Project 3 -Life and the quest for happiness

What is happiness and how do we obtain it?

 

In an age where things matter and how much money we have defines our social status, happiness often seems to take the back seat to the all important task of living and making money.

 

Who is happy?

I intend to explore the happiness of people of all classes, from rich to poor in the hope of finding a constant source of happiness. Is it the same for everybody, or is it different?

 

If people aren’t happy what causes this?

On the flipside, what is it that causes sadness or maybe just a lack of happiness? Lack of money? Other people’s expectations?

 

Does getting what one wants make them happy, or just give them fleeting joy? And does pursuing “things” and money make people happy if they manage to obtain them?

 

Is finding happiness through a sense of purpose the goal of religion?

 

What is happiness and how do we obtain it? 

Final product

As I said in the last post the choice of music was to create a somber undertone, hinting at more than the eye can see. A further experience into a separate world of perception.

a movie

Here is my movie sans sound.
I have realised that using still photos wasn't the best choice, it turned out a touch like a glorified slideshow.
Live and learn.
I won't be trying that again until my understanding of cinematics and moving media is somewhat improved.
The concept I had aimed for has been achieved however, and the remote experience is what I had aimed for.
The soundtrack I am adding will be one of Nine Inch Nails creative commons tracks (one off his ghosts album) as this track is somewhat dark and ominous, contrasting with the footage and hopefully increasing the effect of having an unreal "expanded" experience. I hope to imply a darker undertone using sound, which would otherwise be impossible with the sunny "footage".

macro "footage"

Here are some of the closeup pictures.

Some of my "footage" (panoramas and landscape)

As I have been in the US for the last few weeks, I took my footage while I was over there.
I have taken a range of photos to use in my project, and have stiched together some huge panoramas (one of them consists of 20 photos, four high and 5 wide, heh the photoshop file was 1.44 gigs and 17000 by 6000 pixels!).

here is the 20 image panorama I will be using:




And a not quite so big one:



And another:



here is a photo I took of reflections in the pond (it was a relatively long exposure so has some interesting wave patterns):

Project two, concept.

Scale

intimate perceptions of a broad space.

In our daily life we see only what is relatively similar in size to ourselves.

I'm interested in exploring space in a much more intimate manner, not just brushing over what we would usually see, but delving deeper into experiencing both the much smaller and much larger details which would usually be out of our field of view.

The setting for this would be in a natural environment, where there is plenty of detail, both huge and small, such as a forest.

As technology is able to bring this site to audiences who would be otherwise be unable to view it, taking a larger than everyday life scope to it feels quite natural. What I mean by this is that technology is ever increasing our ability to perceive, understand and experience things which we usually wouldn't, or couldn't, so an online experience of a site might as well be much larger than an everyday glance.

I will take the notion that the viewers are experiencing a space they usually wouldn’t further by showing more detail than even a person who is walking through the sight would notice or perceive.

I will express this using still photography, which I will then animate through various means. The subject matter will be extreme macro and wide-angle shots of my chosen location, which represent it in a much wider way than is “normal” experience.

http://www.benthejack.com/ablackandgreymatter

this is my website link, I have gone for a simple website layout, In an effort not to detract attention from the video content.
I ended up putting all three of my videos on the site, (I had thought I might just put up the first and third) as I decided that the lack of audio in the second iteration achieved quite a different effect, and it is worthwhile to watch before the third .