Nearly all of the installations by James Turrell have provided me with inspiration. In particular ‘what light can do to the viewer’. This enforced the idea of using light within the visuals, and made me recognise the importance of light within an installation.
Author: Jessie
Pipillotti Rist ‘Worry Will Vanish’ & ‘Pixel Forest’
Pipilotti rist
This is an example of an excerpt of a Video Installation at Hauser & Wirth gallery by Pipilotti Rist.
“Worry Will Vanish” is a fitting title for the piece. The fluidity of the video, combined with the repetitive rhythmic music creates a calming dreamy atmosphere. One that could easily be watched on loop.
A lot of thought is clearly put into these installations. My favourite one being ‘Pixel Forest’ (below). The video is projected on the ceiling and the audience can lay on comfortable beds and watch. There are also LED lights hanging throughout the room. This idea of the audience being fully immersed, means that the artist didn’t just create a video but an atmosphere, and a physical experience.
When thinking about how to display my video, the idea of an experience was important to me. Drawing inspiration from the comforting atmosphere created in these installations I decided to make my video part of a gallery installation piece.
Windows Media Player Visual Effects.
Traditional Windows Media player visualisations, are an example of the way in which I would like the sound to work with video. Colour, light and movement being a theme in my artistic practice, I would like to incorporate these themes within the video.
The hypnotic swirls and kaleidoscopic patterns hold your attention and because they compliment the sound, it creates an immersive, engaging experience.
The Water Music Dance
From 1.40 to 4.09
The Water Music Dance, is a traditional practice of the women from Gaua Island.
‘The music and dances evoke the sounds their ancestresses have lived with for thousands of years. The crescent formation reflects the way the women have worked standing in a semi-circle at the water’s edge, or in the river, washing and bathing and collecting shellfish.’ -Worldmusiccentral.org
The Water Dance has prompted me to explore the use of water as an instrument to evoke an immersive state of mind, similar to that used in traditional meditative techniques.
Binaural Beats
For hundreds of years ancient cultures and tribes have believed in the spiritual healing properties of repetitive, rhythmic sound. It is down to developments in technology and science that these benefits have been proven, and shown how the brain can be entrained by certain beats. Binaural beats are used in meditation and are simply beats constructed at a certain frequency that when listened to, lower your brainwaves to a natural relaxed state. (The science behind this is explained in the link)
You cannot ‘switch off’ your ears, unlike other senses, you are always aware of the sounds around you. This is why sound is so powerful in hypnosis, you can be unconscious yet still aware of the sounds around you. I am interested in the use of sound as a form of escapism, and would like to explore the different ways in which sound can help you switch off and feel immersed in another environment.