Last class, we each rolled the three dice to pick the focus for our final projects. I rolled science (lucky!!!!), found materials (ok, sure), and video & editing (oh no)... Why "oh no" for video & editing? Well, there are a few reasons. Filming and editing videos is not something I have much experience with. I also don't like recording my voice or being on camera. I like watching videos, but I don't like making or being in them. Additionally, since this is our last creative assignment, I want to like whatever I make. When it comes to video art, I prefer installations that include video rather than videos that are the artwork themselves. I'm not sure how I can accomplish that as a beginner with an approaching deadline and several other assignments. Making something physical and then filming it would be easier, but it feels like cheating, and just isn't as satisfying conceptually because it doesn't feel integrated or intentional enough. I'm unsure how to create something I'll end up liking for this project.
Jádé had a good idea and recommended that I create a stop motion to fulfill the video portion of the project. Building on that, my first idea is to use shiny found materials to create a stop-motion of a mineral's crystal structure, growing layer by layer. However, there are a few potential issues with this. Firstly, using a bunch of random objects to create a very specific structure may not be realistic. Sometimes materials don't stick together well with tape or glue, and for a structure meant to keep growing, it would be a problem if it collapsed before the stop motion was finished. I considered stacking the found materials between layers of clear acrylic, but because the materials are different shapes and sizes, the structure wouldn't hold. I can film a 2D version of the crystal structure, but it won't be as engaging.
The atomic arrangement in natrolite, a common Natrolite crystals on basalt from the Puy de Dôme,
zeolite. Image from Mineralogy by Dexter Perkins France. Photo by Didier Descouens via
et al., OpenGeology.org. Wikimedia Commons.
My second idea is to make something about rock thin sections in a microscope. Those are pretty shiny and colorful, and I have some photos of them from my Petrology class. I could use shiny, transparent found materials for that, too, but I'm not sure where the video part will fit in. I can do what my group did in 2D Fabrication with a video of a color-changing light playing beneath the transparent material, and take a video of it, but that doesn't feel right either. Thin sections aren't layered; they're 2D because they are single slices of rock mounted on a thin glass plate. The light video part makes sense because microscopes shine light at the thin section from below, but this idea seems like a video of something I made rather than incorporating video into the concept, which I wanted to avoid.
The more I think about it, the more I think thin sections would be great to recreate with scanography. For instance, scanner beds are made of a sheet of glass, objects get placed on top of the scanner bed, and the scanner emits light from below as it scans. Thin sections are flat pieces of rock or mineral mounted onto a glass slide, and when you place them under the microscope, it shines light at them from below. If I created a stop motion video using images of found objects scanned with a scanner, would that be considered a video?
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