Solidifying the Concept

To solidify my concept I took more time to look into it, and constantly asking myself why? and how? I also started to take some initial small steps into my research.

The Concept

Going with my concept ‘The Modern Lounge’, the concept is to re-create the absorption and feeling of memorization present in the modern lounge room, to create a ‘bubble’ for the individual, exporting them from the world to a memorized trance like state. Why this concept? Because it takes a step back from the literal use of the lounge concept, and has a slight abstract approach. Also, it creates a feeling and experience for the viewer through the use of modern multimedia.

Practical Aspects, How?

In terms of the proposal for the art gallery my project would be a screen installed behind a blank wall with three or so headphones outside for the viewer to uses. It functions so that three or so viewers can simultaneously engage in the media and be in separate ’bubbles’.

The projects visual and audio aspects will be presented through flash animations. The visuals being created with flash and the audio created through studio recordings (drum, bass guitar, keyboards) and through computer generated sounds. The visual stimuli at the moment is still in the developing process, at the moment I thinking of using a simple, screen saver/ lava lamp like visuals, generic shapes, mono toned colors and smooth movements all created through flash.

For the audio aspect  of the project I have come up with some ideas. Firstly whilst doing research I was looking into the first steps of creating music, the tempo (beats per minute). Techno music has around 128Bpm – 150Bpm, pop music has around 100Bpm and the human heart at a calm state has 70Bpm. So to create the relaxed and trance like state for the viewer I was thinking of using around 70Bpm or even a little lower, to help create  a calm and realxed state. For the studio recording aspects of the audio stimuli I have some musician friends who can play the electric drum kit and the bass guitar. I myself have a background in guitar and am capable of creating some simple riffs with the keyboard. I was aiming at creating a simple, soothing, seamless musical piece that can be played on a loop. I was aiming for some thing similar to Air (a great example of the style I wanted to work in would be ‘Playground Love’). On top of the musical piece I also wanted to add a subtle background noise, used to create a ‘vacuum’ for the viewer, an example of this would be a particular work from Minilogue for the sound track to ‘Animals – The Movie’. I wanted to create a simple sound scape to subtly layer with the musical piece.

What to do now:

Firstly I wanted to get started on some practical aspects, creating samples and experimenting with different mediums and approaches. Secondly I wanted to dive deeper into my research, looking for similar works, concepts and anything to play around with.

Week 2: Sketches – Audio

After looking around Matt’s Digo tags for some inspiration I came across an audio work that appealed to me, called the Sonic Body. It is an interactive audio instillation piece. What appealed to me with this work was it’s ability to take the user away from the art gallery space and into a whole new world. Looking at this work also reminded me of an exhibition at the Gallery of New South Wales, the Space Odysseys. The Space Odyssey exhibition worked similar to the Sonic Body project, taking the audience to a whole new world, using modern multimedia. After thinking it though I decided that using multimedia as a means to take the audience to a ‘new world’ would be something that I would like to incorporate into my project.

Idea 1 –  After looking around the web at images of lounges, I developed an intrest at looking at pictures of abandoned lounges on the streets. From here I developed my first idea, I wanted to use an old abandoned lounge and a sophisticated surround sound, sound scape of the environment of the abandoned lounge on the street. The idea of this being to take the audience ( in the lounge chair) away from the art gallery and into a ‘new world’. With the use of surround sound i wanted to capture the feel of the environment, birds in trees, cars and people passing by and etc.

Idea 2 – in search of inspiration for an idea i moved to my lounge room (which in my house and I’m sure in many others is also the tv room). Here I observed my brother channel surfing, and whilst each channel was completely different in content he was still memorized and absorbed in the tv. From this came the concept of my second idea, I wanted to recreate that absorption and feeling of memorization present in the modern lounge room, and use it in a similar way as the sonic body project, to create a form of escapism . To do this I was thinking of combining an audio and visual seamless loop. The visuals being a loop of simple shapes and soothing colors, operating similar to that of a screen saver. The audio being a seamless looped audio that creates a relaxed and trance like feeling to the user.

Where to now:
I feel that my second idea has a stronger concept and can be explored more and expressed deeper, so I want to progress with that concept. To progress I feel that I need to explore and research my ideas. Firstly I wanted to find any similar projects that operate like mine, either conceptually or  physically. I also wanted to look at the way music and visual stimuli can memorize the viewer, with a content that is superficial and has no intellectual content. Firstly I wanted to look into trance music, as it has the ability to en-captivate peolpe with a repetitive cycle of sounds. I also wanted to look into visual concepts of subliminal messages and hypnotism, seeing the psychology behind visual stimuli. Another direction I wanted to explore was the ideas of meditation, looking at acts that don’t engage one enough to stimulate but enough to distract oneself from the outside world.

First Media Exercise

What interests me about media? What areas or types of media am I interested in and why? What areas of expertise or unique perspectives/background do I bring to the study of media and why? What drives me to study/explore media? What other interests inform my reserach? What do I add to the network?

First Post

This is  my first blog post….