Rivers and Ripples

Rivers and Ripples

1st draft of the ambient sound for my thesis video: an audio representation of the water cycle.

Four: Reflecting on the January 2017 Residency

Personal Mapping...a new update

These collages are becoming larger and more complex. I'm experimenting more with text and hope to soon have the courage to try this technique on my relief forms.

Roots & Remains Update

I have a new draft of Roots & Remains, though I don't have the same conviction about this piece being complete as I do with Isaiah's Inventory. I feel that for now it is in a good place. Originally, I intended for this to be an audio piece but I believe that it becomes stronger by combining the image of a landscape near the cemetery where I found Great-Uncle Flemming with an image of the bill of sale showing that Isaiah Jr. purchased Charity Ann and her children with Flemming's signature on it.

I will use the same photo installation as Isaiah's Inventory.

Isaiah's Inventory

Finally, I'm at a point where I feel this piece is complete. I remixed the sound, leaving more space between the reading of the names so that more of the object/animal list is discernible as I mentioned with the last draft. The sound also builds more slowly in intensity, which I believe is more effective at creating an emotional connection with the viewer. 

I also altered the image so that the list fills the entire frame which I also believe makes more of an emotional impact, however comparing the two images, I think including the edge of the book is visually stronger. I will have to think more about whether or not to change the image back to its original cropping. Finally, I tweaked the timing of the dissolve to compliment the timing of the narrative. I sighed with relief when exporting this last draft because for one of the very few times in my life, I knew without a doubt that the work was resolved and with the exception of deciding what to do about the image, I believe I achieved what I set out for. 

I've also been working on the installation. The video will be projected into the negative space of a photo collage containing images of the landscapes of Harris County, county maps, the probate documents I found in the Town Hall, and graves from the Sardis and Prospect AME Church cemeteries. This installation will also be used to project Roots & Remains.

Roots & Remains

Yesterday, I completed the 1st draft of a new audio piece. A question that I've struggled with this semester is how to incorporate my research and artistic process more into the finished work. 

In this piece, I wrote narrative describing my trip to Harris County in search of my ancestral home, Negro Heel, and Isaiah Parker Jr.'s grave. I combined it with a nature recording of my childhood home and recitation of and repeated excerpts from Alice Walker's poem, Turning Madness into Flowers. I'm currently exploring ideas for turning the piece into a video installation and will discuss this further as it develops.

The Water Knows My Secrets: Update 2

This work, Water Secrets 1 is a companion piece to an earlier work I made this semester. It features a visual and audible shift in tone. I am exploring the possibility of combining the two works into a two-channel video installation. 

In regards to my time-based work in general, some of my primary sources of inspiration include the following works by:

Ann Hamilton - Corpus - Sound and My Love
Janet Cardiff - Jena Walk (Memory Field)
John Akomfrah - Vertigo Sea