Press Release of 28 Millimetres: WOMEN

The subject matter has a very strong link to one of the themes dealt with in this module, memory. The images are incredibly powerful and without doubt screams out we are still here.  

Some of these incredible images can be viewed from:

http://www.shearyadi.com/myworld/women-are-heroes-jr-incredible-large-photography-event/

·         The stylistics of the video is simplistic but very effective which enables it to illustrate the disjunction between university (student) life and real life.

·         The topicality was good and I felt that it was covered and portrayed well because of its simplistic.

(Note to self: Simplicity can be good and better at connecting and engaging with an audience)

Why do we pay for research to be carried without seeing the data retrieved because it’s too complex for us to understand?

Why is it that Europe and America are referred to as “western world” while Africa and Asia are referred to as the “third world”?

The work of Hans Rosling and his project tries to make this ‘complex’ data available. Below is the link to his 2006 lecture “Debunking myths about the third worlds”

 http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/hans_rosling_shows_the_best_stats_you_ve_ever_seen.html

What i learnt from this:

Thinking outside our pre-conseption

Thinking outside the box – looking at a different perspective

Thinking about the starting point in the pre production

Magic tricks, graffiti, fireworks

Exciting, entertaining, vibrant

I was quite unsure about what to produce for spectacle for spectacle. My previous research on spectacle led me to society but again I didn’t really know what direction to head in. I briefly looked into the spectacle surrounding graffiti but I felt that it has already being done and I do not know what originality I could bring to it and I feel that the final product will be weak.

 I knew I wanted to do a video piece as I had done sound for my artefact on power and I a visual artefact will be a better way of portraying spectacle. I looked at the suggested work of Sally Mann and Wendy Murdoch but I didn’t find what I was looking for.

My idea for spectacle is basically a backdrop of my previous work on power where I used youths aged 16 – 18 years old. The concept is to get a selection of video clips from their mobile phones and piece a story which reflects the usage of mobile phones among youths especially in the documentation of their life.

The plan is to visit the college and speak to same people that interviewed for my audio piece but also include more people to get a more varied response. As well as collecting videos I would also be collecting images. I will also be taking my laptop and a universal card reader to copy the images and videos to my laptop.

Unfortunately one of the problems I have encountered is students are now on half term which makes it extremely difficult for me to get in touch with individuals and I only have a limited amount of time to produce this piece.

Below are some of the images obtained from some of the phones

I collected a vast amount of images however i could not show most of them due to their explicit nature.

Richard Billingham

Richard Billingham work is mainly based around his family and his home and would usually take photographs of the daily on goings of his family.

With these photographs, you get a sense of the characters and the environment. What would happen if this picture was taken again without the characters or the vibrant atmosphere of what appears to be the living room? The frame would obviously be empty and that emptiness becomes a symbol for death and make us realise how we take the simplest things for granted.

Nan Goldin

Nan Goldin is another photographer that is well known for photographing her friends. I specially looked at these images instead of her well known because it resembles something you might see in a photo album and it captures moments that might be seen as trivial.

As I mentioned earlier,when looking at all these photographers and the photos above I thought what happens to the photography when these characters are not there? One must feel as sense of lost if the same photography from the same angle was taken without the people, objects or things.

From my research on memory I decided to do a photographic piece as memory is emotional. To me a photograph can say a 1000 words if it is good. Although I wanted to do a photographic piece on memory I was unsure about still unsure about what to focus on as memory I a wide area. I briefly thought about the concept of nostalgia how we remember the past better than it actually was but shortly abandoned the idea. Following some personal bereavement this year I decided to focus on death mainly focusing how we remember the dead but I was unsure about it as I didn’t feel comfortable photographing coffins, tombstones or cemeteries.

 Final Idea ( I think)

Moving on from this idea I started thinking and looking at how we take simple things for granted such as our homes, our loved ones and possessions. What happens when these things that are every day to us are gone?  Looking back at death, what happens when that person you were talking yesterday is gone? Or when that one important picture is gone? My focal point is looking at simple things like playing cards with your friends or even sitting down watching television with friends and the emptiness created when these people or things are no longer there. This emptiness is a representation of death literally and metaphorically.

Below are some experimental pictures I took with my mobile phone when some friends came over to see whether the idea will work.

The images are quite rough but I liked the idea and concept and decided to photography the daily and spontaneous activities in my house. I wanted a realistic look like snapshots and something that has the effect of looking at family albums.These experimental photos were with my mobile phone. They are very rough but were an illustration of my idea to me.

Movies and Memory – I looked at the representation of memory especially memory impairments in films. Two films that I think depict memory illness in a good way are Notebook(2004) and 50 First Dates(2004). 50 First Dates deals with the issue in a humorous way which is informing and warming. Notebook depiction of the memory loss is serious heart felt and emotional as it is a serious film. Although both films deal with it in a different way it goes to show that you can take a serious issue, look and deal with it in a different way.

Poetry and Memory – Thomas Hardy’s Poems of 1912 was interesting to look at as I started focusing on memory in everyday life. Poems of 1912 are based of his deceased wife and delve into the emotions one will feel after losing a loved one. Simple and Minor details are captured which eventually becomes precious memories. Below is an extract from “Your Last Drive” which to me is an illustration how something so that seems so insignificant becomes precious and this is something that can be captured photographically.

“And on your left you passed the spot
Where eight days later you were to lie”

Literature and Memory – A book that I was recommended is Spies by Michael Frayn. Smell is said to be significant in the trigger of memory. Frayn finely illustrates this in Spies where smell acts as a trigger to memory and evokes the childhood world of Stephen, the protagonist and narrator. Following this, I looked into installations and how I would show the relationship between smell and memory.

I visited an exhibition in London at the Tender Pixel Galley. Breathing Apple was an installation by Sungyeon Park. The exhibition also presented the work of Trevor Kiernander whose paintings focused on urban and rural landscapes. I found Breathing Apple by Sungyeon Park really interesting and created the “Alice in Wonderland dreamlike world”. I liked the dreamlike world created in the installation as I saw it as a portrayl of memory. This dreamlike atmosphere is created by the reverberation of the apple’s breath which brings to mind childhood memory.

In a recent lecture by Will Burton, he spoke about a book by Marcel Proust, “In Search of Lost Time” (“Remembrance of Things Past”)–Á la Recherche du temps perdu. Memory it seems plays a huge role in this novel and Proust is said to have invented the term involuntary memory which is demonstrated through Madeleine. Madeleine are small shell shaped cakes the taste and smell of this cake takes the narrator to a childhood memory.

Further information
Marcel Proust – “In Search of Lost Time”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Lost_Time
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080117.w50bookslosttime/BNStory/Entertainment/home

Marcel Proust
http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/proust.htm

Madeleine – Extract from book that talks about this
http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=8755&pageno=26

Memory as a theme in this book - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_Search_of_Lost_Time#Themes

This idea of using an external image to convey a psychological state for me embodies the three themes of focus: power, memory and spectacle which I will be looking at further from a psychological point.