The aura and its appropriation
Project Halo inquires into the problem of the appropriation of the aura of the work of art. If I seriously consider reproducing something as ephemeral as the aura supposedly is, I would conclude it to be impossible. Nevertheless, I believe it is possible to get near it, or to approximate it, and such goal-directed manipulation can result in an encounter with a different — post–produced — art work, keeping its genuine here and now. I decided to select an iconic artifact, a well-known painting, and then to employ as the method of its reproduction a time-based medium such as film and video, superimposing it with an established cinematic optical special effect. The project thus interlinks two cultural patterns: the image and the effect. The definition of the aura of the work of art originates in the influential essay by Walter Benjamin The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936), where aura is designated as the here and now of the genuine work, the unique moment of the encounter of a viewer with the physical artifact. In his text, Benjamin carefully avoids any potential doubts concerning the usefulness of the word. In his earlier texts he used this word in a more “lyrical” and metaphorical sense, as compared to his later theory of the reproduction of original work of art. Most interpretations of aura I find in dictionaries
and encyclopedias do not mention Benjamin’s theory and differ in its explications. What prevails is the relation to the aureola or
mandorla, or halo — iconographical symbols of the sacred, and it is this misinterpretation, that inspired the title of my project. I decided to join the crowd the of adepts of Art and try to appropriate the iconic artwork of Modernism – the Malevich painting Black some research on how to achieve the dolly zoom effect without the dolly. The nature of the dolly zoom requires
a short sequence of less then 30 seconds. While testing the version of the render, I stretched the time to a two-minute sequence and the effect remained. Watching the sequence, after 20 seconds the viewer is able to follow the transforming perspective of the zooming camera. I decided, for the speed of the zoom, to change to an approximation of a walking speed, which is
the speed originally intended by Roberts. While the ideal version represents an entirely “virtual” image, the image projected from the super 8 mm film is a “direct” light, capture of the real situation of the painting. I limited the technical parameters to a minimum and did not concern myself with formal perfection, instead accepting what the analogue film camera produced.
- Behind us you'll find the exhibition00:00:11.117
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- of Jan Brož, a talented student00:00:15.294
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- at the Academy of Fine Arts.00:00:18.465
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- He's the author of an unusual project00:00:21.743
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- dealing with important issues00:00:25.924
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- in connection with interpretation00:00:29.374
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- and mediation of artworks and their aura.00:00:33.072
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- The most interesting work for me00:00:37.838
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- is situated right by the entrance.00:00:41.168
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- It is a video depicting an important artwork00:00:44.459
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- of the 20th century00:00:49.339
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- in quite an adventurous way.00:00:52.320
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- It was shot with a camera...00:00:55.884
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- - What camera was it? - A Super 8.00:00:59.188
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- Jan used in the video a certain method00:01:02.890
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- known from Hitchcock's movies.00:01:06.079
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- Yes, the dolly zoom,00:01:09.073
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- a film effect invented in the 50's.00:01:12.073
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- It works as an emotional catalyst.00:01:15.538
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- The camera sits on a dolly,00:01:19.038
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- hence the dolly zoom,00:01:22.016
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- and it moves back while zooming in.00:01:24.516
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- It's a "counter-zoom".00:01:27.942
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- It makes the scene look more dramatic,00:01:31.100
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- that's why it's used in horror movies.00:01:34.510
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- It puts emphasis on the foreground,00:01:38.146
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- which is Malevich's "Black Square" in this case.00:01:41.520
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- And that's the point.00:01:45.595
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- It's a two-dimensional work00:01:48.095
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- dramatized using a three-dimensional catalyst.00:01:51.428
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- And, in fact, the Black Square00:01:55.612
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- is not two-dimensional at all00:01:58.612
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- because it implies a third dimension.00:02:01.728
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- That's how Malevich thought about it.00:02:05.104
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- And the effect allows the viewer00:02:08.473
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- to see this third dimension, this black hole.00:02:10.973