Spaces of Solitude by Valeria Cozzarini

Spaces of Solitude

Notes on Body Language in public Spaces by Valeria Cozzarini

index:

p.3 Intimacy and publicness of the body in public space p.9 From the images pool to their reinterpretation p.22 Output of the project p.29 Bibliography

Introduction

Body language refers to the messages that our body send out unconsciously through gestures, facial expression, and postures; it conveys a personâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s physical, mental, or emotional state. In a condition of solitude, the unconscious gestures of people in public spaces (bus stop, train station, shopping mall) donâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t have the intention to send a message to somebody else, but still they do, in a non verbal communication. These movements are sequence of signs that reveal the inner state of being. The fascination for the random movement of people in public space is the pulse of this research, to tackle through different recording mediums such as photos, drawings and videos. This project wants to open a question on unity vs fragmentation of the self, privacy vs public information, transitoriety vs power of our body to leave a trace, whereas it is just in the eyes of a camera or the private imagination of somebody else. Capturing unconscious gestures of people in public spaces, allowed to build a pool of signs taken from the human landscape of bodies in the moment of waiting, standing, passing by. The images, and especially the video footage, reveal isolation and at the same time connections between individuals, a communication that happens without the awareness of the subjects. 1

Intimacy and publicness of the body in public space “We cannot move freely in these space without the aid of the necessary means. Yet they open up an illusory elitist freedom. Free of all social obligations, we move through these spaces and we can abandon ourselves to a ´solitude´that we apparently yearn for so longingly. Yet this freedom also holds a moment of loneliness. it is the moment when a small spanner catches in the wheels of these stringently regulated works, bringing us to a sudden standstill.” Roland Ritter in AAVV, Space of Solitude, HDA Dokumente zur Architektur 9, Graz, November 1997

Our body is conveying messages through mimic, movement and postures; it unintentionally reveals feeling, social dynamics, personal stories. An artist would use this system of signs to direct his/her models and actors. At the same time the way each person in real life is talking through the unconscious body language, holds a poetic moment, as if there was an inner and unknown artist directing from inside. In real life everyone becomes a character that plays his or her acting role without possibility of replaying. In common places of daily life, body languages bring to the surface of visibility untold stories of people. The way we move reflects inner landscapes of thoughts, feelings and the visual perception of reality. Each of us has an individual perception of space in relation to his/her vision of what is public or private. Unconscious movements of some parts of the body reveal something, hidden in the internal state of mind of people, which slips form control. The body itself is speaking and expressing a necessity of communication, these movements reflect a conflict between the individual privacy and the external world. The freedom that can exist in these time and space also holds a moment of loneliness, even in a crowded place. 3

If our bodies talk an unheard language, the challenge is to discover a grammatical connection of those unspoken words. Mapping the unconscious body language of people in social and public spaces (i.e. a street, a square, bus stop, train station, shopping malls) allows to build a database of images as signs for a semiotic of bodies. While verbal communication is ruled by temporality and sequentiality, for visual language immediacy and spatiality are essential. The recording medium needs to be present in the same 4

time in the same place the language is spoken, in order to be fulfill these parameters. It would not be possible to recreat a n unconscious movement. Marc Augé defines a place as “a space from which we can discern something of the individual and the collective identities”; a non-place as “a space from which neither identity nor relationships, nor history can be read asking the important question as to the spaces of transition limited in the time, the transit spaces we use virtually every day, as if in passing.” A non place becomes the context to observe people´s body in these transitions and transitory time/space. The idea of transience, lasting for short time only, not remaining

â&#x20AC;&#x153;The body is at once the final point of resistance to the global imperatives of postmodernism and the first to be attacked by themâ&#x20AC;? Nicholas Mirzoeff, Bodyscapes -Art, modernity and the ideal figure

in a place for long time is built in the grammar of body language in public space, and questioned by the presence of control cameras that are recording, therefore suspending the uniqueness of gestures. Recording cameras, if people are not aware of being targeted, become endless resources of gestures as if the social space would be a stage where people cannot avoid playing a role. The issue of privacy is here in conflict with the poetry of daily life and on the other hand the policy of control of everyone through visibility. In public spaces, body language makes it critical to define where is the border between privacy and publicness, the border between the intimate sphere and the social dimension, the right

of being watched or watch. On the other hand contemporary society creates more and more spaces of solitude, where the publicness doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t mean social spaces, but right to share a certain amount of space in a certain period of time for a transit in solitude. The space of solitude that the structure of society creates in public space of daily life, is violated by control and power, at the same time reveals the need of communication that slips from our control.

From the images pool to their reinterpretation

The first step of the project consisted of collecting images of unconscious gestures of people in public spaces - waiting, standing, passing by - through different mediums. In the recording through photos, video, drawing, it was important to define the parameters and setting for researching. One main condition was to capture movements of people who are alone and in a place that can be defined as a transit space: a street, the train station, a bus stop, and shopping malls. There-

after for capturing an unconscious performance, it was important the â&#x20AC;&#x153;invisibilityâ&#x20AC;? of the recording medium. Only without awareness of being watched our body moves spontaneously. Pictures were taken following the subject, filming had to be at the right distance and drawing implied not looking at the subject for long. 9

References from other artists and theoretical texts supported the definition of guidelines and research parameters. With the help of visual and theoretical references on body language, the recorded images were interpreted. In a sort of analytical purpose to archive gestures, it emerged the impossibility of categorizing the poetic of life in motion. Elaboration of the final output focussed on the gestures as movements that reveals the conflict between privacy and publicness of our body. 10

After analyzing it, the images pool was edited into a choreography, cutting the movements of different persons into a 7 minutes flow. This video was projected in a room, an actress followed the movements, trying to mime those. This scene was filmed by two cameras, showing the actress and revealing slowly her connection to the projected images. The final step was to edit the footage where the actress is playing, into a new sequence, that reflects this conflictual relationship between gestures that communicates and movements that are untranslatable signs.

â&#x20AC;&#x153;... challenging the split between public and private which keeps our life out of our knowledgeâ&#x20AC;? Jane Gallop, Thinking through the body

Where are the borders of intimacy each person creates in daily life, in a social system that is more and more hunging on automatic actions? | Whom belong the place we are in? What does freedom mean in public space? What masks do we carry on in daily life outside the place of intimacy? | What happens in your thoughts while you are waiting? | What is the process of thinking like in the moments of loneliness in public space? | What are others thinking at in those moments? | How do movements relate to the inner self? | What are the signs that our body communicate in those moments? | Gestures gain a sound, in the border of visibility and perception, the dialogue of muscles becomes a chore of inner voices hearable in this theatre space. It reveals the contradiction of our body, present in public space, holding a moment of loneliness where there would be the highest number of people to communicate with. | Where is the border, the land where we cannot control our reactions, we cannot avoid being in a body? 21

Output of the project

The first step of the project consisted of collecting unconscious gestures of people in public spaces - waiting, standing, passing by - through different recording mediums. After analyzing the images pool, it was edited into a choreography, cutting gestures of different persons in different situation of transitorial spaces, into a flow. Output of the project is the short film Spaces of Solitude, which shows an actor in a neutral setting, repeating those gestures, as if it was a choreography made by people unconsciously. This short filmed was shot with two cameras in a dark room. The actress stand or sits on front of a canvas where the choreography of gestures is projected. The editing reveals slowly the situation, accompanied by a original soundtrack that underlines the opposition between private and public. There is a mix of bass tone and concrete noises taken from real ambients, combined together.

Credits Title: Spaces of Solitude Duration: 7 min 25 sec Technique: HD Digital video Format: 16:9 Colour: Col Audio: stereo 2.0 Directed by: Valeria Cozzarini Music by: Esther Alzate Romero and Juan Alzate Romero Camera: Valeria Cozzarini and Eleonora Sarasin Actors: Sara Giannini

Synopsis Spaces of solitude refers to those moments of loneliness that each of us live when transiting in public spaces. The unconscious gestures of people in public spaces bring to the surface their intimate untold stories. Again and again, the body reveals the poetry of its own ambivalence, bridging inner feelings with the surface of the skin. The question of privacy and voyeurism is tackled in this short film through a theatre setting. A back projection in a dark room shows a collage of gestures and postures of people waiting in the street, at the train station, at the bus and tram stop, on escalators, edited to create a choreography. An actress repeats the displayed movements, as if in front of a mirror, directed by the unconscious body language of people in daily life. It opens a question on identity vs social roles, privacy vs voyeurism, transitiorieness vs the ability of our body to leave a trace, wheather in the eyes of a camera or in the memory of somebody else.

Bibliography AA.VV. Edited by Stuart Comer, Film and Video Art, Tate 2009 Darsie Alexander and John Ejderfield, Body Language, MoMa, New York, 2000 Marc Augé, Places and non-places of the city in Space of Solitude, HDA Dokumente zur Architektur 9, Graz, November 1997 Roland Barthes, L’impero dei segni, Einaudi, Torino 2002 Philippe Colmar, The Human Body: Emotions and Image, Thames & Hudson, London 1999 Michael De Certeau, L’invenzione del quotidiano, Edizioni Lavoro, Roma 2001 Umberto Galimberti, Il corpo (XI ed.), Feltrinelli, MIlano 2010 Jane Gallop, Thinking through the body, Columbia University Press, New York 1988 Anna Guglielmi, Il linguaggio segreto del corpo, Piemme Edizioni 2007 Alexander Lowen, Il linguaggio del corpo, Feltrinelli, 2008 Nicholas Mirzoeff, Bodyscapes, art, modernity and the ideal figure, Routledge, London 1995 Bruno Munari, Supplemento al dizionario italiano, Corraini Ed. Mantova 2009 Wim Wenders, Paesaggi, luoghi, città, Universale di architettura, Collana diretta da Bruno Zevi, Colusso, Torino 1998 http://www.linguaggiodelcorpo.it/ John Cleese, The Human Face, TV mini series, BBC, TLC, 2001

This project was realised in the frame of the European Leonardo Program “Creatività, Progetti e Professioni / Creativity, Projects and Professions – CPP”, financing a professional training at ZKM - Center for Art and Media in Karlsruhe. A special thank to: Video Studio Staff, Institute fuer Bildmedien staff, prof. Laura Safred (coordinator of Leonardo Program at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice), prof. Luca Farulli (tutor for the Leonardo Program at the Accademia di Belle Arti in Venice), Sara Giannini, Esther Alzate Romero and Juan Alzate Romero Eleonora Sarasin and Leonardo Baraldi, Chiara Marchini Camia and alle the people who collaborated to the project and supported it. .

All material copyright © Valeria Cozzarini 2011 All rights are reserved. No part of any material on this presentation may be reproduced, modified and distributed in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying or otherwise, without the prior permission of the author. Valeria Cozzarini contacts: valeriacozzarini@hotmail.com 31