1. Final Sound Piece: 'Forward, Connect'
(it wouldn't upload the sound piece as an AIF, so I just uploaded it as a movie)
Forward, Connect.
Artist: Elise Beckman
Medium: Sound
This sound piece uses elements from two settings to describe an overall desire to connect which remains meaningful in my memory of my first year of college. Using sounds from the bus and from nature to describe places of movement and convergence, narrated through the intertwining of two poems I wrote in a creative writing class, this piece builds up to a moment of intense focus on an outside element, an instinctive connection made in nature, and the possibility of moving forward towards truly connecting with another human being.
2. Final Stop-Motion Animation: 'Spontaneous Music!'
Spontaneous Music!
Artist: Elise Beckman
Medium: Stop-Motion Animation, Sound
This stop-motion animated collage tells the story of dissonance and connection in a magical animal-instrument world.
3. Final Video Portrait: 'Wide-Eyed Walker'
Wide Eyed Walker
Artist: Elise Beckman
Medium: Video and Sound Portrait
This abstract video portrait seeks to convey the emotions and experiences I hold concerning lead singer of Fleet Foxes Robin Pecknold. Inspired by my real life experience of attending one of his concerts and meeting him afterwards, this piece creates a relationship between an observer (representing myself) and a moving figure in the woods (representing Robin and what he has come to mean to me). The notion of a ‘wide eyed walker’ is inspired by imagery in Robin’s own songs, which use this symbol frequently to describe someone who is open to, and connecting with, the world around him. In this piece he is shown visually as a ‘wide eyed walker’, inspiring me as observer to awaken to the vastness of the world around me, and to recognize a fundamental and pure connection with his light.
The portrait is set in an ethereal, natural world where ruminations meet in the air and words connect through space and time. The observer’s perspective is that of the camera, which acts as an eye through which the viewer experiences and awakens to this magical realm. Incited by the initial opening of the eye, and tracked by a constant motion of breath, a progression towards clarity is made apparent through a gradual sharpening of sight, moving from blurriness to vision. This progression is heightened by an increasing awareness of the subject’s presence, the ‘wide eyed walker’ moving through the forest, whose thoughts travel directly through the air to the observer’s ears. These thoughts, lyrics from songs written by Robin or myself, interact when spoken to create a dialogue of reflections between the observer and the walker, illustrating a connection in thought, preexisting and pure in the natural world.
Another element is added to this dynamic relationship with the inciting words ‘I saw you’, sparking the introduction of music into the piece. This segment of the video seeks to convey a celebration of the energy and unity formed by a mutual recognition of meeting another wide eyed walker. The first song is an excerpt of ‘Helplessness Blues, written by Robin, which conveys a new harmony between subject and observer by their simultaneously humming and singing together. This song transitions into a song I wrote called ‘Robin’s Song’, which makes clear the indelible marks left by this recognition, primarily expressed though the eyes, as “in forest wisdom, night befalls your circled eyes” and culminating with the statement of positive recognition “you are”. This connection through music is made visual as the figure moves increasingly nearer to the viewer, turning towards direct eye contact and finally standing face to face with the camera. This physical directness establishes the subject’s mutual recognition of the observer’s presence, and makes their dialogue real.
As the music transitions to the final piece, an excerpt of ‘Grown Ocean’ written by Robin, the lyrics speak of a dream which ‘I will wait all my life to attain’; that dream, of truly connecting with another individual, which has been brought into a new consciousness by the existence of his being. In this segment, both the subject and the observer return to the spoken word, their voices becoming clearer with the statement ‘do not wander through the dawn’. Their connection, though not a tangible one, is shown here in its full significance as a gentle reminder to one another that this dream is, in fact, attainable. In the end, what Robin means to me is summed up with one statement: ‘My light in the dawn’. This lyric, taken from a song he wrote, describes the ultimately beautiful and inspiring existence he is, a guide whose wisdom I feel at last, as warming as the distant sun.
4. Performance Piece Documentation
Silent Story
Artist: Elise Beckman
Medium: Performance Piece
This performance tells the story of a relationship using only a headlamp and body language in the dark to represent the raw emotions of a new relationship: budding awareness, curiosity, frustration, illumination, spark, connection, unbalance, embarrassment, disjunction, slow ease return, renewal. (hope)
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