Three Short Films: How it was made

Looking into the possibility of changing the perception of a site through filmmaking and editing process, allowing the site to dictate the process of editing. Throughout the process, the desired outcome would be to create a ’mental space’ (dream) within chosen sites.

Discovering the effects of different filming techniques and how the relationship between camera and filmed object interact once the aspect of randomness is allowed.

The creation of three short film has allowed me to unravel these possibilities. Thee films were filmed in three different spaces with completely different atmosphere. the only common thing that these spaces have is a strong directionality to them, either vertical or horizontal. 

here are some photographs i took during the process of the making.

space for film 1: White-ness

Space for film 2: Sunset-ness

Space for film 3: Float-less

Limits. Short film

The aim was to create a film that would embody the dream experience. According to Gilles Fauconnier in his book ‘Mental Spaces: aspects of meaning construction in natural language’, mental space is a space of imagination, the imaginary space that the speaker refers to. So anything can be the mental space, if only the person can construct or recall it from the memory. And I have chosen the dream for my mental space at this stage. But as the dream experience is very personal, and true only for one person, I couldn’t avoid making a film very personal as well.

Reading Freud and his ‘Interpretations of dreams’, I found this idea: if a dream can be analyzed through recollection of the memories that have formed it, then it should be possible to form a dream through building the train of memories, that would have connection, and form an ‘artificial dream’.

I have used my personal recent memories to filter the ones, which would occur in my own dreams, and using them, I have recreated a dream that I could have had. Using the fear of height as the starting point, I have recalled places with the same feeling to it. I have looked at the fear of height not as a phobia, but as the strong restriction of the available ‘active space’, the space where it is possible to move. It could be argued that fear of heights is quite close to claustrophobia, if looking at it from this point of view. So this idea led me to the main theme for my film: exploration of the limits (both emotional, or attached to people, and physical).

Design Proposal for Multi-Faith Prayer Room

The challenge we had to face was that the room is basically a closed box with no windows and low ceilings. The task was to design a multi-faith prayer room, that could also be used as a 'quiet room', and could be used for up to 30 people at once for Friday prayer. 

As some religions require strong orientation in the room(for ex. Muslims have to face South-East when praying) and flexible devision for male and female, we have decided to install a glass wall with the textile (that my partner for this project has created) between two glass panels onto the South-Eastern corner, and it is also lit from the behind, to create a sense of opening in the room, almost like a large window. 

The choice of colour palette came from nature: beige, golden and brown for earth, blue and turquoise are for the sky. We have chosen neutral colours and design for this room, because there shouldn't be anything flashy, when the room has to be a place, where people can relax and reflect.

 As all the lights are installed in the floor along the walls, it creates the sense of lightness and the walls are almost floating. Three roman curtains in the middle of the room can provide desirable devision and can be regulated in height and density. 

The washing facilities also needed to be redesigned, as Muslim Religion requires to have hands and feet washed before the pray. So a foot bath with a low separate shower for all the needs has been installed, and as it is completely flush with the floor, it keeps the desirable effect of modern neutral interior.

in a search of surrealist interiors: Andre Breton, 42 Rue Fontaine

image source

image source 

'..Surrealist appropriation of lived space aimed to inhabit not the private sphere as such but the dialectic between personal and collective, and the complex to and fro between the closed/occulted and the public/exhibited politics, space and actions that formed the hub of French surrealism's problems of inter-war years...

..A significant purpose of Breton's home was thus to shelter a physical and intellectual connection of objects whose prime function was to locate the self with the wider world outside. The status of these collections as poetic rather than archival or taxonometric encounters were further enhanced  by the inevitable shifts and rearrangements of their display, open to the dynamics of change and accident...'

( Thomas Mical, 'Surrealism and Architecture', 2005)

Space of Infinity

Filming in four different locations I have tryed to bring them into one experince of an ‘endless tunnel’, whithout the exit. I have deliberately picked the tunnles with blank walls for the final edit, to keep the same theme throughout the journey. I have also excluded most of the scenes with people, and only kept them in one scene, where they are far away and appear as sillhouttes, rather than clear figures. I believe, that this has allowed me to keep the ‘dreaminess’ of the film better and to express that the shown experience is only possible and true for one person at the time.

This film has no start and no ending.

The text that is being said is made so, that it appears being on a loop, it does not have an intro, nor the final sentence. As i am investigating the mental space, which only exists in one’s head (in this case in the imagination of the maker), i have kept the theme of dream and uncertanty throughout the film.

Space with Artificial Memory- Tunnels

 Kingsway Tram Tunnel, the entrance.
This beautiful entrance to the tunnel with funky rails going all the way beneath the main road. The picture of the tunnel, with two sets of closed gates being literally in the middle of a busy Southampton Row naturally amazed me and my imagination. Unfortunately, i could access the tunnel itself, but even seeing the entrance to it certainly left me with good impression. Eventually, i will try to access the tunnel, i think.
The tunnel haven't been in use since 1950's, and it remains almost it was now. To read more about the Kingsway Tram underpass please go HERE.

 The Clerkenwell House of Detention with its amazing tunnels underneath. The Building has been used as a prison, and then as a House of detention, up until the building has been demolished in 1893, and the Hugh Middleton School (the picture above) was build on the site. Luckily, the tunnels are left untouched and being used as film sets even today. Unfortunately, i could't access the tunnels this weekend, as there is a need to make an enquiry and book your visit in advance. But i definitely will be coming back there very shortly! Reference

 Greenwich Foot Tunnel
The tunnel first opened in 1902 to connect the Island Gardens to Greenwich. It is still being vastly used when the DLR is being shut down, just as it was when i have visited the tunnel. The footpath gives different impression, depending on its buzzyness. This time it was really busy, so i have found myself being more claustrophobic that i have been before in there. On my previous visits, the tunnel remained empty. As it being 1,217 feel long with 50 feet underneath the Thames, it feels like it will never end and there is no way out. No daylight at all, the spiral staircases on both ends of it, that are even hidden behind the wall, the echo of footsteps being stronger than ever before- all that gave me a chill on the skin.

Old Vic Tunnels are now being used as performance venue and car parking under path spaces, but most of them remain empy. There are plenty of rooms in there, as i have discovered myself, and all the walls are being covered with graffiti. The space certainly has underground art atmosphere, as well as the sense of danger for some reason, This tunnels though don't have any claustrophobic feeling about them, as they are being quite wide, but the rooms and smaller passes are definitely something i have not seen before. The space looks empty, and it feels empty aswell. There is something melancholic about them, something sad in a way. But yet, that was definitely a discover of a day!

Spaces with Artificial Memory

This is the screenshot from Gaspar Noe's 'Irreversible' film. I have suddenly remembered about this film when started to look at the tunnels, and wondering why is it that they give me such a strong feeling. And then I realised.
I've seen this film about three or four years ago and still it is the only movie, that i can recall from the depth of my memory, and remember every second of it. It certainly gave me one of the strongest impressions i have ever had after watching a film. It also is to do with the story being so real, it could have happen to anyone. And there we are, it is since then, that i have my almost superstitious fear of the tunnels.
And that is exactly why i am unconsciously drawn to them (it seems this way anyway), as you have to face your fear in order to get read of it.

taken from here: http://www.filmsquish.com/guts/?q=node/783

The location of the tunnel, according to the internet source is in Paris: Buttes Chaumont, Paris 19, Paris, France (the subway station). 

Spaces with Artificial Memory

It turned out to be quite strange to be visiting the 'Artificial Memory' places. Obviously, it depends on the scene of the film that has been filmed here or there. In this case the funny house with a 'flying door' and the one next to it are the ones where the two gangs of Guy Ritchie's 'Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels' had  monstrous gun fight. But strange enough, the place does not have much to it. The atmosphere might have been cleaned out by the busy market next door or the fancy Paul Smith boutique, instead of 'MINICABS' like it is in the movie...

from Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels: Park Lane, Borough and the screenshot from the film of course

 London Bridge Station:

read about the fire on Tooley Street in 1861:
http://www.london-fire.gov.uk/AnniversaryTooleyStreetFire.asp

photos by Maris E. Skujins


Seems, like I am being drawn toward the tunnels and the sense of fear much more than to 'film spots' with their artificial memory. I think, for the rest of the research that would have to be the spaces with real atmosphere or with a very convincing and believed one.
So London tunnels, here i come!

Spaces with Artificial Memory

 186 Fleet Street: Sweeney Todd's memory

 Whitechapel: places where Jack the Ripper killed two of five women.

Wandsworth Roundabout: From the scene of Clockwork Orange, the first act of 'ultra violence'

The tunnels, the tightness of the spaces and their memory, artificial or not, certainly gave be some goosebumps on my visit there. All of these three spaces have few things in common: the aura of fear, tightness and tension of the inner space and, of course, the memory. My memory it is. That's what I judge the space before I enter it. That I found quite weird, as not many people are aware of the history of these London spots, and obviously not many people would share my fear of them. Gives me something to think about.

The Psychology of Space: Tim Stock

...How we plan space is less about building than it is the reshaping of behaviour that the space affords.

How we plan begins with our sense of our position to the space we inhabit.

The space doesn't define the use- the behaviour does.




http://www.slideshare.net/scenariodna/the-psychology-of-space-design-research-methods

Video Research: Polansky's Repulsion

17:30-19:00
28:32-30:12

Architectural Sequence: #8, Old Mint Street, Valetta, Malta. The Basement.

The building was built around 1620 and used for residential purposes. It was always in the possession of the Central Government and prior to that was in the possession of the Knights of the Order of St. John.

As "the different methods of construction adopted at the lower levels indicate that the

building might have been constructed at different periods of time."

Further record also showed that the building was split up into a number of different tenements.From 1941 to 1961 the property was repaired the damage caused during World War II as well as any other damage that had accumulated over the years.

(source from: NUMBER 8, Institute for Masonry and Construction Research; Siying Que, 2010)

The ancient basement was a discovery. It hasn't been touched for few centuries and kept its original fascinating beauty. It has most probably been used as a laundry space. I must say, it truly is an amazing space. Its broken symmetry and irregularity, together with tall arches and 'magical' skylights bring the viewer back to the times when it has been built. The time has made only few little changes to the surfaces of the limestone, that the basement is made out of. But the rust and the moss add even more character to this ancient 'treasure'.  I have found the unity of the cladding material and the internal 'furniture' absolutely astonishing. Strange enough, i have never likes the absolute unity of the materials. But that natural stone, that has gone through the natural process of ageing, with the light tunnels, falling from the courtyard, is a killer. Would love to go back there, even if it will be in my dreams.