Proposal SGC

For our work featured in the SGC exhibition we wish to produce a film about
Dementia. Dementia is a degenerative disorder, which the SGC are providing
their expertise in protein in order to find new medicines for. Dementia is an
umbrella turn for a number of symptoms including confusion and memory loss.
There are many causes for dementia but Alzheimers disease is the most
common.
We plan on interviewing scientists from the SGC working on this particular
project. We also have arranged to meet Dr Emma OBrein (Alzheimers Research
UK) on the 19th March to pose an informal interview, in order to get a specific
biological understanding of the disorder and medical effects on the brain. Wed
like to gain the perspective of a cold, factual and analytical account rather than a
personal one of this disorder. We are also going to get the perspective of
caregivers and the Dementia support team from Bournemouth Universitys
Dementia Institute. We will be interviewing Michelle OBrein on the 29 th of
February at Bournemouth University.
Wed also like to interview people with the degenerative disorder, to gain a
personal account of the disorders effects on their lives, and the lives of others
around them. This will show the decomposition of personality rather than
physical matter.
Wed like to make an abstract film of found, and our own footage compiled
together. For the narration we want to create audio tracks and subtitles, which
combine these interviews of both the personal and scientific perspectives,
therefore we will be using the interviews as a medium to construct new footage,
manipulating words spoken. We intend to make the audience feel confused, as if
they are themselves losing their memory. To achieve this we aim to put the
viewer in the shoes of someone with dementia, who would experience both the
factual scientific explanation of the disorder, as well as a personal experience.
This will be displayed visually throughout by domestic footage (i.e. footage of
household items, or aged photographs). This footage will contrast and combine
with the factual documentation of the sterile environment of hospitals and
doctors surgery. United with nightmarish and poetic visualisations (grotesque
and beautiful) of the disorder i.e. peeling skin, rotting fruit or wilting flesh. Some
of these visuals made through experimental footage of dissolving fabric on skin.
We want to display the film on an Oculas Rift a headset contains two separate
screens which align in the brain to create a 3D image. If we were to film for this
headset, we would need a Dual HERO system - a rig for two go pro cameras,
which would format the footage for the Oculas. We will also use 2D images in a
number of ways, showing differing moving images on each screen (referencing
Omer Fast). We may be able to convert 2D footage to be compatible with the
Oculas.
We believe that the Oculas Rift would make our film completely immersive a
virtual reality, attempting to provide the closest possible experience to having
Dementia. The participant would be invited to sit on an old armchair found in a

charity shop, the armchair would be one of comfort and familiarity for an elderly
person. The viewer would then put on the headset and earphones to view the
film. The Oculus Rift is a strange unfamiliar object of technology, which elderly
people may not understand. This collision of realities (the virtual space and that
of the arm chair) closely resembles the confusion of dementia patients who
experience the reality in their head (perhaps presuming a deceased loved one is
still alive) and the strange yet perhaps more real actuality of the strange physical
space they find themselves (for example a nursing home). Using an object, such
as the chair, as part of our installation makes reference to the way in which Ryan
Trecartin and Jon Rafman displays his work.
Inspired by the work of Omer Fast specifically the film the, The Casing, we aim
to employ the split screen aspect as well as the confusing audio narration of two
unrelated story lines, merging as one. In CNN Concentrated a different
newsreader reads each word, creating an interesting monologue, mastered also
by Fast. The readers become puppets playing along to Fasts script, which we
intend to achieve with our audio, to some extent.

The Casting Omer Fast 2014

The style of this film will also be inspired by the found footage films of Adam
Curtis, and the way in which he combines fantasy and reality via found footage,
i.e. in the `Power of Nightmares he places news report of a terrorist attack next
to horror film footage of a Middle Eastern sorcerer.

The Power of Nightmares Adam Curtis 2004

The cinematography of Daniel Landin (cinematography of Under the Skin)

interests us as the human body is shown to be being eaten from the inside out,
the same way the brain deteriorates during dementia. There is a nightmarish
element to the film, which lacks reality but visually demonstrates the reduction
of physical matter as well as the mental hypnosis of characters, who loose all
rationality as they are drawn into a trap.

Under the Skin 2014

IDEAL

FUNDING:

GoPro Rig: http://www.amazon.co.uk/GoPro-Dual-System-HousingCamera/dp/B00J9RO4U2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1456416481&sr=81&keywords=GoPro+Dual+HERO+System+for+HERO3%2B

122
Charity Shop Chair: Estimate, 40