Reading the text Public Intimacy: architecture and the visual arts by Giuliana Bruno gave me some more insight on how to perceive cinematic space and cinematic qualities. She speaks about how art has memories, and how we spectate and view spaces and objects.
"objects that were cultural souvenirs offered themselves to spectatorial musing; views developed as an art of viewing, becoming a gallery of vedute".
"memories are motion pictures"
"followed by the eye and the varying perspective perceptions of an object that depends on how it appears to the eye"
The way we view a space is based on our interpretation. Our eyes are lenses such as a camera, our brain is a memory holder. In a way, our own lives become a memory, a motion picture, a film, just for us to see. The way we move alters the way we see an object, how can this be further explored as cinematic device? What if we were to see not from our eyes? What if we were to change the way we move? What happens then to the viewing?
Before beginning this brief I wanted to further expand the idea of cinematic to understand all the things that go into cinematic. Using key words surrounding cinematic and words that I think fit into cinematic.
What is cinematic?
After reading through the brief, having a context talk as class and compiling key words, my mind started thinking of initial ideas of what I am wanting to explore and am automatically interested in regarding the cinematic device and project ideas.
Pre-cinematic devices:
During my research I found many different devices prior to cinema. Devices such as:
mutoscope
zoetrope
kinetoscope
phenakistiscope
thaumatrope
camera lucida
stroboscopic
stereoscope
magic lantern
shadow play
megalethascope
Some very similar to each, others completely different. Its fascinating to see such inventions and how the mind can design and create interesting inventions. The three devices that were the most interesting to me were the camera obscura and the chromatrope.
Camera Obscura
Camera obscura diagram. Jon Nicholls. The Camera Obscura. Photopedagogy.
Boston’s Old Customs House in Hotel Room, 1999. Abelardo Morell.
Illustration of a Pinhole Camera. Camera Obscura and the World of Illusions. Matrise.
2. Chromatrope
These two devices in particular peaked my interest with the way that the devices project images.
They both manipulate and alter the imagery once it is projected. With the camera obscura I like how it inverted and distorted the image, and the chromatrope I like the movement of the coloured patterns. I like the idea of manipulation and distortion of imagery - how could I further explore these effects?
My Cinematic Device:
These cinematic devices all focus on a standard human being perspective, at a standard eye level. For some reason I have been stuck on this idea of seeing through a foreign perspective, which came from reading Giuliana Bruno's text. Could this foreign perspective be conjoined with manipulation and distortion?
To see from a foreign perspective I was imagining from seeing high up or low down. I wasn't gravitating towards a device that would let you see up high because there is already many ways we can see up high like looking out a tall building/tower, plane ride/helicopter ride, climbing a ladder, staircase, a crane, etc. This then led me to focusing on a device that would be low to the ground, capturing details we do not notice while we walk along the streets.
Design Precedents:
Now that I had an idea of what my cinematic device may be, I began researching designs that peaked my interest in a cinematic space overall and in how the designs used movement.
Blackwater by Ralph Hotere and Bill Culbert. 1999
Thank You, Fog by Spencer Finch. 2016
Light Dynamo by Heinz Mack. 1963
What I like about these projects is how the viewer has to change our point of view to make the art move. Our own perspective is how we perceive the art. Where we position ourselves creates a new perspective and outcome of the design. Us as the viewers have more power to the work than we anticipate.
The making of my cinematic device:
I want to capture the movements of a person walking, to enhance this idea of a first person view. In this case it would have to be a device that is a buoyant, loose, non-structural material. Something that I already had that could make this device was a coil of wire that was very giving in movement and reshaping. I played with wrapping it to my phone securely to see what results I would get from this material and the design of a suspended phone.
This was the result of my first cinematic device test. Although the video is not clear (the wire is accidently covering the lens) it actually sort of worked how I imagined it to. The swaying of the phone, the way it captures the bodies movements and momentum of walking, it works!
Here is what the test device looked like. Its very rough and poorly made but ended up having pretty great results in terms of what I wanted.
Now that I know my idea works, I want to make my device more neat and better constructed, rather than wrapping wire around my phone. I was thinking about how selfie sticks grips onto a phone with its prongs. How could I remake that with wire? How can I make that without the wire covering the camera lens like my first attempt?
After acquiring wire cutters and pliers, I got to work. I didn't actually have a plan of action when attempting to make my device as I just didn't know how to make it and what would work. I first made the prongs that would
hold the phone, and just bent/moulded it to the shape of my phone to make the prongs secure. Because I am going to walking through the space with my phone so close to the ground, I was trying to make my device so secure that my phone would hopefully never fall out no matter what
I do. I began thinking the worse that the prongs may slip away from each other and eventually fall off the phone, to prevent this I cut a piece of wire and tightly wrapped it around each of the prongs, this also provided a nice backing to the phone to stabilize it in a way. Now that the body of my device has been made I just needed to create the hanging part that is to be held in my hand. There were two ways I could of attached it to the body of the device, one would be to attach it to the horizontal wire that connects the prongs, or attach to either side of the prongs themselves. If I was to only attach it in one place the phone would slide around and not be stabile enough to capture the movements of walking, so opted for attaching it to the prongs. This made my device very secure and held my phone very well.
Now that I had finished making my device I tested it out. In this first video the wire was too long and I had to hold it very awkwardly with my arm bent. Because my arm was bent it didn't capture the movements because my arm wasn't moving as I walked. I then trimmed down the wire to where my phone wasn't hitting the ground and I could still have my arm fully extended down. This was the results:
I am so happy with the results of my device, it captures the movements, the buoyancy, the irregular bobbing and rotating. I cant wait to use this within the site.
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