Wednesday, 29 December 2010
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.
Tuesday, 21 December 2010
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.
Thursday, 16 December 2010
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Monday, 13 December 2010
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.
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