Final Studio work 2012 - Part One

In the end, the room was completely black inside unless the curtain was opened. All you could do when inside was focus on the breathing.  As I experienced the work myself, I felt something that I hadn't counted on, which was the sense that the boundary between my body and the space around me disappeared. The blackness of the room created an encounter where the audience and the space became one, where you were the breath. 

It was also a strange, almost nauseating feeling, since I found it hard to balance my body properly due to the sensory deprivation. I am not sure how I feel about this still, but it is something I could potentially explore in future works. Sensory deprivation- how the body reacts and copes with it. 

The video below is a documentation of the breathing being played inside the room. Unconscious, automatic breathing. 

Contextual Statement 2012

"In the past few months my practice has taken an intense interest in the human body, breathing in particular. I am drawn to all aspects of it, the movement it generates through us, the sound, the rhythm, the beat. I enjoy the thought that my audience may fall into conscious breathing when experiencing my work, to take notice of the air coming in and the breath going out.

Capturing the essence of breath through sound/light/image, and with it altering or creating a space. Whether it be a room or only a portion of it. To at least for a moment make way for awareness in the audiences experience with their own breathing. By modifying or creating a space where the audience can be a part of rather than look from the outside in on, I am able to open the doors into a deeper experience: where not noticing the air entering and leaving the viewers body becomes almost impossible, and the choice of breathing together or alone rises before them. Can a synchronisation between spectator and work take place? How does each work affect the body?

By way of sensory deprivation the audience can do nothing but focus on their own individuality, their own breathing and from there an endless cloud of questions and ideas can emerge: the first breath, the last breath, the lack of breath, the breath we take every day. ‘The focus is less on writing and on the present moment as always already passed (a lament), but on experience, and on the present moment as the product of a particular type of encounter (an analysis.)”^1"

^{Josie Do Nizza (2012)}

Ann Veronica Janssens

 I started looking into sense deprivation when thinking about cutting out all the light inside the room, making the space pitch black so as to focus solely on the breathing playing from speakers. I came across Ann Veronica Janssens Mists of Immediacy on www.installationart.net, and instantly thought of my own work.

Mist of Immediacy is an installation inside a glass cube room containing coloured mist that envelops the audience numbing all the senses. 

"I was standing in nothingness. Blissful, bright, and totally opaque was the space that surrounded me, and that dimmed all sound. Where was I? In a strong literal sense, nowhere. I saw nothing, with my eyes wide open. But whereas the idea of nothing is usually associated with darkness, the dense, impenetrable mist packed into the space, whose limits I could not even guess"

Mieke Bal - Art historial and theorist.

http://www.installationart.net/Chapter2Immersion/immersion03.html

Popped Balloon

On a cold Tuesday morning, I woke up at 5 am to go to the studio in order to film a video inside my almost finished room in a room. The balloon was capable of blowing up to 80cm wide. I had decided to film myself blowing it up with my own breath until the side of the balloon touched the walls of the room. I had to be in the studio by my self so no one would make sounds that would be recorded in the video. This is how that wonderful morning turned out. 

Josie Do Nizza. 2012. Fail.

Room inside a room

I have began building a room inside my studio to play around with sound and projections inside it for my final work of this year. I decided to build a room due to what happened in the year 2 exhibition 'Hairy Sunrise', where my sound work was inaudible. I want to create a room where the audience can come into and experience the sound or projection in a private, intimate place. Hopefully I will be able to make it sound proof in order to block out all sounds that are not coming from inside the room, thus surrounding the spectator with senses. 

Mike Parr

"The idea is that you adjust, you kind of get into synch with me and that the film show you coming into synch with me as an aspect of the point of the work"

- Mike Parr (about 100 Breaths) 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nw0xv__mokY

Breath & Body

I have recently started paying closer attention to the actual sound of breath. On its own rather than accompanied by something else. The video below is a simple documentation of conscious breathing. 

Josie Do Nizza. 2012. Breathing

I also wanted to experiment with other body generated sounds, subtle ones. The sounds which require close attention in other to hear, just like breathing. 

Josie Do Nizza. 2012. Swallow