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After previous group discussions, we continued the idea of incorporating the concept of the butterfly effect into the art performance installation. However, as we developed the theme further, we found that we needed to use a more specific backstory to guide the audience through the installation, to help them understand how the performance installation would evolve and to encourage them to understand the narrative and emotions that were intended to be expressed.
During this group discussion, we re-established a more specific theme and structure for the art performance installation, and the following are the details of our meeting.
Background
By thinking about the butterfly effect, we can imagine the thought-provoking consequences of a small change. Similarly, in the family, small demands made by a mother on her children can have a profound impact on their lives. We decided to use the film Höstsonaten ( Auntumn Sonata) as a backstory to display the inner world of the main character Eva under the influence of her mother, Charlotte.
NameforPerformance
“Invisible Strings”
Performance Structure
The film’s plot fragments are used as a starting point to frame a three-part performance scene.
The first part is a situational introduction in which a performer sings a live whisper that symbolises her mother’s harsh teaching and verbal violence towards Eva. The particles are projected on the screen in real-time according to the changes in the whispers and finally form a line that leads the participants to the next performance area.
The following section is a performance area with a tangle of black and white strings hung with bells, where a performer dances around the performance area in response to the whispers, and the movement drives the bells on the lines to ring.
The last performer plays the piano in a quadrilateral performance area covered by a translucent curtain, where the piano piece played is Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2, which appears in the film. The piano used for the performance is made of a wire-wrapped iron frame, not a real piano, and will be shown in its true form by removing the translucent curtain at the end of the performance.
The image below is a visual reference of the last performance area.
As the instructions for switching between the three performance areas are to be done by controlling the lighting, we are tentatively planning to arrange the performance in a spacious indoor (dark environment), and the West Court is a more suitable choice, but the decision has yet to be confirmed.
Upcoming work
Having established the parts of the group that each member will be responsible for, we will further search for references (primarily academic literature on technical aspects), draw up user flow and create a mood board according to our division of labour.
One of the four members of the performance group was Xiaozhuang Gao, Crystal Wu and Shutong Liu from design and digital media, and Lerong Qi from sound design. The first group discussion was a continuous collision and divergence of ideas, from one topic to another, with the process of overturning and reconstructing, finally landing on the concept of the “butterfly effect”, which is now described in the minutes of this meeting.
Inspiration 1: Plants
In the first meeting, the topic of plants was discussed – plants themselves are rich in visuals, both in terms of their characteristics and their veins and roots.
Referring to the artist Thijs Biersteker’s art installation using plants as a vehicle, in which he expresses the impact of data pollution on our lives through the effect of carbon dioxide exhaled by the participants on the plants, we wondered whether the internal changes that occur when plants are confronted with performers could be quantified and visualised to create new patterns or new plants, thus reflecting on the relationship between man and nature. The relationship between man and nature. Up to this point, our thinking had been very limited and monotonous, and there was a big gap in terms of technical means and forms.
Although the discussion on the topic of plants was not fully developed, the overall conceptual framework made us think that whether it is the influence of people on plants that develops into a larger social topic in an artwork, or the insignificant inspiration and ideas of each of us that will eventually be updated and iterated into an installation, this phenomenon made us The butterfly effect seems to exist everywhere in the world, it is common, romantic and thought-provoking.
Building on the previous idea, we thought about the possibility of collecting the sound of the performers as a loop when they create a bit of sound, and influencing the media material to change dynamically or visually, collecting its dynamic data and eventually creating a visual effect like a tsunami. Although the subject matter and realizability of the project still needs to be discussed, the group members all expressed their interest in the topic and are willing to continue to develop it, and we will conduct more research to develop our ideas.
Even a beautiful sonata in autumn is permeated by poignancy and sadness – “Invisible Strings” is a performance-interactive art installation inspired by Bergman’s film “Autumn Sonata”, which tells the story of a selfish and controlling mother who makes her daughter incompetent in love. The story of an immature elder who demands and even harasses her youngest to meet her own demands and desires, filling a hole in her own life and heart, feeding off her youngest and preventing her from growing up in a healthy way.
Using this film as a source of inspiration and extraction of elements, it interacts with the installation in the form of a performance, with a visual and aural rendering of the story’s development in layers. The sudden outbursts and struggles are both tortured and introspective, and the impossibility of reconciliation has long been predetermined. This work evokes empathy and connection in the audience and explores at a deeper level the contradictions and gaps between caring and giving that lead to wanton demands. At the same time, it reflects on the construction of relationships between people and the expression of love.
Based on Bergman’s film ‘Autumn Sonata’, which focuses on the relationship between parents and their children, we combine sound and performance to portray the changes in the daughter’s heart in the film as she is bound by her mother’s ‘expectations’. This theme was chosen because the “expectations” and “constraints” that parents bring to their children are often invisible, and the sound installation we have designed, through the three different parts of the sound performance, achieves a layering of sounds, just as the parents’ day-to-day “expectations” continue. The “expectation” is constantly superimposed in the mind of the little girl in the film.
Research
Film
The film serves as the source of inspiration and sound and visual elements as well as conceptual support for the work.
1) Synopsis of the story
Autumn Sonata, an emotional family film directed by Ingmar Bergman and starring Ingrid Bergman and Liv Ullmann, was released in Sweden on 8 October 1978. The film tells the story of Charlotte, a distinguished orchestra piano player, and her daughter Eva, who are in serious conflict due to a chronic lack of emotional contact.
2) Elements from the film
Piano
Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2
3) Movie review
Sonata is a monologue in music. In late autumn in Sweden, a mother and daughter who have not seen each other for seven years are reunited, but instead of a harmonious concerto, they continue to play their own sonata. Solo plus solo, the result is a lonelier, more desperate solo, never superimposed on a tacit interplay, due to the inability to connect their hearts.
–Duxingxiia 6/12/2006
The emotional ebb and flow of Chopin’s music appreciation is a reflection of the human connection to God and the exploration of human nature and limits.
–Qimahenbulan 20/12/2021
Underneath the glossy exterior is a pool of mud that dare not be uncovered and exposed to the sunlight of true feelings.
— Likelight 25/10/2022
Relative News
Based on our research, we believe that the phenomenon of parents putting pressure on their children to make academic and career choices is a common occurrence worldwide. Several social news and child psychological guidance platforms have focused on this topic.
Therefore, we believe it is valuable to explore the theme of family relationships and parental expectations. We hope that this work will show the inner struggle of children under pressure.
This performance installation will only show the struggle, without a specific ending, and hopefully will cause the audience to reflect on the expectations in parent-child relationships.
We have read relevant literature to prove that parents’ excessive rights claims have an indelible negative impact on children
In Baumrind’s opinion(2012), these parents are “demanding” because they set high standards for their kids and then go out of their way to ensure they’re met.
Walker and Associates (Walker, Hennig, & Krettenauer, 2000; Walker & Taylor, 1991) explored parent-child talks of fictitious and actual moral dilemmas within the cognitive domain. Children’s less developed moral reasoning was predicted by parents’ domineering, meddling, negative, conflictual, and sarcastic behaviour.（Kochanska, G., Aksan, N., & Nichols, K. E. (2003）
Reference:
Grolnick, W. S. (2012). The relations among parental power assertion, control, and structure. Human Development, 55(2), 57-64.
Kochanska, G., Aksan, N., & Nichols, K. E. (2003). Maternal power assertion in discipline and moral discourse contexts: commonalities, differences, and implications for children’s moral conduct and cognition. Developmental Psychology, 39(6), 949.
Technology
At the technical level we will mainly involve sound visualization software
2) Processing Particle System
We can also find instructions on how to use the particle system on Processing’s case website. We will implement particle interaction based on these instructions. Reference:https://processing.org/examples/multipleparticlesystems.html
Using different material mediums, through interaction, lighting and visuals in a dark and gloomy environment, we express a kind of human relationship from conflict to struggle and finally explosion.
Our entire sound performance was based on the film, with three separate parts of the sound performance designed from the perspective of the little girl in the movie. In the first part, a sound performer will open the whole sound installation by chanting, representing the role of the mother in the film, and the sound represents the parents’ complaints, spurs, etc. The sound is then transformed into a code and then output into an image, which consists of particles. The first part of the performance is over.
At the beginning of the second part of the performance, there are controllable lights that come on immediately after the end of the first part of the performance. The performer is trapped in a large installation of thin wires with bells and keys hanging from them. When the performer struggles, the bells are triggered to make a sound and the sound is recorded, and when the keys are triggered a sonata note is emitted with the chanting sound of the first part superimposed on the third part.
After the third part, Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 will be played. The performer plays the piano in an installation made of four white curtains. As the sound is superimposed from the first part to the climax of the third part, the curtains are pulled down to reveal that the performer is playing a fake piano made of wire, and the light and music end abruptly, ending the performance.
Group Member Assignment
Creative & Technology Support
Xiaozhuang Gao & Crystal Wu
As part of the creative concept of the Invisible Strings project involves real-time sound visualisation.
In Crystal’s and Xiaozhuang’s past personal experience, they have learned to program software such as Processing and Arduino. So they will be responsible for the sound visualisation part of the project, and ensure a better presentation of the theme of the help installation.
In the first part of the sound performance, the vocalist has to translate the sound into parameters to create a moving image by chanting, a process that involves the programming of software such as Processing and Arduino.
Sound design
Lerong Qi
The sound of this performance installation has three stages, the first of which is the real-time capture of the performer’s singing, the second of which is the sound of piano notes and bells emanating from the performer’s touch of the keys on the strings, which are layered with the looping singing sounds generated in the previous stage to form the entire soundscape, and the third of which returns to the piano piece Chopin’s Piano Sonata No. 2 played by Eva in the film Autumn Sonata.
The initial chant is recorded in real-time and is looped into the trigger-generated sound effects during the second stage of the performance. In the second stage, the piano melody triggered by the performer’s movements samples the beginning notes from the final performance of the sonata, and this randomly sounding piano melody is recreated by the sound designer to achieve the effect of articulating the entire subsequent sonata.
Multiple microphones in the first two performance areas (chanters use a stand-up microphone, and the second performance area is set up with stereo set microphones for bells).
Audio playback relies on multiple speakers, initially using surround sound playback.
Audio workstations to record live sound, implement a live loop and synchronise with lighting visuals.
Visual Design
Shutong Liu
The visual effect of the installation plays a key role in expressing and conveying emotions. Shutong Liu will use PS, AI, AE and other software to make full use of the relevant display media to carry out the visual design of the installation, including but not limited to the creative design and execution of the interactive colours, animation effects and graphic design content in the installation, using the installation as a carrier to control the appearance of the art, to achieve visual and layout consistency, conveying the ambient spiritual world that the design concept is intended to convey.
Future expectations
Feb 14 Plan Submission
Feb 15-Feb 28 Design Iteration
The team will review the existing design during this period to determine the details and logic of the design. The design will be supplemented with possible shortcomings so that the audience can have a more complete and perfect experience during the installation.
Mar 1-Mar 14 Arduino & Processing Design
We will design and implement the technical and visual design of the Processing and Arduino sensor part based on the design concept as of March 1. We will also refine the design with feedback from Submission 1 and each catch-up to ensure that the final design will be completed on schedule.
We will also complete the design of some of the visual installations during this period.
Preliminary completion of the sound design in the installation.
Mar 15-Mar 29 Design Integration
Complete all visual installation design and sound design.
Integrate the design of each part and debug the sensors and interaction effects.
Complete the set-up for the final week of internal display.
Using different material mediums, through interaction, lighting and visuals in a dark and gloomy environment, we express a kind of human relationship from conflict to struggle and finally explosion.
