Video and Sound

For the past month, I've been working with Anthony Bui, Barak Chamo, and Marco Wylie to create a ~5 minute portrait of a specialist. We connected with Sara Erenthal, who is an active artist in Bushwick. We went on multiple shoots to capture Sara in different environments. We met her at her home studio, on the street while making art, and also at a gallery opening. Things really came together when we were able to have a sit down interview and capture her story about where she started, what she's doing now, and where she wants to go with her work.

This entire process definitely opened my eyes to how much more footage is actually shot than what is shown in the final video. We probably could've used more b-roll even though we already spend a lot of time capturing. There are a few small fixes we could do to refine the pacing of our interview cuts and b-roll. Of course, through the process, we learned about how to use the Mark II and Mark III cameras, three point lighting, and the basics of Adobe Premiere. While video & sound is not likely to be my main focus at ITP in the next years, I think I have a good handle on how to use these skills for documentation and communication. I definitely still want to improve how I can create narratives when using video and sound components in my future projects.

Earlier this semester, I worked with Jason Yung and Alan Peng to create a soundwalk that explores ITP on the 4th floor of Tisch. We finished this up on September 21 and I am posting this about a month late (sorry, Gabe!).

We were inspired by elements of Janet Cardiff's "Her Long Black Hair" soundwalk that we did before coming up with our own soundwalk. I really liked how it felt like Janet was having a conversation with you. For instance, she would have a voice be louder in your right ear as if you were standing next to them. We have elements like that and we try to keep the listener immersed.

Our process came about by recording a conversation we had of why we came to ITP and what it means to us. We also recorded some instructions on how to walk through the floor, starting in room 50, and also some meditative instructions. We hoped that our soundwalk would help to give non-ITP people an idea of what ITP is like, and also remind ITP students to think about why there are here. Hopefully this will be a nice piece to document the sounds of this space before ITP moves to Brooklyn. Here is the soundwalk below. If you want to get the full experience, go to the fourth floor of Tisch and press play next the door of room 50.

My team is still in the process of securing someone for our "portrait of a specialist" 5 minute mini-documentary, so in the meantime I made a storyboard of how we might get shots of one of our potential specialists, a Brooklyn street artist.

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Appropriation
From memes to mash-ups, the products of the appropriation seem to have permeated much of mainstream media. This is thanks to ease of access and participation. It is so easy to access images online as Joy Garnett does in the creation of her painting "Molotov Man" [1]. Garnett found a image of a man throwing a molotov cocktail she liked online, originally Susan Meiselas's photograph, and then painted the image. The image eventually spread online and became re-contextualized over and over until it lost its original meaning. Especially now, it is difficult to control how someone might interpret your work or how it may proliferate on the internet. Anyone who is creating content that is publicly available should be aware that this might happen, and it's not necessarily a bad or good thing. For instance, the purpose of memes is to re-contextualize media and they are everywhere. Some are funny, some are mean. As creators, we have to let go to some extent that someone might appropriate our work, but that might be the trade-off of making your work accessible and impactful.

In his article "The Esctasy of Influence", John Lethem touches upon intellectual property and how idea ownership might hinder progress by preventing others from building upon the ideas of others. While this does happen since businesses are trying to make money and receive the value of their inventions, it is important that ideas are being fully documented and available as patents. Maybe it would be better if individuals and small businesses could license the patents for free or low cost while the patent is active.

I think we will always be building on previous ideas because that is how we are progressing and moving forwards. Lethem points out Don Swanson's use of "undiscovered public knowledge" to work on a disease called Raynaud’s syndrome. Coming up with 100% novel ideas isn't a necessity when there is already a lot of knowledge available that can be used to draw new conclusions.

The Sound Walk

This past Tuesday night, Alan Peng, Jason Yung, and I did Janet Cardiff's Her Long Black Hair sound walk through Central Park. It was actually kind of eerie throughout the whole walk that the park was so empty, but I kept hearing the voices of passersby through my headphones. I was constantly ( and nervously) looking around only to find that it was just us. The sounds of voices in tunnels, passing conversations, and the gondolier going under the bridge were so immersive because it was directional.

I thought the greatest moments in during the walk happened when the Cardiff would refer to something in the park and I would immediately make the connection to the real environment.  There was a feeling of shared experience with the artist and all the people who have been walking through before us. I liked when she added historical info about the park or switched to another time since it added to the depth of the narrative. There a feeling that so many moments happen and are shared with people in space and time. I especially felt the ending was beautiful, looking into the pond and looking into the reflections of the buildings. I had not even realized the sound walk ended for a couple minutes because of the real ambient night sounds felt like part of the recording.

There were a few hiccups during our walk. Upon approaching the zoo, we found the gates were locked. I think we spent quite a bit of time listening, wandering along a busy road, and then re-syncing at the Balto Statue on track 4. The walk does depend on the listener to follow the correct path and for specific parts of the park to be open. While I missed out on experiencing the full the sound walk as intended by the artist, working our way back to where Cardiff was an interesting. Like meeting up with some one who isn't really physically and presently there. It was a little surreal.

References
1. Garnett, Joy, and Susan Meiselas. “On The Rights of Molotov Man.” Harper's Magazine, Feb. 2007, pp. 53–58.