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WORKING PROPOSAL 20102012

MOIRA ZAHRA

WORKING TITLE

Narratives of Database and Chance. How chance and a database aesthetic challenge classical

narratives in contemporary film, allowing space for the unexpected

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES

My initial proposal plan was to create a surreal state of mind through a mixture of digital and

traditional media. Although I still want this element to be present throughout my project, I want

to focus my work on database and chance narratives. My aim throughout the project is to

examine the boundaries of chance in an audiovisual interactive database, through a constant

alteration between chance and control.

It in evident that both Marcel Duchamp and John Cage understood that chance cannot exist

without boundaries

The basic question is: is it possible to find a small set of fundamental decisions that can

be generative of a strong/deep/subtle etc. work of art, allowing it to emerge all by itself,

without letting irrelevant intentional choices interfere.

(A. Beuger, pers. comm., 22 Nov., 2011)

The pattern of my project is as follows: natural chance > control and interpretation > computer

generated chance. My project starts from a somewhat natural use of chance. Because I want towork with narrative and chance, I think that the best way to get a chance story would be to

randomly ask for one. I therefore want to ask several people around me to tell me a story from

their life and record it. I will then interpret some of the stories by filming and editing them,

without using sound.

Together with these stories I also plan on using digitally animated water colours, which actually

initialed my idea of working with chance. Their abstract nature got me thinking about whether

they could actually be able to assign meaning if they were to be presented by themselves, or

combined with film. I want to put my project together in the form of an interactive application.

This is where chance will be implemented once again, this time via code. Taking my inspiration

from Manovichs essays as well as database films, I will present my exported visuals as an

interactive multiscreen interface (that will also be available online).

At the start of the application, a random code loads 5 (or more) videos/visuals of differing sizes

from a database. The user can choose to full screen a video, scale and move it around according

to his/her preference. Aside from the visuals, there will also be phrases, which the user can click.

The phrases will act as guides through the interface but are actually misleading since they are in

face assigned a random action every time the site is refreshed.

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Subsequently, new combination of videos come up, and new phrases with new actions. Each

action can trigger either a recording, a pieces of music (this is explained further on) or even

refresh the page. Essentially the interface takes the user through a journey that never ends; a

narrative that cannot be solved. For me it symbolizes the reality of the stories, and the digital

aesthetic containing them; two elements trying to exist simultaneously, sometimes clashing,

sometimes uniting, but always changing.

Since music can drastically change the meaning of visuals, I decided to leave it up to chance as

well. I will be working with two of my friends who will randomly select a number of vinyls and

sample them. Each sample can be triggered as an action in the interface. The reason I wanted to

include chance based music was to create an illusion of meaning and emotion through

disassociation of audio and vision. Sampling, a popular way of remixing music, seems to go hand

in hand with the database aesthetic, which is also a product of the remix culture.

Objective 1: Gather Stories and Recordings

Objective 2: Contextual research

Objective 3: Editing of visuals

Objective 4: Interface design and development

Objective 5: Sampled music recorded using chance

Objective 6: Exhibit & have project available online

CONTEXT

Due to my project being very much multi-faceted, my context was initially wide; covering

Immersive installations, sonic arts, virtual reality, video art, new media artists, film directors and

even beat writers. Although key figures in these sectors have been of great inspiration for my

project, in my research paper and in my blog I have decided to focus on database, narratives and

chance.

My Research Paper is about how chance and a database aesthetic challenge classical narratives in

contemporary film, thus allowing space for the unexpected. It examines the boundaries and

limitations of authors when working with chance, which plays a big role in contemporary

database film narratives.

I have looked at (and are still exploring) theories and ideologies of Lev Manovich, Aristotle,

Bordwell, Metz, Allan Cameron, Jesse Schell, John Cage and Duchamp.

My main key figures are film directors: David Lynch, Michel Gondry and Terence Malick.

I am still very fascinated and inspired by beat writers such as William Burroughs and Jack

Kerouac and consider their cut-up techniques to be an interesting reflection of disjointed

narrative in literature. Finally, I am still looking and researching works by Chris Cunningham,

who is a major figure in database editing in music videos.