I. SCREEN

i) planning

I sketched a screen that would distort and therefore recreate the imagery of my video projection. With my screen, I aimed to portray the fragmentation of time in one’s dream, where the linearity of time breaks into pieces, and time restructures itself in circularity and various forms of non-linearity. I planned to connect a pair of headphones, which would have no sound but blur the audio from the video piece, in order to create dreamier effects.

ii) painting

I collected free USPS boxes and built them. I painted them with wall paint that contains both primer and paint, so the surface of cardboard boxes would not degenerate.

The paint didn’t completely match with the original white color of the boxes, so I tried a different material for my screen. I used blank sticker papers to make the surfaces of boxes smoother.

iii) building

I used the following image from google as my inspiration to build my box screen:

I built and broke down various structures with my boxes. The following image is one of the many drafts I built:

I settled with the following shape, which is dynamic enough with its horizontal and perpendicular standings but create a wide, rectangular overall shape that’s fitting for a video projection.

Then, I projected some random video clips on my screen as a simulation. Here are some images of tv show <Lost In Space> projected on my screen:

iv) installing

In order to successfully stabilize the screen high on a wall, I sketched some methods on my notebook with the help of my professor. I planned to use long pins with big, flat heads on which I would put my box screen.

 

II. VIDEO

i) filming

ii) video

I created a short, first person perspective video of running, chasing, and seeking. The person in the video hears voices forcing them to run, and hurriedly moves around an old house, not knowing what to look for. In dizziness and frustration, the video goes on, reaching an old lock to a basement. A gazing human face shows up, alerting that they’re near where they were wanted, and also bringing a visually and audibly surreal experience. They wake up and run away, but soon loses conscience. The whispers approach again. The video stays playing on a loop, suggesting the circularity of time and the inescapability of this nightmare.

flicker: https://drive.google.com/open?id=1Jt64kGR854rwHXICDMye_k8MPLP8sQuW

 

III. SOUND

i) conceptualizing

I verbalized what kind of sound I wanted to create on a piece of paper. I described how I wanted it to be—what kind of feelings I wanted it to evoke, and what sort of linguistic and musical elements I wanted to use.

ii) writing

Then, I worked on the words that was going to be my audio. At first, I simply wrote out my thoughts on time, dream, and sub-conscience as naturally and organically as possible. I tried not to allow any decorative language or grandiose ideas prevent me from writing what I truly question and think about.

In order to improve my initial writing, I asked myself two questions, on which I contemplated deeper into my initial thoughts.

 

Based on my contemplation, I re-wrote my sound in the first person perspective of the fractured dream. It is a narration of the dream, describing by itself where it is and what it is, in relation to time and sub-conscience.

iii) audio

I recorded my own reading of the writing above, and edited it. I distorted the tone and speed of my voice and added a slowed-down humming voice from the song <Piel> by Arca. While I was making this audio, I imagined what the voice of a nightmare would be like—low, slow, indifferent, but emotional.

 

IV. PRESENTATION

My final piece flicker(ing) consists of flicker, a video piece, and flickering, an audio piece. The video is the experience of a dreamer in a nightmare, and the audio is the mysterious words of the dream itself. I aimed to capture feelings of lost, chased, chasing, and seeking in the form of a simulation-dream, depicting anxiety, fear, excitement, and motion through striking colors and surreal textures. The video, flicker, distorts itself on the box screen, restructuring its shape. I wanted to portray the fragmentation of dream, here of flicker, which exists only in the broken pieces of one’s sub-conscience. The nightmare repeats itself endlessly in the circular time, in its fragmented existence.

flicker(ing): https://drive.google.com/open?id=1n9ltcE85A8sGk934x0xMZOp9DWDC-wBH