Annette  Mangaard

Meltdown An Investigation of a Seascape in Two Film Forms

In my thesis exhibition I juxtapose two distinct forms of cinematic representation of landscape, specifically depicting a grounded iceberg and tidal pools off coastal Newfoundland. In a screening room, a four-minute time-based documentary portrays workers on a repurposed fishing boat, ice harvesting. In an adjacent gallery, a cinematic media installation includes enlarged underwater imagery of tidal pools, and shots of icebergs projected onto and refracted from acrylic discs. In the gallery area, viewers move through at their own rate, following their personal drift of attention as they choose. This invites an embodied process of audiovisual assimilation, opening up opportunities for affective response to the image environment. In the supporting thesis paper, I have drawn upon the texts of Hito Steyerl, on horizon and aerial cinematography, John Stilgoe on horizon, seascape and landscape, Brian Massumi on embodiment and affect, and Eugenie Brinkema on cinema and affect. Through the juxtaposition of narrative time-based and expanded cinema, I invite spectators to reflect from different vantages on the impact of environmental changes on water, including its economic, community and personal consequences.

 2017