FINAL PIECE

Today I shot my final piece. I have known for a while that my final piece was going to be my challenge of not touching males.

A lot earlier in the project I began tallying the amount of times I had physical connection with the opposite sex when in a situation which was obviously difficult to avoid. The tallies show that it is almost impossible to not have that physical connection and that it seems to be part of human life. Even in the interviews which I have done with those who keep the law the mention that in some situations it is impossible to avoid, therefore having that physical connection.

My video shows myself walking down a busy street and I avoid any human connection at all cost. Whilst shooting the video and avoiding people it made me feel bad for being so cautious knowing that I am not better then any one else and that human connection is a normal ritual of life. Maybe not having human connection, even the smallest amount can change a persons outlook on others around them.

Everyday life rituals such as getting on a busy tube is something that the majority of the capital does and therefore sort of brings us together. We all get on transport to go somewhere as we all have lives to live, we all have places to be and so we do it together.

I realise that this has gone off the topic of Judaism and I did not mean for that to happen, however it has become an interest and it is an issue which I want to carry on looking into. I want to keep on looking at the importance of physical connection and how it can make a person feel.

Screen shots of some of my journey videos

The videos which I have been shooting on my journeys are to show how difficult it is for a person to avoid the opposite sex. Travelling around London, home to 7,668,304 people is proving difficult to avoid people. It is something that is almost impossible showed my my current tally charts which I have been keeping.

The next video which I want to shoot will be of me avoiding the opposite sex.

IDEA

I have been thinking about the actual, literal meaning of shomar nagiah and from what I have learned, the word shomar means protector or guardian. I therefore have been thinking of ways that people could be protected from others. For example putting a cage around somebody or wrapping somebody up so they can not be recognised or touched.

I have also began to look at how I could show my final outcome which is my own challenge of myself not having physical connection in a certain situation. I am going to begin filming and taking photographs of this challenge to see how it will look.

Ideas and thoughts

I have been thinking a lot about Mara Alper's work. I like the fact that her documentaries involve dance and more performances. Although I don't think I can work a performance into my documentary at this point it is something I will think about for the future.

For now however, I know that for my final piece I want to show the challenge which I have more or less been doing since earlier on in the project. I have been thinking about how I could show it and was thinking about a video of myself or presenting the tally charts which I have been keeping when out in public about how many males I am touched by (by mistake). I will have to experiment with different ideas so I know which way will look the most successful.

Some of my tally charts below:

Screen shots of interview #1

I have interviewed two people who both follow the law of Shomar Nagiah and therefore do not touch the opposite sex. One of the girls was brought up keeping the law and the other took it upon herself at a later age which I think shows in their interviews (but maybe that is because I already know). I wanted to know what Shomar Nagiah actually meant, how it plays a part in their daily lives and if it is difficult to keep.

Sean Gallagher

Sean Gallagher is another documentary artist who I have been looking at. He documents with both video and photography and has therefore inspired me to look also into taking photographs of those people who I interview (alongside their interviews).

Research

video art and film between documentary and fiction

One-day Symposium Wednesday 9 June 2010 10.30-6pm Grimond Lecture Theatre 3 and Aphra Theatre

Speakers: Irit Rogoff (Goldsmith’s) and Jon Dovey (U. of West of England)

Panels with artists and academics: Adam Chodzko, Brian Dillon, Jeremy Millar, Lauren Wright, Sarah Turner, Elizabeth Cowie and Michael Newall.

The symposium addresses video and installation art that engages the social through combining techniques of documentary and fiction. In this context it also examines participation and reflexivity – approaches that are often important to such art. The distinction between fiction and non-fiction is one which emerged primarily in relation to literature and to journalism. However it was with the development of photography and later cinema that a specifically documentary project emerged, and which developed as a film-making practice in the 1920s and 1930s not only of social scientists, such as John Grierson, but also of artist film-makers, Hans Richter, Germaine Dulac, Joris Ivens, Humphrey Jennings, Luis Buñuel. It was a project influenced by both abstract art and surrealism and that reappears within conceptual art. But while many contemporary artists have a moving image practice where works ‘move between reality and fiction’ – indeed it is an oscillation that is now something of a cliché, which we as viewers can easily decode – this symposium addresses the question of why in an art work these transitions occur at a particular point in its temporal organisation. It asks: why, at particular moments in a work, does a document of the real become excessive such that it seeks a correcting truth of fiction as a ‘surreality’, or alternatively, why and when does a fictional work deploy the truth of documentary?

I have been researching information on documentaries, especially within art, to guide me through this medium which is new to me. I found the short text above from 2010 which was a talk at Kent University about video art and film between documentary and fiction. Although the passage has not given too much away it has made me think about vital points such as, at what point does a documentary become a documentary and not fiction?

I feel as if I need to create all relevant and truthful information and facts to create my documentary and to justify it as a true documentary and I need to use real sources, for example people who know what they are talking about.

Mara Alper

Mara Alper is an award-winning media artist and documentary maker. Mara's affinities with dance, animation, film and video as expressive media have shaped her life. Her themes focus on social issues, older traditions and questions about people's similarities, differences and motivations.

In Mexico, she has interviewed shaman and tribal leaders in the native Huichol tribe, descendants of the Aztecs. They discussed forgiveness and attitudes toward aging and death. Images include traditional music, scenes from daily lives and sacred arts. In Bali, she studied the art of shadow puppets and dance, intrinsic elements in the Balinese Hindu religion. On the Greek island of Crete, she wrote and painted for several months in a mountain cave facing the Mediterranean Sea, influenced by their ancient Minoan culture. These experiences have helped her learn to recognize and respect the many values humans share, and to focus on our similarities rather than our differences.

http://www.maraalper.com/index.html

I have been really inspired by Alper's work. Her documentaries have opened so many eyes to different cultures and how people live their lives. I want to eventually create a documentary so that I can also open people's eyes.

I feel that talking to people is so important and that every opinion can create a difference to somebody else's life. I feel that by catching emotions of people can affect and change someones thoughts and therefore I set out to speak to people and to understand why they do something. I no longer feel that I should speak to somebody before judging them or their ways.

Documentation and recent thoughts

I have been meaning to catch up on my blog by writing down my gallery notes in it:

When i went to the Whitechapel Gallery I viewed a piece by Giorgio Andreotta Calo, Jalal Toufic, Huang Xiaopeng. They created a video to document urban history and change.

The performance of the Shiite ritual Ashura is captured by Lebanese writer and artist Jalal Toufic, while Chinese artist Huang Xiaopeng analyses the politics in the relationship between language and technology. The exhibition is part of the international touring programme Art in the Auditorium, which showcases some of the most exciting artists working with film, video and animation.

Documentation is something that is interesting to me at the moment. I find it fascinating how a documentary can inform and create new meanings in life. Documentaries are there to inform and teach, therefore I feel like this piece relates to my work.

Recently I have been thinking that maybe my project has been going away from how I originally began it. It has become more specific about one certain law rather then exploring more of the laws and Judaism as a whole. I also think it has become more about the physical connection between human beings rather then the literal Jewish law. I do not think this matters however as it just shows how my starting point has inspired me to look at something which it relates to.

IDEAS and thoughts

My most recent idea is to create a studio space to start filming scenes in to help create my documentary.

-Two people facing each other up close, not touching

-Elbows almost touching

-Stills of the body almost touching

My project seems to have slightly changed from my starting point of Judaism. It has become more about the physical connection between human beings rather then the actual Jewish law. I am still interested in the thought of Shomar Nagiah and the way a relationship is built up on complete mental thoughts. For somebody who does not keep to that law it is almost impossible to imagine as the average person has a complete physical connection with their partner from early on whether it is holding hands or just a tap on the shoulder.