tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11695192049641995122024-02-07T20:37:44.669-08:00IN THE FIRE OF IMAGES, GLADLY I PUT MY HAND.An online journey through the Digital Imaging and Photography MA at lincoln Uni.Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.comBlogger106125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-64928939980537698882011-07-09T05:13:00.000-07:002011-07-09T06:51:53.276-07:00If Nothing Happens<p style="text-align: justify;margin-top: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; font: normal normal normal 10.8px/normal Arial; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"> <!--StartFragment--> </span></p><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align:justify;line-height:150%"><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height: 150%; font-family:'Times New Roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Lyotard posits technology as the site of proof, efficiency, progress and, in turn, terror. The technologies, due to their origins in reason and empiricism, generally disregard any form of personal or divine transcendental experience. There is a small but growing body of interactive digital installation environments in which an evocation of the sublime is intended as a response to this rigid rationalism. It is in this category that I feel my third project sits. I have previously written about notions of the sublime in this blog, with particular reference to Lyotard's work on postmodernism. In contrast to the vernacular use of the word sublime, it's meaning in the context of art is less about beauty and more to do with that which inspires a form of existential wonder while simultaneously evoking suggestions of fear/terror, perhaps even death. As I previously wrote, it is my belief that this dichotomy situated at the heart of the sublime, is most readily experienced in contemporary society when things are stripped away to their essence, when silence is encountered amidst the usual bombardment of noise and particularly in disarming simplicity. Techniques sometimes used to evoke this in an installation environment are sensory bombardment or sensory deprivati</span></span><span lang="EN-US" style="line-height:150%;font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-font-family:Arial;font-size:11.0pt;">on.</span><span lang="EN-US" style="Times New Roman"font-family:";"><o:p></o:p></span></p> <!--EndFragment--> </span><p></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">An excellent example of this is Kurt Hentsclaeger's Zee;</span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></i></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"</span></span></i></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">a 'mind-scape' in which artificial fog and stroboscopic light fully obscure the physical installation space, resulting in an almost complete disconnect from the without and offering an entry towards a surprise within. </span></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Stroboscopic- and pulse light filtering through the thick fog augment an impression of a luminescent kinetic sphere wherein the environment acts as the seeding stimulant and you synthesize the impression.</span></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"> ZEE is expanding on composing with multiple interfering strobe lights amidst fog and the effects those have on a human perception and decoding apparatus: the brain. </span></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">A surround sound-scape synchronizes to interference phenomena - of what could be described as a psychedelic architecture of pure light.</span></span></i></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; font-size:16px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></i></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; font-size:16px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><iframe src="http://player.vimeo.com/video/4104503?title=0&byline=0&portrait=0&autoplay=1" width="398" height="299" frameborder="0"></iframe></span></span></i></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 24px; font-size:16px;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><br /></span></span></i></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#222222;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 24px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the midst of the such perceptual tension there is a possibility of experiencing the 'now' as continuous present. Returning once more to </span></span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Barnett Baruch Newman and his essay 'the sublime is now';</span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 18px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">"</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">the now</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">...... </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(34, 34, 34); line-height: 18px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">is what dismantles consciousness, what deposes consciousness, it is what consciousness cannot formulate, and even what consciousness forgets in order to constitute itself. What we do not manage to formulate is that something happens."</span></span></i></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">In the installation space for this project participants will be entirely isolated, evoking the existential aloneness frequently associated with the sublime. This is deliberately intended to be unsettling. Immersive sounds, courtesy of Chris Watson, evoke the wonder of nature as traditional avenue to the sublime . The space becomes an internal one as participants must close their eyes to engage with the piece, a move that disrupts the supremacy of the visual scopic regime. Digital nature becomes neurofeedback, the final image representing the participant with eyes closed further eludes to the unrepresentable landscape of the sublime, but it is the experience rather than the final physical artefact that is my main focus here.</span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'times new roman';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><br /></span></span></p><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 10.8px Arial"><br /></p>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-16656930056603190562011-03-05T18:33:00.000-08:002011-03-05T18:35:22.829-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4lqBFFIbbOPeIpsXrPQcSH65tYjBm8pAlVnHz-1tEphWGZzoPMG51iC55br-vfWCd9tKLqA55-jVYPXWu0yHiuWLiSmU6xuEfCLz7la0QA50aDFiRiJNeMtT3eoxF8D8rVTqubzDnvr0/s1600/becky+colour+corrected.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 286px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4lqBFFIbbOPeIpsXrPQcSH65tYjBm8pAlVnHz-1tEphWGZzoPMG51iC55br-vfWCd9tKLqA55-jVYPXWu0yHiuWLiSmU6xuEfCLz7la0QA50aDFiRiJNeMtT3eoxF8D8rVTqubzDnvr0/s400/becky+colour+corrected.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5580789742600836162" /></a>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-10883816047005104362011-03-05T18:32:00.000-08:002011-03-05T18:33:28.186-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis8sXhZBkqL_G4XPQ4JKDUA5yBaTbOI5gJuMAglLqtpmwdPXoR5pMeVKWvHH-vSqI4IuD0Swyi24PZVHkgZ0kY9v1zq0p2xILt_PL3CBIlbIHA6nkXWpWR4T1iNKD8OuOsbyqwFU4wbhE/s1600/scarlett.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 286px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEis8sXhZBkqL_G4XPQ4JKDUA5yBaTbOI5gJuMAglLqtpmwdPXoR5pMeVKWvHH-vSqI4IuD0Swyi24PZVHkgZ0kY9v1zq0p2xILt_PL3CBIlbIHA6nkXWpWR4T1iNKD8OuOsbyqwFU4wbhE/s400/scarlett.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5580789408237390098" /></a>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-46433888525291232482011-03-05T17:14:00.000-08:002011-03-05T18:31:32.749-08:00<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-phKCGIU92nTR3_7GvlFQjTZUF3wWddrTeEpMY9Qf2tX7dyu961apz1z-SgR8hlRKPtjENEx7wEt2KTujdFAuw1dhyphenhyphenxkE9pqFV2qpa8x6jFgyf7ghzlfiQ524Cl6vLPMUIi7BetceMAw/s1600/sam.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 286px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-phKCGIU92nTR3_7GvlFQjTZUF3wWddrTeEpMY9Qf2tX7dyu961apz1z-SgR8hlRKPtjENEx7wEt2KTujdFAuw1dhyphenhyphenxkE9pqFV2qpa8x6jFgyf7ghzlfiQ524Cl6vLPMUIi7BetceMAw/s400/sam.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5580788940476583314" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-66262436040518967942011-02-27T09:13:00.000-08:002011-02-27T09:18:10.799-08:00Latest Image and Update<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3wEq1NtvHA6uAsrZujEhGoUCmTCxpe0BY8iy0apKYcmkQ5J2K_hUXW1yjBLljHtyr6jxzyufWVeg494wfpdgTvPd-jUv0dZVnIW6i62SqRZKLu9yeZTcGqFVwtGPFKmLlztzhc53y0e8/s1600/liz+4+resized.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 286px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3wEq1NtvHA6uAsrZujEhGoUCmTCxpe0BY8iy0apKYcmkQ5J2K_hUXW1yjBLljHtyr6jxzyufWVeg494wfpdgTvPd-jUv0dZVnIW6i62SqRZKLu9yeZTcGqFVwtGPFKmLlztzhc53y0e8/s400/liz+4+resized.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5578418729462751394" /></a><br /><div><br /></div><div>This is the latest image from this series. Have shot four new videos and very happy with the results. Hopefully can manage another four this week, which should ideally take me towards wrapping this project up. I don't know how to make the videos small enough to upload here as yet, once I figure it out I will put them up.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-40069772523308243812011-02-19T15:55:00.000-08:002011-02-19T15:57:46.856-08:00PrintsDoes anybody have any advice on the types of paper I should use to print these images out. Obviously I want Matt, and ideally some texture. I have done a bit of research and think the Somerset Velvet or Texture papers @ 225 gsm seem like a good choice but I can't say without seeing it.Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-68009439539002010402011-02-19T04:37:00.000-08:002011-02-19T04:38:15.271-08:00Adam<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyE628pAbG61k2KbIudUu96nWP9HifXZaY5pnE_1Sp2fpMe7OuhbtP_rsbZRQpiqetGePe5B4v3zWmdI5PTvk-hnyxfvLLIV0fHK6tyRmj871-Oo6g_qFBDrPAmDBZsEBKWNZ-VhTw2qI/s1600/adam+portrait+tiny.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 266px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgyE628pAbG61k2KbIudUu96nWP9HifXZaY5pnE_1Sp2fpMe7OuhbtP_rsbZRQpiqetGePe5B4v3zWmdI5PTvk-hnyxfvLLIV0fHK6tyRmj871-Oo6g_qFBDrPAmDBZsEBKWNZ-VhTw2qI/s400/adam+portrait+tiny.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575378876456003138" /></a><br /><div>Photograph to accompany latest video piece.</div>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-61710247581421523472011-02-19T03:57:00.000-08:002011-02-19T04:37:09.189-08:00And now for something entirely more rigid!!<div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLPPKG-TcTHS6CosZrS-GCrvzTVxrHgRh7uQIW9hfYLs22toWVq4nKFn4UY8Po3ygaYho1n0MPHpWUulV_xESQtLl2ZXp2o8MpMhBnIhV8U0AojeaMY7p6TmZIBQA-MA4GjyNVkDZuQLo/s1600/adam+portrait+tiny.jpg"></a>The past few months have brought practical work on this project to a standstill, a combination of needing to get an essay written, Christmas and being out of the country on two occasions. Things are now back on track however. <div><br /></div><div>I was very interested in getting the sound component to these videos working, so that the sound of the breath could be heard in each piece as it is the anchor subjects are using to attempt being present. I had an audio tutorial which worked out fine but subsequently ran into all kinds of problems with spaces available that could facilitate both sound and video recording simultaneously. The air conditioning, which cannot be switched off, makes recording in any of the rooms in the media building very problematic. I tried using the dead room but the light spill from the adjoining rooms, as well as the noise spill, meant that recording there was pointless too. This is a big disappointment as I really feel it would add a further dimension to each video piece but I don't see how I can overcome it.</div><div><br /></div><div>Putting it aside I have spent an evening in the studio with the help of my glamorous assistant Mike Downing to run a series of test videos, as the ones I had experimented before were haphazard, without a tripod and so forth. Test sequences were run at a variety of iso/aperture combinations; the very wide apertures that lend the portraits their painterly feel are not suitable for video as focus can not be maintained, even with the minimal movement involved in these videos, at such a shallow depth of field. This is a compromise that simply had to be made. Learning from the results of the series of photographs in this project I am using PRECISELY the same settings each time in camera and PRECISELY the same set up, by which I mean I am actually measuring the distance from the light to the reflector and the subject to the light and the subject to the reflector and making sure they are THE SAME each time using a MEASURING TAPE. Yes, that's right, measuring things!!! Furthermore I am changing my working methods. I have block booked the studio for three hours each week on the same day and am shooting two to three subjects each time. The irony is not lost on me that working on a topic area that is very much centred on some of the ideals in life I hold most dear, I am conversely forced to adopt entirely rigid working methods in order to bring them to life. I am not used to working this way but I must adapt! However this does seem to have instantly made everything simpler. I shot two videos on Friday, both of which I could not be happier with and I now suddenly have an abundance of subjects, more than I can actually fit into the project! </div><div><br /></div><div>My plan is as follows, shoot for the next four weeks, then post-production (which i don't know how to do on video yet!!), sort out presentation methods and wrap this project up. My research file is almost finished so I think this is achievable. I am off to London at the end of March for this film production role so everything will be finished by then. I repeat, everything WILL be finished by then.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-88555814758754652482011-01-30T14:58:00.000-08:002011-01-30T14:59:42.163-08:00Project two - video updateFriday. Video Experiment in dead room. Many problems, mainly light and noise spill from the two adjoining rooms which people were working in. This will not do. back to the drawing board.Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-15837192241401451372010-12-16T04:36:00.000-08:002010-12-16T04:37:23.262-08:00Silence - so hot right now/ 'Cage against the machine'http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/culturemonster/2010/12/cage-against-the-machine-silence-is-golden-and-going-gold.html<div><br /></div><div>i like it.</div>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-54286222319816385692010-12-09T16:12:00.001-08:002010-12-09T16:12:40.100-08:00WHY - because it looks like fun!<object width="560" height="420"><param name="movie" value="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xgobo?width=560&theme=none&foreground=%23F7FFFD&highlight=%23FFC300&background=%23171D1B&start=&animatedTitle=&iframe=0&additionalInfos=0&autoPlay=0&hideInfos=0"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"></param><embed type="application/x-shockwave-flash" src="http://www.dailymotion.com/swf/video/xgobo?width=560&theme=none&foreground=%23F7FFFD&highlight=%23FFC300&background=%23171D1B&start=&animatedTitle=&iframe=0&additionalInfos=0&autoPlay=0&hideInfos=0" width="560" height="420" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always"></embed></object><br /><b><a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xgobo_mac-val-directed-by-arno-bani_creation">MAC/VAL directed by ARNO BANI</a></b><br /><i>Uploaded by <a href="http://www.dailymotion.com/arnobani">arnobani</a>. - <a target="_self" href="http://www.dailymotion.com/gb/channel/creation">Watch original web videos.</a></i>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-61630551355233415352010-12-09T06:21:00.001-08:002010-12-09T06:22:13.952-08:00Goethe"There is a sensitive empiricism which makes itself most inwardly identical with the object and thereby becomes genuine theory".Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-28797349713752597842010-12-09T06:03:00.000-08:002010-12-09T06:19:47.278-08:00Thoughts from 'A short history of Photography' by Walter BenjaminBenjamin writes in this essay about, among other things, the early daguerrotypes taken by a man called Hill taken at the Edinburgh cemetery of Greyfriars.<div><br /></div><div>"...this place could never have achieved its great effect had not its selection been for technical reasons. The lower sensitivity to light of the early plates made necessary a long exposure in the open. This, on the other hand, made it desirable to station the model as well as possible in a place where nothing stood in the way of a quiet exposure. "The synthesis of expression which was achieved through the long immobility of the subject", Orlik says of the early photographs, "is the chief reason besides their simplicity why these photographs, like well drawn or painted likeness, exercise a more penetrating, longer lasting effect on the observer than photographs taken more recently". The procedure itself caused the models to live, not <i>out of</i> the instant, but <i>into it</i>; during the long exposure they grew, as it were, into an image.</div><div><br /></div><div>It struck me that a comparison could be made between this and the modern ability to make moving portraits via the medium of video. During what might be termed the long exposure of the video, the subject, simply looking at the lens could also be said to live into the instant, to grow into an image of themselves that is arguably difficult/impossible (?) to achieve in a single image. In my recent experiments with this, the synthesis of expression which Benjamin refers to was apparent and was, to me, one of the compelling aspects of it.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-23075295312116246582010-12-07T11:50:00.001-08:002010-12-07T11:50:44.322-08:00Postmodernism<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif; line-height: 24px; ">‘I define postmodernism as incredulity towards metanarratives.’ - Lyotard</span>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-36652818667210690262010-12-02T10:17:00.000-08:002010-12-02T10:21:13.640-08:00Graham Lester George<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAg5ji7CeNXdnqY8_KyexDwh8eHoZ_wlkmlSZjVhPHr8ztEoxDSclj2gpZSP9bTYcb3hR4ryCBLhiXMFQQLs1WwaOvXZM-U1lSyozTZI-ekA-EzvYUJxDzU0tqY2hVKKCgDK97a3kWass/s1600/graham+lester+george.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 375px; height: 375px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAg5ji7CeNXdnqY8_KyexDwh8eHoZ_wlkmlSZjVhPHr8ztEoxDSclj2gpZSP9bTYcb3hR4ryCBLhiXMFQQLs1WwaOvXZM-U1lSyozTZI-ekA-EzvYUJxDzU0tqY2hVKKCgDK97a3kWass/s400/graham+lester+george.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5546151235277305698" /></a><br /><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; font-family:arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;">Photographer Graham Lester George has produced portraits of a group of people connected only by being in the same place. He set up a portable studio in a pub and focused entirely on their faces, inviting visitors to "focus exclusively on the subject's unique humanity." It is definitely quite similar in style to what I am doing and formed part of the 'Contemporary Portraiture' exhibition in the Richard Attenborough centre in Leicester last year.</span></span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 18px; font-family:arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;font-size:12px;"><br /></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:arial, helvetica, clean, sans-serif;font-size:100%;color:#333333;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 18px;font-size:12px;"><br /></span></span></div>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-62937105684936536802010-11-29T18:18:00.000-08:002010-11-29T18:35:03.963-08:00Contact Sheet for Images So Far<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl6ejpuLy5SFkpG9cOx2VkRZ_zPyCKJxwvdb-a5VykLRR-OEhCLinGBklvi_BM1uNpMi7t1RZ5iQXunta8B0dzXkzJ5Gusw-B46rGGydfPokcf4MM79B84tqVD05mNnwx6TUXQAB6dw0o/s1600/contact+sheet+2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 283px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgl6ejpuLy5SFkpG9cOx2VkRZ_zPyCKJxwvdb-a5VykLRR-OEhCLinGBklvi_BM1uNpMi7t1RZ5iQXunta8B0dzXkzJ5Gusw-B46rGGydfPokcf4MM79B84tqVD05mNnwx6TUXQAB6dw0o/s400/contact+sheet+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545165693318029186" /></a><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><br /></div><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0czgR71Hy2O_PxHR6bcMJsQCH2LbRwi4twg9eDpOxCCTRDneG4POwxFdg_INOkJjPegnueJ3k7OI6HVUENUT4lcEXVcJfqRs5bxpw1SLy6v0SpsGenF98gbP6n49Obo0HWSUtg3k_AMs/s1600/contact+sheet.jpg"></a><div>This is a really helpful way of seeing clearly the changes I need to make in order to make this work as a more cohesive project. Colour corrections aside there are clearly issues of framing and composition that need to be tweaked. I must become more specific in my method.</div>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-56182282254152494102010-11-29T16:40:00.001-08:002010-11-29T16:41:59.055-08:00The Erotic Mirror: Four Female Photographers Turn Their Naked Eyes on Themselveshttp://www.artinfo.com/news/photos/2787/26223/<div><br /></div><div>There are some incredible images in here, and I think it is a great concept.</div>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-28332317181470204602010-11-29T03:43:00.001-08:002010-11-29T03:51:07.816-08:00Zero Degrees<object width="640" height="385"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/1g5fLgsSQWU?fs=1&hl=en_US"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"></param><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/1g5fLgsSQWU?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="640" height="385"></embed></object><div><br /></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Just watched the whole recording of this via a friend at the Uni here who is really interested in dance. I was spellbound the whole way. I can't say what relevance this has to any of my current projects in particular, more perhaps that is has relevance to everything I like to think about in terms of making work. A beautiful collaboration between two incredible dancers </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); line-height: 27px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Akram Khan and Sidi Larbi, </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">the musician Nitin Sawhney who I adore </span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">and Turner Prize winner Anthony Gormley has contributed the staging - two life-size casts of the dancers.</span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;"> </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Mesmerising. Would have given a lot to have seen this live. It explores the idea of boundaries, between cultures and countries, most importantly between life and death. My friend who introduced me to this described a review which summarises the whole thing perfectly, saying it "expresses the chaos of the human soul".</span></div>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-42041661415072623122010-11-25T11:52:00.001-08:002010-11-29T17:43:01.796-08:00Project two - Dan<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKqnZb5Yuh6tOXpKoMwO8Msa0Dvg8Prk71mwYOxS3dlSi9JJvHkXV4cygfimWbEsAhsXbKAlF8oB8hzeNJC9t8k_g0wUGzFWYUu8L1u3-fPAhawNFv1hvAFQUQoKlXu_OjW_MMTt7hgZ4/s1600/dan+2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 308px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjKqnZb5Yuh6tOXpKoMwO8Msa0Dvg8Prk71mwYOxS3dlSi9JJvHkXV4cygfimWbEsAhsXbKAlF8oB8hzeNJC9t8k_g0wUGzFWYUu8L1u3-fPAhawNFv1hvAFQUQoKlXu_OjW_MMTt7hgZ4/s400/dan+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5545152144828899874" /></a>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-54663224412688797102010-11-25T04:59:00.000-08:002010-11-26T07:04:50.863-08:00The Portrait and The Sublime<div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">What follows is some musings about the relevance of the principles of my portraiture project to the concept of the sublime, as described by Lyotard in The Lyotard Reader, Blackwell Pulblishers, 1993 and based on my own engagement with the ideas of presence and awareness which form the basis of how I engage with each subject in the studio in creating this work.</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Barnett Baruch Newman was one of the first artists to re-engage with the concept of the sublime in the early sixties when he produced three sculptures entitled </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Here I, Here II and Here III</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. He also painted canvases called </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Vir Herocious Sublimis</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> and '</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Not over there, Here'</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, '</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Now'</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> and '</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Be' </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">and wrote an essay entitled </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The Sublime is Now</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. Art critic and commentator Thomas Hess wrote that the '</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Now</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">' Newman was concerned with was that of the Hebraic tradition, the there, the site, the unknowable. Lyotard in 'The Sublime and the Avant Garde' writes;</span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">"Newman's now which is no more than now, is a stranger to consciousness and cannot be constituted by it. Rather, it is what dismantles consciousness, what deposes consciousness, it is what consciousness cannot formulate, and even what consciousness forgets in order to constitute itself. What we do not manage to formulate is that something happens."</span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></i></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">This thing that happens or </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">occurrence</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> which the philosopher Marin Heidegger called </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">ein Ereignis, </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">is a difficult term to define in practice. </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">A recent translation of the word by Kenneth Maly and Parvis Emad renders the word as "</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">enowning</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">"; in connection with things that arise and appear, that they are arising '</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">into their own</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">'. Thought is an obstacle to experiencing this </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">now</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">, this arising '</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">into their own</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">' and must be disarmed. It is a barrier between the pure subjective experience and the event itself. If thinking is dominant, if the occurrence is being analysed as it is experienced, it is not being experienced in it's entirety. Kant takes this idea further when he claims that </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">this agitation of the mind, referring to the activity of judgement by the cognitive facilities, is only possible if something remains to be determined. As a relationship to time it presupposes that after each event, each theory, each work of art, each sentence; another follows. There is more to know, to develop, to create. But what about the possibility of nothing happening? With this concept the first link to Sunyata, or emptiness is seen, which forms the origin of this project.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">The possibility of nothing happening, of suspense and waiting has been given a predominantly negative value in modern discourse and is associated with feelings of anxiety. But as Lyotard points out it can also be associated with pleasure in welcoming the unknown and joy in the intensification of being that the event brings with it. It is a contradictory feeling in which the event or occurrence discussed above, the '</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">it happens</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">' becomes a question, '</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">is it happening</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">?'. The mark of the question according to Lyotard is "</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">the 'Now', now like the feeling that nothing might happen: the nothingness now"</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">. It is the basic fundamental boredom and familiar anxiety that anyone who has sat a Vispassana retreat knows only too well, as the habitually agitated mind settles into a more alert and present state. We have arrived at the Sublime, the name given to this pleasure/pain, joy/anxiety dichotomy in the 17th and 18th centuries in Europe.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">When Newman therefore sought sublimity in the here and now he was seeking to bear pictorial or otherwise expressive witness to the inexpressible. Quoting Lyotard again, </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">"</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">the inexpressible does not reside in an over there, in another words, or another time, but in this; in that (something) happens." </span></span></i></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Longinus, quoted in Lyotard has attempted to analyse the sublime in terms of rhetoric. </span></span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">He claims that</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> "there is a sublimity of thought sometimes recognizable in speech by it's extreme simplicity or turn of phrase....it sometimes even takes the form of outright silence". Boileau writes, "The sublime is not strictly speaking something which is proven or demonstrated, but a marvel, which seizes one, strikes one and makes one feel'. </span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Therefore imperfections, distortions of taste and even ugliness as Lyotard argues have their share in the shock-effect. It strikes me that this is where Pierre Gonnord's work succeeds so brilliantly; in taking those who live on the margins, who are often considered ugly via defiguring illness, scars, deformity, homelessness etc and yet depicting them in such a way as to reveal their majesty, the majesty of the human condition per se in it's rawest form. The viewer is torn between awe and revulsion, socially conditioned prejudices and unexpected admiration. In other words the contradictory feelings of the sublime.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Lyotard also references the work of Burke published in 1757 entitled</span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> Philosophical Inquiry into the Origins of our Ideas of the Sublime,</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"> in particular his assertion that the sublime is kindled by the threat of nothing else happening. Beauty gives one kind of pleasure, a positive kind but he believes there is a pleasure bound to a passion stronger than satisfaction, and that is pain and impending death. To call this a pleasure is problematic to my mind but the associated terror he goes on to describe is relevant, terrors linked to privation; of light, of language, the terror of silence, of objects, of emptiness, of life and ultimately death. Burke believed the sublime is achieved when this terror and pleasure intermingle but it is also essential that the terror causing threat be suspended and in this lessening of a threat or danger there is the pleasure of relief. The sublime therefore can be characterised according to Lyotard as;</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">"a very big, very powerful object threatens to deprive the soul of any 'it happens', strikes it with powerful astonishment (at lower intensities the soul is seized with admiration, veneration, respect). the soul is thus dumb, immobilized, as good as dead. Art, by distancing this menace, produces a pleasure of relief, of delight. Thanks to art, the soul is returned to the agitated zone between life and death, and this agitation is its health and its life. For Burke, the sublime was no longer a matter of elevation, but intensification".</span></span></i></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">Contemplating the sublime is particularly interesting with respect to the information age we now live in, and the capitalist ideologies which permeate all facets of modern existence. The potential richness of the human experience becomes delineated across ever narrowing parameters; profitability, self affirmation through success and satisfaction via acquisition. Our relationship to time is not what it was even a generation ago; we are always 'on' and connected. The private and public sphere demarcation is dissolving. We live in an age where the mantra is speed and the information society perpetuates the myth that all things can be known and are at the tip of our fingertips. The contradictory feelings of the sublime are hinted at in vernacular discourse. We describe wanting to 'get away from it all, to slow down' yet many people find themselves ill at ease with silence. We want space but feel lost if we are without our mobile phone for twenty four hours! We want to plug ourselves out of the matrix and yet there is an underlying discomfort at the thought of doing so, because it is in the 'nothing happens' that existential anxiety is encountered. It is my sincere belief that this dichotomy, as described above and which is at the heart of the sublime, is most readily experienced in our postmodern society when things are stripped away to their essence, when silence is encountered amidst the usual bombardment of noise and particularly in disarming simplicity. </span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;"><br /></span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:small;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:georgia;">With relation to this current project, the techniques I work with ask subjects to be partially naked in order to strip away a layer of protection, amongst other rationales. They are in a dark studio, there is silence, I talk them through techniques to come out of their heads and into their bodies. Focus on the breath. Centre themselves, empty their minds as much as possible of the ceaseless agitation. To be in what Vispassana circles is described as "here, now". When they are 'Here' they let me know by turning to look into the lens, mindful not to project outwards but remain fully located within themselves. The image is just that moment, framed against a black background. I am now starting to also work with this same process in video, although there are a few teething problems. The subject is seen focusing, relaxing, breathing, coming into themselves and then, turning and simply looking at the camera. The only thing that should be audible is the breath, unfortunately the only thing that is in fact currently audible is the air conditioning. It plays with the tension described above, the anxiety of nothing happening, it is just an ordinary person, silently looking at you via the medium of a screen. I hope that it is disconcerting because of this, we are not used to seeing people doing nothing in this way but also, that there is a beauty within it which is the inherent beauty of each human being that is part of the inexpressable; they are alive, they have consciousness, and we do not, despite the greatest efforts, know what that is! Ideally the 'is it happening' question which might arise, even subconsciously would lead to a recognition of 'being', which is what I sense in the work of Pierre Gonnord and is why it continues to speak to me. The silence takes us out of our comfort zone and is an intensifying experience in this regard. I did not set out to frame this project in the discourse of the sublime but I think there is certainly elements of it here.</span></span></span></div><div style="text-align: justify;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" line-height: 19px; font-family:georgia;font-size:medium;"><br /></span></div>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-8582669026930272452010-11-19T08:39:00.000-08:002010-11-22T06:33:39.534-08:00Project two - more<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgszf42M9CDbYD_1ZGD8AHKAbb6TWFyO8flopxnjA9RdsMP0321wOVvOkftbROevYicLUEsvOs0jgsv1FaPwMZ_5h51azBn9PGg20j5P9VNuL-5dcysQEy11C0lRPsvRM8FxAuIolXCcLw/s1600/hazel+1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 298px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgszf42M9CDbYD_1ZGD8AHKAbb6TWFyO8flopxnjA9RdsMP0321wOVvOkftbROevYicLUEsvOs0jgsv1FaPwMZ_5h51azBn9PGg20j5P9VNuL-5dcysQEy11C0lRPsvRM8FxAuIolXCcLw/s400/hazel+1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5542382102695790882" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ45lTF8iAKo2E1M519fckaoDwdE9jq_JFCWBU7JdTkTwwbd8uJC5G4vOj3nghyb95SFEyTDHfhXKS_mNdNlWO5ZfAuqCLEOSt49xceyKNQBd9A6MPn5Qg348_iVZdKS1b8ZFokEJCvUo/s1600/hazel+2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 282px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjJ45lTF8iAKo2E1M519fckaoDwdE9jq_JFCWBU7JdTkTwwbd8uJC5G4vOj3nghyb95SFEyTDHfhXKS_mNdNlWO5ZfAuqCLEOSt49xceyKNQBd9A6MPn5Qg348_iVZdKS1b8ZFokEJCvUo/s400/hazel+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5541302580252047890" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMqhNTWxsV8PgNoxiDQe5QDrgnknCR9PcZ3Ve0IWRWcpFVflcmisnn-QKAuTL-IsL5SUCtxkfeOEpayf3fbHbna2MSOSBdlo6RRGusiUfWK12ngqUAhmB3gHZ0nn-N5KuzineQu4hgT0/s1600/hazel+1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 298px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjnMqhNTWxsV8PgNoxiDQe5QDrgnknCR9PcZ3Ve0IWRWcpFVflcmisnn-QKAuTL-IsL5SUCtxkfeOEpayf3fbHbna2MSOSBdlo6RRGusiUfWK12ngqUAhmB3gHZ0nn-N5KuzineQu4hgT0/s400/hazel+1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5541301790076265362" /></a><br />Had a fantastic experience working with this subject today in the studio. Pleased to get another female into the mix and have three more ladies lined up for next week with a good range of ages, which I am delighted about. There are small variations in the processing involved with all of these, which as Mike pointed out recently will need to be standardised for the exhibition to give a better sense of continuity, but I can do this closer to the time once I get some feedback as to which is most effective.Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-84067060814998250392010-11-17T16:51:00.000-08:002010-11-17T16:52:00.232-08:00<!--copy and paste--><object width="446" height="326"><param name="movie" value="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf"></param><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowScriptAccess" value="always"><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><param name="bgColor" value="#ffffff"></param> <param name="flashvars" value="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/DenisDutton_2010-medium.flv&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/DenisDutton-2010.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=432&vh=240&ap=0&ti=1008&introDuration=15330&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=830&adKeys=talk=denis_dutton_a_darwinian_theory_of_beauty;year=2010;theme=new_on_ted_com;theme=the_creative_spark;theme=a_taste_of_ted2010;event=TED2010;&preAdTag=tconf.ted/embed;tile=1;sz=512x288;"><embed src="http://video.ted.com/assets/player/swf/EmbedPlayer.swf" pluginspace="http://www.macromedia.com/go/getflashplayer" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" bgcolor="#ffffff" width="446" height="326" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always" flashvars="vu=http://video.ted.com/talks/dynamic/DenisDutton_2010-medium.flv&su=http://images.ted.com/images/ted/tedindex/embed-posters/DenisDutton-2010.embed_thumbnail.jpg&vw=432&vh=240&ap=0&ti=1008&introDuration=15330&adDuration=4000&postAdDuration=830&adKeys=talk=denis_dutton_a_darwinian_theory_of_beauty;year=2010;theme=new_on_ted_com;theme=the_creative_spark;theme=a_taste_of_ted2010;event=TED2010;"></embed></object>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-36402671356151433552010-11-10T05:24:00.000-08:002010-11-10T05:26:51.166-08:00Just for fun/portfolio<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsgV89WywgnmtEf2VLUM1_kVfjon2g4qNdYSVpORbJe2UYHglc6IftYBn9ZNK4eaPnxZBOZHdUsdViRYz15LepscC5DggbDRSFTJHS29lEDwVeGyemhrYdIFjvJo4KOSgGM8iX8DH04Cs/s1600/Ronne+informal+1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 267px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhsgV89WywgnmtEf2VLUM1_kVfjon2g4qNdYSVpORbJe2UYHglc6IftYBn9ZNK4eaPnxZBOZHdUsdViRYz15LepscC5DggbDRSFTJHS29lEDwVeGyemhrYdIFjvJo4KOSgGM8iX8DH04Cs/s400/Ronne+informal+1.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537911757647268290" /></a><br />Trying to build up a strong portraiture portfolio while I have access to the studio and all the lovely toys in there. Here is one from yesterday I like. I was trying to get quite hard lighting to bring out the character in the face and I think it worked pretty well.Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-77941588161113115252010-11-09T17:16:00.001-08:002010-11-09T17:18:02.213-08:00Another one<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM96GcKGwzDLewXmKaiEXuBCZT_PtmWFi8Hw7e2nLfojr5llpjSwZg9fjWe77a0N8doC2mTxzMHXDFDI4I18lWR5s7BiD78VaNGpsTOu85-bqXCJWgolN043FXAVKHYbRi3qp8gc2c0Zo/s1600/mike.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 270px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiM96GcKGwzDLewXmKaiEXuBCZT_PtmWFi8Hw7e2nLfojr5llpjSwZg9fjWe77a0N8doC2mTxzMHXDFDI4I18lWR5s7BiD78VaNGpsTOu85-bqXCJWgolN043FXAVKHYbRi3qp8gc2c0Zo/s400/mike.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537724101621522370" /></a><br />Also here is one from a few weeks ago that I hadn't put up but I really like. You may recognise the subject!Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1169519204964199512.post-28553331853246197182010-11-09T12:12:00.001-08:002010-11-09T12:27:26.945-08:00Project two- delving into moving portraits.<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmUlgNzPlDLMo9EFTBXhNf6UUtdXflSSHBTrFJg_iWTIWV28trx7oflB35MrhvU6nY3Nuag61rffUFYcJwONw3ozS8GAn6VlGcVCaz4g5NC44cnnOOWJIYovsQGfb-NFdjCUI5sJkis5I/s1600/ronnie+3.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 267px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhmUlgNzPlDLMo9EFTBXhNf6UUtdXflSSHBTrFJg_iWTIWV28trx7oflB35MrhvU6nY3Nuag61rffUFYcJwONw3ozS8GAn6VlGcVCaz4g5NC44cnnOOWJIYovsQGfb-NFdjCUI5sJkis5I/s400/ronnie+3.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537649245937235682" /></a><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaJRIV3N30KLYCB9-g11Qgj1B8oJruvVjTJ5EccOfW8IPs23Q3BBJinZImTCeUKDA6pI4M79kkUZweKp4b1DHjgSrLh2lZBrjL9el_xOlRN4GLUxlbgt76mj73gxhqj-_LceZIxHH1W8o/s1600/ronnie+2.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 295px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjaJRIV3N30KLYCB9-g11Qgj1B8oJruvVjTJ5EccOfW8IPs23Q3BBJinZImTCeUKDA6pI4M79kkUZweKp4b1DHjgSrLh2lZBrjL9el_xOlRN4GLUxlbgt76mj73gxhqj-_LceZIxHH1W8o/s400/ronnie+2.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5537646282299927346" /></a><br />What a fun time I have had with this most recent character who was generous enough to come in to the studio on his day off work and get fully into the whole process behind making these images. I am delighted with the results. <div><br /></div><div>Also begun to experiment with video today with a view to making moving portraits. Had to balance the camera on the tripod without connecting it properly as the connector plate was missing but Graham and Mike tell me the resulting shakes can be rectified. Once I figure out how to open it on my computer I will post it. Just did a minute clip for now to get a sense of the thing and also hard to do much longer without the actual attachment. </div>Michelle Walshhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10218270072469384767noreply@blogger.com0