One Liner: 1959 is a video installation that allows the user to blend imagery of two movies to create a hybrid space that allows alternative memories to break the framing of dominant history.
Description: 1959 creates a space for contesting memories to interact with each other and show a more inclusive (alternative) representation of the past. The imagery is a hybridization of black spatial imagery, that includes townships and job sites, to the dominant Apartheid imagery, that depicts white space of the city and white pastoral landscapes such as Kruger National Park, during 1959. During Apartheid the white space was segregated from the black space in most aspects of daily life except for industrial work zones. The Apartheid City plan and implementation constructed separate housing zones and travel routes so the two races would not come in contact with each other. Layering the imagery of these two segregated spaces allows a new space to be created, one that breaks the segregation. The alternative memory of black space breaks into the framing of the dominant imagery of Apartheid that was disseminated globally.
The imagery for 1959 comes from a travel catalogue, Colourful South Africa, and a movie Come Back, Africa. I have changed the formate of the travel catalogue from a book into a slideshow so the images can interact with the imagery of the movie. These images are projected onto a screen in front of a 1950s pool-side chair, which is reminiscent of the beach resort images from the travel catalogue. As the user sits in the chair, their movements and force upon the seat change the transparency of the travel catalogue slide show that is in front of the movie, Come Back, Africa. The transparency of the front movie allows the user to see the movie, which creates hybrid images of the two spaces.
Personal Statement: After a study abroad in 2007 to South Africa during my undergraduate studies, I have become interested in the socio-political spatial constructions in South Africa that was furthered in my graduate studies at NYU. 1959 is the praxis to my M.A. thesis at NYU, titled "Trauma of the Landscape: The Perpetuation of Violent Sites as Memory Theatres in South African Identity."
Background:
The South African Tourist Corporation in 1959 produced a selection of 53 color pictures with a short introductory text travel catalogue entitled Colourful South Africa. This travel catalogue of coloured pictures “covering a holiday of travel, adventure and discovery” is intended to entice foreign travelers to visit South Africa on their next holiday. The catalogue depicts an array of possible holiday activities for the visitor. Images of whites only beach resorts, Kruger National Park animal photography, landscape photographs with an Afrikaaner gazing down upon nature, photographs of natives in exotic tribal garb and photographs of cars traversing the landscape. Each picture in the catalogue corresponds to a map at the end of the book, which identifies the exact location of the scene. This travel catalogue is a spatial representation of South Africa. As with all representations, there is a framing in the construction. White dominance of the landscape is displayed in the travel catalogue. The native is framed out of the catalogue unless they exhibit the stereo-type of an exotic submissive pre-modern man that evokes an earlier time.
The image of black modernity is depicted in the movie Come Back, Africa. Come Back, Africa was created secretly under the Apartheid regime in 1959 to show the real conditions in South Africa, instead of the white representations displayed in the travel picture catalogue. The director Lionel Rogosin did not use actors in the film, residents were used in order to show the real conditions of South Africa under Apartheid. The movie follows the character Zachariah in his travels to find work starting in the mines in Johannesburg to being a house-boy, car washer, and a hotel waiter in Johannesburg. As the movie depicts the movements of Zachariah to different jobs, a representation of black space is constructed. With each job a new location of black space is represented: the mine, servant quarters, township, kitchen work, and an auto-garage.
Audience: The work's target audience is adults visiting a gallery space or museum.
User Scenario: The user would walk into a room with only the chair and a projection screen on the wall. The travel catalogue slideshow will be projected on the screen. The user will go sit in the chair to watch the slideshow, it should be obvious that this is the action one should take since it will be the only objects in the room. As the user sits in the chair, the slideshow will become transparent allowing the movie Come Back, Africa to be seen. This will create hybrid imagery of the travel catalogue slide show with Come Back, Africa. As the viewer moves in the seat either the movie or the slideshow will be the prominent image. When the viewer leaves the seat, the travel catalogue will resume to be the only image on the screen.
Implementation (Work Description):
1959 consists of two main components, a chair and screen projections. The chair consists of a force sensor that is placed in the cushioned seat. The cushion consists of a foam pad, wood board for the bottom, and vinyl for the cover. The force sensor is placed near the back of the seat between the board and the foam pad. As the user puts more force towards the back of the seat, the higher the readings of the sensor. The wiring of the sensor comes out of a hole in the back of the board, instead coming out of the vinyl covering. The wires are hooked up to a bread board, which is connected to an Arduino. Both are suspended underneath the seat by rubber bands and nails. The only wiring visible to the user is a USB cord that runs from the Arduino to a computer.
The program used for the video projections is Processing. I was able to write a program that looped two movies, with one laid on top of the other. As the two movies run, the transparency of the top movie is determined by the alpha value that is received from the force sensor in the seat. The alpha value effects the tint of the movie allowing it to be opaque with a sensor reading of 0 to completely transparent with a sensor reading of 255 or higher. The movies are centered and half the size of the screen with a black background, to allow better image quality. The computer is then connected to a projector for the movies to be projected onto a screen in front of a user.
Conclusion: 1959 does create a hybrid imagery that combines different spaces of South Africa. Using Processing for the video does not produce the desired effect, the movies are too much information for Processing to compute thus making the movies run slow and causing abrupt transitions with lines running across the images. I would like to try another program, such as Max MSP or Open Framework. Once I get the movies running more smoothly, the images will be a better quality. I would also like to use XBee communication to get rid of the USB cord that runs from the chair to computer. Other than those two small changes, I am extremely happy with the outcome and that the video installation consistantly works. I was able to produce the desired imagery and interaction with the videos.
Reference:
Colourful South Africa. (1959). Pretoria, South Africa: South African Tourist Corporation.
Rogosin, K. (Director). (1959). Come Back, Africa [Motion picture]. South Africa: Mystic Fire Video.
Shiffman, D. (2008). Learning Processing: A Beginner's Guide to Programming Images, Animation, and
Interaction (Morgan Kaufmann Series in Computer Graphics). San Francisco: Morgan Kaufmann.
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