After showing this piece in the exhibition i wanted to play with the notion of making it more uncanny by changing the sound. I wanted a sound that would get you on edge, yet it would not connect to the woodland either. I remember as a child i was scared of the ticking clock of the crocodile in peter pan and that constant notion of time and running out of it. Lewis Carroll always stated that there was never enough time.
This juxtaposes well with this film. The ticking sound is constant, it does not slow down or speed up. However, the film slowly speeds up with its clip changes. This sets off a strange vibe when watching. Initially, when beginning to watch the clock, it sets you on edge, wondering where this is going. Is it resembling a heart beat? Is an alarm going to go off at the end? But setting this aside, when the clips speed up there is a weird pushing and pulling feeling happening, being torn between the constant beats of the clock yet being dragged forward through the faster clips. You are unable to find a stabilising place. It is this unsettling rhythm, that i believe makes this piece better than the one of it with the sounds of birds.
This juxtaposes well with this film. The ticking sound is constant, it does not slow down or speed up. However, the film slowly speeds up with its clip changes. This sets off a strange vibe when watching. Initially, when beginning to watch the clock, it sets you on edge, wondering where this is going. Is it resembling a heart beat? Is an alarm going to go off at the end? But setting this aside, when the clips speed up there is a weird pushing and pulling feeling happening, being torn between the constant beats of the clock yet being dragged forward through the faster clips. You are unable to find a stabilising place. It is this unsettling rhythm, that i believe makes this piece better than the one of it with the sounds of birds.
Originally this piece was silent and yes, that did work - but again, i wanted to take it into the uncanny. The one thing i truly believed that did not belong here were children and happiness. This led to me adding the sound of children playing in a playground. When you start to watch it,it's just not right. I feel that when you first hear the children, you feel somewhat happy with them. But then as the soil falls on the film and the children continue to squeal, you begin to wonder if it is screams of enjoyment or of freight. There is again a nice juxtaposition here with the idea of children's lives just beginning laying with the visual of many mens death. I found myself searching around the film for inserts of the children, any clue to where they are and how they are. I did not find this one 'scary' as the one before, but unnerving and saddening. Towards the end, it made me think of children in third world countries that play in places where there are still land mines. After thinking about recording actual children outside a playground being a little creepy, i chose to find a sound clip in another language. I don't believe that it is noticeable here. I made this decision as i wanted the work to to be about the overall noise, and not the individual conversations.
I believe both of these pieces have worked best with placing with them sounds that don't connect, and i will look to do this further.
I believe both of these pieces have worked best with placing with them sounds that don't connect, and i will look to do this further.