Photo Experiments

Experimenting with imagery

I don’t feel comfortable with the video experiments and I am not confident enough to try other installations. I think that I should go back to photography and experiment with different types of methods to express Isoloneliness. To do this, I walked around town and at home, taking photographs of objects that made me think of Isoloneliness.  

Driving away

I visited my parents for a few days to give myself a break from work. I felt happy to be around familiar faces. When it was time to leave, I got that pang feeling in the stomach (the feeling I get when I feel alone). I was in the passenger seat of a car, driving back to Manchester. I looked out the window and saw the long road ahead. I decided to take a few photographs on my camera phone. The images I took were of the road, which was symbolic of the journey away from comfort. The images were blurred (accidental) because of the speed of the car, however, I liked this effect as it looks like my journey was becoming distorted, and not clearly visible.

 I really liked the effect that this has produced. The blurry effect is a good technique of representing an uncertain future. On the first image, the word SLOW on the road is bluured too. This has not been an intention to capture but i feel like it gives a message to the photograph about the journey.

This image is blurred like the rest, but it looks like a badly taken photograph. I have to include this into my experiments as a mistake so that i can learn from it. If i am to further this technique, I need to avoid making images look like this.

Over all I am pleased with this experiment, even though the foundations of it were discovered by accident. The idea of blurring to create a tension of the unknown or unclear vision works well with Isoloneliness. This is because of the uncertainty the feeling brings out in a person suffering from Isoloneliness. I think that I could take this experiment and adapt it to another project, developing the blurring so it looks more professional.

Technological loneliness

Technological loneliness

Still continuing the experiments in The Cure, I want to try out one more concepts before completely giving up. I would like to explore the concept of technologies and its impact on how we deal with loneliness. I mentioned the idea of technologies been used as a cure, a hide away from loneliness. Internet chat rooms and mobile phones create a civilization where we can talk to anyone in the world, yet are alone in a room. The project is hard not to fall into cliques of artwork, for example, I normally would have done a print out of a social network, and worked on that. I think that it is a bit insulting to a viewer. I have decided to experiment on the actual technology that supplies this cure. I took some close ups of a key board. I made them blurry to represent the distorted vision of the new interactive culture and online salvation that the internet provides. Then took images of the internet not working, as a link to the truth.

In the end I didn’t like where I was going with this idea. I could develop the pictures into a montage or create a piece using them, but the idea seems dull so I decided to try a different medium. Plain pictures of technologies isn’t informative enough of my opinion, so I wanted to experiment with film. I bought a keyboard and used an old mobile phone. I then filmed destroying the key to the cure. I did this to see what it would like from a different perspective.   

In the end I didn’t like where I was going with this idea. I could develop the pictures into a montage or create a piece using them, but the idea seems dull so I decided to try a different medium. Plain pictures of technologies isn’t informative enough of my opinion, so I wanted to experiment with film. I bought a keyboard and used an old mobile phone. I then filmed destroying the key to the cure. I did this to see what it would like from a different perspective.   

The videos didn’t turn out as I expected. I lost the hammer that I was supposed to smash my phone with, so had to use a nut cracker, and the saw I used to cut the keyboard in half snapped. I liked the idea of filming the destruction of technology, but it didn’t turn out as expected, and am finding it difficult to think of a use for the videos. I am going to leave this idea for now, but may come back to it after I have created another mind map.

 

Sketch book experiments

Sketch book experiments

While trying to develop my ideas of how sex is used as an escapism, I tried some visual creations to try to inspire me, since finding an artist that uses condoms in the same gratifications as me. I did a 3 piece image based on myself. ‘Memories are worthless’ is the first part that consists of a film negative in a money bag, followed by ‘Sex is priceless’, just a plain condom stuck to paper, leads to the final piece, ‘Fuck yourself’, a page from a pornographic magazine, with images of myself with my eyes covered. This piece was created purely to inspire myself, and motivate my mind to create as I am currently caught up with my dissertation, that is giving me an artist block. Looking back on the piece, I don’t think that I could relate it to any significance in my project, however, I feel that I represents a glimpse into my own personal conflicts.

After deciding that I cannot use any of the new experiments to move forward, I decided to move on, but still using condoms. I created a mini journal, set out like a note book. It consisted of 4 pages, where I photocopied 4 condoms on each page. I used this to question why sex could be used as a cure for Isoloneliness. The first page worked like a number factory (those mathematical machines used at school to help develop sum skills). The condom is a factory that answers the questions you put in. I called this the sex guru.

QUESTEION                                  SEX GURU                           ANSWER

The cure for loneliness?                 .................                         yes

An excuse to fuck?                         .................                         yes

Habit?                                             .................                         yes

Animal instinct?                              .................                         yes

Fear of rejection                             .................                         debatable

The next 2 pages were based on opposites. The 4 condoms on the 2^nd page each had a title, and on the 3^rd page, a word that was an opposite was used as a title for that pages condoms.

PLEASURE                                           ................                           PAIN

PASSION                                              ................                           FEAR

EXCITMENT                                        ................                           DREAD

ROMANCE                                          ................                           LUST

The fourth page of the journal was shrunk by using a photocopier. It consisted of 4 condoms, but with no information attached, apart from the clip in the corner that stated ‘PROJECT ABANDONED’. The whole project is to represent the truth in the cure, that what we think, is actually the opposite of what we want. We want to believe that what we think helps, but it doesn’t, or that it might only be temporary. This project also invokes more questions, and ideas for projects. What happens when we detach from our sexual partners? When 2 become 1, what becomes of the 1, and what does the 1 feel when the 2 are not together?

Moving on

I have decided to move on from condoms, and the mission to explore a cure for Isoloneliness. This is because I feel that I cannot create a sound project that can express Isoloneliness. The journal experiment didn’t work because it was basic, and nothing to stimulate the viewers thinking. Again, it has failed to represent a solid argument for a cure. The whole concept of this project is becoming difficult because of the technicalities of expression. One problem I found I have in my work is assuming that what I state is an actual fact, a fact shared by a collective thought shared by everyone on this planet. I feel that, in order for this project to move on, I should try to make this project based on human thought, and leave it to the psychologists.

The Life Cycle of a Condom

Analysis of objects in a condom

I chose objects that I think people turn to when suffering from Isoloneliness, yet I don’t know why I put them in condoms. I could have used the objects in their own context, and feel like that it doesn’t work by putting them in condoms. My focus for this project was to illustrate sex and one night stands as a cure, not other cures. If I am to return to this project, I will extract the objects from the condom and use them in another way.

RISK ASSESMENT; The hypodermic syringe I used was brand new, and free from sharps. A friend who uses insulin provided the needle, and he handled it at all times, including putting it in the condom. It was disposed of in his sharp box carefully and responsibly.

The Life Cycle of a Condom/Mid term review

The idea for this creation was inspired by using condoms to capture ‘life’. My aim was to represent a cure; a one night stand. By creating a brief time line of a condom in its different stages of use, would represent been used for sex. I wanted to represent the gratifications of sex, and how we see sex as intimacy. Between the times of sex, we are as close to another person, physically, as any other activity. This craving for intimacy might be seen as a need, an escape from been lonely. Based on personal experience, one night stands can be deconstructed as a temporary cure for loneliness. The life cycle intentions were to illustrate this idea.

Behind the controversy

The instalment did cause a bit of a controversy when people found out that the last condom contained real seamen. I feel that I had to use real seamen because it represented the capture of life, creating another lonely vessel (life). I wanted to create a piece that was realist, and if I used a substitute, it would have lost its values.

However, I presented this idea to my peers at the midterm review and received mixed comments. Although several people liked the concept, the work was classed as subjective. A situation that did not occur to me at the time of creation. The problem with my work was that it wasn’t clear to the viewer the intentions of the piece. One comment that I took on board was that it could be evidence of a loving relationship, when the work is supposed to represent a one night stand. I looked at the piece after and could see that it was hard to understand what was going on. In my mind, I knew what the significance was, but failed to notify the viewer.

The development of The Life Cycle of a Condom

Taking in to consideration on what was said at the midyear review, I decided to try develop the piece. One of my ideas was to add the time on the life cycle, and turn it in to a time line. From the first part, I placed a time on the back ground, and on each one until the end was 5 minutes ahead of the first one. I wanted to try and create a time scale of 5 minutes that would signify a one night stand, or a ‘quickie’. I then framed the condoms, not to create an impact on meaning of the piece, but to keep the condoms safe. Upon self assessment, I felt that it still didn’t work, and I started to struggle coming up with ideas to represent a one night stand. At this point, I decided to move on to another part of the project because time was running out, and the cycle project was becoming very time consuming.