We began the showing by sharing a video Chris edited of our various audio-visual task responses. We decided that the most helpful way of using our outside eyes was by not giving them any context to the material before showing it to them. It was important to us that their initial responses were genuine and not influenced by our input, so we could gage what effect the work has on those outside of it.
Whilst they were watching the video, the group was free to write any thoughts/emotions/responses as they came through the chat function. This was particularly useful as it provided live, immediate responses.
THE VIDEO
THE CHAT FEEDBACK
Shifting between colours and monotones
Motion, a feeling of time passing and it being unstoppable
Mourning for time gone by
Memories
Daydreaming
The fuzziness of memory
Wastelands, loneliness, claustrophobia, agoraphobia
Memories peppered with references music, film, tv and lovers, past talking to the future
World out there vs world in here
Timeline with a gradient of tone from calm to alert and sturdy
Letters
Lots of images with details that i can’t quite make out
Complicated relationship with the past
Peripheral vision
Movement, pace, change, speed, colours. Illusion. Distorted vision, I struggle to see the truth. What is the truth. I’m anxious. Light at the end of tunnel. Urban and cold. They disturb me. My world is here for you to operate in - cut it, glue it back together. Forget everything.
Banality
Unsure about the present
Protected by the vacuum
Having it all prerecorded and edited makes me have that past quality/fossil element.
I’m curious to see what or if you do live and what that adds to it.
MORE FEEDBACK
'I super glued my artefact together' — the care of sticking something back together wasn’t there. . .what was presented was like shards of events or artefacts in a ‘very dark room’ left dislocated, sprawled out across the floor.
'Our eyes align' — became too abstract for any meaning to be adorned from the words being said OR rather its meaning was abstracted, distorted and juxtaposed with the sentiment of other people’s words. The original meaning becomes ‘impenetrable’ but is something new created?
Reminiscent of Gobsquad’s Creation (Pictures of Dorian) — the moment Sharon Smith arranges flowers in order to capture their decay. To measure time in space. Perhaps investigate duration as a performative element…
We were pleased to hear that a lot of the themes we were exploring came through - the passing of time, the distortion of memory and the fragmentation of both.
After a brief discussion about our process, we shared a soundscape created by Trevor which blended the voices from our audio responses with Bartholomäus Traubeck's The Voice of Trees.
FEEDBACK
In an attempt to ‘share’ time the audio felt more effective since the intimacy of the audio located one in time whereas the visual element with its signifiers of place (the sky, a room, flowers, a road, a screen) had a dislocating effect. The difference in the visual having the sense of the passing of time and the audio as sharing in time.
What was created on both accounts demanded a great deal of attention. A distinct difference in the experience of watching and listening and simply just listening. The visuals tend to ‘wash over’ the viewer. Not necessary in a bad way but a great deal of effort is required in order to draw connections. Specific cultural references brought the audience to specific time and place in their personal history, and thus made the sense of memory/times past relatable on an individual level.