I’ve been thinking a lot lately about filters and ‘aesthetic’ video edits. I’m really fond of the TikTok trend of throwing a song over a bunch of videos from your phone to create a romanticised trailer for your life. From the main character trope to the ol’ relatable staring out of the car window with music playing and pretending you’re in a movie moment, I’m super into the ways we enhance our realities in this cinematic way.
I’m currently working on an art commission that touches on these ideas. As part of it, I’m creating a filter for Instagram. Now I know what you’re thinking - I’ve been pretty vocal in the past about artists using Facebook’s Spark AR software in what I perceive as an uncritical way - so I really ensured I put a lot of thought into the decision to work with this medium. One thing I realised as part of this thought process was that I’m not personally interested in commenting on what we do with these filtered images. I’m not looking to highlight the impact of social media and the way it can present a distorted image that makes one’s own life feel inadequate (which is a totally valid observation by the way, just not what I’m concerned with in this work). I’m more interested in the creation of these images, regardless of the processes through which we then share them. I mean, think about the creative potential that arises through ever increasing access to digital media production. Not only does a huge proportion of the world’s population now have a camera in their pocket, they also have access to countless editing tools and techniques that previously simply weren’t available to non-professionals. As a result, we can now make our home movies look like the Hollywood kind.
Post production
When I was young I had the opportunity to do some work experience with a visual effects company. My absolute favourite part of the experience was learning about digital colour grading in cinema - the process by which the colouring of raw footage is altered to achieve a desired look. I vividly remember the colourist talking about how clients would ask him to infuse some sort of specific feeling - such as making a shot look more ‘organic’ (which was apparently a popular request at the time).
The connection I make between this and TikTok/Instagram filters (the kind that change the colour/mood/vibe of a shot, not alter a person’s appearance) is this notion of injecting emotion via aesthetic enhancement. Whereas these edits could be perceived as distorting the ‘real’ thing, I like to think about the way they actually enhance the accuracy of the image. A photograph or video doesn’t perfectly capture a moment - the vibrancy of colours, the physical experience of being in a space, the emotions associated with that moment - but these alterations can help to re-inject some sense of these aspects. Bringing this all back to hyperreality for a moment, might these filmic edits with overlaid music somehow be a more faithful reproduction of lived reality?
The Claude Glass
This is not a new phenomenon, of course. One key reference point for the aforementioned commission that I’m working on is that of the Claude Glass - an 18th century tool designed to enhance the view of a landscape. Named after the landscape painter Claude Lorrain, this small hand-held tinted mirror would be used to reflect back an image of the holder’s natural surroundings with a moody, painterly aesthetic. Like Instagram filters, the Claude Glass was often mocked, seen as an unnecessary distortion of the natural beauty of the landscape. I personally don’t think one negates the other - you can certainly enjoy your ‘real’ surroundings whilst also appreciating the power of filtering them through different lenses.
I hope you’ve enjoyed this one and that it’s got some thoughts stirring in your head. Keep an eye on my socials and those of Meadow Arts to find out more about the art piece I’m working on. As always I could have written pages and pages on this week’s topic but tried to condense it enough for an email, so if you’re interested in delving deeper you can join the discussion in the aliens vibing in space Discord server.
For more on the topic of colour, one of my favourite creatives Martha Hipley has a free online workshop on colour & digital design coming up, hosted by Birmingham Open Media. I’ll be there and I’m certain will be brilliant!
Until next time you lovely people xoxo