More wishes.

A few more of the wishes I'll need to get onto postcards and start photographing. I still need to collect more and this is a little problematic right now as I'm struggling to get past my current number of 70.

Photos- Some More Wishes

Some more of the wishes written onto postcards and photographed. I still need to try and reshoot the ones that were on my stolen camera but I'm happy with how this is coming along. I still have people contributing to it and I'm doing the postcards whenever I can/have got people to write on them. The latter is what is slowing down the process more, but I'm confident of making it a success.

Research - Talking Pictures

While in an ideal world I'd be featuring more well known photographers or work I'd found in Portfolio or magazines/websites with critical reviews, I've been struggling with this project. I've had to really look around and most of what I'm finding is by smaller or new artists.

In this case, this is an online photography blog called "mental_floss" and they have a section called 'Talking pictures' which is found images with writing on them. A clever idea which they often sort via different categories. The one I came across was on a design blog and looked at the troubles ones, trying to put our own problems into perspective.



The great thing about the project is that the found images are so subjective. They were what that person wanted to photograph or how someone else wanted their subject to be done so. The text is obviously written on by them and so only discloses what they wish. It's that openness and the sense of not knowing the full story that make such projects hold an audience.


I think secretly everyone has a natural curiosity to know about other people and to know what it is that makes them tick. This project and anything that explore identity or personality offers this gateway and the opportunity to satisfy that curious urge. Being a human seems to be about belonging and not feeling alone and people are constantly searching for things they can relate to. Any project that deals with people and identity gives us an opportunity to engage with someone, through an installation, photograph or piece of text and know we aren't the only ones feeling that way or thinking in a certain way. It's a sense of belonging and of feeling like you fit in. I think secretly everyone strives for that and this type of project offers that as well as being an interesting insight into humans, the ways things were in this case as most of these images are from times we can't relate to these days, not as a younger generation anyway.

Research - Audrey Corregan

Audrey Corregan is a French born photographer based in Paris. She began a more familiar name in 2008 when she won a competition and her work began getting a lot more publication and noticed more. The project I am interested in is called "A family affair" where she takes photographs that she finds or is given from family albums. The difference between her and other people doing a similar idea is that with her work, you never see the subject.


I first read about it on a media blog and it caught my attention because I hadn't really heard of a similar project and so it interested me. By photographing the backs of the various photographs, you get an entirely different perspective on the family photographs. Sometimes the back is plain barring the stamp made by the printer or the paper itself. Sometimes there is just a place, just a date or sometimes more information is disclosed in a few words or captions.


The thing I like is that you get to be the storyteller. You can imagine what they were doing or what was in frame or eve more trivial things like where they've kept the photos and had they been damaged, looked at lots. It's an alternative way of letting someone into your family life and you don't reveal anything you don't want.

Research - Cards of change

One of the more motivational and inspirational projects I've come across while researching for this project. Cards of change is aiming to collect as many business cards as possible where people have been made redundant or the company has ceased to expire. They then write their next venture and how they've managed to find employment on the card.

The project offers hope and inspiration for those who find themselves in the same boat and I found it a rather nice way of people coping and adapting to a pretty big change in their life that usually involves a period of uncertainty about bills and money. It shows that the worry can be over and things can be better. It's a pretty uplifting project.


They are doing quite well with responses and I'd say it's a far less anonymous project than mine, so I may have to look at their techniques and methods. I enjoyed the mixed responses to how they got things. Some people are more visibly upset about their loss of job than some who are more defiant and just angry. It brings out a part of each person's identity which is then captured on the card and we as viewers can make decisions about the person based on the job they had and the one they're getting or what they've done with the card.


My own project so far has evoked mixed reactions from me while I've been reading through the wishes. Some are sad, some are happy and some are downright silly but made me laugh/smile. This project is about looking on the bright side of things and I'd hope my own project could serve a different purpose but still be something. Perhaps that'll be the confessional element of it, people getting things off their chest or finally accepting various aspects of their life. Or perhaps my project will backfire and just bring out the bitter regrets and selfish wishes in people. At the minute it's uncertain because I don't have enough but I am interested to see my own outcome.

Research - "Future of travel"

Came across this fascinating experiment that asked children to predict the future of travel. They did a drawing of what they thought it would look like and also provided a description just in case the drawing wasn't clear enough and for those viewing it after it's done.

The people behind it are Good magazine and they were very clever in getting children to do it. Their imagination and creativity is great and they're going to provide a different insight than adults could. They are also less likely to hold back and you always get frank honesty when you ask a child to do or say something.

I'm including it more because I think I should try and get children to contribute to my wishes project. So far I think it's either teenagers or adults who have participated and while this is great, getting some children to participate would offer me some different wishes and probably some more interesting ones.

I have several contacts in schools that I could talk to about getting some wishes together and so this is something I should definitely pursue. Below are some of the transportation devices of the future according to Los Angeles school children.

Research - David Fullerton

David Fullerton did a fantastic and amusing installation piece called "What I do at work when I'm supposed to be working" that is art pieces created during his work hours. The pieces are very much an exploration into the workings of his mind, his identity and probably summarise the way many of us feel during work.

His contribution was part of a larger project run in Texas that asked for help from various artists and companies. It was to highlight the need for arts in the daily life and to look at what keeps us hanging onto reality and what distracts us. Fullarton exhibited in Houston radio station offices and made his work solely from office supplies to tie into the theme more. They explore the comedic tragedy of the daily slog that many of us endure at work.

It has since been made into a book too and I've included some images of the layout below as I see my own project becoming a book at some point and I really like how he's designed the layout and how it ties to the theme of the project.

The installation was clever because by doing it in offices, it kept it very realistic and immersed the viewers into it more and could relate them to their own working lives or the ones we see documented so often on television and in movies.

Research - I can teach you...

Tired of plain old name tags, one of the runners of CreativeMornings decided to make things more interesting. Rather than simply having your name which tells you very little about the person and offers nothing memorable the tags say ''I can teach you" and are then filled in by the people.

Obviously it probably helped having a willing, creative minded group of people but it's still an interesting theory. It tells you so much more about a person than a name could and personally, I think I'd be more likely to remember a name and face if I had something quirky to put with it. The woman behind it, Tina Roth Eisenberg isn't the biggest name but is making one for herself as a designer but I really like the idea and the interaction and it's another way of exploring identity.

Research - Marcelo Pena Costa

Marcelo Pena Costa is a Brazilian based artist who has worked in many mediums. The project I'm looking at is called "the walking pen project" and features interaction with the public.

He printed up hundreds of Bic pens with the phrase "Please let me go" on them and handed them out to people as well as putting them in strategic locations to be found. Each one had a five digit tracking number on them. The pen also has some text about the website, namely that it's part of a project and a web address. They're asked to go to it and type in their unique number along with their location. This allows Costa to see how far his pen has travelled and track the use of it. The tracking device on it allows them to path out exactly where it has been and the artist could communicate with the participant.

It's a simple idea but very effective and also a great project that looks at participation and involves the social networking aspect of communication through the computer and without having met the other person on the other end. He had similar problems with participation. In the early version he sent out 200 pens and 25% were registered back to the website by participants. The others, it's unclear what happened to them and this is perhaps part of what I like. The mystery.

Below is the promo video for it while the project is being re-done.

Walking Pen Project from Marcelo Costa on Vimeo.

Interesting research

I came across this project called Cardon Copy that designer Cardon Webb is doing. He finds notes and fliers on the streets of America, takes them away, makes his own version and returns them. It's an interestinf idea using found text to make art and he seems to want to beautify the streets more.

I like the idea of using found text and creating something more beautiful and more artistic from it. I suppose that's what I'm doing rather than just screenshotting the wishes from Tumblr. Taking them and putting them onto postcards to photograph them makes it a more visually stimulating project and I think it also makes it more real. To see actual handwriting adds the personal touch and a sign that someone has interacted to help me create the photo in the first place.

Research- Ken Habarta

I knew I needed to step up my research and find more photographers who have used text with image, found text particularly and in social situations. Perhaps different to the others I've looked at, I'm including Ken Habarta's Bank Notes project.

At the minute it's online on a designated website but there is also a book version available of the ever expanding project. Called Bank Notes, it's a look at the notes or words robbers use when robbing a bank. In an odd way, it examines the human psych and sometimes he can use actually notes but other times goes on the way the newspaper or an eyewitness account reports it as going down.

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For the average person who doesn't think like a criminal or with such bad intentions, it's interesting to look at. Some of them are surprisingly polite and calm and it makes you wonder what led such a rational person to commit this crime. The interesting part is that he uses a CCTV picture of the robber at the bank and so you have a face to put with the words. This helps you to make an opinion or a judgement, be it for better or worse.

Although very different to what I'm doing, it still interests me. It's the collection and dedication the author has to the project as he's spent a decade doing so. While obviously my project needs to move faster in a much shorter timescale, it's something that shows me that if you enjoy something you can keep it going for a while.

The book also includes the text as Habarta is a writer where he talks about stereotypes, indicators and the various threats and how they can be deduced. Perhaps an odd, slightly sick read, but fascinating nonetheless. I also like the layout, the decision to include details and disclose more information about the personal to help us piece together the story and an opinion of the individual.

Changing

The module that this project for is all about getting the work out there. So part of it involves finding a competition, film festival, gallery or whatever is suitable for the project. When I first started, my idea was slightly different and so I was going for the LPA 'Let's face it 7' competition which involved submitting 5 portraits.

Obviously at the time the project was going to be portraits and then text to go with them or featuring in the portraits, but now it's developed into the wishes project and there are no people, I've had to review what I'm aiming for.I had another lookat the various competitions available but there was nothing fitting. Obviously film festivals are out of the question. While I may make a video to accompany the project, this isn't an aim of mine and my project just wouldn't fit. So the only option left to me is an installation at a gallery. Obviously this changes what I am aiming for and so instead I'll need to write a proposal showcasing my idea, the research, the initial work and what I'd like to exhibit. It needs to be professional and endear the panel to my work.

The next job was finding a suitable space. Obviously I am an un-exhibited student photographer who can't really afford to pay too much for a space and so I could narrow it down to smaller, independent and possibly local galleries. There is one in Leicester that only charges a small fee, but it's relatively unknown and the space isn't ideal for what I had in mind, not to mention it seems hard to get people to go to it that aren't just students and I want my project to appeal to a larger audience.

I was alerted to several in the East Midlands, notably several smaller ones in Nottingham. Perhaps slightly ambitious but there's Surface Gallery which is good. Despite me feeling that I'm simply not good enough, they are very open for various exhibitions and so I could submit here. It is very modern and contemporary and the range of art available varies which is good as I haven't seen too many projects like mine as installations which cuts out some of the more traditional galleries.

The other gallery I am looking at is The Ropewalk Gallery which is in North East Lincolnshire. I'd be looking to have the exhibit in the summer and so since this gallery is very near to my hometown it makes sense as I don't know where I'll be yet, but there's always a room at my parents house. The gallery has a good amount of people inon a daily basis anyway and is known in the local area. It's a contemporary gallery and has a range of art. I'm not sure they've had so many installations but they're always open to submissions and have a policy that has to be followed. I've included a screenshot of the policy below and also the layout. They have two spaces they exhibit work in but I envisage my exhibition in Gallery 1 as I like the space and the layout more.

Research - "Here you go"

I've been looking for projects that use postcards and interaction with the outside world and stumbled across this one whilst looking for a blog. Really glad I did though because I had a lot of fun looking through it and it's an interesting project.

"Here you go" is a community project based in Pittsburgh. They have an extremely interesting concept. They go out while it's raining and hand out yellow umbrellas to people who are getting wet. In exchange for the umbrella, they ask that these people do something kind in return for somebody else. The way of monitoring this is that theyattach a stamped and waterproofed postcard to the umbrella and hope that people will fill it in with what good deed they did.

It's a very quirky idea and a way of trying to make the place friendlier and kinder. So it works on two levels, one as an art project that asks for public interaction and two, on a community level that encourages random acts of kindness. I found some of the responses touching and hope the project continues to build.

"Here you go" is the type of project that reminds us all of how lucky we are. Things we take for granted and how little random acts of kindness can really mean something to somebody else and are so easy to do, yet we just don't do them often enough. It's an endearing project that has a feel good element to it.

Perhaps this is where I'm going wrong. Although I am covering the social network aspect of things, perhaps the way to broaden responses and collect more is to appeal for wishes by leaving postcards that get sent back to me somewhere. It would still be anonymous and I'd still get to create the wishes and make photographs from them. I definitely need to try something different as I'm now stuck at a certain number and want more contributions.

Research- Kelly Gardner

I'd been trying to remember the name of an artist for a while now. I remember seeing her exhibit about three years ago in a local gallery and the reason I was reminded of her was 1) sorting through my hard-drive and a photo I'd taken of one of her pieces and 2) the gallery is where I'm thinking of applying to host the installation but I need to type up another entry about how the competition aspect has changed and my research for this.

All I remembered about it was that there were wire dress mannequin shapes that had text bundled up into squares andsome keys mixed in as well as there being old photographs and other bits around it. A little bit of digging and I found her profile on the Saatchi gallery website.

Kelly Gardner is a British artist. Her work is based around the concept of time and memories, traces or scraps of these and also the absence in them. I remember it as being a visually stunning piece but also interesting when I read the text on it and reading again, it doesn't disappoint. She looks at how we try and preserve the memories through text or photos and it's a personal project that I find inspiring.

Part of the reason I'm looking at it is because I find it so inspirational. She's looking at identity, even if it's through a different channel to me. The memories she's using are a part of somebody or of people. The found and collected images she uses are somebody's life captured at one precise moment and it's fascinating. The presentation was also very interesting and made me curious upon seeing it for the first time.

For the text, she uses books and folds them, leaving us to read them only in a fragmented, disconnected way that leaves us wondering about characters or able to pieces them together from memory if we've read them before. This interaction that the reader can have and how wildly it'll vary from person to person and depending on how long they spend looking is also great.