Zoetrope

An idea I had for presenting my work was to exhibit in a round room (or make the walls curved) and project the film collage against the walls, with the tree in the middle. As people walked around the tree they would interrupt the beam of projection thus creating black outs / shadows or silences in the image. I very much like the idea of the distortion of the imagery projected on curved walls and the interuption of the projected imagery.
I started thinking about the animation of the imagery as well. This together with the curved room and broken projection got me thinking and I remembered the Zoetrope. A Zoetrope is a circular device with slits in it's side and on the inside there are images, when the device is spun around and you look through the slits the images look as if they are moving.

youtube - ZOETROPE

I have now started to think and develop ideas inspired by the spaces or flickers created by a zoetrope. I had wanted to create black spaces or silences in my footage as well as in my sound scape. Originally this was just going to be a small part of the film and compliment the sound scape. However now I have remembered the Zoetrope it has a whole other layer.

My sound scape will include the rhythm of trains. I like the correlation of the rhythm of the image flicker and the sound of the trains. I am very inspired by the Zoetrope and will continue to research it and test some means of animation with spaces (blank or blacked out separators). 

Sound Scape Influences

'annoying room'

  Optophonetic poem

Vinessa Trikeriotis

* Tung  - track 5 "Good Arrows" - I like the distant sound of the race being called the pace and distance in the sound draws me in the old sound of crackling is very appealing as well. (this whole work is about journey) I do not necessarily like the calling of a race although life is often referred to as a rat race??? but I am interested in the reading of instructions / directions in the style of a race being called. 

* Ani Difranco - I would like to have words in my sound scape but i would like to abstract them and give them a rhythm like that of waving in a breeze. There will be pace changes in the sound scape this I am sure of as well as moments of silence. The Silence in the sound I will relate to my concept of shadow (This is not yet fully developed but will mesh with the images made for the shadow)

* The Splinter Orchestra  - I saw a performance by The Splinter Orchestra where they played improvised instruments to an improvised score. I found myself lost in a forest and then in a concrete jungle of a city. I loved how the piece moved and flowed in and out of different environments with the use of sound. I really want my sound scape to do the same.

* Phonetic poetry - Hugo Ball has been writing Phonetic poetry as early as 1916 and Christian Morgenstern broke new ground when he wrote 'Fisches Nactgesang' which is made up of metrical signs arranged in the shape of a fish. I have made my own poem but it is more in the vein of an Optophonetic poem influenced by Raoul Hausmann.

These types of poetry have influence me because of how they are read. I like the abstraction and the depiction of the poems.

   

Christian Morgenstern    

                                                         

Raoul Hausmann   1918

                               

Shoe Tree drawing

Creating this drawing helped me to conceptualize how I may go about building the tree. It also raised a lot of questions along the way too. Structural questions such as: how big will the tree be? will it have to be a certain size because of the size of complete shoes? I have chosen not to just use complete shoes but be allowed to cut them up as well this will allow me greater flexibility (I have not yet worked out exactly how big the tree will be, i do know it will be a large work approximately 165 - 170cm tall). I also began to think about how the limbs of the tree will stay up and not buckle under the weight. I have thought of tying the limbs together and hanging "laundry" off it. Like my earlier photo post of the laundry on the clothes line - I like the idea of the "laundry" blowing in a breeze. (I don't really like the idea of "laundry" with it's connotations to "dirty laundry".  A line from a song by Ani Difranco is evoked in my mind - "and the laundry was waving and the graffiti was teasing..." it speaks to a simpler time and has a peaceful rhythm.

Another thought about the structure was that if the limbs of the tree where not tied, could it grow into the walls? and then ... where would it be installed and could i build it in the space it was to be exhibited?

Lots of questions and not too many answers just yet ... but it has opened my thoughts and brought them back to certain themes. Themes like simpler times & peaceful locations. It has also got me thinking more about my sound scape.