This is the page where I will store all my Research and thought process to do with spectacle!
So as we are starting on spectacle I thought I would write something about what I understand of the term spectacle! I think that the term spectacle means to make an inappropriate display of something or someone. To make a joke of that person. Or to cause a big public reaction to a display of stupidity. I am hoping to develop my understanding of this term as the term passes.
So as we are starting on spectacle I thought I would write something about what I understand of the term spectacle! I think that the term spectacle means to make an inappropriate display of something or someone. To make a joke of that person. Or to cause a big public reaction to a display of stupidity. I am hoping to develop my understanding of this term as the term passes.
So I thought that seeing as I am doing my piece for spectacle on a fairground I would look at some photographers and some piece that have been made in and around a fair ground.
New York
I wanted to show first some of the photos that I took when I was in New York. There are a lot of neon lights and people in these pictures and it is almost a bit like a fairground. I wanted to show some of these pictures to show what I based it on.
Picture of tilted clock in Time Square
The first one you can see just to the left here, this was a picture that I took in time square of a clock that was on a slant, I really liked taking pictures of this particular clock because it made me think about the angle that I take photos on.
I really like this photo but it does not have much neon in it, so I couldn’t use it to refer to with my fair ground photos.
I wanted to put in the pictures of New York Time Square as an example of spectacle because I think it is one of the biggest spectacle I have seen in my life time. All the shops are lit up with Neon and even the police station has a neon sign outside of it. Time Square is full of big shops making a spectacle out of themselves to fit in with the other shops. The square even has its own website.
(website visited: 17th October 2008)
Time square gets over 26 millions vistors each year.
(http://gonyc.about.com/b/2005/04/21/times-square-visitors-guide.htm Last updated: April 21st 2005)
You can also watch live pictures from Time square on the web, this I believe makes it one of the biggest places for spectacle. These functions are completely there for the amusement and entertainment of the people that visit there. Some of the pictures that I took while I was there were for my own private reasons but others were to show a more artistic side of the lights and displays that happen in Time Square.
New York
This picture is one of my Favourite pictures I took while in New York. I really like the angle that it is on and I have used this angle in some of my pictures in the fairground. I really like the way the clock looks the right way up but the world is wonky. This people also has lots of people in it I like this because it looks like they are not really paying attention to the clock.
This picture also has lots or neon lights in it and is a good way of shooting in still image neon lights without any blur on them. I really like the way that this photo is lit, although it is all natural light it is clear what the focus of the picture is and the fact that the photo is not to dark.
The other thing that I understand about Time Square is that it is a good advert for the shops that have bases in Time Square. Toys ‘r’ us is one of the biggest shops in time square and within its walls it has a real size Ferris wheel. This is a big advert for the shop as a lot of people only pass through the doors because they see the Ferris wheel. The neon light are there as a massive source of advertising you can even as a normal person by advertising space in the centre of time square to advertise something. While we were in Toys ‘r’ us we were given a leaflet that allowed us to get 10% off advertising space in Time Square on the front of the Toys ‘r’ us building. This also shows the spectacle of advertising and how much power advertising has over us.
Andrew Moore
Andrew Moore is a photographer and a Film maker that took pictures of Time square between 1995 and 2005 I looked at his photography because his work changes over the period of time that it goes over. I wanted also to look at another photographer that had photographed time square differently. He photographed it mostly in the day time, you get a different vision of it in Daytime then you do at night time. some of the pictures that he took can be found on his website.
(website visited : 17th October 2008)
I also wanted to comment on a couple of the images that I saw on the website, these images can be seen below:
Rule The Planet by Andrew Moore
This picture by Andrew Moore make me look at the colours that we use in photography. it is such a colourful picture yet it is really grey and yellow. All the lights have a yellowish tint to them even during the day. you can also see in the bottom right of the photo the same clock that I captured at night time. During the day the clock appears a lot lighter.
I think that this picture also has a message to put across about the spectacle of time square. My first thought when I saw this picture was how could all those shops be in the same place. But the spectacle of all the advertising in time square means that there are buildings that are liturally covered in adverts to make a song and dance about there company.
Idea for spectacle
My idea for spectacle is that I would go to Banbury fair, and take some photos and also get some sound so that I could do a little presentation with sound as well as visual stimulation. To go through with this idea i wanted to look into Banbury fair and look into the history of it to find out what kind of a spectacle it is.
Banbury Fair
Banbury fair has been going since the 16th century, it takes place right in the centre of the town, on the street where there are shops and things. It has been disputed in recent years whether the fair is disruptive to the residents residing within Banbury and although most of them don’t mind there are a few that make a fuss (see: http://www.banburyguardian.co.uk/letter-to-the-editor/Fair-important-part-of-history.4548155.jp) (published: 1st October 2008)
This is a video of some of the ride in the fair in 2007. I think that this video clearly shows where the fair is being held in the centre of town. the fair is one of the biggest thing that happens in Banbury every year that families try and go to the fair together. My friend that lives in Banbury has lived in Banbury all her life she has gone with her family and now goes with her husband. It has been a family tradition for her whole life. This to me shows how big a spectacle it really is. The best thing I thought represented the spectacle of it most was the children still dress in there school uniform on the ride with the parent clearly on the way home from school.
Final Artefact
This is the final project for spectacle; it is a combination of photos and sound that I took when I visited the Banbury fair just over a week ago. I have had some problems putting the final piece together. I have learnt to check the camera settings every time now because I the camera stored the photos in a RAW format and none of the programmes recognised them not even Photoshop. So I had to put them into an image viewer and capture them all using the screen grab tool. I spent along time doing this so that I could put the picture with the sound.
I also learnt that putting them together is never as easy as you think it is going to be. It was really hard to get them to go together the way you want them too. I ended up putting black between each picture to show the idea of taking the pictures. I really like this effect and it really works well the black and white photo as it gives the grainy affect and it almost looks like archive footage. I was really pleased with the way that this piece has come out.
I love the way the first half of the film looks like a piece of archive footage and the second half is new and modern. I really like some of the picture that I took as well. My favourite pictures is the first one you see in the film this almost looks like its a ghost picture.
Ghost Machine by Becky Merriman
This is one of my favourite picture that I took at Banbury fair. I really like the way that the picture move. The lights in this picture make it look like a picture that was taken long ago and because it was take with a 35 MM camera it has that aged look about it.
Another problem that I experience and have learnt from was I couldn’t get these picture home after digitising the negatives the picture were too big to fit on to my memory stick. So to get the pictures home I had to upload all my photos onto facebook and then download them when I got home. If i do photography again I will make sure that the camera is set at a setting that I can use the photos off and I will also make sure that I have a memory device large enough to carry the pictures home on.
For the rest of the photos click here.
Wow. I love the pictures of NYC. The colours are brilliant
Becky – this is a solid piece of work and a great start to the module. You have carefully thought about the theme and you have made good use of your NYC inspiration. Using Banbury Fair to illustrate your idea shows careful planning and organization. (Only let down by technical detail). You have created an interesting set of photos which tell the story well and the accompanying soundtrack demonstrates your creativity. On a helpful note I think you could widen your research and look at other fairground works. I also think a more impactful finale to your final artefact and/or more variation in the soundtrack would have lifted this artefact into the “strong” category . This is a good foundation to build on and I hope you are similarly inspired for the other themes!
New york looks liek an amazing place to draw inspiration from and I think you prove that these kind of trips can influence your work as you go on and become a practicioner. I loved the second image of the clock that had a different slant incompassing more neon to give a better idea of the affect the city has on the wider eye. Something that always strikes me in life is that the eye sees far more than the camera. I feel one of the reasons is because of the wider angle our focus has than the narrow one the camera provides. By adding angles the way you have it give a more fantastical imagery to the picture make it to me more reaslsistic as where could you feel more like you are part of a neon fantasie than NYC. I noticed the age idea through your artefact because of the use of black and white and then colour images it gave it a feeling of progression beond the normal narrative. The sound also seamed to get more intese as the work went on, I’m not sure if this was intentional but I think its excellent. I can’t wait to see your other projects.