After the conversation with Jim, another idea that came to me was to record how I made the mod roc models. Perhaps recording it will show the energy that is used to make the models, ripping after the mod roc. I also recorded the sounds that were being made with the Zoom H5. It felt very out of my comfort zone as I don't normally work with video and sound but it was really interesting to hear the process through the mic. The sounds that were being picked up were so intense and increase the experience for me. It was definitely a different sensation, listening to an enhanced sound of the wet mod roc. It didn't really make me uncomfortable because I was hearing it while feeling the material but watching it afterwards I can understand how it could be 'gross' to hear. However, with the video and the noise it made me want to experiment more with the mod roc, like I wanted to touch it through the video. I decided to do an above shot of the recording because I didn't want myself to influence or have any connotation to the video. I wanted it to just be about the mod roc. Also being inspired by Bruce Nauman and his piece 'Falls, Pratfalls and Sleights of Hands (Clean Version)' where the video only focuses on the hands movement. When I was recording the wet mod roc, I thought was what it would feel, look and sound like if I were to experiment and play with mod roc when it had dried. The models that I made before, were much larger and also more sturdier but will slowly start to fall apart but what if I intentionally crumbled it? The sounds that were made were completely different, being able to hear the pieces fall and hit the plastic and how it crumbled was a different experience. It really interests me that a material could feel so different in different states. Thinking back to the presentation this expands on how I want people to view my experiences of mod roc for what it is, here in the video seeing the opposing sides of mod roc, the wet and dry.
Figure 1: Mod Roc Experiment Process Video
(Source: Yi Ting Liong, 2021)
After the process, I threw the model away which felt very strange to me. In a way it was therapeutic. After going through the process of an experiment and then throwing what's left was something I wasn't used to. Whats interesting if that this particular experiment of mod roc allowed me to really focus on being in the moment in the process and once it was done, move on to the next experiment. Also focusing in the moment because the next experience will have a different outcome (in terms of model) and also different experience because it depended on the energy that was being put in. Thinking back to what Jim said about the truth to the material, what am I doing and why am I doing it, this process was showing mod roc as itself both wet and dry and not trying to manipulate it into a particular shape. Also another huge learning curve was that I found it really difficult to find which video was linked to which sound file. Definitely the next time I will need to be more organised and state at the beginning of both files which experiment it is to help when linking the files together.
Figure 2 - 4: Model After Process
(Source: Yi Ting Liong, 2021)
In the video below, I tried playing around with the film, zooming into different areas of the video to highlight certain parts. I used a mixture of Premier Pro and After Effects to split the video into four sections, although the video became very pixelated. There are definitely many different layouts that I could try and play around with, however I'm also thinking that a simple layout would be more ideal as I want to show the process for what it is. However another way would be to show what I find interesting in the process, going back to the question that was raise of why and why am I doing. Maybe I could try and re-film zooming into a section for the next experiment.
Figure 5: Experimenting with Video 1
(Source: Yi Ting Liong, 2021)
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