http://player.vimeo.com/video/16862090?color=c9ff23

*The night of soul* my dissertation film from assstrid_lys on Vimeo.

Introduction
My aim in my film was to explore boundaries between the tangible and the solid against sublime and subjective world of thoughts and emotions; understanding the contrast and making an attempt to unify them in one visual representation. The question is, how can you interpret or manifest depression as something solid? How can you visualize feelings and emotions? Even though they have a name every person experiences the same fear, the same moment of happiness in their own personal way. All these things that are not easy to explain I decided to convert them into an experimental film about introspection and depression.

As I perceive it, in our society, most of the people underestimate the power of sadness and depression—sometimes so strong, so deep; that they never recover from an enormous darkness that take over your life. Happiness is not always a material realization of your dreams—To me, is basically a simple, pure and bright state of mind. ‘THE NIGHT OF THE SOUL’ is a film of self-discovery, with a radical confrontation of what we know as ‘self’ changing the person’s behaviour and perception of life.

The creation of the film from scratch was a slow, self-method process. I didn’t have a previous idea, a specific theme, nor the genre decided. So I decided it was easier for me to seek something that somehow it would visually inspire me. As a graphic designer this was a much familiar and safer approach so, during the internship in Wallpaper* magazine, and in some spare time, I researched about artists and concepts that were appealing to me. I went from plastic artists, architecture, installations, to poetry, exploring all the possibilities and deciding what I was capable of achieving with the knowledge and the technology required.
After an extensive research, I started to make a filter of concepts to concentrate in just some ideas. Before realizing I wanted to tell a sad story, the notion of my bittersweet tendency took over. The film was going to be seen as, my way of admiring life for me—The beauty destined to be lost forever. An anomalous perception when, the more one can try to understand life, it slips away at the same time.

Character
Once the ambience was decided, I transformed a personal experience and translate it to the film. I was concentrating mainly to reflect the story of my sister Paola, and how she coped with depression and asthma attacks. She gave me a full description of the episodes: Physically, it all starts when something bad has happened. It is triggered by any stressful situation, frustration. Then, this causes an internal conflict with herself, not allowing to release, the sadness or the anger accumulated. Everything collapses, the muscles get stiff, especially in the shoulders, and the trachea starts to burn as a response of the irritation caused by the feeling.

In her mind, she describes the experience as an isolated agony–She feels that she is unable to belong anywhere, even in her own skin. Haunted by a lack of self-worth, and by an insidious doubt of her own existence, like a battle with herself, trying to get well, but at the same time, she keeps blaming herself. There are two persons inside her, trying to see who is going to endure. She feels that this battle takes place between this two. Everything is darkness; She even feels a dark thing in her chest. Now she feels worse, she feels that she doesn’t deserve any sympathy from no one. Masochism appears suffocating her, like an evil beast that we all have, the dark side of ourselves, the same one that could be used to become better persons, mastering yourself instead of turning it into an auto destructive life. The internal self is, in this case, represented by her soul.

Here I describe the only and the main character, as someone who wants something, in this case, SOUL is trying to find Happiness. Why the audience would want to root for SOUL? Pretty much likely, a lot of people had experienced in their life low spirits. The conflict is created when she gets sick because she thinks she’s weak, mentally and physically. Reasons are many, basically, endless waiting to live her life, endless sadness, asthma attacks, no friends, no support, an invisible obstruction and so on.

When everything looks decay, and finds herself adrift and alone, she is forced at last to confront the central questions of her life: Who is she? And while this happens, she is trying to get the most out of life she tries to get the best of it, what’s the best of her. She decides to push the limit of her strength, she decided not to give in, not get angry or hopeless. The surprise of the story comes when she realizes that Happiness has always been inside her, there’s no more reason to run away. SOUL is showed overcoming her great sadness, and in the end, she meets her shadow. So, against all odds, she has the courage to continue and live life, as she never did before. She finds it in her, embracing her own darkness.

Lying on the boundary between the real, virtual, and fantasy. Light and shadows and mirrors represent a contrasted personality. Mirrors in general, are a metaphor used to make an allusion of a reflection of yourself, physically and spiritually. I imagined a place where you have an intense and exhausting battle with her and what she believes she in, creating reflections in a mirror realm. Based on this, I started to develop the storyboard. First, I had a strong female character lost in her own slumber world. Because is an abstract world, I’m using a representation of her ‘spirit’ or ‘soul’ with refractions of her. Talking to my sister about her experience and how she felt escaping from her. I told her it seemed to me that she run and run all her life, she was exhausted but still she kept running because it was worth living in the end. So this is translated as a personal journey, which takes place during a night. Divided in three stages, I wanted to build a story of empowerment.

Representing a soul is difficult and same problem with a shadow. How can they cry or feel? How they express frustration? A shadow basically is a sort of image produced when light is blocked, but, at the same time, is an accurate silhouette representation of someone. In Psychology, the shadow is something real, and is referred as part of yourself. In “Psychology and Religion” ‘There can be no doubt that man is, on the whole, is less good than he imagines himself or wants to be. Everyone carries a shadow, and the less it is embodied in the individual’s conscious life, the blacker and denser it is. If inferiority is conscious, one always has a chance to correct it. Furthermore, it is constantly in contact with other interests, so that it is continually subjected to modifications. But if it is repressed and isolated from consciousness, it never gets corrected. “Psychology and Religion” (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.131

Can we make a statement that the soul feelings and emotions are silent? As a general knowledge, you never hear cry when your heart is broken, or the anger to shout. We express the feeling the way we understand them but at the same time is not accurate. We cry for joy as well, we shout because we received good news, and we are silent if we are bored or concentrated. A soul can’t be represented as human. It doesn’t express itself with words because is not flesh. No facial expression was a way for me to express her isolation and gloom existence. In the Rudolph Arnheim’s book Film as Art (1958), talks about personification and character personification, the meaning…is “artistically interpreted by muscles of the face, of the limb, of the body. “Thus silent film derives definite artistic potentialities from its silence. What it wishes particularly to emphasize in audible occurrences is transposed into something visual; and thus instead of giving the occurrence of ’itself’, it gives only some of its telling characteristics, and thereby shapes and interrelates it. The emotional quality of the conversation is made obvious with a clarity and definiteness which are hardly possible in the medium actual speech.” p.94

I felt that if the character speaks or refers about her emotions, the voice would make a statement that not always words can describe. “The ‘natural acting’ of everyday life is curious. It is more ambiguous and indeterminate, enigmatic and individual. A person’s facial expression often does not seem to the average beholder in the least indicative of their mental state. Some people look as if they were laughing when they are crying, and some people’s smiles are acid. And, above all, much everyday expression fails to convey a well-defined meaning: one does not how to interpret it. Modern culture is not so direct in their thoughts and feelings as primitive times and the animals.” p. 115

In the other hand, society has preconceptions about oppressed woman who remain silent. Although is not my intention to make a feminist film about the female struggle, she does appear hidden behind the drapes, deciding to take action and finding herself as part of the empowerment process. Then I feel that preconceptions are irrevocably there no matter what film is it; My aim is too embrace the character as a whole, in this case even with a soul, and hopefully putting aside gender and watch it as a human being.

In the other hand, searching for the girl who could represent a soul in female mind was difficult. Since it was a personal experience, it was difficult to me to express the feelings involved in the project as well as direct an actor who has to play silently depressed, and then, all of a sudden, run through the night. Barbara Kennedy states that the psychic construction of subjectivity is not an important factor but rather a more complex concept and can be re-theorised trough a connection with scientific or biological sources of the body/brain.” p.4. So what we see is not represented as ‘image’ but shown as it is evoked as a ‘modulation of image’, a movement image, on the verge of existence, fragments and fugitive thoughts. Landscapes of silence, void and space: An emptiness, which is replete with molecular resonance, resonance of material emotion. I chose a non-actor close friend, who understood the project, was willing to do it, and she was even emotionally involved, which it was the thing I was looking for.

Plot Development

The story was shaped when, during an internship I was making, the company had a special section where there where some give away books, in where I found a small one with short stories that interested me. “She Had Waited for This” by Camille Laurens. It immediately cached my attention, but unfortunately the story had a very disappointing end and basically it ruined everything but, as it had a very strong beginning, I grab the pieces I wanted, re-write some and put it together to use it as the beginning of ‘THE NIGHT OF THE SOUL’. This extract of the story, in which suited quite well the story my sister and my father, both have struggled all their life with strong and severe depressions, living and learning from their experience and shaped the mood of the story:

“She had waited for the day to dawn and the sun to set, for someone to explain things to her, for the bell to ring, for the vacation to begin, godmother to come, for the phone to ring, hundreds of times.”

“She had waited for boys, for men, on station platforms, in airports, waiting rooms of vanished footsteps, the train, bus, plane, taxi. She waited for her turn, to be assigned a role, a place, to be given an order, a function, a solution, to be given meaning; She’d waited for springtime, summer, for the rain to stop, to cease. She waited everywhere, for her time, the right time, the perfect time, she waited for Happiness.”

“She had forgotten everything. She’d forgotten the basics of the piano, her early childhood, the games, the toys, the colours, the smells. She’d forgotten when, where, how–the accusations, arguments, anguish, the tears–she had forgotten why. She’d forgotten when she made the decision. She merely waited for her time, and her time had come–the right time.”

Light has always attracted me, and while I was researching for visual artists and architecture with this concept, I realize that light itself is boring, there was no wonder, no mystery, no bliss. In my opinion Light is only beautiful with shadows, the contrast, such as Life is only beautiful with obstacles and/or challenge. After another serendipity moment, suddenly I remembered the ending of one of my favourite’s books, which is “A Wizard of Earthsea” by Ursula K. Le Guin.

In the first book of the series of EarthSea ‘A wizard of EartSea’., in the end of the novel, Ged (the protagonist) embodies the relativity of the ‘Equilibrium’ and the opposites, (the basis of the stability of Earthsea). The opposites are dependent upon each other (light and dark, good and evil) the concept of balance: “To light a candle is to cast a shadow…”

Ged uses his power, which he has not learned to control, to call a spirit from the dead. He has realized the responsibility he has acquired by loosing the evil, realizing that is his creature and he is able to name it with his own name, he comes to terms with it–with himself. The shadow was merely him, his own dark side. This journey was necessary because without it he was incomplete. Without his shadow, he lacked the balance, the Equilibrium. He was not whole.

Art Structure
I found myself in digging deep down my feelings to find something that inspire me. I came to realize that yellow was constantly catching my attention and everything was brighter and sharp; Traffic lights, warning signs, the golden light of the afternoon…a new way of perceiving the world was folded. Yellow, is a very tricky and temperamental colour with a strong statement. While it can stand in one side for happiness, joy and optimistic promising future–it can also be perceived for decay, sickness, warning and jealousy, dependant on western and occidental culture, in general is a catching-eye colour with a strong statement.

During this process I started to live, learn and pay extra attention to just three topics: loneliness, the colour yellow and light itself and then, in the same time, observing myself, how I behave, how I react to the feeling. I started to get details on the streets, constant shapes, like lines in underground stations and in train coaches; Patterns in colours and patterns in face expressions. All these inspired by the concepts of Happiness and Melancholy.

In the movie Black Sun, tells the story about a French artist and filmmaker living in New York, who was blinded during a violent assault in 1978. In this case his life and his passion, (film and painting), is based on the sight and, that was taken away from him. His amazing reaction to a life-changing event was beautifully shown with his voice narrating the events occurred. I reference this film because it is divided in three acts: Survivor’s testimony, part- philosophical meditation on the nature of perception and gives a new way to see the world, and my film has a similar three act-narrative line to it.

Evolving into a new self, taking the path of the unknown is meant to make a semiotic reference that, in the end the road takes you to find yourself. and a quest must take place to understand it. The path to higher consciousness will pass through the dark night. Until one experience the profound joy of your true nature. My knowledge leaded me to the Poem and treatise by 16th century Spanish poet and Roman Catholic mystic Saint John of the Cross ‘DARK NIGHT OF THE SOUL’. In which I based the title of my film, just taking out the word ‘dark’.

In the poem a metaphor is used to describe a phase in a person’s spiritual life, marked by a sense of loneliness and desolation. The journey occurs during the night, which represents the obstacles and difficulties the soul has in attempt to dethatch from the world and also represents a spiritual challenge in a much broader sense. During the night, the soul goes through a phase of painful experiences and has to endure in order to grow in spiritual maturity. The poem is divided into two books that reflect the two phases of the dark night. The first is a purification of the senses. The second and more intense of the two stages is that of the purification of the spirit.

I based the name of the film and the visual representation of person into an abstract world by using the soul as an element and as a character. Having the context decided, I explored the scenario and the reasons behind the cinematic of ‘THE NIGHT OF THE SOUL’ in black and white, blurry images and high contrast with lights. The only colour in the film is some details in yellow. Studies about depression and threaded psychiatric patients describe it as living life in gray colours. Weaker electrical activity is found in the retinas of depressed people, which give them poor visual contrast so that they see the world in grey, depressing hues. A solarium or other source of bright light may be used as light therapy to treat this. In the case of the memories, these are placed as fragments and each with different speed and with the concept of the shadow, I gathered the aesthetic symbolism in between mirrors, so the scenes appear anachronistic in a retro futuristic kind of way. Their sharp creases, shifting and streamlined thrusts recall the utopian geometries which I based the shapes in the work of the artist, El Lissitzky and the ones after him to give a sense of dynamism reminiscent of the Futurists.

The world created for Soul was based on my research in Gordon Matta-Clark, American photographer and his cultural and political radicals developed the concept of ‘detournement’, the reuse of pre-existing artistic elements in a new ensemble; I was inspired by his radically altered existing structures. In Circus-The Caribbean Orange, his ‘building cuts’ alter the perception of the building and its surrounding environment. Giving the spectator a narrow, but more detailed vision of fragments or sections of a landscape. I placed in some scenes diagonal triangles make three fragments of memories, and three fragments of her running. Two angles running and two faces that appear to be choosing different directions; Creating a mental, inner vision, her own, personal way of perceiving her world. Based in an architectural knowledge, space is a confirmation of such condition. Space cannot be captured in any other way than presence. How space can perform its role as a generator. Anders Eik Pilsog said that ‘the idea of space where I’m never entirely sure what I see, but I sense. Space becomes emotions and sensations; desperation, solitude, freedom sadness, vulnerability, love, joy.’

Shooting Process
The first stage is called Memories. Based on the Art structure, I decided to shoot scenes related to the story, but with the condition that, that every single picture had to have at least one detail in yellow. Taking advantage of a small Sony DSR-PD170 DVCAM I took it to two trips to accomplish the task, one to Brighton, one to Madrid. As in film we are witnesses of the story presented in the screen, we can hear the female voice describing the events that happened to that other girl falling down in depression. But at the same time, it looks like we are a witness of her witnessing herself. Rudolph Arnheim in Film as Art said that “A motion picture itself is an event: it looks different every moment. Motion being one of its outstanding properties the film is required by aesthetic law to use and interpretate motion…which not only serves to inform the audience of the events that make up the story, it is also highly expressive. Motion not only serves to inform the audience of the events.”p.121-122

Shooting the soul was a completely different process. As a representation of an abstract world was taking place, I used the green screen in the room 163 in Penrhynroad Campus as she had to be able to project her ‘superpersonal criteria’ into her interpretation of a slumber soul. Based in films with female protagonists like ‘Life without me’, ‘Amelie’, ‘Run Lola Run’, Meshes of the Afternoon, and films with co-stars like Europa, Great Expectations, etc. Their bodies were meant to translate their emotions, not the voice, just the facial expressions. The movement or non-movement represents impulse and desires. Cioran said ‘Nothingness does not have the rather grim of signification we attribute to it. It is identified with a limit-experience of light, or, if you like, with a state of luminous absence, as an ever-lasting radiant void. There is a pure plane of immancence, univocality, composition, upon which everything is given, upon which unformed elements and materials dance that are distinguished from one another only by their speed, and that enter into this or that individuated assemblage depending on their connections, their relations to movement. p.180

The second stage is called ‘Confusion’: the aim to the soul is to get out of that gloomy place to find anything, she is not waiting for happiness anymore, she just wants to live. Throwing herself into the night, The aim is to start and Empowerment quest. Ideally, I would shoot in an empty street, no cars, no houses. But due to the fact that it was very difficult to find, Mirele helped me to find the ideal locations. Starting from the last scene, we shot the mirror, the forest and the corridor of leaves, in Kingston Hill campus. For the running part we moved close to the campus in Robin Hood Lane street. Shooting hand-held with someone else driving the car, we followed Andreea, played as SOUL running barefoot in some shots, so we could represent a light, natural free being.

The first scene of the running sequence begins with her running besides a small path of light, as a metaphor of a road to illumination and higher consciousness. For the life that she is leaving behind, I used objects that represented traces of memories; Two TV’s, two chairs, and one organ representing the lessons of the piano as the voice had said before. Antony Gormley, known contemporary sculptor said: ‘I like the idea that consciousness is a field activity as much as an individual one. We have been sold a western idea of self-determination and individuality that is based on a very Christian notion of an eternal soul, but in my experience that’s just not the right mode. I think that human beings are immersed in space and time and matter’ Then, based on different opinions, is not about gender anymore, is about the embrace the subject as a whole. As a woman M. Kennedy, in his book, Deleuze and Cinema, The Aesthetics of Deleuze theory, reconfigure corporeality and the role of the min/brain/body within notions of sensations. Considers film as something “outside” the purely representational. A mind-set through Deleuzian conceptions, of affect becoming-woman and sensation. p.3

The third stage is called ‘Oneself’. SOUL or the individual ego could be conceived as the commander of a small army in the struggle with her environments war not infrequently on two fronts, before her the struggle for existence, in the rear the struggle against her own rebellious instinctual nature. Even to those of us who are not pessimists our existence feels more like a struggle than anything else. The state of peace is a desideratum, and when SOUL has found peace with herself and the world it is indeed a noteworthy event. Although it is an experimental film and the editing is abstract, ‘there is ‘subjectless subjectivity which is premised on movements, things flowing, and moving, at a deeper level than subjective awareness. Affective awareness is thus not necessarily a physic state. The ‘feeling’ lies beyond any subjective awareness. Haecceity, rather than subjectivity. Thus the film impacts as a modulation of haecceities, rather than through subjectives.’ p.207

We see SOUL in an open space, with an object in the middle of the field, we could translate it as a mirror or a doorway. Playing with angles and visual semiotics, is difficult to understand why, when she gets closer to it, you can’t see her reflection. What else is there? When her dark reflection appears and she finds the courage to approach, does the journey ends here? Feelings are a portal to a parallel abstract world from what we describe “reality”. p.207

Editing and Post-production

I made different experiments with shapes, colours and sounds. The proportion of the screen is a deliberate intention of creating a cinema atmosphere. The narrow screen was intended as well to be a filter of thoughts, to maximize attention to tiny details. A greyscale, not fully coloured, yellow detailed cinematic is presented backwards, representing the past, reflecting about her life as an abstract interpretation of someone trapped in a stuck situation. “How the affective is formulated through colour, sound, movement, force, intensity. Aesthetics designates the faculty of feeling, perceptible to the senses.” p.4 How she remembers what happened? The situations and how she coped with them. My interpretation of a memory is to show only what was important to her. Pierre Giraud has written that, ‘Art is subjective, it affects the subject’, that is to say, it ‘touches the human organism or psyche by means of an impression or action, whereas science is objective, it structures the object’.p.96

Is a different statement for the voice-over, “It is often said that silent films convey no ideas and that indeed it is impossible that they should because language plays too small part of it Now if by ideas we mean abstractly formulated thoughts, film will not in fact provide them” In ‘THE NIGHT OF THE SOUL’, a female voice is used as a narrative guide to the context of the situation. Is intended to be defiant, sad and frustrated at the same time. But why would she be angry? We may wonder if this female voice is in fact herself looking at her life passed by in front of her eyes. “In literature, language is often used simply to describe concrete events-to say what characters are doing and thinking…Literature uses words for description; film, pictures. In both media guiding ideas are not given in abstract form but clothed in concrete episodes.” p.96

I like to address the Dleuzian sense to explain why I chose a passionate intense strong female voice. According to the Dleuzian theory, they open the question as: ’Are intensities are the very essence of the of becoming-woman sensation? Should passionate intensity which, in its very passion, is full of positivity, life, hope and new beginnings?’ What becoming-woman in Dleuzian terms does is enable a view of woman in relation to the elemental, the material, the local, forces (matter, passion, chaos, affection and affect) where subjectivity is replaced through a materiality and a molecularity of ‘becoming’, in a Netzchean sense. P. 180 Nature, matter, affection and passion are not perceived as static or negative terms, but flowing and relational, changing and creative, and so their connotations in relation to ‘woman’ no longer have their earlier connotations of ‘otherness’ p.96

Music and Sound
I contact one of the master’s students in the Music School to compose a piece for my film. He didn’t get involve with the story, nor the process and unfortunately his lack of interest and rushed tracks made me change the direction of the ambience. One of the members of my crew besides Mirele–A friend and classmate, helped me with the sound in the shooting and he offer to assist me with sound effects for the project and the music for the memories part. We used footsteps and the breathing of my actress, the rest were effects that he already had or sound libraries from the BBC and others. The voice we tried to keep it as clean as possible, so special effects were minimum in that matter.

As I still needed a soundtrack, I search online for copyrighted music that I could use instead. I found a site called mobygratis.com, from the music artist Moby. He released a number of tracks for ‘film music’, As he writes in his site, this is ‘for independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short. The music is free as long as it’s being used in a non-commercial or non-profit film, video, or short…’ So I requested the track called ‘Fumes’ and the licensed was granted in a matter of twenty-four hours. I felt that, this track was perfect for the mood of the film and it was a great finding.

Conclusion
After finalizing the project and seen the final result I challenge people to rethink about preconceptions about woman, depression and free will. To be in touch with your feelings, represents a preconceived notion about female mind and by that we mean weakness? Does the silence in a woman always have to represent a sense of oppression? Can we judge by the identity, sex of a character, without a preconception of gender? Can cinema approach the abstract world of feelings and push experimental film further with new techniques, technology and a solid approach to represent a emotions? And finally, Can we approach as society, to value the abstract world, and make it as real as the physical world?

Is about getting deeper, getting more real. Even though I am portraying a non- physical world. Interpretation of reality is already altered in films and people believe is the truth. It is possible to make an experimental film that makes sense to everyone, and it is possible to approach subjective themes and make it as in-depth development of realistic characters as drama films does.

References

AJ Shepherd, WG Julian, AT Purcell (1989), “Gloom as a psychophysical phenomenon”, Lighting
Aston, Elaine and Geraldine Harris(2007) Performance, Practice and Process
John M. Eagles (2003), “Seasonal affective disorder”, British Journal of Psychiatry (182): 174-176
Hannah Devlin (July 21 2010), “The world truly a grey place for the depressed”, Evening Herald
Simpson, Joel (2007) Les recontres d’Arles phtograpphy (2007) Photography Festival in Arles, France: Part I and II, http://www.artshub.co.uk/uk/news.asp?sId=165507&ref=admin

Bker, Jo (2003) Offcomer, Editors of Phaidon Press

(2010) Creamier: Contemporary Art in Culture: 10 Curators, 100 Contemporary Artists, 10 Sources

Takamine, Tadasu (2008) Big-Stop Gardening of Anger, Orchestras, Waste obkects, mirrors, motor control device, spotlights, strobe, computers, speakers.

Susan E. Rothwell, Fergus W. Campbell (1987), “The physiological basis for the sensation of gloom”

Ursula K. Le Guin: A Wizard of Earthsea

Baldick, Chris. The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. Oxford University Press, 1990

Beckett, Samuel (1953) Waiting for Godot, tragicomedy in 2 acts

“Psychology and Religion” (1938). In CW 11: Psychology and Religion: West and East. P.131

Yamashita, Kumi (1997) Building blocks, (1999) Conversation http://kumiyamashita.com/

“Analytical Psychology and Weltanschauung” (1928) In CW 8: The Structure and Dynamics of the Psyche. P.693

Art:
Belasco, Daniel (2005-4-1), “Review of The Unseen Cindy Sherman: Early Transformations”,
The Modern Museum of Art, MoMA Highlights, New York: The Museum of Modern Art, revised 2004, originally published 1999, p. 189

Diet, Wigeman (2009) Anagram
Moon, Joon (2010) augmented shadow, http://thesis.joonmoon.net/

Redman, Mike (1984) Regarded from two sides

Christian Boltanski – Shadow Sculptures, http://www.tate.org.uk/magazine/issue2/boltanski.htm

Matta, Gordon Clarck (1976). Super 8 film transferred to video (color, silent), 15 min. Committee on Media Funds. Courtesy Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York. Circus-The Caribbean Orange

Films

Bunnuel, Luis and Salvador Dali (1928) Un Chien Andalou

Coixet, Isabel (2003) My Life Without Me
Cuaron, Alfonso (1999) Great Expectations
Deren, Maya and Alexander Hammid (1943) Meshes of the afternoon

Folman, Ari (2008) Waltz With Bashir

Gondry, Michel (2006) The Science of Sleep, (2004) Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Jeunet, Jean-Pierre (2001) Amélie

Kieslowski, Krzysztof (1993) Three Colours: Blue

Tarkovsky, Andrei (1983) Nostalghia
Tarn, Gary (2004) Black Sun

Tier, Lars Von (1991) Europa (Zentropa)

Tykwer, Tom (1998) Run Lola Run

Ramsay, Lynne (2002) Morvern Callar

Sokurov, Aleksandr (2002) Russian Ark

I’m starting a project questioning reality. Illusion and perception of objects and our interaction with them after we learned their preconceived function.

This last decade we are loosing our ability to be impressed by the new. Everything comes easy, I believe that we are don’t observe nor appreciate the tiny little details in everyday life that, without them, what we perceive as reality becomes strange…what we see not always is what we expect to be.

Coco and I are approaching the concept of an timeless old elegant porcelain cup with the illusion of an “anti-gravity tea-not going down tea”… We discovered the idea by accident…walking by an already late visit to the Design’s week in London, we entered to the last open exhibition which was more about fancy old ceramic stuff than “innovative” design.

We where sadly wondering around the store and then suddenly saw the same “illusion mistake”…

Details to come! Meanwhile let’s have a Zen moment*

I learnt that I put limitations on myself and you can see that other people will do that as well, don’t bet against yourself, and take risks.  Things most of the time don’t come out as planned and we should embrace change and Metamorphosis cause it can lead to something else we were not expecting, something new. Failure has to be an option in art and in exploration, because it’s a leap of faith. And no important endeavour that required innovation was done without risk. There should be no room for fear.

“Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don’t think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn’t stop you from doing anything at all.”
— Richard P. Feynman

The process of creation and entrepreneurship starts with the person surrounded by some external forces that will define his personality and his perception of the world. Plenty of factors to consider like:  family, social status, ethnicity, place of birth, language, education, and so on. After gathering and filtering all this information comes the unique vision of the world, which is developing in the mind of this person. Another stage is the metamorphosis process. The time has come to show to world what is that that you want to offer.

What is an Artist? “Is a descriptive term applied to a person who engages in an activity deemed to be an art.” An artist also may be defined as, “a person who expresses himself or herself through a medium”1. The word also is used in a qualitative sense of, a person creative in, innovative in, or adept at, an artistic practice in which he is a proficient and expert, he is passionate about it because he believes in his vision, his perception of the world. So, in my opinion an artist is already an entrepreneur. First I am going to talk about how I came across with creativity.

GOALS

Since I was little, I have believed that Art is an important factor in life. All human activities in several fields such as information technology, economics, design, social and others will run well if they are developed in a good framework of innovation. This circumstance stimulated me to attend a faculty of Design. As a Graphic designer I became fascinated with issues that concern innovation, visual problem solving, and a critical review process in order to get the attention of the viewer. It seems easy but there is a lack of understanding about what Art and Innovation is all about and where it is coming from. The key is Thinking out of the box is a given when the ‘box’ keeps changing shape and size.

My goal of a master degree was materializing, but then I came across with a special “extra” a similar course called Creative Economy. I had never heard that term before, and I asked a number of people if they were familiar with it. I was drawn to the course; it felt right to me so without hesitation I applied for MA in Filmmaking and Creative Economy.

Most of my work experience relies as an online designer where in Warner Music Mexico were somewhat similar. My responsibilities were to deliver original concepts and execute designs based on the artist’s musical concept, the creation and maintenance of the artist’s specifications, its brand usage, development of proposals for album covers, logo and press packages, print and digital depending on the case. Every job was a challenge and a constant learning process. These experiences have opened my mind to a new wider range of knowledge.

Ironically my work experience as a web designer doing e-commerce and online branding helped me to contribute to the team in all the visual part for Mango Media.

My role in the team is to the Visual artist/Art director. I make a contribution in all the visual part of the process as. Understanding the problem and make visual solutions is part of it. Perception, cognition, and attention to concrete using the information collected in the meeting with the client I’ll be able to develop an outline of the content and goal of the project, which I can present to our client for approval before proceeding.

The journey started and we had to decide what kind of business we wanted to present ourselves. Same as artists and mainly entrepreneurs, they not always work individually; sometimes collectives and groups are formed to represent the idea. Is a fusion of minds working together to reach the same goal. Georgy Petrov, is an associate research fellow at the University of Exeter’s Centre for Leadership Studies, He said: “What remains clear is that distributed leadership is not a successor to individual leadership in higher education, removing the need for formal leaders and structures, but rather something that might reside alongside individual leadership.”19

As a student in filmmaking, I learnt that, although the director gets all the credit, you need to have a team, otherwise is impossible to make it happen. So we set the team and the purpose: To create a new creative enterprise. After a lot of brainstorming we came as a young innovative company, fresh, with a cutting edge service, what exactly we weren’t sure. The start point began with the search of the name, which was difficult, and sometimes we all agreed and then the next meeting, the one person who missed the meeting is the one who doesn’t agree and we lost 4 hours in the library already.

Reality

The problem for our “cutting edge service” was that the service was not specified; we were trying to offer everything or anything possible for a media company, which is already a wide option. “We love the diversity of every single project and love to give you a professional product at affordable prices. Ranging from graphics, motion pictures, music and post-production, we provide high quality products customized to your needs.” So finally, set on a Media Production Company basis, we searched for competitors based in London. We tried to compete with these companies offering as well a range of services, all in-house, from traditional marketing and creative solutions.

The first client was easy to find a new client, due to the fact that he needed “anything” as, so we try to meet the needs of our first potential client. A logo and a website for a student Applying the “Empathic method” we formulated a questionnaire trying to anticipate what the client would want from us as well as how to react if something goes wrong and he is not pleased with final product. Cognitive, Emotional and Physical. Group brainstorming was the number one activity in Mango Media. For me this was quite new; I’ve never worked like that before, not even when I was working; I’ve always been the lone wolf kind of designer.

As a visual artist, I’m a communicator. I research and sketch to have a unique and very sensitive perception with high cognitive and sensitive ability to see beyond of what is obvious. I feel I bear great responsibility with what I want to provide and communicate. First of all, an artist must decide upon and establish an artistic vision that truly represents her or his creative goals. To accomplish this, there are important choices to be made, including what subject matter that best reflects their passion.

First, it began with sketching exercises and developing the logo for Mango media and start the branding process. I was in the search of a particular vision and technique for this. Reflect in the logo a special way glimpse of our work, and what makes it unique and respected. Unfortunately were stuck for so long in the prejudice area without testing for results; To be “Fear of Being Wrong, Fear of Being Rude or Fear of Seeming Mad”.  We should have truly believed in the idea, and the concept behind it.

Obstacles

After the search for our niche in digital services, we were willing to take risks. But we came across with another creativity wall and the reality is that we were far away from our goal.  We didn’t feel the passion our three personas. However we realize one important factor that brought us together in the first place: Music was what we had in common. The problem was, that we already had too much brainstorming and we felt that it was another step back in the process. We wanted to do something amazing, but we were not sure what.

The magic of creating something new, relays on the creative process, which is also develop in a trial error basis. It begins always with the quest in search for something, but in the artistic world, the idea frequently doesn’t come as specifically planned, set with a strategy or hierarchy standards. It can be consider a divine thing. The concept of “serendipity” is applied, and it seems that is only a glimpse, muse-inspiration chance, that you can miss if you are not prepared for it. “They were always making discoveries, by accident and sagacity, of things they were not in quest of”6 As Medieval Conceptualization of Creativity stands that creativity is “the Province of God, Earthly creativity is a boundary phenomenon”; So when is the right moment and serendipity strikes, the concept is born and the metamorphosis is unstoppable. Once it has begun, it grows, develops, transforms itself and begins to take a special shape, it begins what I would call in this case a Morphogenesis stage.

Metamorphosis and Morphogenesis work together putting in place the new creation. Our passion for music made us re-define the market entry strategy for music bands presenting the press kits as a product to define the band’s image. But also defining their image, bringing the possibility to make their visual art as well; For instance, album covers and logos. This is an example of how you can set a strategy for any an idea, not only a piece of art. Product Origin: experience and Matter, performance and skills, shape and details, product use body language. What does it express? Sense how does it feel, taste, sound, look and smell. And finally, its lifetime, the product future matter.

I came across a beautiful analogy about the concept of the product and what it represents, it. Written by Ed van Hinte, “Eternally yours: time in design: product value sustenance”—Which he is explaining about the main character is the name of any product and the main text addresses the subject of sustaining Vivian’s value in time. “A name was chosen to avoid excessive use of words ‘product’ and ‘object’, and it became Vivian because both women and men can carry it and it means ‘living’. The text first describes the world in which Vivian would have to survive. Vivian is a paradox. Vivian is a new product has the potential to be kept in use for a longer time. Vivian steals time from the other products. Designers are all for Vivian.”13

Options

After a filter of options we finally came across with the idea of resuming our passion for music into digital and print press kits. We found about a new way to present an artist’s image and musical vision: The Electronic Press Kit Card in a USB flash business card. So handy and light, plus the logo and background image will make the artist easily recognizable for fans or even record label companies.

Another stage of Mango Media began. This time it felt more tangible and clear where our purpose was relying on. But the way we see ourselves, and the way we see society is complicated. We are innately predisposed to be prejudiced. We chose to prototype for one of the members of the team and his rap music project. This was the first time we work together as a well-delegated team. First looking for visual inspiration, trends and references in the music business’s art. What visual we are looking for? How to communicate the idea properly? How the picture of his mind matches the aim that we wanted to fulfil?

As a Graphic designer studying Film making, you can realize that in each case, besides trusting your skills, you need to develop your special touch to things. Develop your style, adapt it, transform it, evolve it and maybe start again in your Metamorphosis process. Analyzing, reflecting, analyzing again, until the final product becomes more accurate.

Reality

At the beginning we cannot see all its potential, we spend most of the time solving dilemmas, we have to consider what actions we need to take to get them. Addressing this point, taking for example entrepreneurship and design culture. The Metamorphosis process is so strong, so intimate, so yours that you create a bond within your concept and your vision, and sometimes you loose track of what is real and what is not working anymore.

So testing this vision in the Fair Trade was difficult but a very excited processes. We put on a pretty colorful set for the trade fair – with the mango being our central theme, it was orange galore! Dressed in black but with details in orange like ties, hair extensions for the girls and shades for the guys. We look so high-tech with the iMac monitor and two Mac laptops, looping advert, orange balloons and free mango juice, just made the whole difference. Our first basic website was ready! The design is based in a “Californian surfer style”, Is all about being carefree and fun, with a comfy and cozy-feeling, and a laid-back mind with contrasting strong, bright color patterns.

We went confronted ourselves with questions and issues from mass media, environmental experience and sub-cultural language, which created an intoxicated mixture of feelings about our services. We come to realize that we were not taking the entrepreneurship to the next level. We weren’t sure about the design process, nor the prices of the USB press kits and therefore showing a clear gap of what we thought we could offer and the potential customer’s point of views. Nevertheless a lot of people were very interesting, or just approach because they were curious about the orange galore. In my opinion the branding strategy with the mixture of the logo, website, advert and stand, it was a great success.

WAY FORWARD

My immediate goals I have to say is to define my passion and filter my options. I have been in the quest of the knowing, the good and the bad, still without a fixed expertise in any field. To gain experience before I graduate is a priority, therefore I applied and got for an internship in Wallpaper* magazine as the online designer. Although is not what I want to be specialized cause I already have experience in web design, I think that is important to have a good platform and interesting references in the CV cause that opens doors and opportunities, regardless the field I want to be work in.

After I finish the internship and my dissertation film I want to gain more work experience in the UK in the Creative industries; specially in visual arts, experimental and abstract films, art installations and painting; Taking risks and be able to give direction to my skills in a more effective way. All of this based on my graphic design experience and my new knowledge of filmmaking, so by the end of this year hopefully I’ll be working in a production company or a great art magazine. Who knows? Only time. Nevertheless I feel that the experience in MACE has mentally awake me up in an artistic and intellectual way. I feel prepared for everything less shy and more proactive person. Is a fast lane process, non-stop, like in the real world.

Conclusion

In the end is all about connecting minds together into one thought. Passion and hard work is the key. At it best, entrepreneurship should be symbiosis between passion and creativity.

The lessons learned while I was managing creativity, is that is important not to doubt about yourself. You have has got to be a leader, because there was times where I had to stop and, say, “What am I doing out here? Why am I doing this? What do I get out of it? Then you realize that is not about being the best or the brightest. You’re doing it for the task itself, for the challenge.

I learnt that I put limitations on myself and you can see that other people will do that as well, don’t bet against yourself, and take risks.  Things most of the time don’t come out as planned and we should embrace change and Metamorphosis cause it can lead to something else we were not expecting, something new. Failure has to be an option in art and in exploration, because it’s a leap of faith. And no important endeavour that required innovation was done without risk. There should be no room for fear.

“Fall in love with some activity, and do it! Nobody ever figures out what life is all about, and it doesn’t matter. Explore the world. Nearly everything is really interesting if you go into it deeply enough. Work as hard and as much as you want to on the things you like to do the best. Don’t think about what you want to be, but what you want to do. Keep up some kind of a minimum with other things so that society doesn’t stop you from doing anything at all.”2
— Richard P. Feynman

References

1. Bragg, Melvyn (28th March 2002) “In Our Time: The Artist” BBC Radio 4, TX http://www.live.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/series/iot

1. Feynman, Richard P. “quotes by Richard P.” http://www.goodreads.com/author/quotes/1429989.Richard_P_Feynman
2. Cameron, James (filmed Febreary 2010, posted March 2010) James Cameron: Before Avatar … a curious boy http://www.ted.com/talks/james_cameron_before_avatar_a_curious_boy.html

1. Centerfolds, Cindy Sherman and Peter Galassi (1997) “The complete untitled Film Stills, Cindy Sherman”. MOMA, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

1. Dikeou, Devon (1997) Rachel Harrison: The Look of Dress-Separates; Greene Naftali, New York, New York.

http://www.zingmagazine.com/zing4/reviews/10harrison.html

1. Elimeliahart, Craig (published on January 13, 2006) “Craig Art Vs. design”

http://www.aiga.org/content.cfm/art-vs-design

1. Fiell, Charlotte and Peter Fiell (2006) Design Handbook: Concepts, Materials, Styles

1. Frith, Chris (2007) Making Up the Mind: How the Brain Creates Our Mental World. Wiley-Blackwell

1. Hansen, Scott“ISO50 | Academy of Art Lecture Clips”, (filmed March 18th 2010) Academy of Art students in San Francisco.  http://vimeo.com/10841847

1. Gilbert, Scott F. (2000). “Morphogenesis and Cell Adhesion”. Developmental biology (6th ed.). Sunderland, Mass: Sinauer Associates

1. Hall, Tony and Karen Janmanh (2009) “The Leadership Illusion: Connections and Context”

1. Hill, Paul (1982) l ‘Approaching Photography‘ London Focal Press.

1. Hinte, Ed van (2004) “Eternally yours: time in design: product value sustenance”, Rotterdam : 010 Publishers

14.   Hodges, Elizabeth Jamison (1964) “The Three Princes of Serendip”. Longman Young Bks.

1. 15. Honigman, Ana Finel (Posted by editorial on July 17, 2006) “READ THIS & CUM’: DAN COLEN ON THE ART OF MAKING IRREVERENT ART”

1. Jos Koldeweij, Paul Vandenbroeck, Bernard Verme. Artists (2001)

1. “Hieronymus Bosch: The Complete Paintings and Drawings.” Harry N. Abrams, Inc.

18.   Merton, R.K. and Barber, E. (1910-2003) “The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity: A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science”

1. Newman, Melanie and John Gill (published on 22 May 2008) “Distributed leadership model gives ‘illusion’ of consultation.” © 2007 TSL Education Ltd. ttp://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?sectioncode=26&storycode=401985

1. Paul E Plsek, and Tim Wilson, BMJ. 2001 September 29; 323(7315): 746–749. © 2001, BMJ
2. Complexity, leadership, and management in healthcare organisations http://www.bmj.com/cgi/content/full/323/7315/746

1. Philips, Lisa (2003) “Cindy Sherman: Centerfolds” Skarstedt Fine Art.

1. Roh, Franz and Jan (1929) “Mechanism and Expression, the Essence and Value of. Photography from Photo-Eye: 76 Photos of the Period.”

1. Ruscha ,Ed (2009) Ed Ruscha: 50 years of painting, Hayward Gallery, London

1. Schmidt, Jason (2007) Artists, Photographs by Jason Schmidt, Edition 7L/Steidl

Is all about being carefree and fun, with a comfy and cozy feeling , and a laid-back mind contrasting strong, bright color patterns.

The feeling we are trying to give is an almost 60′s philosophy that everything will be all right, you just need to relax, take your time and let’s talk about your music, your image, your art.

The website needs development but it has been a good transition from the previous one, plus navigation is handy, easy, and very straight-foward. We project the image of Mango Media as a beautiful cool sunny day! No matter what the problem is, the sun keeps shinning.

And this, campaign by Heineken deals with roles and behaviors within men and women. Awesome, very straight foward and hillarious!

At the beginning we cannot see all its potential, we spend most of the time solving dilemmas, we have to consider what actions we need to take to get them. Addressing this point, taking for example entrepreneurship and design culture. The Metamorphosis process is so strong, so intimate, so yours that you create a bond within your concept and your vision.

So testing this vision in the Fair Trade was difficult but a very excited processes. Our first basic website was ready! The design is based in a “Californian surfer style”, Is all about being carefree and fun, with a comfy and cozy feeling , and a laid-back mind contrasting strong, bright color patterns.

We went confronted ourselves with questions and issues from mass media, environmental experience and sub-cultural language, which created an intoxicated mixture of feelings about our services. We come to realize that we were not taking the entrepreneurship to the next level. We weren’t sure about the design process, nor the prices of the USB press kits and therefore showing a clear gap of what we thought we could offer and the potential customer’s point of views.

Nevertheless a lot of people were very interesting, or just approach because they were curious about the orange galore. In my opinion the branding strategy with the mixture of the logo, website, advert  and stand, it was a great success.

Scott Hansen is an Artist / Musician (Tycho) based in San Francisco, his design pseudonym is ISO50. In this lecture he talks about all the process of creation, his passions and his point of view about visual artists.

ISO50 | Academy of Art Lecture Clips from ISO50 on Vimeo.

http://vimeo.com/10841847

The design is based in a California surfer style v.s. a wood floor simulating a recording studio. not organized, fresh and open to new ideas* The objects appear big in the screen as like you can almost touch them and the horizontal scrolling simulates walking along the room. Twitter and Facebook groups are found in the corner*

The tv is retro style and the company is presented in a nutrition facts label as a natural, fresh, easy going company.

Services is presented as a two option alternative, visuals are placed and we play with perspective.

First client, quick view***