains a lot of sound effects that point to a specific direction. But this orientation was not always delivered in my project.

iii. Technique Research

Surrealism: Theatre Conventions by Justin Cash

The plot and structure of a surreal experience could be designed as:

– avant-garde, experiemntal, unconventional

– antithesis of the realistic well-made play

– plays consisted of numerous quick scenes (similar to surrealist films with an “irrational juxtaposition of images” – Jerry Crawford)

– use of music and song

– deliberate abandonment of clarity, order and rational thought*

Project Progress

I remade the end of audio media as Darrin suggested and made a responding light animation for it (a solid blue insertion and its 0.4s release). I also lower the brightness of the 52s-58s part to let the effects more fierce-looking.

Week 8

Class Reflection: Known what to do in assignment three. Keep working on studying of the concept “Surreal”. Learn about using Powerdrill to extract and manage references. More reflections on project had been encouraged.

Research：

i.academic research

Art by Salvador Dali

surreal artwork is created when creator irrationally link objects ideas.

ii. Creative Practice

Swans Reflecting Elephants by Salvador Dali

The swans’ reflection in the lake is twisted into elephant to create double images and visual illusions which are out of rational cognition as surrealism to audience.

iii.Technique Research

Surrealism: Theatre Conventions by Justin Cash

This article states how surrealism is delivered in 3D space like a theater. Core stagecraft includes:

– vague scenery, often not specifically denoting a locale

– use of mask

– symbolism evident in scenery

– characters as puppets (non-human)

Project Progress:

I had finished and made some slightly adjustment for all the five minutes of my work this week, including some timeline proofreading to make the whole audio-visual experience smoother. I have noticed that some classmates felt boring of the middle section of my work in last week’s Capitol Theater test, so more dynamic shifts were edit into it.

Week 7

Class Reflection

Nik commended that my work was beautiful but possessive. Asymmetrical pattern of lighting design was also been recognized. Involve the whole threater as integrity to showcase lighting was also a good point to keep.

Darrin suggested me to reduce lighting area at the soothing rhythm section so a stronger contrast would make later. I took this advance and it worked well.

Research

i.Academic Research

R. Hemer, S. (2016). Emotions, senses, spaces : ethnographic engagements and intersections (S. R. Hemer & A. Dundon, Eds.). University of Adelaide Press. https://doi.org/10.20851/emotions

Anxious emotions can increase pain, weakness, and hopelessness; can even lead to suicide; can increase medical costs; and can disrupt patients' quality of life and therapeutic success.

However, there is no general agreement on the contributing biological or psychosocial basis of anxious emotion. “Possible explanations for the associations have been suggested, including a direct effect on neuro‐endocrinological and/or immunologic systems or an indirect effect via changes in behavior. Potential physiological pathways have been shown to contribute to the cross‐talk between AE and the development, progression, and control of cancer, including the sympathetic nervous system, hypothalamic pituitary adrenal axis, stress hormones, cellular immunity, inflammation, angiogenesis, invasion, anoikis, and changes in gene expression, as well as telomere length and telomerase activity, which could interact with the tumor microenvironment to promote factors favoring tumor growth.28–30 The most likely biobehavioral mechanisms underlying the relationship between AE and survival include poor adherence to anticancer treatment, fewer social networks, and disruptions of circadian rhythms such as sleep/activity”

Medical methods to determine anxiety emotion include ultra‐short verbal questions, abnormal nutritional status valuation, Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, Distress Thermometer, and Psychological Distress Inventory.

ii.Creative Practice

youtube

The green lights follow the same rhythm and make repeated movements on the track, giving the viewer an assumption of inertia. The vocals then interrupt the repetitive electronic sounds and the lights change from a long green strip to a white mass, breaking the established assumptions to create a sense of awe.

iii.Technique Research

Descottes, H., & Ramos, C. E. (2011). Architectural lighting : designing with light and space (1st ed.). Princeton Architectural Press.

“Differing rhythmic densities of light have the capacity to link or fracture spaces in sequence. An abrupt change in density will solicit a jump or pause, while the continuity of related densities will encourage uniform movement and experience. Furthermore, densities of light can create a sense of either monotony or playfulness within a space. The redundant use of one fixture type or lighting condition can easily provoke boredom, but a variation of densities can enliven an otherwise mundane space.”

Use different rhythmic densities of light to create senses of either monotony or playfulness.

Project Progress

youtube

This week I had work through the 1min45s-2min58s of the audio clip. This piece was created using a sound-association method and adapted to take into account the audience's attention span and viewing position.

The last slow section of music is interrupted by an upbeat electronic sound like a phone ringing, and I arrange blue, purple, orange and yellow flicker presets for the left and right walls and adjust its period to 2 to indicate this insertion. This ringtone was repeated twice, the first time it was played in its entirety, but the second time it was interrupted as well. So, I set a 0.5 second release for the first segment and zeroed out the release for the second segment to differentiate.

For the next metal-like friction sound, I set the front ceiling to a silver wave effect for expression.

Next was a section of back to front like machine loaded stereo, I added blue and purple wave qualities to the walls on either side and changed the direction to forward. with the 0.1period loop, it was just right for the tempo of this electronic sound.

Because the previous lighting animation drew the audience's attention to the front of the theater, and this sound effect is articulated with the previous one, so I set the lighting animation after 2:15 to ProArch. Because this sound effect reminds me of laser rain, I set the lighting animation to a black+colored wave to simulate a light transparency flicker.

The electronic synthesized sound at the beginning of 2:21 was imagined by me as being in a cold-colored mechanical engineering, so I represented it with blue flicker animations on both sides of the wall.

The tapping sound inserted in the middle of the similar sound effect at both ends was very much like the sound of a heavy landing and was accompanied by a gradual upward movement of the sound position, so I imagined it as a person going up the stairs and made an orange horizontal bar to switch the lighting.

To hint to the viewer that the mutation is about to happen, I added a purple color to the lighting animation of the second similar sound effect to differentiate it from the first animation.

To match the sudden loud human hiss, I added color fast cuts of 0.2 and 0.3 seconds respectively to ProArch, while extinguishing the wall lights on both sides to draw the viewer's attention to the front.

Week 6

Class Reflection

I discussed about our Pharos Designer 2 drafts with some classmates. Some of them agreed that my chosen audio caused them feel anxious.

Research

i.Academic Research

Rohaeni Rohaeni, Fatma Hetami, & Bambang Purwanto. (2019). Anxiety and Defense Mechanism as A Means of Constructing Psychological Thriller in Hawkins’ “The Girl on The Train.” Rainbow: Journal of Literature, Linguistics and Culture, 8(1), 73–85. https://doi.org/10.15294/rainbow.v8i1.27917

“Anxiety will occur when an individual experiences an unconscious conflict or unpleasant situations. It relates to id, ego, and superego. When anxiety occurs, an individual automatically uses a defense mechanism to defend themselves against that anxiety.”

ii. Creative Practice

Miyazaki, H., & Suzuki, T. (2001). Spirited away. Studio Ghibli.

Wu, C.-I. (2016). Hayao Miyazaki’s Mythic Poetics: Experiencing the Narrative Persuasions in Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle and Ponyo. Animation : an Interdisciplinary Journal, 11(2), 189–203. https://doi.org/10.1177/1746847716643777

By alienating the human parents into pigs, the director creates a strange adventure for the audience by enlarging the size of the characters in the anomalous world and contrasting them with the heroine.

iii.Technique Research

youtube

This video provides some interesting lighting color schemes.

Project Progress

I’d done 1:45 of the whole 5:27 audio. I use orange and red flicker to match the impatient friction sounds, and varying shades of blue wave to match the slow electronic sounds

Week 5

Class Reflection

The first class was ask to provide first project draft and professors would give feedback. I watched some of my classmates’ work and discussed with them. I decide audio choice of my project after the class.

The second class located at the Capitol Theater for students to test our drafts. The biggest most common problem of our works that exposed in this lesson was that low-saturation colors tend to be so close to white light that it doesn't perform well. Another problem that stood out in my work was the use of multiple lights that resulted in too much brightness throughout the theater, thus interrupting the immersive viewing experience for the audience.

Most audience agreed that the feeling of my work did not match with “astonishing” feeling. Some suggested “brutal” but the sound effects also make people giggle. “Black out” was advised to use more for separating scenes. The emotion of the piece was difficult to characterize until the overall production is complete.

reconsider word choice, such as strange/peculiar/dissonant/anxious/thrilling/fretful.

Research

i.Academic Research

Soloski, A. (2016). Neighborhood Watch in a Fretful South Bronx. The New York Times, C2–.

When “Fretful” is used to describe a performance, it points out that characters are suffering from some bothersome. Fretful feelings delivers by character’s teasing, scrapping, struggles and grievance. It is often related to anxiety and restlessness but not in a serious level.

ii. Creative Practice

Knowhere

youtube

Knowhere is a fictional city in Marvel related media. The location consists of intertwined mining machines and urban buildings that float through the universe, lacking flora, fauna, and land. I choose it as this week’s creative practice because it is highly mechanized which is very similar to my chosen audio.

The major light sources of its related scenes are ample orange and white spot lights that are embed on dark architectures. Foggy blue light is also used as background fill light. All the setting above make audience impressed by the city's massive size and highly developed.

iii. Technique Research

Schiller, B. (2020). Living the Lighting Life: A Guide to a Career in Entertainment Lighting. Taylor and Francis. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429328787

Part IV The Creativity-24 Creative Inspiration

This chapter tells a method to start lighting design by getting inspired by nature. Replication in creative work may not be a direct recreation of the observed nature moment but emulating the feeling or pattern.

Project Progress

I’d done 48s Pharos Designer document of my chosen audio Rivage. Presets like “Wave” “Stroke” “Color” “Sparkle” were used to simulate fast switching of sound effects. Below is my week 5 Test.

After the draft test, I reduced the range of lighting in some sections, made sparkle part re-match with the sound effects and enhanced color contrast in the second flash section.

youtube

Week 4

Class Reflection

This week we went through the presentation. I aimed to do “astonishing” but my understanding was more like “surprise”. It’s not easy to create a 3-minute sound clip for a beginner so I decide to use existed music/sound.

Research

i.Academic Research

Sievers, B. R., & Wheatley, T. (2021). Rapid dissonant grunting, or, but why does music sound the way it does? The Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 44, e111–e111. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X20001284

“…we propose that connections between sound, movement, and emotion are an additional source of functional fixedness. If one function of emotion is to bias agents toward context-appropriate action (Frijda, Kuipers, & Ter Schure, 1989), then the path from action predisposition to functional fixedness is short. If high-arousal states make characteristically low-arousal movement difficult (and vice versa), and if high-arousal movements produce sounds that distinguish them from low-arousal movements, then sounds should credibly signal both the movement that produced them and the sound producer's state of mind. Rapid dissonant grunting is, therefore, bad lullaby material – not because it fails to signal attention, proximity, or responsiveness, but because it signals that the caregiver is in a high-arousal state inappropriate for the context (e.g., bedtime).”

“Supporting this account, we have shown that music and movement share a dynamic structure, such that the same combinations of music and movement features express the same emotions across cultures (Sievers, Polansky, Casey, & Wheatley, 2013). Furthermore, harsh timbres and spiky movement contours (both quantified using the spectral centroid) are reliably used in the expression and perception of high-arousal emotion (Sievers, Lee, Haslett, & Wheatley, 2019). Interestingly, Filippi et al. (2017) have shown that harsh timbres are used to express high-arousal by many species of terrestrial vertebrate, suggesting the sound–emotion connection is evolutionarily ancient, fitting the proposed timeline of the credible signaling hypothesis.”

ii. Creative Practice

Light Painting by Janne Parviainen

Helsinki-based artist Janne Parviainen creates these magical light paintings using a very long camera exposures. "Light painting and li

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"Light painting and light drawing are ways of photography where photo is manipulated with different kind of light sources while the camera is exposing on a long exposure time in a dark or lowly lit place. The idea of the light painting is that all photos should be straight from the camera, without any post editing such as Photoshop, etc."

Janne Parviainen chooses an abandoned mansion forest as his shooting location. He paints suspicious characters and skeletons with colored flashlights to prompt audience inquiry and speculation.

iii. Technique Research

youtube

Setting luminance differences between primary and secondary figures to highlight the major.

Project Progress

Finished the presentation part.

Week 3)

Class reflection

When sounds relate to haptic, play the specific sound will awaken skin’s memory of be touching (By interviewing noimpossible vest volunteers)

Research

i. academic research

Dobbins, Alison C. Projection Design for Theatre and Live Performance : Principles of Media Design. Milton: Taylor & Francis Group, 2021.

Even though the book doesn't directly mention lighting design, but instead talks mostly about the differences between designing for film and theater, I still gained a lot of design knowledge from it. For example, The author suggests readers to start develop their works’ visual style by learning semiotics. In semiotics there are three types of signifiers: icon, index and symble. Among them, symbol requires audience to cultured lean about resemblance between signifiers and signified. As a designer of multisensory experience, my project must avoid “symbol” because it is against the principle of perception.

In addition, Dobbins also states that “theater is the eternal present.” “Creating motion in your workroom will feel very different from watching the same motion in the theatre.”

ii Creative Practice

Artist: Jeff Ravitz

Work: Lighting design for Bruce Springsteen’s performance(start from 2:06)

The color palettes of teal and orange shocked me at the start. Teal background looks ethereal and airy, orange spotlight on the singer looks warm and nostalgic. They are contradictory due to great gap between color temperature but luminous intensity make them so harmonious.

iii. Technical Research

Dunham, Richard E.. Stage Lighting Second Edition : The Fundamentals, Taylor & Francis Group, 2018. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/rmit/detail.action?docID=5569457.

Movement and Light

“The period of time (or timing ) when one cue changes into another becomes a major component of a successful lighting design. This is called a transition and we commonly refer to each change between cues as a crossfade. If done poorly, this can be distracting; if done well, transitions play a major factor in enhancing the effectiveness of actors as they proceed toward the climax of a given scene.”

Project Progress

Delete the old plan and restart a new one because the previous one is more like a film score.

Week 2)

Reflection:

Visiting Capital Theater make me notice influence of blind spot to audience. Main capital animations concentrate on the first half of the showroom, within less important ancillary details at the back half may contributes better watching experience rather than light design that ask audience to turn their head backwards.

Research:

i.Academic research-Surprise as a Design Strategy by Ludden, Schifferstein&Hekkert

“The familiar element of the product forms the basis for an expectation about its other elements. Subsequently, the new element will disconfirm this expectation.”

ii.Creative practice

Anthony McCall. You and I - Horizontal II (2013)

youtube

McCall shows some of the rarer forms of light by varying the angle and speed of movement of the projector.

iii.Technical research

Lighting Techniques - Lighting Concepts - Design Lighting Distribution Sytem - e-light (uncg.edu)

Light effects from different emission angles.

Project progress:

Week 1)

Reflection:

Sound: Sound is defined as “Sensation due to stimulation of the auditory nerves and auditory centers of the brain” in Webster's dictionary. Therefore the meaning of a sound to a specific person depends on both their biological instinct and cultural symbol recognition. According to various pitches, durations, loudness and timbre, sound conducts scales of temporal, spatial and conceptual.

Colour: Colour reflects both environmental signals and subjective emotions. In performance, colour can convey characters’ emotion, setting mood for the whole scene, guide audience attention to focus on specific people or stuff, establish time and places.

Kennen:To know something based on experience means that the audience skip logical inference and centre on their feelings only.

Research:

i.Academic research-Black on Black by Eugene Thacker

Through Eugene's introduction to black in the history of philosophy and art, I learnt that black can symbolise "before the origin of the universe", "solitude, privation, absence" and "non-interference". It's flat and full but an empty, infinite depth at the same time. Sometimes black is not pure emptiness, and as one observes black, shades of other colours become apparent.

I thought it might be possible to use these black qualities to create contrast in my performance design. For example, by playing an intense soundtrack when all the lights are extinguished to simulate a pure black environment, the viewer is prompted to think that a conflict is taking place on the other side of the room that is not being detected, creating a dual narrative effect.

ii.Creative practice

youtube

2:20-2:48

This is the beginning of a programme about Chinese artefacts, and I think it's exhilarating. Although it's only 20 seconds long, it undergoes three atmospheric shifts of seriousness-austere-aroused indignatio. At the beginning, the sound of horns and the transparency of white vertical beams shifting from top to bottom created a sense of formality; then the host appeared, and the sound of swords and blades clashing rang out, brightening the audience's eyes; finally, the long soprano tones of Chinese folk instruments were played, and the LED screen was dominated by red and yellow boxes, which signify Chinese traditional culture The LED screen is dominated by red and yellow boxes, which signify Chinese traditional culture, and the white light beams swing around the circle, and the whole atmosphere goes from climax to calmness.

iii.Technical research

I watched three Capital tutorial videos on Canvas so I know how to change background colour and manage timelines in Pharos Designer 2.

Project Progress

I started to write the background music of my project. The theme is about an encounter between two ancient Chinese armies, which takes place on a large plain with mudflats, reeds and small highlands. The music will use some Chinese folk instruments such as guzheng, flute, xiao, Chinese drums, etc., as well as some ambient sounds such as wind, streams, horses' hooves, cold weapons clashing, etc. The style of the music will be more on the side of the Chinese style, but also on the side of the Chinese style of music.

The style of music will be more astonishing, exhilarating and hysterical. At first, the tune is light-hearted and neither army is aware of the other's presence. Gradually, ambient sounds such as horses' hooves running on water, and reeds rubbing against armour appear, and the instruments (especially the lute) sound suspenseful to create the appearance of traces left by the enemy. Then the rhythm of the drums kicks in, and the atmosphere becomes serious as both commanders send out scouts to spy on the army.

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