Time vs Control
Weyni Kahsay Documentary
The footage of the cloud was taken about a year ago, I wasn’t sure what I would be using it for I just knew I had to take the video. It was a time lapse video taken on my iPhone. I have a thing for clouds, I have always been fascinated by them. They are constantly changing, so I never get bored watching them transform. I especially love watching sunsets on a cloudy day. It is amazing to observe the colors continually evolve against a plethora of clouds. Anyways, one day I was driving home from school. Once I parked in my driveway, to my right there were a bunch of clouds and in the middle of it was a huge space. It seemed as if they were all trying to meet in the middle. So I pulled out my phone, set it on the hood of my car and started recording, I wasn’t sure how long it was going to take, but I would've stayed outside for half an hour just to record the clouds until they met up in the center. The wood telephone poles and their wires were markers of far they have actually moved. They were markers of time. The process felt therapeutic and meditative. It made me feel relaxed.
The second footage is a video of a friend of mine with her long ponytail. Everytime she would wear this specific hairstyle I would be in awe. Represented Movement, it felt indestructible, strong, powerful. I took the video of her whipping her hair, but I never knew what I was going to create with it.
These two footages naturally came together complementing one another visually and conceptually.Since these two footages compliment one another. It felt that it was only right to have them side by side. This project represents Time vs control. Hair looks like it is controlling her and she’s trying to gain control of her hair. How much time do we have and how much of it is spent on trying to gain control of something you have no control over. I think it is important to move with intent, and not to focus on how things should be perfect by trying to control every little detail. You become free, releasing yourself from that expectation. Everything was not planned out, the footages ahead of time. The cloud footage was an archive from a year ago. Once I put the footages together and I started working with the leap motion I knew exactly how I wanted to look.
I have previous knowledge with the software and hardware. I enjoy video editing in premiere and I translated that into performance live editing video footage. This is my second piece that I have used the leap motion detector in creating my work. The main challenge that I encountered was using the Leap Motion. Leap Motion is a bit tricky if you’re trying to gain complete control over how you want the images to play at a particular moment. You kind of have to make an imaginary grid/axis in your mind to understand what video will play with what type of edit or filter when you place your hand above the detector.
I do plan on expanding on this piece. When I continue working on this piece, I plan to have four screens 2 screens across from one another.
