For the transformative portrait project, I decided to develop a composition based on dreams. Growing up I have always had pretty vivid dreams so I thought it would be cool to dive into my head and physically show them. Every night before sleep I try to calm my mind down and drown out the sound of my partners snoring by visualizing sights of nature. In this specific project, I am showing a scene where I am in the clouds, away from everything except one hot air balloon. The hot air balloon quickly moves along the screen and is shown in the perspective in which I experience my dreams. In reality if I were in a hot air balloon, I wouldn't be able to physically see it floating in the sky, I'd just see the ground or the large balloon above me, however, since this was in a dream, I was able to actually witness myself flying. Dreams are also cool because from the outside you appear still and frozen, but on the inside there is a whole other world.
Emily B’s Transformative Portrait is a video self portrait that combines still and moving images. It starts with her side profile sleeping in a dark room, but that changes when the top of her head opens to show a cloudy sky. This sky opens gradually to cover the whole composition, which also significantly brightens the scene in comparison to the dark room they were sleeping in. Soon after that, a hot air balloon makes its way quickly across the screen bobbing up and down. Completing the composition, the sky shrinks down the way it came, back into the top of her head and the top of her head closes again, allowing for the opportunity for closure and also a loop.
ReplyDeleteHer transformative portrait here literally represents her dreams and what she might see in one. The movement of the top of her head opening to the other composition of the sky shows that it is a thought or dream for her. The contents of the “dream” being a beautiful sky and hot air balloon makes me feel that they look for peace in their sleep. Another part that makes sense is the abnormal way the hot air balloon makes it’s way across the screen. This adds to the dream feeling because it adds an element of surreal to the scene.
This work was, in my opinion, easy to interpret on a basic level, but if any deeper meaning was to be had it would probably need explanation, such as if there is a significance to the hot air balloon. I do appreciate that the initial frame of her sleeping and the sky expanding were off-center and asymmetrical, it made for a more interesting composition. As for the visual clues alluding to a dream, the sleeping photo and the top of the head opening really led me to that conclusion more than what the actual dream was made of, but with those clues it was clear the cloudy sky and hot air balloon were a dream she was having.
The motion of the piece was definitely significant, as it visualized going into her mind and her dream. Without this motion, the meaning and two compositions would not have connected both literally in the composition and also in the viewers’ minds. The hot air balloon floating across the screen was also significant motion as it adds to the whimsical, dreamy feeling, though I wish the movement was smoother, slower, and more floaty to extend this whimsical floating idea I assume the hot air balloon was trying to convey.
Something that almost everyone does is sleep and dream. The artist of this piece chose to share a personal moment of their life of how they experience sleep and dreaming with the world. This can cause the audience to question their own experience with sleep and dreams. Do they also have vivid dreams of flying? Or are their dreams darker and more like nightmares? Seeing this piece can lead to deeper thoughts of your own subconscious and where the imagination can go when given free reign.
In summary, Emily B’s Transformative Portrait is both self-referential and thought provoking. The way she visually exposed her own dreams was effective and easy to understand while also giving the sense of whimsical and dreamy thoughts. Though she used a literal visual representation of dreaming, it still allows the viewers to think of their own experiences with sleeping and dreaming, and what might come out of their own head if the top of their head was opened in the same way. As far as the quality of her movement, I think some things could have been smoother and slower to keep the whimsical, dreamy feeling, but I think the movement options she chose were very effective in continuing the narrative she was trying to tell.