Project 1: Found Object

Primary Research

I wanted to see how I could change the wax paper. What would happen if I ripped it, crumpled it, or put it in the water?

Secondary Research

This project made me think about food. Food, like the crushed wax paper, is impermanent.

Noma in Copenhagen is using foraged ingredients for the majority of their dishes. I never really thought about it, but  food is found or readymade art. The cooks transform ingredients into smells, textures and flavors that were not there before.

With further looking, I found that a restaurant called Alinia.  Here dinner is more like a performance than a meal. “Art” is created on the table, hearing, taste, sight and touch are all used to consume the meal.

I felt my project related to the Velveteen Rabbit by Margery Williams. The stuffed rabbit and my crumpled wax paper can both be transformed into living breathing animals with a little imagination.

The Velveteen Rabbit made me think about children imagine people, places and things to play with.  When do people stop relying on their imagination for entertainment?

“He even began to lose his shape, and he scarcely looked like a rabbit any more, except to the Boy. To him he was always beautiful, and that was all that the little Rabbit cared about. He didn’t mind how he looked to other people, because the nursery magic had made him Real, and when you are Real shabbiness doesn’t matter.” -Velveteen Rabbit

Resolved Work

I really liked how the crumpled paper took the shape of animals. They morphed from trash to a living creature exploring the city.

Project 2: Making and Breaking Narrative

Primary Research:

My ideas for this project bounced all over. First I wanted to build a bicycle. However I did not have a jig to hold the tubes together while welding.  Next I wanted to document a bike ride to Thurso. However 68 miles into the trip, I got very wet and cold. Finally I settled on photographing people who looked like they had a story to tell.

Secondary Research:

Bicycle Manufacturing Methods

This may seem very out of place…but first I was interested in making a bicycle.  They can create stories through the journeys they take you on.  It  was very interesting comparing and contrasting modern and old manufacturing methods.

I really like Vivian Maier’s photograph of the three people in yellow. My head starts making up stories: who are they? What are they doing? Where are they going? I wanted to try and emulate the feeling I got from her images in my final work.

Resolved Work

Two images make me think the most and tell the best story.

These  two woman, from separate  images, looked like they belonged together.

3: Mapping the soundscape.

Primary Research

 I thought it would be interesting to take 360 images and combine them with sound.

It would work better if I could “freeze” the whole view in one go instead of slowly panning my phone.  It was pretty much impossible to include moving objects.

Secondary Research

Mario Cipriano:
https://vimeo.com/304434213

I really liked how the audio would start to paint scenes in my head. Sometimes the image would match the photograph and other times it would not.

Resolved work

I settled on long exposures of roundabouts. This is the first time I have spent a lot of time in a country that drives on the left side of the road and I cannot figure out which direction the cars are coming from.

I liked the long exposure, because it leaves the direction of travel up to the viewer’s imagination.

First Video: https://vimeo.com/485714141

Second video: https://vimeo.com/485918597

Dec 8, 2020