reality | My Site 8

Taking the split screen concept from 500 days of summer and the reality vs expectation. I wanted to flip this concept and present the Mill in present vs digitalised. One screen would be a lens into what the mill looks like now with primary videos I collected and editing on after effects to provide the 360 camera feel, as the AV store didn't have them available again. Then on the other screen showcases a digital reconstruction I created on cinema 4D, and will be presented within my final moving image as a virtual reality experience as this is very immersive and multi sensory. Allowing the person to really feel like they have been transported to another space. I wanted to recreate the mill in tilt brush following my virtual reality experiments from above, but this programme deemed to not have the precision and accuracy of tools I required to create a believable floorpan of the space. Therefore I decided to use cinema 4D as I could then bring in the graffiti illustrations I drew on the 3D head I developed earlier in the process and use this as the wallpaper. As graffiti is the perfect example of developing something that is old to a newer look by human interference.

exhibition overview

name development

after effects

medium lens distortion

too distorted

full square distortion

I wanted the composition to hold the split screens to bit a little longer in width than a normal composition size. So I can fit in both of there videos comfortably. I decided to settle with 2000px as I still want the video to be able to fit on a screen / iPad and not have to much black space above and below

editing

^^ There were many more edits but when screenshooting the files

a lot of them hadn't loaded the image in documents and were just the QuickTime file icons so I couldn't really screenshot them. I used a mixture of aftereffects and photomosh to create texture and movement edits on the type and backgrounds. Also with the 3d sphere.

key

eventually with the colour palette I chose to go black and white. After experimenting with trying to place both the 3D render and raw footage file it enabled for the 3d render to stand out and for the textures in the black and white raw footage to be enhanced. I tried to create a split screen on afterffeects but it didn't fit nicely and the quality of the videos would go down due to being downsized.

So I decided to take the route of using the physical exhibition space as the split screen. To have a big enough room to hold two large screens side by side. - l

With inspiration from Holly Herndon's music video where she includes pop up adds in her YouTube video ( shown below in audio ) I wanted to add files one my computer imagery. Like opening up a folder to the photos

It helps to reinforce the sense of reality and representation of 'now

Out of the distortion lens sizes on aftereffects II chose the larger one as I wanted the raw footage that the audience sees to be large and impactful, with a moving motion through the rooms and corridors like they are moving through themselves.

The writing I created using a code generator online. I wanted to stick

with the feel of extracting these raw files from a computer. Plus it gives

an element of the technology in the second screen - to stay cohesive.

I incorporated the Mill renders I created on the Augmented

reality app right at there start of the project. As these are stillma raw example of the mill as in the name " reality " just a little distorted and ran through a computer, but still gives an accurate representation of the textures, shapes and surfaces.

The text started originally with a black background,

I didn't want this visually as harsh so I placed it into photomosh, changed the background to white and used luma mesh to distort the angle and add a texture

The typefaces were informed by hand painted signs on industrial buildings - a popular choice in Manchester and around the world, before signs became mass produced in factories

You can still see many older hand painted sings around the city, and its a beautiful reminder of the hardworking and craftmensip that went into the industrial city.

some photos of signage eroding through time wear around Manchester.

The three dimensional ball is is something I created for background purposes and to add a further texture to edit and distort through programmes to flow the moving image piece together. The 3D ball is morphing and changing shape like the architecture does for different purposes

I layered up architectural drawings representing the rebuilding of the mill, and layered these over the visuals.

I then ended the video with my computer showing the raw files in my folder.

I wanted to have the semi circle at the end combining with another semi-circle on the other split screen to create a full circle representing the two screens combining to form the virtual reality experience in the next room of the exhibiton.

audio

I was inspired by this music video for the visuals after deciding to use holly Herndon as the audio for my moving image piece. The YouTube advertisement pop ups really intrigued me and drew me in as I kept getting fooled over and over to close the tab. The flag style material combined with the typography was really visually beautiful and inspired my editing and distortion of my primary image texture photos. Also the use of text throughout really helped to guide me on how to create a moving image for this. I was really struggling to incorporate the text, and initially my go to was to just subtitle, but this looked really bland and not what I was invisoning.

Bridge - Holly Herndon ( chosen one )

other options

Hiroshi Yoshimura - Feel

Aphex Twin - 3

other playlists I created at the start of the project and kept adding to - so I could get an idea of a soundscape in my mind.

I wanted an ambient but digital vibe, with sounds of construction preferably in the background. Initially I really struggled to chose an appropriate audio as all ambient songs on YouTube sounded too cinematic and didn't have the grit I was after. Until I remembered a perfect artist who was very digital based and produced her music in such a unique way that creates very unusual intriguing sounds.

I explored her in my VC1 project second year and was automatically interested by her way of producing music. Her music is primarily computer-based and often uses the visual programming language Max/MSP to create custom instruments and vocal processes. Her musical work explores embodied experience in electronic media through experiments with the electronically processed voice, using extended vocal techniques, vocal processing and FM synthesis.

It was a perfect link to my project as she mixes audio samples and digitalises these and distorts them to make something completely new and different. It also is a good touch on my ideas discussed in " digital " split screen about future technolgies and meta verse as she is very ahead of her time and interested in the world of advanced program and production. For example :

Holly +

Holly+ is Holly Herndon’s digital twin, the first of its kind. The custom voice instrument and website by Never Before Heard Sounds allows for anyone to upload polyphonic audio and receive a download of that music sung back in Herndon’s distinctive voice. In the fast approaching era of deepfakes, Herndon is the first artist to embrace the utility of the near future of this technology rather than be disempowered by it. This creative and economic experiment proposes a way for artists to take control of their digital selves without obstructing experimentation with punitive copyright lawsuits.

Holly + AI

"Holly Herndon an artist who gave birth to an AI baby"

The experimental composer has built an AI recording system called Spawn to help with her new album

For her forthcoming third album, Proto, she has teamed up not just with fellow musicians, programmers and members of the public, but a “baby” called Spawn.

Spawn is quite advanced for a newborn. She can mimic, interpret and develop musical ideas, often revealing elements in Herndon’s compositions that she was unaware of. That’s because Spawn has actually been built from artificial intelligence – Herndon collaborated with the AI expert Jules LaPlace in her endless quest to find fresh new sounds. “I know I’m known as ‘laptop girl’,” she says, laughing, “but I’m always asking myself: where does the human performer fit in to this? How do we continue to develop without automating us off the stage? This frees us up to be more human together.”

She has a similar essence to this project with the combining of human experience and architecture and how this particular exhibiton has been lead to due to the mill being used as a music event space

final reality

The audio clip at the start is actually from my primary video of the corridor in the mill and of a band practising in a studio.

I am very happy with this final video. It Is a different visual style in a way that I don't normally tend to create, primarily due to the colour palette being black and white. I am usually very inclined to use colour in my work. This was slightly nerve racking for me to strip back so much and go for this change in palette, but I really think it was a crucial step to allowing my split screens to be able to work side by side and not clash. Work in harmony and not against eachother, making each one stand out in their own right. I did want to keep the colour originally of the raw footage to keep it as gritty and true to reality as I could, but I instead inbedded this back into the moving image above through using corrugated textures and grains, and brick work texture. Also hints of coding and pixel to reference to split screen n.2. If I had more time I would of loved to be able to use the 360 camera to capture the mill instead of having to recreate this on aftereffects. Unfortunately in the time period of the project the AV store didn't have any in stock so I adapted the best I could. This would of strengthened my link to the interstellar imagery. But overall I am extremely happy with the way the visuals interact with the audio and create such an immersive experience due to the urge to read the code on screen and how the visuals will interact with the digital split screen together, completing with a multisensory VR Experience. Ever since my dissertation into multi sensory I have been forever interested in the experience and my work has really adapted around this curiosity.