speeech

Hi Im phoebe

my final project as you can see is a film, and because its duration is a 5minute loop, I’m hoping you’ll be able to listen to my presentation as you watch the film.      

In a visual media saturated society we are  easily manipulated  unknowingly. This inspires me to take the familiar out of context and exaggerate it to force us to look at our consumer capitalist society in a more critical way.    
My work explores themes to do with constructed identity and idealism projected on to us by our consumer culture.

The film is a surreal aesthetic manipulation of the viewer’s perspective . It is designed to disturb the viewer’s sense of familiarity through semiotics and visual representation of a commercial authority. The intention is to disorientate and encourage them to look critically at a system that affects our society constantly on a subconscious level  inevitably impacting and controlling it. 

What we are familiar with we cease to see, and what I wanted to do in my film was to shake up the familiar scene and display it in a more surrealist way and in a new context, in order to symbolically reveal to the audience a system that is market driven and targets our anxieties concerning appearance, and identity, promoting us to conform.
                               
   
    I'm exploring these themes because I find it interesting to see how society’s ideas of what is 'normal' have evolved and how our 'natural selves' have become exploited commodities. Parts of our bodies are marketed, like our eyelashes, lips, skin and  hair.  One thing I like to do in my film is accentuate these 'consumer laws of attractiveness' to counter this myth of what  is ‘supposedly’ beautiful. I try and do this by exaggerating these conditions, and having my clone like cosmetic  counter ladies’ make up  applied so heavily that it is falling off their faces; with eyelashes as long as daddy long leg’s legs, and lips where lipstick over rides their natural lip lines becoming almost clown like. I even cover their eye brows giving them an unnatural expression. Basically, I try to pile as many products on them  as possible to get my point across.              
                           
                       

The film is all played in reverse to  unwind back the time and break down the layers of how we are manipulated and oppressed. The film is meant to have no end or starting point and is a continuous symbolic cycle. The  peeling back of the clothes represents the stripping back of the heavy layers of media influence that we subconsciously absorb daily. When I developed my concept for my film, Sue suggests  I turned it into a short story. This process was very helpful in making me focus on every detail and ensuring it had purpose.         


There’s a deliberately very powerful female semiotic in my film (the clothes mound can even be interpreted as looking quite vaginal). I focused on a female bias because we come from a society that has predominantly patriarchal roots, and the exploitation of women as a commodity is more extensive than for men. It is important that we should continue to  challenge this subconscious language in our culture today so that our sense of self is not
compromised .  
As part of my research  I went to Arthur Barnett's to document the cosmetic store, the place is all designed to manipulate and allure the individual consumer, there is a huge sense of hierarchy  and authority there that creates a feeling of corporate intimidation which either makes you feel obliged to buy or leave. Their cosmetic counter consultants (all Female) are dressed like scientists in white lab coats giving them a pretence of medical importance and superiority. I took photographs of its aesthetic presence so I could replicate a similar style in my film analyzing its lighting and colour scheme. I also collected sound scapes of the department store and shopping mall. The sound scape is  reminiscent of the familiar environment of department store, but by having it in this new context, we see its impact symbolically through visual representation. The sound is in two layers, real time and reversed time. As cliched as it is to have sound in reverse to create a surreal effect, I actually really like it and It is  relevant to my film because it is shot deliberately in reverse.       


I have been highly influenced and inspired by Matthew Barney during my time at art school. His films have very strong unique aesthetics with minimal sound. His Cremaster films themselves are a grand mixture of history, autobiography, and mythology and present an intensely private universe in which symbols and images are densely layered and interconnected .  

My project has changed  dramatically over the year. I was originally planing to using immersive techniques of embodiment. I researched lots of immersion artists such as Bill Viola  and AnthonyMc Call and I experimented with old methods of illusion art and 3d forms trying different ways to manipulate the perspective and to reflect society's contemporary issues to do with identity, narcissism and ideology. I then moved on to theories more to do with the gaze, playing more with the themes of identity memory and time.  I came up with the idea of a thought tank, which was meant to be a pitch black dark space full of thoughts and memories, collected bits of emotive word,s quotes, and fragmented bits of photos all made up of phosphors the chemical that would  react to UV black light. I played with the space inside a pitch black cylinder to give it this effect and so encapsulate the individual  in a 360 degree space. Critically, I realised this idea was a failure when I had a sudden hideous revelation that this project was just a recreation of the negative head space I was in at the time and I started to feel sorry for the poor viewer who would have to be immersed in it. I changed my project dramatically and started to brainstorm ideas for a film still working with similar themes, but with a focus on consumerism and oppression.   

When I was working on changing my first Idea I researched a lot of female artists such as Sophie Cale Tracy Emin and Piplotte Rist who use themselves and their private lives as subjects for their works. They deal with themes of privacy, human vulnerability,gender and identity.
Pipilottes stood out the most for me as she uses a more fun approach to challenge current issues to do with society and the portrayal of women within visual culture. I think looking at these artists helped me process a negative time, and made me clear in the direction I wanted to take my current project.   

When I was thinking of ways of going about exhibiting this work, I still wanted to use some of the old immersion techniques I had originally thought of using. I still liked the idea of involving the cylinder as a tool to embody the viewer individually and get them to focus on my work. This idea turned out to be a bigger struggle than I had ever imagined. The resolution of the HD footage would have had to be reduced highly to be viewed on the tiny steady cam screen, that was meant to some how perch inside there. And, the monitor battery life time was also debatable. The rotating cylinder door would have interfered with the cords of the DVD player that was also some how meant to fit inside there, with the person viewing it. The whole thing just became nightmarish and I just didn’t have the budget or technical help to fix this, so I chose a more simplistic stylized approach with the space I was given. Using the HD projector I could make the most of my HD footage and, even though I prefer it on a tiny screen, this was probably the best option in using this space to its full potential as it should, in theory, have more impact. However, this compromise has meant that I now see every technical floor, which to me, takes away from what I was trying to create. Hopefully the viewers will be less judgmental. I’ve tried to make the space as sterile looking as possible to create a vague corporate aesthetic, reminiscent of the department store.

editing space

i have experimented with a variety of different installation options. playing with immersion scale of screen etc. but i found some where just techinially imposibile.

 

Phoebe Mackenzie


“it is the function of art to renew our perception. What we are familiar with we cease to see. The writer shakes up the familiar scene, and, as if by magic, we see new meaning in it” Anias Nin

In a visual media saturated society we are  easily manipulated  unknowingly. This inspires me to take the familiar out of context and exaggerate its flaws to force us to look at our consumer capitalist society in a more critical way.    
My work explores themes to do with constructed identity and idealism projected on to us by our consumer culture. It is a surreal aesthetic manipulation of the viewer’s perspective.


Project description

The intent of this film is to influence and allure the viewer, like an advertisement  does, but not with the purpose to sell, rather, to reveal.

There’s a deliberately  powerful female semiotic in this film. Its focus has a female bias because society has  predominantly patriarchal roots, and the exploitation of women as a commodity is more extensive than for men. It is important to continue to challenge this subconscious language so that  personal  sense of self is not compromised.        

The project is a 5 minute looped film.  It is displayed in a dark room on a screen beside an oddly placed rail of curtain.  The projection is HD and the footage is pure HD.

SCREEN set up

Exploration SITE space

sound scape

I have desperately been trying and trying to find an appropriate sound track for my project. I listened to a lot of noise music originally but then i realizes all the issues with copy rite etc.  So then i listened to lot of ghastly royalty free music but then their websites still tried to get me to pay for it? hmm listening to it was hard enough! so the idea of manipulating and mixing the royalty free music to my own liking didn't work out the way i had hoped. I then move on to a more simplistic approach, i started collecting sound scape's just of ordinary day to day sounds but when taken out of context they could sound quite interesting. i recorded my heat pump, different taps going on and off, rainy days, windy days, i recorded industrial sounds, sounds i felt would add some depth and provoke thought in my work. i trialed these sounds but they still didn't add anything to my project it just sounded a bit messy and amateur. i thought hard about what i really want the audience to feel when they experience my work. I then knew where  i needed to go, the department store.

I hid my threatening looking sound recorder in my open bag, the recorder unfortunately looks like a police tazer. pretending to be a eager shopper strolled around the store. listening to my new sound scape afterwards in final cut, i found it did add to my themes and ideas but it wasn't subtle enough. i tried different ways manipulating it adding other sound clips and repeating certain lines but it still sounded too obvious. i then tried reversing the sound scape and as cliche as it is reversing sound to create an unusual effect i really liked how it sounded. It was still reminiscent of the place and was relevant to my film because it is shot deliberately in reverse to reveal how its go to this point.                         

second final cut with no sound and errors!

glow effect

I have been try to find a effect in after effects that will create that sort of lighting that you would find in a cosmetic store. this is what i have decide on.

stills of the film in progress

mirror

By using the medium of film, I can target visual culture in a way that is accessible and familiar to its audience. My intent is to influence and allure the viewer, like the way an advertisement  does, but not with the intent to sell. Rather, I want to reveal to its audience  the ritual or the process that affects them daily.


My work explores themes to do with constructed identity and idealism given to us by our consumer culture. It is a surreal aesthetic manipulation of the viewer’s perspective . It is designed to disturb the viewer’s sense of familiarity with the semiotics of a commercial authority that affects mass culture subconsciously, and inevitably impacts and controls it,  by targeting the fragile anxieties of the human condition through marketing.


I'm exploring these themes because I find it interesting to see how society’s ideas of what is 'normal' have evolved and how our 'natural selves' have become exploited commodities. Parts of our bodies are marketed, like our eyelashes, lips, skin and  hair.  One thing I like to do in my film is accentuate these 'consumer laws of attractiveness' to counter this myth of what  is ‘supposedly’ beautiful. I try and do this by exaggerating these conditions, and having my surreal cosmetic counter ladies’ make up  applied so heavily that it is falling off their faces; with eyelashes as long as daddy long leg’s legs, and lips where lipstick over rides their natural lip lines becoming almost clown like. I even cover their eye brows giving them an unnatural expression. Basically, I try to pile as many products on them  as possible to get my point across.                  

There’s a deliberately very powerful female semiotic in my film (the clothes mound can even be interpreted as looking quite vaginal). I focused on a female bias because we come from a society that has predominantly patriarchal roots, and the exploitation of women as a commodity is more extensive than for men. It is important that we should continue to  challenge this subconscious language in our culture today so that our sense of self be not compromised .                         

documentation

I went to Arthur Barnett's to document the cosmetic store. I observed the lighting to replicate it in my film, there was of course no hint of anything natural, every thing is human construct not even any windows. the place is all design to manipulate the individual consumer, there is a huge sense of hierarchy  and authority there that creates a feeling of corporal intimidation which either makes you feel obliged to buy or leave. their cosmetic counter consultants (all Female) are dressed like scientists in white lab coats giving them a presence of medical importance and superiority. It was also amusing the amount of people i had  to ask before i was granted permission to photograph there.











                                                                                                                                              

shooting script

here is my very messy shooting script. It looks hard to follow but i understand it.

ehehehe Make up tests

I started with a white face paint base that was quite heavy and strong.I covered Seras eye brows too blanking them out as to make it seem that she had no brows just skin. when It dried it created a texture that was wrinkly and thick. then i applied make up on top of it that was a shade too dark for seras completion once it was applied and dried with eye liner i re drew her brows above her natural brow line. this gave her a freaky unnatural expression. her lips were whited out then painted the same way as before then over accentuated with heavy brown lip gloss. her eyes are over exaggerated too with false eye lashes. I'm trying to create the look of an over exaggerated cosmetic counter lady.

my draft for my short story that is my film plot.....

Dormant smiles, eyes closed for the day, hands in sequential pray with each other, stand statuesque on either side of their creation. Congruous and clone like, their lab coats pristine and snow white, their neon light buttons flicker into life zzzzzzt. Name tags are blank unidentified; painted skin with no apparent pump of a pulse; white high heels, with high ideals; white lips, white teeth, white lashes, white claws - all of these display their features accordingly.


Forty five shoes or forty five feet, a ring a ring a rosy, are intrically placed around this globe like sphere of matted clothes. This is their final product; this is what they have done; this is their creation. The hum of industrial white lights flutter into action and it is time to open shop. Unwinding back the time slowly of how it got to this point, unnaturally reversed, these poised ladies open their eyes. In sync they slowly start to peel back the mound. Starting at the feet pair by pair they place them orderly underneath the two empty cool sliver steel racks be hind them. There’s a tower of top hats. They strip it down, they return these too. Shred by shred they pick back the pile, shedding multiple coats, polyprops, tops, jerseys and pants. Stringy scarfs, leggings and panty hose are plucked from the mound like worms are from the soil by hungry birds. Slowly they pick away at it exposing parts of its next layer then come to a halt as they hit its bare tanned mantel. Reaching into their lab coat pockets they bring forth a spray bottle each and engulf the mantel in perfume creating a white fumey haze around it. Now it is time to be measured. They pick up the measuring tape that has been placed in front of them and pull it tightly around the mound; it seems to be going to plan. They now rip back the mantel revealing the outer core, a wire caged sphere. There’s a naked figure inside the cage that cant be fully made out. The excess mantel is folded neatly and tucked away behind the sphere. They now pull back the wire cage; they have reached the core. There she is curled up in a ball, silent, trusting . They then pull out the final item, the support mechanism, a spine from behind her; now they are left with step one: a naked canvas to impose on. They drift backwards to their starting positions, close their eyes, heads down, hands back in pray, waiting for shop to open.


I gave you these images to reverse this present display case. To show you what they have done and how it got to this point. After all it is we who have to be fed, we who feed them, we who are buried, we who are dressed. It is why we are so easily fooled by a uniform; the semiotics of authority are taken without question. This is the ritual that takes place.

Inspiring words from Eve Ensler

synopsis

here is a a brief out line for my film

two surreal cosmetic counter ladies stand on either side of a huge circular mound like creature made out of clothes. there are two empty clothe racks each symmetrically placed behind the ladies. they are praying in synchronicity bearing proud smiles.

the film is all shot in reverse to give it a surreal like quality. the opening shot that i have briefly described is in fact the last shot technically because the film is in reverse. Another reason for it to be shot in reverse is its meant to explain and unwind and break down the layers of how it got to this point in the opening shot.

as the film progresses the cosmo cosmetic counter laddies will begin to undress the mound but they were actually dressing the mound creature but in reverse it makes them seem like they are undressing there creation. As the ladies undress there creation in sync they put the clothes back on the racks layer by layer. under the many hats and coats there is even a human spine that is put back orderly but without getting into too much detail they eventually reach a circle like cage that is pulled apart like an egg shell. inside the cage is a naked girl curled up in a foetal position the cosmetic counter ladies return to their starting positions then the film will loop or switch from reverse to real time but speed up perhaps, then once they reach the opening shot go back to reverse. this process and ritual is symbolic of the layers of images and identities that get forced on women subconsciously by society at an early age makeing them forget their true selves.