Wolves - Proposal (18)

 Disrupting linear narrative, identity and conformity in contemporary cinema.

A different perspective. 

This proposal will explore the concept of disruption to the everyday flow of moving image media, by liberating it from a fixed viewpoint. Specifically, to investigate whether it is possible to invoke an epistemological shift in participants through the observation of performance media. The intention of the research is therefore to explore alternative modes of representation, which counterbalance a perceived passive consumption of cinema in the contemporary digital space.

In this context, I am using Peter Greenaway’s description of cinema as ‘the sum total of all technologies which work towards articulating the moving image.  It embraces equally the big movie and the computer screen, the digital image and the hand-made film, and structures as speech, writing, acting, editing, light projection and sound’. 

I propose a practical approach to explore these concerns, to raise awareness of the differences between active and passive consumption of cinema, and to critique the traditional methodologies and systems used.

I intend to use a series of video performances utilising short form film (video) and installation to create a space for participants to interact and participate with the performance media. Using this to deconstruct the form, opening up a discussion about representations of identity, temporal space, the body and the cultural norms of mimesis (Rene Girard) in mainstream western cinema.  

This interdisciplinary project will follow in the lineage of other artists who have used the installation process to encompass a broad, immersive experience to confront and subvert mainstream conceptions of image, expectation and narrative. For example, Carlos Cruz-Diez, who as an innovator of Kinetic/Op Art, shifted the object-viewer relationship bringing the spectators’ moving body directly into the work. 

In addition to, methodologies on narrative structure in film (Branigan/Bordwell), aesthetics (Baudrillard), time and the moving image (Delueze/ Bergson) and the conception of the counter spectacle (Debord). 

Key elements of the research will include:

• observational analysis whether interactive installations empower participants.
• qualitative pre and post intervention interviews to capture awareness of the viewer’s participation in their creation of the schemata in the piece that they have just seen.

The desired impact of this PhD is to provide insights into how a different delivery of cinema  could be beneficial in making people reflect on the role traditional cinema places in their life, and how this could be challenged.

“The way to do this…  is to borrow the language of television and movies that has become our visual lingua franca, with its color (sic) and speed and sensuality, then re-shape it profoundly” (Pipilotti Rist)

I am a practicing film maker and artist who has worked professionally for sixteen years as a live studio director, documentary cameraman and editor for broadcast media and installation video.  Career highlights include Time Out Magazine (London) TV pick of the day for my documentary ‘London Vampires’ (Director / Producer).  Arts council of England (ACE) funding for my recent performance arts film ‘Idiom’ (Dir / Prod).  Installation work ‘Thong Genocide’ screened at Saatchi & Saatchi, Tate Britain and Port Eliot Festival.  Along with a long list of television (BBC), film credits and festival appearances.  I also work as a tutor, mentor and administrator for the National Film & Television School in Beaconsfield.

I will need to utilise the following equipment: camera, sound recording, studio, exhibition space, editing and lighting kit.  

TCH  29th June 2018

PHD Proposal for University of Wolverhampton - Video Performance