The Zone (Working Title)

Updates on the new upcoming project.
The viewer will be sitting or lying alone in a tent (Only one person allowed in at a time - allowing the experience to be much more personal) The tent will be kitted out with cushions, duvets, sleepng bags making it as comfortable as possible. The tent will also be isolated from anybody else, so one person venturing into the room and experiencing the whole thing alone may in itself be a stray from the viewer's comfort zone.
The films will begin once the person enters the tent, or it will be on a continuous loop. The images surrounding the viewer will transport them into different tight, close spaces in which they may feel happy and comfortable, or claustrophobic, testing the individual's boundaries, and the general line between comfort and claustrophobia.

The idea was inspired by the original concept for Brendan Monroe's interactive sculpture, 'Borborygmi', a stomach like space made of pink and red cushions which makes the sounds of the inside of a person's stomach when you touch or interact with the walls of the space. I was inspired by the statement that Monroe said of the sculpture, that some people found that they felt comforted by the womb-like structure, and others felt claustrophobic in it.


A micro-project that I will begin on the side soon is using a super 8 camera to film a recurring dream that I had about a year ago, I always wanted to film it as the images were so vivid in my mind, and I think soon may be the time.

Installation Idea

For my third year project I have to write three proposals for ideas to do over the course of the year. The film I am most keen on is a 'camera-less film' project, painting on film, creating a synaesthetic piece of filmmaking, in which I will assign certain colours to different instruments in a certain piece of music, and make these colours move in synchrony with the music, producing, in the end, a visual and colourful representation of the song.
However, the time that is given to make this project will not be enough for what I intend, and I don't want to sacrifice the quality of the piece, so I will save this idea for after graduation, something to do in my free time.

The idea I will be persuing is to create an installation in which one or two people will sit in a small space made of four projection screens as walls, and for images to be surrounding the viewer. The images projected will be testing the boundaries of the viewer, as I am trying to display the varied and changable line between comfort and claustrophobia. The images will start by filmically placing the viewer in a common comfort zone - for example wrapped in a duvet or in between light sheets, with images changing gradually and becoming more intense and less comfortable, presenting images that viewers may find claustrophobic. An interactive element to this installation will allow viewers at any time to take the film backwards if they become too claustrophobic, and the images would become gradually more comforting and sensitive.

I have become more excited and inspired about this over time, and look forward to starting the project.

Super 8 Outcome/Cornwall Film Festival

I received my super 8 film back, and was disappointed to find that the best reel came back blank, and the other one, which consisted mostly of useless footage, worked, but was very out of focus. This was a shame, but I won't let it go to waste. I want to use the blank film to scratch on, or bleach it to paint on. I went to a workshop at the Falmouth Art Gallery in which I tested this technique, painting on a piece of film strip that would have stretched the length of John O'Groats to Lands End. It was great to chat to an RCA graduate about the process and my ideas for my third year proposal.

I should also mention that my film, 'Resurfacing', which was screened at the Cornwall Film Festival in the student screening and in a competition for experimental films, came as a runner up in the competition, getting the award - "most suitable for art gallery appearance" - and that the owner of the Falmouth Art Gallery wants to show my film in an exhibition soon. I will be contacting him tomorrow to arrange when this will happen.

As for my film 'An Air Of...' I am progressing quite well. I have exported a draft of it, and will be filming the final shots in the next few days, hopefully finishing the film by the end of the week. I will post that up as soon as it's done.