After creating the instrumental piece of music based on Reading Prison, I wanted to expand on the themes of loneliness and isolation and add to the work. I decided to keep the live performance element of the instrumental and tried to express them visually through a video that would be projected on the wall as I performed. This resulted in a video titled ‘The Organ Player’. (Short Clip of the live performance with video projection below)
With the video piece I was trying to express the themes of isolation and loneliness through a visual medium, to do this I decided to use the resources around me within reading as a setting for the video, with the video being set in the busiest part of the centre of Reading (Near The Oracle) I sat and filmed for a short period using a DV Tape camcorder and tripod, with the idea of then speeding up the footage of a mass of people rushing by would make the audience watching feel cut off from everyone in the video thus realising the key themes that were also in the instrumental piece.
The Organ player concept is another idea that was realised on reviewing the footage I had taken. In a lecture on Voyeurism in Art, we had discussed a painting by Titian entitled ‘Venus with an Organist and Cupid’ a mythical Nude Painting dating from 1550-1555 and how in the painting we are connected to the image through the organ player who is watching the nude without her gaze meeting his, we effectively watch the nude through him and become a voyeur. this concept seemed to match the video as I noticed one man sat down watching everyone go by and with this I could centre the video around him with a slight blurring technique on Adobe After effects. This would mean he would become the Organ player in this piece of work, he is our connection into the video as he is watching people with them meeting his gaze, so we can watch the mass of people through him.
In terms of musical influence, I have tried to develop my own melancholic style of playing guitar through writing and recording for a numerous amount of musical projects including a solo E.P recorded at Cellar Tapes Uk Studios, Bristol. which I then carried forward to this (Link Below)
Other Musical influences I looked at and listened to before writing the instrumental included Brian Eno’s Ambient instrumental works including albums such as ‘Discrete Music’ and ‘Music For Airports’ the later of which includes a first track of one piano riff slowly repeating itself into complete ambience, setting an other worldly texture, this is something that interests me greatly and relates to my project.
I also looked at Christian Marclay who has also worked with video and sound to create work, e.g. The Clock (2010) which used sampled clips from a range of Hollywood films, linking clips that only have the tick of a clock, this joint use of sound and visual to carry out an idea is something I tried to explore here, however Id like to explore it further and make the audio and visual work together better in terms of them flowing as one, as I think in the organ player, the audio doesn’t quite connect with the visual overly successfully.
Scott Clark Artwork 