Final Pieces

Final film displayed on a analogue television so it can be played in a loop.

Interactive flip book.

Development : Recording human noises and tree noises

After getting the contact microphone I now could try and record sounds of the human body inside myself. I'm wanting to do this since my themes of the project have been the human body and trees. Experimenting with a contact microphone allows me to play around with the noises and sounds from what the initial project and subjects have been about.

To get the most clear sound without much static and unwanted noises picked up I tried taping the mic to parts of my body so it could be close and flat to the sources.

I tried drinking water, breathing and swallowing for the first few tests I then went on to try and do further recordings in the sound studio. I got some interesting sounds but sadly would pick up the drilling of the builders every now and again.

After getting a wide collection of different body functions and sounds I then tried recording the other theme of the project trees and the forest. It was at times really difficult and tricky since tree's on their own don't really make that much sound. But what did help where the elements of nature which created very surreal and atmospheric sounds.

Putting the microphone into a hollow tree let me hear the wind blowing through it as well as the amplified surroundings as it made a sort of giant speaker.

Recording against tree's surfaces sometimes didn't always give me much feedback but I would sometimes pick up insects. Being a nature sound recorder can take a lot of paitance. 

But natures elements helped a lot as well as the general sounds of forests and I got a lot of sound clips to work with. I edited the sound in audacity to create a mixed track of overlapping human and tree recordings. I had the idea to do the audio in this way since most of the project since the photography is nearly all mixed images of the contrasting themes.

Here is some samples of the sound clips unedited.

To just show some examples of the types of clips I had been recording and will be using for the final movie soundtrack. I will be adding this sound to the contrasting Photoshop images from the previous post. I will be setting up my assessment space very soon to show my work and sketchbooks. And getting all my files ready for submission just the final push now.

Here is the final audio track with progress photography.

Development : Successful photoshoot and reflection of tutorials and capturing sound (Warning nudity)

After figuring out how to do the projections on my body without shadow I jumped into another studio to retry this method. I had the help of my classmate Sarah Smart to take photographs while I posed being more aware of my body movements and placement of my limbs. She had to hold the camera right above and placed on the projector to make sure their was no shadows behind me. I helped direct her and let her know what I wanted to achieve for composition and edited the photographs from the last photo shoot in the woods as well as some trees used in the first session of using my body.

The images ended up becoming very vivid in color through the projections and the color palette ended up being much more varied. I experimented with other body language and movement after feeling more confident and comfortable for another photo shoot as well as the research into choregraphy.

This photo session ended up being really key into furthering my project and helping my confidence about the theme and imagery. Getting a huge variety of different photographs has given me a lot to work with and narrow down all the different body experimentation I wanted to try out for this part of the project. I've edited these images and have sent the files away off to be printed which hopefully should arrive soon.

I want to make the prints of these into the type of flip books I planned to create and get them binded in the university library. I've also took short film clips of this session with projected video over my body to see how it looked and if worked together. Also been experimenting with the footage I've collected in the woods and of my body in Final Cut Pro.

Recently had my last open Tutorial with Janice Aitken and felt her input would be very useful because had the perspective of a painter and use's the human form in her work. Her session was very positive and she gave me strong advice on my images especially the ones were I had mixed the trees and my body together.
She also recommended I try to use a contact microphone for the sound recordings I eventually wanted to achieve.
Her mentioning this made me come up with the idea of wanting to record the inner workings of my body such as my breathing and bodily fluids but also to try the same idea in the woods. And I would like to try the same with trees and record possible noises inside them.

This also inspired the ideas I've had with Pernille and how from her perception the tree's on my body look like veins and organic matter. Which makes the relationship with the body and the tree images with a much stronger connection and that it could work with the same kind of sound recordings.

Will continue to have to finish editing my contrasting film clips and add sound in after my contact Microphone arrives. I hope to have my prints shortly as well to create into the book and finish off my sketchbooks in time and begin to plan out my work for assessment.