This video art is my academic project submitted as a culmination activity to my MFA class at the University of the Philippines, College of Fine Arts.
Video Art | Bitmap
Description
“Bitmap” is an art-based research project that explores the significance of chronophotography as a tool for studying, not just for motion but also for mapping the habits and routines within the domestic space. The term Bitmap, in computation, is a digital image composed of a matrix of dots. Therefore, mapping of pixels of a domain that arranges data to form the image. This digital art exploration uses to offers resolve the mapping of the utilization of a private site. The documentary research deconstructs the performative pattern gathered from the first hours of the day of a household in the most frequently practiced domestic area – the kitchen. The output concludes that the frequency of use of a place determines the ownership. Space and users, thus become hybrid.
Challenge:
Create an art project as part on problems of space in art production across different media.
My Concept :
Apply the deconstruction theory to the video documentation of the family members’ routines within the kitchen – the most common area of the household users. The data explores the routes and traffic to create a map on the usage of the domestic space by the family members.
The Research
Framework:
I use Michael Certeau’s concept of “routines are personal realms” and Yi Fi Tuan’s “space as a concept while the place as confined”. Therefore, space becomes a place through routine and habitual use. To show these theories in visual form, I borrow Etienne-Jules Marey’s chronophotography. A technique that captures several phases of movements for studying and deconstructing locomotion.
The Process
The video documentation of the family members’ routines in the kitchen explores the routes and traffic to gather data in creating a map of the kitchen. Similar to GPS art, a method of drawing using Global Positioning System (GPS) where artist routes to create a large-scale picture. With- out a pre-planned route, I recorded the natural habits of using a location through a video. To create the drawing of routines and use of space inside a private location, I used the principle of chronophotography, a photographic technique of capturing motion in a series of frames. Each member’s movement left trails using technological software. I opted to remove the background image to emphasize the actions of the people; assigning different colors to each person similar to displaying the legends of a map. The result I aim to expect are trails, but the research shows more emphasis on the imprints a person created with the duration of time of using space – the longer he uses space, the stronger his marks. Space and users become hybrid
The Exhibit
The final output is a video projection exhibited at Mono 8 Gallery, Manila from 14 May to 14 June 2019 as part of “Fill in the _____” show.
