RETHINKING PROPOSAL

I have decided to rethink my proposal, where my attempt was to combine time lapse sequences from my surroundings in Wellington and my second (or first) home in Copenhagen recorded simultaneously. I still like the idea, but to realise it I probably would need a more stabile internet connection than what I have right now in my apartment, where it jumps off quite often. To make the combined time lapse more interesting, it would have been great to somehow merge the two sequences together using a projector to show both indoor and outdoor life in the exact same time in two different locations. Hmm.. overall I realised that the idea would get a bit complicated to realise with my limited equipment and unreliable internet even though I found it very interesting.

I still would like to experiment with this mix of time lapses though..Perhaps I find a way or technique to realise the project in an interesting way. My plan is to give it a try in Premiere, perhaps mixing the frames in different ways during the sequence.

Another idea is to show appearance of the moment of now by using geo tagging.  I will try to find different examples of situations in the “moment of now” from around the world to experiment with the idea of what “now” consists of. I guess my final project would then consist of a series of edited and matched pictures. I made some research and found that Flickr Clock lists video sequences in time order.  I think there might be some other opportunities to look at as well: Google Earth, Share on Ovi etc.

Well..I will just keep on experimenting with these different ideas..perhaps something tunes out to have a strong visual effect in itself perhaps a mix of different aspects of these ideas will lead me to the end result.

INITIAL EXPERIMENTS

This my an attempt of a short time lapse sequence from at night time. I made a shot every 10 seconds for 100 frames usign the remote control tools in the Canon Utilities software. 16 frames pr seconds are played and I used a quite fast shutter, which makes the sequence a bit rugged. What I do find interesting though is the way that the glass between the camera and the outdoor view reflects what also happens indoor.

IDEAS -URBAN TIME LAPSE

Even if this example is not of the best quality, I think the 24 hour time lapse showing the full day rhythm simply shot from a hotel room relates to my idea. When playing the time lapses from Copenhagen and Wellington at the same time, I hope that the 12-hour time difference will show the two different day rhythms as a circular flow. I am really exited to experience the effect of the double time travel ;exploring my two homes simultaneously!

PROPOSAL STAGE TWO -TIME

After researching chronophotography I was inspired by the movement, as an action being frozen on a single photographic surface, as an explaining still image. I realised that the experiment of movement was what interested me, As I followed this inspiration, I started researching examples of the literal movement ; getting from one point to another. It appeared to me that moving was also about distance and time, and when I discovered Mauritius Seeger 's novel stop-motion technique ‘spacelapse’, I finally recognised the connection between movement and travel.
At this point I started to relate the assignment to myself as a traveller through space over time! Travelling from Denmark to New Zealand some months ago I literally time travelled because of the 12 hour time difference between the countries. Now, living in Wellington, I have adapted to the new time zone. But....what I suddenly realised was that every day I still in a way time travel! As part of my day I am not only aware of the local Wellington time, but also of the local Danish time. My connection to my home in Denmark is partly through mail correspondence and texting, but mainly I prefer having direct visual and auditive conversations using Skype. To get in touch with people, I therefore need to be very aware of the time difference between my two homes. I still get overwhelmed by the visual day and night difference of “my” two spaces when I Skype, and usually I actually find myself in a state of mind that places me in an undefined time and place between.

In this assignment I therefore want to explore how to capture the sense of double time and space by time travel!

My idea is to actually visualise my two homes simultaneously in their context of staggered time by using time-lapse techniques. When I Skype with people at home, my personal environment in a way split in two. To somehow visualise the complete sense of my personal surroundings, I will attempt to simultaneously make an urban full day/night time-lapse view from my home in the capital of New Zealand as well as from my home -the capital of Denmark. My idea is to as well frame my computer screen in the view of Wellington city. At the exact time of shooting I will let a friend in Denmark use Skype to record the city view of Copenhagen. What I hope to achieve is then a compressed time lapse documentary of live Wellington urban time through my window with the appearance of live Copenhagen urban time on the computer screen in the same framing. I really hope that this could work, but as I am aware of the possible problems about shooting the computer screen in shift of daylight conditions, reflections etc. clearly enough to see what happens, I have made some additional research on possible Skype video recording software as well. Finally It would be great to record and use the live city sounds from both locations for the overall experience of time difference in the video. 

-A list of different video recording software for skype

http://www.fileguru.com/apps/skype_video_recording_software

-If necessary, I would probably choose SuperTinTin for windows "Records all audio and video streams including Skype voice mail and screen sharing video"

http://www.supertintin.com/

SPACELAPSE -REFERENCE

Space Travel from Mauritius Seeger on Vimeo.

Wow! What I have thought at a while and actually really would like to do is exactly what Mauritius Seeger is here showing us; As an exchange student /traveller from Europe I not only discovered time travel travelling down here, I also discovered space travel, which means that I can directly relate to this "spacelapse" film! However, for this assignment I would probably need to already have recorded my travel. If that would have been the case, my proposal for this assignment would have appeared quite similar to Mauritius' project description below.

Perhaps I will try this method out during my planned travel around the North Island in the mid--trimester break, but because of the hand-in date shortly after, I will keep my mind open for a better plan A. I am definitely going to try this out on my way back to Europe though; Wellington - Auckland - Australia - Thailand - Saudi Arabia - Germany and Denmark ; great!!

"Initially I attempted this as a prototype for a narrative VJ performance. I use a novel stop-motion technique which I call ‘spacelapse’. This type of photography uses images with continually changing camera viewpoints and produces exhilarating visual flights and breathtaking perspective shifts. Material for this has been shot in cities around the world and reflects my interest in travel, architecture and photography.
This video is constructed as a self reflective story with frequent visual references to the photographer. Shadows of me cast while shooting the VJ material are space-lapsed into animated silhouettes giving the sensation of being both stationary and moving. This is the story of a traveller: finding that which is constant in a continually changing environment."

                                                                                                                    -Mauritius Seeger

CHRONOPHOTOGRAPHY -REFERENCE

Alexey Titarenko received his Master of Fine Arts degree from the Department of Cinematic and Photographic Art at Leningrad’s Institute of Culture in 1983.

Major photo series include “City of Shadows” (1992-1994), “Black and White Magic of St. Petersburg” (1995-1997), and “Time Standing Still” (1998-1999). In those series Titarenko paints a bitter picture of a Russia (seen through the lens of St. Petersburg), where people live in a world of unrealized hopes and where time seems to have stopped.

http://www.alexeytitarenko.com/about.html

What I am fascinated of, especially in Alexey Titarenkos “City of Shadows”, is the way he compresses the individual body movement to a depressing, homogeneous structure. By this it’s all about the mass of the people, no character comes to show any unique individuality. In particular in his “Time standing still”, Titarenko in a clear way show characters who for some reason not follow the flow of the mass. Many of his pictures give the impression of melancholy and depression and all of them draw my attention for another moment.

CHRONOPHOTOGRAPHY -REFERENCE

Étienne-Jules Marey (5 March 1830, Beaune, Côte-d’Or – 21 May 1904) was a French scientist and chronophotographer...His work was significant in the development of cardiology, physical instrumentation, aviation, cinematography and the science of labor photography. He is widely considered to be a pioneer of photography and an influential pioneer of the history of cinema...

He started by studying blood circulation in the human body. Then he shifted to analyzing heart beats, respiration, muscles (myography), and movement of the body........ He adopted and further developed animated photography into a separate field of chronophotography in the 1880s. His revolutionary idea was to record several phases of movement on one photographic surface...

Marey’s chronophotographic gun was made in 1882, this instrument was capable of taking 12 consecutive frames a second, and the most interesting fact is that all the frames were recorded on the same picture....

Towards the end of his life he returned to studying the movement of quite abstract forms.....His last great work was the observation and photography of smoke trails... In 1901 he was able to build a smoke machine with 58 smoke trails. It became one of the first aerodynamic wind tunnels.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%89tienne-Jules_Marey

Never heard of chronotography before, I am really fascinated by the initial thinking of Étienne-Jules Marey. The technique to investigate the movement both of human form and relation and also of abstract form draws my attention.  Usually I think of movement as action....I really like the idea of how these actions appear with another meaning by freezing them on a single photographic surface.

BEST FAST / SLOW SPEED SHOOTS

Trying to show a body movement by using a 30 sec. shutter speed in our room at night. To capture the different positions, I used a torch to light up the room three times. I think this technique result in an interesting photograph of time, behavior and and a mix of un- and awareness of the viewer. In addition the transparency of the body in movement is claryfied.

Freezing a moment of water -liquid falling while a "No alcohol" (liquid) sign appears in the background

       

Some of my experiments using slow and fast shutter speed...-slow shutter; I realized that I really need to get a tripod!

FINAL IMAGES

                

For the sequence of final images my attempt was to capture diverse examples of the spatial and aesthetic interactions, confrontations and consequences of electrical wires, power cables and trolley bus lines in urban space. In this series I tried to illustrate the affect of lines in different urban scales. Zooming in at the beginning to discover what actually happens ;the division of the sky that usually appears as a clean surface, and how the lines interfere with existing patterns in urban space. How they frame perspectives and define directions in a city space, and how they balance a space that appears on our way to urban space in a smaller scale -the suburb. How they disrespects valuable in between space for families living in high density housing and how they finally overrule the private space around a single family home.