Re-Track
After revisiting the origins of practice and tracking key moments of development as well as beginning to focus entirely on Practice 'making', these notes will form the structure of a piece of writing that explores the roots of the practice-based project.
Context for Research: Encounter with CG, 3 months initial training in 3D Studio Max environment modelling, box modelling and Animation.
Perceived Limitations to the use of software, and the software itself in regards to navigation, natural phenomena and the act of making in a virtual environment.
This raised questions relating to "What is world? ", and "Where is my place in it?",
Responded to through practice in the form of Blade, Blade Represented, Lilly Studies and Lilly Construction.
The materials of Paper, Cotton Thread offered a universal language of communicating and notions of fragility while offering the prospect of being projected upon and responsive to natural elements such as burning, wind motion, decay.
I began asking questions about "What is the structure of "world"?, and "How does it move?
This was responded to in practice through observing natural form, dissecting the elements of structure, tracing the form and creating a template, and then sewing the component parts together, using string to give tension to form a 3 Dimensional object from a 2D form. This created a flower petal.
Further elements of the flower were combined to form a a complete flower, This was then connected together to allow motion, as a puppet.
I then began to ask questions related to motion, and 'world', "How could this puppet move?"
This was responded to in practice by placing the puppet flower in the garden. The cotton strings were attached to a Bean Pole Pyramid (The kind you can grow runner beans up) and filmed.
The movement of the wind, shadows and sunlight, animated the un-manipulated puppet, however when I began to control the central string I could open and close the flower.
This raised questions of the origins of motion, "Who is the manipulator of control?",
A time-lapse study of Lillies opening over four days revealed the motion of time, and how flowers do not 'pop', they unfurl.
The practice responded to this in making two companion pieces, 'Interconnection', and 'One'. These have a personal narrative and show the development of the continuous questioning through practice.
'One'creates an organic mechanism, allowing a mirror image of 'human' moving simultaneously with 'flower'. The mechanism works in a loop whereby if the right hand string is pulled the hand and flower open together, or alternatively if the left hand string is pulled the hand and flower closes together. This motion was conducted in a controlled studio environment.
This raised questions relating to control and I asked "how would this mechanism move in an uncontrolled environment?,
This was responded to by re-filming the movement in the natural environment were it would have to respond to changing, light, wind and general weather conditions.
On filming the paper puppet outside, I noticed that my responding to the response of the unpredictable motion and the indeterminate outcome made me feel less in control and allowed for a wider range of responses than in the studio environment.
I also noticed that the friction on the cotton strings overtime and the tension coming to bare on the paper structure has reduced function of the mechanism over time.
Questions raised at this time related to observation and the act of seeing, such as "what am I actually seeing, and is this the same for everyone?
This was responded to in practice through the use of projection onto the paper models I had been constructing. I began to think about the flat surface of a screen, and how this flat surface may receive an image. I took this idea further, and began to think about how a 3D surface would receive a projected image and how 3D Studio Max uses 'maps', that are effectively wallpapers that cover a three dimensional frame. The projected image would have to be stretched to cover the area without distortion on the material surface.
Interconnection, the companion piece to time, receives the projection of a central human mechanism, the human heart, the 'puppeteers'manipulation of the screen moves in response to the projected moving image. This has to filmed in the dark for best effect. This project was intended for the projection onto my body however, this remains to be filmed and is intentional due to aspet of the personal narrative.
After this work, questions were beginning to arise relating to "What am I seeing?" and "Is this the same for everyone', being further extended to "What am I experiencing?" and "Does this relate to my experience of motion, and/or My observation of motion?
I began to think about the human mechanism, it's physiological structure, and how this relates to the experience of 'world', specifically in relation to Motion, or Life/Liveliness.
This was responded to in practice in the development of "Time", a large exterior Kinetic Screen. This work again is located at the interface between Mechanism and Humanism, and communicates a personal narrative.
I related the emotional state to the perception of motion through my own experience of being involved in a car accident. When I was 19 I spun my car into a 'very static' telepgraph pole. My recollection of this experience is one that unfolds in slow-motion. I remember realising I had lost control of my car and that there was nothing I could do to stop it from moving at all, frantic pressing the brake or trying to steer the wheel did not affect its trajectory. I remember my screams fading out into silence in my head, my body went warm, and feeling strangely calm, my thoughts were, "well, I will just wait for the impact as there is nothing I can do'. The collision seemed to me to happen in slow motion, my body moved slowly left to right, rebounding from the drivers door. I do not remember the sound of the impact.
This experience raised questions regarding the multiple ways in which one experiences 'world', That all experience is filtered through the body, and that this event would have been viewed very differently from a bystanders position of view.
This project raised questions related to the emotional state, and how this is experienced through the body and the mind. I did draw up a project from this that has yet to be realised. This relates to the spiral of emotional spectrum, from depression to ecstasy and our navigation of it, in itself.
I also have a second project arising from this body of work relating to the creation of a template for a 3D Human Body, with the potential to reconstruct as a moving, projection puppet. (The template would allow for duplication)
Since this time in the experimental practice, I have set-up my own studio and worked professionally within stop-motion animation, produced and directed commercially driven animation work in this work I would include, "String Feary" winning a D&AD Student Award for Animation, Pilsner Urquell "The Day Pilsner Struck Gold nominated for two British Animation Awards, and CiTV Origami Ident broadcast Animation. I have also worked ion collaboration with a singer-songwriter and have developed further experimental techniques that have informed the experimental practice.
Specific moments of insight arising from the commercial work relate to tensions experienced within the collaboration relationship related to authorship, Light and materiality in controlled and uncontrolled conditions, notions of engineering and mechanism in commercial stop-motion production, notions of value related to effort (experimented with in setting fire to ones own art artefacts).Collaborating with 'nature', in harnessing the elements and working with unpredictable events.
Today, in the research project I am realigning research through practice 'working from the inside out".
I have reviewed the practice and am beginning by working within the space of Mechanism and Humanism, aligning computer generated imagery with the materiality of form.Being aware of the questions this raises relating to "What does it mean to make animation in a technologically pervasive age?", and leading from this notions of limitation, user knowledge of world, teaching practice and authorship, meeting challenges/ creating challenges and being inventive with all tools and materials, freedom and control relating to creativity and aesthetics in contemporary animation, and questions of Pedagogy, commercial pressures of industry, the impact on free creativity in society and animation practice, and the potential to expand the field of animation to include fine art practice and auteurism in creative animated filmmaking. To consider 'Time' and 'time-based media', as a media that fully expresses the notion of being human in a technological age.
I am deconstructing an analysing the limitations of CG as an animation tool both in its programming and in the limitations of the 'human' user and directly comparing this with 'making' and materiality. I am reading texts my Deleuze and Bergson, and am interested in his notion of time, concepts of 'duration' in opposition to 'mechanistic' clock time and his concept of 'freedom'. I am interested in the virtual wall, and physics functions in cg and material craft (How light is manipulated, how threads are woven.. leading to questions of the substance of surface and potentially the emotional effect of passing through the seemingly solid). I would like more clarity at this point but am accepting that the process may be a matter of joining up the dots in retrospect and working from that point, onwards. I was concerned with how the research project was evolving, and am very happy to be located from within the practice. I have several lines of investigation I can follow from here.
(This is a rough draft/note making and will be refined in regards to tone and language)
Context for Research: Encounter with CG, 3 months initial training in 3D Studio Max environment modelling, box modelling and Animation.
Perceived Limitations to the use of software, and the software itself in regards to navigation, natural phenomena and the act of making in a virtual environment.
This raised questions relating to "What is world? ", and "Where is my place in it?",
Responded to through practice in the form of Blade, Blade Represented, Lilly Studies and Lilly Construction.
The materials of Paper, Cotton Thread offered a universal language of communicating and notions of fragility while offering the prospect of being projected upon and responsive to natural elements such as burning, wind motion, decay.
I began asking questions about "What is the structure of "world"?, and "How does it move?
This was responded to in practice through observing natural form, dissecting the elements of structure, tracing the form and creating a template, and then sewing the component parts together, using string to give tension to form a 3 Dimensional object from a 2D form. This created a flower petal.
Further elements of the flower were combined to form a a complete flower, This was then connected together to allow motion, as a puppet.
I then began to ask questions related to motion, and 'world', "How could this puppet move?"
This was responded to in practice by placing the puppet flower in the garden. The cotton strings were attached to a Bean Pole Pyramid (The kind you can grow runner beans up) and filmed.
The movement of the wind, shadows and sunlight, animated the un-manipulated puppet, however when I began to control the central string I could open and close the flower.
This raised questions of the origins of motion, "Who is the manipulator of control?",
A time-lapse study of Lillies opening over four days revealed the motion of time, and how flowers do not 'pop', they unfurl.
The practice responded to this in making two companion pieces, 'Interconnection', and 'One'. These have a personal narrative and show the development of the continuous questioning through practice.
'One'creates an organic mechanism, allowing a mirror image of 'human' moving simultaneously with 'flower'. The mechanism works in a loop whereby if the right hand string is pulled the hand and flower open together, or alternatively if the left hand string is pulled the hand and flower closes together. This motion was conducted in a controlled studio environment.
This raised questions relating to control and I asked "how would this mechanism move in an uncontrolled environment?,
This was responded to by re-filming the movement in the natural environment were it would have to respond to changing, light, wind and general weather conditions.
On filming the paper puppet outside, I noticed that my responding to the response of the unpredictable motion and the indeterminate outcome made me feel less in control and allowed for a wider range of responses than in the studio environment.
I also noticed that the friction on the cotton strings overtime and the tension coming to bare on the paper structure has reduced function of the mechanism over time.
Questions raised at this time related to observation and the act of seeing, such as "what am I actually seeing, and is this the same for everyone?
This was responded to in practice through the use of projection onto the paper models I had been constructing. I began to think about the flat surface of a screen, and how this flat surface may receive an image. I took this idea further, and began to think about how a 3D surface would receive a projected image and how 3D Studio Max uses 'maps', that are effectively wallpapers that cover a three dimensional frame. The projected image would have to be stretched to cover the area without distortion on the material surface.
Interconnection, the companion piece to time, receives the projection of a central human mechanism, the human heart, the 'puppeteers'manipulation of the screen moves in response to the projected moving image. This has to filmed in the dark for best effect. This project was intended for the projection onto my body however, this remains to be filmed and is intentional due to aspet of the personal narrative.
After this work, questions were beginning to arise relating to "What am I seeing?" and "Is this the same for everyone', being further extended to "What am I experiencing?" and "Does this relate to my experience of motion, and/or My observation of motion?
I began to think about the human mechanism, it's physiological structure, and how this relates to the experience of 'world', specifically in relation to Motion, or Life/Liveliness.
This was responded to in practice in the development of "Time", a large exterior Kinetic Screen. This work again is located at the interface between Mechanism and Humanism, and communicates a personal narrative.
I related the emotional state to the perception of motion through my own experience of being involved in a car accident. When I was 19 I spun my car into a 'very static' telepgraph pole. My recollection of this experience is one that unfolds in slow-motion. I remember realising I had lost control of my car and that there was nothing I could do to stop it from moving at all, frantic pressing the brake or trying to steer the wheel did not affect its trajectory. I remember my screams fading out into silence in my head, my body went warm, and feeling strangely calm, my thoughts were, "well, I will just wait for the impact as there is nothing I can do'. The collision seemed to me to happen in slow motion, my body moved slowly left to right, rebounding from the drivers door. I do not remember the sound of the impact.
This experience raised questions regarding the multiple ways in which one experiences 'world', That all experience is filtered through the body, and that this event would have been viewed very differently from a bystanders position of view.
This project raised questions related to the emotional state, and how this is experienced through the body and the mind. I did draw up a project from this that has yet to be realised. This relates to the spiral of emotional spectrum, from depression to ecstasy and our navigation of it, in itself.
I also have a second project arising from this body of work relating to the creation of a template for a 3D Human Body, with the potential to reconstruct as a moving, projection puppet. (The template would allow for duplication)
Since this time in the experimental practice, I have set-up my own studio and worked professionally within stop-motion animation, produced and directed commercially driven animation work in this work I would include, "String Feary" winning a D&AD Student Award for Animation, Pilsner Urquell "The Day Pilsner Struck Gold nominated for two British Animation Awards, and CiTV Origami Ident broadcast Animation. I have also worked ion collaboration with a singer-songwriter and have developed further experimental techniques that have informed the experimental practice.
Specific moments of insight arising from the commercial work relate to tensions experienced within the collaboration relationship related to authorship, Light and materiality in controlled and uncontrolled conditions, notions of engineering and mechanism in commercial stop-motion production, notions of value related to effort (experimented with in setting fire to ones own art artefacts).Collaborating with 'nature', in harnessing the elements and working with unpredictable events.
Today, in the research project I am realigning research through practice 'working from the inside out".
I have reviewed the practice and am beginning by working within the space of Mechanism and Humanism, aligning computer generated imagery with the materiality of form.Being aware of the questions this raises relating to "What does it mean to make animation in a technologically pervasive age?", and leading from this notions of limitation, user knowledge of world, teaching practice and authorship, meeting challenges/ creating challenges and being inventive with all tools and materials, freedom and control relating to creativity and aesthetics in contemporary animation, and questions of Pedagogy, commercial pressures of industry, the impact on free creativity in society and animation practice, and the potential to expand the field of animation to include fine art practice and auteurism in creative animated filmmaking. To consider 'Time' and 'time-based media', as a media that fully expresses the notion of being human in a technological age.
I am deconstructing an analysing the limitations of CG as an animation tool both in its programming and in the limitations of the 'human' user and directly comparing this with 'making' and materiality. I am reading texts my Deleuze and Bergson, and am interested in his notion of time, concepts of 'duration' in opposition to 'mechanistic' clock time and his concept of 'freedom'. I am interested in the virtual wall, and physics functions in cg and material craft (How light is manipulated, how threads are woven.. leading to questions of the substance of surface and potentially the emotional effect of passing through the seemingly solid). I would like more clarity at this point but am accepting that the process may be a matter of joining up the dots in retrospect and working from that point, onwards. I was concerned with how the research project was evolving, and am very happy to be located from within the practice. I have several lines of investigation I can follow from here.
(This is a rough draft/note making and will be refined in regards to tone and language)
