Pulse 

Audio Description:

The soundscape is a constant white noise that sounds almost like rushing water, with small and quick undulations underneath, barely heard.  The title ‘pulse’ comes from the quietly pulsating motions in the image and sound, and Pulsatile Tinnitus, a form of Tinnitus where you can hear the internal sounds of blood flow rhythmically beating with the heart. 

Image Description: 

A two-minute long moving image work with different videos layered over each over, building slowly.

A close-up shot fades in as water flows in from the left-hand side of the screen, swaying a mass of submerged freshwater plants to the right hand side of the screen; and back and forth again, continuously throughout the film. They seem to be attached to a rock or other material off-screen, and sway with the currents and eddies of the water. The gatherings of thin strands  on the plants swell and release, and are soft and feathery, moving in multiple directions with the current. Sometimes reddish hues and textures appear underneath the plants, which colours the strands, making them look like coral or like pinky-red flesh. Another layer of imagery is then added to the film, of the surface of water with shadows of reeds in its dappled reflections. Underneath, barely seen is close-up footage of pale skin, lightly stretching and folding. At points the reddish hues, swaying weeds, stretching skin and dappled reflections merge together, forming new shapes and textures. Towards the end of the film it becomes more apparent that the rough, red textures underneath are a close-up of a crusted red scab on skin. (The film-maker doesn’t know exactly which water plant is in the film, but it may be Willow Moss or similar)

About: 

I have been thinking about making the film component for my practice-based PhD and felt (internal) pressure to ‘step up’ my film-making in terms of a larger production involving a lot of complex shots; I can enjoy this process at times, but then it can feel unwieldy and insurmountable to get started. But then as Helen mentioned in one of our conversations about building in a Crip Methodology to the research itself, I remembered that why I make mostly (relatively) low budget DIY films is because they’re more accessible for me to make with chronic illness. The daily reality is that I often don’t have necessarily have the capacity to do long film shoots, and the logistics and communication that this involves; to do something smaller-scale and immediate (like filming in my bedroom or the park near where I live) makes working with film feel a lot more possible again.