I AM THE CAMERA: Designing a site-specific screen work
(2024)
author(s): Nathalie S. Fari
published in: Research Catalogue
The site-specific screen work I AM THE CAMERA proposes how a specific place, in this case, the Hasselblad Memorial at Götaplatsen (Gothenburg, Sweden) can serve as a basis for generating a performance and/or documentary material. Drawing from site-specific performance, performance documentation and filmmaking, it uses the framework of a performance laboratory to explore the relationship between embodiment and audio-visuality; especially by experimenting with how the interplay between three characters and their technological devices can contribute to develop a performative and cinematic language.
SUPER(IM)POSITIONS: Subverting Melodramatic Representation Through Personal Unpredictability
(2024)
author(s): Emilio Santoyo
published in: Research Catalogue
This Artistic Research in and through cinema explores the possibilities of using outdated melodramatic elements of cinematic representation in a new way, dissolving the intersection between the personal and the fictional as a tool for creating a redemptive act of filmmaking. "Super (im) positions: Subverting melodramatic representation through personal unpredictability" delves into the transformative potential of these elements within cinematic representation. By dissolving the boundaries between the personal and the fictional, this work engages in a redemptive act of filmmaking that reimagines melodrama. The approach employs a contemporary, polyphonic, and playful film language to propose a new form of melodrama—one that acknowledges its inherent perversity to challenge and deconstruct its toxic narratives.
Rooted in the pervasive influence of telenovelas and melodrama, particularly within Mexican culture, this exploration questions and critiques the genre's impact on cultural and individual perceptions of love and relationships. The research was catalysed by a significant personal and professional rupture, leading to a critical examination of the genre's conventions.
By employing a contemporary, polyphonic, and playful film language, Santoyo reimagines melodrama as a genre capable of portraying complex, personal emotions and generating critical, boundary-pushing narratives. This self-reflective genre deviation, temporarily termed the "New Melodrama," seeks to subvert traditional melodramatic tropes by acknowledging and confronting their perverse nature. Through this approach, Santoyo aims to dismantle the toxic knowledge perpetuated by conventional melodrama, offering a sophisticated and nuanced critique from within the genre itself. His work presents a trojan horse strategy, using the familiar systems of melodramatic representation to question and ultimately transform them, proposing a relevant and self-aware cinematic experience.
Through innovative use of superimpositions and a deliberate deconstruction of melodramatic mise-en-scène, this study aims to create a critical and self-reflective genre deviation termed "New Melodrama." This method seeks to subvert traditional cinematic conventions by integrating multiple perspectives and temporalities, fostering a richer, more complex narrative experience. Ultimately, the research stands as a trojan horse within the film industry, using the very mechanics of melodrama to critique and reinvent it, offering a fresh, introspective take on a genre often dismissed as superficial.
Lone Wolves Stick Together: Research as a Journey to an Aesthetic Understanding of Immersion and Participation through VR and roleplaying (LARP)
(2024)
author(s): Nadja Lipsyc
published in: University of Inland Norway
This research explores the artistic and critical potentials of using tools from live action roleplaying (larp) to create narrative VR experiences. In particular, it unfolds the conception, physical play and VR play and production of the live action roleplaying (larp) Lone Wolves Stick Together. Inspired by the film Stalker (1979) by Tarkovsky, Lone Wolves Stick Together stages the immersive environment as an omniscient Sphynx-like character that pushes the players to question one another and to introspect. By using larp and video game design knowledge conjugated to cinematic aesthetics, this research project seeks to honor the creative and narrative potentials of immersion and participation. As such, between 2018 and 2023, this research took the form of classic chamber larps, immersive theater experiences, scenography installation, VR larps (including two other projects: The Space Between Us and Ancient Hours) and a final multimedia installation. The artistic methods rely on principles of environmental design, explored physically through production design and ambisonics, and virtually through a highly reactive virtual environment. The research method is based on a constructivist approach where we experiment to find an answer, not the truth. Here, experimentation is not conceptual but aesthetic: knowledge is lived and felt through artistic experience. Centred around VR and within a film and new media context, this research also develops a reflection on the industrial and technological influences on the creative process and their friction with artistic-research.
Darkness as material - PhD project - 2023
(2023)
author(s): Mia Engberg
published in: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
The doctoral project Darkness as Material, examines darkness as material and its relationship to cinematic storytelling. The study addresses different kinds of darkness: darkness in the image, darkness in the cinema theatre, darkness in the spectator where films are received and the darkness in the filmmaker, where the world is reflected and ideas are born. The project is inspired by Marguerite Duras' idea to kill cinema, and it explores film's potential to approach the place she described as 'the dark room, where we are deaf and blind and passion is possible'.
Ways of expression: the impact of VFX technology on modern storytelling in film and interactive media production.
(2023)
author(s): Rafal Hanzl
published in: University of Inland Norway
The rapid development and adoption of digital technology expanded horizons of creativity and opened new artistic frontiers. The broad array of options can potentially have a negative effect, however, as artists can become overwhelmed by the means of expression enabled by new methods they could never have imagined were possible.
Visual communication assists storytelling and should be used precisely to emphasize the desired features of a story. In filmmaking, visual effects (VFX) should serve as a creative instrument to strengthen the story and artistic vision and communicate the desired idea to the audience. Using VFX in planning and developing the implementation of artistic ideas can play a key role in contemporary art as well. This challenge of visual communication is all the more noticeable in an emerging medium of virtual reality. I argue that VFX tools facilitates solving artistic problems in the majority of creative activities.
My project investigates the creative and artistic potential of the tools of digital manipulation. The research focuses on two key artistic creations: a feature documentary “In touch” and a virtual reality installation for the Lodz Philharmonic “The Road to Excellence”. Through artistic experiments performed in these two projects, I develop innovative creative methods for a new creative profession in the film and interactive media industry: a digital visual designer. My aim was to explore how this new artistic collaborator contributes to the visual universe of the artistic creation.
SOUND/BODY
(2023)
author(s): Petar Mrdjen
published in: Research Catalogue
“My sound body is the ghostly embrace that physically envelops the listener, with acoustic energy. Feel my presence, as I hide in plain sight.”
This exposition explores the role of surround sound in filmmaking, its strength and pitfalls in space-making, as well as its viability as an image-making device.
The author challenges conservative usage of surround sound, advocating for a playful and resistant approach; with the aim to create active and immersive spatial soundscapes where each audience member can experience their own "sweet spot." They reflect on the limitations of traditional cinema sound and express their desire to empower listeners with a dense and rich auditory experience.
By focusing on capturing authentic acoustic spaces, challenging traditional recording practices, and exploring a resistant approach to surround sound; the author highlights the unique relationship between sound, image, and space; and how their interplay can evoke various impressions.
The text delves into the author's artistic approach to working with surround-scapes (surround-soundscapes), highlighting different strategies and providing examples from films and games. Three surround-aesthetics are defined and named, which the author refers to as "rooms." The transformative power of sound is underscored, with a focus on embracing vulnerability and fluidity as sources of strength.
Through the context of foley-practice and surround-scaping; this exposition questions the role and reach of the author's body - a sound body.
Hennes naglar är Svens, alltid något
(2023)
author(s): Emilie Löfgren
published in: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
En exposition med fyra videoverk i ETC Solpark, Katrineholm.
"Hennes naglar är Svens, alltid något."
"Drömmen"
"Mary var här"
"Tystnaden"
The impact of the audience on the actresses
(2023)
author(s): Dalida Shaheen
published in: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
Welcome to Dalida Shaheen's exposition Master's candidate in acting program and actress. Firstly, in 2019, I played a role of a woman who got married to a married man, after the series aired to the public the role fired back on me. I observed audience's reaction exceeded everyone’s expectations. The audience is divided into two parts the first part is about the women who expressed their anger in a very aggressive and strong way, and the second part who was exciting to the character. The first part of the audience used several offensive, strong, and insulting words. The audience’s reaction was very emotional, and they used all the tools to express their feelings for example, they used social media platforms and verbal violence when they see me in the street. Hayat is the character I have created to explore my questions in my short fil.
The film is the method I used to explore my questions of what would happen when the audience can’t distinguish between the role and the actor’s real character, What is the impact of the audience on the actresses?
BLOD, BLOD(y), BLOD
(2023)
author(s): Kersti Grunditz Brennan, annika boholm
published in: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
BLOD, BLOD(y), BLOD – an exposition of recurring processes, trails and building blocks of the film and research project BLOD through the lens of its methods.
The BLOD methods are articulated as a Manifesto, written to accommodate a multitude of contents, forms, and modes of collaboration, while demanding cross-disciplinarity, honesty and risk-taking. The methods are non-linear, looping, and embedded in the manifestations of the research: films, performances, presentations, etc.
The BLOD project aims to create multivocal cinematic experiences through embodied practices. The research explores relation-building through a feminist methodology of creating gaps and friction – between audience, story, time, matter, and co-creators. The project asks: how to tell multifaceted, non-exploitive stories of womb-related states of life and death, rarely depicted in cinema? And how to disturb film industry hierarchies through a collaborative practice that maintains individual artistic integrity and promotes collective authorship?
The BLOD research shares its outcomes via the mediums of its artistic practice: videos, texts, digital expositions. This exposition is designed to reflect the connections and interactions of the research's building blocks: ideas, places, materials, people, time, experiences, technologies.
To enjoy BLOD, BLOD(y), BLOD: move around it with your mouse, follow dotted paths out from the center towards texts, images, and videos. Hover over numbers and words in BOLD to reveal expanding texts. Linger on images and videos for captions, translations, and instructions for further interaction. Along the outer rim of the main page are spiral buttons to take you back to the center with a click. Subpages have links on the main page but are also listed in the Content index in the upper left menu.
The exposition is mainly in English. Videos in Swedish have English translation.
Beyond Cut and Join - Expanding the creative role of film editing
(2023)
author(s): Kersti Grunditz Brennan
published in: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
The research project Beyond Cut and Join – Expanding the creative role of film editing comes out of two major observations over decades of professional film editing experience: that a lot of film editing’s potential is untapped in filmmaking, especially in relation to character creation; and that editors’ skills, influence and authorial participation often are misunderstood and undervalued. Through editing practice and writing, this research explores an expanded role of editing by asking: 1. what can editing do to create characters; 2. what is a useful and challenging creative research design for exploring editing; and 3. what expanded description of film editing can be articulated for these explorations. The project aims to share, refine, and add to editing vocabulary by articulating creative strategies for shaping characters. It further aims to challenge notions of authorship in cinema by developing collaborative structures and artistic methods that benefit creative processes in the edit room. By demonstrating how significant the handprint of one individual editor is, the project’s final aim is to highlight the extent to which editors’ personal experiences influence their choices in composition of material. Outcomes of this project are filmmaking methods that place editing and collaboration in the forefront when weaving dramaturgy, aesthetics, and content creation processes that shape film characters and cinematic stories.
The output of this research includes films, academic articles, personal essays, a video essay, and pedagogic applications. These outputs cumulatively demonstrate the artistry of the editor and the significance of editing.
The Visual Silence
(2020)
author(s): Mia Engberg
published in: Stockholm University of the Arts (SKH)
The Visual Silence explores a cinematic aesthetic that approaches silence and darkness and challenges the voyeuristic tradition of cinema. It is a cinematic form that is situated in the gap between what is projected and what is perceived, between the impression of the ear and that of the eye. The Visual Silence examines the possibility of new perspectives through the deconstruction of the image and also through a critical examination of patriarchal, excluding and exhausting methods in the traditions of filmmaking. The research project resulted in the feature film Lucky One that premiered 2019.
MEMORY AS A METHOD FOR FILMMAKING
(2019)
author(s): Emilio Angel Reyes Bassail
published in: Journal for Artistic Research
This research develops a method for filmmaking that uses autobiographical memory as a guiding principle for the production of images. The proposed method comes as the result of a double gesture in which I wanted to a) acquire a subjective understanding of memory that came from artistic practice; and b) materialize the process of memory through film.
I used the filmmaking apparatus as a technique to give visibility to the process of remembering and forgetting: I worked with strategies such as the elaboration of a “memory diary”; the drawing of spoken portraits and locations based on memories; casting techniques which involved a dialectical approach towards memory; scouting trips to find places from my memory; hypnosis sessions as a technique to recover lost memories; reenactments of memories; a method to direct actors that relied on memory as a guiding mechanism; and the editing of the footage through a process of memory associations.
While doing this research, I inadvertently found that the techniques I used led to a process in which memories were rewritten through experimentation. Thus, the method produced a conceptualization of "memory" that frames it as a creative process. In the process of working on this project, I developed a very subjective approach to the craft of filmmaking that was informed by my particular relationship with memory. Thus, the proposed method of using personal memory as a core mechanism for the production of audio-visual products can be utilized as a tool for film education, promoting the creation of personal film languages based on an individual's memory, and as device to reflect on the subjective process behind an individual's artistic practice.
Finding one's own voice as an indigenous filmmaker
(last edited: 2023)
author(s): Itandehui Jansen
connected to: Academy of Creative and Performing Arts
This exposition is in progress and its share status is: visible to all.
In this dissertation of Itandehui Jansen, the ‘Voice’ of the filmmaker from a political and aesthetic perspective is examined. Within film practice the own ‘Voice’ refers mainly to the aesthetic style of a filmmaker. Within the field of postcolonial studies 'Voice' is related to the access that postcolonial subjects have to the production of discourse. Movies and other media can be seen in this context as a form of discourse. For Indigenous filmmakers both approaches to ‘Voice’ and having a ‘Voice’ are important.
This study explores the way in which Indigenous filmmakers, particularly from Latin America, express their 'Voice' both politically and aesthetically in their films.
The doctoral project Darkness as Material, examines darkness as material and its relationship to cinematic storytelling. The study addresses different kinds of darkness: darkness in the image, darkness in the cinema theatre, darkness in the spectator where films are received and the darkness in the filmmaker, where the world is reflected and ideas are born. The project is inspired by Marguerite Duras' idea to kill cinema, and it explores film's potential to approach the place she described as 'the dark room, where we are deaf and blind and passion is possible'.open exposition comments (0)
En exposition med fyra videoverk i ETC Solpark, Katrineholm. "Hennes naglar är Svens, alltid något." "Drömmen" "Mary var här" "Tystnaden"open exposition comments (0)
The Visual Silence explores a cinematic aesthetic that approaches silence and darkness and challenges the voyeuristic tradition of cinema. It is a cinematic form that is situated in the gap between what is projected and what is perceived, between the impression of the ear and that of the eye. The Visual Silence examines the possibility of new perspectives through the deconstruction of the image and also through a critical examination of patriarchal, excluding and exhausting methods in the traditions of filmmaking. The research project resulted in the feature film Lucky One that premiered 2019.open exposition comments (0)