In my artistic research, I reflect on a process – while being in the process. To finish or to close a process seems to be a need for all of us, otherwise we stay in a gap between an idea and a finished work. I make experiments in writing and in video works in order to see a 'subject' or myself and my work from outside or from distance. This presentation gives a short example of my work-in- progress, a multi-channel video installation Parousia. It is based on filming in different spaces, in various parts of the world. The moment of filming is intuitive and responsive to the space where the camera is moving. In the final editing process, everything is put together through new reflections and returns to the traces of the filming moment. The storyboard and even the manuscript are developed simultaneously with finishing the work. The working process consists of contradictions between originality and representability, alienation and responsivity. These concepts are examined through (responsive) phenomenology and contemporary French philosophy.
In the filmed clips camera moves through different botanical gardens (some of them in winter time) in the Nordic countries and cemeteries (some of them abandoned) in Italy and Greece. It follows a man, a woman as well as a boy on the crowded streets of India and Turkey. The camera is led by a small child in a forest in northern Finland. Views of mirrors at hotels, ateliers and homes are shown. The camera pans over the halls of institutions such as a refugee centre and even the Finnish Parliament house in Helsinki. A constantly moving camera moves on different corridors or follows a moving body. Some of these takes are without a visible character still they are highly subjective takes.
In the final video installation, the filmed spaces will be presented simultaneously as a multi-channel video installation with sounds and voiceovers. A viewer can follow people when they are on their way somewhere also when the camera passes empty spaces. Due to the constantly moving camera,
normative perspective – filming is done along the body. The filming emphasises the fact that one's perspective is in connection with perception and sensorial processes. The relation between movements and perceiving, from a corporeal activity as a blink of an eye for bigger scale movement as international migration, is underlined.
Meanwhile, I have filmed in different spaces, I read about spatiality and especially 'heterotopical'
memories of life, the texts became corporeal for me. To read about non-spacial environments were not any longer only one theory for me – the readings touched me, my body. I felt I was reminded of me, my bodily being, in earlier situations. While sensing spaces through writings, the surroundings (in which I was with my camera) started reciprocally to appear less personal. At this point of the process, I realised that I am not any more sure about the images I want to capture, to record and to the filming is similar to 'subjective camera'. Because there is not only one protagonist in the scenes, I came up with a name 'camera-subject' …
….
One is in a gap when trying to formulate affections coming from one's body into words. A gap can
appear when the visual work stops and ideas are getting a form of words. Gaps are in writing
moments. Gaps are happening when building the meanings of a whole text. Gaps are in reading
moments. Gaps are inevitable for processes. Gaps are the distinctions in explaining and
understanding. Gaps are between each frame in video and film. Gaps make the difference between
the past, the present and the coming moment. Gaps are highways to oblivion. One has to forget.
One has to get lost to find the way again.
A gap or in-between is a vague state of possibilities, but it also reveals vulnerability, incapability, insufficiency and incapacity. The gap is a space of contemplation or a destructive element in one's artistic practice. The deconstruction of one's artistic methods is something that one has to face when starting artistic research. In earlier stages of my dissertation work, my goal was to explore even the difference between art and science. Now, there is no clear difference in my approach when I make art and write the research. According to Waldenfels, explanations are lacking and gaps become components of the meaning. The explanation is not either exhausted in the meaning.
A gap or in-between is a vague state of possibilities, but it also reveals vulnerability, incapability, insufficiency and incapacity. The gap is a space of contemplation or a destructive element in one's artistic practice. The deconstruction of one's artistic methods is something that one has to face when starting artistic research. In earlier stages of my dissertation work, my goal was to explore even the difference between art and science. Now, there is no clear difference in my approach when I make art and write the research. According to Waldenfels, explanations are lacking and gaps become components of the meaning. The explanation is not either exhausted in the meaning.
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