Final Project---SELF-DEVOURER

Review of "The Refusal of Time"

"The refusal of time"  of William kentridge' s art work in Metropolitan Museum. 

The exhibition was in a small room surrounded with screens. The screens were full of the walls. In the center of the room, there was a machine. I don't really know the name of that machine, but it seems like a time machine. The structure of it is like the layers in piano. Go Up and down. There was a full size big screen in front of the viewers. And two big screens which combined with a few little screens on left and right side. The video started from the first screen from the right side, a man walkes through the screens till the last one. There were different scenes like family dinner time, signs, 3D mess drawing , map, clock and book with texts. Also black white shadow in people form reflected about history. 

I enjoyed the whole exhibition, when I was watching the show I was very into it. I guess that's because when people in the small room, the sound effect was great and strong and those screens were full of the walls, no matter where you were looking at , the exhibition was around you. It made me cannot district. The design is very smart. Of course, the show was very attractive. I think the best part of the exhibition is that each screen is unexpected, each of them were different but related. Although there were different scenes, seemed not in same topic, like the sketched people, the book map, the map symbol, the slaves. Somehow, after the whole show they seems related as a story. The connection of each of them may be the repeat scenes. Actually, it's hard to tell what story exactly the show wants to express, but the TIME concept of non-linear is very strong. 

The Refusal Of Time

Memento

“ I have to believe my actions still have meaning"

"I have to believe when my eyes are closed, the world still there..."

I love this movie and I really enjoyed watching it. I though I never watched it before, but somehow, when I watch this I felt I know some scenes. I guess I must have seen this movie with my family when I was little, but It is like a blurring memory.

Talking about blurring memory, I like how this movie works. Leonard, the main actor uses hand-written notes, tattoos, and Polaroid photos to catch his memory. But from the movie, I can see that if the memories is not right, what’s the point to record them. He did remember and forget lots of times, and he tattooed just in case he forgot. but he likes to lie to himself (maybe not on purpose). He was not remember the right thing. He is lost but he still so sure about everything— that is the terrible part. Leonard believes everything in his mind, but he's sick, even till the end of the movie, after he doubting if the world he lived was real, he believed he's right. 

I like how this movie arranged, the order and cut is amazing. I like how memories show on photos and body, and all of them are messed up, when I thought I got the answer, things changed again. Even the ending is still confusing, there are so many guesses for this movies. In addition to this, the scenes with two parts- black and white, with colors. It helps the visual view of messed memory pieces. Black and white presents memory which likely all movies does. But in this movies, the colored part seems like to find the answer for the black and white part, but it is also talks about memories in this part. I think this is a key reason why this whole movie is so effective.

I think the concept of labyrinth in this movie is obvious-- seems disordered, non-linear, endless ending, different colored scenes, and un clearly evidences. (tattoos, photos)Also, the people in the phone, who is so mysterious that no one knows who it is. All those 

elements makes this movie very enjoyable, and you want to watch this again and again to see the right answer.

However, I do not think there is a right answer for this. Maybe he is the murder, maybe he is not sick or maybe the world is not real...

Because of many unknowns in this movie, the concept of labyrinth really worked.

"Circular Ruins" and "Library of Babel” —Jorge Luis Borges

The Circular Ruins

In this short story, the man keeps dreaming another man’s life, everything has no clue at the beginning of the story, which just shows different scenes in the dream, but it makes sense till the end. The dreamer uses different dreams to create another human being, when he thought he had finished the task, he found out that he is just a fictional human in other’s dream. I think this what “circular” means in Labyrinth.

This story reminds me of “parallel universe ”, which means there is another me in the parallel universe. After I reading the article, I feel as same as after I reading the article about parallel universe. Like everything I see, or I touch is so unreal. Because, you thought you know where is the beginning and the end in your life, but actually you do not know, you just in the labyrinth where had no end. There is always another you in the universe.

This is why I really like the short story, it confusing every details, messed up and then, put them together, everything makes sense. However, the result still like a dream, an unreal truth, like a labyrinth.

Library of Babel

This short story talks about if humans lives in a library and each of them has a book, which is their fate. The fate has already set, and after they died, the fate will repeat for another human being. 

The labyrinth that Jorge Luis Borges described in this story is like a repeating loop. The human in the same book have the same life. It is like a rule, a circular rule. I think the interesting part in this story is to control a human’s life, and ask him to live in the labyrinth. I like Jorge’s creative imagination, if I did not read story like this, I would never thought a world could be metaphor as a library.

Comparing by this two stories, I like “The circular Ruins” more, because it kind gives me more inspiration for my project. I like how things is so confusing at first then everything has an answer. Or no answer, which gives more room for readers to image, to feel the unreal in their real life. 

Fiction Project

There should have people introduce in the background sound, but somehow I could not find the one with the sound, seems my laotop lost the file. I will upload the one with the narrative people sound if I can find it.

Storyboard -Kishi and Olivia