Production history around: AQUA
My film AQUA was a result of an open call I saw for Wiro Mag: AQUA by Lyndon Watkinson. The open call had the theme of water (open to interpretation) and accepted art in any medium.
Before this film, I had created a piece called ‘Under Ice’ for the ‘Under Ice’ exhibition. This was great in terms of my chance research: a sudden prompt (chance occurrence), a due date (restriction), and no idea of what I was going to end up making (discovery).
I was a bit apprehensive though this time around. While I am very happy with ‘Under Ice’ as a film, originally I was under the impression that my work was not accepted because it was a film. That can be an issue with bespoke creations, but if you are happy that you are making a film regardless, it is less of an issue.
The reason I say I was “‘under the impression” is that I was told no to films, but I started appearing in a lot of the promotional materials — so I guess they managed to get a TV/projector in there or something!
For my film AQUA, I wanted to copy my methods used when making the film ‘Eggistential’. For this, I just filmed myself cooking an egg for 10 minutes, and then played around with editing. Having ‘vague ideas’ and then using them to create something interesting is a lot of fun. Eggistential is also one of my favourite pieces, even though it was all only created in a day. This method puts a lot of the creative output in the edit process.
The difference here was having a prompt to explore, which I think worked really well. I was walking around my house with a camera hung around my neck thinking “what can I film which is water?” — I was suddenly going from room to room, playing with water and capturing different things. The ideas all started to come naturally from one another. Pouring water. Blowing bubbles through a straw, drinking water, having a shower, etc.
Suddenly, the creative element existed both in the filming process and the editing process.
It all reminded me how much I enjoy the sensation of water running near me. Even writing this paragraph I feel the hairs on the back of my neck standing up thinking about it. One of my favourite things is sitting in the bathroom when the shower is running. Ever since I was a very little kid I have felt this way. The warmth, the noise. It is the only thing I can compare to when people talk about enjoying ASMR videos. Having a shower is an amazing experience too. I never want to leave.
For this piece, I wanted to have some poetry in the background — for ‘Under Ice’, I thought the lyrics were a poem, so this time I wanted to do a poem properly.
My ideal selection was a piece of poetry that was over 100 years old so that I did not have to worry about submitting it to galleries and the like, and I’m very happy with the unintended symbolism that came about as a result of this decision.
I decided on “The Brook” by Alfred Tennyson. The element that made me really want to use this poem was the personified nature of the piece. That the poem is from the perspective of the river. Especially the reoccurring lines:
“For men may come and men may go, But I go on for ever.”
It really made me really think about the themes of ‘memetics’ and ‘the cyclical nature of creation’ that is present in a few of my works, especially ‘Disseminate’ and ‘Arc’.
In terms of memetics, the idea that the ‘Brandon’ who makes the art is a separate entity from the ‘Brandon’ that appears in the art. The idea that a warped version me is created when a film has been rendered, and exists on repeat for practically an eternity — that this echo of me can influence the world, potentially after I am dead. While I may go, ‘I’ go on forever.
It is weird to think that the echo of me could have more time on earth than I do. For example, I am currently on Youtube at 300,000 views. If we pretend that all of those people watched 1 minute of ‘me’ (which is unlikely), that is 208 days of ‘me’ that exists. Due to the nature of media being eternal in many ways, there may come a time that the echo has a longer life span than I will.
In terms of the cyclical nature of creation, it is the idea that when I make a film, the process of making it, it as an entity, and the process of viewing the piece all influence the creation of the next piece.
Each piece, in a way, has a start and an end, but they also never really start and never really end. If I have an idea when I was 7-years-old, and carry that idea along with me my whole life, and at 28-years-old I decide to turn it into a film, when did the creation of the film start? In the same way, if the film is released, but gets new meaning and influences me way after its initial release, does ‘the process’ have an end?
This gets compounded the more and more films I release. A project that I thought was ‘over’ suddenly has an epilogue, and then another one, and another one. This makes me think of the Espinosa quote:
“Art will not disappear into nothingness; it will disappear into everything.”
It creates a ‘momentum’ that pushes along ideas. To me, the discussions around the themes in my pieces don’t feel like repetitions, but rather ‘therefor’-s.
In AQUA, I like the shot of myself throwing the wad of paper ‘that is AQUA’ down the drain, adding to that cycle. AQUA, now too is part of the continuous flow of influence.
The same goes for me ‘going down the drain’ at the end. That was unintentional, and was only realised in the edit. I guess I naturally go in circles when I shower! Other than the themes of memetics and the cyclical nature of creation, it adds to the personification ideas in ‘The Brook’ too.
Moving back to the direct content of the film, I like that the poem can be used to dictate shot location. Trying to match up words like “flow”, “bubble”, or “willow-weed and mallow” with similar footage was a fun way to utilise chance, and I feel that it added a nice quality to the piece.
Originally I wanted to record the audio of me reading the poem in the shower, to give it the energy of being affected by the place — distorted and drowned out a bit by the water. While interesting, it made the poem unintelligible, which I thought was a shame since I liked it being heard.
The shots of the bubbly plant thing were from a project I saw at the University of Plymouth. I tried to figure out more details on it, but could not get too much info (I probably could have if I tried harder!).
I think the transition shot of the camera to the sink is good too, and mirrors a lot of what I mentioned earlier.
The recording of a ‘place’ is interesting too. I don’t intend to live where I am living forever, but I really like that this moment in time is being captured forever. It is a large part of filmmaking which I find appealing, that the intangible nature of time and place can be immortalised. Especially in regards to mundane elements. Showers. Taps. Drains. All of these things which are used every day, but attempting to form a picture of them in our memories is difficult, causing us to rely on schema or Platonic ideals instead. Seeing how dirty the sinks are, or limescale on faucets, makes the imagery uniquely a part of my experiences. Having these personal experiences projected to the larger public is intimate in a way which is hard to describe. Often, people use the intimacy I choose to share as a way to ‘have a go’ at me personally, which I find silly.
One of my favourite elements of creating AQUA was the influence it had outside of its production.
At the moment I’m creating a long-form, black and white piece, currently called ‘Communication’, with a Norwegian artist going by ‘Phaedra’. I met her via r/ExperimentalFilm.
The process of making the piece is: I send her a three minute video talking to her, and she sends a three minute piece responding. This will happen 10 times each, and then the final film will be edited down by a third party.
In this back and forth, I spoke about making AQUA, and encouraged her to make something too. Well she did! She made a great piece called ‘Ask The Water’, which also got accepted as a submission to Wiro Mag: Aqua.
That alone has made the experience worth it. I’m excited to see where she goes from here.
This film process has made me want to focus on some other ‘elements’ in the future. Under Ice feels like ice, and ‘Arc’ feels like electricity, so we still have fire, wind, and dirt… Probably more too, like plasma. Got to put some grapes in the microwave.
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