GMU:Istanbul/videosynthesis - playing a film

1. Videosynthesis

example of the playfully drawing method

concept 1

concept 2

Can you remeber playing a game when nothing more is lying around than a sheet of paper and a pen? You start to write down a sentence or you draw some elements on the sheet. You fold the paper so that the others are only be able to read a snippet of what you've written. You pass it on to the next person who repeats the schema... and after some rounds you have a surreal, funny story or painting.

How would it be like if this playfully method would be used to discover an urban environment by transfering it to the medium of video and the web? 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 one 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 a city and in this case 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 I decided to give the filmmakers individual short instructions which changed from video to video. One instruction was to integrate a place into the video which had a special meaning for the filmmaker. The results of the submitted videos led to another video work which searches for emotional relations between people and their special places.

2. 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 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 overall majority of the videos showed quiet, steady places. Therefore a patch was developed within Max MSP/Jitter which reflects the 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 in order to watch the videos undisturbed.

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