Thursday 12 September 2013
Creative thinking - '2001: A Space Odyssey' and 'Barber's Adagio for Strings'
The film clip below from '2001: A Space Odyssey' and the accompanying sound of 'Barber's Adagio for Strings' produced some fantastic creative thinking in class. Please leave some comments here developing the discussion further in terms of what the music made you think of and your interpretation of what happens.
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I still think this is weird, but now I have watched/listened to it again I can imagine an empty theatre, which is going to be demolished in a couple of hours/days. A conductor, now very old with loss of sight and hearing is standing where he would of stood fifty years ago. He is imaging when he stood at a concert, conducting this piece. You see his memories of the audiences reactions, and the instrumental players emotions floating along on an invisible stave in the air. You see him looking back on all the good things that have happened to him in his life and him conducting this piece to no one but himself, for one last time.
ReplyDeleteOrlagh :)
When listening to this piece of music I immediately think of the colour black, which i relate to death. To me the start of the piece portrays happiness, as i imagine two young boys playing together- one pretending to shoot the other and he plays dead and falls to the ground. I then see the boys growing up. I imagine them signing up as soldiers for the second world war together and going off to fight. I picture them in their uniforms as they advance across the battlefield firing guns and running side by side. Then, as the diminuendos in the piece take place, I see one of the friends get shot- just as he pretended to do when he was younger. The other friend rushes over and cradles the lifeless body in his arms while he weeps, and I also picture it raining. Then years pass by as i see the gravestone of one of the men and his friend (who by this time has aged into an old man) visit his friend for the last time.
ReplyDeleteRhianna
Are you a musician Rhianna? Your comment on the diminuendos is impressive!
DeleteAs I listened to this piece of music I thought of someone mourning a dead loved one. It also sounds like the music is constantly building up to a climax but then just as the climax would happen, it slows down again. The music reminds me of the scene in Swan Lake when the Prince first meets 'Odette', I think this is because the scene is quite emotional and kind of about their pain!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first watched the clip I thought it was about the man seeing his own life in the future because he walking around like he didn't know where he was and he seemed confused. But then I watched it again and it makes more sense if he's dying and looking back on his life because at the end the music gets very dramatic and he reaches up with his hand, then there is silence. As the music starts up again it shows his bed and he isn't there, instead there is a glowing ball with a fetus inside. So I think that he has been re-born/reincarnated!
Rachel
At first the film really confused me but after a few times of watching the video. I like to think that in those 9 minutes the film shows life, life being infinite and never-ending. The music fitted really well with the first part of the video because in the film the man is showed slowly getting older. He starts of in a space pod, abandoned like as if he was actually on the moon with no other human life form. Afterwards he is in a constricting spacesuit, and his reflection in the mirror. Then its shown him eating alone. Finally, him as a crippled, bedridden old man. The music made it very depressing and I felt heartbroken for the man. As he reached into the black screen, gradually being wiped off the earth. Then a glow of an orb with a baby inside changed my perception. Why feel sad when new lives are always beginning.
ReplyDeleteJulie
I'd always assume this music would mean something sad is happening, because it would always be the background music to sad things on the TV shows. But when you just listen to the music solely, it allows you to imagine the story it tells. The clip shows the cycle of life and how it's infinite, but also how it passes quickly, I think the music is an appropriate accompaniment somehow. It goes on and when you think it's finished, it starts anew with something even better, just like life.
ReplyDeleteJenny
The first time I watched this, I thought it was about time travel. The machine was a spaceship and he was exploring a new age. The design of the rooms and flooring etc. was new and unfamiliar to him, judging by the expression on his face. At the end, he sees himself in the future. As he saw himeslef, this caused problems, similarly to the concept in one of the Harry Potter novels. As he 'cheated' life by seeing his future, his future self was punished and sent to hell through a big black door.
ReplyDeleteElizabeth N
When I first watched this, it seemed a bit strange. I didn't really understand why the man was in the spacesuit and who the man at the end was.
ReplyDeleteI think overall it was about time and life. The machine at the beginning was a time machine, I think, and the man is looking into his future to see what he will be like.
When the old man is looking around to see who's there, he doesn't see the spacesuit man because he's in a figure of imagination. He isn't physically there, because he's in a different time.
However, I think the music doesn't suit the video. It seems too dramatic and as if the atmosphere is forced.
Alice
Interesting point about the music Alice. It would have been interesting to watch it first without the music and then with to see if the meaning changes as a result.
DeleteThe second I heard the first few notes of this music, I knew it would be sad. I found myself starting to think that the man was having flashbacks of somewhere he had been before, because the music reminded me of those films where someone returns to somewhere that has completely changed while he has been gone.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really understand because the theory I had didn't really match the music playing in the video.
However, as I watched more, I changed my idea, and that the machine at the beginning was some sort of time machine and the man was watching his own life, until the very end, where he watched himself die, but the mage of the baby at the end confused me.
So finally, I think that the video was about the cycle of life and that the baby at the end was just looping round to the beginning again.
-Lizzie
When I first heard this clip in class I thought that it was about a man looking back at his life and being reborn.
ReplyDeleteWithout watching the clip I thought that it could of been in a scene of any movie, where a person may have died outside and it was raining.
When watching the actual clip itself I don't think it makes a lot of sense, I got really confused about what was going on and I couldn't really connect with it because of that.
Aside from all that I think the film is about a new beginning and getting another chance to do something.
- Katie
When I listen to the beginning of the music, the way the music get louder and higher makes me think that there is a rise of greatness. However the music then changes, the sort of music that pulls on your heart strings and makes you sad. I imagined a person dying through maybe a wound in a war due to fighting with bravery or maybe someone dying of cancer looking back through their ups and downs in life, looking back on what they should've done in life regretting things they did. and the way the music quietens creates the atmosphere that they are soon to pass away as if bits of their soul are leaving them moving into another body creating a new life.
ReplyDelete~ Jo
When I listened to the music without the clip, I thought it was about sadness. Anger. The end. Depression. Helpless.
ReplyDeleteAs I watched the clip with the music, it seemed like it was a cycle of life. Watching yourself and seeing yourself dying, then becoming alive. A new person. But its not a sad ending. You are reborn. A new beginning. A new start to life. Happiness.
~Sakina
As I listened to the music by itself I felt like it should go with a clip that's sad, bleak, depressing.
ReplyDeleteHowever, I thought the music really suited the clip when I watched it back with the clip even though the clip was quite bright, happy(ish) and weird. This made me think about how the people who put this clip together had a completely different vision of the music than I did which I felt quite interesting.
-Millie-
Listening to music in general and knowing about musicians have always been important to me, I don't tend to listen to this sort of classical type, but hearing it really relaxes me in a weird way, because I feel as if I could be feeling the highs and lows as it flows but a sense of peacefulness surrounds me instead, almost like laying in a field of freshly grown poppies after a war occurred in those fields, it's like the feeling of almost knowing that everything will be okay from now on because all the hurt and pain is over, and you can breathe without worry.
ReplyDeleteThe video itself has an intake of loneliness to me, almost trapped and scared, especially from the eye blinks at the beginning because they look so afraid but astounded. Seeing the one man in every shot mainly points out to me that he has no one, so the whole feeling of the video is a bit upsetting with no end to it, and that's where the cycle comes it, because it's just endless loneliness that spirals into this never ending black screen.
-Nadia
After watching this clip again I have had so many different ideas about what is going on. These were some of my ideas:
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning in the perfectly laid out room there is a very out of place pod. So what is the pod? Is it a space pod, is it to do with time travel or is it a computer game with new technology?
Then I had the idea that it may be a world that someone has made up for themselves to escape from the real world, and they are living there rather than in a world full of pain and problems.
Is he looking at himself through someone else's eyes?
Another thought is that it is some kind of simulation or experiment, seeing how humans cope if they are on their own for their whole life?
The man I the red suit looks at himself in the mirror. It is almost as if he does not like the person he sees, like he is realising what he has become. This lead me to think why does he not like himself? Is he on a mission? Has he done something he wants to forget? Is he missing someone he loves? His family?
His expression whilst looking at himself looks as if he is regretting some thing he has done, or that he is about to do? Is he undecided or conflicted about his orders (linking back to a mission) and what is right?
As he walks away he looks like he has decided to do it, but what is 'it'? Is he going to kill the man he is looking at?
The man who is sitting down realises something so he gets up. Does he realise that there is someone there? Or does he already know what is going to happen?
There is no one there when he gets up and has a look, so is he imagining it or is he remembering something from his past?
Who is this old man the guy in the red suit can see? Is it his future self? His past self? A family member? A test subject? (linking back to an experiment)
The old man is sitting and eating by himself. He knocks over the glass, but does this mean something? Is it a sign? Is it for effect? Is it to get his attention?
He looks up and sees the person in the bed. Is it a future him? Is it a realization of his fate or something that is going to happen to him?
The man in the bed points at something. Is it a gateway/doorway to death? Is it some sort of screen, and if it is , is it showing/recapping his life before he dies? Is he remembering all that has happened to him?
At the end there is a baby so is it him reborn, looking down on earth? Is it him remembering himself as a baby?
The baby might be him, imagining what his life might be like, going through all of the phases of life right up to death?
From watching this clip I have had all of these ideas about what it might be and I am not entirely sure what it is as I have had lots of ideas. I think it is related to life and all of the different stages of life right up to death, but that is just my opinion.
-Imogen
When I first watched the clip I found it a bit strange and hard to understand, but as I thought about it more and listened to other opinions on it in class i realised that it could be about a man looking back through his life, as there are different scenes of a man at different ages.
ReplyDeleteThe colours in the clip are in reverse which could mean it is in a different universe.
Also the tense music can be depressing when you hear it without the clip and it sounds like funeral music, however when you watch the clip with it it tells a story and how when the music is slow that the man is peaceful and that as it grows more tense that the man is the opposite.
Bri
When I first watched it in class I too found it complicated, but when we talked about it in groups at our table and then together in class I started thinking about it more.
ReplyDeleteI thought that maybe it was a man looking back at his life because the music was sad and slow like he was reminiscing about things that had happened things he would forget as he started a new life or maybe things he wanted to remember as he died.
Niamh
I actually thought that the music itself was heart-wrenchingly romantic and I couldn't actually come to grips with the video itself. I agree with Alice, the music and the video definitely do not fit together as the pace of the video is quite slow and then you have the searing dramatics of the music and they just aren't compatible.
ReplyDeleteI didn't understand the video though I understood that there was some sort of cycle happening, like someone being reborn or someone peering in on their later life. the old man, may be the guy in the spacesuit in the future and perhaps the old man is expecting this visit because he remembers it and is timing it, showing the young space man what he is like and the frailty of his later life.
Izzy
When we watched this piece of music by itself,I heard that it started off quite low and slowly built up andd this made me think that it seemed like something was getting closer.The tense/supense moments towards the middle made it feel like something,was maybe going through mixed emotions? Or it may of just been him reflecting upon the ups and downs of his life. As though something was draining out your happiness,death and greiving were the first thoughts as this was played.
ReplyDeleteWhen we watched it with the clip,I saw that things changed quite rapidly in my view. I saw that the music went well with parts of the clip,for example, when his future self was revealed to him the music sort of relaxed a bit as he looked at himself. It seemed like the young man in the spacesuit was looking at his life and loneliness as he stepped into his later life. As well as that, I thought the old man was expecting this visit as he stood up on time but as he looked behind him there was nothing there.
The young man saw himself die and be reborn into a brand new life, a life completely different to the last. The music quietens down when the camera is set onto the old man and that gives the viewer the effect that his soul is being taken away and given to a new body.It is the beginning of a new cycle of life.
-Rubika
The music on its own made me think of deep emotions, like love and also sadness, this is because the music had so many layers, I felt it could have represented almost anything. As the music progressed, it made me think of death, and the sense that something was failing, however I was slightly confused when we saw the clip and the music together.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first watched the clip in class, I was a bit confused, as I didn't know the storyline of the clip. However, when the music started to gradually develop, I was able to think about what might be happening. I imagined a story of rebirth, because the old man seemed to be looking back on his past and his life. This caused me to think about religion, and the circle of life. I thought that the man being alone during the whole clip meant that he was left to think about something or look back on himself over and over, and it made me think that he had always been alone. Toward the end of the scene, the old man spots a patch of black and nothingness, maybe this was death? This was the time for one life to end and another to start.
-Georgie
In class, I couldn't focus on the clip, as the music overshadowed it. The music said more, conveyed more, spoke louder than the clip ever could. I was struck with the feeling that the music and the video didn't, COULDN'T go together, because the clip just seemed too blase, too casual for the heart-breaking music that it was accompanied by.
ReplyDeleteThe music on its own made me think of somebody, a woman, missing a loved one. Whoever it was had caused great anguish to the woman. I imagined her in a room that was empty, its walls wooden, bare and broken, the floorboards creaking with every step she took. She walked over to the window, and gazed out of it, the name of her love slipping past her lips, a single tear sliding down her cheek as a strangled sob escaped her.
Grief.
Pain.
Agony.
They were only part of the whirlpool of emotions she was experiencing.
More tears followed.
She leaned down, and picked up the violin. She sat on a bare, three-legged stool, the only piece of furniture in the otherwise empty room. She set the violin into a comfortable position-
And she played.
But when she played, the notes, the sounds that came out were not that of the ultimate, overwhelming despair that she felt.
Instead, they told the tale of the memories that she cherished, times which, although long gone, would never be forgotten. Of the precious seconds, minutes, hours and days that she spent with her loved one.
And, despite herself, she felt the corners of her lips twitch upwards.
Because, people change, places change, but life still goes on. He may have changed, but in her memories, he would forever remain perfect, unblemished.
She poured that happiness, that hope, that knowledge into her music. Almost as if she thought that he could hear her, she picked up the pace, her hand leading the notes, coaxing them out of the strings.
But then, a moment's pause.
Her smile disappears.
The energy of her music that had taken over the room and brought it back to life, back to the times when the room had been splendid - all gone. It was back to the bleak, drab nothingness.
And with that nothingness, a dawning realization.
He can't hear her.
She couldn't reach him.
She can't reach him.
She will never be able to reach him.
Because he is gone. Gone beyond the places from which she could guide him back home. Gone to the place where he is unreachable. Gone to the place where he can never he hers.
Gone.
The word echoes around the room as she ends her music, cuts the sound of the last note short.
Not much later, she ends herself.
In class, I couldn't focus on the clip, as the music overshadowed it. The music said more, conveyed more, spoke louder than the clip ever could. I was struck with the feeling that the music and the video didn't, COULDN'T go together, because the clip just seemed too blase, too casual for the heart-breaking music that it was accompanied by.
ReplyDeleteThe music on its own made me think of somebody, a woman, missing a loved one. Whoever it was had caused great anguish to the woman. I imagined her in a room that was empty, its walls wooden, bare and broken, the floorboards creaking with every step she took. She walked over to the window, and gazed out of it, the name of her love slipping past her lips, a single tear sliding down her cheek as a strangled sob escaped her.
Grief.
Pain.
Agony.
They were only part of the whirlpool of emotions she was experiencing.
More tears followed.
She leaned down, and picked up the violin. She sat on a bare, three-legged stool, the only piece of furniture in the otherwise empty room. She set the violin into a comfortable position-
And she played.
But when she played, the notes, the sounds that came out were not that of the ultimate, overwhelming despair that she felt.
Instead, they told the tale of the memories that she cherished, times which, although long gone, would never be forgotten. Of the precious seconds, minutes, hours and days that she spent with her loved one.
And, despite herself, she felt the corners of her lips twitch upwards.
Because, people change, places change, but life still goes on. He may have changed, but in her memories, he would forever remain perfect, unblemished.
She poured that happiness, that hope, that knowledge into her music. Almost as if she thought that he could hear her, she picked up the pace, her hand leading the notes, coaxing them out of the strings.
But then, a moment's pause.
Her smile disappears.
The energy of her music that had taken over the room and brought it back to life, back to the times when the room had been splendid - all gone. It was back to the bleak, drab nothingness.
And with that nothingness, a dawning realization.
He can't hear her.
She couldn't reach him.
She can't reach him.
She will never be able to reach him.
Because he is gone. Gone beyond the places from which she could guide him back home. Gone to the place where he is unreachable. Gone to the place where he can never he hers.
Gone.
The word echoes around the room as she ends her music, cuts the sound of the last note short.
Not much later, she ends herself.
Listening to just the music i came up with the following words:
ReplyDeletesad tragic cliffhanger olden-style climax build-up slow violin screechy forbidden-love secrets sleep night dark 'no way out' death suicide dreams life-reaching-an-important-stage journ ey-of-life culturalrespect lord/lady royalty occasional celebration better-to-worse dilemma nostalgia coming-to-the end of a journey to-begin-a-new-journey departure emotions-through-music saummary important-parts-of-life/journey underlying mystery hope dramatic suspense peace grey-clouds loss sophisticated grieving story
looking at the clip was weird because the music didn't match with the video but i closed my eyes the second time round and a 'video' began to play in my brain; Romeo and Juliet and their forbidden love due to which they leave their country. the scene is set in america and Juliet is diagnosed with a diesease that is sure to take her away from Romeo within 3 months. she is lying down in bed thinking of their love and is experiencing nostalgia of italy. Romeo comes to sit by her side and Juliet opening her mouth to say something, takes her last breath. Romeo sees her 'soul' leave her body and bless him with her everlasting prescence by only going and merging into her existing portrait. throughout time, Romeo hears her speaking to herself but is unable to understand until one day when he discovers her secret. She was never a true human but a supernatural who had to leave at the end of her time.
Bawannoor
I first of all listened to the music without watching the clip, I did this so I could write what I felt when I heard the music and not what the clip showed me. This came to mind:
ReplyDeleteEmotion, love and death, grieving for a loved one, a scene of a funeral with the persons family standing around the coffin, crying. I feel as if the person who died was a man in the War, who was shot and his body flown back to England. However, the music has many layers, and I feel a different emotion could represent each layer. This is because, although I originally thought of love, death and grief, I also feel hope and strength when the the music builds up or gets higher. Also, at points in the music when it slows down, getting towards the end, I also feel as if the family of the soldier is finally able to move on, remembering him, but not grieving everyday for him.
I then watched the clip. This confused me, particularly the first time I watched it together with the music, as I didn't feel as if the two went together. However after watching it again, and taking other peoples opinions from the class discussion, I feel the clip is representing a man looking back on his life, re-visiting all the good and bad, peaceful and distressing, until he is finally laid to rest, in front of a black screen, which i feel is representing death. Also, when you first see the black screen, this is when the music has built up so much and is at a major part within the piece of music, just like death is a major part of life. Then the music stops and slows, implying his death and how he is now at peace. You then see a baby, which i think is representing the man being reborn.
Florence
i find it weird that the clip and the music have been put together, but to me they seem to work that way. At first I feel like the music is drawing you closer, like it needs to tell you something and it sounds like pouring rain. Its a very emotional piece of music, and i agree with Florence that although in the piece there is love, death, and mourning,but I too also see the hope when the music builds up into a lighter feel. This is where i felt the hope through someones pain. i feel like the music was trying to get across someones lifestory, and how they had suffered so much, but now they were getting over it, and recovering. They had got hope, but are still struggling.
ReplyDeleteNow relating the music to the clip of Space gives you a different feel. There was a man, in a space suit, which made me feel disconnected from the scene, as i wasn't meant to be there. Also the music when he turns around the corner, makes me feel scared as if there is going to be something awful in the next room. But it isn't, its a man at a desk, which confuses me. Then in the next room there is the baby in the bed, and he turns into a ball of light. This is where i got the picture of how there could be a room in space, which once you are in it, you never properly die and keep being reborn again. So this man had gone to space, found this room and had been trapped. But as soon as he enters the next room, he sees himself 20 years before, then he sees himself as a baby. I think its like backwards being reborn, so the baby turns into an old man, instead of the otherway round. Its a very wierd clip.
Jess
i find it weird that the clip and the music have been put together, but to me they seem to work that way. At first I feel like the music is drawing you closer, like it needs to tell you something and it sounds like pouring rain. Its a very emotional piece of music, and i agree with Florence that although in the piece there is love, death, and mourning,but I too also see the hope when the music builds up into a lighter feel. This is where i felt the hope through someones pain. i feel like the music was trying to get across someones lifestory, and how they had suffered so much, but now they were getting over it, and recovering. They had got hope, but are still struggling.
ReplyDeleteNow relating the music to the clip of Space gives you a different feel. There was a man, in a space suit, which made me feel disconnected from the scene, as i wasn't meant to be there. Also the music when he turns around the corner, makes me feel scared as if there is going to be something awful in the next room. But it isn't, its a man at a desk, which confuses me. Then in the next room there is the baby in the bed, and he turns into a ball of light. This is where i got the picture of how there could be a room in space, which once you are in it, you never properly die and keep being reborn again. So this man had gone to space, found this room and had been trapped. But as soon as he enters the next room, he sees himself 20 years before, then he sees himself as a baby. I think its like backwards being reborn, so the baby turns into an old man, instead of the otherway round. Its a very wierd clip.
Jess
When I first heard this piece of music, I thought of something that was never ending because each different part played over and over again. It makes me think of grey early morning, chill in the air and watching slow waves on a sandy beach, each wave inexorably advancing with small crests of foam, creating shiny sand-surface, smooth and at the same time retreating back to the sea while new waters-wave advance. The sun is shining behind the clouds leaving no distinct shadows and shore birds walking along throught the new parts of the sand that have been washed up.
ReplyDelete-Jenna