In previous projects I have researched the science behind the elements but I would like to take a more conceptual and physical approach with this part of the project.

I began by coming up with some words I associate with light. I wrote down some words I think best describe light without going into the science of it and focused more on how it makes you feel and the physicality of it.

I left space at the bottom to continue to add to it throughout the project. Very much inspired by Francis Alÿs’s ‘A Personal Repertoire of Possible Behaviour While Walking the Streets in London Town’ 

I decided to do this with the lost videos and sound clips I made in part one of the project. I can’t get the videos back but if I describe what heard in them, does it make it just as important/valid as the real thing? if not more? as it now has the theme of loss within it.

I like the idea of writing down something you experience in a specific place that no-one else could experience unless they were there at the exact same time in the exact same place, but even then they may pick up on different sounds than I did.

Writing the sounds/happenings down, I think leaves the viewer to imagine what they sounded like, what the lost videos looked like, creating a completely different experience every time. Which in hindsight may be better than the videos and audio clips ever where.

I like using text to give form to something formless. I've never worked with text before and I am excited to see where it develops. I do feel like the text is just the medium though and not the piece itself, I think what's not there is more important than what is.

I chose to type in web font instead of hand written because I wanted give a nod to the times we are in, where everything is done online at the moment. It also is an in-between in terms of physicality, something but nothing, like light.

Mar 29, 2021

The feedback given to me about part one was; what was it I wanted to audience to understand and experience. To continue onto part two I think I have to answer/ reflect on this first.

I left part one with my experience of theft, was a result of something I did and my actions lead to somethings being taken from me and reflecting on the feeling of hindsight. It showed me trying to control hindsight in some way and an overall theme of loss.

Going back over it all it has lead me back to my fascination with ephemerality, light and the physicality’s of it.

My understand of the light is that if I open my curtains, I am inviting the light in, yet even when I don’t it still intrudes my space. I relate this to opening my window and having someone come into my space uninvitedly.

Going forward I want the audience/viewer to experience the physicality of light, to draw attention to the space it fills and to appreciate moments that are often overlooked by giving form to a formless feeling and element.

Mar 29, 2021

This is the final image for this Project. This work is farrrr from being finished quite clearly as I haven’t done a lot of doing, despite a fair bit of thinking. I think there are many branches I could go to and explore with developing this further and I will continue it on into the next part of this project.

Capturing snow rather than rain was important as much like the people who go to see a Richard Wright in person, I knew that the snow was not going to last and that it would soon be gone, leaving me with a feeling of loss. capturing it in a the jar was a way of controlling and eradicating the feeling of hindsight and/or capturing ephemerality.

Having the jars ajar is something I done intentionally as I enjoy subtle humour (if you can call it that) in my work, but I like it more because it is relevant to the story telling of the piece.

I like how conceptual this project is turning out to be as I don’t normally go down that route but I am really enjoying connecting the dots throughout and upon reflection.

too late – (Click to view)

 

Mar 24, 2021

Here is the recreation of the snow coming into my room using rain water. Rain water does not have the same effect as it doesn’t represent loss in my mind but the fact that I don’t have the original documentation of the first trial of this idea, is ironic. Seeing I had to recreate it because I lost the original, could be relevant. Loss

These three images are of the original melted snow from the first experiment. I have retaken images of it here with the lid to the jar closed, un-latched and wide open. I am not sure what I was doing when doing this but I think each one says something completely different. Still to figure that out I think.

In both it was important to me that the liquid was collected in a see through container (like the box from my first idea) to represent the blurred lines of private and public aspect of a traditional gallery institution (white cube).

 

 

Mar 24, 2021

uninvited light 1 – (click to view)

Some thoughts about having my curtains drawn, window and door closed but sitting experiencing the outsides elements through sight and sound.

If I open my curtains, I invite (the light) in. What happens if I open my window?

Mar 22, 2021

For this project we were asked to chose a specific space to work from (social, virtual, intervention etc) and I chose site responsive, the site being my flat/bedroom.  This idea of blurring the lines of private and public made me consider the white cube as a space also as the traditional gallery space is a public space but also has an elitism quality and history attached to it making it a ‘private’ space to many.

This lead to my initial idea of having a perspex box that is see through and having something from the outside spilling into.

• - The clear box representing the white cube, clear being the public element but the box being closed off showing its private or protected. 

I liked this idea and what it represented but I didn’t want to make something additional to add to the space but rather respond to what’s already there or what was taken.

I then came up with the idea of recreating the situation the way it was the night my items were stolen from me (setting the stage). This felt more relevant to me than creating something to add to the space, I liked the idea of extracting from what was already there and drawing focus to it.

I decided to do this when we had heavy snow in Edinburgh. The idea was to have a funnel attached to the outside and have it coming into my room while the window was ajar. This to me, was to show a physical element from the outside coming into my space through chance. By placing the funnel there was the equivalent to leaving my window open. snow may or may not have landed in the funnel the same as to someone may or may not steal my jewellery.

The snow also represented loss, ephemerality and hindsight as I knew it would melt and would only get to enjoy it as it first was for a short amount of time.

A feeling of loss I now associate with my stolen items.

I had done this and documented the before and after of the snow filling up a portion of the jar along with videos and sound clips of light coming int my room and sounds from the outside recorded from inside my room but unfortunately all this documentation was filmed on a phone that I completely broke 2 days later before uploading it to my blog.

I still have the jar of melted snow but I recreated the scene with rain water afterwards.

 

Mar 21, 2021

I have began this project by creating a mind map of where I would like to take the project ‘Mise En Scene’.  I knew I wanted to respond to the space I have spent an entire year in lockdown in, and where I spend 90% of my time, my flat.

I began by just being in the space and absorbing and acknowledging the sounds I could hear coming into my room from beyond the four walls.  The idea that I was in my room with the curtains closed, door shut, that I could still experience the outside through sound and sight interested. A public space blending with a private space.

This idea that the outside was coming into my space even though I had tried to close myself off from the outside, made me think more about what is private vs public and how it doesn’t apply to some elements. It also made me reflect on an experience that happened to me during the summer where I left my window open and someone walking past stole a pile of jewellery I had sitting on a table.

That experience for me was also a blurring of private and public space.

Mar 20, 2021