Cine-Roman

‘William Gibson retweeted… “give a man a mask, and he will show you his true face” – Oscar Wilde’

I chose thisTwitter post by William Gibson (@greatdismal) to create my Cine-Roman project for MEDA101. For one of my previous assessments, I had taken a series of photographs incorporating masks which then helped me in the choosing of the stated Twitter post. Masks have always been a way of hiding something or altering one’s perspective of the truth. The sound was also taken from a previous assessment to be used in this project. The sound piece used alongside the shadowy photographs gives the project an almost haunted aura. This piece portrays a young girl wearing a mask. The transitions focus on various areas of the many photographs giving it an almost narrative-like feel. Some may interpret the slides as the story of a girl removing her mask only to face death, while others may see it as a representation of masks hiding the dark and haunting truth beneath.

To Capture The Uncanny

What is the uncanny?

According to the Oxford Dictionary it is something that is “strange or mysterious, especially in an unsettling way” (http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/uncanny)
I was required to capture the uncanny in a series of six photographs for the second MEDA101 assignment. Three photographs were to be in studio lighting while the other three in natural lighting.

I used a mask to be the subject in this series of uncanny photographs. I used this object as it is something that diverts the onlooker’s attention away from the truth hiding beneath. A mask can be made from anything; paint, hair, plastic, shadows, and this object gave me endless possibilities to work with.

In my photographs, the subject’s face is never fully shown; either a physical mask is placed over the face or the lighting is set to cast shadows making the face unrecognizable. This allows the audience to focus on the uncanny subject; the mask, more than its environment.

Studio lighting photographs:

Natural lighting photographs:

The Sound of Authority

https://soundcloud.com/kmm608/authority
Authority is seen in everyday life; politics, law, even parenting. My sound piece explores how authority can uphold order, but also how it has the capacity to destroy. All the sounds used were originally recorded.

The piece commences with a calm composition of sounds to represent the order that authority can present. These sounds include acoustic guitar strums to represent harmony in society, the manipulated sound of a fan increasing in speed to represent the increase in power, the slowed sound of a glass chime to represent the attention paid to authorities, and an echo of book pages to represent the knowledge needed to have authority over a population.

As the piece progresses, darker, more mechanical sounds become evident to convey the destructive nature authority can have; an unrecognizable voice saying “control” and the sound of pacing footsteps represent an individual authority. The whispers in the background give the audience an idea that authorities keep many secrets from those they have control over which can sometimes lead to the destruction of order and peace.