PhD Abstract Every time I leave the room: image, time and metadata in off-screen space Gregory Ferris, UNSW 2012 COPYRIGHT STATEMENT ‘I hereby grant the University of New South Wales or its agents the right to archive and to make available my thesis or dissertation in whole or part in the University libraries in all forms of media, now or here after known, subject to the provisions of the Copyright Act 1968. I retain all proprietary rights, such as patent rights. I also retain the right to use in future works (such as articles or books) all or part of this thesis or dissertation. I also authorise University Microfilms to use the 350 word abstract of my thesis in Dissertation Abstract International (this is applicable to doctoral theses only). I have either used no substantial portions of copyright material in my thesis or I have obtained permission to use copyright material; where permission has not been granted I have applied/will apply for a partial restriction of the digital copy of my thesis or dissertation.' Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date 24/4/2013…………………………………………….......... AUTHENTICITY STATEMENT ‘I certify that the Library deposit digital copy is a direct equivalent of the final officially approved version of my thesis. No emendation of content has occurred and if there are any minor variations in formatting, they are the result of the conversion to digital format.’ Signed ……………………………………………........................... Date 24/4/2013……………………………………………........... ORIGINALITY STATEMENT ‘I hereby declare that this submission is my own work and to the best of my knowledge it contains no materials previously published or written by another person, or substantial proportions of material which have been accepted for the award of any other degree or diploma at UNSW or any other educational institution, except where due acknowledgement is made in the thesis. Any contribution made to the research by others, with whom I have worked at UNSW or elsewhere, is explicitly acknowledged in the thesis. I also declare that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work, except to the extent that assistance from others in the project's design and conception or in style, presentation and linguistic expression is acknowledged.’ Signed …………………………………………….............. Date 24/4/2013………………………………………….. Despite extensive media arts theory focusing on sound, the moving image and the relationship between the audible and the visible, there has been scant research into how the out-of-frame creates a sense of meaning in media art. The thesis argues that the out-of-frame can be conceptualised as an out-of- field that creates a novel sense of meaning, in both linear and non-linear media works. It explores the expressive possibilities of the out-of-frame to create such a notion of meaning through the still image, the moving image and meta-data, and thence via a series of media art works that employ a floating frame in their treatment and layering of media assets. It also investigates the possibilities when these notions take place over time. Focusing upon media artworks that are almost exclusively narrative-based, the thesis investigates the representation of an emergent out-of-frame, evaluating the capacity of these works to test the use of an out-of-frame to expressively address such meaningful peripheries. Whilst media arts theory and practice almost exclusively focus on events within the frame, this thesis argues that a critical part of the media experience is that of the unseen but represented, whether it be a place or character. This is an allusive reference, much as the use of motif can be an evocation of narrative elements both seen and unseen in temporal spaces. The thesis proposes that recent digital media technologies offer a revolutionary shift in the expression of the out-of-frame, realisations that will impact on users of media technologies in the future. It explores this hypothesis in a number of ways. Firstly, it investigates how mise-en-scène and montage relate to each other beyond traditional concepts as a basis for understanding the out-of-frame. Secondly, it investigates areas not historically associated with mise-en-scène and montage, but are now interrelated due to their inclusion and convergence in recent media technologies and the out-of-frame. Thirdly, it attempts to understand this concept through an examination of a number of case studies that explore the out-of-frame, in the pre- cinematic, the cinematic, and post-cinematic. Fourthly, the thesis explores two experimental media art works, entitled Eavesdrop and Conversations, undertaken collaboratively as part of the doctoral research, that focus on the out-of-frame. Finally, it will examine a number of current and future media technologies and how the out-of-frame is reflected in digital media and the post-cinema media landscape. ii Acknowledgements i Introduction ii Chapter One 1 1.1 Filling in the blanks 1 1.2 What I look at is never what I wish to see 1 1.3 Concepts of offscreen space 2 1.4 Audience expectations and the offscreen space 3 1.5 Spatial illusion in cinema 4 1.6 Out-of-frame and continuity 6 1.7 Pictorial and cinematic illusion 7 1.8 Pre-cinema 10 1.9 Noël Burch and the out-of-field 11 1.10 Relative versus Absolute 12 1.11 Temporalities and out-of-frame space 12 1.12 Precedents of expectation 14 1.13 Relative space and virtualisation 15 1.14 The Open Space – Precursors of the Sandbox 16 1.15 The vividly imagined 18 1.16 An expansive approach to mise-en-scène and montage 19 1.17 Closed systems versus open systems 21 1.18 Contents of the closed system 22 1.19 Conclusion 23 Chapter 2: The Frame 26 2.1 Introduction: Mise-En-Scène 26 2.2 The empty frame 27 iii 2.3 The disturbance of locative space 28 2.4 Burch and the six segments 29 2.5 Formal versus directorial 30 2.6 Lake Tahoe 31 2.7 The theorisation of offscreen space 34 2.8 The curtain rises to reveal 38 2.9 The gaze, the frame and the offscreen 40 2.10 Metaphorical use of framing 44 2.11 Offscreen space 45 2.12 Edge of frame 47 2.13 Fragmentation of the onscreen 49 2.14 The offscreen and the breaking of conventional spatial logic 50 2.15 Conclusion 52 Chapter Three: Temporalities, offscreen space and the meaning 55 3.1 Introduction: The edit 55 3.2 Relative space and filmic space 55 3.3 Montage 56 3.4 Disruption of spatial continuity 58 3.5 Unnatural connections fragmenting space 59 3.6 The need to listen to shifting points of view 60 3.7 Complex treatments in the continuity of space 61 3.8 Linking space through sound 62 3.9 The linking of space and time through sound and montage 63 3.10 The linkage of discontinuous space and time 65 3.11 Fragments of knowledge 70 3.12 Raumsperre 73 iv 3.13 Conclusion 74 Chapter 4: The virtual and meta-data in the offscreen 78 4.1 Introduction 78 4.2 Raumsperre, as a spatial barrier 78 4.3 Corporal barriers 80 4.4 Surrogates and agents in visual space 81 4.5 Fragmenting of time 82 4.6 Time passing and the offscreen 82 4.7 Classic cinema and the fixing of the frame and time 84 4.8 Fixed frame and fixed time in video technologies 84 4.9 Meta-data and the out-of-field 85 4.10 Enhancing visual space 86 4.11 Augmented visual space 87 4.12 Mark-up languages and the creation of complex visual space 89 4.13 The moving panorama 89 4.14 Text in out-of-frame space 91 4.15 Frames and segments: the work of Omar Fast 92 4.16 The metaphorical image: the work of Luc Courchesne 95 4.17 Interaction and user input 96 4.18 Augmented reality and visual space 97 4.19 First person shooter and virtual space 98 4.20 Stealth mode and virtual space 99 4.21 Conclusion: complexity of interactions 101 Chapter Five: Eavesdrop and Conversations 105 5.1 Escaping the frame 105 v 5.2 Background to the projects 106 5.3 The problem of the frame 107 5.4 The shift in technological formats 108 5.5 Monophonic to polyphonic structures 108 5.6 New methodologies and the frame 109 5.7 The floating frame 110 5.8 proXy 111 5.9 Eavesdrop 116 5.10 The structure and narrative of Eavesdrop 116 5.11 Layers of interaction 118 5.12 The stream-play 120 5.13 The immersive frame of Eavesdrop 122 5.14 Entering and exiting panoramic space 123 5.15 Post interactive version 124 5.16 Conversations 125 5.17 History of the project 126 5.18 From viewer to viewer / user 126 5.19 The phantasmagorical 129 5.20 Historical precedents 130 5.21 Field of views 131 5.22 Conclusion 132 6 Conclusion 136 7 Appendix 139 7.1 Documentation materials 139 7.2 Eavesdrop treatment and shooting script 140 vi 7.3 Information Architecture and Dramatic Scenarios for Conversations 188 7.4 Conversations shooting script 192 Bibliography 205 vii Acknowledgements Firstly, I would like to thank my supervisor Dennis Del Favero, without whose critical insight, support and editorial advice this dissertation would not have been completed. I would also like to thank the staff of the iCinema centre at the University of New South Wales for their support during the doctorate. The help of many others during the production and research for these projects and dissertation has been invaluable.