Verbal Presentation

What are you trying to do with the work?

• I have chosen a theme of the misrepresentation, objectification and sexualisation of women in the media.
• The theme encompasses the idea of what we see in the media and specifically on our tv screens is not an accurate representation of women and there is a personal touch from me as I express how I feel about myself when I have to live in a society where I am compared to these perfect women
• I combined these negative exapls of women in the media with ositive ones and used powerful speeches to lift the mood and show to women that women should be treated as equally as men and shouldn t be sexualised or objectified constantly in the media.
• I have also thought about how the viewing of the television does as much for us as much as the fireplace did for past generations and is meant to be a source of relaxation, but in this time of leisure we are hounded with the objectification of women.

 

 

Key Aspects

• My work is really a representation of how I see the media manipulating people’s minds into thinking that women should be sexualised and objectified. Overall, I would like my work to be thought-provoking and for it to bring attention to the misrepresentation of women.
• The main element that people should take away from these videos are that they should feel empowered to be who they are and to embrace themselves and the way they look. At the end of the day looks aren’t everything and what you have inside is most important. My work is really a representation of how I see the media manipulating people’s minds into thinking that women should be sexualised and objectified. Overall, I would like my work to be thought-provoking and for it to bring attention to the misrepresentation of women.

 

Why the choice of a retro feeling to the videos

• Building on an array of found-footage I have been montage clips, abstracting them to give an archaic effect as a way of saying these ideals belong in the past. Immediately as you watch the videos you can see that the TVs have a dated vibe. The key word here is ‘dated’. This is because I want the misrepresentations of women to be a thing of the past. This combined with the powerful speeches demonstrates my message that we need to make a change and stand up to be represented fairly and not represented a sexual object.

 

How am I making decisions with the manipulation and editing of the videos?

• Using words on top of audio of women speaking, I wanted the words to appear on all three screens at the same time. By displaying the words at the exact same time they come out of the women’s mouths amplifies what they are saying and gives the feeling that feeling of empowerment. Therefore, since they are going to be blasted in the viewers face all at the same time I wanted them to be positive so after a negative clip is played the viewer will be shown how we should be represented in the media and it is a message to always remember that even after seeing the negative videos that they are amazing the way they are.
•  
• Even though the glitch transitions are only a small element of my work they were a challenge to say the least. For such small clips they are very time consuming to create. I had to layer lots of layers onto of each other and create wave warps travelling in different directions. On top of this I had to adjust the RGB levels of each layer to create the colours. After that I added in my animation effects that I learned to create the motion effect.
• Layering videos – I had to combine a lot of layers so for example the faces were merged but still both clear and you can identify both women. I learned how to fade he edges and feather the edges so backgrounds of videos didn’t interfere with the importance of the women themselves.
• Again, to create an impactful effect that was in your face I was playing three, sometimes for videos at one time- layers on top of each other. This creates a very busy look similar to James Richards and George Barber. I also changed the colours of some clips to give it vibrancy and a reason why I did this is because I was always bearing in mind this exhibition and I want them to stand out and to draw the viewer in because personally whenever I visit an exhibition this is usually the way I am drawn in.
• Opacity – played a huge part in my editing process. This allowed me to show several clips at a time. Also I found that when layered on top of each other all at once you could see the severity of how bad women are represented.

 

 

Even though I was sourcing the sound of the transitions I still had to edit them so they weren’t to intense and didn’t take over the actually songs/speeches. Therefore I took the skills I learned from how to transition text and managed to teach myself how to fade in and fade out sound as you can see in the screen shot.

I placed these transitions in-between almost even change in audio clips. This supports the jumpy visuals that I have going on, on the monitors.

 

When playing around with the last audio clip it felt best because the song I am using builds up tension itself and really suits the finale of the video. I can imagine combining a very powerful video of an empowering woman to it. I faded it out as I want to keep the videos on a continuous loop. Therefore, there is a clear start and and end point to the video which I think is important when trying to portray the message that I am.

 

Main artists, that have inspired practice/exhibition?

 

Paik

Paik used a TVs as a domestic material within his art ‘, due to Bakelite’s associations with the home and the human user. I want to use a television screen in this way as it shows how social ad cultural influences are brought Ito our homes and forced upon us in our everyday lives.

 

 

ANT FARM

• I am particularly drawn to their piece ‘Phantom Dream Car’. This was where people witnessed a car start its engine and shoot across a parking lot into a stack of 50 television sets. At the moment of impact the Tvs exploded, this being a statement to the public and the broadcasting companies about how we are being sent unwanted messages through advertisements.
• What I like most about this piece of work is the bold statement of how TVs are ultimately something we like to use for relaxation and enjoyment. However, we can’t completely do this we are forced advertisements and music videos and films where we are being sold and unrealistic image of life that ultimately is unachievable and makes us feel like our lives are inadequate in some sort of way. This car smashing into our domestic TVs is a statement of rebellion that we no longer want to be sold a false unattainable reality.

 

George Barber

• Although not tackling the same topic as me barber still addresses problems in the world. Barbers works tackled very current issues such as nuclear war, the border and refugee crisis and drones. Barber responded to these topics thoughtfully, but also with a touch of playfulness. In ‘The Freestone Drone’, Barber gives the drone a conscience, accompanied by a lyrical essay, spoken almost childishly and condescendingly, giving the piece an eerie truth to it.
• Overall, his editing technique has definitely had a huge impact on my work as it has shown me how to address issues through art work.
•