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Setting: public bathroom
Characters: Transgender (monster), close minded people (de laceys)
Themes: difference is monstrosity,
Audience: Adolescents
Techniques: monologues soliloquies, dialogue
Lighting: artificial bathroom lighting
Music: modern music
Sound effects: bathroom flushes, sinks etc.
Flash of his fears: violent aggression towards him in the bathroom
Plot line:
Scene 1:
Airport waiting section at night (flight has been delayed)
Franki walks past family (father, mother, child) to get to seat.
Father moves child so that they aren’t sitting next to franki.
Mother and daughter go to bathroom
Elevator type music while franki looks around to see stares and whispers (gothic scary atmosphere)
Flash of darkness
Scene 2:
Franki stands to go to the bathroom while she sees all eyes on her
Franki stands by the two bathroom doors (male and female)
Walks into female bathroom
Mother rushes child out of bathroom disgusted
Franki goes to look at herself in mirror
Flash: blood, bruises (mother, child)
Scene 3:
Franki goes into bathroom stall and heard some whispers outside of the stall
Flash: slamming down bathroom door (mother, child, Midle aged woman #1, young man #1)
As soon as she leaves the stall the whispering stops, Middle aged woman #1, Middle aged woman #2.
Middle aged woman #1 stomps out of the bathroom and whispers ‘go back to your own bathroom, you rapist’
Flash: kicking on the ground (mother, child, Middle aged woman #1, young man #1,middle aged woman #2, elderly man, father)
Scene 4:
Franki goes to wash her hands next to where middle aged woman #2 is and feels middle aged woman #2 staring at her through the mirror, who moves to a sink further away.
Flash: pushing head against mirror (mother, child, Middle aged woman #1, young man #1,middle aged woman #2, elderly man, father, young man #2, adolescent girl)
Middle aged woman #2 leaves bathroom
Scene 5:
Adolescent girl leaves stall and starts washing hands, elderly woman leaves bathroom and look at franki and adolescent girl and drags girl out.
Flash: total violence (all)
Scene 6
Lighting to black
Monologue
THE BATHROOM
BY: LUCIA CONDE ARENAS
CAST
(In order of appearance)
Transgender main ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Middle aged woman #1 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Middle aged woman #2 …………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Adolescent girl ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Elderly woman ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Mother ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Child ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Father ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Elderly man …………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Young man #1 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
Young man #2 ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………
ACT 1
SCENE 1 - IMPENDING
SCENE: Cool toned lights come up to reveal night time in an airport. In a waiting segment of the airport waits a group of people whose flight has been delayed. Among them a family of three, MOTHER, FATHER, CHILD, an ELDERLY MAN and ELDERLY WOMAN, and MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #1. Airport/Elevator music in the background
AIRPORT ANNOUNCEMENT
We are sorry to announce that flight 203 is to be delayed for another hour
Sighs and groans are heard for people in the waiting room
TRANSGENDER MAIN enters.
She looks around looking for a seat, walks toward an empty seat next to the family of three, and sits.
MOTHER stands in disgust, grabs child’s hand, and exits.
TRANSGENDER MAIN looks down, ALL stare at her. WHISPERS are heard over the repetitive music.
Lights fade darker and darker, and whispers get louder, until TRANSGENDER MAIN lifts head back up, lights go up and music back on.
SCENE 2 - EXPOSED
SCENE: Slightly darker lighting in the waiting room, in which now are sitting, FATHER, ELDERLY MAN, other people. In the bathroom are MOTHER, CHILD, MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #1, MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #2.
TRANSGENDER MAIN stands and walks to the bathroom. She reaches the two doors and is conflicted by which bathroom to enter, male or female. She eventually enters the female bathroom.
MOTHER and CHILD are seen by the sink washing their hands. MOTHER immediately grabs CHILD'S hand, and walks toward the exit.
MOTHER
Disgusting.
TRANSGENDER MAIN looks at herself in the mirror.
Lights flash to black to reveal bloodied face of TRANSGENDER MAIN, while MOTHER and CHIld stand in the background. Light flash back to normal to reveal normal face.
SCENE 3 - UNDERTONE
SCENE: Darker lighting in single bathroom stall. In the bathroom now is ADOLESCENT GIRL, ELDERLY WOMAN, MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #1, MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #2.
TRANSGENDER MAIN enter bathroom stall. WHISPERING can be heard from outside.
Lights flash to black to reveal, MOTHER, CHILD, MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #1, YOUNG MAN #1, kicking down the door of the bathroom stall. Flash back to normal lighting, where there is no one.
WHISPERING can still be heard from outside the stall. TRANSGENDER MAIN exits bathroom stall, and WHISPERING between MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #1 and MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #2 stops, while they stare at TRANSGENDER MAIN.
MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #1
Go back to your own bathroom, you rapist.
Exit MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #1
Lights flash to black to reveal, MOTHER, CHILD, MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #1, YOUNG MAN #1, MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #2, ELDERLY MAN, and FATHER kicking TRANSGENDER MAIN while she is lying on the floor. Flash back to normal lighting, where this isn't happening.
SCENE 4 - HELPLESS
SCENE: Lighting remains dark (artificial type) in bathroom. In the bathroom now is MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #2, ADOLESCENT GIRL, ELDERLY WOMAN.
TRANSGENDER MAIN goes to wash her hands next to MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #2, who moves one sink further away. MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #2, is staring at TRANSGENDER MAIN through the mirror.
Flash to black, to reveal MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #2, slamming TRANSGENDER MAIN head into the mirror with MOTHER, CHILD, MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #1, YOUNG MAN #1, ELDERLY MAN, FATHER, YOUNG MAN #2, and ADOLESCENT GIRL in the background. Lighting flashes back to normal, to reveal none of this actually happening.
Exit MIDDLE AGED WOMAN #2
SCENE 5 - GUILT
SCENE: Darker lighting in the bathroom, in which now is just ADOLESCENT GIRL and ELDERLY WOMAN.
ADOLESCENT GIRL leaves stall and starts washing hands, ELDERLY WOMAN leaves bathroom and looks at TRANSGENDER MAIN and ADOLESCENT GIRL and drags ADOLESCENT GIRL out of the bathroom.
Flash lights to black, to reveal ALL characters violently punching TRANSGENDER MAIN.
END SCENE.
MOOD BOARD:
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Lucia Conde Arenas
Drama Criteria A Commedia Dell'arte
Historical and Cultural context
Historical and Cultural context
Character types
Character types
The physicality I used to portray the character, Pantalone, was to be hunched over and with strong footsteps as well as having my fingers together. I used this physicality to portray how old pantalone is as well as his old attitudes, i also wanted to portray Pantalone’s greed and cunning, and his obsession with money.
Il Capitano
I researched detailed information about Il Capitano and discovered that his origin is Spanish, and his status or social class is often a loner due to him being a foreigner. His character is a pretentious coward, he represents an arrogant boaster who always claims to success and fortune, however he is always found to be a coward. As for his physicality, his stance includes a high posture, straight back and pushed out chest (occupying as much space as possible), his animal characteristics are a hunting dog and a peacock. His walk is described as a mountain walk (heel to toe) and his gestures are extravagant and sustained, and some of his poses include standing at attention, and hands on hips with chest out. His vocal characteristics include having a Catalan accent as well as being very loud and deep, basso profundo, however when he is frightened his voice goes very high pitched. His costume consists of, a military esque uniform from the 1500’s, he often wears a feathered helmet or hat, lots of ruffles a long sword and a neck ruff. The characteristics of his mask include, having a very long nose; originally his mask was coloured very flamboyantly with bright colours however modernly it is coloured in a flesh tone. Capitano’s signature prop is a very comical long sword that is too long to use and he can never manage to use it due to its length. His relationship to the audience includes his awareness of their presence and often acknowledges them and salutes them so that he is admired. His stage function is to be unmasked, meaning that during all of his sketched he always ends up being exposed as a coward or a liar, and stripped of excess confidence.
Lazzi and performances
In Commedia dell’arte, the Lazzi is essentially the rehearsed stock joke or punchline that is included to ensure the comical ending of the sketch due to the improvisation aspect of the plays. Some of the Lazzi’s that I used in my performance included my sketch with Sophia, as Pantalone and Il dottore. Our sketch was about pantalone trying to convince Il Dottore to marry his daughter, Isabella. Il Dottore refuses however he offers a condition, he will marry Isabella if Pantalone offers him a dowry of 1 million billion million billion etc dollars. This was the Lazzi of our sketch as it is a very exaggerated amount of money and it also illustrates Il Dottores lack of knowledge about money, even though he pretends otherwise. Some of the Lazzi’s I saw in other groups was in Julia and Kanta’s performance with Il Capitano and Brighella. Their sketch was includes Kanta, as Il Capitano telling Brighella lots of impressive stories about how he fought against lions and dragons etc. Then Brighella tells Il Capitano that she has to tell him something but that it is really scary, he says he can handle it then she says boo, and Il Capitano screams. This is the Lazzi as it masks Il Capitano as a confident military man and reveals him as a coward. Another group that I made TEAM notes for was Olivia and Molly, I found that the tension between characters was evident from the beginning, as immediately you could tell which character they were because of their physicality. Additionally the tension between the characters and Molly’s uninterest and disengagement with Olivia trying to impress her. I also thought that both of their commitments to the character depicted their emotion really clearly, as Olivia was very energetic and persistent to showing off her skills, and Molly maintained her uninterest throughout which illustrated their emotions and goals as characters. The atmosphere of their performance was evident as the dance scene, had a very comical atmosphere due to their exaggerated physicality. I think both Olivia and Molly clearly showed the meaning of the piece due to their commitment to the character and how their emotion and goals as characters maintained the same and were clear throughout the play.
Modern Comedy inspired by Commedia Dell’ArteTo conclude, Commedia dell’arte has had a massive impact on how comedy is created and the characters used in comedy. Influences from Commedia are constantly used in comedy, one example of this is how we now consider the Commedia stock characters as stereotypes. Stereotypes are constantly used, and not only in comedy, they allow the viewer to get a generalised idea of a character as a shallow person that everyone can recognise. Some examples of how these stock characters have been used in comedies are: Manuel from Fawlty Towers as the zanni, and Basil as Brighella, Edmund Blackadder is also Brighella, and Baldrick as arlecchino, Jasmine and Aladdin are examples of the lovers, Kronk from Emperor's new groove is arlecchino, Gilderoy Lockhart from Harry Potter as Il Capitano, Columbia as Colombina from The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and many more. The Marx Brothers, Monty Python, Mr Punch and Mr Bean have all also been known to include stock characters from Commedia dell’arte. Many aspects other than stock characters have also been incorporated into modern use, for example the idea of physical comedy can be traced back to commedia. Many comedies use exaggerated or silly physicality as the joke or funny aspect, this is evident in works such as Charlie Chaplin, Chevy Chase or The ministry of silly walks by Monty Python,the chocolate factory scene from I Love Lucy, or the Three Stooges. In addition, the use of the ‘lazzi’ is still commonly used, as it allows for a scheduled comedic moment. In general, it is undeniable that modern comedy is constantly turning back to the origins of Commedia dell’arte due to its classic timeless comedic aspects.
Works Cited
Masks & Characters, www.commediadelnuovomondo.com/Characters.
“Commedia Dell’Arte in Italy: The Art & Craft of Physical Comedy.” CSU Summer Arts, blogs.calstate.edu/summerarts/courses/physical-and-visual-comedy-commedia-dellarte-today/.
“FLAVIO AND ISABELLA (INNAMORATI).” Mayhem, Madness, Masks and Mimes - Commedia Dell'Arte, mayhemmadnessmasksandmimes-commediadellarte.weebly.com/flavio-and-isabella-innamorati.html.
“Faction of Fools | A History of Commedia Dell'Arte.” Faction of Fools Banner, www.factionoffools.org/history.
“Good Theatre.” Pinterest, 6 Nov. 2016, www.pinterest.com/pin/512214157604380197/.
“Mask Technique in Commedia Dell'Arte in Commedia Dell'Arte (Part 1).” Mask Technique in Commedia Dell'Arte in Commedia Dell'Arte (Part 1) |, commedia.klingvall.com/mask-technique-in-commedia-dellarte-in-commedia-dellarte-part-1/.
Meagher, Author: Jennifer. “Commedia Dell’Arte | Essay | Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History | The Metropolitan Museum of Art.” The Met's Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/comm/hd_comm.htm.
“Pantalone.” Theatre Lit Wiki, theatrelitwiki.wikispaces.com/Pantalone.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Commedia Dell'arte.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 18 Apr. 2017, www.britannica.com/art/commedia-dellarte.
The Editors of Encyclopædia Britannica. “Zanni.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 26 May 2017, www.britannica.com/art/zanni.
Tim. Commedia Stock Characters Dottore, www.tim-shane.com/Commedia-Dottore.htm.
Tim. Commedia Stock Characters Pantalone, www.tim-shane.com/Commedia-Pantalone.htm.
oflynng17, Author. “La Commedia Dell’Arte Characters – Modern Examples.” Site Title, 19 Sept. 2017, oflynng17.wordpress.com/2017/09/19/la-commedia-dellarte-characters-modern-examples/.
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Intuitive Image
Intuitive perception of Image
Our subconscious understanding of the world, through our brains rationality for expectancy, is our base for perception. It is this constant rationalisation of the physical world around us, that our brain performs subconsciously that allows us to perceive visuals intuitively. Our perception digests the general overload of visual stimulus through the brain's expectation for how objects will interact with us before it has happened. This perception is what contains the boundaries of our general understanding, acquired solely by our way of seeing. This ability for visual thinking in the unconscious mind, brings up many questions in how our subconscious visual thinking patterns impact the way we see images. The expectation we bring to the image and the intuitive ways we decipher it. Through this text I want to explore specifically how moving images of textures can play with the intuitive ways we perceive the physical world: objects, textures, mass. Examining what our visual thinking patterns bring to the image.
Visual understanding provides information needed for evaluating the physical environment, intuitively knowing how to react/interact to all matter around, This provides our primary sense for constantly understanding the environment, before we have interacted with it. “When planning interactions with nearby objects, our brain uses visual information to estimate shape, material composition, and surface structure before we come into contact with them.” (Visual cues to surface structure drive somatosensory cortex). “It is unclear how our brain uses information acquired solely by vision to derive sensations associated with another sensory modality, touch. One possibility is that we remember touch sensations from previous interactions with similar materials. Could such memories re-create the sensation of touching an
object?” (how does the brain feel objects)
This subconscious visual intuitivity is essential to how we view images. How images can interact with the different levels of our conscious vision and intuitive vision. I believe these blend together as our internal visual thinking is the basis of understanding of seeing the external world, and in turn our visual thinking takes from our reality. Your imagination is the “image-making power of the mind”. These images we see constantly even when our eyes are open. The interaction between these two images is a constant presence. Moreover what
happens when the eyes close. When we blink. However long you try to focus on the darkness of your eyelids, you cannot stop constantly seeing images of your rationalisation of the present. Darkness, with shapes of colour, lingering lights, strange pixelated movement.
Shapes and colours, blurred and pixelated, it looks very familiar, could be many different things. To further explore this, I investigated these ideas in a video work. Exploring what effect it has on the viewer when watching moving images of conflicting or unclear textures. Subconsciously attempting to rationalise what it is they are seeing. Even though the mind might not understand the textures, they will continue to be engaged due to the expectancy brought by the viewer to the video work. The expectancy that the image being shown has some value or something to decipher. Furthermore the expectancy of being able to intuitively understand a video. However, this may differ with non narrative film, as in the case of this video. The expectancy is not to decipher but still holds the intuitive sense of value being placed on an image. What happens when the viewer no longer has the intention of logically deciphering the meaning of a video.
Furthermore, I want to create a moving image that for the viewer, consciously or unconsciously creates visual mental images that respond, are influenced by the image on screen. Essentially the viewer's constant attempt to rationalise what is in the image, will provoke interaction between the physical image and mental image.
Works cited
Birmingham, University of. “How Does the Brain 'Feel' Objects?” University of Birmingham, https://www.birmingham.ac.uk/news/2016/how-does-the-brain-feel-objects.
CVM Fischinger Pages - Spiritual In Art - Fischinger Excerpt, http:// centerforvisualmusic.org/Fischinger/AbFilmColorMusic.htm.
Redreaming Ways of Seeing: Ben Okri’s Intuitive Creativity. https://www.researchgate.net/ publication/
327343481_Redreaming_ways_of_seeing_Ben_Okri's_intuitive_creativity.
Sun, Hua-Chun, et al. “Look but Don't Touch: Visual Cues to Surface Structure Drive Somatosensory Cortex.” NeuroImage, Academic Press, 9 Jan. 2016, https://
www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1053811916000021.
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Cloaks of Deception: An Analysis into Psycho’s Voyeuristic Techniques - Lucia Conde Arenas
The unnerving sense of sheer terror in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho can be ascribed to the unique position one is placed in as the viewer, standing alongside the characters as a voyeur. Released in 1960 from Universal Studios, Psycho revolves around the aftermath of a secretary arriving at a motel after embezzling 40,000 dollars to marry her boyfriend. Hitchcock highlights essential thematic ideas such as criminality and voyeurism through use of genre conventions as the plot follows a murder and its path to revenge, and utilises cinematic elements to create a sense of vulnerability and uncertainty. Psycho is an iconic horror film, and considered a major work of cinematic art, as its layered storyline and groundbreaking plot twists redefine the horror genre and break away from many cinematic conventions of the time. The use of voyeurism runs through Hitchcock’s oeuvre, in Psycho the audience is forced to intrude upon the lives of Marion and Sam, making for a more uncertain and suspenseful audience experience.
Psycho is a prime example of a film that questioned the morality of the production code through controversial portrayals of violence and sex. The Motion Picture production code set industry guidelines, deciding what was acceptable to be shown on screen. Between 1930 and 1968, their guidelines were rigidly enforced through restrictions on the use of profanity, suggested nudity, brutality or gruesomeness, and negative representation of law enforcement. Psycho was unprecedented in its contentious depiction of these guidelines; for example, Hitchcock’s depiction of the bathroom shows Marion visibly flushing a toilet, which had never before appeared in mainstream film. The opening scene is also controversial as it illustrates Marion and Sam in the same bed, with Marion in a bra, questioning the standards of the production code as unmarried couples depicted in the same bed was frowned upon. Moreover the opening scene questions the American views of a family household as Marion and Sam’s relationship goes against cultural norms of the time. Furthermore, I will be looking into the opening scene for its suggestive content which foreshadows themes that repeatedly present themselves in the film through use of score and cinematography depicting the motif of birds and the film’s voyeuristic nature.
The atmosphere of the film as well as symbolic references to the central themes can be detected in the first few seconds of Psycho. The title sequence by Saul Bass subconsciously creates a sense of apprehension through use of the fragmented musical score and accompanying stark visuals. The musical score by Bernard Herrmann epitomises a sense of suspense and terror as the ensemble of string instruments creates a stylistically sparse texture to the piercing shrieks of the instruments. The film opens with a series of short violent chords juxtaposed with a desolate silence, following the imagery of piercing cuts of black lines across a grey screen. The score continues the sequence of sharp chords, including snippets of high pitched notes, in unison with the horizontal lines cutting across the screen to reveal Alfred Hitchcock’s name. The sharp lines enter the screen in black on a grey background, the fabrication of the black lines however reveals the slashes of grey, which in turn utilises black as the new background as the grey cuts through the scene. This symbolically presents the crossing of paths flipping the role of the cuts to design a different illustration. The viewer’s attention is focused on reading the names between the lines. Metaphorically foreshadowing later events in the plot, such as the crossing of paths of Norman Bates and Marion Crane starkly shifting the course of the film. Additionally the most intense scene of the film, the shower scene, is referenced in the musical score as the high pitched shrieks in the shower are a version of the same chords of the string instruments in the title sequence.
The continuous use of juxtaposition between the emptiness and sharpness in the score and the imagery sets up the film to contrast itself in genre and plot. Bass and Herrmann create a parallel visual to the film embodying its tone while guiding the audience point of view. The title sequence is mocking the audience by anticipating the twisting plot points, while embodying the tactics of the film with the jagged distractions of the musical score and visual polarity, before the film even starts.
The manipulation of the audience continues throughout the opening scenes of the film as Hitchcock plays with voyeurism through the motif of birds. The scene opens with the wide shot cinematography by John L. Russell revealing the city of Phoenix, Arizona from a bird’s eye view. Hitchcock devises the atmosphere to be unsettling by abruptly altering the jagged intense pace of the musical score to be passive in its weighted tempo. Each chord of the string instrument descends, releasing the level of high tension, until the chords hold on two leaden notes persisting one after another. The two notes experiment with flat and sharp notes lending itself to a chilling tonality manifesting the audience apprehension on what will ensue. The bird motif is first established through the name of the city revealed on the screen as Phoenix. Phoenix, is a mythical bird that remarkably burns itself into ashes when it dies, henceforth the allusion to the phoenix immediately creates an association between birds and death. The camera continues to pan, revealing the view of the whole city, presenting another example of the bird motif, as the camera angle depicts the perspective to that of a bird, it mimics the movements of the bird looking over all the city. More specifically, the high angle of the camera might be associated with birds of prey on the lookout for their hunt. The symbol of the bird is recurrently repeated throughout the film, depicted through two main undertones: as birds of prey or as a representation of death. This is notably suggested later in the film in the parlor scene, as Norman’s hobby of bird taxidermy decorates the parlor, the act of taxidermy illustrating the relation between birds and death. Furthermore, the polar symbolisation is recognised as many of the birds mounted on the wall are birds of prey. In essence, the two undercurrents used to present birds oppose each other as one is the victim and the other the perpetrator, the hunter and the hunted. Curiously, Hitchcock places the perspective of the viewer in the place of the bird of prey immediately introducing the audience as a voyeur. As the camera continues to pan the city, the two deep heavy notes, establish a sense of foreboding through the uncertainty of what will occur. As the camera registers a point of interest and starts to zoom into a hotel, the chords of the string instruments increase in tension as it ascends in notes and recurrently repeats two sharp, high pitched notes aggressively indicating the unraveling of the plot at the point of interest. The shot cuts to the side of the building looking down where one window is slightly open, the downwards angle mimics that of a bird swooping down to its prey, the steady pace at which the shot zooms into the window imitating the gliding of a bird as it flies, increases the tension as the pace is elongated. Hitchcock presents the voyeuristic nature of the film through the opening perspective in which the audience is placed, as a bird of prey looking for its hunt.
The voyeuristic nature reveals a sense of uncertainty to what is intensified by the slow pace. The musical score complements this tonal unease while the shot drifts just outside the window, as it darkens the mood by descending the chords, accompanying the darkened lighting of the gap looking into the room. This darkness attracts the viewer’s attention as it contrasts the white blinds and the bright daylight of the city, compelling the viewer to be hesitant on whether to enter the window or not as the viewer feels the shot to be in their own perspective. Hitchcock employs this darkness to ensure the viewer is never a step ahead of the camera, denying the audience the ability to predict what will come next, itching for the viewers want to know more and jump ahead of the story.
In addition, the paired nature of the viewer and the camera is achieved through a 50mm lens giving the closest approximation to human vision, deceiving the audiences into becoming a voyeur into Sam and Marion’s life. As the viewer enters through the window, the lighting and cinematography gives the camera a humanistic tone as it adjusts to the dark lighting inside the apartment framing the sensation of a change in setting. The musical score parallels this in its increasing chords, giving a lighter tone to the sound design. Contributing to an overarching impression that the audience member has entered the room, emphasising the position of the voyeur. The camera pans to reveal the bright white sheets of the bed and Marion’s white bra. The stark contrast in colour highlights Marion as she looks up at Sam. This emphasis on Marion’s nudity and the establishing of an illicit affair in the first shot starkly transmits her vulnerability to the viewer, giving the scene a visual impression of despair and solitude. The unexpected vulnerability of these characters in turn makes the audience become more aware of their position as the voyeur, fully stepping into the scene. Hitchcock emphasises the viewer experience of being a voyeur calls for a sense of shock and uneasiness as the connection to the camera reveals a sense of intrusion and the audience feels complicit in the role of the peeping tom or the bird of prey.
The opening of Psycho ultimately sets the film up stylistically and thematically through provocative shots and intense musical score depicting sexuality which attracts the viewer’s attention as Hitchcock deliberately establishes motifs for the rest of the film. Psycho is considered a cinematic masterpiece and has been internationally praised by film critics and scholars as it set a new level of acceptability in controversial themes and hatched a new genre of the slasher film. The film received four Academy Award nominations, and is described as a “blazing masterpiece” () by The Telegraph. The film is innovative in its camera techniques employing voyeurism and point of view shots, impacting contemporary culture in cinematography and acceptability of what can be shown on screen. The film created a new lens through which the audience can see and experience film as a voyeur and a bird.
Words: 1749
Works Cited
Barson, Michael. “Sir Alfred Hitchcock.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., 9 Aug. 2018, www.britannica.com/biography/Alfred-Hitchcock.
Kapsis, Robert E. “Hitchcock in the James Bond Era.” Studies in Popular Culture, vol. 11, no. 1, 1988, pp. 64–79. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/23413984.
“Marion, Norman, and the Collision of Narratives in Psycho.” Reel 3, 5 Nov. 2013, reel3.com/marion-norman-and-the-collision-of-narratives-in-psycho/.
Monahan, Mark. “Psycho, Review.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 30 June 2015, www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/film/filmreviews/11025424/Psycho-review.html.
Leitch, Thomas M. “It’s the Cold War, Stupid: An Obvious History of the Political Hitchcock.” Literature/Film Quarterly, vol. 27, no. 1, 1999, pp. 3–15. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/43797750.
Person. “The Greatness of ‘Psycho.’” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 18 June 2017, www.newyorker.com/culture/richard-brody/the-greatness-of-psycho.
“Psycho: Inside and Outside the Frame.” Film Remakes as Ritual and Disguise: From Carmen to Ripley, by Anat Zanger, Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam, 2006, pp. 13–26. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt46mtk0.5.
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Comparative Paragraph
Portrayal of Hamlet - 2019
Lucia Conde Arenas
The artistic intention encompassing cinematic or theatrical elements of the actor and director coalesce to frame the atmosphere of the soliloquy and conclusively illuminate thematic elements. In the performance of Hamlet’s ‘to be or not to be’ soliloquy, Benedict Cumberbatch and David tennant incorporate a range of artistic elements such as scales of tension which manipulates the tone to implicitly unravel major themes of internal conflict, depression and madness.
Cumberbatch establishes the commencing atmosphere of the soliloquy through his submissive and closed off physicality and heavy level of tension creating a sense of gloom and conveying Hamlet’s depressed state. Throughout his performance Cumberbatch ranges through a series of Jacques Lecoq’s seven levels of tension opening with an oil like state. He sits on his knees, seemingly weakened and weighted down by his suffering, his arms lifelessly rest on his knees and cling to his neck. The leaden state opens the soliloquy as hopeless, and characterises Hamlet as lifeless in his consideration of death. Hamlet’s lethargic condition portrays to the audience that this is not the first time Hamlet has thought about this, further illustrating his obsession with death. Hamlet cannot stop thinking about death and the consequences of avenging his father or killing himself. The opening line ‘to be or not to be’ is vocalised as a build up energy to be thrusted out of his body to say this line, following a rest. The physical portrayal of the intense suffering of Hamlet’s character precedes the following lines characterising the same emotions, Hamlet goes on to mention his “mind to suffer…. Sea of troubles” correlating to the same tone as Cumberbatch’s physicality. Disclosing the nature of Hamlet’s troubles, he questions himself “whether ‘tis nobler in the mind to suffer or to take arms against a sea of troubles and by opposing end them”. Hamlet’s questioning of life or death is physicalised through Cumberbatch’s contrast in physicality and voice and increasing level of tension. As he reaches the second line he lifts his head and eye level, these lines commence the transition between tension in the outermost points of his body, his fingertips tensen and harshly reach for his neck. His voice is in conflict with his body as he wants to speak and express himself but his body says otherwise. His hand around his neck metaphorically tells his voice to stop talking. This conflict of body and mind illuminates the conflict between Hamlet’s thought, to die or to live. Cumberbatch’s portrayal of the intense sense of conflict through the juxtaposition of the body and voice, indicates to a sense of madness through the actors shifting levels of tension, these shift changes metaphorically cause Hamlet to be torn in two.The actors intention indicates that in the moment of the soliloquy Hamlet is recalling previous thoughts but also bringing up new arguments allowing the audience to watch Hamlet’s madness unravel.
Contrastingly, David Tennant portrays this soliloquy rather as a retelling of Hamlet’s previous thoughts and decisions allowing Tenant to further emphasise a sense of desolation. Tenant opens the soliloquy by walking into the frame in silhouette facing away from the camera looking towards empty space. The director chooses to place the actor off centre so that the viewer cannot see the direction in which Tenant is looking, this creates an unsettling sense of foreboding as the viewer cannot connect with the character. This opening framing predicts the contents of Hamlet’s soliloquy as Hamlet himself is unsure of what he will do. Moreover, Tenant seems to rest his head as he speaks the first line “to be or not to be”, assuming that Hamlet has pre discussed and analysed his own personal conflict as he is seemingly not thinking about what he is saying. The calmness of Tenant’s voice diffuses the sense of madness as Hamlet seems collected in his thoughts. However this organisation also elucidates to Hamlet’s hopeless state, as he has thought of all the possibilities and outcomes of his choices however he simply cannot make a decision due to his fear of the afterlife. Moreover, Tenant’s portrayal of Hamlet’s hopeless fear concludes to a further sense of depression as throughout the soliloquy Tenant stays at the same level of tension. Hamlet’s lack of emotion dehumanises him to simply be at a state of dejection.
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Maquette / model scale for exhibition 'Movingin'
2022
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Lucia Conde Arenas
Of Haunted spaces and ghost cities: the artistic research in filmmaking - Ella Raidell
What?: In the artistic research project ‘Of haunted spaces’ by Ella Raidell, Chinese ghost cities are researched through factual documentation as well as artistic visual means. Raidell researches cities in China built for millions but not lived in, ghost cities. She researches this practically, through visits to the actual locations reported to be ghost cities, creates maps and documents of these places. However as Raidell states in the opening of her research “These places are indicated on a map, but what counts in this research is neither this fact nor the ghost city index, nor the amount of concrete and steel that is used to build these places, but how these sites are affecting the body and living conditions.”. Furthermore the majority of Raidels research consists of the interpretation made or what she does with the footage of these locations. She states the aim of this project was not only to document these locations, rather to play with the locations through performative acts. She states that the aim of this process of research was to create the narrative for an essay film. An essay film that included performative aspects as well as critical information, the mixture of these two aims to tap into the fictional or haunting aspects that cognitive capitalism brings to the ghost cities. This duality and multidisciplinary aspect to Raidell’s work is at the core of what makes this work have multifaceted dimensions to the understanding of a ghost city. Raidel not only researches and comments on the political implications of the ghost cities, but also researches the visceral psychological feelings of a ghost city. Through the more abstract research of the ghost cities, Raidell opens up a research into the fictional/ fantastical existence of these ghost cities in the minds of governments and companies. This means of multifaceted research opens up many different lines of interpretation of the ghost city, through the fantastical and the realistic.
Why?: In the case of this artistic research, the why is clear yet also somewhat vague. Clear in the sense of its political purpose or awareness/ documentation of these ghost cities. Through the newspaper and the written text Raidell clearly explains her research around urban space and its rapid development. The impact of this development on cities torn down “Yomi Braester phrases the phenomenon of urbanization as ‘monuments of the forgetting, a space of consumerism and speculation, a metropolis in the process of being demolished and reconstructed, a city that burns down and leaves room for neither personal memory nor collective identity”. For Raidell this research is necessary not only for opening conversation about the politics of urbanization and ghost cities, but also simply for the documentation of stories of the rapid shifts of development. Which otherwise will only exist as small memories left eventually to be forgotten. “It is necessary to put together these hidden stories scattered in our literatures, visual cultures, daily routines, urban legends, and so forth as a way to cope with a global scale of shifting politico-economic power distilled into the haunted places of ghost cities.”
Through this Raidell explores further the haunting effect of memory on these ghost cities, “the mental effects of erasure”. The erasure of the past is used to escape identity and the burden of history. These ghost cities are built with the aim of creating a superficial new european style of identity. They have no history and can be renovated at any time. These aspects of the ghost city is what I believe Raidell is referring to when talking about this haunting aspect. It is referred to many times in writing, in the title, The Haunting of Ghost cities. This haunting is referred to as the fantasies and dreams of governments/ real estate/ urban planning. It is this aspect that Raidel refers to that is the somewhat unexplained or unexplainable aspect of the why. The unscientific aspect of ghost cities, the memory and imagination present at these sites is researched by raidell in other means. The presence of imagination/ dreams for urbanization and the lack of life/ forgetting in ghost cities. This aspect is precisely what Raidell aims to explore through multidisciplinary research. Raidell creates performative actions to respond to these haunting actions, and creates a documentary mixed with fantasy and reality to further emphasize the haunting.
How? One of the aspects I find most interesting about this research is how the multi disciplinary aspects of research are made specifically to suit the topic of ghost cities. Raidell presents the research process through a newspaper publication, Ghost Paper, a reference to the traditional Chinese joss paper that is burned as an offering to the dead. “The ghost paper as visual mediation underlines the fable of the excess that demands constant progress and growth by an invisible force.” Raidell explores different aspects of the research through appropriate means. When researching the graphics of ghost cities raidel makes a topographical map in order to understand the scale. When researching the haunting and surreal aspects of the ghost cities, Raidel uses performative or artistic techniques as a method of researching its effect.
Raidel explained how this research of the fictional reality of capitalist societies is approached through the staging of questions in the form of performative acts. Through the development of an appropriate/ specific methodology the haunting of the ghost city can be expressed. It is through these performative acts that Raidell plays with the sites, adding character and story as a means for inquiry. Raidel researches the performativity in the everyday, “the slogans of real estate agents, the movements in emptiness, the sounds of destruction, or the silence of the eerie places.” In documenting these sites, the signs of life and people are the performers: construction workers, security guards, people on the street involved in maintenance or promotion of real estate. The act of making these people performers, protagonists who are playing the site, embodies the idea of performing as an act of staging questions, opening the documentation to be a stage for inquiry. Rather than a more straightforward approach of research in finding facts, documents or explanation, Raidel uses the site and characters as a means to raise questions in filmmaking. Through this staging of questions in the form of performative acts Raidell is able to tap into the fictional reality of capitalist societies. “How can we interpret the urbanscapes affected by the consequences of global capitalism in terms of the cinema experience?” The process of research creates the narrative for a film, A Pile of Ghosts, as a performative documentary, combining acting and reenactment, reality and fiction, revealing the process of its own making. “Together, the maps, the performances, the short films, and the commentaries show the ‘making-of’ the research as much as the presentation of the research process” These techniques are used as a means to express the effect of cognitive capitalism, urban and social realities.
So What?
One of the most interesting aspects for me about Raidells work is a new approach to research through the process of artmaking. Raidell's multidisciplinary approach to research uses performance, short films and written text in order to delve into specific aspects of the research that can be better explored through different means. Raidels artistic means of research exploring the notion of Haunting in Ghost cities describes something about the haunting aspect to the research that cannot be explained through other means of research. Ghost cities can be researched by other scientific means, statistics, topography etc. However the haunting aspect that Raidell depicts as essential to understanding the ghost city is only expressed through artistic forms of research. I feel this is essential to the understanding of the ghost city as an outsider reader as I can understand through research the general politics of the ghost city. However with the artistic forms of the film or performative acts, I feel I can get a much better understanding of the feeling of being in a ghost city. Moreover I will take away from this research project the relevance of a multifaceted approach to research, having specific research techniques relevant to the topic itself. As well as the idea of answering a research question through the process of making art.
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Corpus Delicti by Coco fusco
(you can read the full PDF of book here:https://b-ok.cc/book/966177/a6a728 )
What?: The book Corpus Delicti by Coco Fusco is a comprehensive collection of performance art in Latin America. The essays in this book (contributed by artists and scholars) bring up a historical and critical study of the socio-political background of Latin American culture that is reflected in its performance art. The social and historical contexts shape the way that artists respond to the environment. The book discusses several topics with live art from the 60s to the present day, inlcuding: body art, carpa, vaudeville, staged political protest, tropicalist musical comedies, contemporary Venezuelan performance art, the Chicano Art movement, queer Latino performance. This book provides a new perspective unifying the ideas of practice and theory. I think through this book Fusco redefines the contexts of performance art and the lense through which we view them, changing the stereotypical narrative surrounding tropical art and the preconceptions brought to latino performance art. Moreover this book opens up what it means to be a Latin artist and presents a wide array of artworks that do not restrict Latin artwork to the western lens through which it is generally studied, as serving a political agenda, feminist, politizing the underpriveled. “The Caribbean, the cradle of New World syncretism, I decide, is the perfect place from which to reflect on the significance of performances that evoke multiple forms of latinidad.”
Why?: I think this book is essential in redefining the ways we analyze and theorize Latin American art, changing our instinctual colonial ways of thinking, and giving a platform for Latin American artists to discuss their own work. Fusco explained, during a conference with scholars and artists who presented their views on latin american performance, it was clear that people lacked opportunities to discuss their work with each other and to see performances from other Latin countries. In response to that, Fusco decided to edit this book in order to unite the creative and scholarly, bringing together perspectives on performance to be able to compare, contrast and open discussion on these artworks. “I wanted to present an array of artists working in a variety of styles and strategies—first because I liked the work; and second because I wanted to break the tropicalist stereotypes about Latin American performativity and to unhinge the tokenistic approach that characterized much “cultural diversity” programming, limiting it to the repeated presentation of one or two “name” artists.” Moreover Fusco discusses the heavy reliance of twentieth century European and American avant garde theater taken from non western performance. And how contrastingly Latin American artists tend to look into their own culture, catholicism, rituals, african and indegenous tradition for their art.
How?: I think one of the most essential aspects of Fusco’s methodology in this book is giving a voice to artists themselves. As Fusco states in the introduction, the lack of research into any Latin American art that is not socially or politically relevant to western conceptions of colonialism. The lack of opportunity for Latin American artists to discuss their work and view other Latino works. “I have never understood why some scholars of performance seek to keep artists out of academic discussions of their work, preferring instead a formalist approach that privileges the written text or visual document. This seems peculiarly ironic, given how much effort has been made in the field of performance studies to analyze the power dynamics of conservative anthropological approaches that suppress, marginalize or objectify the subjects of study, or that replace the fluidity of time-based cultural forms with a fixed, static script.” It is evident in Fuscos practice how important it is to have an opportunity for discussion. Simply by reading the index one can see the wide range of artists given the platform to express their work theoretically. Fusco asks artists to explain what they do and why they do it. This is quite unique when looking at the usual expressions of analysis for Latin American art.
So what?: There are many things that make this book critical for anybody interested in performance art. The many political aspects that Fusco discusses on how Latin American performance art is typically criticized. Bringing up systemic political, colonial, social means of viewing art. The lack of research, or one sided research into western relevant latin art. Opportunity for latin american artists as a collective while under the power of their governments. For art markets in Latin America, the state continues to be the most important sponsor, controlling the network for exhibition spaces, collections, and awards. “Too many Latin Americans have suffered at the hands of authoritarian systems that reduce all forms of expression—public, private, religious or aesthetic—to a certain political value or meaning for there not to be an enormous amount of skepticism about such approaches to culture. Other interpretative models and performance strategies are just as relevant to understanding Latin American performance art. On the other hand, much Latin American performance art that engages with the social does address traditions and themes that are not taken seriously by conventional theater scholarship in Latin America. As is explained in several of the essays in this volume, a good deal of Latin American performance recuperates and revindicates “low” theatrical forms such as teatro frivolo, cabaret and carpa to use them to address social and political issues from authoritarianism and censorship to sexuality”
Other relevant artists/ researchers I am looking into:
Baz Kershaw
Practice-as-Research: In Performance and Screen
Robin Nelson
Practice as Research in the Arts: Principles, Protocols, Pedagogies, Resistance
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Lucia Conde Arenas
Triangle assignment
The medium of film has never been more popular and readily available as it is now, for decades we have seen the evolving shifts in the medium through styles, genres conventions and technology.Constantly changing and bringing new perspectives to light. “What happens when the lights go down in a movie theatre, we leave our own world for a while and cross into the world of other people”. The medium of film, although constantly evolving, also has its standards. We are very used to seeing certain kinds of narrative structures familiar with their cinematic elements. We see into the world of another person by seeing a series of actions that happen in their surroundings. Using editing to give the viewer information on the location or thoughts and perception of a character. What would it be like to go into someone else's world through their perception of films? Mark cousins film The story of film: A new generation released in 2021 tells a different kind of story, one without narrative, beginning middle or end. Telling the story of film through perception of thematic connections between films. Cousins' film reimagines the narrative structures we are used to seeing in film or documentary. Cousins displays this story, entirely through examples of films, using elements in a film to explain a thematic perception. A continuous flow of thematic thought from film to film. “Occasionally Cousins’s commentary verges on the superfluous, simply describing what is on screen, although there is almost always a shrewd insight there:” “Essay films are visual thinking. reverse film production: the images come first, the script, last” . How an image from one film can thematically transcribe the ideas of another. Cousins opens us to his line of thought, his link from film to film allows the viewer to follow into his layers of interconnected ideas. .From dream-like films, films about bodies and faces, documentaries, horror, films that made genre conventions and films that challenged them. Mark Cousins describes his analysis between films almost as an internal monologue, and we follow as if it is a story itself. “In film theory and criticism, delay is the essential process behind textual analysis. The flow of a scene is halted and extracted from the wider flow of narrative development; the scene is broken down into shots and selected frames and further subject to delay, to repetition and return. In the course of this process, hitherto unexpected meanings can be found hidden in the sequence, as it were deferred to the point in time in the future when the critics desire may unearth them. With the spread of digital technologies, this kind of fragmentation of film has become easier to put into practice. In this context textual analysis ceases to be a restricted academic practice, and returns, perhaps, to its origins as a work of cinephilia, of love of the cinema”
From the start of the film Cousins begins to explain the dream-like elements in film. How the structure of a film itself is more or less like a dream, stepping in a theatre for a few hours to experience something and suddenly be taken out again. Cousins describes 2018 Finnish film Flame as this “A woman looks but then the image seems to buckle, crack, melt and through the melting a man, and then the woman again” Cousins uses his language to reflect the visual image of a film and uses it to describe a thematic perception “is this a bit like what it feels to watch a film today, to melt into it, to dissolve into the looks and glances on screen” Cousins therefore is able to connect the visual theme of melting and morphing in Flame, to how another film makes the viewer melt and morph into the context of the film, perceive the characters as a voyeur through the camera movement “ they go down on the escalator, down into his dreams and hers”. Cousins therefore opens us to understand his connection between these two films that would otherwise seem unrelated. Unrelated in narrative and many other elements, Cousins' use of visual language, uses the image of melting and descending to display a small link in the way both these films entice a dream-like feeling in the viewer. Melting to another dimension in everyday circumstances. Cousins' film further evolves not as a specific analysis into any film or concept, rather bringing to light many links in feelings or thoughts evoked by films. Lighting each link almost as if to reveal an interconnected web in the stories told through film.
Is this Mark Cousins intentions with his film? to bring to light films inter relativity and how this forms a new generation of film. “almost like a hyper-innocent form of criticism, wide-eyed with wonder at cinema’s brave new world” Cousins speaks of films that pushed the boundaries of the conventions of cinema. “Films who wipe the lens so as we can see better”. Cousins, in describing how films broke conventions to reveal something that could not be seen before, is also describing his own film. An attempt to reveal the underbelly in the workings and developments of the convention and their impact on the viewer. The importance of understanding the layers and interconnectedness in cinema and therefore the importance in his own film, almost as an attempt to justify his obsession with cinema. “This is an unashamed celebration of cinema as an art-form: Cousins is an aesthete.” . The Story of Film does not really give us any answer, we see Cousins' perception entirely through how he perceives other films as an omnipresent narrator. Therefore barely scratching the surface of any specific film or idea, cousins film can sometimes feel like an overwhelming regurgitation of filmic statements.
Words: 953
Works Cited
Bradshaw, Peter. “The Story of Film: A New Generation Review – Invigorating Study of 21st Century Cinema.” The Guardian, 6 July 2021, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2021/jul/06/the-story-of-film-a-new-generation-review-invigorating-study-of-21st-century-cinema.
Ciezadlo. “The Essay in Space and Time: A Conversation with Filmmaker Mark Cousins.” Afterimage, vol. 46, no. 1, Mar. 2019, pp. 17–24, https://doi.org/10.1525/aft.2019.461003.
“CRISTINA ÁLVAREZ LÓPEZ & ADRIAN MARTIN.” The Audiovisual Essay, 10 Sept. 2014, https://reframe.sussex.ac.uk/audiovisualessay/frankfurt-papers/cristina-alvarez-lopez-adrian-martin/.
“Deep Focus: The Essay Film.” British Film Institute, https://www2.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/sight-sound-magazine/features/deep-focus/essay-film.
Keathley, Christian. “La Camera Stylo Notes on Video Criticism and Cinephilia.” Sites, https://sites.middlebury.edu/videoworkshop/files/2014/09/Keathley-La-Camera-Stylo.pdf.
Khoshbakht, Ehsan. “The Essay Film.” A Manifesto by Mark Cousins, https://notesoncinematograph.blogspot.com/2013/08/essayfilm.html.
Rascaroli, Laura. “The Essay Film: Problems, Definitions, Textual Commitments.” Framework: The Journal of Cinema and Media, vol. 49, no. 2, 2008, pp. 24–47, https://doi.org/10.2307/41552525.
The Story of Film: A New Generation. Directed by Marc Cousins, Hopscotch films, 2021.
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Lucia Conde Arenas
Hito Steryl is a German moving image artist, working between film and art ranging in multimedia forms from documentary to installations. The visual images presented in Steryl’s work contradict a standard of expectation in cinema further explained in Steryl’s In Defence of the Poor Image. "The poor image is a copy in motion. Its quality is bad, its resolution substandard. As it accelerates, it deteriorates. It is a ghost of an image, a preview, a thumbnail, an errant idea, an itinerant image distributed for free, squeezed through slow digital connections, compressed, reproduced, ripped, remixed, as well as copied and pasted into other channels of distribution. The poor image is a rag or a rip;an AVI or a JPEG, a lumpen proletariat in the class society of appearances, ranked and valued according to its resolution.” The striking style of the films is distinctive to Steryl’s work. Steryls films are densely packed, mixing documentary footage, and computer generated images, rendered in the aesthetics of modern tech culture, Steryl explores political issues of surveillance, militarisation, protest culture, colonial violence, and corporate domination. However disruptive the unexpected visual images presented in Steryls work, having studied documentary filmmaking, Steryl videos are often essayistic in their narrative and structure. The abrasive visuals and essayistic components force the viewer to critically reflect their preconceived notions of social issues by presenting them in a new context. Steryls work is self aware and aims to examine further the roles of art and the museum in society and politics, how art questions or further pushes the agenda of government control and neoliberal capitalism.
November 2004. The film opens with shots of Steryls first film, a feminist kung fu film, shot on super 8 with a group of friends when she was seventeen years old. The opening line of the film November: “My best friend when I was 17, was a girl called Andrea Wolf. She died 4 years ago, when she was shot as a Kurdish terrorist”. November examines the media roles of her best friend Andrea Wolf portrayed in three different travelling images: the leader of a girl gang in a feminist martial arts film, an underground fighter of the free womens army in kurdistan in a television show from the 1990s and as Şehît Ronahî (Wolf’s Kurdish codename), where her face is depicted on the posters of protesters demonstrating in Germany. Andrea Wolf plays three roles in travelling images, exploring the constantly changing meaning of images and the images ability to develop an afterlife. Steryl reuses footage in November almost as its rebirth, changing meaning of images through recontextualization. In the untitled film we see Andrea as the leader of a gang of three girls trying to beat up every male they can get hold of, ultimately prevailing and riding into the sunset on a motorbike. November depicts this footage while the narration accounts the facts of her death, in real life Wolf was a PKK fighter who died in battle and became an icon of the Kurdish struggle for liberation. This completely repurposes and recontextualizes the viewer's perception of the image. “in 1983 we made a feminist martial arts film and Andrea was its star, then this amatuer fiction film suddenly turned into a document, now some of the documents have turned back into fiction and this fiction tells us only one truth. The truth is that only in fiction did Andrea disappear into the sunset… Only in fiction were german weapons not used on the kurdish population”. In 1998 Andrea Wolf was killed in a battle against the Turkish army. Andrea Wolf was found in a mass grave found in a cave in the district of Çatak (south-eastern Kurdish city of Van) among a total of about 40 bodies. An investigation revealed that the people buried in the mass grave were killed with bullets in a massacre carried out by Turkish soldiers. The Kurdistan Workers Party PKK has been fighting the Turkish state, which still denies the constitutional existence of Kurds.
In contrast to November in Steryls other work, SocialSim,2020 the artist takes a very different approach at discussing a political issue. Although November used documentary techniques, narration and real footage. Social sim is a projected live installation depicting a live simulation of computer generated images of dancing police officers in uniform and riot gear. The pace at which they move is based on a live measure of data of instances of police brutality in the region which the installation is in. On another wall projected is the”salvator mundi” by leonardo davinci, an announcement states “the most expensive painting in the world is lost”. The work imagines the future of the world in the era of social simulation technology articulated in the form of a narrative film and a combination of visual sources from video games, data visualisation techniques, live online chat rooms , Artificial Intelligence, and found imagery. “In reimagining the aesthetics of gaming, the artist is interested here in the operational and ideological models of social simulation programs, which set out to study and predict the behaviour of individuals within a collective and to model mass interactions." Through this work Hito Steryl experiments with perceptions of understanding nationalism, capitalism and artificial intelligence as a new way of addressing reality.
Works Cited
Florian Ebner and Marcella Lista, Hito Steyerl. I Will Survive, K21/Centre Pompidou/Spector
books, 2020
KALEIDOSCOPE. “Hito Steyerl, November, 2004.” Vimeo, Video, 7 Mar. 2014, https://vimeo.com/88484604. Accessed 2 Mar. 2022.
Nationalisms and Politics in Turkey. https://books.google.nl/books?id=6vYtCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA141&lpg=PA141&dq=catak+1998+kurd&source=bl&ots=1HIQtDgEC1&sig=ACfU3U2j-ESHwE6Y71_jRZ-DhsuPC2En1g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiyiZDzk6j2AhWOtqQKHVwmDqQQ6AF6BAgXEAM#v=onepage&q=catak%201998%20kurd&f=false. Accessed 2 Mar. 2022.
“November: Hito Steyerl.” November: Hito Steyerl, https://www.novembermag.com/content/hito-steyerl. Accessed 2 Mar. 2022.
Rothberg, Michael. “6. ‘Germany Is in Kurdistan.’” De Gruyter, 6 Aug. 2019, https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.1515/9781503609600-010/html. Accessed 2 Mar. 2022.
Steyerl, Hito. “November: A Film Treatment.” TRANSIT, vol. 1, no. 1, https://doi.org/10.5070/T711009700. Accessed 2 Mar. 2022.
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Narrative Film on Paper: A research into the techniques of Virgil Widrich short films
Virgil Widrich is an Austrian filmmaker and multimedia artist, most well known for his numerous short films: Copyshop and Fast Film, in 2003 and 2001. He has produced feature length films as well as multimedia installations including tx-reverse and Light Matters in 2018. These two films, Copyshop and Fastfilm are distinctive in Widrich’s oeuvre due to their shared medium of creation, paper. In the contents of this essay I intend to focus on the intricacies of these two works in their capacity to communicate storyline and narrative, allowing the viewer to relate to the characters identity despite the morphed realities of the worlds in Widrich’s films. This identification is essential in Widrichs films and produces the potential for the surreal dreamlike environment to be related to by the viewer by merging elements of reality and fantasy.
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In Virgil Widrichs filmmaking the language between person, object and technique are interchangeable. The technique of paper animation and the characters in the film talk to each other, in Copyshop the subject of the film is a man who works in a copy shop and wakes up to find copies of himself all around. The film technique of handmade animation with paper and its copies is what the character in the film is discovering as well as the audience. Moverover the subject and object of the film become the same thing, a man looks at something and that something is himself.
The viewer no longer sees the character or the story as a realistic or isolated land. He is brought down to reality into a physical piece of paper copied and broken down. This process shifts the outlook the viewer has to relating to the character of the film. The process of creation of this film is at the heart of its effect on the viewer. The film was shot digitally, these digital images were then all photocopied and then animated.
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Fast Film furthermore feels as though a very familiar film with an element of it flipped on its head, we watch hundreds of different familiar films on paper turn into a fantastic chase sequence unlike any I have seen before. Widrich states “I always wanted to make an incredible chase sequence my whole life, but how can you do it? How can you finance it? The chase sequence is something I love about cinema and it is pure cinema, in no other art form do we have this.”(widrich, 3) And thus a chase sequence is created reusing hundreds of chase sequences made before this.
Watching Fast Film reimagined my understanding of identifying with characters in film, as it conceptually seems unimaginable for us to understand a storyline with so many changing faces and settings. However watching Fast Film was a refreshing interpretation of how we see faces on screen. There are several factors that make Fast Film understandable for us: the perspective of the different scenes are cut and manipulated to appear as the movement of one continuous person or object. The narrative of the film is familiar as well as all visual elements of the film, we see filmic archetypes that we instinctively understand and recognise: a chase scene, a man saving a woman, actors and characters we have seen before in these roles. Widrich states: “It doesn't really matter who you identify with, it's not really bound to the actor, it's bound to the looking of something so it doesn't matter if Cary Grant looks and you see what he sees or if buster keaton looks and you see what he sees. This was something I thought about it theory and I was not sure if it would work, if people would be able to read this film and I'm very surprised that it really really works.”(widrich,3).
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(imdb,4)
Widrichs films have allowed me to explore the exact impact and difference in handmade animation with paper and in the way the viewer identifies with the film. How filmic techniques of handmade animation could produce a sense of identity differently to digital footage. It brings up the question arising from many aspects of the film industry with constant redevelopments in technology. What elements of the film process have changed in the switch from analogue to digital. Why is it that Widrich has made the meticulous work to make this film on paper. One of the animators from Fast Film, Carmen Volker states “the film's aesthetic style is created through human action only”.(Carmen Volker,5) “the idea behind fast film, just the aesthetic part of it, its looks, can’t be done on a computer. It would have been too obviously a digital look. The wobbling in the animation, the structure of the paper. Making all that turn out the way it did, so that it looks real, wouldn't be possible on a computer”(Micheal lang,5).
Medium informs our understanding. Different mediums and techniques have an effect on the viewer in all forms. Through this essay I wanted to find an answer to how to describe something so surreal as the effect of the techniques used inWidrich’s films. However, would simply watching Virgil Widrich films explain this sense, in a better way my written explanation would.
Copyshop: Written, directed, produced and edited by Virgil Widrich
A 2001, short film, 35 mm, 1:1,66, Dolby SR
Length: 12 min.
Fast Film: Writer, director, and editor: Virgil Widrich
A/Lux 2003, short film, 35 mm, 1:1,66, Dolby SRD
Length: 14 min.
Works Cited
1.“Copy Shop - Project.” Widrichfilm, https://www.widrichfilm.com/en/projekte/copy_shop. Accessed 16 Jan. 2022.
2.“Copy Shop (2001).” IMDb, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0182014/mediaindex/?ref_=tt_mv_close. Accessed 16 Jan. 2022.
3.Djapo, Adis. “KUHINJA: Virgil Widrich Interview.” YouTube, 13 Feb. 2007, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8EEQxlad8fA.
4.Widrich, Virgil. “Fast Film.” IMDb, 9 Nov. 2005, https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0288006/.
5.---. “Making of Virgil Widrich’s ‘Fast Film.’” YouTube, 10 Oct. 2009, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=glwh30IyZ7Y.
6.zonezerophoto. “Interview with Virgil Widrich.” YouTube, 6 Mar. 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jcZjG0G5lPc.
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