Design three vessels that communicate with each other through time.
Produce 3 videos each month in response to this prompt. Each video scales up from the previous one in both duration and resolution.
Through methods of looping and repetition, define a perceptual language(s) of communication between the vessels. Consider how this language defines the space(s) within and between the vessels, as well as their physical/temporal relationship to one another. This communication has no beginning and no end, though your videos have a set duration. You will address this prompt three times per month, each time folding in new levels of complexity. At the end of the month, the exercise will reset. Using new ideas discovered in your daily exercises, as well as concepts carried over from the previous month, re-frame your perceptual languages to address this prompt again. This monthly reset will occur three times.
This prompt is designed to have students experiment with a particular working methodology within specific media; in this case, you will work through material fabrication, video and sound to operate with concepts of cyclical time on multiple scales.
Each week, you will expand upon your video up by taking into consideration a new topic. The topics compound:
WEEK 1 : Perception
WEEK 2 : Perception + Matter
WEEK 3+4 : Perception + Matter + Environment
These topics operate as refrains within each student’s work.
FIRST REFRAIN : PERCEPTION
Using time-based media and physical props, explore methods of signaling change over time. Employ abstract, formalist structures of composition and sequence through manipulation of image, content and rhythm. Focus on editing strategies to embody, rather than represent or reenact, your language of change. Never reveal an entire vessel, only significant details.
PROCEDURE
Establish a sequence of frames in your video that suggests a spatial relationship between the vessels. Repeat this sequence at least once within your video. However, the repeated sequence(s) must not be completely identical to the previous one. Speculate on how the differences between each video loop impact the perceived relationship between the vessels over time.
READINGS + SCREENINGS
Sergei Eisenstein, Methods of Montage
Hans Richter, Absolute Film
Charles and Ray Eames (Films), Tops, Tocatta for Toy Trains
Hans Richter, Absolute Film
Charles and Ray Eames (Films), Tops, Tocatta for Toy Trains
WEEK 1 RESULT
(1) 30s, 720p x 720p video
SECOND REFRAIN : MATTER
Reflect upon the perceptual techniques of looping with abstract props in your first video and fabricate new material artifacts. Explore how material qualities and interactions further define the spatial relationship between and within the vessels. Focus on specific material properties and their perceived affordance for a performative resonance between space and time. Consider scale, texture, mass, sound, and energy.
PROCEDURE
Repeat the first video’s sequence three times and introduce a new refrain between each loop. This new refrain should focus on a concept of matter and establish a more complex spatial-temporal relationship between the three vessels.
READINGS + SCREENINGS
James J. Gibson, The Theory of Affordances
Ashley Fure, The Force of Things: An Opera of Objects
Chris Marker (Films), La Jetee, Statues Also Die
Ashley Fure, The Force of Things: An Opera of Objects
Chris Marker (Films), La Jetee, Statues Also Die
WEEK 2 RESULT
(1) 90s, 1080p x 1080p video
THIRD REFRAIN : ENVIRONMENT
Explore how matter and energy in the environment broaden the narrative and spatial scale of the three vessels. Investigate how the changing nature of an environment impacts the spatial relationship between each vessel. Focus on systems of assembly and environmental exchange, considering temporal aspects of soil, water and air at both micro (grain) and macro (climate) scales.
PROCEDURE
Repeat the second video’s sequence three times and introduce a new refrain between each new loop. This new refrain should focus on a concept of environment and establish a more complex spatial-temporal relationship between the three vessels.
SCREENINGS + READINGS
Donna Haraway, Tentacular Thinking
Charles and Ray Eames (Films), Powers of Ten
Bruno Latour, Give Me a Gun and I Will Make All Buildings Move
Robert Smithson, A Provisional Theory of Non-Sites
Charles and Ray Eames (Films), Powers of Ten
Bruno Latour, Give Me a Gun and I Will Make All Buildings Move
Robert Smithson, A Provisional Theory of Non-Sites
WEEK 3+4 RESULT
(1) 270s, 1920p x 1920p video
[ repeat ]