This PhD project in artistic research investigates how female experience is materialized through the evocative use of space in mixed media moving image. The evocative use of space refers to design choices that transform the dimension of recognizable everyday spaces in experientially suggestive ways. In this research, mixed media moving image encompasses documentary, fiction, live action, and animation which are explored in their capacity to materialize female experience. Script writing will provide an additional layer in this investigation.
The premise of the research is that film forms such as evocative animated documentaries can enrich our understanding of unfamiliar mental states and experiences by prompting our imagination (Annabelle Honess Roe). This artistic research asks how the deliberate fusion of animation and live action, or other media mixes, contributes to the charting of strange or indescribable experiences. I argue that hybrid spatial design is particularly apt for materializing layered, complex and even unruly experiences.
The research engages with a variety of methods that include interviews, autoethnographic reflection and notation, screen tests, live action experiments, documentary shoots and drawing. These are used to explore how female experience is materialized through the evocative use of space. The final output will manifest in the form of a script for the mixed media feature film titled “Make Her See”, linking and interweaving with audiovisual experiments.