Spacial Montage and Triptych

Hello again! I have started a new module this year called Creative Media Practice, so far it seems like it will be very interesting and worth wile!

This week, in our first class, Mark and Ian talked to us about spacial montage, multi-screen narrative and triptych images and videos. At first for me it seemed like it was maybe a little but pointless to have three images when it would seem one is enough, but as we looked more and more into the reason and the effect of these narratives it actually became very interesting to me.

Initially we looked at some old paintings that where the start of thinking about triptych images and images that have different levels of narrative.

Then we went on to look at some more examples of this, and the development of the triptych. The triptych images ranged from very early on to very modern day versions and even though there was maybe 100 years between these images, they all had the same concept and idea.

As mentioned before, I didn't really get the benefit of an image that required more thought and told more of an in depth story but as we looked at these images I started ti understand why these were so interesting. With a normal singular image you look central normally and don't spend to long thinking about what is going on whereas with a triptych image it seems to be deeper and require more of you to see what is going on, it caught my eye.

We then talked about split screen within moving image and how it added a new dynamic. The presentation mentioned films like 'Suspense' and 'Pillow Talk' which used split screen to capture a phone call between three people. For us today this doesn't seem like it is very impressive or original but back then, especially in 1913 when 'Suspense' was released, this would have been quite a shock for people watching, being brought into a new way of projecting narrative.

Here is an image of 'Pillow Talk' showing how Michael Gordon portrayed the phone call scene and how it added a new dynamic to the movie, almost have a symmetrical feel.

Here is one of the triptych sequences we watched. This one stood out for me because it seemed to be more complex than normal, as I don't think the screens were totally in sync.

Once the lecture had finished we were then set our brief to get into groups and to create our very own triptych sequence. I was in a group with Michael Shiells and we decided that we would create a sequence where two people wanted the same computer. It was very interesting to me, making this sequence, because before I had made moving image but piece together shots chronologically, but this time I was piecing together shots at the same time, side by side. It proved to be an extremely fun exercise in the end, although piecing together shots at the same time so they sync with each other is a lot harder than it sounds!

Here is our final piece:

Hope you enjoyed!