i will begin by retracing the thought processes that accompanied my trip to yozhou and resulted in the conversations we had, and then describe how they’ve developed in our final weeks in beijing, and ultimately china. unfortunately, as guinea pigs, we’ve found ourselves scrambling to see the last shows and take the last pictures and not miss our transportation in the process, so this dual paper is lighter than it ought to be; know that we’ve not let up thinking about the project—just that we ran out of time to write about it.
as you know, pretty much everyone i talked with (in addition to my own reflections) quickly acknowledged the difficulty in attempting to complete two very different works, however exciting and snowballing they might be. it’s of course great to have ideas move from scattered notions to solidified projects—and is exactly what andy and i were hopeful for throughout this trip—but the reality is that three animations with accompanying soundtracks is plenty to work on and work with. and rather than try to salvage and mash together old ideas back into these new ones, it’s become clear that trying to reincorporate the fish, cigarette, and streetlight imagery/motion might be too much; i’m still open to their integration, but not at all counting on it.
in terms of the animations, then, i have considered several points of our conversation. the biggest decision, in terms of how this project was to be displayed, concerned the “marketability” of the film: as an installation across three screens and three speakers, the ability to pass it along as a working artist in the future will diminish some, at least compared to a single video that’s easily uploaded/emailed online. you encouraged me to really think about taking this opportunity to do a show that won’t really be possible for a while (presumably) versus really starting to build a portable portfolio—something to easily reference in the future. at this point, i’m favoring the former option, because i’m still interested most in how separate elements interact and how viewers/listeners can attend the same show multiple times without really attending the same show. andy and i have discussed the role of a gallery (versus the internet or a theatre or the street) a lot this last week, and i’ve found myself wanting to push beyond simply having a few things pinned or hung to the wall—i want something that makes use of a space, so that the experience a person has at smith is not simply something they could google later. honestly though, our thoughts on the matter are still developing, so i’m cautious to declare much more than that.
my storyboarding has helped narrow down precisely what motions i will animate. the first i’ll call “plucking”: you and andy saw it and i caught only the tail end of a young man squeezing little bits of his girlfriend’s forearm and pulling it gently until it snapped back, repeatedly. while we haven’t seen the exact same motion again, the forearm is absolutely a common target for touching here, so i made plucking a priority loop—it also has good (and inspiring) musical potential, as i describe below. the second loop features “scraping”: as two women walk down the street, they hold hands and one scrapes her fingers against the other’s wrist, slipping between the two positions. the accompanying sounds will be scraped or brushed rather than plucked or struck. the third and final loop, unfortunately, has yet materialize. i want something slow and sustained (as that will be it’s musical quality) and i also want to try a new pair of people touching—preferably an old-young relationship (to round out the lovers and same-sex friends). there was a senior with what appeared to be his granddaughter on the train in beijing, and they were playing with a metro card as she sat in his lap. while i don’t want the card to included in the animation, some combination of large, old hands with smaller, young hands seems the best, though if she’ll just be held or actually interact i have yet to decide. (it will really depend on the music—so i guess interaction is less likely.) in terms of the drawing style, it’s the composition that’s most important: i want really close shots—as intimate as one can get. so in terms of clothing and other aesthetic decisions, there really aren’t many to be had. i’m wanting to focus only on the points of contact, and not distract with other movements or accessories. lighting is the other main decision, specifically the range of values i’ll use; right now i’m leaning towards a narrower, lighter spectrum, but dramatic darks are also appealing and might allow for more dynamic frame-to-frame animation. the decision will hinge on the paper type i use, its dimensions, and the kind of smoothing and mark making i can accomplish as well.
as for the musical compositions, i have refined some of my thinking about how and why i’ll use the sounds i’m interested in. i, contrary i believe to how it was described over skype, initially pondered sounds that resembled the motions i was animating—in this case, a plucked or struck sound for the forearm plucking, a scratched or scraped sound for the handheld scraping, and a brushed or bowed sound for the undecided motion. at first i was thinking about piano strings (not with hammers but with fingers or other objects), and then upon reading a random fact about how many chinese piano and violin students there are (around 40 million between the two, for the record) thought about adding violin too.
but thinking and talking it over helped realize how very different an approach that was from my original intent, which is far more relatable. and then, while shopping, we came across a music store that sold singing bowls; i bought two, each a different pitch, and now plan to use those either exclusively (as i can emulate the three motions fairly well) or along with the piano strings, which is about as uncommon a sound. between the two, i think achieving a unique but linked sonic experience is not only possible but also exciting and precisely the kind of introspective aura i was hoping for. what’s left is determining if there’s any specific type of scale or set of notes to use; in some ways, that i already have two predetermined pitches to experiment with makes a nice limitation from the start, though pitch-shifting with software is very appealing and plausible so perhaps i won’t lock myself in with those yet. i also tend to work with improvisation first and work myself into a more rigid pattern, so it will really just take time at the piano to see. i don’t think rhythm will play into these pieces, as the looping will remain fairly subtle and intentionally unaligned—unlike with a set meter and tempo. melody will, therefore, be drawn out and dynamic.
