nicole rademacher

Monday, March 17, 2008

Framing People: Structural Film Revisited

Just some thoughts while I've been reading:
Structuralist films; techniques of observation; fixed frame; detail
Chantal Akerman - abstracting the act of perception from the act of seeing. '...at people who are suddenly rendered marginal to one's own narrative. This is the space occupied by Akerman's authorial signature, the space of observing, looking out at others from an interiority that is just outside, at the margins of the visual field.
--How similar is that to what I am doing? What contradicts/plays with this idea of observing is the length of the videos. is that it? The space of observing the temporal space/duration is minimal requiring immediate attention.
How does my 'interiority' factor in? Longing ¿? The shortness of the videos also creates distance.
  • fleeting and unconnected
  • passive vs active seeing
  • observation and inquisition
  • visible and/or invisible camera
How am I using/pushing these ideas? Am I employing them at all? What was used while shooting vs while editing? How does the time of employment affect the _____?
'threatened by the presence of the camera' Are my found people threatened by the presence of the camera? Is it shocking that people 'didn't care' about the camera?
What type of gaze am I employing?
Are the camera positions familiar? casual? formal?
Am I imposing a view? If so what? and How?
Allegorizing the gaze . . . what does that mean?
'Uncanny hyperrealism' how does that inform these videos?
What is my principle device? duration? short duration?

I AM documenting. What am I documenting? While editing I search out gesture and create gesture, but what am I documenting?? rituals? casual rituals?

What is my stage?

How are these videos bordering on fiction? the edges between.
how are they evoking longing? are they evoking it or illustrating it?

What is the distance described by longing between me and these relationships.

(Ethnology) the minutiae of everyday life.
the short duration inscribes memory - a sense of ethnographic/mythic time - bordering on fiction.
I am transposing reality into the image - no I am transposing the reality IN the image.
what does transpose mean?
1 : to change in form or nature : transform 2 : to render into another language, style, or manner of expression : translate 3 : to transfer from one place or period to another : shift 4 : to change the relative place or normal order of : alter the sequence of <transpose letters to change the spelling> 5 : to write or perform (a musical composition) in a different key 6 : to bring (a term) from one side of an algebraic equation to the other with change of sign.
indexical and abstract. What? The gestures? Are they indexical? mmmm they do refer to one person, but to many... The gestures are/were fleeting. Does that make them abstract? I don't think they are abstract at all. They are specific: a hand or face gesture. The meanings can be a little abstract. Ah the meanings are indexical! Referring to particular meanings, BUT the reference could be less than opaque and more than transparent.

SPECIFIC GESTURE --------------- MEANING OF GESTURE

that is supposed to be a dotted/dashed line (neither opaque nor transparent).

literal and symbolic. yes. both.

playful tension between A and B. What are A and B?
          • unease and intimate gaze
          • ambiguous action/image and sound
          • ...........
I am challenging the spectatorship of the viewer: what these short videos and retain the information.

Through color/time shifts and other manipulation, the documentary and fiction are merged in the same frame, the same video.

ethnographic film uses the body as signifier. My gaze is feminine. Is that evident? How does that inform the work?

The videos dissolve representation into experience.


1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thanks for writing this.