Month: October 2011

Vistasound

” …a part of the desire for that pleasure (interrupting) the satisfaction of that desire…”
The shooting of VISTASOUND commenced in 1977 and centred on a holiday postcard upon the surface of which was pressed a recording of a popular 50’s song. This ‘objet-trouve’ was seen as analogous with film, combining a picture record and sound record physically onto a cellulose-acetate base. VISTASOUND then developed by raising questions around the associations that are made between the words in songs and particular places. Locations included, Bristol and Devon in the UK and Norman, Oklahoma in the USA.
Though music can function in a variety of ways in film, within dominant cinema it is generally used to manipulate the audience emotionally, VISTASOUND attempts to oppose such manipulations by opening a critical space, such that the relation between the various sound images, (music, sound ‘effects’, spoken words, etc.), and the visual images, (that of the film-on-the-screen, the photographs, people and places shown in it), are consciously understood in relation to the film’s overall construction.
The debate between the two protagonists (early roles for Alex Jennings and Tim Bendinct), occurs through three differing filmic spaces and employs at one point the word ‘symbiotic’; the reference could be psychoanalytic implying voyeurism and fetishism; or it could be a reference to the observational and recording activities of the military and police; or it could merely be a reference to enthusiasm, to that of the ornithologist or the tourist taking holiday snaps.
“This object describes the space which is the location of that substitution”. (1981)

The large chart used in coordinating the shooting and editing of the three different filmic spaces was featured in a 1986 Arts Council of GB touring exhibition, Charting Time.

A three-screen version was installed for a screening at the Australian Centre for Photography in 2009.

Included as downloads is a student paper written by Chris Toovey (UWA) in response to the film; and an email dialogue about the film.

1981
45 mins

Sheepman & the Sheared : 6. Red + Green + Blue

A 16mm film, sixth in the series, Sheepman & the Sheared (1970-1976).

“The film series was made within the workshops and the theoretical context of the London Filmmakers Co-operative and structural / material film. In the series, the coincidence of flora, fauna, other objects, processes and activities, with the film frame are in no way paramount to an inspection of the total film process by which an observation of this kind is made possible. Specific conditions to do with both Nature and human activity with Nature are recorded with the camera, but is essentially subject to the observation and reaction of the filmmaker.

“Colour ‘generated’ from the sky, the grass and berries, a system of graphic loops synthesises in the printer, not only changing hues of complementary colours but white light itself.” (1976)

The bottom image – left hand column – shows the preparation of three of the five printer rolls at the editing bench. Loaded into the printer, it was essential that the starting point for the masks was synchronised for each of the three colour rolls. They were printed in turn onto the unexposed printing stock, which was rewound to the beginning in the dark, following each exposure run.

1975
8 mins

Sheepman & the Sheared : 5. Farm

A 16mm film, part 5 of a series, Sheepman & the Sheared (1970-1976).

“The film series was made within the workshops and the theoretical context of the London Filmmakers Co-operative and structural / material film. In the series, the coincidence of flora, fauna, other objects, processes and activities, with the film frame are in no way paramount to an inspection of the total film process by which an observation of this kind is made possible. Specific conditions to do with both Nature and human activity with Nature are recorded with the camera, but is essentially subject to the observation and reaction of the filmmaker.

An assembly of eight rolls of film each in different ways examining spatial relationships; object/camera film/projector film planes-the walls of a barn, the surface of a tilled field, the surface of the screen bearing the image of a wall in movement, the screen with an image of movement towards moving animals, movement of tractor on which a moving camera is mounted.” (1976)

Part 5 (Farm) made with the assistance of a grant from the South West Arts Association (1973/4)

1975
25 mins

Sheepman & the Sheared : 7. Sheepwoman

A 16mm film, part 7 of a series, Sheepman & the Sheared (1970-1976).

“The film series was made within the workshops and the theoretical context of the London Filmmakers Co-operative and structural / material film. In the series, the coincidence of flora, fauna, other objects, processes and activities, with the film frame are in no way paramount to an inspection of the total film process by which an observation of this kind is made possible. Specific conditions to do with both Nature and human activity with Nature are recorded with the camera, but is essentially subject to the observation and reaction of the filmmaker.

Return to the camera image of Sheepman, together with control of camera, then examines the image resultant in conjunction with synchronous/non-synchronous sound and written word image.” (1976)

” In Sheepman & the Sheared, Leggett delicately negotiates a dialectic between creation of images, and stripping the images of their illusionism. The comprehensiveness of his task provides the film with its interest: the evident intelligence and diligence make the film an imposing work in the canon of the British structural film.” – Daryl Chin, New York Soho Weekly.

1976
16 mins

Sheepman & the Sheared : 3. Window

A 16mm film made as part of a series, Sheepman & the Sheared (1970-1976).
“The camera and operator record 40 seconds of film each weekend throughout a period of twelve months from the same vantage point; each period finishes with the camera framing the area in front of the window in the same way as when the shot commenced. Selection of the part of the area with the use of zoom lens and camera movement or decision about time of day (or even day itself) and precise length of run were not pre-determined. The footage obtained is assembled in order of shooting, (April 1973-74), each camera run being indicated by the blanking of six individual frames spaced; 12 + 12 + 12 + 12cut + 12 + 12. A twenty minute continuous sound recording made at the same window is printed twice onto the ungraded final print with a five minute gap before the repeat”. (1976)

1974
45 mins

Memory, Schema and Interactive Video

‘Interacting: Art, Research and the Creative Practitioner’, ed. L. Candy and E. Edmonds; Libri Publishing, Faringdon, Oxford, UK (2011).

“In the computer-based digital domain, interaction with video is becoming an everyday occurrence. Breaking away from our traditional regard for moving images organised along the linear principles of the filmic tradition we can now use motion pictures relationally, linking across and along shots and sequences. The artist and interaction designer can thereby share the making of the experience of the work with the audience, the active participant. In so doing, the creative experience is shared.

My experience as an artist working with film, video and performance was based on levels of audience engagement ranging from the reflexive to the physically active. The experience of a durational artwork relies on both short and long-term memory and the anticipation of its process of change. Aesthetic issues of this kind helped form the conceptual foundations discussed in this chapter.”

2011
Mike Leggett

‘Interacting: Art, Research and the Creative Practitioner’, ed. L. Candy and E. Edmonds; Libri Publishing, Faringdon, Oxford, UK (2011). 

In the computer-based digital domain, interaction with video is becoming an everyday occurrence. Breaking away from our traditional regard for moving images organised along the linear principles of the filmic tradition we can now use motion pictures relationally, linking across and along shots and sequences. The artist and interaction designer can thereby share the making of the experience of the work with the audience, the active participant. In so doing, the creative experience is shared.

My experience as an artist working with film, video and performance was based on levels of audience engagement ranging from the reflexive to the physically active. The experience of a durational artwork relies on both short and long-term memory and the anticipation of its process of change. Aesthetic issues of this kind helped form the conceptual foundations discussed in this chapter. "

Mnemovie : visual mnemonics for creative interactive video

“There is a problem with storing and retrieving audio-visual digital media files using information and communication technologies employing text-based indexing systems. Fundamentally, the complexities of language as a semantic system do not serve well the complexities of the motion picture document. The objective is to propose effective and affecting means by which creators and audiences can store and retrieve the video files with which we work, communicate and entertain ourselves, increasingly each day. The research has employed practice-based research to extend our understanding of the precept of a taxonomy based on the visual mnemonics of the motion picture document.” Links to document at National Library of Australia (and to University of Technology Sydney Library.)

2008
Mike Leggett

Burning the Interface: Artists’ Interactive Multimedia

1999
Mike Leggett

"A statement could use the narrative form and the first person singular and begin on the first day of life, or first day of school, or college, as a student, as a teacher, as an artist. Hacking into the substance of what seems important about the topic of interactive multimedia could also use the narrative form and construct that comforting umbilical tube that moves its nourishment – “starting at A, through K, to Z”.
But such a monocular viewpoint is not how the world is encountered and is certainly not adequate to describe my research into interactive multimedia and the way in which it has been used by artists as a medium of expression. There are too many complex relationships. The narrative descriptive form, the thesis, with an introduction, a middle and a conclusion for instance, has a tendency towards over simplifying the research process as well as the reception of an understanding of outcomes from the project. The very act of ordering these words is unrelated to the temporal sequence in which phases and details occurred. The choice of words and the whole technology of language as a reductive process is not the most appropriate for conveying the complexity of another iterative technology, especially one that in these early days of its definition and development, finding both material and poetic form." Extract from Introduction.

Physical Cinema: Memory, Schema and Interactive Video

In the computer-based digital domain, interaction with video is becoming an everyday occurrence. Breaking away from our traditional regard for moving images organised along the linear principles of the filmic tradition we can now use motion pictures relationally, linking across and along shots and sequences. In so doing, the creative experience is shared as physical cinema.

My experience as an artist working with film, video and performance was based on levels of audience engagement ranging from the reflexive to the physically active. The experience of a durational artwork relies on both short and long-term memory and the anticipation of its process of change. Aesthetic issues of this kind helped form the conceptual foundations discussed in this paper, an overview of PhD research completed in 2008.

2011
Mike Leggett

In the computer-based digital domain, interaction with video is becoming an everyday occurrence. Breaking away from our traditional regard for moving images organised along the linear principles of the filmic tradition we can now use motion pictures relationally, linking across and along shots and sequences.  In so doing, the creative experience is shared as physical cinema.

My experience as an artist working with film, video and performance was based on levels of audience engagement ranging from the reflexive to the physically active. The experience of a durational artwork relies on both short and long-term memory and the anticipation of its process of change. Aesthetic issues of this kind helped form the conceptual foundations discussed in this paper, an overview of PhD research completed in 2008. 

Physical Cinema: some history, and recent practice

2011
Mike Leggett

In The Man with the Movie Camera released in 1929, Dziga Vertov set out to establish an approach to cinema based on a complete separation from the language of literature and theater. His film, like that of Walter Ruttman’s film Berlin (1927), was set in the streets and environments of the modern industrial and cosmopolitan city. "..today, the media artist can craft physical cinema that takes place on the streets of the city." (Shapins 2011) 
Physical theatre, Live Art and Cinema have through performer and filmmaker established a vigorous practice in recent years, challenging the confines of traditional artforms, including the documents pioneered by Vertov. Contemporary practitioners have come together with audiences to create between them a physical cinema converging as a series of spatial modes.