Mid-point review

Foreword.

The biggest amount of my time on this course so far, has been spent on academic research, I have only this week completed a study proposal that I am fully happy with.
Now that I have done this and I have identified or at least outlined, the areas and ideas that I am intending to peruse.  I am ready to start working in a more practical way and to start trying to realise some of the objectives in my study proposal.

I would be very grateful to those that have time ( understand people are very busy at the moment) if you could read my study proposal and consider the work presented for this mid point review in relation to it.

http://andrewburgess.wordpress.com/study-proposal/

Mid point review.

Presentation and Discussion points.

I am presenting excerpts from two projects I have started while on this course.

‘Waterloo Sunset‘.

http://andrewburgess.wordpress.com/waterloo-sunset/

Which is an ongoing project.
(most people are probably familiar with the incarnation of this that was my entry for the Feedback show at House Gallery)

And a video performance piece called;  ‘Μέτρο Νόμος’ . Which is possibly finished.

I am a bit unclear as to how this work relates to the overall  theme in my study proposal, so I would be grateful for thoughts and input on this.

Apart from this I would like general observations on what thoughts/feelings this work evokes, and speculations about what thoughts/feelings this work might evoke if seen independently from the contextual information I have provided + am about to provide.

Waterloo Sunset.

I positioned the camera next to a set of traffic lights, under a bridge in Waterloo.
The idea was that motorists drive into the shot and become confronted by the presence of the camera/camera operative as they are trapped/jammed in the frame while waiting for the green light.
The intention was to promote an enhanced awareness of the immediate that is a shared experience between myself and my subjects.
The presentation of this work is then an effort to represent this meditative experience and extend it into a piece of work that considers the act of a watching and the ephemeral nature of video images in relation to the spaces/moments that they fill.
The title refers to the time and location in the which the filming took place, the significance of which lies in the notion of transition and halfway points.

This is an on going piece of work not sure what the final outcome will be,  I am still filming and also experimenting with different media and presentation formats. I am intending to do screen prints from some of the frames in my videos (still learning the basics of screen printing so no examples to present yet). Not sure why I want to do this exactly, but I know that I am interested in pages as an idea.

My other piece

‘Μέτρο Νόμος’  perhaps represents this interest better.
‘Μέτρο Νόμος’  (Metro Nomos), means something like Unit, Law and is the result of my thinking about the following things.

Pages

Containers

Landmarks

Places

Pulses

Moments

Events

and our conscious experience that is fragmented by notions of;

Past

Present

Future
and the potential of a conscious experience that is not ‘affected’ in this way.
Also
The Perception of;

Space

Time

through ; Sound

Light.

The relationship between the physical and meta-physical and thus the relationship between form and idea.

And how all of these things might be seen as the foundations of a human experience that  is realised through containers, comparitives, measurements and laws.
But yet exists in relations to a natural organic world, that alludes every effort to standardise it.

I feel like Μέτρο Νόμος  describes that last point well as a piece of work.
Despite my efforts to contain and sychronise, the moments in this scene; the city and the life that I am concentrating on, exists in a random unpredictable, non conformist state
My finger chimes illustrate this perspective well I think; despite repeating the same action thousands of times, the sounds that are generated are each different.
Just as the ambient soundscape located in between each of the chimes contains infinite variation.

Are these moments more comsumable, more approachable or more real, because of their containment within the frame and within my own measurement of the natural ambience?
Are these moments more consumable because they are fragmented?
Does the principle of capturing reality, capturing nature inform our understanding of truth and what roles do/should art and modern science have within this? And when does a measurement become a violation or a sterilisation?

I would like to know to what extent, these ideas and questions are evoked by this piece of work, or ways they might be evoked through similar work.

Or other interpretations of this work in general.

Besides the more lofty meta-physical stuff, that interests me, I would say that these pieces are very simply about process and ritual (I am inspired a lot by structualist and post structuralist film-makers and also performance art). I seek comfort and a sense of equilibrium by exploring my environment through ritualised, personal actions of confrontation and in acts of                   Re-Membering in a present sense, a direct engagement. these seem to be  generall principles in the work I am doing lately, though not sure how this methodolgy can apply to the project outlined in my study proposal, or if it even has to.

I am grateful for your unrestrained, direct, feedback/criticism about any of the issues addressed or any other issues that arise from this presentation.