The Visual Stimulus: Da Prato's Portraits
What would the visual stimulus be? "Either you have a blank screen or you don't," Da Prato notes. "If you are adding the extra component of looking at something, then you are introducing the notion of visual perception, and then all kinds of questions arise about what the visual stimulus should be: should it be images of rain, should those images look like traditional rain, should the images be an abstracted version of rain?" (2012a).
Da Prato previously created a number of filmed portraits with cinematographer James Fideler that explore, study, and play with the human face. Lloyd suggested that Da Prato screen some of her portraits for the subjects while they were in the fMRI.
Da Prato has been fascinated by portraiture for a long time. She studied the work of Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Cindy Sherman, Dorothea Lange, Frida Kahlo, and Andy Warhol; Renaissance portraiture, especially Carravaggio for his use of light; French pop music videos from the mid-1960s; and early MTV music videos which, she says, were about watching someone sing. Da Prato says she would be happy if she could sit and stare at faces all day because "in each [facial expression] you can see how we navigate the world" (2012b). Da Prato creates portraits by having a conversation with subjects while filming them: for some portraits she has asked people to "stare into the lens of the camera and think about the future -- about the next second or about tonight or about the future of humanity." She then substitutes a musical track for the conversational track, while editing the film to focus on particular facial expressions and reactions. She describes this as "choreographing the face -- it's like a little dance" of naturally occurring facial expressions (2012b).
Da Prato's portraits, like Lloyd's sonifications and Josipovic's neuroscience experiments, are an exploration of consciousness: "In what other way are we supposed to sink into consciousness except for looking at the face," she asks rhetorically. She deconstructs faces in the same way linguists deconstruct language to see how they function. Portraiture, she says, "becomes another way of relating to the world" (2012b).
Da Prato previously created a number of filmed portraits with cinematographer James Fideler that explore, study, and play with the human face. Lloyd suggested that Da Prato screen some of her portraits for the subjects while they were in the fMRI.
Da Prato has been fascinated by portraiture for a long time. She studied the work of Diane Arbus, Richard Avedon, Cindy Sherman, Dorothea Lange, Frida Kahlo, and Andy Warhol; Renaissance portraiture, especially Carravaggio for his use of light; French pop music videos from the mid-1960s; and early MTV music videos which, she says, were about watching someone sing. Da Prato says she would be happy if she could sit and stare at faces all day because "in each [facial expression] you can see how we navigate the world" (2012b). Da Prato creates portraits by having a conversation with subjects while filming them: for some portraits she has asked people to "stare into the lens of the camera and think about the future -- about the next second or about tonight or about the future of humanity." She then substitutes a musical track for the conversational track, while editing the film to focus on particular facial expressions and reactions. She describes this as "choreographing the face -- it's like a little dance" of naturally occurring facial expressions (2012b).
Studio Portrait: #5: Silvia with Schubert by Elisa Da Prato on Vimeo. (Courtesy Elisa Da Prato)
In addition to studio portraiture, Da Prato also creates on-location portraits of musicians:
Portrait: Arrington by Elisa Da Prato on Vimeo. (Courtesy Elisa Da Prato)
Portrait: Arrington by Elisa Da Prato on Vimeo. (Courtesy Elisa Da Prato)
Da Prato's portraits, like Lloyd's sonifications and Josipovic's neuroscience experiments, are an exploration of consciousness: "In what other way are we supposed to sink into consciousness except for looking at the face," she asks rhetorically. She deconstructs faces in the same way linguists deconstruct language to see how they function. Portraiture, she says, "becomes another way of relating to the world" (2012b).
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