Degree Project: Digital Sketchbook

We as a group decided to trial a continual walk film which turned out to be very difficult, the slight wrong move and a shot was ruined. This is a whole new aspect to learn/work with how to document my work.

Reflection 23/02/21: This didn’t work for the film, we ended up splitting it up and adding stills to gather a better scope of the space/work. We all agreed this as a group it was much more effective.

I’ve learnt that experimentation helps me decide on what works best. I wanted a more open view of the kitchen, having to walk around the back of the island to get to the right ‘view point’, like when you’re at the cinema finding your seat. Also get a personal touch of the artists living environment. Below in the experimental films there were a few issues/obstacles I had to over come: wobbliness, centralising the film, proportional, focus and paying attention to where you’re going in the dark.

Started in the hallway – stair lights on, living room light on, created a lived in feel before you enter the dark space. It’s said from a peer that it feels like you are intruding. See below.

Too many lights on at this point – I kept the stair lights on as they add a welcoming light into the hallway. It’s aspects of the film like this that I struggled with at first.

Reflection 29/01/21: Working with lights on as I enter instead in the actual kitchen space allowed me to be dramatic/draw more attention to the projection as soon as the lights are off. It creates a whole new ambiance to the work and the space.

I then started from outside the front door up close and walk in to practice the angles of the door as well as opening the door.

I moved further back down the drive and get a feel for the whole of the front door and house, as there was the possibility of my film being first due to being the kitchen. Moving outside there’s more elements to consider, e.g. light, darkness, the weather and noise. Noise is something I was worried about in this film, as with my photos of my projection, there is no noise present. For this film, I had to ask my family to go for a walk as these are other obstacles which were hard as usually I would be at uni.

Reflection 23/02/21: There was a mass amount of experimenting for this exhibition and lots of circles, stops and stresses as it has been very difficult creating work with the rest of your class virtually, but it worked once we all had a plan. This exhibition has taught me to not be so precious over my work/films as there’s bound to be changes throughout when working with others to see what works as a whole.

Outside lamp – appeared better off, more impactful as you open the main door. See still outside images below. When it’s off you can’t see as much of the house except the glass front with the warm of light coming through the windows, again suggests it’s a lived in space I liked this.

I tried the lamp on so you could see more of the house, but my shadow takes away from the attention away from the hallway/space as I walk. See below, it’s a more successful viewpoint of the house, but not a practical one. The weather was also very loud, it adds to the sound/lived in space alongside the foot steps – changing from stones, hallway to the kitchen tiles.

Reflection 23/02/21: The film worked well being dark – created a creepy but intriguing approach to the opening of the film, played well with the flow from dark to light – through the film.

Reflection 06/04/21: This is an element I have come to with my practice now in Sweet Tooth B&W, it didn’t mean to have a scary aspect to it but this is a comment which keeps popping up throughout my work.

Shoes – different noises happen when you have shoes on, they’re louder and more distracting. I had to think about what to wear outside and if they were easily to slip off when I then come inside. It was a hard transition of taking the shoes off as I walk without the film being cut or wobbly. The change in footsteps from inside to outside worked well from a group meeting 01/02/21, not too over powering/adds to the feeling of moving into someones home. I kept the camera eye level for the viewers as though they are experiencing it.

Reflection 27/01/21: I recently had a group meeting with my team and a 1-1 about the filming/content of this film, it has a good start to work from however, there’s was issues about the darkness of the film (being filmed at night) and if that would play an effect with those others who are filming during the day. Personally I don’t think so, it will add to the individuality of each other’s work/space.

•  Try filming with some lights on brighter as I walk into space so you can see more of the room and then turn them off focusing in on the projector? 
• Cover the time displayed in the lock, can be distracting.
• Remove things off of the oven, can also be distracting to the film/breasts.
• Different approach to filming work, cannot see the breasts clearly or even see what they are.
• Try image stills like I did originally as the colouration of the film is off as you move with the camera.

I’ve seemed to come round in a circle with this exhibition and going back to what I first did originally – working with stills. They are so much more vibrant and will be something I will work on this weekend.

Reflection 06/04/21: We adapted to the use of dark/light environment and created a continual flow in the house (first part – downstairs was dark) and we finished on light (the upstairs was light).

I began to experiment for the group film which was much harder than originally anticipated. Jane mentioned I should explore a multiple range of areas in the kitchen to position the clay breasts/projector to find the better angles/positions for the camera/viewers. It was also then difficult to include a tracking walk from door to space to work with the environment, see below.

Reflection 29/01/21: I realised that I focused more on the film than the sculptures. Instead I am using a still image and currently trying to find that balance while I walk/film.

Reflection 27/02/21: The editing of the film played to our advantaged, we filmed/photographed different angles of the work and editing it together as one ruling piece – this helped with capturing details to help have a better view of the installation (this played to capturing the sculptures/projection equally just as well).

Experimental images below of space and in situ – very helpful to do as it allows me to see I definitely want to use the oven space within the installation, but slightly more of it than was shown previously. NOTE: While I was documenting I thought some of the images would work for the slide show of the Art Station’s website. e.g. details/close ups – gives viewers more of an insight.

Fridge – unsuccessful, I miss the colour from the projection, it felt flat/unexciting. But there is the visual of women’s breasts being trapped in this space as a desirable object. I liked the act of opening the fridge, see below.

Island worked really well, I decided to interpret/develop this further. Almost displayed the breasts out to this desirable quality – A comment made in group crit 24/11/20, Only Touch With CLEAN Hands, “the environment (kitchen) where the breasts are displayed with the sculptural ‘pretty’ clay breasts, continues this idea of them being desirable foods for society/men.” I aimed to involve more of the kitchen in these frames below, capturing from another angle, shows off more of the space. NOTE: The walking suggests this intense watching – the gaze’s presence of the audience watching the film. !!!! Almost like they’re doing the watching?

Reflection 30/04/21: I have begun to reintroduce this moving elements to my documentation and possible final edit films. You get a better understanding for the work in situ, where the audience cannot view.

Stretched projection – works well, it stretches across the island half on the breasts, oven, fridge and back wall. There’s this broken perception of the imagery as well as the act of the film handling the breasts.

A comment made by these images/films was that the breasts look as if they’re sat watching a screen!! Suggests Mulvey’s cinematic theory of the sexual objectification of women, especially in relation to the imagery of the hand carelessly handling the breasts, like objects. Does the play of the display of this film on a big scale suggests a cinema screen?

Reflection 04/02/21: I had decided to work towards this; continued this perception of cinematic lay out (which I couldn’t unseen after this comment). 29/01/21 group crit comment was made about the placement of the breasts suggesting a theatre/cinema – this excited me as I have heard this comment a few times about this film and is good to hear that my work is being perceived as I hoped. – I am glad I didn’t use this video for my exhibition, feels flat/unappealing you can’t see what is happening.

Reflection 06/04/21: From this I am still now exploring the sexual objectification of women presentation in the cinema through Sweet Tooth B&W.

See the film of the space below. This was an important piece of feedback, made me want to continue this idea and use the kitchen to my advantage as the place where women are objectified. ‘The breasts sit like they are an audience, watching themselves’ – the gaze of the self gaze, a moment of which Half Foster picked up in Cindy Sherman’s work Untitled Film Still #2.

I tried to film the projection from a side angle, see below, but in some peer feedback, they said it wasn’t as exciting as you couldn’t see much of the space as it’s a straight walk.

I tried Baking, which I hadn’t projected before until now – it wasn’t as successful, the film is too long and it isn’t as clear as to what is actually happening in the film, see below, but this exploration made me realise film may not be right for this exhibition.

Reflection 29/01/21: Reflecting here, I now can see that the busyness of the kitchen utensils plays as a distraction for viewers, the film and the sculptures. Also the use of film – I realised film wasn’t beneficial for this piece and moved to projection of still images – it gave focus to the space, the sculptures/projection.

I really enjoyed using the space as part of the film, showing that it is being filmed in a home suggesting the struggle us art students have to be creative in our home – a bit like a ‘behind the scenes’. The film below is the base to work from for the group video and haven’t settle on the title.

See plan below – how to approach the video, I aim to film the front door of my house, walk in through the hallway and into the kitchen, go around the island taking in the room at the same time, place the phone down to continue watching the rest of the film. I’ll need to experiment in the next few days with this plan and with how to cut the film etc, to cancel out jitters.

We had a meeting for our exhibition with the Art Station, 25/01/21. We  discussed our poster, title and thinking of how the film is going to work e.g. with how we approach the lay out for the house. We are going to create more films within our house so that I can begin to piece a draft of the film together so we get a feel about how it will flow through from start of finish. See image below of meeting initial notes.

See the updated poster below for the group & Instagram square poster for the ‘take over’ week. This is new territory for us and means we have a different range of elements to consider creating an online exhibition. We settled on using 3 images throughout the day of our instagram take over so the Art Station’s Instagram is not overloaded but displayed enough. Using stories possibly between uploads.

The other new area is the website, the lay out can depend on how successful it is, see initial drawings below. We have to think about how to place our main film/image below our own individual bios about us/our work, alongside considering on having a slide show under our own bios and film/photo to show extras we have within the exhibition.

Reflection 27/02/21: Jane created the website for us, here’s the link!

For this, developing artist bio and group bio for the exhibition, I started by writing the starts of the group bio for everyone to look at, add and change so its got everyones take on it. We have also discussed the route to go with the film, currently we are considering using the front door, to the kitchen, to the living room, under the stairs, stairwell/hallway and finally the spare room. This may change when we experiment but it seems the most logical without confusing the audience. As my room is first, the kitchen, it would make sense for me to film going through my front door towards the kitchen.

Reflection 29/01/21: This appears to be very successful now, lights/fairy lights in the hallway etc work well with introducing the audience to the image of us working within our homes/feels homey to them too.

I continually experimented with the way I want to showcase my work, see below. I’m unsure if we are involving stills. Reflection 29/03/21: Instead we used different sections of filming eg. stills, film and edited them together, we decided as a group ti allowed try audience to have a feeling of all aspects to the work e.g. images = details.

I decided to try The Haze of Social Media projected see below, Something I love from this is the colour from the projector reflected in the breasts themselves. The moving textures, skin tones and scale. Is still photography stronger?

Reflection 29/01/21: I think colouration is what has become most successful with projection for this exhibition as it brings the space alive in different ways.

I wanted to revert back to my performance work for this exhibition as that was most successful from my group crits. I feel it could work well with the relation to the domestic setting and the physicality of the clay breast.

Reflection 29/01/21: It was the movement that causes a distraction with the sculptures too, it would be successful if it was in a simpler space and not behind breast sculptures as the attention draws away from the breasts. This is where I realised different works suit different spaces.

See below, I have used Only Touch With CLEAN Hands projecting over the kitchen. I like the imagery and relation to the cleaning of the hands as it settles with the image of us students working from home due to COVID, as well as this image of women needed to be clean/perfect/untouched. The handling of the breasts above the oven and the projection on the breasts, explores the visual of the objectification women face within the home/kitchen. I wasn’t sure about using my performance work again, but I think (?) it works well for the final film with it being a moving piece.

Reflection 29/01/21: Too much was happening with the film as well and wasn’t very successful as you couldn’t clearly see the hands. The camera adapts the colouration fo the projection when you move/film moves so this didn’t work.

We had a meeting 15/01/21 to discuss as a group, what we are planning to do for our Interim exhibition which is coming up in February. (15th-19th February 2021). See notes below.

We’ve decided to each chose a room in house to work in/display our work in: a dolls house, we think it will also reflect our current situation – art students stuck at home having to work in unusual environments. I have chosen the domestic space of the house: kitchen. Where women were/is tied too due to their gender which will play with the representation of my work too. I have begun to trialed different imagery for the projection, the bodies below aren’t readable. So far the breast projection works best, see further below.

Reflection 23/02/21: The breast imagery worked well as a kind of mirror imagery of the sculptures, it created distortion yet depth to the sculptures, space and projection.

These are some images I have been working with in projection, see below. As I have said the breasts sculptures hadn’t been working in my practice, was struggling to create effective work with them for what I want to explore – body image and the gaze, but they worked well in relation to the kitchen/display using the setting to my advantage.

Reflection 16/03/21: This exhibition allowed me to see where my work wasn’t quite right, but with Are You Watching? it was extremely successful. It allowed me to adapt a space/reach a goal with a certain path in mind – the kitchen. I have tried to work in kitchen before e.g. Baking wasn’t as successful however, here the projection/clay breasts work well with the style of filming we were all doing as a group.

I do like the moving projection of Up Close, over the breasts, see film, yet it’s unrecognisable. For Congruous I want the imagery to recognisable. Reflection 29/03/21: It was refreshing to learn how to adapt and change my work for an exhibition/working with a group.

Linder Sterling’s collages pieces were a large inspiration for this combining the female body with the domestic appliances – how they become one through the eyes of the male gaze/gender roles. I liked this aspect to her work, the appliance is the environment. I reversed this, see below, Untitled, suggests the objectification women face that is present in the kitchen.

Reflection 26/01/21: I am currently working with this experimentation placing women (breasts) in the kitchen space on the island in, in front of the oven/projection, exploring the idea women are food to eat.

Reflection 29/03/21: The use of the clay breasts looking like ‘desirable sweets’ – was a comment from a group crit, 24/11/21, about the breasts from Only Touch With CLEAN Hands, this is now being used more intensely/physicality through icing, in Sweet Tooth B&W.

Linder Sterling, Untitled, 1977.

Linder works with “continuous provocation, the denunciation of a world that confines human beings in absurd categories and that still isn’t exactly a fair fight.” (Pacciardi, 2018) especially in response to the way women are bound to the confines of the kitchen. And, imagery that is known from the males POV, pornography suggesting this objectification is all women are used for – food and sex!

There’s this over lapping of imagery present within my piece for Interim. Martha Roslers Hot Meat inspired me, see below – my favourite works of hers. Similar to me, she places the body on top of the kitchen appliance and only the intimate areas, suggesting there’s this depersonalisation that comes with sexual objectification of the women. – This depersonalisation is how I have approached the display for this exhibition too. Looking at how women, like on the cinema screen, are used for their “to-be-looked-at-ness” (Mulvey, 1973, p116)/their body using their breasts as they’re most know for.

Martha Rosler, Hot Meat, 1972.

Roslers film Semiotics in the Kitchen is also a piece I have thoroughly researched and seems to be somewhat relevant here, the physical setting of the space. Instead of using collage/photoshop in my images, I have decided to change the environment of the space for the breasts and shown the physical change and adaption of these breasts, as well as my art practice and experience of my degree.

Alongside the practicality of the sculptures, Womanhouse was another piece of art work that inspired me to work in the kitchen, Eggs to Breasts was amazing to see the sculptures being displayed across kitchen walls and ceilings etc as well as the gradual development of eggs to breasts. Inspired me to use the projection in a productive way – imagery that there is more breasts present than there is/displaying them up the sides of the walls, surrounding the oven. The colour/vibrancy of the projector gave the breasts life. AND Risk’s Pixel Forest – is present in my work suggests the use of transforming the space into not just a kitchen.  

Vicki Hodgetts, Eggs to Breasts, 1972.

Posters! – Elgin has created a final poster, we all critiqued some posters that were made by my self, Kieran and Michaela however we decided Elgin’s would work best for the exhibition, continuing the path of a doll house theme kept simple, see the poster/logo below. Our title = Congruous. Congruous means ‘in agreement or harmony’ which sums up our class. We all work to the confines of our home/room due to the same situation of COVID.

Online exhibition – decided to do a day take over for each of us to control the Art Station’s Instagram account and connect to the viewers by showing some behind the scenes action of us propping/making/painting and creating these pieces for this exhibition, artists work that has inspired us.

Reflection 21/02/21: Jane is going to do the take over as it makes it less complicated instead of all of us trying to control the account.

I had an idea for us individually to add our images to a poster in the same style as our main one, to use use for ourselves to display the exhibition on our social media platforms e.g. show who is taking over that particular day. See my individual poster below.

I’ve been given the role to film/edit the material for the video of the exhibition – each having a film for opening door to room and then to artwork. These are currently the films I have of the space so we could get a feel for what the walk way would entail. Reflection 01/03/21: After reviewing with my class, we discussed going the long way to see more of the work – as I did this, the work grew/spread out more in the environment, it developed quite quickly/drastically.

Reflection 04/02/21: I took this imagery and projected it into the bath with water for my Lockdown and Light virtual exhibition submission.

As I was photographing into the mirror in my previous series of Up Close and Pink But Up Close, I considered how light would react with these sculptures as you point it in the direction of a mirror. I loved the vibrant light, I decided to take a photo of the cushion in situ with the lights and the mirror. See the images below.

I projected this onto the figures to see how it would change the appearance of the sculpture as well as the space around it. As it’s a small sculpture and a small space, it gave the illusion of a large installation, see below – are my up close images/films more successful than these?

Reflection 29/03/21: This series of works were just experimentation, playing with material projection, colour and lay out. I also wanted to work with the brightest colours but currently I realise its not always about the vibrancy of col0ur.

I like that the mirror gives you two perspective of the form at one time. Reviewing this work I could see Pipilotti Risk’s installation works present. Risk’s Pixel Forest see below, the installation that comes to mind: colours/imagery of things hanging down/consuming the viewer shares this relation to this experimentation – the projection of Untitled – Pink creates an illusion the body is being caressed by the ‘feelers’. It created patterns on the sculptures which immersed the body into the image/space.

Pipilotti Risk, Pixel Forest, 2016.

Risks use of colour is reflected well in my use of the bright colour scheme I have. Risk explores the female body and sexual objectification and the “experience of intimacy, vulnerability” (Momus), she proposes images of moving bodies around the space to make you feel as though you are in that moment. One thing I really enjoy about my images, is the intensity of the colours in the environment/the inclusiveness it feels through an image. The recollection of Risk and her installation pieces made me think of my bright bathroom projections I had created.

Reflection 29/02/21: I took this element through to Congruous for Are You Watching?, to bring an immersive feel to one area of the kitchen, a burst of colour and display. The bold pink hugged the walls and the kitchen tops as well as the breast sculptures.

To continue this exploration and worked with Up Close film/projection as film – felt even more intimate than just the photography because its bigger than life size. See above, this was something me and Jane spoke about during CUBED – life size. These images show details you wouldn’t see from another angle where you can see how the body has been made/imperfections – similar to the way we see/feel about ourselves and other, we see our insecurities but others may not. Under the breast you can see the rough sculpting which I haven’t noticed before, I like this it shows the relation to artists and the physical making. The reflection of the image reflected back so close to the projection suggests this intimacy between the body’s projection and reflection. The use of the mirror allowed me to double up with the projection – an intense self gaze, feel as though we may be interrupting, see below.

• The projection makes the colours colder, feels like a darker gaze. Does it make it stranger to look at from a viewers POV? How would a male feel looking?

Does it become hard to see what is being projected and what is reflected? A peer noted that ‘the reflections from the mirror are slightly distorted and stretched’ – does this relate to how we see ourselves? Not for truly who we are? What we see in the mirror is different to what other people see? E.g. Untitled Film Still #2, Sherman addresses a beautiful young woman hoping to see something other than herself, e.g. a more idealised figure, even though the young women is beautiful. It plays with this relation of the eye tricking the mind/obsessive?

From my dissertation research, the “mirror is a reversed version of the way we actually look” (bright side) so it initially is a false perception and is distorted from the first glance. Christian Metz, a film theorist, explores that the cinema is too like the “other mirror” (Metz, 1982, p 4) because the cinema shows you an unrealistic reality much like the mirror does. The screen of the cinema was and is another way to gaze in at a moment in time and to place yourself into an idealised scene for us to build our ideal egos. But really it doesn’t quite reflect us at all, much like the way a mirror doesn’t really reflect our true selves – distorted.

See above, I added pink cellophane in front of the projector to play with a soft nude. Does it sexualise it again? I edited the film to play continuous, there’s a rocking motion present, as though you’re swaying while you watch…?

I projected Pink But Up Close. Pink is such a powerful colour when explore the female form, it adds life and awe to the artwork, it becomes striking/transfixing. The body also looks extremely wet, almost blood like? Sinister? Gorge? See below.

!!! Reflection 24/03/21: There is a lot of relation to the word sinister/weird previously in my work but I haven’t properly noticed before! – This wasn’t properly brought to my attention till my group crit 24/03/21, I’m finally exploring this with no colour and it appears they’re just as successful as in colour.