The visit poem and work

art direction blog

My poem of choice was 'The Visit' by Jenny Bornholdt. 

You approach the world with open arms and hope it wants you.

Hope to be asked in to sit amongst the fine furniture. 

The world is busy and polite and believes in independence. 

You want to make friends, be boisterous. 

You'd expected something a little more gregarious but you'll 

take a photo anyway to show your friends. 

Here it is. Here's the world on a good day, turned slightly 

away, but this is no offence, merely the sun was
in its eyes and it turned briefly to avoid being blinded by it.
Waiting Shelter (Victoria University Press. 1991) 

What resonated with me was the beginning line of the poem, "You approach the world with open arms and hope it wants you." Reading this poem and that line in particular made me think about leaving home, being independent, fitting into new environments and getting a job in the real world after uni ends. 

Growing up, being an adult, and finding my place in the world were things i pondered. 

My initial ideas for addressing the brief involved fitting in, or wanting to fit in. I thought about being an introvert and shying away from social interactions. What do they do in these situations? Put their hands in their pockets is the first thing i thought of. but more in a sheepish shy way, not confidently.

I made these sketches early on to try generate ideas, and thought about how people want to fit into society or a new environment but are introverted and close themselves in, and how they should pull their hands out of their pockets and put themselves out there. I chose 'fit in' to be my word.

Feedback i got included looking at photography of angst, anxiety, unease, uncertainty and apprehension. Also to look at hands in pockets photos.

Going forward i listed a few things i do with my hands in social situations.

• cover my mouth/ rest face on hands.
• Put hands in pants pocket/hoodie pocket
• click/crack fingers
• scratch
• look at phone

I then filmed my first iteration of this idea. I thought i would film it at uni because it is a social learning environment and was new environment for me and every other student at one point of their lives.

After these initial attempts i tried another scenario where i was in an elevator with another person.

 

My intent for this once again was to have the actor (me) in an environment where i could engage in conversation but choose to act like i have something more interesting on my phone and in doing so, closing myself off to a potential new connection.

To introduce my word into the video my idea for this elevator scene was that the floor level letters would be replaced with the letters for my word, and they would change every few seconds. I made a quick sketch and a screenshot mockup from the video i filmed including this concept.

Feedback for this iteration.

• Have at least 3 different scenes of social encounters
• The anticipation at the start waiting for the elevator is good
• Try reverse the role, follow the main actor/person through the different scenes.
• Having the text being subtle is good
• Averting attention
• Does the other person react the same way? 
• Awkward human truth, using social media to escape from real life situations.

After feedback i looked at what other situations i could film.

• Passing by someone on street you sort of know
• sitting at bus stop/bench
• walking into lecture/class and you don't know anyone

I then filmed a series of situations, one sitting at a bench, one walking to block 12, one getting in and out of the elevator and one getting a seat in class. I filmed these on snapchat as it was easy to prototype, but i thought it was appropriate to use social media to film this word being spelt

Feedback

• Understated but gets the point across
• Type/text moving seems to give the word/letters a life of its own
• Crop in on the lift and class shots. 
• Try having the main person hesitant to interact with other person in class at end
• Where will i watch it? On phone. Snapchat story for friends/followers to see.

Re shoot based on feedback