After months of finding new ways to communicate via the internet, Miku and I were able to start finalising the second part of ONES, a proposed triptych.

Now that Miku is based in China we have to deal with the harsher Internet rules and regulations there. Though the time difference is now 7 hours instead of 9, finding ways to upload and download our work and call each other to discuss the process has brought new challenges. The ‘patience’ that is needed in order to produce and develop our work across continents, can at times become a real strain on our working method.

BUT seeing each other’s work for the first time last week made all our hard work worthwhile.

For this second part of our proposed triptych we have yet again worked individually on our own films. As in the first part of ONES, our process consists of carefully choosing footage and sounds together and then editing our individual films on our own, without communicating what we are doing.

By using the exact same video footage, shot back when Miku was in London, and using the soundtrack by Jack Goodwin as our time line, we have created two distinct videos that come together by our binding theme of communicating over a far distance.

The rhythm and focus of both films are opposites of each other. Miku’s film seems to be an anchor formed by a continuous rhythm like a person breathing, where my film focuses on Miku and telling her story by getting under her skin. These very different films come together through a vertical communication on a single screen, where they together, like the title implies, form the interior and exterior of a person.

More on the finalising of the second part of this project soon!
Keep an eye out for updates on Facebook and Twitter.

Miku Tsuchiya on ONES part 2:

Anne Verheij and myself are excited to announce that our second part of the ‘ONES’ triptych is in its final stage of editing. It will have a first private viewing in June 2016 in London.

Before this film will have its first public appearance, we thought it would be nice to share our experience of our editing process on this second part of our proposed triptych. So here it is!

……….

Since the beginning of this year we’ve been editing individually on this second part of the project, and just last week, we exchanged our edited films, viewing them for the first time.

My first impression of watching Anne’s version of the film was “Wow! This is so different from mine!” I was shocked by the difference and the fact that our films had almost nothing in common!
My second immediate thoughts were “How it’s possible to put these two completely different films together in one piece?… is it even possible?”
Actually, Anne had a similair reaction as mine. We were both completely in shock. The two films turned out completely different from the first part of our ONES triptych. It was very unexpected and thrilling.

My Notes from watching Anne’s film:

“Repetition, abrupt, directions, focus on the body, movement tells a story, theme developing, body speaking, falling, tensions, emotions, fragments of memories, blank … ” (19 May, 2016)

So the fun part began: looking for the possibilities to make these films speak together.

My Notes from watching the 1st trial of playing the two films together

We first tried to put the two films besides each other, horizontally, like we did for the first part of our triptych. This, however, didn’t work as well as we thought. The two films hardly spoke to one another and it created completely separated worlds.

“My eyes are busy, looking right to left, left to right. I don’t know where to look or where to focus. My eyes zoom in on one film, completely missing the other… This is much too busy. As the scenes kept changing, I was left behind. This way a story kept building and instantly diminishing as soon as I looked away. This left me with no flow and no communication between two films. Separate…” (19 May, 2016)

My Notes from watching the 2nd and 3rd trial of playing the two films together

We decided to try and put our two films vertically, the one on top of the other. Surprisingly, this way worked and our films started to speak to each other.

“The two films started to communicate. Sharing a same world. One film is like a under current, which is always there, holding and carrying: like a container, like an anchor holding you in place. The other film is like a reflection, a glimpse of what’s happening in that current, like a magnifying glass: it focuses, it magnifies the invisible world beneath the surface, it tells the invisible story… 

At first, the two worlds of each individual film seem very different in its horizontal display, hardly able to communicate with each other, but when we looked at it with a vertical perspective, it started to communicate beyond the visible boundaries and in that moment two worlds became ONE.” (19 May, 2016)

This vertical option worked out beautifully, and we both started to see the huge possibilities of where this project is going. At this point we were reminded that what we saw happening on screen was the drive of this project:

2 women
2 voices
2 countries
2 disciplines
2 intuitions
2 rhythms
————–
1 installation

I was very fascinated to see that the drive behind this project is now taking a strong visual form on the screen and I can’t wait to see more!

……….

If you’re interested, please stay tuned!