Wednesday, October 31, 2007

Projection tests

Alright I did some tests and this is how they looked like.


Stripes on the wall.



The motion as a texture directly on the wall works. Meaning the stripes won't get distorted by the corner.

The scaling boxes in the front have no chance, because they stick not directly to the wall.


Type




Mhm, don't know what to get out of it. It doesn't look good at all.



Flower and shapes.




This one shows that you can achieve the effect of depth by using shadows and objects that come directly out of the wall. However, when the flower moves too much towards the camera, it gets distorted by the corner.


House and trees




I had the idea to project onto a model/stage scene and it didn't work out that well.

At least not the way I tried it. It's not only rebuilding the scene you want to project onto, but you also have to digitally project onto that scene. Hard to explain, I'm going to test this tomorrow if I can.


The fairy reflection for real




I've used the old fairy reflection test and projected it onto water. Then filmed the reflection on the wall. It appears to reflect in green colour though. If I find the time I will do some more tests with different colours.



Sunday, October 28, 2007

What the hell have I done the last three weeks?

To be honest I don't really know. Of cause I've been busy struggling through my ideas and trying to make up a proper concept as well as a working structure. But what should I say? There is nothing! Nothing such as a final structure. Nothing to start building up on. I have the feeling there is no productive outcome by now at all. All the thinking just drives me crazy. Especially as I am not capable of holding ideas, storing them, developing them to make use out of them. It ends up in a mind spinning endless cloud.

Whoo, and what a pleasure it is to fly through the sky with visions of colourful sounds and strange creatures appearing behind every cloud. But sometimes it gets so hard to come down to the ground, that I have to leave all of the experiences and beautiful things I saw behind, in order not to loose them on the way back. And you can't imagine what it feels like when there is a sudden change of the weather. The wonderful purple clouds turn into gloomy, dark greyish mists, their vile-smelling, toxic gases not only seem to take your breath but also to burn on your skin. And for the worst it's all these silhouettes of antics, of which you can't tell if they're just laughing about you or trying to drag you into their world of doom, fear and pain. Sometimes I whirl for hours in such a sudden weather storm and when the weather finally calmed down, so that I can find the way back, I feel so disorientated.


Distraction is no good companion , if you want to structure your work/concept. I get easily lost in my mind labyrinth. And I just can't afford this anymore. Time is running fast and I got to start somehow.

As Professor Geelhaar put it, there are people who build up their concept, structure it and schedule the resulting future work process. Then you have people who do not structure, who, that's hard to explain, just let it come(?) and then do it. As for me, I 'm like always kinda stuck in between. Like you can expect from the title of this post, I seem not to be the person who just does and neither someone who is good in structuring. Well that's not all true. I totally like structuring and scheduling, but like already said, I can't hold it. In the end I always just doing. So with all my projects. I guess I am a “doer” who wants to be a “scheduler”. Trapped in between, still not sure how to come out.

Anyway, I decided to just do and start. I mean I pretty much know what I want to do and maybe you can't do/achieve it, by structuring and scheduling it.

There should be a positive wind going along with the starting, so I will list things I actually done. So I see for myself that I didn't waste all the time “flying”.


So what have I done?

I did several shootings, without something specific in mind, just for some testing.

I've tried if I could use a photo camera to capture sequences, by using the continuous shot function. Turned out that doesn't work

I've did one small test projecting into a corner. I basically had prepared an Animation of some lines crossing the walls. It turned out quite well. I hope I can do a more advanced test in the near future. So I can find out what it will look like if you have objects “in space”.

There was a test on possibilities of stereogram creation within After Effects. Mhm, it kinda worked, even so it's not stunning. You will need glasses for that. You can borrow them from me.




Ahh, and I've listed all my ideas. You can have a look at it by checking these Pdf documents. There is one for the motion graphic ideas and one for the ideas concerning presentations.


I also tested different tracking software. None of it suited well. But my footage was fairly rough and so on. I want to try some 3D tracking by using video footage shot on a tripod.




Sky replacement by using keying techniques was another thing I played around with.




And of cause I wasted a lot of time on the Internet watching tutorials. Where I never know if it will come in handy one day. At least I know where to find it.


Finally I started with the Light Fairy. At first I did a bit of drawing and then I got distracted by the question what it should look like. So I went over to the computer and tried out how I can achieve this water reflection look. I seems like it can work out alright. Only thing I'm unsure about is perspective, no better 3 dimensionality. I'm afraid it might look to flat. Well I'm gonna work on that.




Friday, October 5, 2007

This post title is a buzzing blaze of purple, lucid and fuzzy

Alright, besides keeping you up to date with my researches, I should give you a short view on how the actual work develops.

I still want to create small playful pieces that evolve out of everyday situations. Visual fantasies that appear in trivial places. Like Hoffmanns characters get overwhelmed by sudden irrational happenings, I want to show what my mind “projects” into places.

There will be animation/video pieces in the end for sure, but they probably won't just be presented as a screening. I can imagine projecting onto spots, that being walls of a buildings or whatever objects. You might have to lay down on my bed to see what I have “seen”. Also I still believe in the idea of having something to look through. So you might experience something strange when looking in a hole of a tree or a garbage can. Watch out! In the end it will depend on how I feel what would work better. Doing a video piece or make it an installation. I hope I can start experimenting with projecting onto things within the next days. I will let you know how the outcome was.


E.T.A. Hoffmann

I just recently started reading E.T.A. Hoffmann and I love it. Well, I haven't read that much by now though, just the story “The golden pot”. It's about a guy who has bad luck in general and one day gets cursed by a witch. Afterwards he sees golden snakes falls in love with one of them and ..., well I don't want to tell it all, go read it for yourself. It's basically a romantic/fantasy story with strange things happening where the the main character Anselmus is always struggling to face the real world and vice versa.

E.T.A. Hoffmann was a writer of the Late Romanticism. His stories differ from other poets of the time as they are partly gloomy and there's always an inner struggle in the main characters that tears him apart. An ongoing discontented skipping between the real and the fantasy. I have to admit that I feel a real sympathy for Hoffmann and can relate to his characters too. At least as far as I read him by now. During his whole lifetime he had trouble getting along with being a jurist on the one side and wanting to be an artist on the other. He not only was good in writing but also in fine arts and music. This trouble found is way into the stories as an element of grotesque. Basically his stories can be brought down to 3 levels. There is the reality or bourgeois life, the fantastic-romantic level and the grotesque-demon like.(1) The first one is representing the wish for safety and material wealth. Also at this level the irrational is not accepted. The second level is a romantic one, where smells become visual, beautiful colorful flowers start to grow and to spread out and everything is very passionate and emotional. Nature like fantasy scenes are being described enthusiastic and always come along with an intoxicant swing. The grotesque builds a kind of bridge between the two other levels.(2) For example, when, in the story of “the golden pot”, the door knocker of the house, that is representing the entrance to“fantasy” (second level) becomes the witch. As soon as you would feel to comfortable in one level or accept it as the only, the grotesque comes into the scene and acts as a demon like reminder that this is not possible. Escaping into fantasy is no way and neither is concerning with reality all by itself. You have to suffer facing the duplicity of life. In the moment when the main character recognizes the ambivalence of the world he falls into unconsciousness letting him no chance to comprehend or process it.

There is a certain kind of humor or irony in Hoffmanns writing. In each of the levels the grotesque is always mirroring the opposite. And so shows the disaffirmation of one-dimensionality. Another interesting point is that the grotesque always appears out of the subjective perception of the actor. It's not so much that the world has changed but the view on it.(3) Reality and fiction don't exist side by side. They're mixed up. For Hoffmann understanding of the world is not possible by just rational thinking or pure lyrical romanticism. His ambivalence is a more real one. Irrational happenings find their way in to everyday life.


1 – Georgi, Olliver (2003): Das Groteske in Literatur und Werbung. S.60, Stuttgart, ibidem Verlag

2 - ebd. S. 73

3 - ebd. S. 80


Tuesday, October 2, 2007

Somehow stuck

Somehow the problem became smaller all by itself during writing this.
I'm gonna post it anyway because whatever your thoughts are concerning this post, they might be helpful to me.


I feel a bit stuck at the moment and I will try to explain why within this post.

There is a kind of chasm within my thoughts concerning the work and presentation. It's not that easy to explain but I'll try to keep it short and straight out. On the one side of the gap there is the series of video/animation pieces and on the other is a installation work.

I aim(ed) at combining both but by now I haven't found a good way to do so. Basically each one needs a different approach, even though they share a lot, too.

If I do the series, it will probably be screened and be put on a DVD or be shown online. But a work which should be exhibited in a gallery situation or public space is something else. I have to think how I will set up the room. A „white cube“, where I project onto the walls? A white room with elements in it, onto which I project? A „see through“ object, which let you see the white (filled) room in a different way? Project onto specific sites around the town? Install „see through“ objects in specific sites?

Of course I have to find spots to do the shooting too. So this is similar .

Shortened: One thing will be watching the other will be a (re)active watching.


I'm loosing the thread again.

Alright!

If I find places where some of my „fantasies“ will come through, would it really be a problem to not only make it a video, but to maybe think of a possibility to present it as an installation at this spot, as well? I could just collect every thought and weigh what might work better as an installation and what would be more beautiful as a video. I could even mix it all. Combining the videos in some collage which is then projected in a white room (having elements or not) or make it visible through an object only.