Reflecting on our process so far, we were pleased with our tasks and responses to them. We were particularly interested in the way the small objects and intimate moments can be placed in the infinite, framed by it.
To me, the most successful moments that came out of the edit were the ones were the ordinary was overlayed with the sublime. The moment where we see a timelapse of Alex at her screen and hear Chris's text about the story of everything felt particularly clear. It showed the juxtaposition between the dissillusioned individual and the overwhelming scale of the universe.
We also talked about our desire to use analogue technologies, the way tapes can be physically edited - cut and stuck back together, seemed to fit in with our process and material so far.
Trevor's tape recorder/player has arrived and he's ready to get experimental with it.
We also talked about static on analogue televisions and FM radios when you're inbetween channels. Around 1% of the white noise transmission is cosmic background radiation, caused by remnants of the Big Bang 13.7 billion years ago.
MEANING
In the feedback we received, there was a recurring theme of people feeling outside of the work, that they had to work to understand what was given to them. Distorted and impenetrable were two words that came up. It seemed to create the effect of zooming in so far that you're not quite sure what you're looking at. I think it's important to consider whether this is an effect we want to intentionally produce or not. In our second meeting with Sammy, I asked him:
How might we experiment with visuals and textures, deconstructing and layering all this material, whilst still making it cohesive? How important is it to have clarity of meaning, and if you want to create something obscure, how do you make sure it appears intentional?
Sammy's response was that it was good to have an overall sense of meaning, but this doesn't have to be clear-cut. When he's making work, he thinks of it in terms of musical dynamics, shifting through different tempos and moods. The composition, changes, internal logic and aesthetic choices can create a strong sense of meaning. He suggested that one way of creating something that feels obscure but maintains cohesion is by combining two specific fragments to make one. These combinations, which can be contradictory, encourage plurality and instability without losing a sense of meaning. He told us that if a fragment doesn't make sense, try layering it with different images/sounds to see what it could mean. These chance connections can end up forming new connections we might not have thought of. Finally, he said that as long as there are a few sections with concrete meaning, you can interweave them with fluid segments, as these moments of incoherence can pull the clearer parts into sharper focus.
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