SHANE MCLEAN

SHANE MCLEAN

MY MUSCLE’S HEARTBEAT

2013

4:31

The first statement on my list from the first day of class was 1.) I am an athlete. My project seeks to encompass my everyday by capturing my morning training routine. Leaving boulder at 5:45am, driving in the dark, skiing from 6:30 to 9:30am, packing up and driving back to boulder to make classes by noon. I filmed this piece over thanksgiving break but I normally train on this schedule 5 days a week. This piece is filmed through my eyes and captures what is going on inside and outside my head. I use this footage to address my everyday not only because this is what I spend a significant amount of my life doing, but also because every other aspect in my life affects these moments that I chose to show you. 

What I eat, how I sleep, my family, my home, my emotions, my beliefs, my fears, my physical strength, my relationships, my creativity, my confidence. The sound behind the project is the sound of my quad muscle contracting and releasing. I created the pulse of a heartbeat with the beautiful swish-thump sound of my muscle fibers. This sound symbolizes my strength and all of the physical training that goes into my skiing off the hill, (which is also nearly everyday). 

This contracting and releasing also symbolizes the ebb and flow of my everyday, the good parts and the bad parts, the good days and the bad days, the hard work and the rest.  My legs are my strongest part of my body and the most important to my skiing. Skiing is a dynamic dance, and every part of it is art to me.

I filmed most of my footage with a go-pro attached to my helmet or held at eye level and some of my footage with a small Kodak video camera. To record the sound I used a contact microphone and recorder. I pressed the end of the microphone against my quad muscle and flexed and relaxed it to the pulse of my heartbeat. I then used iMovie to edit my footage and overlay sound.