ASSIGNMENT 2 – SEEING THE UNSEEN V2

Blog post 1:
Noticing and “seeing the unseen” are concepts which are new to me
with media. I’d like to think of myself as part of the active audience
group, actively interpreting the messages that are sent to me
through television, film and so forth. As such, noticing in non-fiction
work requires me to scrutinise every choice made by the media
maker. Concepts such as mise en scene, sound, editing, film
techniques and lighting; as well as smaller details such as camera
choice, set choice, wardrobe choice, aspect ratio, colours will have to
be looked closely with a magnifying lens.

Wes Anderson’s The Grand Budapest Hotel (2014)

Filmmakers who are experts in attention to detail such as David

Lynch, Wes Anderson and Wong Kar-wai have already mastered this
craft and are aware their audiences will actively analyse each of their
shots. Even though these directors focus on fiction works, these
minds are still continuously planning and organising each minute
detail of each shot.
Whereas non-fiction work focuses on the “truth” of the matter, we
an audience must adhere to that concept and focus on the choices
being made in that media form. Using our senses, observing with our
five senses, we can actively interpret messages that are deliberately
or non-deliberately being sent to us by the media maker. Why are
they focusing on one topic in this video? Are we getting sent the
right message? Is this considered ethical? Can this method of media
fully encapsulate what the media maker is trying to convey?

Albert & Davies Maysles’, and Charlotte Zwerin’s Gimme Shelter (1970)

These questions posed to us are also questions media makers must

consider for themselves. In a famous scene in Gimme Shelter (1970),
the band members of The Rolling Stones are watching back footage
of a man being stabbed at their concert by a Hells Angels member.
As an audience watching that scene, we aren’t aware of what exactly
is happening until it’s spoken out loud. Because there is so much to
notice in this scene; from the chaos and confusion to the many
crowd members moving around.
Blog Post 2:
Different kinds of noticing influence the way we perceive messages
being sent to us by media makers. John Mason describes these
different ways of ‘noticing’ in “Forms of Noticing” as practice,
ordinary-noticing, marking and recording. What really struck me was
when he mentioned the act of ‘deciding’ to consciously focus on
something. His examples pertain to the act of sitting down, the
temperature of the room, the act of reading; we don’t notice these
things because they aren’t blatantly obvious to us. We instead notice
the things that really catch one of our five senses attention (p. 30).

Lucien Castiang-Taylor’s and Véréna Paravel’s Leviathan (2012)

Leviathan (2012) is one of the many examples of media work that

play with the idea of ‘noticing’. The audience are shown many gritty
scenes of pelicans scraping the tides for food, fish guts being thrown
off fishing boats, and workers de-boning fish. We are forced to focus
on this topic on the boat-fishing business; however, sometimes
noticing can be a choice. We can choose to focus on how many
pelicans there are in the above shot, or the tides of the ocean, or
how it must smell where the workers are de-boning the fish.
This plays into Mason’s idea of ‘intentional noticing’. Since
professional cameras are built to capture every little detail in the
scene, goPro cameras focus on very few details with the fish eye
lens. As such, there is less to notice; which in turn narrows down
more minute details for the audience to notice.

Blog Post 3:
Mazen Kerbaj’s ‘STARRY NIGHT’ piece really evoked my sense of
auditory noticing. From the “organic” sounds of Beirut; coupled with
police sirens, dogs barking and bombs exploding, Kerbaj uses his
trumpet as a sort of complementary audio piece to the conflict
happening in Beruit. Auditory noticing really sets in as the audience
notices the war happening in the distance, which is very close in
proximity to Kerbaj, and his involvement as an artist during this time.
Silence as a metaphor in this piece emphasises the peaceful grace
period in which people involved in war can take a chance to breathe,
before the next calamity occurs.

Artwork for Mazen Kerbaj’s ‘STARRY NIGHT’ (2006)

Peter Cusack elaborates on this auditory concept of noticing in ‘Field
Recording as Sonic Journalism’ as “sonic-jounalism” (p. 25-26). Sonic-
journalism is described as field recordings used to create spatiality
and to invoke a sense of emotionalism in the audience. These sounds
of chaos and confusion we are not used to in a western society,
coupled with the surreal sounds of Kerbaj playing the trumpet; it
sends a message across to the audience, and invokes an emotional
response of fear and sympathy.

While one party decides to evoke a message, the audience itself

“listens” to the message being sent. Michael Gallagher describes this
as, “The listener, be it a person, an audience or an organisation, is
understood to be engaged in the act of comprehending what the
other party is trying to express - their opinions, feelings, experiences,
needs or desires” (p. 41). In Kerbaj’s case, they are describing the
auditory effects of war; the destruction, coupled against his
nonchalant trumpet playing sends a message across to the audience
that this is everyday normal life in Beruit at that time.

Blog Post 4:
Today in class, we discussed the idea of wondering, lingering and
priming; this process happens before, during and after noticing. You
begin with priming, you write down a list of things you’d expect to
notice in a particular place or write down things that aren’t on your
list. In wondering, you pick an object/place/person and you begin to
question it, in doing so you then follow a trail from those questions.
That’s where lingering comes in, you focus on that quality and begin
to question its environment, context, history and materials. You
write down your thoughts about that particular quality.
“BTOURATIJ” by Teju Cole

There is a concept known as a “blind spot” in noticing, Siri Hustvedt

elaborates on this in her foreword to ‘Blind Spot. Random House”
(2017) by explaining that we take in through our peripheral vision
the messages that the environment is sending us. Be it from harsh
lighting, bright colours on buildings, quick rapid movement of cars;
but we choose to focus on “the middle” of it all. We almost ignore
the messages around us, the miniscule details. We make predictions
about space and time and fill those blanks around us.

The same could be applied for the above artwork, in which Cole
presents a series of buildings and cars from a specific angle where
everything around it is either the sky, the road or fauna. We focus on
the buildings so much that we fail to notice the absence of people,
that there are no landmarks or writing that pinpoints where this
location is; but somehow, it feels familiar or ‘home-y’ to the viewer.
The opened cars and the power lines obviously locate this place as a
civilized one, but nowhere in this photo does a detail label it a
specific place. This allows the viewer to insert their own
preconceived thoughts and judgements into the photo, making it
almost their own home.

Reflection post:
Going into this assignment, I didn’t expect much. Knowing the Block
Arcade as a shopping space I thought I had noticed everything about
that place. My partner chose the aforementioned Block Arcade, and I
chose the Nicholas Building for her, and we both decided to film 5
second medium shots and close ups every time we saw an
“imperfection” in our assigned locations.

As I walked through the Block Arcade, I began to notice more

imperfections as I went along my usual route. More so that I couldn’t
actually fit all of my footage in the final product. I saw every stain on
the wall, every crack in the bottom corner of the walls, every mould
stain on the roof, every discoloured tile. And my partner brought out
imperfections in Nicholas Building that I didn’t even notice; the
cracks in the letterbox, the cracks in the wood at the entrance
ceiling. This made me notice the space I visit frequently, in a very
different light. To my understanding, both buildings are antiquated,
and they have just been refurbished over the years. The editing
portion of this exercise made me realise all of these things, we chose
to edit them side by side to highlight both buildings ‘imperfections’.
Also, from a newbie perspective who hasn’t seen both of these
buildings, they almost look the same.

Mason’s four-model theory of practice, ordinary-noticing, marking

and recording easily applies to this assignment. For example,
recording is obviously applicable to this video as I get to watch back
as a viewer, and constantly notice more imperfections in the footage
I have collected. Which easily leads into Siri Hustvedt’s idea of a
“blind spot” in works. My idea was to film one specific imperfection,
alas, as I notice one imperfection I noticed more and more alongside
next to it, then eventually around it and then further and further
away. This lead onto my next footage. This idea of exploring my
peripheral vision led me to finding my next imperfection and allowed
me to notice imperfections I had not noticed before filming nearby.

Two questions I can pose to myself following this assignment About

noticing and non-fiction is; how will I apply these concepts to future
works? Will I allow myself to be swayed by the big picture, that I
forget to think outside the box? I should actively work on taking in
the whole message media makers are giving me and begin to notice
the smaller things in their work. I will watch footage over and over,
and view artwork longer than I need to. This in turn will allow me to
truly appreciate a media makers work, in all of its pixel-by-pixel glory.
And the other question I pose on myself is what will I do with these
things I notice? How will I interpret these messages being send to
me? Will I apply it to my own work in the future? Or will I appreciate
it from a viewer standpoint? We are constantly given messages every
day from media and from other people themselves, how we choose
to actively interpret those messages define us as human beings. If I
choose to ignore the political message in Mazen Kerbaj’s work, does
that make me blind to the injustice in the world? Or am I simply not
able to understand his political outlook?

Video:
https://vimeo.com/user88383804/review/284708258/51415a0aca