GMU:Istanbul/videosynthesis - playing a film

Videosynthesis

example of the playfully drawing method

concept 1

concept 2

I imagine summer days in Istanbul can become too hot to move while in Germany winter days can be very cold and long – especially when you're a child and internet had not made it's way to your village yet. I remember hanging around bored with my siblings and with nothing more lying around than a sheet of paper and a pen. My sister would start to write down a sentence or to draw some elements, fold the paper so that we would only be able to read a snippet and then she would pass it on to me. I would repeat the schema, trying to be fanciful and pass it on again... and after a while we would have a funny, surreal story or painting.

How would it be like if this playfully method would be used to discover Istanbul by transfering it to the medium of video and the internet? Several people - probably strangers - create one patchwork story with only a limited knowledge of the contributions of the others.

Concept

The game will start by recording a short sequence. This video will be shown to a different person, who – inspired by the sequence – will shoot a video in his own environment, always with the question in mind how the story could continue. And again only the last videosequence will be passed on to the next person and so on and so on and so on...

We would gain lots of different video sequences from a variety of environments and visual approaches and combine it to an interactive, surreal narration. The stylistic realization of the recording process shall be free and organized with only a few necessary structures to encourage the freedom of associative visualization and to gain a diverse synthesis of video elements - diverse as Istanbul is said to be.

1. Experiment <videoflash type=vimeo>61140559|437|250</videoflash> Instructions: Create a connection to the previous video, video length around 30 sec

2. Experiment <videoflash type=vimeo>61135443|437|250</videoflash> Instructions: Integrate a person or an object, continue a narration, around 30 sec

3. Experiment -Istanbul <videoflash type=vimeo>61141772|437|250</videoflash> Instructions: Integrate a person and an object, continue a narration, short video

Observations

Particularly people without experiences in video and filmmaking had difficulties to evolve a narration and often seemed overcharged by the freely framed task settings. Therefore in my 4. Experiment (soon to come) I decided to give the filmmakers individual short instructions which change from video to video. For instance the first instruction was to integrate a place which had a special meaning for the filmmaker into the video.

A Special Place

Regarding the increasing development of urbanization and that the daily routine of many people is characterized by stress, capacity and constant medial influences, it has become quite interesting to me how places which have remarkable meanings for people look like. Where are these kind of places? Are they freely accessible? And what does one place they tell me about the person who chose it?

Several people where asked to shoot a calm, short video of a place which has a special meaning for them. The reasons for why a place is regarded as special was the free decision of each person.

The strongest impressions of the videos seem to be the demand for tranquility and quiet places. Therefore a patch was developed within Max MSP/Jitter which reflects this impression through a video installation.

The Video Installation

A camera captures the movement of an observer. Only when the viewer stands calm in front of the installation, the video is shown at normal playback speed, otherwise the videos jump wildly between randomly selected frames. The viewer is forced to remain still to watch the videos undisturbed.

<videoflash type=vimeo>61548141|437|250</videoflash>