Re: suggestions? : sensory overload

From: Leo Cardoso (email suppressed)
Date: Sun Jan 24 2010 - 01:10:57 PST


i understand 'sensory overload' in the art context as a specific term that
may be used simply to define a work that uses audio/visual stimuli to induce
body exhaustion/trance/annoyance/daze (depending on the context and
creator's/receiver's intention). the more immersed the body is, the more
effective the overload is. part of it is cognitive (data being processed by
the brain), part of it is culturally situated (consciously-selected data to
be processed). this reasoning encourages the creator to use more
abstract-like sound and visuals, as these may concentrate and dissipate the
receiver's perception, decreasing predictability and augmenting overload
potential. throughout its history, the field of visual music offers
interesting cases.

Scot Artford's 'Static Room <http://www.7hz.org/projects/sr/movie.html>' is
a good example of a piece working with sensory overload (especially when
watched at the CineChamber, with 10 projected screens surrounding you and
insanely loud sound that require ear plugs).

best,

leoC

On Thu, Jan 21, 2010 at 6:36 PM, floresgb <email suppressed> wrote:

> Even conventional filmmaking can overload your senses, war (or other
> topics on violence) documentaries can make you vomit, pornography films can
> make you come, and amazing films like Night and Fog for example can
> “transport you” to “spaces” you rather not visit. On the other hand not
> every installation or film projected on a gallery can effectively immerse
> the audience. 3-D at times looks as flat and fake as a cartoon on a cereal
> box.
> Cheers,
> Beatriz
>
>
>
> On 1/19/10 2:02 PM, "su b" <email suppressed> wrote:
>
> Tony,
> Thanks for the punctuation.
> I have been wondering about the relevance of gesamtkunstwerk in this
> discussion, and the distinction that probably needs to be made between
> overload and immersion. 'Cinema' has perhaps moved away from total
> immersion by retaining a frontal dualistic visual sonic space, (well
> until the corporate rise of '3D', that is). So, is it the gallery that
> has remained the location/home for broader understandings of sensory
> experiences? Films in galleries often retain that sense of
> illegality... or at least of inhabiting spaces where they shouldn't...
>
> Su Ballard (Dunedin, Aotearoa, NZ)
>
>
>
> On 19/01/2010, at 5:40 PM, Tony Conrad wrote:
>
> > Please stop!
> >
> > This is not a sensible topic.
> >
> > "Overload" originates in 1) electronics and 2) mechanics or law, and
> > the usages
> > in these two areas already contradict one another. An electrical
> > circuit can be
> > said to include a "load", and if it's "overloaded" it draws too much
> > power and
> > burns up. But senses can't meaningfully be "overloaded" in this way,
> > since there
> > is no power drain associated with the viewer and the film is
> > certainly not going
> > to burn up.
> >
> > A mechanical system may on the other hand be overloaded if the
> > strain on it is
> > too great and the system snaps. Also, in legal terms a vehicle, for
> > instance, may
> > be over loaded with people or personal possessions: a condition
> > defined by its
> > potential for an accident (arising directly or indirectly from the
> > condition),
> > which is prevented by the police.
> >
> > "Sensory overload" is a metaphorical invocation of the viewer's
> > sensory pathways
> > as circuits (not as mechanical systems or pickup trucks), but the
> > metaphor only
> > works if the term is also understood as implying some kind of
> > excessive strain
> > toward a breaking limit, or as tempting accidental and incidental
> > damage -- with
> > an implicit sense of illegality.
> >
> > This sort of stew -- a confusion of semi-contradictory but in each
> > sense somehow
> > vivid metaphorical relationships -- is what makes trashy criticism
> > exciting. But
> > don't try to extract a coherent critical category out of this mess.
> > If you do,
> > the latent contradictions rapidly infect your discourse, and we get
> > what has
> > happened here: an "overloaded" discussion of a term that is itself
> > "overloaded,"
> > where "sensory" overload has turned to "sense" overload.
> >
> > --------t0ny
> >
> >
> >
> > On Mon 01/18/10 5:45 PM , Myron Ort email suppressed sent:
> >> In 1968, the era of psychedelic light shows at concerts, the
> >> popularity of underground cinemas showing all kinds of unusual
> >> experimental films , concerts by John Cage et al, "happenings"
> >> etc , given that context "Cut Ups" doesn't seem that far out to
> >> me in
> >> the "overload" sense, however, it is a very good film, perhaps even
> >> a pioneering film, and one that I certainly would have been excited
> >> about in 1968 (as I am now), since some us were clamoring for that
> >> kind of thing back then. So I take it, we are maybe searching for a
> >> "term" which might describe such a narratively "non
> >> linear" approach and this is what you (and others?) are
> >> designating "sensory
> >> overload"? Would there not be several other alternatives terms?
> >> "Overload" has this "I can't take it --too much man! my
> >> head will explode!" connotation which, I guess, Is what I am
> >> objecting to. Cut
> >> Ups, through an approach to montage (collage) breaks up (disjoints)
> >> otherwise "figurative/narrative/continuous" type recognizable
> >> shots and reassembles them with a type of "musicality" instead.
> >> Its a
> >> musical! An experimental film "musical". Is that the term we
> >> are looking for? ha ha ha. smiley face, etc.
> >>
> >> Myron Ort
> >>
> >>
> >> On Jan 18, 2010, at 1:11 PM, Jack Sargeant wrote:
> >>
> >>> I'm pretty sure Cut-Ups is on Ubuweb or
> >> Youtube.>
> >>> OK, by sensory overload in this instance I mean
> >> that the film uses > image and sound in such a way as to break any
> >> notion of coherence, > so that, watching it, the audience are
> >> compelled
> >> to experience the > film rather than just understand it or follow
> >> it. It resists the > normal sensory satisfactions associated with
> >> film, both the > experiences of hearing and watching are
> >> transformed, the > combination of linguistic permutations in the
> >> narration and the (on > first viewing) apparently random images
> >> means
> >> that the audience > have to 'go with the film' and experience
> >> something utterly > unfamiliar.
> >>>
> >>> As I said the notion of overload would be
> >> personal, I have no > problem with Cut-Ups but grew up in an MTV
> >> riddled world, however > for somebody watching the film in '68 the
> >> experience was probably > utterly different.
> >>>
> >>> Jack
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>>
> >>> On 19 Jan 2010, at 07:17, Myron Ort
> >> wrote:>
> >>>> I was hoping for a "theoretical"
> >> definition of "sensory overload" >> rather than another example
> >> of a film or
> >> whatever that I cannot >> easily access. Even watching 77 minutes
> >> of
> >> Sistiaga's handpainted >> @ sound speed with overloud live punk
> >> music, I wasn't really >> thinking "sensory overload", just
> >> "unpleasant experience". Even >> multiple screen performances
> >> don't seem like
> >> "sensory overload" to >> me, but just what they are supposed to be.
> >> I was hoping for a >> definition of "sensory overload"
> >> that wouldn't need to include >> "handpainted" films almost by
> >> definition. In other words, once I >> accepted the hand painted
> >> film, or films
> >> where every frame is >> really (or really really) different it seems
> >> there can no longer >> be anything called "sensory
> >> overload". By "handpainted" I mean >> the one's where there is
> >> not so much
> >> figurative continuous action >> between frames like animation or
> >> clearly
> >> comprehensible >> anthropomorphic dancing blobs etc. As
> >> someone who digs >> "experimental filmmaking" and
> >> phenomena of nature, (pre and post >> psychedelic) I am not sure
> >> there is such a
> >> thing as "sensory >> overload".
> >>>>
> >>>> Myron Ort
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>> On Jan 17, 2010, at 4:14 PM, Jack Sargeant
> >> wrote:>>
> >>>>> Although outside the period of the
> >> original question perhaps >>> Balch & Burroughs' The Cut Ups could
> >> be considered an example of >>> sensory overload.
> >>>>> But, of course the very notion of
> >> overload would be a personal >>> experience.
> >>>>>
> >>>>> Jack
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>> On 5 Dec 2009, at 04:04, Myron Ort
> >> wrote:>>>
> >>>>>> Now that I think of it, I don't
> >> think I have ever experienced >>>> anything I would call "sensory
> >> overload" as pertaining to a film >>>> experience. Could someone
> >> define
> >> this genre for me. What are >>>> the characteristics?
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Thanks.
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> Myron Ort
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>> On Dec 3, 2009, at 4:05 PM, Mark
> >> Toscano wrote:>>>>
> >>>>>>> Howdy all -
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>> I've been working out a possible
> >> program (or two) of films that >>>>> demonstrate the idea of
> >> "sensory overload", and although I have >>>>> a bunch of titles in
> >> mind
> >> already, I'd love to get more >>>>> suggestions, especially of work
> >> from the past 10-15 years or >>>>> so. Shorts are preferable, as
> >> it's meant to be a diverse, >>>>> mixed program of numerous
> >> artists from different eras.>>>>>
> >>>>>>> thanks much for any suggestions
> >> ->>>>>
> >>>>>>> Mark T
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >>>>>>>
> >> __________________________________________________________________
> >> >>>>> For
> > info on FrameWorks, contact
> >> Pip Chodorov at om>.>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >>>>>>
> >> __________________________________________________________________
> >> >>>> For info
> > on FrameWorks, contact Pip
> >> Chodorov at om>.>>>
> >>>>>
> >>>>>
> >> __________________________________________________________________
> >> >>> For info
> > on FrameWorks, contact Pip
> >> Chodorov at om>.>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >>>>
> >> __________________________________________________________________
> >> >> For info
> > on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov
> >> at om>.>
> >>>
> >>>
> >> __________________________________________________________________>
> >> For info on
> > FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at
> >> om>.>
> >>
> >>
> >> __________________________________________________________________
> >> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at om>.
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >
> >
> > __________________________________________________________________
> > For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________
> For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>
> __________________________________________________________________ For
> info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.
>
>

-- 
Leo Cardoso
Graduate student
Butler School of Music
University of Texas at Austin
email suppressed
(512) 216-8205
http://leocardoso.org/
__________________________________________________________________
For info on FrameWorks, contact Pip Chodorov at <email suppressed>.