Today I had a group tutorial with my class and had the opportunity to present my ongoing work to Itai. I prepared a brief slide show and notes (below) and also asked questions and for feedback as I really enjoy group crits.
The main thing I wanted feedback on was the fact that I felt the film outcome wasn’t very ‘me’ and I had been playing around with the idea of a physical installation/exhibition which showcased my short format films/ images, along with my writing as a form of practice based research.
Itai stopped me just before the end of my presentation and said that he thinks I am a thinker first and an image maker second, which I actually agree with. He said the film, script and all my planning felt secondary to the conceptual and theoretical research and he suggested I switch to outcome 1 (fully written dissertation). I said that that had been suggested to me before but I wanted to use the facilities as part of my course and I am very aware that I am on a production course. However, particularly with the current pandemic and restrictions, I was going to create a speculative project which, as I have mentioned before would be predominantly text based with supportive short format research videos.
Itai said that practice-based research would still qualify for outcome 1 and the way I have been working already suits that.
- I want to begin with my research question which is currently “How is Identity being constructed through ‘Beauty’ perceptions and Phygital Experiences?”
- Just to break that down a bit, first looking at the Phygital Experiences aspect, where I am referencing specific instances of using digital media, where the lines of existing virtually and physically are blurred. For example; when we are engaging with AR facial filters, our virtual self is both mirroring our physical self and simultaneously being visually altered. Instances like these interest me.
- This idea continues with other instances such as video games, capturing and posting images of ourselves on social media and many other actions when we engage with digital media. In slightly more succinct terms, I’m referencing the immersive future of digital media and projections slash constructions of identity.
- So now looking at Identity, I am focusing on exploring fragmented identities and multiple iterations and projections of “self” as the human condition is subject to constant change.
- A sub research question I created as I was breaking this down is ‘How is Identity performed through the concept of beauty?’ as I am specifically examining identity through the concept of beauty. When I speak about beauty, I am less focused on the market itself, but rather on how alterations and projections of the physical self in digital realms are assisting with contemporary identity construction.
- I was still a bit concerned that the term beauty would detract from what I am interested in, as it is so broad, but I drew reference from the text, which argued that we ‘recognise that the dressed person is a geshtalt that includes body, all direct modifications of the body itself, and all three-dimensional supplements added to it…because they are equally effective means of human communication’. This impacted my thought process surrounding projections of the self in virtual space as a type of ‘dress’ or fashioning of the self and also the word gestalt was suggestive of a combination of elements which made ones identity and lack of fixed condition, so a fluid identity and how that is perceived.
- This leads to the use of ‘perceptions’ in my research question and the title of my project; ‘Perception Spa’.
- When I looked at the definition of perception, it seemed to link all these ideas together, particularly as I am looking at perceptions of the self and beauty in terms of identity and reality with regards to the phygital experiences I mentioned earlier. And as I’ve mentioned before, a Spa is a relatable material environment which will be used as a satirical metaphor to base the narrative of my project on.
- These are my current Aims & Objectives, I won’t read them all, but it outlines Gen Z as my demographic, virtual worlds as the space etcetera
- My Scope of Research is a Mixed Methodology, which includes a literature review, and phenomenology-based ethnography. If you look at the main components of my literature review, particularly Donna Haraway’s Cyborg Manifesto, I am interested in drawing theories from this and almost re-applying them to current digital media and user behaviours, so with these texts in mind, I conducted my interviews and observations.
- This is a Practice-led research project – but I have created a script and narrative for a film which examines the experience of multi-disciplinary expression and self-representation in virtual space. It follows a user of a surreal spa along their journey, experiencing various treatments and services with a buoyancy between physical and virtual. There will be a set opening scene of the user entering a normal looking (perhaps tacky) spa from the outside, revealing a surreal interior. The set is dreamy juxtaposed with clinical (contradictions and paradoxes are a main personal interest of mine, as you can tell with virtual and physical, reality and fantasy etc and this can be seen in my styling and the way the film is composed). The film is broken down into three treatments or ‘rooms’ with various services including ‘a rebirth wellness experience’, ‘a physical yet virtual body workout’ ‘an arena of self-spectatorship and performativity with massaging benefits’. The film is cyclical in that once a scene in a ‘room’ is complete, the initial scene of entering the spa is replayed each time in-between.
- This mood board showcases the idea of a lone user – one character and potential shot styles that would suggest this. I did say that there would be extras, but they would either have their faces covered, or only their hands would come into the frame to engage with the user etc – echoing this idea of a singular person.
- These are the three Rooms roughly broken down by function and aim.
- Linking back to the definition of perception which I mentioned earlier and “becoming aware of something through the senses”. I explored Affect theory with regards to emotions and subjectively experienced feelings, where a piece of digital content affects the viewer, even physically. This led to thinking about violent scenes which cause us to cringe or cry, sex scenes which arouse and even sour citrus fruits that when we see an image of them, the mouth can salivate. This inspired another sub research question ‘How can human senses and emotions be replicated digitally?’ I then used ethnography to observe the use of emojis, memes and ways in which human emotion is communicated in virtual realms. Resulting in this experimentation.
- This led to a collaboration with a Berlin based sound brand Playtronica, using their device called Touch Me, which is apparently ‘the future of touch’ and when used, can turn touch into sound and the body into an instrument. This is some soundscape experimentation; I like the wires as this goes really well with the visual style of the project and it worked well with the idea of physical touch juxtaposed with virtual space.
- This is an idea where I am going to use printed back drops which allude to natural landscapes and meditative environments, again exploring the reality/fantasy aspect. I will shoot in the style of renaissance portraiture with some contemporary elements.
- These experimentations explored performativity and beauty rituals, techniques of recording the screen on different devices so different versions exist. Visually, I’m leaning towards low budget user generated content which mirrors my research material, perhaps using webcams and phones and referencing existing memes, emojis, filters etc.
- An alternative outcome, or perhaps addition to the film ideais a type of installation or exhibition which is an installation of various screens and other elements which reference still life visuals. The installation would look similar to these images and the various elements and scenes of the film would be shown on the screens alongside some of the research I have gathered (for example, interviews, sound experimentation etc). As an image maker and as the research has evolved, although I want to narrate a story, I really want to include the actual research material I’ve analysed, researched and experimented with through visuals.
- This is the location I plan to shoot the film at and where I would like to host the exhibition. The exhibition would communicate my concepts and reference the physical aspect of the ‘phygital’ in my research questions.
- In terms of Current Fashion Media Context, I keep being drawn back to fashion showcasing, particularly in the current climate. Here I referenced Balenciaga, where custom scents were released into the room, which fascinated me as it elevated the sensorial and immersive aspect of fashion media. I’m not sure whether I’m reaching a bit with this reference and at this point, I realise that the project is dealing with multiple themes, so any ideas on how to focus further would be great.