The Mental Game reflects a moment of tension that everyone has experienced before. As a child, maybe it’s jumping down more steps than you’ve ever tried. As a teenager, maybe it’s clicking “submit” on an application that will decide your future. As an adult, maybe it’s stepping into a class far out of your comfort zone. In a single moment, instinctual hesitation kicks in. Time seems to slow down and you feel separated from the world. Then it’s over before you know it.

I use a moving still in conjunction with a still-looking GIF to replicate how I experience this feeling. By using both mediums, I try to create a sense of disorientation by breaking expectations. The calm stare is captured by a moving gif and the rapid fall is captured by a still. Two expected pieces of information - what’s in front of her and what she’s jumping down to - are missing, faded into the rest of the screen. Examining the alignment, one interpretation could be self-observation from a third person perspective, possibly using her imagination. The environment is left empty to give a sense of disconnection from the rest of the world. The images are embedded into the webpage, making use of the entire screen to increase immersion.

The use of a comic format is reminiscent of the work discussed by Lugon and Guido. It plays with the idea that sequences, in both film and comics, are “building blocks with neatly delimited contours.” Instead, the “pregnant moment” that my sequence captures literally lacks delimitations, both spatially and temporally. This makes the “mapping of time back upon space” as described by Frampton more tenuous, giving more room for the viewer’s own constructions to fill the gaps.

Guido, Laurent, and Olivier Lugon, eds. Between Still and Moving Images. John Libbey Publishing, 2012. Print.