Final project ideas:
1. Fast food versus slow food. Explore the differences between the experience of slow food versus fast food/What are the global effects of fast food versus “slow food”/Where is the future of fast food going towards?
2. Chronicle various interviews with different workers about what they are doing from the 9-5 period… have them draft up a schedule and display it with a photographic portrait of them… maybe take a photo every hour?
3. Stay awake for 24-hour long periods, and explore New York. Film every second of the day… like a video diary entry
4. Interview environmentalists/scientists about their predictions of the world in 2100, and create a large model of manahattan. Maybe include memorials of the natural elements of the city…like the parks etc… focus on themes of urbanization/sustainability/industrialization…
5. Craft a polyhedron/structure of various clothes from thrift stores or which represent different generations/historical periods of fashion…
6. Interview individual members of a family and discuss the “ebbs and flows” of family relationships… explore how families change over time/grow together/grow apart
7. The meditation bubble… Create a structure/tent/hut in which you lay down in, and watch a video which is projected on the ceiling… it is a guided meditation, but instead of thinking about nothing, you are stimulated into relaxation with sounds/noises/and video from new york city. So everything is taken from new york.
8. Film and interview 8 women discussing what personal growth means to them /or how their idea of beauty evolved throughout their lives… all 8 women will be different ages and the interviews will be projected on 8 separate screens…video will switch off and on so that only one screen is playing at once
9. New york minute… Interview strangers for 1 minute, and ask them what the best moment of their day was.. make a website of the videos and use social media to make it “trend” #newyorkminute
10. Collage a mural of tiny photos of wrinkles on peoples faces…
Final project proposal:
For my final project, I propose to create a meditative experience out of out of clippings of sounds and video from New York City. Inside this “meditative bubble” will viewer will be able to experience new york and still feel calm.
For the project, I will craft a video which will be projected on the ceiling of a white, draped tent-like structure. The viewer will lie on the wooden floor and will view the video from his or her back. The video and sounds will be taken from neighborhoods all throughout the city… from Harlem to Wall street to Brooklyn. Each snippet of video will be randomly combined together, but ultimately the experience will feel like a journey through New York, and a trip through time.
My goal in this project is to synthesize sound with edited film to craft an adventure that a viewer will connect to and reflect on. When we meditate, we usually try to be in quiet places, and clear our minds completely, but I want to stimulate viewers with sounds and visuals while still clearing minds. I want the experience to mean something unique to every individual, and for people to feel as though the piece is therapeutic.
So in many ways this is about the idea of contast to provoke a new relationship to the perception of time. An interesting idea and one you should research well. What are other examples that do this?
One might be the Stillspotting project hosted by the Guggenheim. The aim is specifically to look at moments of calm in the city. Here’s one project which may have been one of the most amazing experience I have EVER had of the city:
A fantastic reference is the book by Collin Ellard
You Are Here: Why We Can Find Our Way to the Moon but Get Lost at the Mall
he talks about how our view of the world, of a room, of a street etc. impacts our feeling of security.
This entails a large measure of control on your part. That will take some planning and determining an appropriate way to manipulate a site. Start working on this now, it will require sketches and testing.
The images and sound are obviously of key importance. Worth looking at:
Koyanisquatsi (watch various clips online and you will get a sense of the very different perspectives from the film)
Look at the Hans Op De Beeck and Janet Cardiff, both on the blog as examples.