Project Title:
Interpreted Zora
Part 1:
Part 2:
Project Description
This project revolves around creating a parafiction experience of the conceptual experience of Zora. Being an imaginary city, Zora possesses the feature of being unforgettable. I wanted to create an interpretation of this unforgettableness through creating a dynamic city that continuously had the colors change to generate a sense of visual memorization to the audience. This sort of dynamic change becomes the memorable aspect of Zora where colors constantly deflect. As the city of Zora was described to be lost in time, the city should be unknown to humans, however, to explain how the city is known, the dream narrative was created. To portray the feeling of a dream, I created a video to show the hysteria and fear of this city due to the unworldly nature of it. This part of the project was meant to explain the feeling of seeing something so unworldly that it creates an unforgettable TRAUMA to the viewer as traumatic memories are more vivid due to being recalled to the amygdala. This was also presented in the presentation where Zuk was traumatized yet intrigued by the unworldliness of Zora. As the dream includes the city of Zora, it was vital to create this model of a city to show the interpretation of the fragments of memory of Zora.
The project was based on research of city models, light installations, metal wire installations, and photography narratives. I researched a lot of city model installations, in particular, Forest City by Stefano Boeri. This informed me of the overall structure and design of the piece. Furthermore, I looked at light installations by Lee Eunyeol to allow me to create a clear imitation of light of Zora. This was followed by research of Alexander Calder and how metal wires could be utilized to create certain effects, especially diffraction which will be iterated below. There was also research on Duane Michals’s Things are Queer project which creates a continuous narrative with 9 photos that interact with one another, informing my documentation as well as the video. This can be found in this link. Aside from research, there were experimentation of materials and reference to physics, specifically referring to the diffraction of light. I brainstormed a lot on materials and methods to create the dynamic moving atmosphere where lighting and metals such as wires and CD’s were the creative solution that I thought out. This led me to experiment with lighting to create an imitation of Zora which was vital to the narrative of a changing city defined by colors (and therefore light). Other than research of lighting, I also completed a lot of experimentation with camera aperture, shutter speed, and ISO to add to the narrative. These can be seen in the documentation of the project below.
While the project is artistic and aims to create a feeling of this lost city, it’s important (in relation to parafiction) because I want to challenge the constraints of the fake being fake, the imaginary being imaginary, and an interpretation of an imagined reality as a reality. What I mean by this is that I aimed to create a fake narrative and the atmosphere of a city feel possible to the audience. While the experience may not be immersive where the audience is distanced from the piece, the space and feeling of this city is constant in providing the interpreted reality. This interpreted reality isn’t meant to feel like a reality but is meant to create the feeling of a dream and unworldliness that Zora was described as. It is to make something that was memorable like the city concept for the audience, essentially showing the audience that a memorable unworldly city could exist even if it was artificially constructed, Furthermore, it also shows how a fake can incite the emotions and feelings of hysteria and chaos while not being related to the real. This essentially introduces the fake as a real feeling for the audience where the feeling isn’t a feeling of connection, but a feeling of the city as a bystander. This feeling isn’t personal due to the nature of this city to be more distanced from society. While I could’ve created something that was a part of a real city and appeared connected to human society, the loss of a city is in essence a lost of culture. It is the lost of something stranger, of something foreign where the feeling of connection isn’t necessary as connection would then create a sense of similarity which wouldn’t make Zora memorable and unique anymore.
Documentation: The Story of Zora
Note: none of these have been edited…
Photos that tell a story…
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