May 14 2013

”Life in a Long Shot”: Post mortem

Life in a long shot

· Concept

A nine year old girl according to Sharia (Islamic law), has reached the certain age to be considered a mature woman and expected to do the obligatory religious duties such as daily prayers, fasting and wearing properly and also old enough to be married; schools celebrate a ceremony to mark this enormous change in their lives; A day that put an end to their childhood and brings them adulthood. Getting a little distance from this colorful ceremony reveals all the hidden authority mechanism behind it; I too, had attended such a ceremony when I was nine, all that memory and the religious teachings by school afterwards has had an enormous impact in my mind to this day that I am twenty nine, causing feelings of confusion, anger and suppression during each day of my life.

Hopscotch in addition of being a symbol of childish games, had a dual functionality for me, providing an interactive platform for my work and also a time frame for each of my narrative sounds.

· Feedback

The common point through all different feedbacks was that the sound aspect and written statement of the work was more powerful than its visual aspects and that it does not add that much to the concept and even some found the very long hopscotch confusing.

· Self reflection

The best point I’ve learnt after this exhibition was how to execute my concept in an unknown environment. Also I become aware of my strength and weaknesses in an Installation, I think in future ones I should pay more attention to the visual aspects.

This is the link of video

Life in a long shot

Mar 27 2013

post-mortems

conceptual goals

There is a 9 squares hopscotch on the floor when a player tosses the marker (stone) into one of the squares, a narration combined with sound is played during the play.
These 9 different narrations are stories about myself from 9 years old to now (29 years old). they are about one minute story that shows the impact of religious believes in my life and the extreme contrast that I face them during each day of my life.
The earth and heaven squares in hopscotch are very meaningful for the concept of my work and also playing with hopscotch is like a stolen childhood from 9 years old children who should act as a mature woman.

critique / feedback

After midterm presentations I found that each round of play in this game takes about 20 second and the problem is the duration of each sound is 1:15 minutes so these two are not compatible with each other.
the other problem was some of the player said that they can’t concentrate on two things(playing, listening).

For this problem I think about some options

1. instead of drawing a hopscotch with chalk it can project on the floor and when a player start to play each square light up in front of her to control the tempo of her playing.
2. it can be two 9 squares spiral hopscotch on the floor.
3. draw a very long hopscotch with so many 9 squares like an endless hopscotch which player can’t finish it and reach the heaven square. it can draw all over the gallery from entrance to steps, restrooms, salon, etc. and players listen to sounds with headphones.
4.the other option is change the hopscotch game to snakes and ladders. it’s again very related to my concept but I should think more about that.

Next steps to completion

1.write more stories and combine them to sound
2.think more about hopscotch or snakes and ladders
3. visit the gallery and see the space that each of us can work on it

Presentation Context and Form

Ideally I like to do this work as a interactive installation with sound.

This is the video of midterm presentation

IMG_0871

Mar 6 2013

Thinking about my project

Last week I searched more and look at some painting examples which I taught they are close to my idea.

And then my sister painted some etude for me

But I think that I’m not satisfied with my ideas about visual part of my project.
I started to write something about this experience and in this process I found that from 9 years old till now(29 years old) it’s been 20 years and I can tell my 20 years story and the impacts of that experience in my life and finish it with the feeling that I have after 20 years. maybe my today feelings change in my 40 years old birthday party. who knows.
So now I write a story which I should translate it in English and combine it with music and sounds.
Lets say There is a hallway, an audience enters to it. he sees a mapping on the floor something like scotch hop game or similar with numbers from 9 to 29. when he steps on each number( in order) he hears my story about that year and he can keeps continuing jumping and stepping toward exit door and he hears all the story till now (29 years old).

I still need to think about it.this is just for updating about this project.

I’m wondering is this a normal process for thinking and developing a project or I should have guilty feeling for these changes.

Feb 6 2013

Life in a long shot

When we stay in any kind of situations for a long time like living in a country or being in a relationship, somehow we get absorbed to them and the result is our repetitive, unconsciousness, habitual act and react which becomes the way of our living.

For avoiding this routine life, it’s good to come out from the curse that we put upon us and observe ourselves from the outside.

It’s like being in a river, you cannot understand and see the float when you’re floating with it and the moment you step out the river that you realize it.

This is the thing that I call it “life in a long shot”.

The concept comes from an experience that I had when I was far from my country and my grandmother passed away.

The whole thing was not as catastrophic as I thought.

I believe that it was just because I was not in the center of that horrible religious funeral ceremony that forces us to moan and cry hard, but being in a distance I held a personal ceremony for my grandmother with a glass of wine and remembering her memories.

Distance has the power that you see things as a whole and become aware of them.

As a person who has left her country recently it’s a best time to explore and expand this idea. These feelings like numbness and being confused are extremely with me and I want to show them in this project until New York becomes as a second home for me with all its routines and habits.

I think the output of this project for this class would be a photo installation with sound and the ideal audience for me are the people who are not aware of the power of distance that can change the way of their living and the ideal place for this project is a public place like on the surface of the lake of central park or all billboard of times square as a multichannel video.

The first step for starting this project is writing down all my feelings about this subject and think of the output and materials more. Make it as an International piece that everyone can identify with it.

I think it’s a subject that I can approach it from different aspects so there is a potential in it to cover a whole semester.

Wong Kar-wai: 2046

Wong Kar-wai in his movie “2046” depicts a man’s struggles to deal with his memories and trying to recapture the past by looking for elements of his lost love in other women but this doesn’t help his suffering until he starts to write a love story happening in a fictional world,”2046”.

Set in the far future, for passengers to reach or leave 2046 they must take a long journey on a vast train network. The main character, is trying to leave 2046 because he lost the love of his life in that world. As the train travels through the extremely cold sections 1224–1225, he becomes intimate with one of the train’s female android assistants and later falls in love with her. He then asks her numerous times to come with him. However, each time the android does not answer. He has heard earlier that excessive operation causes the android’s response time to slow down and decides to wait on the train to see if this is the case. He sits quietly on the train, and counts the seconds that go by, hoping the android will decide to leave with him. However, the android still does not respond. Ultimately, he realizes that it is not a delayed reaction that causes that android not to respond, but that she is in love with someone else and that their relationship is simply not meant to be. With this knowledge, he finally has the strength to leave the train and 2046. Completing the story marks a turning point in his own recovery.

http://artiseverywhere.serraglia.com/point-of-views-3/

http://artiseverywhere.serraglia.com/point-of-views-2/

These are some other examples that show how observing the surrounds from different points of view can change the perception of the reality. The “yes/no” piece by Markus Raetz shows how much difference is created by our way and place of looking at something, a single piece creates two complete antonym meanings literally by the very clever choice of using very simple words, yes and no.