W2: Innocence Lost

We started the lecture by looking at the recent TalkTalkTv advert which involves a female ballerina and a male astronaut. Simply by looking at this one example we were able to see how certain points are denoted, like that it involves a ballerina, but others were connotations, e.g. that the plot is a romance story. It was interesting to see how we add our own meanings onto images.

Meanings are created through a social relationship, which includes how the audience interpret an image and the context in which the image is seen. Consequently this leads to multiple meanings for one image because everyone's experience differs. However there can still be dominant meanings.

These can often be influenced by the political view that you start with, for instance Euro-centrism, where by European concerns are given greater importance. This can affect how you see an image because of your personal priorities and preferences created by the culture/ place that you grew up in. Being aware of how meanings can be interpreted is useful when analysing images and creating them.

Particularly as despite wanting an image to have an intended meaning, often the audience will interpret a different meaning from it. Karl Marx argued that power and people with the means of production controlled ideas and that consumers agree with this, yet Althusser believed in the importance of family, media, religion and education in promoting values. In society naturalisation of ideas can occur, but we can also reinvest products with a different meaning, e.g. graffiti and pop art.
Cultural appropriation perhaps goes a step further as one group takes an aspect of one culture and changes the meaning. While the meaning can be completely flipped with juxtaposition to form cultural distance, where two images/ products etc are combined to make a statement.

Changing the corporate message from it's intended meaning is called culture jamming and can be used by a viewer/ consumer to reclaim a public space that was once controlled by the corporation.

In general it seems that as viewers we can not look at an image/ product without attaching our own meanings that have been formed from our cultural position. This might go against the intended meaning of the piece and furthermore our own cultural production can challenge these ideas as well, so that we have more power as viewers.

Venues for Animation and Risk Assessment Forms

In groups we had to decide on two venues to visit that screen animations. Our group decided on the Arnolfini Gallery and the V-Shed. We wanted to research these venues because they are so different: the Arnolfini is an art gallery that regularly holds film based events alongside it's ever changing fine art exhibitions. While the V-Shed is actually a Wetherspoons bar that relies on it's tv screens to show films/animations.

They are located directly across from each other by Bristol Harbourside, so this made the initial differences in audience, noise, layout etc, even more interesting.

Before going to research the venues and find information on:

• Lighting
• Audience
• Time
• Noise
• Signage
• Demeanour
• Dress of shop/ assistants
• Layout
• Surrounding venues
• Traffic
• Weather condition
• Smells
• Temperature

We had to fill out risk assessment forms for each:

After the assessment forms had been completed we visited the venues:

Arnolfini

The Reception area

• Lighting: Bright, lots of lights and windows. High ceilings, clean and white.

 

Lights: don't distract from the work on show or cause glare.

• Audience: Couples, families, late 20s - 40s. Gallery quite empty, but cafe busy.
• Time: 4:00pm Sunday
• Noise: Very quiet gallery, slightly loud cafe.
• Signage: Really clear, lots of signs in reception directing to the exhibition spaces and other facilities. Artist information relating to pieces slightly away from the pieces though.

Signs: extensive and clear

• Demeanor: Welcoming and professional.
• Dress of shop/ assistants: Shop open, organised and clear. Very helpful customer service.
• Layout: Open and airy. No tight spaces. Clear and simple structure to the floors. Animation can be screened in multiple spaces for different atmospheres: in the large exhibition rooms, in the auditorium and in the dark room on the top floor.

Lots of space in the exhibition rooms

Lift available if necessary

Combination of white walls and windows creates the airy atmosphere

Lighting can be changed if necessary from one space to the next

Signs visible and there are stairs to all floors that have hand railings

• Surrounding venues: Cultural surroundings - architecture museum next door.

Railings surround the harbour outside for safety

The path outside

• Traffic: Pedestrian area, but quite busy with people.

The pedestrian path outside

• Weather condition: Sunny, occasional rain.
• Smells: None around gallery spaces, slight food smell in cafe, but not strong.
• Temperature: Normal room temperature inside, slightly more humid in cafe because of cooking equipment.

 Animation screens:

The Arnolfini has multiple facilities for screening animations, all with different atmospheres:

The Auditorium

Numerous seats are provided and animations can be projected onto a large screen.

 Image provided with permission by the Arnolfini Gallery


The Dark Studio

More intimate venue

 Image provided with permission by the Arnolfini Gallery


 The Exhibition Spaces

TVs and headphones can be installed for single viewings.

V-Shed

Outside of V-Shed

Inside: where animations can be screened from the TVs above the bar.

• Lighting: Quite dark inside, minimal, but ambient.
• Audience: General public, mix of people but leaning towards middle aged group.
• Time: 4:55pm Sunday
• Noise: Quite noisy inside and out because of general talking.
• Signage: Reasonable: enough signs are provided, but not extensively.
• Demeanor: Relaxed and informal.
• Dress of shop/ assistants: Simple layout to bar. Formal uniform for staff and adequate customer service.
• Layout: Quite easy to navigate and open. Screens for animation can be seen immediately when entering the venue and can be seen even when sat outside.
• Surrounding venues: Other bars.
• Traffic: Pedestrian area, but quite quiet.
• Weather condition: Bright and sunny. Outside heating and seats are provided as well.
• Smells: No strong smells of food or alcohol.
• Temperature: Mild inside and outside.

Overall, the Arnolfini Gallery seems more suited for frequent and purpose built animation screenings because of it's facilities and general atmosphere. However, both visits were conducted safely with no additional control measures needing to be enforced.

Thanks to the Arnolfini Gallery for all of their help with this research.

3 More Practitioners

From talking in the sessions and looking at the blogs of others in the animation group I found 3 more practitioners that interested me:

Jan Svankmajer

Born/ Working: Prague, Czechoslovakia. [now Czech Republic]
Medium: Mixed media stop motion and live action films
Subject of work: Fantasy/ Black Humour
Audience: Adults



Information from: IMDb, 2013. Biography for Jan Svankmajer. [Online] Available at: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0840905/bio [Accessed 6 October 2013]. tchakon, 2009. Jan Svankmajer - Breakfast. [Video online] Available at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AMTBW7MMTW4 [Accessed 6 October 2013].

We talked about Svankmajer's work in the session, but I hadn't seen any of his work before we were shown this piece the other day in class. Immediately the twisted, dark humour stands out, which compliments the use of stuttering pixelation technique on the actors to emphasise even more the feeling of a fixed path of action for the characters. Also what works well is the shift from the actors to the puppet heads - it's obvious, but I like that the technique can be seen and the extreme contortions of the face. Simply getting the actors to pull faces wouldn't have had the same effect. Plus the limited colour scheme really makes the bleak atmosphere and the message of the film clear.

Oh Yeah Wow - Darcy Prendergast

Born/ Working: Australia 
Medium: Mixed media stop motion and live action films
Subject of work: Music videos/ advertising
Audience: Teenagers/ adults


Information from: Harrington, J., 2013. Blind Searching. Maintain Raisin Options, [blog] 28 September. Available at: http://maintainraisinoptions.blogspot.co.uk/ [Accessed 6 October 2013]. Darcy Prendergast, 2005. Darcy Prendergast Information. [Online] Available at: http://darcyprendergast.50webs.com/info.htm [Accessed 6 October 2013]. Oh Yeah Wow, 2013. Goyte: Easy Way Out. [Online video] Available at: http://ohyeahwow.com/gotye/ [Accessed 6 October 2013].

I saw Prendergast's video Easy Way out for Goyte on Jenny Harrington's blog. I really like the over-exaggerated actions as they emphasise the key actions and effort needed for the character to move through his day. The stop motion is quite subtle in parts, helping to add extra character and style to scenes without taking away from Goyte's performance. I love the camera movement though, of just circling around on a fixed point - it's an excellent and clear way to show monotony.

Daniel Sousa

Born/ Working: America
Medium: Mixed media, stop motion, 2D digital animation
Subject of work: Archetypes of human nature and our unconscious drives.
Audience:Teenagers- adults


Information from: Moreton, R., 2013. Daniel Sousa. Visual Culture, [Blog] 29 June 2013. Available at: http://rorymoretonviscul.tumblr.com/ [Accessed 6 October 2013]. Daniel Sousa, 2012. about. [Online] Available at: http://www.danielsousa.com/about.html [Accessed 6 October 2013]. Daniel Sousa, 2012. minotaur. [Online] Available at: http://www.danielsousa.com/minotaur.html [Accessed 6 October 2013].

I found Sousa's work by looking at Rory Morton's blog. Sousa's work appealed to me because of it's experimental nature, how he tries to convey something different through his technique. In particular I love the combination of hand drawn and stop motion animation in Minotaur - the line work and form (his characters have great, strong silhouettes) on the drawing is beautiful, detailed but stylised and it exists so naturally in it's 3D surroundings. The shadows that the cut outs create and this technique in general add an extra level of depth making the world he creates feel more tangible. That the characters appear so separate from their environments though communicates the loneliness of their existence in the piece.