Urban camouflage
This short film is an artwork that is split between three pieces, Two video pieces and an "digital recreation/representation" of the accompanying performance. The performance was a later addition as I wanted to work on a connected theme between my inspiration and my short film. The inspiration for my piece was the work of Hito Steyerl, an artist who has been an inspiration towards most of my work thus far. Her film How Not to be Seen: A Fucking Didactic Educational inspired me to practice working more within film through the use of Chroma keying and greenscreen effects within art.
Her use of green screen techniques and practice is a skill I am unfamiliar with and wanted to try using. My video concepts were the use of a moving green screen. My videos have the shared themes and visuals of contrasts between urban life and nature. Though these do not have chosen implications or context for why I chose them, within the work they serve to convey my intent to juxtapose together to opposing environments. Within Urban Camouflage (part 1) I used a flower bed of brightly coloured flowers (red and Yellow) as my backdrop for the negative space for my moving green screen. Though these colours are bold and striking they do not appear to seem out of place. Its accepted. The idea has evolved in many ways, though I feel that it is conceptually strong there is still room for improvement. This improvement I believe can be found or at least seen within my second film that accompanies the first with a juxtaposing visual. Unlike the first film that uses this visual of nature that alienates the chosen object through the use of filling negative space to convey a eye catching perspective towards the audience, that is perceived as unnerving and surreal this second film focuses on the use of alienating negative space within natural objects and natural scenic spaces and reflecting our urban life within nature as opposed to present nature within our urban lives. To edit these piece’s, I continued to work within Adobe Premiere Pro and thus have learnt many new techniques that have strengthened my Adobe skills and practices as an artist.
Though these works are film based, the first film has the potential and characteristics of a performance piece. I found this though my research into performance with a university module. This has led me to exhibit a performance along with my videos. This performance would go to present my works as a multiple. My inspiration for presenting my works as a performance and seeing the missed creative approach presented within my first film was Artist Angus Wyatt’s work Successful. Whilst researching into his work and the History and present forms of performance as a contemporary medium I discovered that my piece has strong aspects as both a film and physical performance. With this experimentation, I see a stronger connection to Hito Steyerl’s work and will present it physically.
This short film is completely subjective and Conceptual.