Experiment: Day Out

I decided to go for a wander in central London. After talking to Peter I wanted to watch people go about their daily lives and see if I would stumble upon anything interesting. I wanted to keep my distance and go unnoticed.

I took pictures on my phone camera as I thought it would draw less attention and I could pretend I was playing or texting on it, whilst secretly taking photos. Unfortunately my phone camera doesn't have a zoom or flash - however, I feel this added a good distance in the final pictures and to the figures within them. I did not feel like I was intruding on anyone, I just felt easy like I wasn't there or I was tourist taking pictures on their day out as no one seemed to mind even notice. I was observing at a distance not knowing who they were, what they were talking about or what they were doing there and then. I couldn't make out their expressions or gestures. This made me feel at ease just sit back and watch, making up my own ideas in my head: imagination.

Discussion

Ideas:

Observer/Observed -

How we look, watch (the person behind the camera) what are they focusing in on? why? what are they showing?

Seeing from a different point of viewing - whether it's following an unsuspecting subject and the images are blurred adds a pace or motion to the images.

Who is being observed? Why? What are they doing? Do they notice their being watched? What are their reactions or behaviour?

Methods: Spying, detective, surveillance, forensics, following, collecting information, stalking, approaching/questioning.

Watching life pass by, journey. Catching an event accidentally (witness).

Public and Private -

In regards to bodies, identities, actions and so on.

Looking a places, spaces and settings. Does being in a specific location suggest how one acts/behaves? Does this influence how they are viewed, are we seeing their true identity?

People act, display, perform in different ways according to different situations and places.

What is regarded public? private? SPHERES = Raises questions about intrusion on identity, individuality our personal freedoms especially our personal space.

How does distance change the dynamic between the observer and the observed? Are we intruding if we look for a distance and don't interact?

Society, culture and media: has this changed what is regarded as public or private?

How to look/view. What about constricted viewing, what does this change to what extent.

Something different. A spectacle -

A spectacle is a public body, out in the open for it to be viewed/seen.

Something different, unusual, doesn't blend in.
Appearing visually different.
Standing out of the crowd.

Your on show, is this a true reflection of self or a show? display for others to see. It has been carefully crafted made up to appear in a certain way.

Identity -

How do we find out about others? How do we identify each other.

Curiosity, fascination and voyeurism.

'Red Road' a film by Andrea Arnold

My tutor recommended I watch 'Red Road' as it dealt with ideas related to 'people watching' and observing the public or society from a distance, but slowing getting closer. Consequently the dynamic and atmosphere of the film changes dramatically as it moves from public to private.

The film is about a woman who works as a CCTV surveillance officer in Glasgow. She watches and protects people going about their daily lives as she zooms in and out of their lives. One day she recognises a man on her monitor and the film takes a turning point. She now physically takes part as she begins to follow the man, journeying closer and closer to man. The viewers become exposed to a more personal and private viewing position.

Catch up with Peter my tutor

My project proposal aims roughly focused on the broad issues surrounding body image/ideals and gender. I found looking at gender issues a vast theoretical abyss that I felt I could not focus my interests in on. I wanted to study in a more accessible and practical way, which I had been finding difficult looking at gender discourse and identity. After with my tutor, moving forward with the underlying interest have been on the body 'people' and ideas related to private/public spheres.

As discussed with my tutor ideas were falling towards the body as a 'spectacle' not purely subject. Something that is observed. How it is viewed and seen by the observed and the observed. How we hold public/private bodies. Distance vs. personal.

Zooming in and out of people's daily lives, routines and journeys; watching life passing by. Slice of life.

Culture, the individual and identity
Societies and representation
Media and society

Past Exhibition: Beautiful Freaks – Installation at Dalston Superstore

After I went to see the RCA Exhibition 'Gender and Performance' I became drawn to by the eccentric work of Ralf Obergfell and Tony Hornecker, so I did a bit of exploring. I came across their past exhibition and installation at Dalston Superstore last year(http://tonyhornecker.wordpress.com/2009/11/27/beautiful-freaks-installation-at-dalston-superstore/). The images above are a small sample of what the installation consisted of.

Gallery - The Tamsynettes, by artist Tamsyn Challenger at the Transition Gallery

13 March-18 April







I went to visit The Tamsynettes exhibition which dealt with the modern obsession with hiding the signs of bodily ageing. The exhibition was to represent the piecing together beauty!

'Tamsyn Challenger broadly concerns herself with the steady march of time upon the body; on her own, on those whom she loves, male and female, and on the desperate ravages inflicted on a woman’s form by the warping of beauty into an ideology, where the natural becomes perverse'

'Her work toys with the forces of modern popular culture as blind-siding. The nipping and tucking of whatever is at hand to under-pin an image and the passivity of watching to create identity often moves Challenger to reunite fairytales such as Snow White with their gruesome roots' (www.transitiongallery.co.uk)

I found the exhibition quite fascinating and to an extent playful (interactive in the sense there where no restrictions in the exhibition, your free to wonder amongst the limbs and body parts - private/public). The dolls appeared to have a breath of life about them, surrounded by scattered artificial wooden arms and limbs. The display did make one question bodily identity, that of our own how we look and feel about ourselves even how we treat ourselves/behave - even how we look at others. Dealing with the idea of things fading/disappearing/losing certain parts of ones identity.

Gallery - Gender and Performance Exhibition at the Royal College of Art, London

The photographer's name for most of the above photographs is Al Overdrive.

I went to visit the RCA students union exhibtion and performances that raised questions about how gender, sex, embodiment and how the real are constructed, participated in and performed within society. The aim of the project was to explore 'how art and design can provide a unique understanding of each strand of human rights that is beyond existing policy or sociological knowledge' (http://rcasu.com/section/diverse-rca/gender-and-performance-exhibition-and-symposium). The exhibition featured various media such as video, sculptural, photographic and performance works by Oreet Ashery, Franko B’s sculpture of a swing 'I’m Thinking Of You' and Ralf Obergfell’s photographs complemented by Tony Horneckers installation ‘peep booths’ forming 'Beautiful Freaks' installation.

The group of contemporary artists provided a unique and energetic display of personal ideas dealing with bodily issues.

I was struck by this exhibition, it was lively yet silent and thought provoking. The various different 'attractions' kept your head spinning with thoughts and ideas. I particularly liked Ralf Oberfell's colourful photographs. They reminded me of David Lachappelle. What I was drawn to most were the real life characters depicted, their real lives. A vibrant life portrayed with a splash of oddness catching the observers attention and raising the observers curiosity. Also the 'Peep Booths' were quite enchanting and terrifying at the same time: that feeling that you want to look but know its not a pretty sight! Curiosity getting the better of you.

I enjoyed the interaction and live performances, as well as live actors/show people in the booths. Raised ideas about the body/body parts becoming spectacles - that you can alter the way one is seen and understood.

Edgar Degas: Human Figure

I thought I would include Degas quickly. Degas studied the gestures and poses of human figures in interior settings. I like the way he uses the human form in various ways, through colour he sets a tone and atmosphere. He makes the viewer try and understand the scene, behaviour and action/movement (figures are about to do something, leap off the canvas and start dancing).


He articulates everyday experience, figures going about their lives, daily routines whether these be private or public acts.

Gallery - National Museum in Krakow

I visited the National Museum in Krakow (Muzeum Narodowe w Krakowie) in Poland. The exhibition housed a number of diverse contemporary artists. I was specifically drawn to the works of Eric Fischl, David Lachappelle and Nobuyoshi Araki which I found related to my project directly looking at the body. These artists all look closely at the human figure presenting dramatic and emotive narratives which captured my attention.

Eric Fischl





New York Times, "[Degas] sets up a charged situation with his incomparable subtlety of insight and characterization, and then he goes away and leaves us to figure it out as best we can. That is the tactic of Fischl, too, though the society with which he deals has an unstructured brutality and a violence never far from release that are very different from the nicely calibrated cruelties that Degas recorded." (http://www.nytimes.com/1986/02/21/arts/art-at-the-whitney-28-eric-fischl-paintings.html).


David Lachappelle




Nobuyoshi Araki

Introduction

I have began my final major project with an interest in the body. In attempt to take this further I want to look at body ethics which, I have broady titled ‘body matters' issues surrounding the human body. This sparked an interest in ideas surrounding gender identity, body image and ideals. I plan to explore how and to what extent social and cultural structures influence the body such as identity. Looking at social norms and expectations and bodies that stray from the ordinary. I begin my research by investigating how body ideals and identities are constructed, represented and performed.

(After Easter my direction begins to change and after a discussion with my tutor and looking over my research we decide that I focus on the IDENTITY and PEOPLE - see 'Talk with Tutor' post)