Project Title: Generated Power
Group: Katherine Li, Maike Prewett, Sabrina Goodman
Description:
GENERATED POWER is a geocinema short film exploring the former Nanshi Power Plant and current Power Station of Art in Shanghai’s Huangpu district. There were many different aspects of this site to consider: its historical significance, its role alleviating inequality, its transition from electrical power to art as an agent of soft power, gentrification, and the model of the post-industrial art gallery and white cube aesthetic. In the end, this proved quite challenging; there were so many different approaches to this narrative, we struggled to find a common thread between all of our ideas.
We visited the location three times after the end of the Shanghai Biennale, when the gallery was in transition. The first time, we collected shots from the front of the building, and the roof, in addition to audio. The second time, we collected footage from the front of the building and distance shots. The third time, I brought a cell phone into the museum and filmed the interior. We also had to collect additional assets, which we took from Youku, surveillance footage live streams, photo archives, etc.
Ultimately, we struggled with the time constraints of this project. While I view our project as a first draft, it would require several more iterations (editing the script and flow of ideas, deepening the analysis) in order to analyze this site as critically as we would have liked. Because we spent a lot of time investigating the history of this site and initially intended to take our project in a slightly different direction, we felt rushed in our analysis of the PSA’s current role. In the end, we felt overwhelmed by the amount of information we had, and I think would have benefited from creating more rules/constraints for ourselves earlier on.
SmartShanghai describes this museum as an “impressive but cumbersome space, a huge building likened by curator Qui Zhijie to London’s Tate Modern. The PSA may have similar hardware to that legendary institution but it doesn’t have the software – the staffing, budgets, etc – to match.” We wanted to highlight how empty most of this museum is, even during exhibits; if the PSA relies on people to generate power, what is its purpose when this space lies empty?
The process of creating a GeoCinema film was quite stressful given the time allotted for this project. Our familiarity with film production in general was limited, as was our technical skill in using video editing software such as Adobe Premiere. In terms of development, it was most difficult to settle on an idea and progress that solidified idea throughout the film. All of these aspects combined made for a hectic production and post-production environment, as we were not especially familiar with the process from the start. The GeoCinema genre itself was quite vague, but I think we eventually found a way for it to translate through the film. While not specifically related to weather, we discuss the concept of power as it evolves through past and present at this one location – the Nanshi Power Plant/ Power Station of Art. Overall I think our project successfully came together in the amount of time we had to complete it.
Link to film: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1imLhXtkBBrVkQRmmQDIdMPmWimZqo-K9/view?usp=sharing