#secondary research

[k00295632]

Project: Disrupt. Week 4 (reading week), Secondary Research

Over the reading week, I investigated different medias in order to garner inspiration for my project, specifically horror medias, that work to unnerve the viewer. Some of these I already had in mind in the duration of my project and some I came across last week, but its only now that I have investigated what makes them horror, and how they invoke fear in the viewer. I tried highlighting important words to make it easier to read if y'all are feeling lazy and want to skim.

Five Nights at Freddy's 1 (FNAF)

FNAF is a indie horror survival game created by Scott Cawthon, and a game franchise I've been interested in since I was 10 years old. To summarise in game, you play from the p.o.v of a security guard and must survive 5 (7) nights, and defend yourself from haunted human like animatronics, using the security cameras, doors, and lights. Its sparked a few ideas in my project such as paintings distorting themselves on cameras and small unnoticed changes that aren't known until its too late. What I want to focus on here is how audio enhances the horror in the game , and a little bit on the game visuals and how they also unnerve the player.

Audio

The horror aspect of the game is built off 2 pillars, "absence of information", and "absence of action", as you are trapped in a claustrophobic office, with 5 animatronics trying to get you, with no info and 2 doors working on limited power to defend you. In this scenario, being helpless makes the player desperate for info, which is given to you through audio, so you cling to it like a lifeline, but that doesn't mean all audio clues are helpful.

Some audio is advantageous, it gives you clues on where the Animatronics are in the building, over time you learn the patterns and clues of some of these sounds, which helps you plan to survive.

However some are disadvantageous and works against you, and is detrimental audio. For example the fan in your office is deliberately loud and interferes w/ other audio signals, and is at a specific frequency that automatically causes anxiety for the player. There's also red herrings, barely there, simply to stress you and add to the environment. The vague vocals are a big red herring, and are actually like a audio uncanny valley, Scott uses recordings of "Autobiography of a Yogi" played backwards and distorted , and does the same with a child's laugh making it sound demonic. This slightest hint of language in an otherwise garbled sound makes the player paranoid as they are unable to understand this hidden information or threat.

A lot of the unnerving aspects of the game is the Foley sounds used, the diegetic sounds, which are almost entirely consistent with the game actions, which not only immerses you in the games atmosphere and heightens the fear factor. The only non-diegetic sound is the audio stinger, often used in horror movies to link or emphasise a movement in a visual production and often comes as a shock, in the game its used for the arrival of a animatronics arrival at your doors, and the contrast from the diegetic sounds completely shocks the player and causes them to panic.

This is an analysis video on YouTube that goes into further detail on how audio enhances the horror in the game and has examples of those sounds and explains the sound mechanics in game.

Visual

Visually, Scott uses the dark cramped office of the game to create an oppressive space, and grainy video footage that makes you squint to see what's happening, leaving the player uncertain of what's in the area. But on the topic of the uncanny valley affect, the suits of the animatronics have it as a visual affect, they're too human to be cartoonish yet move too mechanically to be human, but what really makes them uncanny to me personally is their eyes.

On the left are the marketable plushies and on the right are the in game models. The in game models have very human looking eyes and dark voids around them, separating them from the rest of the face, the dark circles automatically look terrifying compared tp the plushies that don't, and actually look like cartoon characters. The void separates them, highlighting the fact that the mask aren't their true faces, this fact is especially uncomfortable if you take into account that there are human souls possessing these suits.

Paranormal Activity 1 (PA)

Paranormal Activity is a found footage terror movie directed by Oren Peli, and I watched it on Halloween partially out of interest and because I saw that it was completely shot through one of the main protagonists hand held cameras, documenting the strange occurrences in their home with his partner. Since I'm looking at security cameras a lot for my project I thought it might be relevant for me to look at.

So its more or less about this young couple (Katie & Mikah) being haunted by this demon that's been following Katie for years, recorded all on Mikah's cameras over a period of 21 nights. The first hour drags on slowly building up the tension while also showing the demon gradually become more aggressive and extreme. It escalates rapidly, going from zero to a hundred very quickly in the last 20 minutes leaving the viewer shocked, I certainly was. Peli utilises a series of techniques to create this creature's presence, such as displacing/moving objects, slamming doors, leaving foot prints with flour, leaving physical marks (bites and scratches)on the protagonists, and getting directly and indirectly physical with them. It goes from keys ending up on the floor, to being dragged out of bed and/or possessed.

Watching the progression of the demons behavior and watching from the cameras perspective at night is deeply disturbing especially later into the movie, as the protagonists are completely defenseless as the majority of the stuff happens. There's something very uncomfortable about watching someone who is sleeping be completely helpless to the happenings around them, especially happenings with harmful intent.

This is the footage of the 20th night, and gives an example of the type of stuff that was happening at night to the couple while also displaying the more aggressive behavior of the demon.

Ringu

Ringu is a 1998 Japanese phycological horror film directed by Hideo Nakata depicting a reporter and her ex-husband investigating a cursed video tape that is rumored to kill the viewer seven days after watching it. I haven't had the opportunity to watch it yet but during the week off I was explaining the concept idea I had of a painting crawling out of its frame to a family friend, and he told me that it reminded him of this scene from the movie. This scene creeped me out, and the grainy footage of the tv enhances the unnaturalness of the scene. Ringus's slow approach out of the creates suspense and the viewer is forced to squirm and anticipate their attack.

Notes

This took longer than I thought it would to write up and I had to rewrite the fnaf section 3 times to make it to the point and cohesive, I know to much about it and tried not to info dump about it.

Also I will post my ideas derived from these pieces of media and how I plan to include them into my project, I have big ideas so far and I'd like to try all of them. This lost is already long enough.

Sorry for all the writing.

#Youtube #secondary research #horror #horror films #terror movies #five nights at freddy's #fnaf #paranormal activity #ringu 1998 #art collage

[tartyfart]

Interesting websites

#website list #secondary research #online archive #light cone #sixpack film #centre for visual music #rhythmic light #len lye #future reference

[k00279452]

Collage Artist research

Matthieu Bourel

Yul Brynner (2013)

Duplicity IX - sterling (2019)

Broken mirror (2020)

Matthieu Bourel is a Berlin based artist who works primarily with photomontage and collage. He uses cut - and - paste collage along with digital editing to create works like above . His work is described as ‘ Data-ism ‘( digital version of Dadaism) with an element of surrealism .

‘Bourel’s collages often appropriate images of classic Hollywood stars, which he deconstructs with dark irony’ , Bourel rearranges his characters face to resemble something like a puzzle.

I like the surreal polished quality to his collages , taking ordinary images of celebrities and transforming them into a I’ll fitting puzzle pieces giving them a different meaning. Bringing more emotions to a portrait, from a simple smile, to something eerie and scared. That is what I would like to incorporate in my collage , more meaning and different emotions through cut and paste .

#secondary research #collage #graphic design k00279452

[zoevelthuysenart]

Chiharu Shiota

#chiharu shiota #String #sculpture #installation #rope #secondary research

[insighttellers]

Precision Insights: Expert Quantitative Market Research Services

Our Quantitative Market Research Services help you quickly gather insights from our panellists and understand the changing consumer behaviour. Using our comprehensive services, we find the answers to the most of your questions! Follow this link to know more https://insighttellers.com/services/quantitative-research-market

#Quantitative Market Research Services #Qualitative Research #Translation #Survey Programming #Data Collection & Analysis #Secondary Research #Panel Aggregation #Contracted Work

[k00279003]

Fae Ideas: I decided to watch Spiderwick again and sketch out some of the creature designs in the field journal. I always believed that fae folk didn't look very human and were mostly made of plants that had human faces. This was basically a little practice of taking real life nature things and turning them into what I think it would look like if it was a magical creature.

#secondary research #temporary #faeries #fae folk #faries

[hotgirlhotart]

Mark Rothko’s Chapel is gorgeous display of his work, with intentional low lighting the audience is guided into this quiet and serene landscape. This quiet type of energy is attached closely with a religious and mediative practise as the audience is invited to stillness and contemplation. They are welcomed to spend time with themselves and the work and to have quiet conversations in-between themselves and the work. This chapel invites you for self discovery and for you to experience pure emotion and energy, with little distraction this space opens up for the viewer to hold their own meaning and space between the work and themselves. A beautiful orchestration of experience.

#Secondary Research

[z-a-r-v]

One of the many collaborative pieces made from two artists who highly influence my artwork. Andy Warhol and Jean Michel Basquiat

#secondary research

[k00288209]

Eric William Carroll and Camera-less Photography

Secondary Research / Artist Research

While researching camera-less photography, I came across a video document on Eric William Carroll's creation process. 

In the document, Carroll explained that as modern photography has gotten easier, to create art, he wanted to make the process of photographing a little bit more challenging for himself so he turned to camera-less photography.

During the document, we get to see Carroll’s work process as he captures the shadows of nature for his contemporary collection Blue Line of Woods (2010-2015). He uses big sheets of light-sensitive blue line paper that activate in the sunlight and create the image using the contrast of light and shadow. Carroll runs the sheets through an ammonia fume processor which turns the yellow pigment of the diazo salt on the sheets into a beautiful blue, creating this capturing atmosphere.

In an instant, I was amazed by his work. I've always enjoyed observing the contrast and the movements of the shadows created by foliage. Carroll's introduction to this way of capturing shadows which is completely new to me was absolutely mindblowing, especially when considering the scale he works on. Observing Shadows of different daily situations would be very interesting using this medium.

Carroll also brings up how the images on the sheets will change color and fade when time passes and how the ephemerality of the images strips away the preciousness of the photograph itself, making the whole creation process and exhibition part of the piece.

#lsad #first year #temporary #secondary research #cameraless photography #lumenprint #luminogram #eric william carroll #artist research #shadows #foliage

[k00283645]

Secondary Research

The psychology of imprinting.

This is one of the sources I looked into for my project. As it's about chicks imprinting on things I wanted to take a deeper dive into that that actually is. The main idea I've learned from this there is a certain time in any animal/human's life called the critical period where anything learned is fixed in your brain and cannot be forgotten. "For birds like ducks, geese and turkeys, that hatch and begin walking around, the need to follow something for their own safety is vital to their early survival, so imprinting happens in the first few hours and days." - from the above article. Imprinting is a result of a safety instinct and the consequence of the critical period. Another thing I found out about imprinting that is particularly relevant to my project is the fact that these chicks don't necessarily just imprint on living things. They are known to imprint on for example, the farmers boots instead of the farmer themselves. In one experiment they imprinted on, and followed around a moving toy train. This really opened up my ideas for prints.

#prints #child psychology #animal psychology #chicks #secondary research #imprint

[k00282871]

Sketchbook flip through

#temporary #nightout #movement #blurry #photography #lights #painting #primary research #secondary research #sketchbook #Youtube

[k00295632]

Week 1: Secondary Research & my Idea.

These are some of the different artists I was looking at during the week.

This is Stuart Blackton, the first person to use pixilation and the creator of the "the enchanted mirror". He would "interact" with the drawing, even "removing" parts of the drawing and making them "reappear" as real objects, and would make the face "react". He would stop the recording, make his changes, and continue as before.

This here is Windsor McCay, american cartoonist who created "Gertie the dinosaur", the earliest cartoon to ever feature a dinosaur. This was also the first film to ever use Keyframes, Registration marks, Tracing paper, Animation loops, and Mutoscope action viewer. He would similarly interact with the animation, "throwing" an apple onto the screen and pocketing it when no one looked while an "apple" would appear on the screen, or he would walk behind the stage and "reappear" on screen and ride Gertie.

Georges meileis "trip to the moon (1902)", the first film to use Double exposure, Stop motion, and Slow motion. He was a illusionist film maker and a magician. The film took 3 months to make and was filmed in a greenhouse like building to get as much light as possible.

"Loving Vincent" directed by Dorota Kobiela and Hugh Welchman, the worlds first fully painted film with over 65,000 frames. The they would record the actors dressed as their characters , and would use a projector to project the frames from the video onto the canvases and the animators would paint each frame in Van Gogh's art style.

I briefly looked at Jan Svankmajers "Darkness light Darkness", its a very peculiar piece of media, and it is a 7 minute clay stop motion animation. Its just a body reconstructing itself in a miniature house and figuring out where everything goes.

How does this relate to my project?

Well my idea is to create a mixed media short film based in a haunted art gallery/museum ( some place with a lot of artwork) with a security guard monitoring the building and the strange occurrences within its walls. The main focus will be the different security cameras, which will be changing perspectives a lot, and even the p.o.v of the guard. The centerpiece will be an an animation of a portrait crawling out of the frame, but the first part of the animation will be painted like in "Loving Vincent", but as the creature begins to leave the frame it transforms into stop motion animation with clay. I was thinking that since the creature is made of paint it would make a wet sound when it moves, which is where I want to incorporate foley sound, and leave traces of itself around the building. In the background I want to create other spooky visuals like other paintings distorting or objects from paintings disapearing and showing up in the wrong places like in "The enchanted mirror". I want to experiment with different Camera trick to create different visuals and create suspense like the dutch tilt. I want to slowly unnerve the viewer, using different visual affects and changes in each camera.

There's a lot of work to be done and I'm looking forward to see how I'll incorporate the different workshops into it too

#art #project disrupt #animation #stop motion #idea #planning #art study #secondary research

[tartyfart]

Len LYE - handprinted all his frames directly on to the film. No cameras used. Sound - Don Barreto and his Cuban Orchestra

Walter Ruttman - Opus 1 (<-link) : was painted onto an animation star, photographed and coloured by hand. Music was composed by Max Butting to suit the video. More links to Walter Ruttman:

Opus 2. Opus 3

Norman McLaren explains how he makes synthetic sound on film. With an oscilloscope he first demonstrates what familiar sounds look like on the screen; next, how sound shapes up on a film's sound track; and then what synthetic sounds sound like when drawn directly on film. This technique is also demonstrated in Dots and Loops.

Oram’s ‘drawn sound’ synthesis and sequencing system

The Oramics Machine enabled Oram to synthesise and sequence sound by painting lines and other marks on glass and film strip. Oram invented it as a new means of musical expression, one that enabled her to finely control and vary sounds in ways that went beyond the capabilities of audio tape. The story of Oramics is told here by composer and instrument builder Tom Richards. Tom also outlines his own work building a Mini-Oramics machine from Oram’s original notes and drawings.

#rhythmic painting #experimental film #early animation #secondary research #painted animation #painting and sound #visual music #Opus films #Len Lye #Walter Ruttman #Youtube #Norman McLaren #Daphne Oram #Oramics machine #drawing sound

[k00279452]

Secondary Research

Riso Zine inspiration

After looking at some Riso zines on the internet for ideas for my lamh zine , I came across this , it was a project , a group of women came together in paper rhinos studio and created Riso zines. What caught my eye is the structure of the front page .

The font is strong and pronounced. The word ‘gaze’ is sort of deconstructed, but clearly recognisable , the pink circle brings the focus to the centre of the page while connecting the text below , bringing the whole page into harmony.

I like the layering of the triangles adds dimension. They leave room for a border which I find looks neater , focusing the image and I like the look of the simplistic shapes of leaves and foxes , but I am more focused on the typography -and lay out of their work.

I think I will keep my illustrations in a similar style to my icons , keeping a sense of realism but abstract, I think that works for me more so that a cartoon style.

#secondary research #risograph #zine #lamh #graphic design k00279452

[zoevelthuysenart]

Ruth Asawa

#secondary research #ruth asawa #sculpture #textile #drawing

[lbanksart]

Primary and Secondary Research in relation to Jewellery Design and Insects, ranging all the way from books, to real life bug cases, and artist references taken from internet resources such as gallery websites and Pinterest.

#artfoundation #art #strodecollege #primary research #secondary research #insects #jewellery design