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!

LAST 2 WEEKS!

In the final countdown to the hand in all I can think to do is panic. However everything this week went quite smoothly in working out the final display layout and actually creating the final piece.

My final idea came down to a duo drawing/ illustration with the Alice in Wonderland book. It displays me as the reader, so me in a comfy chair, reading away and on the other side is me as Alice, having tea with the mad hatter and march hare.

This week came down to finding the right book to paint it into which was found in a charity shop for £2, SCORE! Although this took days to work out as I researched online places like The Works and Amazon to find prices I was happy with along with a good quality hard back as I believe a hard back will sit open easier than a paperback would without much assistance.

I had planned to place this on a book stand on a shelf with the little "eat me" & "drink me" bottles and I looked into trying to purchase Loveheart sweets which only said eat me, but the only ones I could find to personalise were personalising the wrapper and not the actual sweet.

I am lucky enough to have the assistance of friends who are willing to help me as I am using Joanna's shelf to place my work on and Rebecca was looking into getting me a book stand so that my piece doesn't need to just lie flat.

Finally the End is in Sight!

This week off has given me lots of free time to think more in depth about the decisions I have to make for the final piece.

I narrowed down my ideas to 6, and after some conversations with my parents, class mates and friends I went down to one.

•  Me - representing the reader of the story - being Alice. Creating a series of paintings/drawings of me as Alice 
• Which connects to the idea of doing 2 paintings - one showing the reader and their real state - the other showing me in the place of Alice.
• A large piece depicting Alice in Wonderland surrounded by the portraits showing the expressions/emotions you feel when reading. 
• A series of pieces where Alice is removed and a mirror is in her place representing how the viewer can take the place of Alice by reading it. 
• Recreating Alice in Wonderland as if it where a real place - changing from the non-place - could still be a self portrait.
• Instead of different emotions - different races, cultures, ethnicities to show we all have the same reactions to the story. 

So I attempted the mirror idea, having a cut out shape of Alice and having the mirror show through. Too small for anyone to fit themselves in that shape would have to be super large or far away.

Drawing onto the mirror seems a better idea but it would still need to be super large so I have decided to scrap that idea... 

So my final idea is... The reader/self portrait as Alice double painting. 

So I have experimented with canvas, small versions, a pack of 6 worth £2 from the works. And I also thought about maybe changing from the iconic blue dress to my own clothes as if in full immersion.

I wanted to know whether to to use just one reader piece and one alice piece or many alice pieces. Or even just have 2 pieces but the alice piece depicting many scenes.

I found an artist last year that involved book pages within her paintings/works called Florian Nicolle/ Neo. 

It lead me to try it out for myself.

 

Its now down to the final details of presentation and how many there will be. Maybe also which scenes there are.

Final Questions and Hard Decisions.

Report

Writing a report about what I might do with my future is too hard. My indecisive nature makes it so difficult to choose between the many options there are out there. Looking into all of the outcomes is just adding more and more options... but I can't make it narrow down. I looked into employment, education, starting my own business and travelling and realising all of the options I could have is making the decisions harder and harder. But hey, I at least made it to the word count and narrowed down the fields. Although referencing a whole folder worth of print outs through Harvard referencing might just be the death of me.

Non-Place

Images to make as experimentation.

• me as Alice in different wonderland scenes
• paintings of facial expressions
• mirrors where characters should be
• paint on a mirror - "looking glass"?
• real life version painting
• story/quotes in image - connect to neo/ florian nicolle - artist. 

Does using me as representation come across? I want the piece(s) to be universal seeming so would using a self portrait as a representation of all readers come across well?

Cosplay photo-shoot idea.

queen of hearts - Black vest top, red cardigan with embroidered gold Q, black fascinator, red heart lipstick

white rabbit - Red jacket, yellow/ white shirt, photoshopped large ears, pocket watch, possibly a blond?

march hare - brown coat, large photoshopped ears, starbucks cup

mad hatter - Green hat, preferably top hat, thermos mug and cup

Alice - Iconic outfit, doll like makeup

make up artist - A friend of mine who is sitting a make up course, Allanah
photographer - possibly Rebecca or Rachel who is sitting a photography course, depending on who has the spare time.

places to take the photos/ different non-places. Buses, trains, stations, corridors, staircases?

Its going to be so difficult narrowing down my ideas. I think I need to discuss them with someone so as to bounce them off of someone with an unbiased opinion. 

I CAN'T MAKE A DECISION!

Even more ideas for Fiction just keep coming and coming... And I feel like I can't narrow them down...

More ideas

• Creating self portraits of me as the characters from various illustrated classics or a series from one story. 
• Me in the fictitious world made to look real - a collage of photographs of what the illustrations are in real life. 
• Create a comparison between old tales and Disney, just like my old essay. 
• Me in Disney versions of old tales. 
• A comparison of real life and fictional life. 
• Create illustrations for the yellow wallpaper - a story I read in higher English.
• Cut out character from illustrations and replace with mirror so viewer can see them as the character. 
• Could I even write my own  story to illustrate? I'm not particularly good at English. 

After a few discussions with friends and a couple of family members I have decided on using Alice in Wonderland as my story. The fact that the reader is taken to a non-place within a non-place makes it seem like the perfect choice.

So the thought is which one do I use for the final and the decision was to try them all. Seeing what ones make the most sense for the brief.

Firstly it is me representing Alice at the mad hatter's tea party - Disney version as it is the most iconic looking Alice.

Second, it is me trying to show the mirror idea by replacing it with tinfoil as experimentation. This is also when I started looking at facial expressions that could be used for Alice, shock and confusion are the best ones I feel for describing the nonsense that appears in Wonderland and sadness for certain scenes should be enough of a mix if I was to create a larger series. 

I have to start making final decisions soon or else I'm not leaving myself with enough time to create the final piece. 

My Concepts For Non-Place

Non-place has been a tricky brief to even comprehend and I have so many ideas of what a non-place even is... But I believe I've narrowed it down to a good few ideas that meet the criteria of what it seems to be.

Its about the journey - The emotions you feel when in these non-places, as you pass through. The facial expressions that show those emotions and what situations that cause them, situations that happen in non-places.
On it's own not so fascinating an idea but can be combined with another possibly to give it more depth.

Fictional world - How a fictional world is a non-place. You immerse when you read, become part of that world, travel without even moving. Best idea - select a book - well known/relatable
This is my favourite idea and I believe most socially accepted/known.

Installation work to change the mood of a non-place - If the mood of a non-place ranges from complacent to angry try to lighten the mood. eg. Bus station, bus is late, angry person sees image or light display to cheer them up. Create images of faces showing opposite emotion in same situation, an advertisement? "Have this item and you'll be happier."
Not my field, I wouldn't even know how to tackle it. Was just trying to branch out with my ideas. 

Unused spaces are non-places - Places that were not designed to be used such as under furniture, stairs, behind things. I could give them a function? Illustrate ideas for these places to be used.
Not very exciting... Would get bored working on this over time. 

Non-places within a set area - Photographic series of non-places within Glasgow. Non-places from a certain view point such as, homeless, child, someone travelling through/tourist.
The different view points is a bit far-fetched. Photography isn't my thing but I would have given it a shot. 

We create our own Non-places - We create non-places when we dream, as children when we play. They tend to be places that feel familiar, like you know where you are but they look completely different.
Apparently imagination is not really a non-place. Don't know how I would picture things like this anyway. 

Non-places dictated by use of time - eg. bus journey is 20 mins. Sometimes only proof you've been there is because time has passed. We don't pay attention as we walk by so what are we missing when we dont focus. Stop to smell the roses.
Have no idea how I would create this... 

History creates a place - places where I have history, that mean something to me because me and my friends used to go there. eg teenage hangouts, loitering spots - thinking spot, usual spot, court of miracles. show the real functions vs our functions for them.
Would be too personalised as no-one else would know what these places are or how they are relevant.

Always moving in a non-place - car, bus, train, walking through. What are our views from these non-places, blurred images or scenery mostly.
A bit boring... Not deep enough. 

I believe that fiction is going to be the best idea especially if I pick a classic book that everyone would recognise and would have the same kinds of reactions to.

Expanding on Fiction.

• Do I follow a few different books to show it happens with all of them or just one story all the way through?
• Include tv shows? 
• A lecturer gave me an idea of what if pages were missing, what would happen? Would the reader be trapped in this non-place? 
• Show different emotions for different scenes of the book, how the reader reacts? 
• Look into classical children's literature because they are going to be the best known? Could connect to my essay and maybe Disney's adaptations of these or one of the stories? 
• An evolution of books through the years or like 1800 to present or from childhood to adult hood, our generation?

Non-Place.... Whit?

Ok so our new brief is... "Non-Places"

"...the word 'non-place' designates two complementary but distinct realities: spaces formed in relation to certain ends (transport, transit, commerce, leisure), and the relations that individuals have with these spaces." - (Auge 1994:94)

So first and foremost I needed a mind map to work out my initial reactions to the brief...

...This then led to a full scale panic attack and migraine due to the sheer magnitude of the philosophy behind this project! I mean non places are dependent on the viewer, everywhere and nowhere is a non place because it depends on where you are going. Some are always non places, such as roads and such but Auge mentions airports and I mean yes they are not the final destination, they are the gateways, but I mean they are still a place, and you do so have an identity in them, you are forever asked to prove that identity throughout the process of the airport! So, yeah, my brain is having a melt down comprehending the immensity that is non places. 

My first thought was emotions felt in non-places. If people are always travelling through these places, what do they feel? I thought about expressing the many emotions felt by these many travellers by showing their expressions through paintings and drawings. By showing some of the most common emotions felt in non-places i could even relate them to certain situations so, if some couple are saying goodbye then there would be sadness/ love, if there was an argument there would be anger, if someone got a cute text while walking down the street they would be happy, etc. 

I started to look into colours that could connect of change peoples moods and even found computer based art that changes to match the viewers mood! So, if you are happy, the picture would be bright and cheerful, but if you are sad it would be darker and the brush strokes would change. AMAZING!

A few other ideas I had were - (too name a few) 

• Fiction - we immerse ourselves in fiction, feel like we are there, become part of a world that doesn't exist, this non-place.
• Mood changing installation - a sculpture/light show/animation/projection that can make someone feel more cheerful when seeing it. 
• Perspectives in Non-Places - from the views of a homeless man, a child, a tourist. So a homeless man sees the non place streets as his home, a child sees corners and unused spaces as adventures, imaginary creatures live there, etc. And a tourist sees it as a maze... (I don't like this one) 
• History creates the place -  So places that mean things to me because I have got a strong connection to them. Like, old hang outs such as fields and patches of grass and stairways. Mean nothing to anyone else but are important PLACES to me. 
• Always moving in a Non-Place - cars, buses, trains, all non-places, whizzing past places and other non-places so would be shown with blurred scenery photos. 
• Non-Places dictated by time - eg. bus journey is 20 mins. The only real evidence you have of being in certain non places is the fact time has past. What do you miss when you are not focusing in non places. 

And that is all the ideas I had all through the week and my final decision has been FICTION!

I plan to choose a classic book that everyone would recognize almost instantly and create a series of paintings or drawings depicting this story. 

NEED A FINAL IDEA! NEED TO CHOOSE A BOOK! AAAAHHHH!