Leisure time

Lately I have been thinking about leisure. The concept of 'leisure time' didn't come about until the industrial revolution, when factoy workers did long shifts and were only given one day off a week to spend doing what they wanted to do. Somewhere along the line this turned into two days, and now most of us have evenings and weekends to spend doing whatever we see fit. But what do we choose to do with this time? I like to spend my free time trying to find ways where I can forget about whatever it is that I am am worrying about at that particular time, in that way it isn't really free time at all, because the worry is always in the back of my mind. There are two types of leisure - 'active leisure' like sports, and 'passive leisure' like reading and other more relaxing pastimes. That word 'pastimes' is quite interesting aswell, meaning something to pass the time, it makes whatever activity you do that fits under this term seem less important, and more like a space filler until your real work comes along. Some images of what is commonly thought of as leisurely activites...

'Leisure' by William Henry Davies

What is this life if, full of care,We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughsAnd stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,Streams full of stars like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty’s glance,And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth canEnrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,We have no time to stand and stare.

Sean Cordeiro and Claire Healy

These colaborative artists are examining the materiality of everyday things. Whether it be an entire house, broken down and organised into materials like their work Cordial Home Project, 2003, or a house full of posession rolled into a ball like Deceased Estate, 2004, thier work deals with the home and the sense of private being made public. I like that they treat each separate ingredient that goes into making up the house with the same attention to detail, nothing is elevated above anything else, there is a sense of order and the banality that is a persons belongings without the person present.

Second trial - not very good

This was my second test, but the lighting looks pretty terrible. I used lamps, one of them a halogen bulb, but i found it difficult to light the cream cupboards without glare reflecting off the paint. Mike suggested I use some halogen lamps with long bulbs you can buy from the warehouse so I will try out some of these, if they don't work I will try a lighting kit but that might produce too much light and work badly with all the off-white. It also had the nd filter on, and when I turned that off it looked much better.

PLATO - Platonic Forms

from: http://www.niu.edu/~jdye/forms.html

Platonic Forms

"Sensible objects could not possibly be real; they could at best be “copies” or “images” (as Plato calls them) of underlying realities which can be thought about but which cannot be perceived. In short, what we usually call “the real world” is not that at all, but is rather just a world of appearance or seeming. Only the Forms really exist, for they are the “causes” (in the sense of archetypal standards) of whatever intelligible properties are discernible in those sensible things which seem to be most real. If we don’t know what beauty, or equality, or justice is ideally, how can we recognize particular instances of these? Interestingly, this means that the examples we began by considering–statements such as “This woman is beautiful”–cannot ever be cases of knowledge, because the subject expression designates a sensible, rather than an intelligible, object. We could never be certain of more than that “This woman seems beautiful,” because this opinion relies on ever changing and always incomplete observational evidence. The only statements which could express genuine knowledge would be those whose subject terms, as well as their predicate terms, designated Forms. In logical jargon, knowledge can be expressed only in universal propositions, not in singular propositions (propositions whose subject refers to some particular thing rather than to a Form). Scientific statements, as well as the definitions of virtues sought by Socrates in Plato’s dialogues, are not about particular facts or objects but about universals."

Copyright © 1995, 2003 James Dye
Updated: 02/08/2007 10:40:31

Faces

Something else I am thinking about is how people can project human qualities onto inanimate objects by imagining they see a face in that object, thus giving it some sort of personality. There are a lot of images to be found on the internet of people doing just this, and I have always done it myself, I just haven't taken the photos to record my own findings.

First test

My first test of 'object animation' stop motion using still objects that don't move or mould into different shapes themselves, just appear to be moving around the space like they have come alive. Just a test to see if I have the knack and patience for this type of work, I enjoyed it, but it is lacking a direction/concept at this point.

Brave little toaster

A film I had completely forgotten about which may have been the beginning of my interest in inanimate objects. The film was based on a novel by Thomas Disch, which I havn't read. Children usually believe to a certain age that inanimate objects have feelings and human qualities, so a book/movie like this would be appealing and believable to the very young.

Semester 2 - Continuation of last semesters work

After creating a series of 40 ornament-size replicas of inanimate household objects, I was left not really knowing what to do with them. After deliberating about which direction I would like this project to head in, I decided on animation. Having dabbled in some animation in the past I am not completely staring from scratch, yet I do have a lot to learn. I will begin my making a series of short tests. My aim at this point is to experiment with making my objects 'come alive', in their own setting - my house.

I need to...

• Rethink and rewrite my brief, update any changes to the project
• Re-research, get back into the library and find new information to keep this thing moving along
• Experiment/test more, try not to get stuck in one way of working again
• Read Plato - Maddie's suggestion
• Work on concept and content and context first and foremost
• Have more fun in the process, not getting bogged down worrying about "seriousness" of project, it isn't a project with a really serious theme, it is more celebratory and light hearted, try to make work that displays this mood.
• Think about what really interests me, and what will give me the most satisfaction from completing this project

Things I want to develop on from last semester...

I have these objects now, and I would like to experiment with using them in an interesting way instead of chucking that idea out and starting on something completely different. making a stop motion animation will be my first test. The idea from "Objects of our Desires" about how children believe inanimate objects have feelings could be a theme for the video, personifying objects. The objects almost resemble chess peices, or game tokens, and I am interested in pastimes such as gaming. So putting these objects into a gaming context may be a good way to give the work more meaning, and create more interest in it for me.






Individual Contract Semester 2
Jessica Kidd
05136261

Aim
This semester I will continue on with my investigations surrounding inanimate objects. I aim to work with video this semester, as I haven’t all year so far and I am missing it. I would like to make a stop motion, using my objects from last semester as a starter and then moving on to perhaps working with the real objects from my house. This project will be a way to investigate the history of the stop motion film and its relevance today, when most animated films are made with computers, not good old-fashioned stop motion. I also aim to make humorous work, so it will be an opportunity to learn about what humour means to the art world.

Method
-Begin by making a stop motion using my clay objects from last semester
-Learn how to use the DVX100 camera properly, I have been taught in the past but have never really had the chance to use it on my own until now
-Research humour and stop motion for starters
-Think about the use of the real objects instead of clay. What will this change? Why would I use the clay ones anyway? That doesn’t make sense to me.
-Think about what it will take to animate inanimate objects, putting faces on them? If so what will this be made from?
-Find out how to do stop motion facial expressions/ stop motion in general.
-Also have to consider the hallucinogenic implications of household objects coming to life.
-I am interested in leisure at the moment, what people choose to do with their spare time, so research leisure.

Read
- Plato, Platonic Forms
- Research into history/theory of stop motion
- Research Leisure Studies

People to look at

-Tony Oursler
- Sean Kerr
- Jan Svankmayer
- Bollex Brothers

Things to look at
- The Brave Little Toaster
- Fantasia
- H R Pufnstuf