Unit 35 Video Installation

Deimantas Narkevicius - Role of a Lifetime 2003

In the video there's a mixture of footage, it starts off with black and white pencil drawings which pans along, it then moves on to actual footage which is old looking, some of it is in black and white and some in colour. The footage is quite amateur. There is also a voice over but none of the footage matches the words.

When I was watching the installation I couldn't really hear what he was saying, even when everyone in the room was quiet. Despite this it was very calm to listen to and everyone in the room seemed to be engaged and quiet, although I could tell they were also not really listening. 

The room was quite dark but because there was just an arch rather than a door or curtains there was a lot of light at the back, which I think prevented people from getting in the mood for listening.

From research I can see that the video is split into 3 parts, the first is an interview with a British film maker Peter Watkins, the second is a sequence of drawings of the Lithuanian landscape, and the third is amateur footage of Brighton. Apparently it's about the distrust in documentary film making but I couldn't gather that when I was watching it at the time, and even now when I'm watching it I can only see it because I was told that's what it's about. I think if they wanted to get this message across they could've used the drawing to show what actually happened and then footage of how everyone was told what happened, it would've been a lot more effective. 

Andrea Fraser - Projection

This installation was very simple, there was two projections on opposite sides of the wall, and they both showed a woman sitting alone on a chair. Only one projection would happen at a time. She was speaking and it was a monologue, on one side she seemed upset and was almost crying and on the other side she'd be projecting another emotion. 

My observations were that it looked like the Diary Room on Big Brother, a room where the housemates would talk about how they feel and she was doing the same. Although we were just watching her it seemed quite interactive because when the projection changed you'd have to swivel around to see, also she was looking straight at the camera which made you feel more involved, also as the background of the footage was black and the room was black it was almost like she was in the room. Whilst in the room people didn't seem to be listening to her words, it was like they were watching her and could hear her but weren't listening to the actual words that she was saying. 

This piece was monologues from what people have said in therapy, I think if I had stayed longer and there wasn't so many people in the room I would've understood that.

Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker - The Tanks

This video was very short and very clear, it was Anne explaining about her dancing, and how they were going to do a live performance and how it feels. It was shot like a documentary, so it would show Anne talking just to the side of the camera and there was also shots of her and others dancing and people's faces and they watched them dance. 

The room we watched this in was very large, and there were a lot of people inside. One of the unique things about this room was that you could select what video you wanted to watch and it would add it to the playlist of videos. 

I found this video the easiest to understand because even though she was speaking in English there were subtitles, so if someone was talking you would still know what she had said. The room didn't seem fully engaged as there were a lot of people just dipping in and out, also when they were dancing some people laughed, so I think people weren't taking it seriously. I liked this piece though and it reminded me of the film Billy Elliot because it all builds up to a performance at the end, and when the people in the room were laughing it reminded me of how in the film people laughed at him and he continued.