Bouchra Fadil | Research File | Fine Art Printmaking

This post marks the beginning of Studio Practice 5. Everything above this post is research as part of the Studio Practice 5 module.

This post marks the end of Studio Practice 4. Everything below this (down to the end of Practice 3) is part of the Studio Practice 4 module.

Overall this has been a really fun practice that has developed my ideas and changed my thinking a lot on how film works can be produces and presented. I feel that there is huge scope for development and hope to carry on in this way.

To continue to push my work forwards, I want to research both artists who use film in perhaps more creative ways, and artists who work with similar themes to mine who don’t necessarily use film. Tony Oursler and Pipilotti Rist Will be my starting points as suggested in my feedback from Practice 3. I would also love to include more theory-based research in this practice module, as my work is quite hard to articulate and I feel that exposing myself to more theory based texts will help to bring greater context and understanding to the themes.

After having the ultimate disaster with the VPT projection mapping software, I have had to start again with projection mapping. It took a while to find a cheap software as there are many that cost hundreds, but I finally found MapMap, which is FREE, simple, and does not have the same issues as VPT (which I think just hasn’t been updated for years so no longer likes the new versions of Windows etc).

Robin Rimbaud, aka Scanner composed the music, which was taken from his album ‘Messe’. It has a melancholic tone to it, which accentuates a lot of the emotions at work in the film. The mood of the film pulls heavily from these beautiful compositions.” I wanted to include Andrew Kötting’s work again as part of this Practice as a big influence on my themes of time, memory and place. The scenes in this film work are choppy and shift whilst still portrating the same place in what becomes a familiar, photographic kind of way.

I wish I had the time to explore all of these possibilities of projection! i think it’s such a huge area that has overwhelmed me, but in a good way. I’ve realised that my film works were not as ambitious as they could be, so hopefully now I can start to develop something that really evolves my practice ready for the 3rd year.

Marks, Laura U. The Skin of the Film: Intercultural Cinema, Embodiment, and the Senses. London: Duke University Press, 2000.

I have never used green screen, or After Effects, but this video was fantastic and I was able to treat my green screen animations and change the background relatively easily.

Beginner’s guide to projection mapping. This video makes it look very easy! I will download the software mentioned (VPT) and see if I can create a mapped video.

Projection mapping Commercial film by LG Electronics Projection mapping is the technique often used by Tony Oursler and Pipilotti Rist. it involves creating lots of different films (or just one film) and using software to size the film to a precise spot on a object or a building etc. This video showcases the technique brilliantly. I’m not sure what to do with it yet, but if I can learn a bit of the basics, I hope to be able to take my flat film and make a kind of ‘scene’ from it, possibly in quite a theatrical way. I think it will be interesting to see whether or not that step from 2D to 3D makes the work better or worse; and at this stage of the Printmaking degree (the last Practice module before the 3rd year), I think it’s worth taking the risk to see if it could lead to techniques that could be used during the 3rd year’s work.

A collection of works from a retrospective of Pipilotti Rist’s career. The different ways she has presented a lot of the videos are highlighted here; with some that need to be stood inside, some on the ceiling, some projected onto multiple surfaces, one from a mobile phone screen, etc. Works in this video: 00:00 4th Floor To Mildness, 2016. Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Luhring Augustine. Music and text by Soap&Skin / Anja Plaschg. Courtesy Flora Musikverlag and [PIAS] Recordings. 01:07 Pixelwald (Pixel Forest), 2016. Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Luhring Augustine. / Mercy Garden, 2014. Sound by Heinz Rohrer. Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Luhring Augustine. / Worry Will Vanish Horizon, 2014. Sound by Anders Guggisberg. Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Luhring Augustine. 02:02 Massachusetts Chandelier, 2010. Courtesy Marguerite Steed Hoffman and Deedie Rose. 02:15 Administrating Eternity, 2011. Collection Kunstmuseum St. Gallen. 02:38 Ever Is Over All, 1997. Sound by Anders Guggisberg and Rist. Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Luhring Augustine. 03:00 Sip My Ocean, 1996. Sound by Anders Guggisberg and Rist after “Wicked Game” (1989) by Chris Isaak. Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Luhring Augustine. 03:08 Vorstadthirn (Suburb Brain), 1999. Friedrich Flick Collection im Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin. / Die Unschuldige Sammlung (The Innocent Collection), 1985. Courtesy the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Luhring Augustine. 03:25 You Called Me Jacky, 1990. Music: Kevin Coyne, “Jackie and Edna” (1973). Courtesy the artist; Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York; videoart.ch; Hauser & Wirth; and Luhring Augustine. 03:44 Pickelporno (Pimple Porno), 1992. Sound by Peter Bräker and Les Reines Prochaines. Courtesy the artist; Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York; videoart.ch; Hauser & Wirth; and Luhring Augustine. 03:59 Selbstlos im Lavabad (Selfless In The Bath of Lava) (Bastard Version), 1994. Courtesy the artist; Electronic Arts Intermix (EAI), New York; videoart.ch; Hauser & Wirth; and Luhring Augustine.

The imagery evokes memories of photographs and experiences, while the song does a similar think; possibly linking back to emotions and memories of a time, place or person.

Also working with projection, her work is BIG and really occupies the rooms and spaces that it’s in. I love the slow, dreamlike nature of the work and feel similarities in trying to portray things like memory and time through video with what I am trying to achieve too.  Creative ways of playing with audience viewing (work on table, work in the ceiling) are really interesting and something to consider when making any video work.

This video really helps get an insight into Tony Oursler’s methods. The small scale piece at 3.11 ( https://youtu.be/IuWozY8NIS0?t=3m11s ) is beautiful and might be a good place for me to start experimenting: with small scale scenes perhaps?

Tony Oursler was recommended to me as part of my feedback for Studio Practice 3. Many of his works involve projection in different ways; on different scales, and on to a variety of materials. The work is really absorbing and interesting, with many characters and forms appearing, and speech being involved regularly. The way that the space and the materials ‘come alive’ through these films is fantastic. Completely different from the safe rectangular ‘screen’. There are so many sculptural and spatial possibilities with this way of working. I would LOVE to learn more about how he has done this and possibly try it out for my work. It could become very theatrical and 3D with entire spaces being occupied. I would definitely need to source a projector (or a lot of projectors???) and experiment with scale and materiality.

This post marks the beginning of Studio Practice 4. Everything above this post is research as part of the Studio Practice 4 module.