Rate and win a free shy pod*!

I finally brought together the main ideas I think are worth working on further. Obviously I don't have the time to do them all, although I will most definitely mention them in the documentation. As I have a general problem with making decisions, all of you would be a great help if you would rate the ideas. Underneath this post are six more (basically everything till the posting on J. Callot) and each one is representing one idea/project. Please give them a rating between zero and five (1-5) with five being best. I would really appreciate if you could take the time to even explain shortly why you like/don't like it. Thank you all very much.

* it's so shy it will hide from you anyway

Performance (even though I don't think the term suits in this case)

I could present my work (concept, struggles, etc.) while having motion graphics/animations in the background. My “daemons” could come out of my head and be caught in a box.

With the different experiments I did on projections, I could do kind of “magic/illusionist tricks”.

Or I could read out fragments out of E.T.A. Hoffmanns tales and accompany them with visuals.

Look through box/telescope

I use a space, that could be my room, gallery, street, public space, or whatsoever. There's some kind of viewing/telescope device installed. When looking through you see what you would expect: the same space, or maybe a zoomed in detail of that space. But, of course I would add layers of motion graphics/animations to it. By working with keying technique I could make elements appear and disappear behind or in front of people. So persons could be eaten by monsters or have themselves grown horns out of the head.

The zoomed in detail could be a trivial corner no one usually pays attention to. In there, flowers could start growing or rain might fall down. Which would be covered by the people who pass by in front of it.

Project onto surfaces

Project my “fantasies” onto places where I had them. A tree in the park, where faces appear on the bark, or the wall of a house, where liquid leaks from in between the bricks bringing lizards along with. This being just an example. Could be the light elf, too.

I could/would try to work with motion detection/tracking to have passing by persons trigger events/animations.

Shadow projections

The usual shadows in an environment start to deform. Would be perfect if peoples shadows would deform as well.

(I have no clue on how I could achieve this at the moment. Probably hard to do in a real space, and not so impressive if you just project a “room” on a wall, as perspective is dependent on the viewers position/angle.)

Here is a link to a video a friend of mine showed me. It might give you an impression on what I mean.

The corner theatre

Continue working on the corner projection. I would build a kind of stand with a “cut out” corner in it. When sitting in front of it you get the illusion of visuals moving in the full depth of the corner and not just projected flat onto the walls.

Do a film

I could also just do film(s). Where strange things are happening: Because of my head explodes, thousands of tiny snakes get thrown out crawling their way before turning into dragonflies. That fly to a river bank, where a head emerges out of the water, looking greyish pale, bloated. And you are happy film by now comes without smells. The head suddenly opens it's eyes and dips into the water again, the camera following you realize that it's a kind of fish like creature. Being under water now you see other colorful fishes with arms, wings or spoons instead of fins. A mechanical crab family with light bulb eyes start crawling out of the water. And you realize that you are at the beach where pink palms await you along with black honey dripping out of plastic coconuts. You take a big gulp and slowly the surrounding starts getting blurry. It gets hard identifying the strange creatures appearing on the beach. You just realize that it's dusk above the ocean before everything turns black ...

additional information to avoid misunderstanding:

This is no ready to use story, it's just made it up in exactly the moment I was writing it. It should just give you an idea on how movie sequences for me would be like. Abstract and gloomy but suddenly changing into something beautiful colorful or funny. Flowing continuously without a deep (arty-farty, media science) meaning, being narrative without telling a proper story in the foreground.

Jacques Callot

I've told you I've started reading E.T.A. Hoffmann and feel strong sympathy for him and his work. Well, he dedicated one collection of stories to an engraver of the early 17th century: Jacques Callot. Hoffmann wrote a short essay on him and how he loves his work. He describes that, by looking longer at Callots pictures, they start coming to life. All these thousands of figures then start to stride out of the deepest background, where they were difficult to recognize at first.(1) Hoffmann so titled the collection “Fantasy Pieces in Callots Manner”.

Reason enough for me to take a closer look on the work of Mr. Callot. And indeed, I can understand Hoffmann. To be more precisely, I clearly see how a lot of the characters in his stories are influenced by Callots style. It's like suddenly finding the pictures I had in my mind while reading Hoffman, reappear in faces and figures of Callots works. Following are a view pictures I photographed. Straight away out of the book, so please don't mind the quality. (2)

I need to create grotesque characters too. So I certainly will make use of Callots works. But more in an inspirational way, as I will try to transport the style of his figures to the present.

However, I hope I will be able to show you stuff within my next post. Because it is more then time to come up with some real visual elements and boards for the animations.

1 – Hoffmann, E.T.A: Band 1 Fantasiestücke – Elixiere des Teufels. S.7, Frankfurt am Main, Insel Verlag

2 – Callot, Jacques; Schröder, Thomas(1971): Druckgraphik. S. 870 – 1673, München, Rogner & Bernhard Verlag

Creative block or “My mind is dangerous, that's who I'll always be “ *

Well, what should I say, this blog is seriously starting to get personally. However, if I would have to agnise, this block is probably there since the last posting.

What is the problem? Mhm, I myself?! I'm really fed up with the experimenting for the projection. It's like I can't concentrate on a thing for a longer period of time. And it will never be as perfect as I want it to be. Although I'm sure you can achieve fairly nice results by creating the right lighting and so on. But I have to concentrate on the content. What do I want to show? What could happen? I don't fucking know!

Also, a friend just recently asked me, after I was explaining my lack of motivation: “What is it, you really want to do at the moment?” - I: “Go on holidays.” Friend: “Seriously!” I: “I don't fucking know!”

The thing is, whatever I will do, let it be projections, animations, interactive installations or what ever, I need to think of the visual/graphic elements within. And even more I need to know why I use them to create what I want to create. That is:?

Alright, before it gets to whiner like, I better stop.

I will go on reading and maybe do a walk and just see where it all leads to.

* “My mind is dangerous” by Life Of Agony