I've experimented with photoelasticity in photography several times before, and used the process for my materiality project. In my opinion, it has great potential for experimental film because of the interesting colours it reveals, as well as its abstract textural quality.
Photoelasticity reveals the residual stress in birefringent clear plastic, such as cellophane, as colourful waves, by capturing it through a polarising lens filter as the material sits in front of polarised light (i.e. laptop screen). Birefringence is an optical property of anisotropic materials that refract light based on its polarisation – such materials include crystals and plastics under mechanical stress. In my materiality piece, I recorded footage of the plastics are I turned the polarising filter, changing the direction that the light waves could pass through, which changed the colours shown. I then used After Effects to experiment with distortion and animation. I would like to create a more complex and longer version of these experiments for my final submission piece.
Here are some images I've taken before to re-illustrate the phenomena for reference:
I decided that the next step in my research after I thought of this idea was to look at experimental video artists. Firstly, I looked at Oskar Fischinger, an influential avant-garde animator who paved the way for colourful abstraction as a respectable stance in video art. His avant-garde contributions to video art in his signature style, as seen in An Optical Poem (1938) broadened the art & film worlds in the 20th century. I’m very drawn to explosions of colour, so their work has been influential in that regard. Furthermore, Fischinger’s work is self-described as a “scientific experiment”, which links closely to the nature of my project as an exploration of a physics phenomenon. Composition in Blue is a film that demonstrates the whimsical, playful way he animated figures, used colour for abstract expression, and closely linked his work with music - the animation is done in time with the soundtrack's tempo, like an avant-garde music video.
Harry Smith's abstractions also drew on Fischinger's ideas. I found his animations equally interesting but his painting style is too crude for the visual effect I want to go for.
In this article, Tori Campbell writes "In the films Wax Experiments and Spirals he portrayed hypnotic, complex visual patterns," so I decided to watch excerpts posted online. Wax Experiments immediately made me think of Takeshi Murata's work, but in black and white. Of course, Fischinger's films were made without computer intervention, but the figurative animation influence is clear.
Takeshi Murata’s work has influenced this project in the same stream, as he animates digitally in a very colourful, figurative fashion, creating abstract pieces to be projected onto large, immersive cinema screens. Being a multimedia artist, my work relates much to his as it's blending optical phenomena of plastic materials, photography and post-processing manipulation. He became interested in After Effects and the way visual data could be molded and broken apart, as seen in Monster Movie. In Melter 02, he uses colour in a very fluid way that inspires me to create immersive visual effects in the same way.
In terms of sound, I would like to use music in a way inspired by Fischinger, but not so punctuated. I have found a royalty-free ambient experimental track on SoundCloud and plan to edit it in Adobe Audition. In doing so, I will intercut self-recorded sounds of scrunching plastic cellophane and water to link the audio to the visuals. The track is "Interspace" by Flug, aka Sebastian Lopez. I chose this track because of its dreamy, hypnotic yet also textural quality that makes it perfect for the aesthetic and feeling I'd like my film to evoke.
Another potentially interesting subject for colour manipulation and distortion could be water rippling in the bath, as this is another dynamic, textural surface. I'm interested in abstraction and psychedelic colour manipulation, as seen in the "scrapbook" of my summer project. Here are some examples of my edited soapy water ripple photos:
Bismuth is a post-transition metal element that grows in crystalline formations and the variations surface oxide layer's thickness cause different light wavelengths to interfere upon reflection, thus displaying a rainbow of colors. This iridescent oxide tarnish has always looked lovely to me, and inspired by need for vibrant colour in the work I make and enjoy. The geometric look created by the spiral staircase structure of the crystals within bismuth visually parallel the crystalline qualities to cellophance under cross-polarisation, linking photoelasticity to the natural world. Iridescence is a natural phenomenon seen also in seashell nacres and soap bubbles, among other things.
Synopsis
This project will be an expansion on my materiality project, as the physical and digital processes of the resulting film will be the point of interest. This experimental video takes the idea that plastic and water are malleable as materials/surfaces/substances, and represents this idea literally through a visual array of distortion.
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