Video Project

This project was very interesting. I was inspired by artists who put themselves in their projects and made themselves feel physically or mentally uncomfortable with a situation. I had heard of supposed water torture before and I did not know how much I believed in it. I knew that there would definitely be discomfort and annoyance, but I did not expect to experience what I experienced. 

I had taken a water bottle out of the fridge, so it was cold. Using a push pin, I made a hole in the bottom of the water bottle and set it up on my dresser so that it would stay in one spot. I then proceeded to let water drip on my forehead. Since many see this as a torture method, I decided not to restrain myself. I did, however, not allow anyone into my room while filming and turned my phone off to avoid any distractions. There were many times when I felt very overwhelmed by the feeling and had to wipe my face off. The water dripped through my hair, down my shoulders, and puddled up on my face multiple times. Once I emerged from my room, my roommates were confused and thought that I had showered because my hair and scalp was so wet. 

Throughout this process, I felt very disoriented. I did not know how long had passed and I did not set a time limit of how long I would stay under the drip. Once I decided to stop, it felt like it had somehow been one minute, but also an hour at the same time. In reality, abut 8 minutes had passed. In the video I had a timestamp, but sped up the other clips by about 5x their normal speed. I could not get the timestamp to speedily move alongside the visual part so I decided to use them as a marker on certain shots. These shots were moments where I felt discomfort, according to what I watched on the screen. 

To keep a mental pace and to solve boredom, I ended up counting the water drops. I set a goal to get to 100 drops. I stopped multiple times and there was one time where I got to around 60 or 70 but had to stop and restart. 

I created an audio track that tried to reimagine what I was feeling throughout this process. Over time the feeling changed and I got a headache from the cold that lasted for about an hour after the fact. The audio track is not meant to be nice and easy going, as the feeling was not pleasant. The video does go over the three minute time limit, but I decided to include the whole process to show what I experienced. 

All in all, I would do this project again. I am curious as to what room temperature water or warm water would feel like. While it may make an interesting series to try out different temperatures and such, I think I'll stick to drinking my water, rather than dealing with the drip. 

Link to my project: https://youtu.be/rZ3rhqkm7ss

Link to reference video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wFFslAjUyj4