Outdoor Blu
Intro
project type Multimedia Installtion
year 2019
Exhibited at
Institute of Contemporary Arts Singapore,
Supernormal Gallery Singapore
Jean Baudrillard claims that our current society has “replaced all reality and meaning with images, symbols, and signs and that human experience is of a simulation of reality”. Although the book Simulacra and Simulation was published in the 1980s, his argument resonates with our contemporary era more than ever.
On my trip back to Korea during a school’s summer break, glancing at the bright neon street views and the flamboyant sceneries to attract eyes in Seoul sparked the idea that reality consists of the images at its facade. As Baudrillard said, the reality is no longer visible but only simulacra.
However, rather than lamenting about a lost reality, I wanted to find out how we can flip our thinking of the world losing its reality and being subsumed by images through art-making.
Process
Composer Jean-Baptiste Barrière mentions that simulation
can be seen as a remarkable property that can become
available on the computer; and for the artist, a body of
knowledge in perpetual evolution. These are now made
available – precisely thanks to the unique tool of formalization
in computer – the artists can in turn reconsider it, build on it,
develop it, enrich it with new meanings, adding to it their own
creative potential.
Likewise, through making Outdoor Blu, I started by manipulating the images by layering and editing to create a new flow with the assets. First I acquired the found footages online from outdated news sources or copyright-free archives. At times if necessary I used 3d software to make the imagery that was in my head. The process of using video editing software like Premiere Pro, and After Effect made me realize the difference in traditional image/object making (medium specificity) – the individual objects had less importance than the entire dynamic mechanism of the video.
The objective of Outdoor Blu was to create a speculative reality where the images are thin layered walls that present themselves outwardly as loud to the viewers while their inside is hollow. From this, the video delivers the story through 4 different parts:
1) Intro
A narrator (fish) speaks about how s/he swims through the images every day and looks at them. To him/her, the world is seen as a bunch of digital images.
2) Frustration
The images of a city with painfully vibrant lights explain that they are just like the images: great facade, but hollow inside. The feeling is intense, it’s as if the images are screaming. It feels like a hollow wail.
3) A wish
A protagonist wishes for the erasure of the threshold that divides inside and outside of the image layers.
4) Swimming
A protagonist wishes the image layer to be liquified and wishes to dive into it.
While creating a visual space with the videos, to convey the emotional aspect of the narrative, I produced the music using Ableton with the same logic that I’ve used for video editing – assembling the free sound fragments online and making it as an entire piece of music. After I finished with the music, I adjusted the video flow accordingly.
The visual and musical experience was captured in the video but to fully accomplish the deliverance of the speculative reality that Outdoor Blu has, I expanded the narrative of the video into the installation aspect.
First I printed a swimming pool texture file on large PVC material to place it on the floor to invite the viewers into the different time and space. Additionally, I’ve gotten a swimming pool lifeguard’s chair to achieve a heightened vantage point of a spectator. The audience had to go up on the lifeguard chair to put on a headphone to watch the video in the full experience.
Likewise, through making Outdoor Blu, I started by manipulating the images by layering and editing to create a new flow with the assets. First I acquired the found footages online from outdated news sources or copyright-free archives. At times if necessary I used 3d software to make the imagery that was in my head. The process of using video editing software like Premiere Pro, and After Effect made me realize the difference in traditional image/object making (medium specificity) – the individual objects had less importance than the entire dynamic mechanism of the video.
The objective of Outdoor Blu was to create a speculative reality where the images are thin layered walls that present themselves outwardly as loud to the viewers while their inside is hollow. From this, the video delivers the story through 4 different parts:
1) Intro
A narrator (fish) speaks about how s/he swims through the images every day and looks at them. To him/her, the world is seen as a bunch of digital images.
2) Frustration
The images of a city with painfully vibrant lights explain that they are just like the images: great facade, but hollow inside. The feeling is intense, it’s as if the images are screaming. It feels like a hollow wail.
3) A wish
A protagonist wishes for the erasure of the threshold that divides inside and outside of the image layers.
4) Swimming
A protagonist wishes the image layer to be liquified and wishes to dive into it.
While creating a visual space with the videos, to convey the emotional aspect of the narrative, I produced the music using Ableton with the same logic that I’ve used for video editing – assembling the free sound fragments online and making it as an entire piece of music. After I finished with the music, I adjusted the video flow accordingly.
The visual and musical experience was captured in the video but to fully accomplish the deliverance of the speculative reality that Outdoor Blu has, I expanded the narrative of the video into the installation aspect.
First I printed a swimming pool texture file on large PVC material to place it on the floor to invite the viewers into the different time and space. Additionally, I’ve gotten a swimming pool lifeguard’s chair to achieve a heightened vantage point of a spectator. The audience had to go up on the lifeguard chair to put on a headphone to watch the video in the full experience.
