Georgia De Souza

visiting artist project

CLASS
portfolio
DIVIDE
11/12/18
MA2020 Creative Digital Arts
influences

1
Pipilotti Rist
4th FLOOR TO MILDNESS by

P ipilotti Rist is best known for her experiential

video art and installations. She is categorised as
a feminist artist as she looks at the female body.
Although she produces feminist artwork Rist
would describe herself as politcally ‘a femininist, but
personally not.”

“When I close my eyes, my imagination roams free, in the same way I want to
create spaces for video art that rethink the very nature of the medium itself.
I want to discover new ways of configuring the world, both the world outside
and the world within.” ~ P. Rist

R ist’s work engages with lighthearted play,

combining a camera-specific aesthetic and
technique with a message of social critique a
commentary. Her work is often vividly colourful
with an interactive aspect for the consumer to
become involved and ultimately part of.

2
Pipilotti Rist
W
4th FLOOR TO MILDNESS by

e linked the idea of an immersive

explores both social and meditative project in which the audience were
aspects of image consumption able to explore the social aspects within the
theme of education, as well as the physical
Today, with aspects.
computers, TVs and
mobile phones,
everything is flat
and put behind glass
[...] But with art we
can jump out of our
loneliness.
~ Pipilotti Rist T he intention for

W
our final piece was
“vibrantly coloured to use Rist’s immersion
kaleidoscopic and engaging use of e wanted our
videography. We audiences
projections that fuse deep curiosity that wanted to make our curiosity to build by
the natural world explores the physical audience feel as if they being able to compare
were part of our piece.
with the technological and psychological the different types of
education around the
sublime” experience world.

3
T he Victoria and Albert (V&A) Museum held the
exhibition Videogames which provided a unique
insight into the deisgn process behind a slection of
groundbreaking contemporary videogames.
The exhibition included prototypes, feature alongside
large-scale immersive installations and ended with a
room full of different interactive games for the public
to play amongst.

“When people display architecture, there’s

already a curatorial language of the objects.
But for video games we don’t have that. We’ve
asked designers to open up their notebooks and hard drives to see what kind of objects
and artefacts exist in the design process.”
~ Mary Foulston (exhibition curator)

V ideogames investigates the work of game designers,

players and the critical conversations that define
the medium of videogames today.
Exploring videogames since the mid-2000s during the

Videogames
time of major advancement of technology, including
broadband, social media and smart
phones, the exhibition looks into how
this has impacted the videogames
overall.

4
 W
a unique insight into the design process behind a
selection of groundbreaking contemporary videogames e used the interaction of the
consumers within this exhibition to
The exhibition shows lead us further towards our interactive and
This exhibition immersive piece. We liked how the audience
the history of presents both sides were able to experience the videogames and
video-gaming whilst of the metaphor: the
so we decided we wanted our audience to
experience education in a similar way.
walking you through nuts and bolts of
all sorts of scene engineering a game
development process as well as the
~ Time Out creative part of the
process.

Design
Play
Disrpt
A nother intention for our final piece was to
create both a play/viewer experience of our
project. We understood that as soon as we wanted
people to participate in our work this would render
others anda viewer, however we still wanted to make
it engaging for them. From this we decided upon a

Videogames
video showing some more information about
education in different countries.

5
 H enrot visualises the disarry of history’s chaos by
following geographical locations and cultural
traditions. A narrator is used to further cement the chaos
created within history revealing an anxiety towards an
uncertain future.

As soon as you think you have laid out and

circumscribed the entirety of your universe within
a single, selfsame landscape, isn’t the only
question of any worth, and which relentlessly nags
and torments the mind, inevitably the same as that
with which Jonas Cohn ends his History of the
Infinite (1896): “But what is there beyond the limit?”

T

he video is on a continuous loop which enables
the audience to jump into the video at any given
time. She uses a variety of mediums: videos, pictures and
graphic to produce an all encapsulating experience of

Camille Henrot
our chaotic world.
GROSSE FATIGE by

6
 the video tells the story of the creation of the
universe through a cascade of images that pop up,
collide, and implode across a computer screen.
T his piece was extremley engaging and
we thoroughly liked how the audience
learnt information about our world whilst
watching the video. From this we decided
we wanted our piece to educate our
audience and subsequently we used
interviews to inform our audience about
Henrot set herself This was the first education in various locations.

the challenge of project within the

telling the story of Strange Days:
the universe’s Memories of the
creation. Future exhibition
and therefore
instantly grabbed
attention to spark
what was about to
come in future
O verlays were really poignant in this piece as
it created texture of the themes - this in
turn furthered the chaotic nature of the piece.
From this our video was inpsire to create texture by
pieces not having one simple image on the screen at one
time. We decided to spread all 5 interviews on the
screen to create a sense of intruige and engage the
audience and ensure it wasn’t flat.

Camille Henrot
GROSSE FATIGE by

7
 John Akomfrah
VERTIGO SEA by

A meditation on whaling, the environment and our relationship with the sea,
the work is a film essay continuing the ‘recycled aesthetic’ of John Akomfrah’s
recent gallery pieces, fusing archive material, original footage and readings
from classical sources.

A


komfrah draws on historical and contemporary
narratives to express the ways in which the
Atlantic has dominated cultural imagination for
hundreds of years.
S


pectacular imagery of waves and wildlife
contrasts with scenes of political violence
and environmental destruction.
Akomfrah uses three screens to display the
His film outlines the complex intersection between effects and issues within the Atlantic
ecology, economics, and politics and features graphic
scenes from documentating the history of whaling.

8
 John Akomfrah
VERTIGO SEA by

the installation portrays the ocean as a site of both terror and

beauty
T


hree screens were used in Akomfrah’s piece
which we found extremely engaging and so
used it as inspiration for both our studio piece and
final piece. By doing so we believed it created a
a three-screen installation that epitomises the more engaging and intruiging installation as it
vast beauty and cruelty of the sea. Weaving would make our audience aware of what is to come.
together narratives of slavery, whaling and the
current refugee crisis it is comprised of new
footage, archival footage – with breath-taking
selections from the
BBC Natural
History Unit – and
literary sources,

A
including Heathcote
Williams’ ‘Whale longside the three screens, Akomfrah
made his installation engaging through
Nation’ (1988) and the factual video - therefore we once again drew
Herman Melville’s upon this and decided to create a video which
‘Moby Dick’ (1851). would engage our audience with information.

9
M
arina van Goor wanted to display the atractiveness of
eating alone at a restaurant. She created the first ONE
PERSON RESTAURANT in the world, which was then taken to
the V&A museum’s exhibition ‘The Future Starts Here.’
Marina herself is an interior designer and businesswoman, she
did a TED Talk about her restaurant and spoke to highly
recognised companies such as The Independent UK, NBC and
Vogue about her business.

a boyfriend gave his girlfriend a present of

dining at the restaurant in order to give her
time to disconnect from the world as she was
always busy with their newborn baby

H
er aim was to challenge the lonely and
unattractive pre-conceptions people think of when
at a restaurant alone. Dinner is one of the most extreme
forms of togetherness.

Marina van Goor

EENMAAL BY

10
 I try and expose deep-rooted structures,
thinking routes that play a role in I wanted to break the
society. With my knowledge and perception that eating out alone
experience in the different worlds of isn’t unattractive. Solitary dining
science, international business, and can actually be an inspiring expe-
creativity, I know how to unify them. Making rience because you get a chance to
cross-overs is for disconnect for a while in our hy-
my everyday activity. per-connected world

Marina van Goor

EENMAAL BY

It’s not just an exhibition, its a

It is designed to break this taboo
future exhibition. We’re looking at
of eating alone in public. Almost
these broader trends in demographics
30% of households in the UK are
and politics as well as technology,
people who live alone, but there’s
We would call this restaurant a
some sort of socil limit on eating
social technology in the sense that
alone in public, so by creating a
it’s a kind of space and construct
restaurant of only solo table you
that allows a different kind of
can break that.
activity to take place.
11
Eenmaal: a temporary restaurant in Amsterdam that claims to be the Eenmaal aims to break the
world’s first restaurant catering purely to solo diners. social taboo associated with
eating alone

T


his piece was our main inspiration for our final idea. We
really like the inclusivity of her project which allowed the
audience to become part of her installation. The idea that
everyone was separated physically but behind it they were all
connected through their experience was something we wanted
to show within an issue we thought could educate and intruige
an audience.

S
Solo dining in restaurants is the
eparating the audience through a seating extreme sport of the food-and-drink
arrangement was intruiging as it allowed
van Goor to experiement with the issue of lonliness. scene. It calls for nerve and verve,
In a similar way we decided to use separate desks but ultimately delivers a more intense
to suggest not only a school environment, but also
present how we all receive education in different
experience, free from the distraction
ways but overall we all receive education in one of someone’s boring chat
form or another.

Marina van Goor

EENMAAL BY

12
 MY PROJECT

CLASS DIVIDE

13
studio project.
O


ur main intention for the project overall was to present the different ways people experience and
receieve education. From my own experience I am aware of the fortunate education I havereceived,
and that some children are not as fortunate, but that there is also the other extreme that there are many
places that have stronger education systems than the British system, there are many faults and flaws to it.

We wanted to explore the different ways people receive education presenting a sense of separation, but
on the other hand we wanted to show their unity through the fact that they are all getting educated.

A main intention was to make the studio project interactive. We thoroughly enjoyed all of the installations
that enabled the audience to become part of the installations through participation, but we especially
liked how the VIDEOGAMES exhibition used the participation to educated their audience - a key factor
we brought to our studio project.
We provided our two audience members with information for them to read, the same headings for both
the Philippines and England, however the actual information was different, and the way they received
the information was different as well. Whilst the English side received the information through a laptop
presenting a PREZI with the facts, the Philippines had a traditional worksheet which contained the
information.

When we came to editing it together we wanted to contrast the difference between the two countries.
Through this our intention to show the difference of experiences with education became more of a
visual experience for our audience instead.

14
studio project.
F
green screen/projector

or our studio project we tried to use a simple

design that would enable our audience to interact
british philippines
with it. We started with a set up of two chairs facing a
projector - we thought that this would be able to suggest
a school like setting, but unfortunately due to lighting
the projector did not provide the tone we intended so
instead we deicded to use a green screen in which we
placed the original footage over in post. When editing
journey to school

journey to school the footage in post we realised the green screen curtain
was not as smooth as we would have liked and as a
result provided a slightly black patchy effect on
our final edit.

The separate desks were influenced by van Goor’s

EEEMAAL
The green screen was influenced by Henrot’s
Grosse Fatigue

15
studio project.
T


he projection we created was a mix between a
British Primary School teacher and a Filippino
Primary School teacher. We used these two videos to
contrast similar activities that occured in both
countries.

When editing them for our final studio project we took

inspiration from Akomfrah’s VERTIGO SEA placing next
to the video of the workbooks or wide shot of the studio.
This allowed the audience to live in real-time with the
action, so that whilst they may not have taken part in
the actual intallation, they are able to follow along.

A


mbient sound was used to emphasise the
school nature of our piece. We intertwined
both soundtracks from the British School and
Filippino School videos adding in school bells
and extra sounds of children talking.
We felt this created an apt mood for the piece
while people experienced the installation

16
main project.
S


imilarly to our smaller studio project we wanted to present a difference of education in an array of
countries, allowing our audience to receive a form of education through the information they were
receiving with our installation. However to develop further from our studio project, we looked at more
countries - as a result we decided to compare countries with the best and worse education system, as a result
the countries we chose were:

Burkina Faso
England
South Korea
Philippines

For this bigger installation we wanted to make emphatic the separation and unity of these places in regards
to education. By aiming to do so, we interviewed 5 people who experienced very different forms of education
growing up, however found unity by attending the same university.

We again wanted our audience to become part of our installation through participation however we only
wanted a maximum of 4 people to fully participate with the countries at one time - therefore we decided
upon a set of interviews to create a spectator participation. In a way this enabled our installation to achieve
a cinema and physical involvement.
A key intention we aimed to attain again was the interaction from our audience. We made sure that each
country had a work booklet to represent their information - by doing so we were able to engage our audience
as they were physically able to immerse themselves with our project.

17
main project.
F


or our main project we separated the 4 countries with a chair and table in a similar way to our studio project.
We placed South Korea (best education system) next to Burkina Faso (worst education system) to heighten the
comparison and contrast of their styles of education.

With every country there was a booklet, but each had a different presentation to it.

projector

- booklet burkina south

philippines
faso korea british - worksheet
- worksheet - laptop
- pen - pen
- highlighter
- worksheet - worksheet
- pencil - pen
- highlighter
By giving each person different tools to answer the questions, we were able to present an idea that they not only
receive education differently but they actively participate inn it differently as well.

By setting the room in a classroom style our audience were instantly placed within the theme of our project which
effectively enabled them to understand the topic of our project as soon as they walked in the room.

18
main project.
T


his time instead of having the projection as a school
teacher, we decided to engage our audience further
whilst at the same time educating them about education.
We spoke to 5 different student at Royal Holloway who have
all had very different forms of education:

Philippines
South Korea
China
Nigeria
Englad

A

gain we added in ambient sound to the inter
views of children talking and school bells.
Once again it allowed us to escape from a simple,
flat and basic interview video
We took inspiration from Akomfrah’s VERTIGO SEA by
splitting the screen into 5 different sections showing each
video in turn, paused by the same freezeframe at the end of
their answer. This created a more intruiging presentation
of a simple interview, and allowed us to engage an audience
We used a black background on the video so to ensure through their intruige to know what each person would say.
our audience were focusing on the interviews and not
anything else which could distract them. This video was
specifically made for those that were not actively
participating with the worksheets to ensure we were
able to engage and intruige as many people as possible.

19
LINKS:
PIPILOTTI RIST
VIDEOGAMES
CAMILLE HENROT
JOHN AKOMFRAH
MARINA VAN GOOR