Research – Page 5 – VITAL CAPACITIES

(text-colour:red)+(background:(hsl:162,0.7238,0.6451,0.7))[Alt/Text: .. (t8n-time:1.5s)[[melted red plastic fingernail on white hand in boiling put of tumeric on cheap stove in Kitchen in Birmingham,->blood on the water]] alongside the River Cole. Inset image: an image of a large police-hand covered tight in sick-blue gloves, which the police wear when they are touching (t8n-time:2s)[[bodies->The Body]] or objects without consent. The rubbered-de-oxiganted-blue police hand holds a dirty white arm, with long read nails; dripping water. The red nails bleed on to fingers. The image is from (link: "this news article")[(goto-url: 'https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/hand-arm-found-river-cole-18211227')].Inset 2: black and white night vision police image of the river cole taken from above. T(t8n-time:1.5s)[[his is from the night the police break up a rave in June 2021->police rave]]. Bodies are close to each other. Inset 3: body in pink in front of a bridge over the river looking down at knee](t8n-time:1.5s)[[spit->The foam]]

hand and arm

Care Work with Melissandre Varin

Thinking about the ways that we formed ideas about our bodies and who had influence, especially in relation to our identities, is always a headfuck. Doing this project has been a reminder of this so I wanted to try to include an action that felt more nourishing, gentle and caring than my other research.

I asked a new friend, Melissandre Varin, who I had met through an online performance workshop, if they would have a conversation with me about these body topics. I had attended Mel’s artist talk and I find the way that Mel speaks about bodies and their own personal experiences to be very candidly honest and at the same time generous and kind.

A white background with black braided hair of different thicknesses overlaid and layered over each other. — Image from Melissandre’s Installation Work

we are not holding hands

.. melted red plastic fingernail on white hand in boiling put of tumeric on cheap stove in Kitchen in Birmingham, alongside the River Cole. Inset image: an image of a large police-hand covered tight in sick-blue gloves, which the police wear when they are touching (t8n-time:2s)[[bodies->The Body]] or objects without consent. The rubbered-de-oxiganted-blue police hand holds a dirty white arm, with long read nails; dripping water. The red nails bleed on to fingers. The image is from (link: "this news article")[(goto-url: 'https://www.birminghammail.co.uk/news/midlands-news/hand-arm-found-river-cole-18211227')].

summer monster GIF

Break Time… in resistance of professional hyperability

I’m a professional video artist and my favourite videogame is Diablo.

I have really enjoyed occupying this digital studio space and having a dedicated period of time working on a single project. The support from vital Capacities and Film London has been amazing and I am excited to develop all of my research and tests into something to present as part of the exhibition later this month.

I am battling my own internal ableist voices which are telling me that I could have done MORE, posted more, worked more.. I have been resisting the urge to be professionally hyperable.. (yuck). And in many ways I have failed because I am exhausted.

So now it’s breaktime! If anyone needs me I’ll be in a static caravan on the Yorkshire coast for the week and you can speak to my out-of-office autoresponse until then.

bursting

a bmw trapped beneath a bridge and flooding a the river cole

still

It’s coming home?

BTS of me and Hang Linton recording The Champs

A little BTS of the recording of the Champs cover we did a couple weeks ago. A treat to celebrate England getting to the finals tonight! Enjoy the game!

video description: Hang Linton sits in a home music studio with dark grey soundproofing foam on the white walls and white and yellow speakers in the background, wearing black headphones, a white tshirt and black twists in his hair. In the background is a wide but small window with cream curtains, it looks sunny outside. On the window sill there is a gold lucky waving cat. Hang sings with a twisted pained look on his face, sweating from the heat, the camera zooming into his face.

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Black screen with white font subtitle at the bottom [sound of subtitles] — Screen capture of [sound of subtitles]

Black screen with white font subtitle at the bottom [music and sound fades] — Screen capture of [sound of subtitles]

These two images are the beginning and the end of the video work titled [sound of subtitles].

fish

Fandom

Two people stood outside of a large footy stadium shot slightly from below so that the stadium looms over them like an ominous space ship. It's shadowy in front of a cloudy sky. The two people are brightly lit and gaze upwards, both visible from the waist up. The person on the left has a black bob haircut and they are wearing a green and red footy shirt. The person on the right has short brown hair and head band across their forehead and a blue footy shirt with white details. They both have their hands in their pockets, they look slightly pensive like they have seen something in the sky that is about fall down in front of them. — GAA MAAD Theatre Work by Aine O’Hara and Vickey Curtis

I recently discovered Aine O’Hara’s work online. Their theatre piece pictured above, GAA MAAD, is all about being a queer footy fan in Ireland and the rejection and abuse that comes with that.

I’m really interested in fandom, the way we attach ourselves to specific teams, players, fighters etc but I especially love the way crowds move and ripple and thrash about together. It was strange and surreal to see a mass of static cardboard cutouts or screens of fans at home during the pandemic, as well as the fake crowd noise.

A sea of footy fans, almost all of them have their arms raised up and almost all of them are wearing red and white footy outfits. Many have large England flags which are a white rectangle with a red cross which they have added their hometown names, their own names or their own slogans to such as 'Tommo', 'Bollocks' and 'Redhill', which they have hung off the edge of the stands. — England fans in Germany in 2006

I also like it when they do close ups on the telly of disappointed and sad fans when their team is losing, even better if they are really dressed up for the occasion with face paint, a comedy hat and a flag wrapped around them, decorating their downturned face.

Football fans in blue and yellow sat in the stands of the stadium. Central is someone in a full body blue and yellow morph suit with a flag wrapped around their neck with their head in the hands, all the fans around them look sad and fed up too/

Three football fans all dressed in orange with spiky orange, blue and white hats on with 'Holland' written on them, orange sunglasses on their heads and orange bracelets and lipsticks, leaning on a blue pole at the edge of the stand in the stadium looking sad and fed up.

[♪♪♪]

A block of text with black bold fonts on white background. It says the following- [soaring orchestra music] [sound of remembering fondly] [♪♪♪] [sound of shifting relationship] [mysterious string music] [sound of emptiness in the room] [dramatic theme swelling] [sound of communicating gently] [***] [sound of world shattering] [somber music] [sound of shaping context] [music gets faster] [sound of still silence] [music intensifies] [sound of whispering sweet nothings] [music and sound fades]. The musical one [♪♪♪] is in dark blue colour. — A block of text with black bold fonts on white background

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Screen capture of video with white font subtitle with black background. All 3 stills of video from videos are identical and are placed side by side. They are black and white images of clay covered hands shaping a round shaped pottery on wheel. The person is wearing long sleeved shirt that is rolled up at lower arms. The images have different subtitles. On the left image it reads [turning], middle image reads [sound of remembering fondly], the right image reads [soaring orchestra music]. — Screen capture of 3 video with white font subtitle with black background

[turning] [sound of remembering fondly] [soaring orchestra music] [holding] [sound of listening inward] [♪♪♪] [shaping] [sound of emptiness in the room] [mysterious string music]

Audio will be silent in my piece for the final outcome of this residency- I aim for the subtitles to show the endless possibilities of what the words would sound like for the viewers.

thickening (tw blood/ river exits body)

body in pink in front of a bridge over the river looking down at knee

blood on knee
crystal hand poked tattoo
ice berg hand poked tattoo
virus hand poked tattoo

monster body in rags two breasts at least under canopy of leaves AND big stick

Video Testing

Video Projection Testing on wall

I have been experimenting with multiple videos using Premiere Pro and After Effects. It has been a daunting task to figure out the dimensions and creating subtitles! This is a snippet of what I’ve been working on today in the impromptu ‘studio’ space- a quickly emptied out space in a small living room wall where I pushed the sofa to the side to create enough space for the video projection. There are three videos playing at once, all are the same videos of hand throwing the wheel, shaping round-shaped pottery. On individual screens, there are different subtitles, on left there is an ‘action’ based subtitle ([turning] & [creating shape]) and in the middle, there’s the abstract subtitle ([sound of shifting relationship] & [sound of remembering]) and on right there’s a ‘music’ based subtitle([Dramatic theme playing] & [♪♪♪]). This video is originally from Craft / Potting / Bookbinding Practice Film from Bexley Local Studies & Archive Centre located in London’s Screen Archives. I am going in the direction where I would like to experiment with the same video but with different subtitles to ‘alter’ the experience for the viewer – changing the perception of the event with the poetic language of the subtitle.

Screen capture of 3 videos playing side by side, each individual video shows a pair of hands shaping brown clay pottery on wheel. Each individual video has white subtitles on a black background- the video on the left reads [throwing], the middle video reads [sound of emptiness in the room], the video on the right reads[dramatic theme playing]. All three videos are on black box. — Screen capture of 3 videos playing at once

Screen capture of 3 videos playing side by side, each video shows a pair of hands shaping brown clay pottery on the wheel. The individual videos have white subtitles on a black background. The subtitle on the left reads [gently holding], the middle subtitle reads [sound of listening inward], the right subtitle reads [soaring orchestra music]. All three videos are on black box. — Screen capture of 3 videos playing at once

This week, I am planning to experiment with multiple different videos and show these simultaneously at a more playful pace. Please leave a reply to this post to comment or ask any questions if you have any! 🙂

Research

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