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The Modern Antiquarian Forum » Museum Film Installations |
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AndrewC 3 posts |
Nov 04, 2008, 20:55
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Hello, I wondered if anyone could help me please. I am currently writing up a paper on the usage of film installations in some museums – particularly the ones that operate on a loop. For two of my case studies, I am looking at the three-screened film installation (in front of the Andy Goldsworthy clay wall) at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, and a looped film at the National Museum and Galleries of Wales in Cardiff. Very broadly, both attempt to inform – or create a story/experience of the prehistoric past. I have obtained some feedback from people on site in the museums – but I wondered if anyone out there had any thoughts or comments on their experiences of watching the films or being near them in the museum space that they would be willing to share. I don’t really want to lead any comments, but I suppose I am interested to see if people feel that the movies ‘work’. Do they create a sense of the past? Does the fact that the films run on a loop alienate spectators? Does standing near other people influence decision making or the experience of the piece? Just a few quick fire questions – but I’d love to read any thoughts or comments that people have. If I used any comments, I would of course fully reference the writer with their real name or Net handle – which ever people prefer. Or I could leave it anonymous. I just think it is good to incorporate what some people actually believe, rather than just making generalised statements. Thank you for checking this out. Best wishes, Andrew Cochrane.
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tiompan 5758 posts |
Nov 04, 2008, 21:19
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AndrewC wrote: Hello, I wondered if anyone could help me please. I am currently writing up a paper on the usage of film installations in some museums – particularly the ones that operate on a loop. For two of my case studies, I am looking at the three-screened film installation (in front of the Andy Goldsworthy clay wall) at the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh, and a looped film at the National Museum and Galleries of Wales in Cardiff. Very broadly, both attempt to inform – or create a story/experience of the prehistoric past. I have obtained some feedback from people on site in the museums – but I wondered if anyone out there had any thoughts or comments on their experiences of watching the films or being near them in the museum space that they would be willing to share. I don’t really want to lead any comments, but I suppose I am interested to see if people feel that the movies ‘work’. Do they create a sense of the past? Does the fact that the films run on a loop alienate spectators? Does standing near other people influence decision making or the experience of the piece? Just a few quick fire questions – but I’d love to read any thoughts or comments that people have. If I used any comments, I would of course fully reference the writer with their real name or Net handle – which ever people prefer. Or I could leave it anonymous. I just think it is good to incorporate what some people actually believe, rather than just making generalised statements. Thank you for checking this out. Best wishes, Andrew Cochrane. Hello Andrew , I'm sure that some people here may have seen one or both of the films but for those that havn't is there any way of seeing them on the web . That might help provide feedback on at least the films if not the "museum experience " .
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AndrewC 3 posts |
Nov 04, 2008, 21:29
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Hello - that's a good point! I'll have a quick look now. But mainly for this particular paper I am interested in how the films work within the context of the museum space. But certainly beyond that, it would also be fascinating to find out if they maybe work better on laptops, phones, PDAs etc. The location probably does affect the reception of the films... Best again, Andrew.
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Stoneshifter 379 posts |
Nov 04, 2008, 21:58
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I'm used to these more in the context of gallery space - where a lot of thought has gone into designing the experience to be as full as possible. Sometimes there's a little viewing area, like in the Cornerhouse, in Manchester, with a little simple bench to sit on. At the Baltic, in Gateshead, at the moment, there's an installation by Steve McQueen where you need to get through a very large pitch black large room - one of the attendants has a torch - to enter a small space where there's a 16mm projector playing a film loop. One test of these installations are how long the images last in one's imagination and that comes down more to the power of the image rather than to the surroundings. (My lasting perception of McQueen's image of a dead horse was of being cheated - of my time and energy). We've been well trained to suspend reality, in a cinema, and can enter and leave that state quite easily. Dark spaces help to engage one more emotionally, certainly. There was a shop in Newcastle, down a back lane, that had a blanked out window with circles cut out that people could peer through and watch short video loops. I was the only person that seemed to watch them - it was on the way to the bank - and I used to push postcards through the door telling them this. 'I am your viewer and it's crap'. The shop next door, where I've shopped for 35 years confirmed it and the Little Jewel Cinema has now closed. But it wasn't a museum - it was a video installation gallery. In a museum there is less attention to control visitors' perceptions. The video images there are perhaps more decorative and less 'invasive'. I've never seen a prehistoric film show and the strongest moving images I can recall from a museum are in the Liverpool Maritime Museum. Are they in the lifts? Museums seem to be characterised by static exhibits - or at least those I visit. The centre for film and photography, in Bradford, is a museum, in some ways, and has a 70mm screen.
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sam 151 posts |
Nov 04, 2008, 23:57
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I've seen the one in Cardiff - at least I have if it is the one that was on when they did the architecture of death. My main problem with the film (and in fact all the ones I've seen) are that they are an attempt to make museums all modern and exciting, whereas what I actually want is to see more "stuff". The one at Cardiff did have pictures of tombs, and it was fun to do the "been there" game. Overall though I don't think it added anything to the subject for beginners - just a load of pictures - nor to the more knowledgeable visitors, so not really much point. I find ones with sound particularly annoying - they distract me as I go round, and if you spend a while in one room, there is only so many times that you can hear the same spiel without wanting to kill the kid that keeps pressing the buttons to make it play. Basically, I want less films and interaction, and more old things. I went to Kents Cavern, and then to the Torquay museum to see some of the 15,000 finds there. Except that the museum doesn't have them on display - they have films, and they have copies of the type of skis that some explorers might have used on an expedition. One that did help was the one at the Hunebedden centre - showed the importance of boulders. As someone from the Peak District, stones don't really seem that important (you don't go "oh, look a stone") - but if you live in Holland, anything that isn't sand is pretty important. And my mum liked the film in the Rocs aux Sorciers in Poitou-Charentes. So some films can be good. My opinion - not really a huge fan of films... hope that helps sam
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VenerableBottyBurp 675 posts |
Nov 06, 2008, 14:34
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What an interesting subject to research! Two contrasting examples linked in other ways would be the loop of Alexander Keiller in the Great Barn at Avebury, which appears to draw young people through its flickering images and sounds, plus the nearby interactive displays. The loop itself is a taster and gives a flavour of historic faces and movement, a theatre of pastness transported to the present. The screen situation is more a modern 'What the butler saw' than a cinema screen, the space around it has a cosy intimate atmosphere despite being in a huge barn. Having witnessed groups watching the show on several occasions it is reminiscent of those crowding round the only TV in a street when England won the World Cup Final in 1966. In comparison no-one seemed that interested in the add-on 'telly' stuck on a jutting wall in Salisbury & South Wilts Museum for the recent Stonehengeania exhibition, where priceless moving images were aired at an uncomfortable height and angle on a smart modern LCD (I think), and the loop so long and laboured it was dissuasive of watching all the loop had to offer. Admittedly I only visited it once, but did watch the whole loop which no-one else did whilst I was there. Can understand why, the Orwell ‘Winston Smith experience’ TV wall didn’t work well. That exhibition has moved to Chippenham and then goes to Devizes so it will be interesting to see if it improves depending on the surrounds. You might contact the curators at each place and ask if they had any feedback. BTW If you put your email address on here people might mail you with stuff they don't want to air on the web.
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ocifant 1758 posts |
Nov 07, 2008, 08:35
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There's a brief loop at the entrance to the 'London before London' gallery in the Museum of London at the Barbican that might be of interest. It attempts to show the growth of 'London' from the Mesolithic through to (I think, from memory) Roman times. Quite interesting and attention grabbing - it's a large wall installation right at the entrance to the gallery. A nice open space, with a small bench, it gives a good background introduction to the contents of the gallery - putting it all into context so to speak. I've not found it on their web site yet, but it might be there.
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VenerableBottyBurp 675 posts |
Nov 07, 2008, 10:11
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Having been asked what a 'what the butler saw machine' was, I evidently need to clarify that what I intended to convey was the way folk gathered round an end of the pier machine or arcade machine, or pinball machine; waiting their go and looking on whilst someone else was in charge of/having a go on the machine. It was communal, participatory, whereas the wall telly was an advertising hoarding and didn't engender the same reaction. It was not what was on the screen but they way it was conveyed and managed in the space that seemed to attract.
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