Research
The idea for this film was sparked by a lecture I attended by Suze Adams as part of our visual culture work surrounding the ideas of space, place and site. Of non-places she said:
The concept of Non-places was coined by the French anthropologist Marc Auge in 1992 in response to an increasingly mobilized world. Non-places, he proposes, are transit points – borders, airports, railway or coach stations etc – places where there is continuous movement in and through space. Auge suggests that in non-places individual cultural diversity becomes homogeneous mass – ie not distinct and particular but uniform.
I was also drawn to the work ‘Seizure’ by Roger Hiorns which she discussed in the lecture.
“Sited in an abandoned housing estate in London’s Elephant and Castle, Seizure transforms the mundane state of 1970s public housing into a magical, ethereal experience. Hiorns and his assistants pumped 90,000 litres of a heavily saturated copper sulphate solution into one of the units in the estate, then returned three weeks later to drain the unit. Once the liquid was removed, what remained was a glistening, glowing unit, lined with Yves Klein Blue crystals, outlining the walls, light fixtures and bathtubs.
It became the focal point for thousands of people who navigated through one of London’s more uncelebrated boroughs to explore the shell of a public housing estate, providing a community of experience in an area where community disappeared a long time ago. Here the ordinary becomes extra-ordinary, a new experience of place that has undercurrents of social change.
http://www.artangel.org.uk/projects/2008/seizure
Seizure has recently been reconstructed and is currently on show in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park – raising questions about site and Nonsite, the re-construction of site-specific artworks, the altered environment around the work, the visitor experience, the meaning of the piece etc.”
It became the focal point for thousands of people who navigated through one of London’s more uncelebrated boroughs to explore the shell of a public housing estate, providing a community of experience in an area where community disappeared a long time ago. Here the ordinary becomes extra-ordinary, a new experience of place that has undercurrents of social change.
http://www.artangel.org.uk/projects/2008/seizure
Seizure has recently been reconstructed and is currently on show in the Yorkshire Sculpture Park – raising questions about site and Nonsite, the re-construction of site-specific artworks, the altered environment around the work, the visitor experience, the meaning of the piece etc.”
I began by exploring the meanings of the term non-space and the theory surrounding it, I was also researching ideas of liminality as put forward by Victor Turner. I found that many of his ideas also applied to people inhabiting non-spaces in my opinion.
“The attributes of liminality or of liminal personae ("threshold people") are necessarily ambiguous'.One's sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation, but also the possibility of new perspectives. Turner posits that, if liminality is regarded as a time and place of withdrawal from normal modes of social action, it potentially can be seen as a period of scrutiny for central values and axioms of the culture where it occurs.[30] - one where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behaviour are undone. In such situations, “the very structure of society [is] temporarily suspended”
'According to Turner, all liminality must eventually dissolve, for it is a state of great intensity that cannot exist very long without some sort of structure to stabilize it...either the individual returns to the surrounding social structure...or else liminal communities develop their own internal social structure, a condition Turner calls "normative communitas"'.
“The attributes of liminality or of liminal personae ("threshold people") are necessarily ambiguous'.One's sense of identity dissolves to some extent, bringing about disorientation, but also the possibility of new perspectives. Turner posits that, if liminality is regarded as a time and place of withdrawal from normal modes of social action, it potentially can be seen as a period of scrutiny for central values and axioms of the culture where it occurs.[30] - one where normal limits to thought, self-understanding, and behaviour are undone. In such situations, “the very structure of society [is] temporarily suspended”
'According to Turner, all liminality must eventually dissolve, for it is a state of great intensity that cannot exist very long without some sort of structure to stabilize it...either the individual returns to the surrounding social structure...or else liminal communities develop their own internal social structure, a condition Turner calls "normative communitas"'.
ANIDOC
I began exploring the animadoc genre to seek inspiration and explore its many incarnations. I found this website useful:
http://animateddocs.wordpress.com/
It contains many examples of the genre and has some explanations from the directors as to their influences and motivations for making their films. It actually came as something of a surprise that there were so many film which seemed to fit into a specific style and it occurred to me that I’m going to have to work quite hard to make mine stand out from the crowd. Here are some which I found to be exemplary of the genre:
http://animateddocs.wordpress.com/
It contains many examples of the genre and has some explanations from the directors as to their influences and motivations for making their films. It actually came as something of a surprise that there were so many film which seemed to fit into a specific style and it occurred to me that I’m going to have to work quite hard to make mine stand out from the crowd. Here are some which I found to be exemplary of the genre:
Andersartig from Dennis Stein-Schomburg on Vimeo.
Centrefold from Ellie Land on Vimeo.
No More Questions! from StoryCorps on Vimeo.
They all have their own distinct style which they carry through the whole film which I think might be crucial to their narrative success. Initially I was going to compile different styles and mediums cut together but I think combined with the intercut voices this may all just become a little too ugly and confusing. They have been executed with differing levels of animation ability but this doesn’t detract because the narrative carries it through. It’s like being read to. One film which has been influential in the formation of this idea is this one explaining the made-up word ‘Sonder’. They define it as :
“n. the realization that each random passerby is living a life as vivid and complex as your own.
From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com), a compendium of made-up words written by John Koenig. Each original definition aims to fill a hole in the language, to give a name to an emotion we all feel but don’t have a word for.”
From The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (dictionaryofobscuresorrows.com), a compendium of made-up words written by John Koenig. Each original definition aims to fill a hole in the language, to give a name to an emotion we all feel but don’t have a word for.”
I love the ethereal feeling of displacement this film evokes. The music works perfectly along with the narration to create a feeling within the audience and this is something I would like to capture in my film.