77 Million paintings by Brian Eno.



 

 

Above are some screen grabs showing moments from 77 Million paintings by Brian Eno. What this is, is a computer program which uses algorithm to compile images and a soundtrack based on overlaying and manipulating a finalized database of media curated by Eno.

The images which Eno describes as ‘Paintings of Light’ are never static they are constantly morphing and changing form. The slow tempo of the work denies any potential for the work to become entertaining or captivating. The intention of Eno was to create an ambient, decorative piece that creates a sense of synergy with the environment in which it is situated, in opposition to the convention of screen based art that is designed to dominate and distract from the world around it.

The piece is sold as a DVD rom art work, like an art installation designed for domestic environments. There is a documentary film about the work which accompanies the disk. (Available in Camberwell Library for any UAL people who might be interested “77 million paintings [videorecording DVD] / by Brian Eno. / Eno, Brian, 1948- / [U.K.] : All Saints Records, c2007.
Shelfmark: 709.4271 ENO”).

Here are a couple of quotation from the documentary that I find interesting.

“this piece really arose out of an idea of trying to make the work that normally you could only see in an instillation context available in other places”

“People generally have larger screens and better quality screens, so that you can start to think of the screen as paining, as a picture that you would want to look at as I said people usually have larger screens now and I am sure this trend will continue and that means that they have got these big objects sitting in there rooms which a lot of the time are dormant, if you are not actually watching television what you have is a big black hole in the wall. This is intended to occupy that down time, so that instead of having a dead hole in the wall you have a living picture and I hope that in future as screens get cheaper and computers get cheaper people might start to think that they have a few of these around their home. “

“I think of these things really as visual music”

 

Essay Tutorial with Professor Cate Elwes

Was a useful tutorial since Professor Elwes is very knowledgeable about a lot of the areas I am researching and I was able to take away a lot of references which will hopefully fuel my essay onwards.

It’s strange, before the tutorial I was feeling quite focused on what I wanted to say and I thought my ideas were quite well confounded.
So I was surprised, at the difficulty I had in verbally articulating a sense of what I was hoping to achieve in my research, hopefully this was due to nervousness (been a long time since I have been in a formal tutorial kind of environment) and not lack of focus. It was however a good test to communicate an idea verbally that until that moment had only been developed in writing, I am a bit disappointed by my own inability to verbally promote my ideas on that occasion, but fortunately due to Professor Elwe’s patience and the written material I had provided, some thought provoking discussion did develop eventually.

The main things I wanted to take away from the tutorial were; some advice about how to streamline my discussion a bit, suggestions of some artworks/artists I could look at + I was just generally wanting to gauge how interesting my subject is, and ways it could become more interesting.

I have I suppose in my own way been trying to develop an understanding of the History of the Screen.
This has caused my a lot of confusion since there does not seem to be any linear history of the Screen in a general sense. The essay I had anticipated writing was going to discuss; Shadow Theatre, Stained Glass Windows, Magic Lantern and early forms of projected illusion (i.e the Prehistory of cinema) then cinema itself and the work of some film directors, then Television, Digital screens, Touch Screen technology/portable browsing devices and finally the idea of a 3d experiences beyond the screen, (which I personally believe to be a misguided fantasy that is being exploited by technology manufactures).

Anyway quite a lot for a small essay.

The general impression I got from Professor Elwes was that the most interesting areas were perhaps; the magic Lantern stuff, and the stuff about stained glass which could introduce a discussion of how screens might function as objects with a mystical significance.
It was suggested that I might also consider the pre-history of television i.e the pioneers of electrical innovation (Edison, ect), and the future of screens (which I do not want to write simply because I am very bored of reading subjective speculation about what the digital future is going to be like).

An idea was suggested which I find very interesting being the fantasy concept of the crystal ball, maybe such ideas pre-empt touch screen information devices such as the iphone? There is also a mystical theme emerging with the Stained Glass the Crystal ball and the Electrical innovators. If I decide that I want to emphasise the mystical nature of screens then this will be a good introduction.

The best references I took from Professor Elwes were.

Vito Acconti for an example of an artist who has incorporated screens into a live performance.

David Hall for his work and ideas on the screen as a sculptural entity.

Gary Hill for work which relates to the body and the screen.

The anthropomorphism of the screen in the work of Tony Oursler.

Peter Campus going through the screen

I also wrote down the names Tina Keen, Rose Garrard, Mona Harton,

The book title “Doors of Perception heaven and Hell”, which I think is by Aldus Huxley.

And the book ‘Before and after the I-bomb’, which I found straight away in the college library along with Professor Elwe’s book ‘Video Art a Guided Tour’ which seems very interesting to me also.

Essay Plan: Screens within Screens

Introduction

My essay ‘Screens within Screens’ fundamentally considerers the usage of split screen and embedded screens as a formal device within narrative cinema. My initial study of the split screen device within narrative cinema has led me to conclude; There are three distinct effects that the usage of split screen in contemporary cinema is employed to create.

1) is associated with surveillance and the assumption that technology gives us a privileged power to be everywhere at once and to record the objective unfolding of events in multiple situations simultaneously, the privileged view of the control room.

2) The other is more expressionistic, the multi image composition can be used to convey a fractured personal reality whereby the subjective viewpoint provides the only form of government. Often psychological and emotional conflict are characterized through this more expressionistic usage of the split screen format, or sometimes the split screen can be used to represent a sense of authorship whereby the cinematic vision of the director is called into focus by drawing attention to the construct of the film in question. This expressionistic use of split screen then is to encourage an emphatic engagement with the film’s author and/or central character(s). It is ultimately subjective and/or immersive.

3) The third is harder to define, often it will sit comfortably within either of the above categories however the key principle that defines this third category is interactivity, the deductive powers of the viewer(s) are called into question, the viewer(s) is challenged to put together the little pieces and make the big picture. There is then a game like engagement that is instigated through the use of the split screen to encourage comparative and deductive analyses. While there is of course a dialogue between contemporary cinema and computer games, and many contemporary films could be seen as heavily derivative from gaming interfaces, it is cinema ultimately that introduced the use of split screen in this context notably through the Murder Mystery genre and titles from the 70s such as The Boston Strangler.

The first chapter of this essay will be split into three sections and will attempt to chronicle three independent history’s of the Split Screen within mainstream cinema or at least site some of the key moments in those history’s. I have deliberately chosen to keep these three histories isolated from each other. They will at times correspond and at times contradict with each other, but ultimately I want each of these histories to be self contained and independently resolved, while ignorant of each other (isolated histories). What I am trying to achieve by doing this is a structural introduction to my second chapter which is about ‘meta narrative’ my aim is to introduce the subject of meta narrative by creating an essay where the subject of meta narrative is introduced as a meta narrative in itself, I will return to this point later, first I will describe each of the independent sections within chapter one.

Chapter one three histories

of the Split screen within

Narrative Cinema.

This history of split screen cinema is relative to the introduction of psychology into mainstream culutre and how structure and architecture have been used to both communicate and to some extent instigate psychological conflict. The bulk of this section will be a study of the film Psycho which represents a good place to mediate between German Expressionist Cinema (Hitchcock having learnt his craft in Germany during the era of Expressionistic Cinema) and the split screen films of Brian De Palma (De Palma’s cinema being explicitly influenced and in continuous dialogue with Hitchcock). It has been observed how the architecture of Norman’s house in the film Psycho corresponds in some interesting ways with Freud’s model of the psyche  as divided by Ego, Id and Super Ego. The significance of this for me is as an introduction to a filmmaker using the technical structure of space within his film to assert a theme beyond the dramatic occurrences of narrative. I see Psycho as being a good introduction to expressionistic uses of split screen because of this empathies on structural space as a reference to psychological phenomena, thus it anticipates film makers such as De Palma who uses multiple screens and screens within screens as an expressionistic device to convey a fractured sense of self.

This next history of split screen cinema looks firstly at telecommunications, the split screen format was introduced into narrative cinema as a means of representing a phone conversation without cross cutting. The engagement with split screen in this history is in relation to technocratic power structures and an appeal to technology to provide government. Space and time become de-regulated and then re-regulated through technological innovation in this history and the medium becomes the message, while technology in it’s self becomes a symbol of governing power. Here the embedded screen represents location within a power structure, and through technology we are offered a privileged view, all seeing and god like, the man in the control room. I will look at the history of split screen cinema in relation to the history of telecommunications and compare Hollywood thrillers (many of which star Harrison Ford) in relation to news room reportage of the first gulf war. To consider how Technology and Authority have become synonymous in meaning, and how this presupposed authority has been created and then exploited for propaganda purposes. I will reference Foucault’s discourses about power structures and also theorists such as Theodore Roszak and Arthur Kroker who explore the notion of technocracy.

This third History of Split Screen Cinema is concerned with interactivity, and the split screen format that invites the viewer to make a choice between competing options, and by doing so to play an active part in resolving the narrative conflicts. I will follow the evolution of this mode of Split Screen cinema through the Murder Mystery genre and look at films such as the Boston Strangler where simultaneous abstract information is presented to the viewer, often in close up ‘clues’, I will follow the evolution of this interactivity within cinema through to contemporary cinema that has entered into a dialogue with computer gaming and the language/interfaces of Games. While also considering advertising and the appropriation of screens within screens in advertising contexts i.e ‘ugly woman before, beautiful woman afterwards’. I will thus identify the history of these interactive modes of split screen media, as being motivated by consumerist culture, the increasing demands of the consumer to be provided with an engaging experience rather than a simple product per-se. The main factors that communicate this engaging experience to the consumer are suggestions of choice, of their being options. I will thus follow this discussion of the evolution of interactive engagement within the split screen format from; the Murder Mystery genre through computer games and advertising and maybe conclude with a study of a contemporary product such as the series 24. What I want to define in this history is a relationship between interactivity and consumerist culture. I will conclude with some evaluation of contemporary politics, there is a conclusion I want to make, it starts with the murder mystery genre whereby though our choices we are able to identify and distinguish the villain, the murderer, by having options and being able to evaluate we are able to make the right decisions ultimately and the result of those decisions is justice’ thus there is a connection between democracy and justice and so a kind of association exists here between interactive engagement and democratic freedom, and I will identify this misconception as consumerist culture, and so this history of split screen cinema is relative to the history of consumerism.

Chapter two

Meta narrative.

The study of Meta Narrative is in many ways my real interest and by looking at screens within screens and presenting three isolated histories simultaneously I hope to be able to approach this subject.

What is a meta narrative? Simply put it’s kind of the bigger picture around the little picture, perhaps first introduced by Plato in his theory of ideal forms, an ideal form being an absolute value that is beyond the world of reason and logic, according to him there must be an ultimate beauty an ultimate truth etc against which all lesser examples of beauty and truth are quantified. In this context Meta Narrative is also transcendental and metaphysical, often spiritual or religious narratives appeal to the greater truth beyond the story.

Postmodernism uses split screen to both introduce and deny the idea of a meta-narrative one of the most resonant ideas among post modern thought is that culture is incapable of referencing beyond it’s self and thus the search for meaning just equates to containers within containers so to speak with in a fractured perception of reality. Postmodernism often acknowledges the fact that if there were an ultimate total narrative, a meta narrative, it would not be approachable through language and rational discourse, since by definition it would have to allude these containers, since the big picture can never fit within the little picture. Thus culture and philosophy in their search for enlightenment have inevitably become self obsessed and narcissistic and abandoned the exploration of metaphysics which once gave them meaning.

This section will then explore these discussions while referencing contemporary cinema and ways which it uses split screen in a paradoxical way to both suggest and deny potentialities of a meta narrative, the paradoxical logic of which can be compared to the famous liars paradox ‘this statement is false’. I will also reference relevant theories of post structuralism and post modernism from Lyotard and Baudrillard, through out this section.

Chapter 3

Soft Cinema

May not be necessary, though I would at some stage like to introduce a consideration of Soft Cinema (Manovitch) or software cinema, cinema which uses a program to randomly present different material from an archive or database, not sure how this relates to my overall subject other than through the split screen, but I have a feeling that there is something interesting about this which might be a means of concluding my essay.