Becoming... Janet Cardiff

First off with our group project we each looked at Janet Cardiff’s work, we picked which ones we found most interesting. We all agreed on pieces that we would equally enjoy to work on.We began thinking about the aspects of her work and the most important features, everyone in the group was contributing with ideas and we started to think about other things we could incorporate into our interpretations; a few films were came to mind so we looked at ones that we thought would link well with Janet’s concepts.We looked at f i lms that showed different perspectives in the plot which then gets connected by the end, we thought this would work well with our representation of Janet’s walks because we could film it in a way that we would then be able to create a similar outcome. We also wanted to present it in a way so that the audience would have to imagine what was going on.However we didn’t want the videos to be set like a hollywood film, more like

an installation so that the audience are curious about what is going on rather than it being very predictable.

‘Ghost Machine’ Janet Cardiff

“Run Lola Run”Tom Tykwer(left)

“Pulp Fitction” Quentin Tarantino(right)

Emily Gutteridge GDNM Year 2Becoming..Janet Cardiff EGNM2007

Group Work Idea and Artefact

We called our artifact ‘A Walk in the Park’, inspired by Janet Cardiff’s “Her Long Black Hair” and “Ghost Machine”, we thought about how we would present it to our audience and what we wanted them to imagine. We chose to set them out into groups so that they could tell us after viewing a video each group would tell us what they got from the different perspectives, we thought this was the only way we could demonstrate our representation of Janet’s work without actually taking the audience outside and viewing from one camera. Audio was also a big part in the videos, we thought about what sounds we needed and how we would record them separately and what equipment we needed to use. With the Canon camera we used for the perspective filming it picked up the surrounding sounds very easily and sounded quite clear, then recording the inner thoughts of the characters with a separate microphone. To improve on the sound however we would have edited the thoughts so that they would have been more noticeable that they

were not spoken aloud. So from the group work we did and the ideas we came up with, I developed my idea for my individual interpretation. I wanted to work with techniques that I enjoy working with, so I thought about creating a stop motion animation and making it so that the audience can interact with it like Janet cardiff does with her work. I will be thinking about the curiosity of the user and the audio used as well as the concept of looking at something that has happened in the past while interacting with something in the present.

User TestingSecond Attempt

Ben’s persepective(Top left)

Emily’s Perspective(Top right)

Raz’s Perspective(Bottom Left)

Matt’s Perspective(Bottom Right)

Emily Gutteridge GDNM Year 2Becoming..Janet Cardiff EGNM2007

Initial Ideas Individual Work

Emily Gutteridge GDNM Year 2Becoming..Janet Cardiff EGNM2007

and demonstrate the seasons changing in stop motion techniques, have the tree move round and the camera move with it. Then I decided to start adding additional things to the animation idea such as animals/ leaves/ snow, to give the idea of the different seasons and knowing which season is which.

I will then go on to do a user testing video, have someone view the animation on a device digitally and follow the camera movement and audio like Janet Cardiff does for her own work.

To decide what to make for this part of the brief I brainstormed the research I got from our groups work and what we found out about Janet Cardiff. I concentrated on the concept from the group pieces, looking at ‘Ghost Machine’ and ‘Her Long Black Hair’. I wanted to portray the concept of watching something happen from the past with the original object in front of you with nothing happening to it. There would be sound included like Janet uses in her projects, she looks into the audio to give effects and make the user aware of what’s going on.

After deciding on what to do and gathering my ideas together I found an interactive website with a 3D tree animation, it enables you to move the windows round when using the mouse, the seasons change and new things appear in the animation to state the time of year. This was a great visual reference for my ida because I wanted to make my own physical model of a tree so the full idea came that I would animate a handmade model

Visual Research And Gathered Images

Emily Gutteridge GDNM Year 2Becoming..Janet Cardiff EGNM2007

I gathered together photographs of my own from summer and winter, so I could get a good idea of how the tree would change through the different seasons and what the overall model should look like.

For more visual research I also looked at a few videos of paper craft animation, cut out and a paper model. For some additional ideas of how to make my model and how to make more items for the animation. With the videos I looked at I also picked up on the audio,

seeing how the use of different sounds can effect the animation in a different way, I really like the animation for NZ book council “Going West” the use of audio is really interesting as the include sound of paper rustling and tearing as well as additional sounds such as transport and noises that are relevant to the story told.

(Top) Own Photo [Caversham]

(Bottom left) Own Photo [Caversham] (Bottom middle) Own Photo [Brussels]

(Bottom right) Own Photo [Epsom]

(Below left) luyomi333.deviantart.com

(Below top) NZ Book Council “Going West”

( b o t t o m ) ” Skateboardanimation”by Tilman Singer

Development Of Animation

Emily Gutteridge GDNM Year 2Becoming..Janet Cardiff EGNM2007

tissue paper for grass and leaves, painted paper for autumn leaves fallen, cotton wool balls for snow, which was good to use as it was easy to manipulate and mould into the shapes i wanted to create.

I then decided to make a few animal shapes out of card and paint, these were a little difficult to animate as they were quite small and I had to find away to hold them up so I could move the around easily without having to hold them myself.

There are various things that

need improving on in the animation for example, it is quite shaky in place I could use a better tripod one that is more sturdy rather than a gorilla one, my set could be stronger and maybe in a different location, I could try different lighting as well make it softer and create the effect of weather changing.

Overall I quite like it and with the sounds I think it works quite well.

To make my model I began by building a small tree stub with card and then gradually papier-mâché the whole thing so it was hard and had layers to be able to paint onto, I then fitted the top part of the tree and did the same with that. Once painted I could then start fixing on the branches made with pipe cleaners, this allowed me to move them easily to get the right shape for the tree and be easy to move while animating.

Before filming my animation I prepared various items to use such as scrunched up

Artifact Animation and User Testing

Emily Gutteridge GDNM Year 2Becoming..Janet Cardiff EGNM2007

My artifact from my idea is that I’d have a stop motion animation, showing a model of a tree I made by hand myself, showing views of the four different seasons gradually changing and moving around the tree. This idea is based on the work by Janet Cardiff and our groups interpretation of her pieces ‘Ghost Machine’ and ‘Her Long Black Hair’. I wanted to create a stop motion animation, doing a video different to just ordinary filming, it would also allow me to show changing scenes.With the influence of our group work I wanted to use the same idea, having someone view the animation with the model in front to show an event that has already happened but is no longer happening in the present.This will be shown with user testing having someone view the animation on a smartphone following where the camera moves.

( Le f t ) SUBMISSION animtion: Becoming...Janet Cardff (Individual) Chaning seasons

(Right) User Testing with Jamal Gordan