STRING FIGURING WIND
STRING FIGURING THE WIND
Learning to move with
uncontrollability
STRING FIGURING THE WIND
An audio-visueal experience: installation, video performances on multiple screens, soundscape.
Graduation Project for my Masters of Visual Arts, 2022
Video performance I: 4:50
Video performance II: 9:40
Soundscape: 16:03Description:
How do we deal with the uncontrollable things in life? Love, mourning and tragedy, for example. Some things we simply cannot fully control, nor solely deal with on a rational level. In our society which overvalues our mind, I wonder: where does our body and intuition, play a role?
This mixed media installation is about surrendering the desire to cognitively understand and control everything. To learn to trust the unknown. It’s an exercise of control and letting go. You will not drown. It’s about accepting our vulnerability. Our fragility, our strength. It’s about this exact paradoxical state of being. Being present at everything in the moment, directed inwards and outwards. To engage with our intuition and take it seriously. To refuse to look away, to stay present.
This project is a statement. It’s an invitation to listen more to our bodies and feelings, rather than only our minds.
This mixed media installation is about surrendering the desire to cognitively understand and control everything. To learn to trust the unknown. It’s an exercise of control and letting go. You will not drown. It’s about accepting our vulnerability. Our fragility, our strength. It’s about this exact paradoxical state of being. Being present at everything in the moment, directed inwards and outwards. To engage with our intuition and take it seriously. To refuse to look away, to stay present.
This project is a statement. It’s an invitation to listen more to our bodies and feelings, rather than only our minds.
About the Process:
My research was to create an immersive atmosphere which would stir the viewer into the affective realm.
The soundscape is much longer than the video, blurring the lines between beginning and end of each video loop. It is meant to create an endless and immersive experience, inviting the viewer to stay as long as they feel compelled to.
There are 2 parts in this installation.
1.) The first video is an exploratory performance research. I want to invite you into my process. I was learning how to animate the cloth in the wind. It's a sort of dance between the body and mind, through the cloth and the wind. I could think or want to create a nice looking image on camera by moving in a specific way, the wind didn't care. The wind is uncontrollable. I had to listen to the wind through a different sense of awareness than a purely rational one. It's to be in a sort of meditative state, of being absolutely present in the moment. To listen and act through the body's senses and intuitive impulses. “Do”, not solely “think”. I place myself right at the intersection between what I can control and the uncontrollable.
It's this attitude that I've been researching in my thesis. Performing with the wind is a fitting metaphor for learning to deal with the uncontrollability in life. Things that happen to you, but connecting with your emotions or listen to your intuition. It's a vulnerable attitude. But also a strong attitude.
2.) The second part is the result of this research. The video and soundscape act as an invitation to get immersed and sit down for a moment.
Special thanks to: Bas van den Hurk, Arnoud Rigter & Gerrit Venemans
The soundscape is much longer than the video, blurring the lines between beginning and end of each video loop. It is meant to create an endless and immersive experience, inviting the viewer to stay as long as they feel compelled to.
There are 2 parts in this installation.
1.) The first video is an exploratory performance research. I want to invite you into my process. I was learning how to animate the cloth in the wind. It's a sort of dance between the body and mind, through the cloth and the wind. I could think or want to create a nice looking image on camera by moving in a specific way, the wind didn't care. The wind is uncontrollable. I had to listen to the wind through a different sense of awareness than a purely rational one. It's to be in a sort of meditative state, of being absolutely present in the moment. To listen and act through the body's senses and intuitive impulses. “Do”, not solely “think”. I place myself right at the intersection between what I can control and the uncontrollable.
It's this attitude that I've been researching in my thesis. Performing with the wind is a fitting metaphor for learning to deal with the uncontrollability in life. Things that happen to you, but connecting with your emotions or listen to your intuition. It's a vulnerable attitude. But also a strong attitude.
2.) The second part is the result of this research. The video and soundscape act as an invitation to get immersed and sit down for a moment.
Special thanks to: Bas van den Hurk, Arnoud Rigter & Gerrit Venemans
- An immersive experience that stirs
the viewer in the affective realm.
