Murmur: Co2 project space

The Co2 project space turned out, I believe, rather well. Of course there were quite a few anxieties right before the actual show due to typical technology push-backs, but luckily for me and Tomoko, everything worked out great.

Tomoko Tabuchi and I both decided to join together to create a collaborative piece of art for the Co2 project space, which was shown last Friday. Looking at her work I decided to dust off my video editing skills and work with the concept that she has been working on in the past year. In our first meeting we talked about the idea of going to a specific location, where Tomoko would take ten photographs in 360º every day during various times of the day for five days. After that, she would give me the photographs when she was done and I would edit them using Final Cut Pro piecing the photos together so that they would create a continuous, horizontal image. I ended up with three quicktime videos two of which had three of Tomoko's images on them, and one of the videos only had two. I ended up editing out two of the photos because I felt that they were not necessary for the project.

While editing, I found that the videos had a calming affect, making me feel contemplative and thoughtful. As individual photos, there wasn't really much going on other than a pretty scenery with the occasional passerby. But placed together, the scenes moved and changed vaguely, but quickly which gave my eyes something that could distract them for a while and not become bored. I found that though it was rather vague, there were small stories coming out of the images, as people walked past, the weather changed and leaves fell. I realized that what Tomoko and I were creating was an experience.

 

Dealing with the actual room Co2 was the difficult part. I borrowed three projectors and three DVD players from the University of Edinburgh and had to figure out where to place them in the room without them being in the way, without being visible, and without (I feared) ruining each others images by cross beaming. I was advised not to place them on plinths being that plinths are hard to find and make, but instead I should build shelves in the wall instead. So this was the plan. I bought shelves, and took all day Thursday to figure out how to place them on the walls. However, though the shelves that I had built were sturdy enough, the walls proved to be a huge problem and I kept on having nightmarish visions of the University's projectors falling and shattering. Tomoko and I decided to place the projectors on the ground. We placed them on top of the DVD players, covered the DVD players with white cloth and decided that was our best bet.

The day of the critique, Tomoko and I had placed one projector facing the door, and the other two facing the other walls with the window with the view of the castle completing the vista. The videos were on loop with sound of a recording of the actual location playing along with it. All we had to do was wait until 4pm when the sun went down.

During the critique, I was quite happy to hear that people were asking on if all of the videos were the same place, if they were segmented, if they were photos or actual moving images, if the audio was of the location, ect. Everyone seemed to quite enjoy the experience that Tomoko and I had created, and also found that the audio worked quite well with it. The only thing they didn't seem to like was the projector that was facing the door. They found it distracting and hard to see, which I didn't disagree with.

All in all, I found the whole project very successful and enjoyable to make. I found Tomoko extremely easy to work with, and I know that this project wouldn't have worked had it not been for her involvement with it. I believe that collaborative pieces can either be a huge success or a huge failure, and I believe that this project was a success and wouldn't mind working with Tomoko again in the future.