[working title]

2010: a new blog odyssey

2010-01-08T18:50:00.003+13:00

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to you all. Hopefully santa gave you what you wanted and that you haven't broken any resolutions just yet.

So yep, I'm all graduated and left to my own devices to tackle the big bad world of creatives. This also means time for new beginnings and a new blog so I'm saying goodbye to [working title] for now. My new self-made website is HERE

So goodbye working title, you have been good to me.

May you rest well in the online abyss of abandoned blogs

xox

Bringing it home

2009-11-29T18:58:00.003+13:00

After the de-installation of my SITE work it gets lugged back to Water street for storage. Won't fit in the apartment so it's currently hanging out downstairs until the landlord tells me to move it elsewhere.

Video of installed work

2009-11-26T16:56:00.001+13:00

StillMoving from Emily Hlavac-Green on Vimeo.

SITE Exhibition Opening Night

2009-11-26T15:11:00.010+13:00

Sneak peak at my work through the velvet curtain

business cards front and back

Thank you to everyone (and there are a lot of you) who have helped to make this work successful.

Viet Tieu and I

Some of the photography class photo with Alex in Kansas via Mishca's artwork.
From left: Viet, Alex, Me, Jules, Jess.

StillMoving - important blog bookmarks

2009-11-16T23:40:00.000+13:00

06.03.09Disillusions first experimentation with layered transparency

25.03.09Merging Time layered frames from The Matrix

22.05.09Jad Oakes preserving time

17.06.09Layered Blue flattened time lapse

31.08.09Lenticular Odessa experimentation with movement/3D

10.08.09Cups and orange Lenticular animation to give illusion of 3D space

Wall statement and finished installation

2009-11-16T23:12:00.003+13:00

“Photography is truth. And cinema is truth twenty-four times a second” Jean-Luc Goddard

Devoid of any actual moving image, StillMoving rests in the space between cinema and photography, and reflects Deleuze’s theory of the time-image; ‘an image in which time ceases to be subordinate to movement and appears for itself.’ The movement stems from action, rather than relying on a motion picture; and becomes a still image where movement is propelled by the viewer.
Focus is taken away from the cinematic and given back to the photographic.

An image may only ever be a representation; never the actual thing it is depicting, never the ‘truth’ as it was once believed to be. Perhaps the only actuality to which the image can be assigned is its indexical factor; that it is no more ‘real’ than the silver emulsion on paper, or the pixel on a screen. StillMoving aims to highlight this falsified reality.

Final touches

2009-11-16T22:20:00.000+13:00

lifting the frame with photographs into place in the wall setting.

putting up curtains around room. this was something i didn't initially anticipate, though it made a huge difference in the end. the room becomes a cinema.

plans

Construction worker

2009-11-15T03:22:00.006+13:00

Today I have sawn, sanded, drilled, nailed, lifted, stapled, measured, leveled, broken and fixed. Still too scared to take the full backing paper off until it is absolutely necessary, I got the first glimpse of about 1/8th of my work at 1am this morning.

Issues at this stage:

*Costly and time consumingly beautiful 6mm clear acrylic frame for prints didn't work as planned, so had to be constructed from timber, then covered in black fabric for a nice finish, but this works even better!

*Realized that white walls may not work. so tomorrow the walls might have to go black.

*Vinyl lettering has to go outside the room since most people can't read in the dark.

*Fluid isn't open on the weekends for coffee

But thanks to my amazing team of helpers- John for the main wall structure, Jude for showing me everything I now know about building stuff and breaking router bits, Tim and the flatmates for the pizza and D'Arcy for the lettering even though she's insanely busy and its a saturday.

The main framework going up

Lightbox testing

Cutting the timber for the frame to hold images

Wrapping frame sides in black fabric

Single image test with backing still on

I'm looking forward to tomorrow already(and REALLY should get to bed!)

p.s.. also coming along- my NEW blog site! and business cards)

waiting...

2009-11-10T14:55:00.002+13:00

Everything is ready-almost-for installation.
The transparency is on the acrylic (applied tediously with water and a squeegie) and cut to the right size (by the amazing people at absolutely plastics) and now awaits installation, which will hopefully begin tomorrow.
The next step is building a support wall to house the lightboxes, and following that will be installing the photographs. At the moment I'm exploring either hanging them or fitting a frame with spacers around them to hold them in place.
I can't take the backing paper off the photographs yet so it is hard to determine the right spacing. working on it!

First two layers printed!

2009-10-23T16:25:00.003+13:00

*still on their paper backing, and not yet mounted onto acrylic, but still, PRINTED!

Scaling down the big ideas

2009-10-20T18:12:00.004+13:00

So things are on track at the moment, I have obtained the x-ray light boxes and have started to test print on adhesive backed transparency which will then be stuck on 3mm acrylic. I put out a proposal for funding which had its closure date on the 12th October, and I managed to gain enough sponsorship to cover all my costs. The price of the acrylic is higher than what I set aside for the initial PVC clear film, though I have been able to save costs in other areas (donation of light boxes from the hospital etc).

Things to do now:

-Print final images

-Attach to acrylic backing

-Plan and do scale model of wall to embed work in

-Source material to build wall and helpers who know how to use hammers

-Safety check all electronics

-Consider soundtrack?

scale plan of four light boxes and layout

Measurements of back wall of site space. The green indicates the wall I will construct to house the light boxes and images on acrylic. It frames the image, overlapping the edges slightly.

Plan B Projection into mist test

2009-09-30T21:09:00.003+13:00

Projected my moving Odessa sequence into an area filled with 'fog' (using a glucose smoke machine) with a data projector set at ceiling height onto a large screen. The definition of the image was lost in the fog, though the colours and movement made for an interesting, immersive environment, but not in way i wanted; instead of being immersed in the scene, the viewer is only immersed in coloured light. I imagine that to achieve the definition of the image I would need to project onto a flat surface such as a water screen-more of an ourdoor big project but definitely something to work towards in future. for now the lightbox is taking priority and I'm trialing various printing options on transparency.

Light Box in SSSPACE

2009-09-22T15:27:00.003+12:00

digitally rendered image of installation in Site space

Planning and presentation options- Lightbox

2009-09-15T14:27:00.005+12:00

With two potential final works on the go right now it is all about seeing what is going to work and what isn't. When I initially chose this SITE space(painting studio) I had in mind an idea for a large lightbox in a pitch black room. The plan is for 4 x-ray boxes which will each be covered by a segment of the larger Odessa scene. The image will be layered up, the whole work being comprised of 5 or more layers on transparency. The transparency is available in a size large enough to cover each lightbox.

Proposed idea 4 x (500mm by 1470mm) lightboxes with transparency

Random lightbox ideas

The projection into a misted area is still a possibility, though perhaps a bit too big for my prescribed space. So maybe I will have to think outside the box.

My Odessa- short film

2009-09-14T19:08:00.000+12:00

Step 2 Odessa from Emily Hlavac-Green on Vimeo.

SITE space measurements

2009-09-03T16:37:00.004+12:00

Lenticular Odessa

2009-08-31T19:27:00.003+12:00

Looped animation of 3 frames from my Odessa Steps sequence, inspired by Three frames - which loops 3 sequential frames from a movie, thanks Rachel

Back to the Box

2009-08-25T17:47:00.007+12:00

As a continuation of my layered light box (below left), over the past month or so I have been very interested in the idea of creating a three-dimensional space which will engage the viewer, making them feel as though they are actually in the image. I feel pictures on a wall are not enough right now, in a world where technology is advancing towards multi-dimensional viewing. Viewing, in this sense, can become an experience. This in turn also places emphasis on time and space.
After researching, and exploring stereoscopic photography, I have come to the conclusion that this is a new path altogether which I will engage with in the near future.
For now though, I will continue to work with my lightbox + layered transparencies to create a work for the end of the year which is thoroughly realised.
In relation to this I am also considering the projection of a moving image sequence onto a temporal surface, such as mist, dust, fog etc, in order to highlight the illusional characteristic of the cinema, and create an environment which viewers will freely move through.

If a billboard falls in a forest, who will hear it?

2009-08-25T14:05:00.012+12:00

Okay, so I haven't posted in a while, and I think I should explain what I've been up to. Among other submissions and jobs on the side, I have been working on a photography proposal to the Connells Bay sculpture park on Waiheke island for a work in collaboration with Alex Lovell-Smith. The chosen artist(s) will have their work installed on a huge billboard in the middle of the sculpture park. Our idea is to address the concept of viral advertising and the consumption of natural resources. We will create ‘foot traffic’ through a forest.

working image by Emily Hlavac-Green and Alex Lovell-Smith

The final work will be composed of multiple layers. Here is a short moving image of the layers, you can see time passing as the sunlight moves across the trees...

Cityscapes from Emily Hlavac-Green on Vimeo.

Lenticular animation to give illusion of 3D space

2009-08-10T21:15:00.003+12:00

I did it! I made an animated gif aka 'wiggle'!
This is created from a series of 10 images I took of a little still life, using a parallel camera set up, in which the objects sit in the zero disparity plane (the point of vergence for the camera angles) the alternative to this is toed-in verging, in which the cameras are angled to reach a common point at the centre of the object.
In a way its kind of a reverse panoramic. Rather than the image spanning 360 degrees and 'moving' around you as the viewer (or camera), you appear to move around the subject. This is also a common camera movement in cinema- having the camera pan and spin around a subject, or, as revolutionized by the Matrix, use of multiple cameras to capture a single fragment of time (a guy jumping,suspended in space) from different angles, so we can then pan all around a single moment.
Anyway, this is just a small test to examine the way we can use still imagery to give the illusion of 3D space.

Here is another wiggle I made from the two corresponding images from a Viewmaster, after scanning the disc transparencies.

18 Hanging Frames

2009-07-31T12:01:00.004+12:00

As a bit of a sidenote to the what I've been trying to do with my transparencies, I decide to work outside of the box. Constrained by the small space in which i was previously trying to create some sort of illusion, moving outside into an open space and letting my frames (from a small sequence from Odessa Steps shoot) hang freely does something quite different. I then project the moving image sequence of Odessa frames onto the hanging pieces, and light cascades all around the darkened room. The frames sway and move around, viewers can also move through them too, watching the shadows and light dance on the walls, and on each other.
I think its partly immersive, partly too random for my liking. Maybe it reminds me of moving through memories? ..It looks pretty, but I am still determined to create something which reminiscent of the illusionary quality of cinema.

I want so badly to be able to create the illusion of three-dimensionality from static images.
Like being inside a giant Viewmaster maybe...

Anyway, here are some documented images of the hanging frames setup.

Scale down the town

2009-07-27T23:06:00.002+12:00

Playing a bit here with manipulating scale, distorting space. Julia Fullerton-Batten achieves this effect though she does it through the placement of models in actual model town setups.
More images from Make Money Cheap EP release.

Midyear presentation setup pics

2009-06-22T17:45:00.002+12:00

In the darkness, the installation does not matter too much. But when you take a photo of it with a flash it's obvious that things don't look too pretty. Let's just say the setup was harder than I initially anticipated and I didn't quite leave enough time to ensure everything worked according to plan.

The result was what I had hoped for though, and the image has a depth to it, kind of an illusionary television screen which is not simply 2 dimensional when being viewed up close, though appears flattened again when re-photographed (as below image). Instead of the proposed 18 sequential layers, I had to cut it down to only 6 layers, to enable enough light to shine through. Something I will work on.

3D-2D // Expand and Flatten space and time

2009-06-17T15:12:00.001+12:00

Photograph comprised of 18 sequential stills. (about 6 seconds duration)

Plans

2009-06-16T23:20:00.003+12:00

New Shoot

2009-06-16T21:49:00.005+12:00

The setup:

So i hired a generator, got as many actors as I could and took a heap of photos with the spinshot and digital SLR. I've also documented it in video. The idea here was to allude to the battleship potempkin's 'odessa steps' sequence, which was a pivotal point in cinematic montage. It essentially deconstructs time, condensing an entire conflict into a 7 minute scene on the steps.

This moving image is made of 28 stills merging together:

Odessa from Emily Hlavac-Green on Vimeo.

Odessa

2009-06-09T20:13:00.005+12:00

C O M I N G S O O N

Disillusions

2009-06-03T21:11:00.004+12:00

As somewhat of a carry on from my pop-up diorama experiment, I've been using images printed on transparency to play with spacial dimensions and layering. The result (which isn't very well captured by the photos) is quite interesting, almost ethereal, illusionary or even holographic-looking . In a way Cinema may also be thought of as an optical illusion. Through the rapid linking of individual images, we see one continuous movement. Motion is never actual, just simulated.

with a camera flash:

Diorama // Making a scene

2009-05-26T15:12:00.004+12:00

First sample of working with images cut from photographs, re-staging then setting up a diorama for rephotographing as a 2D image. This will take a bit more work to make it look good, though it is an interesting avenue to explore. Like working in real-life photoshop.
Like the Serial Cut pop-ups, and perhaps a bit like Megan Jenkinson's Under the Aegis (The Virtues)

Tools for the Imagination

2009-05-18T13:51:00.005+12:00

Still loving the tiny model town at Pegasus, I decided to go one further after discovering this online tool which enables you to create your own Mike-Hunter-styles miniatures.
Tilt-shift miniature faking is a process in which a photograph of a life-size location or object is manipulated so that it looks like a photograph of a miniature scale model. By distorting the focus of the photo, you can simulate the shallow depth of field normally associated with macro lenses making the scene seem tiny and model-like.
My ones aren't too exciting yet, I just used a couple of snapshots I had already. If you have the right image, it can look quite convincing.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

The making of things

2009-05-13T15:45:00.002+12:00

Playing round, constructing scenes and altering depth of perception.

A few new experiments

2009-05-05T16:19:00.002+12:00

So I thought I had the whole panoramic in-camera match up thing sorted after my last attempt, but something went very wrong here, and I have a collection of weird layered images.. thought I'd put them up anyway.

The first panoramic from the film which is as-shot...

Crazy ghosting effects...

Interesting colour overlaps...

Portrait and landscape confusion.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 New Zealand License.

'Live where you play' (Kind of off on a tangent...)

2009-04-26T19:29:00.009+12:00

At P egasus you will find yourself inside a magical land of wonderfulness... the golf course, the matching houses, the equestrian club, the man made heated and treated lake complete with lakeview shopping plaza, the whole suburban package.

Drive about 20 minutes north of Christchurch and you will come to the expensively lit 'Pegasustown' sign, enter here into an abyss of empty, houseless streets and a sea of streetlights. But that's it, there's nothing else there yet.

This is a place of promised potential, nothing more yet than just an idea which many have bought into already.
I visited the model a couple of weeks ago, and it truely amazed me. The 1:100 scale model alone cost over a million dollars, and is the largest town model of its kind in the world. It was built in China and shipped over here in pieces, and contains around 53,000 trees and over 15,000 individual street and building lights!
It looks like something reminiscent of an urban Gregory Crewdson photo set.

What about this place that makes people want to live there? Are people buying a lifestyle? Or the safety and security of a gated community? Is this the perfect example of the suburban dream?

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Curtains

2009-04-08T20:18:00.013+12:00

Ever since watching Lost Highway by David Lynch I've been obsessed with them... the red curtain pops up quite frequently, and as the camera slowly pans across its corrugated surface you are eagerly waiting to see what will follow. Curtains are also a loaded symbol when it comes to cinema.
Today the lighting was really strange in our living room, and the curtains had a luminous glow from the bright grey sky outside...

Creative Commons Licence.

Creative Commons Licence.

'Curtains are both hiding and revealing. Sometimes it's so beautiful that they're hiding, it gets your imagination going. But in the theatre, when the curtains open, you have this fantastic euphoria, that you're going to see something new, something will be revealed.'

David Lynch @ Lost on Mulholland Drive

Blue Velvet(1986) Lost Highway(1997)

And more curtains...

Placebo 'Without You I'm Nothing' album cover 1998

The Incredible Hulk and the Kodak lady

2009-03-31T20:44:00.005+13:00

Constructed scene from the same film reel, though it never happened.

Adventures through a plastic viewfinder

2009-03-31T20:17:00.005+13:00

Dunedin, Milton and somewhere near Cro mwell

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 New Zealand License.

Merging time

2009-03-25T16:33:00.004+13:00

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Playing with the layering of sequential images; this here is 6 frames overlapping from a zoom/fade out from the letter 'o' surrounded by crazy 'matrix' letter goo, to a castle on a hill scene. Time is disrupted and motion exists in one single frame. This image represents 1/4 second at a film rate of 24 images per second. Is the movement still apparent when overlayed like this?

The Matrix(pt2)

2009-03-20T17:20:00.005+13:00

A couple more sequencial scans....

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

The Matrix, Reprinted?

2009-03-16T15:54:00.017+13:00

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

A couple of weeks ago I bought this reel of film from a guy at the Radio one market day.. he said it was a trailer for a Matrix film, and he gave it to me for $2.
I don't know why, but I knew I had to have it.
I saw in this giant roll of film, the endless possibilities to play with and feed my obsession with the collision between photography and cinema.

-Seeing a movement broken down into single frames is fascinating.. something which can be then seen as a static image, or a photographic still. I could print individual frames...

-The positive transparency of the film seems to eminate a glow, unlike negative film, and the colours are luminescent even from the first quick scan.

<--- This here is what a fade transition looks like on film! The gradient seems so gradual, yet it takes about 12 frames to complete a full fade to black.

-It also illustrates the action, each frame a fragment of a second, though when i scanned in individual frames i could see motion blur.

-An exploration in progress!

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

New experiments..

2009-03-06T13:12:00.005+13:00

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Ās a continuation of work last year, I am focusing conceptually on the relationship between photography and cinema, trying to make sense of it all.
(more concept-based work for this on my research blog- www.emilyhlavac09.blogspot.com).
In parallel to this, i am exploring the use of film, manipulating the camera and image within the viewfinder. These particular images I took with a120 back holga,using 35mm film in order to expose the entire film, sprockets and all, to the light. It takes a bit of playing around, using rubber bands (or hair ties if you have no rubber bands like me) and cotton balls, plus a bit of electrical tape just to fit the smaller film size so that it winds on properly. As 35mm has no paper backing, the film counter window has to be covered, and film advance done by guesswork. Afterwards the camera has to be opened up in the dark, and film wound back into the original canister. So I was trying to create one seemless panoramic image, but ended up with the gaps between images getting bigger as the circumference of the takeup reel got bigger. Wasn't prepared for this! Next time i will reduce the amount of film advance with each image.

New Years Resolutions and Confusion

2009-02-23T22:51:00.002+13:00

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

"There is never too little light..."

-Helmut Newton

happy holga snaps

2008-11-30T22:12:00.013+13:00

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

So here's my first attempt at playing with a Holga, after discovering my newfound obsession with lomographic cameras. I used 60mm film for what I thought would result in some nice square format negatives, but ended up with some crazy overlapping instead, as the film counter corresponds with 35mm film. So in all, I ended up with mostly underexposed, overlapped and abstract images. And a few light bleeds through the camera back too (I think?).
In my defense though the instruction manual that came it was for a completely different camera!
The inbuilt colour flashes (red,yellow,blue or white) are great fun, I took a liking to the blue in particular, and there's often a dreamy feel provided by short depth of field. This was fun, more experiments coming soon!

The Plot Thickens-Final Images

2008-11-11T17:44:00.006+13:00

"Photographs are not narratives in themselves, but elements of narrative within durative situations" - Peter Wollen

Thank You to everyone who helped me out!
Alex Lovell-Smith
Tim Nixon
Max Oettli
Rachel Gillies
Allan Cox
John Nixon
Arthur Hlavac-Green
Dana Lumsden
Ian Gillespie
David Slacko
Julia Johnstone
Jade Muirhead
Nui Noble
Polly Yeats

LiGHTBOX [play in the dark]

2008-11-05T21:18:00.004+13:00

Alex and I at the opening of our 3rd year BFA photography exhibition, "LiGHTBOX" showcasing a series of work from each of us. Our shared interest in the technical aspect of artificial lighting, and use of the darkness is what inspired us to exhibit together.

View Alex's work at www.alorxphotography.blogspot.com
Stay tuned, my final works on here soon!

Bronica September 19

2008-09-24T16:16:00.012+12:00

Images as shot: kinda distorted and weird colours. All 8sec and F4.5

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

16:9 Cinematic Ritual

2008-09-24T16:02:00.007+12:00

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Time is disrupted and non-linear, characters move within each image.
The cinematic aspect is created through the interaction (or deliberate disconnection) of characters. We do not know who the characters are, but we do know the story they are telling because we have seen it all before. The images contain visual elements often associated with a scene in a film. The layered motion; a scene of transcendence and a new reality lying beyond the ordinary range of perception. It rests in the Sublime, a colour crazy funeral, the underlying feeling not of dying, but of loss and remembrance.
I'm looking at other moments which have a generic and often cliche way of being represented in cinema.

Night time antics

2008-09-16T17:05:00.011+12:00

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Lately I've been going out at night and having a bit of experimental fun with off-camera flashes. Especially the use of coloured glass filters to provide big chunks of vibrant colour (mostly green and blue) and illuminate people and objects in awesome ways.

Sunday night was a bit of a trial run, going into a field and getting used to the idea of 'painting with a flash' It gives crazy ghostlike effects, and multiple layering, what i found quite cool was the tone in the sky, the slow shutter speed allowed even for the cloud movement, and it has this lightness to it almost as if it were daytime instead of night.

This was about a 3 minute exposure on f11:

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

And another image from sunday, this time the trees in Tim and Ian's garden. I sat between the two trees and lit up each side of the tress, then up the outsides of the trees, and a small piece of grass on the right hand side. The street lit behind also casts strands of light along the grass right to the foreground Quite mystical I thought:

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Last night's shoot was at Logan park, a beautifully warm night with a big moon (got a bit of moonflare in a few images) and a slight breeze.
I took a Bronica 6x6 and the D80, as well as a range of single firing flashes and one on burst mode (this was used to light up the flowers when thrown in the air.) as well a hang-picked selection of excellent models and button pushers.

I ran around with a flash and some glass filters, lighting up different scenes, then moving people into new spots and flashing them again. The result is the composed montage of situation really. With a cinematic quality, it became a film, and I was the director.
It was interesting, and the more I continued, the more I felt as though what I was doing was created layers in reality, instead of in photoshop. It was a manipulation of time and space within the camera.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Finding the narrative..

2008-09-09T14:58:00.007+12:00

It is really difficult. But as Max mentioned yesterday, perhaps it's not so important, or relevant to my work at this stage; every story has already been written somewhere in history. Perhaps the way people engage with the work, and my construction of images to create a kind of visual story is the direction I'm heading in.

Some new ideas and digital scribbles...

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.

Random Play, the beginnings..

2008-09-01T16:13:00.006+12:00

there under the trees I found it, a way out of this hell hole.

I have so many ideas of how I want this body of work to look, and loads of influences to the point where my memory feels photographic and I wish could just take a picture of what's in my mind.

Narrative is difficult, and I want it mean so much. yet not be static and unmoving/unengaging.

Thought a blog might be a good idea.. I waste too much paper these days

2008-08-28T14:57:00.002+12:00

NZIPP Iris 2008: 2 Bronze awards in the student/assistant category

With each image my desire was to create something visually compelling. The focus was more on a visual aesthetic, rather than based on one particular concept. Sometimes too much focus can be placed on the concept, to the point where we forget to actually see something for what it is.

Digtial Colour prints, A3. Flow and The dark night

This work is licenced under a Creative Commons Licence.