Experiment with randomisation

This is a quick test I did yesterday just to see how a random video, a random story and a random piece of music would look together, and whether I would try to find some sense in them once I see them together. The story was found randomly on youtube when I typed 'man telling a story' the footage is from an old project I had done, and the music was picked randomly from my computer (from album folders that I had  never listened to). I feel the result is quite boring mostly because of the videos & the formal style of the story. I think the storytelling needs to be more raw & the videos much more interesting visually & conceptually.

I have come up with various points I need to think about:

1. The length of the story
2. The length of the video
3. The genre of the music
4. Most of the stories will be in Maltese (subtitles will have to be included) is this acceptable?
5. How to include extra visualisations (if at all - will have to try this to see if it adds anything to the project) and will this be a separate layer?
6. The quality of the sound (stories)
7. Contextualising shots rather than literal 
8. Edited or raw footage
9. Is it possible to have an instance where there is a video and a story but no sound, a video with sound but no story, sound and a story but no video - so they don't necessarily have to be there at all times.
10. Interaction - I still want to have some interaction from the viewer, whether it is simply clicking or tapping on a screen and getting a new random story, or something more elaborate. I think this engages them much more.
11. Response from the viewer & what to do with it: I want to see if the viewers will try and make some sense and link the randomised media. What do I do with this information? How do I record it and will it be a part of the project?

I have already contacted some individuals who have agreed to be interviewed for their stories; I will start the collection of stories during the Easter Holidays and will start seeing which ones I can keep as recordings, and which ones can become conceptual videos.

It is now quite clear that my proposal has changed substantially, but I'm happy to say that I have kept the elements that I was enjoying - randomisation - my initial concept of the Cosmic Kitchen of mixing different medias together, the best way to achieve something unexpected & unintentional is of course to randomise it & having no control over it, having a project about the viewers rather than myself, surreal elements in the videos & visuals.

I got rid of other elements that I felt where bringing the project down: the idea of trying to get the viewers to 'experience' something; this was clashing with the idea of the 'coexisting artist' as explained by Shultis in 'Silencing the Sounded Self'. I also got rid of the idea of having a linear structure for the project; this was restricting my experiments and as such, wasn't really needed in the end.

Overall I'm quite happy with how the project has been evolving & my next steps are to start gathering material; both media as well as new books and links to formulate a new, more appropriate title.

Open-ended is exciting.

100 stories.

50 stories will be recorded.
50 will be translated into videos / pictures & visuals.

One of my colleagues who teaches Fine Arts just came by my flat and we were discussing this idea about getting people to tell me their stories; traumatic, funny, happy, sad... my problem was - what will my visuals be about?

I came to the conclusion that half of my stories will be used as inspirations for the visuals. The other half will be used as sound. What I will be doing now is start gathering stories through various people and start deciding which ones I'm going to keep as sound, and which ones will become videos (not literal, but more as inspiration). I will also be looking for some different contexts - artists who have worked with similar themes.

The end result will be a random story recording + a random video/visual + random music (music will be tackled after september)

New title and new interviewee

This weekend has been productive in terms of researching and brainstorming, not much actual production happened in terms of 'creating' but that's ok. The idea is much more important. Today I was scheduled to do storyboarding, but I felt I need to look at the foundation of the storyboard first before getting into more detail, so instead I did some research.

Change in Proposal title



This was my previous title:
Affective Interaction as experience: Employing Immersive Interaction Design to influence a User-Directed, audiovisual Dionysian experience.

Now it’s going to have to change. I don’t want to ‘force’ a Dionysian experience on my viewers; they are free to feel whatever they want. However I’m still interested in what they experience, and the focus is still to create an interesting experience for them.

This is my new title:

Observing the affective outcome of a non-semantic, open-ended interactive installation. 

Semantic - the study of meaning; I need to look further into this.

I want to see what people feel when interacting with something that is not designed to make them feel anything conceptually. I was speaking with a friend today and she mentioned 'Closure' in Psychology which I'm going to have to look into. She also mentioned the Kuleshov experiment, which shows that even the montage of pictures and videos can give them a different meaning. This is why part of the structure of my interactive project will have to be randomised.

Structure of storyboard

There is a starting-point for the basic structure of the interactive installation; it is a Dionysian one, a dream-state, a substance-influenced experience. Everything starts normal, reaches a climax, and then gets out of control. There is one beginning,  several different choices and of course different endings. The experience is not meant to be positive or negative, the viewer may decide for his/herself.

The contents of the video will be that of everyday life events, some more surreal than others, as the experience moves forward. After the user goes through the first couple of shots, the selection becomes randomized however continues to move forward. I need to make sure the videos are not personal and can be interpreted differently by anyone, this is why I need to test them.

Rather than music, I want to have a selection of ‘meaningless’ sounds.
Music can influence how a viewer feels and as much as possible I want to avoid this.

Antoine Beuger


I was thrilled to be contacted by Antoine Beuger on Facebook, who found my blog and messaged me to give me links to Empty Words by John Cage. I will be interviewing him before I decide on the audio for my project. Antoine Beuger is the founder of the Wandelweiser Group. Here's more from Wikipedia (2011)

The Wandelweiser Group is an international group of composers/performers. It was founded in 1992 by Dutch-born flautist Antoine Beuger and German violinist Burkhard Schlothauer. In 1993 Swiss clarinetist Jürg Frey was invited to join, followed by American guitarist Michael Pisaro, Swiss pianist Manfred Werder, then Austrian trombonist Radu Malfatti the following year, then American trombonistCraig Shepard, and others.

The group runs its own publishing operation, Edition Wandelweiser, and its own record label Wandelweiser Records. According to Radu Malfatti, Wandelweiser music is about "the evaluation and integration of silence(s) rather than an ongoing carpet of never-ending sounds." John Cage is a figure of central importance to the Wandelweiser composers; their music is often referred to as "silent music," taking as its starting point Cage’s work 4'33", the first composition to consist largely of silence, after the "Marche Funebre" by the Frenchman Alfons Allais.

New Plan

Ok so finally got around to setting a new plan. As you can see, although every day/week is planned out, the general descriptions are vague. This is intentional - I don't want to tie myself to doing a specific task because I want to keep experimenting throughout, but obviously I needed a structure so I can tackle all the key elements in my project which are:

• 1. Sketchbook work (for sketching, storyboarding, brainstorming ideas)
• 2. Processing 
• 3. After Effects
• 4. Reading and Researching
• 5. Interviewing
• 6. Testing
• 7. Filming
• 8. Editing and Post-Production
• 9. Audio
• 10. Interface
• 11. Installation

1. Sketchbook work will continue throughout.
2. Learning Processing needs to finish before the summer. (Experiments can carry on after that)
3. Reading and Researching will also happen throughout, as well as experimentation in After Effects (however ideally I carry out most of AE before September)
4. Interviewing should happen before filming in case I feel I need to include / exclude any particular shots (but can also continue after filming)
5. Testing needs to happen when my students are still at the college, so before the beginning of June. Additional testing can start again in September, after the filming has been done.
6. The basic filming will be done in summer, but additional abstract shots might be done afterwards if I feel I need to add/change
7. Editing and Post-Production will start in September.
8. Audio, Interface and Installation will happen after September, so I will need to generate a new plan.

Processing Week

A screenshot of a replication of a Sine wave on Processing.. slowly getting there - almost finished chapter four on my Processing book. I can't wait to become more familiar with it and start combining this stuff with watercolours and ink.

I have updated my proposal plan essentially I've added a new dark grey bar which signified the testing of my project. I've already arranged to buy a video camera to start recording feedbacks from May - which also means I need to have some decent visuals done by that time. The tests will carry on until the end of the course. The project will in fact be lead by these tests - changes and fixes will depend on them.

Now for the bad news... reading is going slow / I have finished reading half of my first book (Women of the Beat). I've underlined a couple of relevant pieces and will post a short review this week. 

Updated Proposal

I've updated my proposal yet again, this time focusing on my methodology which needed further clarification and using the APA style. My new proposal can be accessed here. My work plan will be updated tomorrow and I will re-upload the document.

It has been a very frustrating week because I have not managed to get as much work done as I had hoped due to commitments at work. I have managed to find some time to experiment with video and collage in After Effects and have also found a good camera to buy when I need to do some filming for the project. I'm almost done reading Women of the Beat Generation - but very far from done reading Silencing the Sounded Self.

On a happier note; updating my proposal gave me a clearer image of how I will be testing my project - I need to start looking for a 'test' room which I can use every time I want to collect data.

Next week is Processing week - let's hope I can at least cover half of the Processing book.

Plan for Jan & Feb and some experiments

ganttjanfeb Sheet1

This is my plan for these two months. I will spend the weekends reading and researching - these will be a little break from the work. During the week I will be following tutorials on my Processing book and also sketching and experimenting with After Effects. I will alternate between Processing and Sketching/ AE each week to have better flow and more detail in my work.

During these two months I plan to finish reading two books, get some research done on augmented reality and see if this can be feasible for my installation and application or I will need to find something else. I also plan to become more familiar with Processing as well as create some artworks which will potentially be used in my application (or lead me towards further experimentation).

In the beginning of this week I created a collage using magazine cutouts, watercolour and think markers...

A close-up of the collage

I then scanned it and opened it in Photoshop. Copied and pasted the image several times (each time moving it slightly to the side, and even turning it around) using the 'Darken' option in the layer transparency properties. Afterwards I imported everything in After Effects and animated the Z axis of the layers - I also animated the camera (but not enough.. it still looks stiff). I got an effect which is similar to particles - I now want these particles to move separately not just back and forth all together. I already have a tutorial in mind - will upload next week.

Proposal

Moira Zahra Proposal

Download Proposal from Sendspace

Introduction of my proposal

An updated Proposal is found under My Proposal
My research question and practical work will be based on dynamic digital art and audio, as I believe that this area is increasing exponentially due to its inclusion of the user’s participation and control.

I wish to research a variety of interactive spaces and be able to create an area where a user can combine audio samples with a mixture of animated traditional and digital illustration to produce an audiovisual composition. Through this, I wish to create an environment where the user can explore, play and appreciate contemporary experimental music with the help of animated visuals.

I intend to incorporate multi faceted elements into my work in order to create a more total, all encompassing aesthetic experience. I also want to not merely engage the audience but actively involve them in the actual composition, creation and reception of the artwork.


Context (I think I need to narrow this down even more to a specific theme):

The elements I intend to investigate range from the psychedelic and funky to minimalist and contemporary. My artworks will vary from abstract to figurative. I will be looking at developments in illustration, animation, collage, media and the music industry that relate to a fusion of different media. In addition, I will also be looking into all encompassing multi-dimensional art to try and cater for more than one area of the senses. I hope through this approach to increase the user interest and experience.