Concept Statement - Interview
How did you come up with the idea of your work?
For my first assignment, I chose the question on desire. I was extremely intrigued by this question as it forced me to think about desire in other ways than just in ‘terms of lacking’ something. The reason I came to COFA in the first place was to expand my creativity in the realms of film, so I thought there would be no better way for me to harness my own ability than to play to my strengths. However, my initial idea was to create a Rotoscoped animation, as I have recently learnt how to make those and I really loved the look of it. However, the timing was just too short to make one, and after my Rotoscoping assignment, I just didn’t have the strength to create it. Therefore, I’ve created a short, silent film with narration over the top. I have always liked the way that films look with narration over it instead of just regular dialogue. It almost has a ‘storybook’ type feel to it.
When I thought deeper about my question, I began to realize that desire is more like a journey than separate ideas and wants. Deleuze believes that when someone desires something, they desire an aggregate, so a whole bunch of things, and those desires will never be completely fulfilled. Through this I have made my own understanding. I believe that people can become obsessed with the idea of ‘desire’, and must constantly jump from one idea of desire to the next. Because of this, nothing will ever be achieved However, they will have created more experiences because they endeavored to achieve something. They will have a multitude of memories that they wouldn’t have had if they had not desired in the first place. I used this understanding as the basis of my film, creating a ‘journey’ for my main character.
When I think of a journey, I instantly through of Robert Frost’s poem ‘Stopping by the Woods on a Snowy Evening’, which speaks about Frost moving through life, which he described as a forest. I ran with this idea and incorporated it into my film. With this, I created two split narratives. I decided to have a girl desiring things through her laptop, such as friends, clothes, and even a holiday. But then I would have her dressed in a medieval cloak and searching through a forest. I then had to think about what I would have her search for, and it was hard to think of how to express desire in a way that would be understood in regards to this assignment. So, I used the red origami balls that I made for my poster for the first part of this assignment. I felt like these would be a nice link between the two assignments.
And how do you believe you have addressed the question?
Well, I think my work connects with the question as they both talk about the different experiences of desire.
Desire has often been conceived in terms of a lack: we desire what we lack, and we move endlessly (and impossibly) towards the object of desire. Against this notion, Gilles Deleuze conceives desire as a constructive force: desire produces its own objects. Taking up this idea of desire as a constructive, creative, productive activity, consider art and design practices as ways of exploring the possibilities of desire.
When Gilles Deleuze says that ‘desire produces it’s own objects’ I have taken this in my film and expressed it as desire creating it’s own memories and experiences. In the end, I have the girl find a new friend, and through that I’m showing that desire can lead us to find people and experiences that we would have never had without it. In the beginning I found it very difficult to think of desire in any other regards than in terms of ‘lack’, however now I understand that it can be much more than that. There are many possibilities of desire, and I showed in my film that it can be both destructive and constructive. When the main character cannot find anything else to desire, she panics at first, but then she realizes that she has memories (in her basket) that she can treasure instead.
How could you expand your work?
Many ideas were generated from this assignment, as I have stated above. I can now understand that desire can not only be about lacking something, but it can be about striving for something, trying to make ourselves better to achieve that desire. Desire also creates new experiences, and these experiences would never have happened without desiring in the first place. I definitively want to expand this assignment and create an animation for it, as I would have more freedom with everything. In regards to my ideas, I believe they could expand through what is gained and what is lost when someone desires something. I could delve more into the political aspect of Deleuze’s work, which I am extremely interested in.
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