How Do You Depict Control?

After a talk with my mentor about the "Newspeak" brief, I have decided on a final idea of creating a piece that tackles the problem of forced marriages across the world and want to convey the helplessness of the situation of these young girls and women. I believe this connects to the concept of "Newspeak" due to the controlling nature of it as it brainwashes you into being happy. I especially want to mention the age of some of the girls who are being forced into marriage, many being underage, such as the advertisements you see on tv of young african/indian girls.

I see my strengths as being a painter so naturally I wanted to create either one large painting or a series of painting depicting the control of these women and the pressure from outside sources into unwanted marriages.

I wanted to paint onto different surfaces for the textures, add things to the paint to create depth, connect all of these women together through one commonality other than their situations, something that will aesthetically connect the paintings also. By adding fabric, like clothing they would all wear, painting on wood like desks and tables, metal like handles and cars, objects that everyone would come into contact with on an almost daily basis.  I want to try a range of colours either through colour theory with slight discolouring of the skin within the pictures or by creating an entirely new skin tone from the colours - possibly monochromatic.

I am toying with the idea of focusing on the eyes, reflecting the emotions these women would feel, what I would feel if it were me. Fear, anger, sadness... all can be reflected in the eyes. By compressing the area of which I look at it would reflect the idea of control. I had also thought of the idea of convey how trapped they are, showing a full portrait or at least of head and shoulders and making it seem like they are behind glass, pressed against it, still with the same emotions reflected on their faces. I plan to try out many different compositions for these pieces and hopefully one of them will be good enough for final display.

I am worried about the fact I will not have access to the college over the Christmas period and it would be easier to gain supplies from their where I know of the quality and can ask for help at any point. So I think I will need to stock up on woods, metals, and any other supplies I can think of so as I have enough for experimentation and final designs. It might end up I can't experiment on the surfaces that I would like to so many ideas will need to be tested straight into the sketchbook first.

I do like this idea and I hope it goes well... It has been a hard few weeks, very stressful... So I hope I can still get a good grade from this idea.

What is my Essay Even about?

My main idea for my contextual studies essay was to write about what I had for the last 2 years but in deeper detail. So for my first essay I had wrote about Disney's little mermaid in comparison with the original Hans Christian Andersen version and how the story had adapted from original to Disney and how the "art of story telling" had evolved from finely illustrated books to cutesy movies. 

My second year essay was on Ghibli movies and how they sought characters from old folk lore and myths. I mentioned how the use of these characters indicated Ghibli's worries about the environment and other factors like consumerism. 

For this year I had planned on a combination of both of these essays comparing Disney to Ghibli and how different cultures influence the same story making it be told differently. I had planned to compare Disney's Little Mermaid to Ghibli's Ponyo as they are both adaptations of Hans Christian Andersens Little Mermaid. I wanted to show how East and West had created different stories off of the same plot and folk tale. By comparing the underlying similarities and the major differences I had hoped to show the influence of the cultures from where the movies originate. 

However this year I have been advised to look into a different aspect of Disney to show how it is a powerhouse, running the world. I have looked into the capitalist ventures of the company to emphasise how they have changed from this all-American idyllic company to a greedy corporation.I wanted to mention Banksy's creation of "Dismaland" and compare his use of Disney's iconography to the new meanings he gives them, using them as a way of criticising capitalism and all things wrong with society. I have made reference to a town completely created by Disney called "Celebration Town" which shares some of the same artificial qualities as their theme-parks do. 

For This New Brief...

I am looking into different aspects in which women are pressured by society, forced into situations that might not be in their best interests. So I researched areas that I felt were areas that I myself have been pressured by society's views so that I would have a good frame of reference.

SKINNY/PRETTY
There is a pressure on women to skinny with toned stomachs and perfect skin so I thought of ways that I could create a piece based on this.

Ways women try to conceal themselves to look how they are told they must.
Photoshop
Make up
Plastic surgery
eating disorders/unhealthy fad diets
How are these things advertised to make us feel pressured?

This all leads to self confidence issues/self-loathing and depression.

Importance of make up to me - NEED it daily.
- go without make up for a month - take notes of comments received - "are you ill?"
- emphasise the excess it is used to nowadays - and evolution of beauty?

Photoshop
examples of famous people photoshopped - recreate untouched versions of these with average women
overexaggerate the photoshop - MASSIVE lips, TINY waist. ect.

How my body confidence brought on depression - what I struggled with personally

• attempted eating disorders - not eating, anorexia, throwing up after eating, bulemia - create a piece emphasising all the food I never ate - installation, painting? 
• Convey how low my self esteem is - how? - use my thoughts of myself - typography
• my reactions to images of women in media - video diary?
• How I've contemplated plastic surgery - what would I want out of that? - my thoughts on surgery - documentary/photos reactions - my conveyor belt of women waiting for surgery.         

WIFE

How young women feel pressure to get married - From parents, grandparents, relatives, random older folk.
eg. Boyfriend's mum asked 2 months into relationship when he would be proposing - she suggested Christmas - from last year
Auntie always asks me if he's the one
Mum wanting reassurances that I really love him before she accepts him
Asked by other boyfriend's friends if I see it going anywhere.

I'M 21!! - too young?
How do I show these questions?
 Squished by all of the speech bubbles - emphasising pressure

What influences me to feel like I should be getting engaged soon is stories like my mum's

engaged by 21, married 22, had me at 23.

My opinions on marriage - what I think happends in a marriage

• kids
• homeowning
• pets

depict what I think my own married life will be like. - create future family photos
Idealistic family vs worst case scenarios - use magazine photos/generic wedding photos - stick on mine and my boyfriends faces - generate what our babies would look like - crazy stalker-esque

reasons why I would get married - love, pregnancy - will I even get married?

CONSUMERISM

What we as women are told we need in our lives to be happy/fulfilled
- make up, beauty supplies, clothing, hair supplies, expensive spa treatments, nails done, hair done, shoes... etc.

Leads to debt, overdraft - "least my make up is on fleek"

• Create a log of all the money I spend on these things - are they even useful/used?
• Value all of the stuff I own - recreate my room with all the tags on things
• Real value vs My value - my value things more expensive less i use it - emphasise that it is a waste. 

Focus on advertisements and wording to show how they pressure you - why do I need it?
How does it make me feel? - why does it make me feel bad?

Make my versions of these adverts - how these items are really used - not happy skinny beautiful models real life situations real women - video work/ posters/ billboards - A0 or bigger?

I have decided against the consumerism concept as I believe it is not as open as I would like it to be so I am choosing between the pressures of trying to be skinny and pretty and about becoming a wife/getting married. 

Newspeak Is The One To Do.

I finished reading 1984 and discovered its main themes of government control and basically brain washing. I decided to focus on that kind of topic but still haven't a clue how to narrow down the concept... Mind map after mind map and I still can't choose!

           

At least I know I want to focus on how the media controls us through consumerism or how they cover up certain important issues through misdirection. I really need to decide....

New Briefs - Multiple Choice

On Monday we received 3 new briefs to choose between and I was able to narrow it down to 2 but I just can't make any decisions!

Our 3 briefs were -

1. Punctuation Mark - You need to create a new punctuation mark so you must interpret what a punctuation mark is and its purpose. It should express a thought or ideology that is unique to the modern world, which needs to be clearly expressed in: written/ visual/ sound/ sculpture/ performance/ animation/ textiles/ mixed media form. 

Initial thoughts... Nope-ity nope nope! How do you create a new punctuation mark?! Every time I tried I ended up thinking of ones that already existed. There was a few ideas tossed about the class about recreating an existing one, using it to create a new meaning for the existing one. 

     2.  The Internal Ephemeral - "The final body of work should showcase your thoughts, feelings, emotions, humour, and opinions in a consistent way that documents a period of no less that 14 days - 1 per day." - I thought originally to create leaflets that showed my thoughts every day for a few weeks at a set time. I could have placed a basket (bin) next to it to emphasise how it is just meant to be thrown away. 

    3. Newspeak - "Language is an important tool for expanding use of expression and thought. You are asked to create a body of work in response to this concept. Consider innovative design based applications as well as the literary context of the concept being put forth for consideration."

To do this I had to read 1984 and I believe if I could think of something to make that would do it justice it could be a powerful piece but its the decisions that are too difficult for me. 

Newspeak or Internal Ephemeral?!

Hopefully after a full read of 1984 I will decide whether it is my best choice and work out what I can make. 

I don't even know what kind of piece to make as in a drawing, a painting, a sculpture, something designy or at least on the computer, maybe typography... :S I DON'T KNOW!! Because I can't pick a brief I can't pick a concept and if I can't pick a concept I can't decide what method would be most effective! 

Tune in next week for what in god's name will she pick! 

Non-Place Final Hand In/ WEEK FROM HELL

This week has been the most stressful and horrific weeks for me personally. While dealing with the stress of a degree level hand in, I also failed a driving test. And while this felt like the end of my own world it turned out my family was having an even worse time.

So to start with I guess I should explain how my hand in went. I managed to begin the week feeling confident about my pieces, they were complete, most of the display was set up it was just final layout to consider and some sketch book decorating to finalise. After dealing with the book stand fiasco were first it seemed too straight then it was too wide and had to be melted back again but it ended up that the books sat fine, one on a stand as the middle piece and the others standing on their own. BUT! they wouldn't stay open and would billow in the slightest of breeze, flicking the pages... They needed to be kept down with something so I got some bull dog clips that works a treat.

After all that it still didn't look complete so I created a kind of table cloth/doily thing to make the lines less harsh and have some added colour to connect it to the splashy colourful pieces. I used paper doilies as stencils and then splashed and cut around them to create a frilly shape and also put the doilies onto the wall as placements for tea cups and to add to the dimensions.

Finally, I decided to frame my artists' statement to complete the "homely" look.

I liked it any way.... 

And all of this became so much less important after my family drama this week... With my parents stuck in Egypt after the Russian plane bombing and the fact my Auntie and her 3 wee sons were in a car accident leading to them being upside down in the car in the Clyde... yeah, you could say I stopped caring about non-places and just prayed for my families safe returns. 

But in the end everyone was fine, my auntie and the boys only really had bruises and little cuts, my mum and dad were the first scottish flight home meaning they were only a day delayed really thankfully.

It has been a horrific week but now it is time to move on, be thankful to have everyone alive and well and know that everything from now on can only go upwards from this week. 

My parents' interview (newspaper version) - <http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/scots-couple-tell-fears-flight-6791437>

Auntie's accident story - <http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/hero-ferry-worker-who-saved-6754933>

NIGHTMARE TIMES!

So! I've had a bit of a hard week trying to work out my final pieces after a talk with a lecturer left me in a panic attack thinking I would fail if I only used the one piece... A BODY OF WORK MEANS SKETCHBOOK EXPERIMENTATION NOT A SERIES FOR A FINAL PIECE! Different things...

I ended up needing to leave class early on the Tuesday so as I could go and hunt down some more books to create a series and make my idea more valid by using different stories and it turns out charity shops aren't as good for this as originally seeming. That Alice book was a godsend, once in a life time perfect for what I needed... as soon as I needed more like it I couldn't find anything. I wanted hardback kind of childhood tales and I found one hardback, Pinocchio and one paperback as the lion, the witch and the wardrobe and just continued to panic. But after all my panic I went to Glasgow town on Wednesday and found a hardback copy of the Secret Garden and I believe that that and pinocchio will be added to my already existing final piece.

THANK GOD FOR THAT!

I cannot wait for this brief to end. So now I have my two books and I have a shelf and just waiting on confirmation on the book stands I can panic a little less and it just means a bit more sketchbook work to explain the addition of the other stories and to actually illustrate and paint the books themselves.

ANYWAY, after all that panic I feel a little better and like everything I have left to do is doable within the week I have left.

Wish me luck folks!