As a class, we have increased our research further into photographic games so that we get a better understanding of serious play which is related to surrealism.
Exquisite corpse drawing
During one of our first lessons on serious play, we played the game exquisite corpse which is where you have to fold a piece of A4 paper into 4 pieces and you draw on the first quarter and then fold it over so that the next person can't see what the person before drew. This was quite fun to do as it was very intriguing how your imagination takes over when all you can see is some lines to guide you on whatever you are going to draw.
My own version of exquisite corpse
Instructions
- Get into a group of three or more people
- Each person must go around the room and pick up 3-4 items
- Once you have done this, you have to arrange the items in any way that you like and then take a photo.
- When everyone in the group has done this, pass the items on randomly to the next person and repeat the last step.
- Once everyone in the group have finished, look at each others pictures at how each person arranges the items differently.
A version of exquisite corpse
random word generator game
We also played a game which involved a random word generator. This is where you have to pick one or more word that is generated and then create a sentence from it. Some of the sentences that I came up with are listed below:
- The game was bluish in colour, it was like holding happiness in your hand.
- It was always difficult to focus on the connections between the universe and how the world came to exist.
- I would like to read any book to do with engineering.
- It is important to me that I eat.
- I have managed to complete my essay.
- I try to be as creative as I can.
- I hope to be successful in the future.
Collection of thoughts that don't relate:
I am thinking about why the Earth is how it is, is there any other life on any other planets.
Are we the only humans that exist?
I am also thinking about how I am incredibly hungry and ant to eat but I don't have any food so I have to wait until I get home.
Are we the only humans that exist?
I am also thinking about how I am incredibly hungry and ant to eat but I don't have any food so I have to wait until I get home.
lucky dip game
Instructions
Take the camera, go and take 5 pictures
All 5 have to be out of focus in the foreground
You only have 5 minutes to take photos
Good Luck!
Take the camera, go and take 5 pictures
All 5 have to be out of focus in the foreground
You only have 5 minutes to take photos
Good Luck!
I found this quite difficult to achieve as I didn't want to delete any photos but I also wasn't happy with my first five images so I carried on as I wasn't sure if I had completed the instructions correctly.
doodle
Searching for the miraculous
"Surrealism lies at the heart of the photographic enterprise: in the very creation of a duplicate world, of a reality in the second degree, narrower but more dramatic than the one perceived by natural vision." -Susan Sontag
The quote above by Susan Sontag means that surrealism could be anything that is photographed in a dramatic/ unnatural way that people do not usually see. The surrealists are artists that experiment on different ways of unleashing the subconscious mind. It is not expressed as just an art movement it is also said to be “a way of thinking, a way of transforming existence” -Breton
Surrealist groups started all around the world begin like the British Surrealist group who were also inspired by Sigmund Freud.
The quote above by Susan Sontag means that surrealism could be anything that is photographed in a dramatic/ unnatural way that people do not usually see. The surrealists are artists that experiment on different ways of unleashing the subconscious mind. It is not expressed as just an art movement it is also said to be “a way of thinking, a way of transforming existence” -Breton
Surrealist groups started all around the world begin like the British Surrealist group who were also inspired by Sigmund Freud.
who were the surrealists and why was photography important to them?
The surrealists were a group of artists who did not want to be held back by the concious mind. They were influenced by the theories of Sigmund Freud, the founder of psychoanalysis identified a place in the human mind where memories and basic instincts are stored. Some surrealist artists include Andre Breton, Salvador Dali, Max Ernst, Susan Sontag and Rene Magritte. The main aim of surrealism was to reveal the unconscious and merge it with everyday life.
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Serious play
what role did chance play in the work of the surrealists?
Chance is the biggest role in play in the work of surrealists and it is an important theme throughout art and photography. Marcel Duchamp and Jean (Hans) Arp both created work using the laws of chance. Surrealists use the word "automatism" to describe the operations of chance. This refers to involuntary actions and a process that is not under the control of a conscious mind, it plays a big role due to its spontaneousness as it creates games that can be collaborative like Exquisite corpse.
exquisite corpse
Surrealists loved games of chance, of which exquisite corpse is one of them. It is a method in which a collection of images are assembled, each collaborator adds to the sequence by following the rule. This technique was invented by the surrealists and was reported that the founder Andre Breton said that it started in fun however it soon became 'playful' and 'eventually enriching'. I have also personally played the exquisite corpse game with some of my class members, it was quite fun and hilarious when we opened the paper up fully to see the finished image. I found the image to the right online by Andre Breton and I thought it was a great representation of what exquisite corpse is all about.
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marcel duchamp
Marcel Duchamp had an idea that he called the '3 Standard Stoppages', this idea was about how a meter can be all different lengths if the length is not straight. He wanted an example for 'a joke about the meter', the 3 Standard Stoppages were made through the work of chance. Duchamp dropped three pieces of thread that were all one meter long onto a piece of canvas and stuck them to the surface to preserve the shape and then cut wood to the shape of their silhouettes. Duchamp saw the work as a 'gesture liberating me from the past'.
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The image to the right is of the 'Fountain' by Marcel Duchamp, it is quite peculiar as it is an urinal that is not fixed to anything that has been signed by Duchamp in the name 'R.Mutt'. It is completely different to what would be perceived as 'art' and it is a photograph of a toilet that is unused which is spotlessly clean apart from the way it has been signed. I find the image quite intriguing as there are so many different unanswered questions about it.
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ROGER LIVET
cut and paste
lewis baltz
The first image that I chose was of the outside wall with the roller shutter in the centre of the wall that is full of geometric lines which make the image look really neat and clean which is aesthetically pleasing. The trees on the right hand side distract from the centre as they are not geometric, however they are in a line so it still gives the image some structure. I like how there are lines on the floor for all of the different parking spaces. The trees/ floor are very dark toned and get lighter in the middle section and then darken again to a medium tone at the top.
I decided to put the images in the order above because the image on the left and right are very similar in tone. I also decided to put them next to each other as it looks like the line carries through the left image and across the left hand side of the right image. I then decided to put the next image beneath the other two as the tone at the top of the image matches the tone of the bottom right side of the top left image.
I decided to put the images in the order above because the image on the left and right are very similar in tone. I also decided to put them next to each other as it looks like the line carries through the left image and across the left hand side of the right image. I then decided to put the next image beneath the other two as the tone at the top of the image matches the tone of the bottom right side of the top left image.
The image to the right was planned so I decided where to cut and I also decided what image should go underneath it to make it look the best that I can.
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The image to the left was made completely by chance, I grabbed one of the images randomly and turned it over and started cutting random shapes into it with the scalpel, after I finished I then grabbed another picture randomly and placed it underneath the image that I cut up.
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I found the photomontages quite quick and easy to make once I concentrated more on the fact that they are made by chance.
my own version
The images above are my own version of images like the ones Lewis Baltz made. I decided to make all of my images in black and white like the images Baltz took as it makes you focus more on the formal elements of the photo more than what colour everything in the image is. My favourite photos from above are the top two because they have the biggest difference in their tone and look quite intriguing. I also decided to put the images in the order above as it looks like you can follow the lines around in a circular motion.
Photomontages
The art of photomontage started after the first world war however it was originally invented in the mid 19th century. Following the "Great War", artists began too see montage as an art form. Dada was looking for means of expression, one that meant more than the abstract art form does.
Early Dada montages were used as covers and illustrations for magazines. Dada is a political movement that rejects the prevailing mindset of patriotism and sacrifice.
Early Dada montages were used as covers and illustrations for magazines. Dada is a political movement that rejects the prevailing mindset of patriotism and sacrifice.
Dadaist
Hannah Hoch produced montages throughout her life, she said "Our whole purpose was to integrate objects from the world of machines an industry into the world of art". Hoch was a very important member of the Berlin Dada movement, she gathered images from popular magazines, illustrated journals and fashion publications and created humorous collages. |
Man Ray participated in dada and surrealist movements. The two images on the left are some of Man Ray's photo montages. I like how the image on the furthest left has been cut out in stripes and put in a different order. I also like how the second image looks inverted and flipped over the top of the first copy of the image. |
adrian brannan
Brannan focuses on photomontages that are of the same place, however the photos have been taken on different days at different times which gives you the variation. I like how the montage is made in the same place however they are still very varied due to the fact that they have been taken at all different times of the day.
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raoul hausmann
dora maar
dream diary montages
Walking down the road, homeless man comes over to me with a knife but then he let me walk past. I then built a house for homeless people to get back on their feet and get an education.
I was in my house and then there is a wolf attack so we all get in the car and the wolves all run alongside the car.
public and private photomontage
The photomontage below is of everything that I could think of to photograph that are public and private. I decided to put my most valuable possession in the middle.
Equivalents
Equivalents are when a photograph is taken of an object that represents something else like an emotion.
Equivalents are related to surrealism because they are made by the subconscious mind as the photographer is the one that is taking a picture of something to portray a mood or a feeling.
Equivalents are related to surrealism because they are made by the subconscious mind as the photographer is the one that is taking a picture of something to portray a mood or a feeling.
FRANCIS PICABIA - THE BLESSED VIRGIN
ALFRED STIEGLITZ
making my own equivalents
channelling my subconscious
Today I had to take some photos using only my subconscious mind and try not to think about what I am photographing or anything about whether it looks aesthetically pleasing or not.
rorschach blots
The Roschach test was a test that pychologists used to analyse a subjects perception of ink blots. This test was to examine a person's personality, characteristics and emotional functioning, it was used to detect underlying thought disorders.
The Roschach blots are made by chance, they are made by blotting ink on a piece of paper and folding it in half and spreading the ink out which makes them symmetrical. It causes some very different patterns as they are all made without having any control.
The Roschach blots are made by chance, they are made by blotting ink on a piece of paper and folding it in half and spreading the ink out which makes them symmetrical. It causes some very different patterns as they are all made without having any control.
The image to the right is of a Rorschach blot, I decided to change it by editing the photo so that the ink blot is not black like it was before but it is an image that has been placed inside it. I quite like how they have come out quite subtle as I feel like it makes you more intrigued as to what the image is of.
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I like how the lines are vertical on the image on the left as I wanted it to be a bit different, I also decided to change the images inside so that they are monochrome which means that they don't distract from the shape of the Rorscach Blot. I am not very happy with the image on the right as feel like it is too obvious that it is a drain and also due to the shapes in the drain I feel like it distracts from the shape of the Rorscach Blot.
individual investigation
john baldessari
Baldessari is a conceptual artist. He said that "Words and imagery are both magical conveyors of meaning. Sometimes I think a word can deal with an emotion better". I quite like this quote as it shows that it depends on what you are trying to describe as to whether it is better to display it as words or a photograph. Baldessari wrote a book called "Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line".
I like how they are called the "Best of thirty-six Attempts" as it is very difficult to have three balls thrown in the air at once and take a photo of them whilst they are in the air let alone when they are in a straight line.
I like how they are called the "Best of thirty-six Attempts" as it is very difficult to have three balls thrown in the air at once and take a photo of them whilst they are in the air let alone when they are in a straight line.
Whilst researching John Baldessari's "Throwing Three Balls in the Air to Get a Straight Line" I got a deeper interest for his work so I decided to research Baldessari's work further by reading his book "Pure Beauty". The pages that I found the most interesting are below.
The piece that I found most interesting is 'Variable Piece 4' by Douglas Huebler on November 23rd 1968 in New York. Huebler took a group of ten photographs with the camera pointed in one direction with his eyes closed and then took a picture everytime he heard the traffic approach and stop and then took a picture as it suggested that pedestrians were crossing. Personally, I really loved the concept and how all of the images look so clear and he managed to do it for all images except one.
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John Baldessari did a group of photos where he took images of 'The back of all the trucks passed while driving from Los Angeles to Santa Barbara, California'. I quite like these images as I like how he is documenting his journey but only when there is a truck in front of him. |
Huebler also used the same concept in his 'Duration Piece 4' in Paris, France January 1970. This piece was comprised of 12 photographs where he played with the thought of time and taking all of the images within an hour. He had to time himself with when he took the photographs and what roads he is going on. |
iain sinclair
Pyschogeography: 'the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behaviour of individuals.'
Situationism is a theory in psychology that behaviour is chiefly response to immediate situations. One of the basic situationist practices is the dérive, a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiences. Dérives involve playful-constructive behaviour and awareness of psychogeographical effects. Chance is a less important factor from a dérive point of view cities have psychogeographical elements.
STEVEN SHORE: AMERICAN SURFACES
In 1972 Stephen Shore began a series of road trips across the United States of America. He took photographs of a wide variety of objects with no restrictions ranging from sign, people, portraits, buildings, toilets, food, refrigerators, interiors, cars and dogs. I really like these images as they are showing all parts of the journey and not just showing the glorious part like the good views but also the horrible aspects like the toilets that he used along the way. My favourite photographs from all of the batch are the ones with the cars in them sitting at traffic lights. I like how they are quite bright photographs and have a few things going on that draws you into the images more. |
dream city
Paris in the 1920s and 1930s became a playground for surrealists. They saw the strange beauty in Eugene Atget's documentary images of the city. The interest that they gained for the city at night was mostly made famous by Brassai's spooky images
man ray and eugene atget
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Man Ray, a surrealist photographer was interested in Eugene Atget's work. They both lived in Paris where Man Ray purchased a number of Atget's work and shared them with his artist friends. The images to the left are very peculiar, they start with images of inanimate objects wearing clothes and then move onto humans wearing clothes who seem to be standing still. |
nocturnal city
Brassai was never officially part of the Surrealist group, however he worked alongside them. Brassai made a series of images of Paris at night which showed a different side of Paris where there are looming shadows, prostitutes and gangs of criminals. |
Bill Brandt was very strongly influenced by the surrealists and decided to document London in the same way as Brassai did. Brandt called it 'A night in London' of 1938 where he took a sequence of 64 photographs.
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subterranean city
Bob Mazzer took a series of photographs called 'On the tube'
“Every day, I travelled to Kings Cross and back. Coming home late at night, it was like a party and I felt the tube was mine and I was there to take pictures.” |
Subterranean city is where photographs were taken on the transport systems. An example of this is Walker Evans' Subway Portraits in New York which are on the left. He took pictures of his fellow subway riders with a camera hidden in his coat.
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city walls
Brassai's 'Graffiti' is about the relationship between the graffiti on Parisian walls with the art of pre-historic cave painters. The surrealists admired this type of work as they liked how it was untrained art that had 'primitive' power with raw energy.
I don't really like these images as they are quite weird and I was not too sure what it was until I read what they are, personally I think I might like it more if they were in colour as that would draw in my attention further. |
performance in the city
Bas Jan Ader made a series of photographs where they are walking through the night from the hills above the city to the Pacific Ocean. I like how the images are all quite difficult to comprehend what each image is of as the images are all very dark as they are taken at night.
gabriel orozco 'Until you find another yellow schwalbe 1995'
Orozco bought himself a yellow Schwalbe, he rode around the city and stopped every time he saw another yellow Schwalbe. He parked up adjacent to the identical vehicle and took a photo of them both together, this project was made over the period of three months. This project consisted of 40 photographs
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final piece
my idea
I have decided that for my final piece I am going to make something in the style of John Baldessari. I decided that for my first lot of images I am going to take photos of an object whilst it is falling to the ground, rising into the air,the impact of when it hits the ground and whilst it is rolling along the floor. This project is very reliant on chance as it depends where the object ends up during its movements to whether I will be able to catch it in a photograph. There may be a group of photos that do not have the object in it because I missed it but that is all part of process of taking the photo.
I have decided that I am going to present my work in a similar way to John Baldessari in his images with the arrows. I like the idea of the photographs having a direction which means that I can display them in a way that follows the arrows around the page.
First idea
'The search for three of the same coloured cars in a row.'
SECOND IDEA
'The search for a ........ Front door.'
Take a photo of random front doors until I find a particular coloured front door. Every photo will have an arrow of what route I took to the final front door.
Take a photo of random front doors until I find a particular coloured front door. Every photo will have an arrow of what route I took to the final front door.
first batch
This is the first batch of images that I took for this idea. I decided to focus this outcome on finding a black front door. The order of the images below are in the order that I walked around the area and took photos of different front doors.
second batch
This series of photos is the search for the grey front door.
mock final outcome
'The Search For The Yellow Front Door'
feedback
I have received some feedback on my work which was constructive so I could improve my work further.
The feedback that I received was that I should take pictures of every door along the route and not random ones along the way. They also said that the images were too small and needed to be enlarged so that they can be seen easier from a distance.
The feedback that I received was that I should take pictures of every door along the route and not random ones along the way. They also said that the images were too small and needed to be enlarged so that they can be seen easier from a distance.
The search for the orange door
the search for the yellow front door
presentation strategies
I have been finding it difficult to decide how I am going to present my work due to the fact that there are so many images. To help with this, I decided to lay all of the images out on a table so that I could see them clearly. I made sure that they were in the correct order and then put them all in a line which made me realise that I would like to have them in a line. Once I decided this I wanted to make it different so that it could possibly stand up by itself, this is when I decided that I wanted to make a concertina.
concertina
finished piece
final piece 2
research
sophie calle and vito acconci- following strangers
keith arnatt's dog walking series
Arnatt's 'Walking the Dog' series is a series of forty black and white photographs of individuals standing outside with their dogs. The areas at which the photographs have been taken in are all different however all of the images are taken where the owner stands full-length in the centre of the image facing the camera with the dog at their feet. I like how all of the images are the same with the way that the subjects are posed. I also like how every background is different.
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bas jan ader
Fall 1: sitting in a chair and then falling off the roof
Fall 2: riding a bicycle beside a canal in Amsterdam and falling into the water
Broken fall: hanging from a tree for over a minute and then falling.
Nightfall: picking up a piece of concrete and holding it on his shoulder. Then put it down and pick it up and put it on the other shoulder.
Broken fall geometric: leaning in the same direction as the wind blowing.
I really like how all of the videos have been made and look like they are an accident but also as though they were on purpose.
I have watched a documentary about Bas Jan Ader's life, it was extremely interesting however it was also quite sad. In the film there is a video of Bas Jan sitting in a chair on a roof and then fell off the roof whilst sitting in the chair. He also hung from a tree in Amsterdam until the tree branch snapped and then he fell in the water. Bas Jan also has video clips of him crying.
Bas Jan Ader's last project was the search for the miraculous, he decided to set off from America and search for the miraculous by himself on his trip to Europe. He surrendered to the ocean as he had no other choice. His wife said that she did not expect him to make it however he seemed to think that he would make it.
Fall 2: riding a bicycle beside a canal in Amsterdam and falling into the water
Broken fall: hanging from a tree for over a minute and then falling.
Nightfall: picking up a piece of concrete and holding it on his shoulder. Then put it down and pick it up and put it on the other shoulder.
Broken fall geometric: leaning in the same direction as the wind blowing.
I really like how all of the videos have been made and look like they are an accident but also as though they were on purpose.
I have watched a documentary about Bas Jan Ader's life, it was extremely interesting however it was also quite sad. In the film there is a video of Bas Jan sitting in a chair on a roof and then fell off the roof whilst sitting in the chair. He also hung from a tree in Amsterdam until the tree branch snapped and then he fell in the water. Bas Jan also has video clips of him crying.
Bas Jan Ader's last project was the search for the miraculous, he decided to set off from America and search for the miraculous by himself on his trip to Europe. He surrendered to the ocean as he had no other choice. His wife said that she did not expect him to make it however he seemed to think that he would make it.
Francis Alys’s explorations of Mexico City and London
Alys uses poetic and allegorical methods to address political and social realities like national borders, localism and globalism, areas of conflict and community, and the benefits and detriments of progress.
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Aly's is the man who pushed a massive block of ice through the streets of Mexico City until it melted to nothing. He took a video of the entire journey in a five minute long video where the block of ice gradually got smaller and smaller until it was the size of a pebble where he left it in one place and watched it melt. I really like the concept of the video as it is true that sometimes making something leads to nothing but that doesn't mean that you should do it. |
STEVE MCQUEEN
I decided that I wanted to start using a different form of media to show my journey so I decided that i would film some of my journeys, this was quite challenging for me.
McQueen made a video called 'Drumroll' this is a video that was generated by rolling a metal oil drum through the streets of midtown Manhattan with cameras mounted on the ends. Once the film was in the gallery space, the central image is round where as the two either side of it are rectangular. The film is made up of rotating images of store-fronts, cars and blue sky. The soundtrack consists of the clattering of the oil-drum on the uneven pavement.
I have decided that I am going to carry on with my focus on journeys and typologies. I decided to experiment trying to document my journey in a car. To begin with, I decided to take photographs of the cars that are in front of me. This didn't turn out very well as it seemed like all the routes that I went on were following 1 or 2 different cars and then I was at my destination which meant that the series of images didn't make any sense. |
I also tried to take some of the images at night using my phone camera however it didn't work very well as the images came out blurry.
I then decided that I would document my journey as I was going home which was a hour journey so I took photographs of all of the road signs that I saw along the way. It was quite difficult as some of the images have come out blurry as they were taken whilst we were driving down the motorway and it was raining so they have smear marks from the windscreen on some of them. I quite like how some of them are blurry and smeared.
my journey to the olympic park
I decided to document my journey from my house to the Olympic Stadium in Stratford, this consisted of a car journey, a tube and walking. I wasn't very sure as to what I should take pictures of so I decided to use my feet as the topic as I wanted it to be kind of like a typology however I also added a few other photographs in there to break up the journey more. |
trip to the science museum and the v&a
I went on a trip to the Science Museum to see Alec Sothe's work and the V&A to see Richard Learoyd. I took pictures of my journey starting from school and finished when I got back to Victoria Station after my day out.
trip to the apollo theatre
videos
The link above will take you directly to the videos that I have made for my final piece.
evaluation
My Personal investigation explores the idea of impossible quests and the role that photography has in documenting experiences of contingency and failure. My photographs and films are conceptual and also repetitive. They document routine and risk when navigating a city. As someone who is generally risk-averse I have found this investigation to be quite a challenge. However, I was determined to learn new skills and think hard about the nature of my own photography practice, embracing risk and dealing with new experiences. Following the exploration of some Surrealist games I have attempted to create photographs using game-like strategies. At first I made a photography game named ‘Photo, Fact or Question’. This game was quite simple in concept, however it was a lot more difficult in practice to achieve the desired look and for the instructions to be easy to comprehend. It is a board game that explores facts about photography throughout its history. During the process of making my game I learnt quite a few things. To begin with, I learnt how difficult it is to come up with an original game idea as there are so many games in the world. I also realised how much games rely on chance and how it is one of the most important aspects of surrealism and photography.
The surrealists were interested in games because they deny the action of logic and require risk and chance processes to be dominant. The surrealists were reacting to the violence and chaos of World War 1 and how the culture of rationalism and the Enlightenment had led to such an awful conclusion. Games can often require spontaneity and provide access to the unconscious mind. I have experimented with playing surrealist games like the Exquisite Corpse. It is intriguing to open them up at the end and see the final collaborative creation. I invented another version of Exquisite Corpse where several classmates took four photos which were placed side by side as a collage. We also played a lucky dip game where we had to pick a piece of paper out of the hat and follow the instructions to create photographs. I have attempted to create photographs using game-like strategies using instructions. I found some old photos and played with chance by tearing them up and then shuffling them and placing them down again. This was influenced by Jean Arp’s experiments with creating images according to the laws of chance. These experiments have affected me in a positive way as I feel like I have been enlightened by the world of surrealism and opportunities to incorporate chance in my own practice.
I started a dream diary in order to create a record of my subconscious thoughts and thereby generate subject matter for photomontages. I found this task very difficult to carry out, not because I find photomontages difficult but because I find it very difficult to remember my dreams. However from the dreams that I do remember I am very happy with the results. However, I decided not to pursue this idea. I became interested in the notion of Equivalence in photography. It occurs when a photograph is taken of an object that represents something else, like a state of mind or emotion. Alfred Stieglitz photographed clouds which he entitled ‘Equivalents’. I attempted to make my own equivalents by channelling my subconscious mind, trying not to think about what I was photographing or whether it was aesthetically pleasing. I found this very difficult to achieve as I just kept thinking about whether it would create a successful picture as I found it very difficult to to channel my subconscious mind and taking photographs without thinking in the conventional way when taking a photograph.
Once I had finished experimenting with equivalents, I decided to start investigating Rorschach blots. These relate to the Rorschach test which was used by psychologists used to analyse a subject’s personality characteristics and to detect any underlying disorders. They are very fun to make as you get a piece of paper and fold it so that there is a crease down the middle, you then have to drop ink from a height so that it is not controlled as it gives it the element of chance. Once you have done this, you fold the piece of paper in half and smooth it over to smudge out the ink blots, open the paper back up again and you have a Rorschach blot. The Rorschach blots are connected with photography as they can be changed to look like a piece of art for example they could be filled with a photograph and mirrored to give a completely different effect. Whilst experimenting with Rorschach blots I learnt how to take a chance and not have any control over the outcome, I also learnt how to insert photographs into the Rorschach blot in photoshop.
For my first final piece I decided to make something inspired by John Baldessari. John Baldessari is a conceptual artist who sometimes uses photography. I became interested in his work when I was researching ‘Throwing three balls in the air to get a straight line’. I decided to read the John Baldessari catalogue ‘Pure Beauty’ to get more inspiration for what I wanted to do for my final piece, I found the book very interesting and got a lot of ideas from it for my final piece. I wanted to make something that seemed to have a direction geographically and was reliant on chance. I came up with the idea to take a batch of photos whilst searching for a specific object. The first plan was to take pictures whenever I saw three cars of the same colour parked in a row. It seemed to be kind of like a game as it was a hunt or search for a particular thing that you might not come across. In my case I only came across one lot of three silver cars parked in a row in an hour of walking around. This idea was very similar to Gabriel Orozco’s piece ‘Until You Find Another Yellow Schwalbe 1995’ where he took a photo every time he came across another yellow Schwalbe. After discovering that the chance of finding three cars of the same colour in a row is very small, I decided that this was not the best option for my final piece as it didn’t complete any type of journey- instead I moved onto my next idea. The second idea was to take pictures of front doors with a target to reach a particular colour front door. The images had arrows edited onto them to show the direction in which I walked to find the particular coloured door. The first set was ‘The Search For The Black Front Door’. I chose this colour as I knew that it was quite common and I didn’t want my first test run to be too risky. The second set was ‘The Search For The Light Grey Front Door’. I decided to choose a specific shade as I thought it would make it more challenging. I quite liked these images however I decided that the end product with the arrows and the directions that I went in on did not look as good as the first one so I decided to make another set of photographs. ‘The Hunt For The Yellow Front Door’ produced the best outcome. I also like the direction of the arrows and how they create a path that your eyes follow to the end. The arrows for the direction are also yellow on the final piece as I thought it would be a good idea to colour code the arrows to the door that you are searching for as it gives you a bit of a clue whilst you follow the path around to the end product.
Following useful feedback from my classmates, I decided to take a further set of images. I took two sets of photos whilst walking around Greenwich. The first involved a search for an orange front door. As soon as I had done that I then decided to find a yellow front door again as a bit of a challenge as I know it is a very difficult colour to find. After walking down multiple streets and taking pictures of about 80 front doors I finally found the yellow one. I then printed off all of the photos so that it was four to an A4 page. I decided to mount these images as series of concertina booklets on card.
For my second piece, I decided that I would still like to carry on with documenting journeys in the style of a quest. The first journey that I documented was an car journey home during which I took photographs of every road sign along the way. I also documented my journey to see the ROC at the Olympic Park, a trip to the Science Museum and my trip to the Apollo Theatre. I have researched the work of more photographers. I looked at Sophie Calle and Vito Acconci who followed strangers through the city. I quite liked Sophie Calle’s photographs of her following strangers, this is because they are not always in the centre of the frame however you can still tell that they are the main focus in the image. I also like how the images are in black and white which in my opinion make them look creepier than if they were in colour. Another photographer who followed strangers was Vito Acconci however I don’t think I would want to follow the same person until they go on private property. Bas Jan Ader attempted a search for the Miraculous, this influenced me as I liked how there was no end result of his search due to the fact he died as a consequence when he chose a small boat to travel across the Atlantic ocean. Researching Bas Jan Ader was the turning point in my personal investigation, the miraculous is something that is impossible to find but it was a journey that I wanted to partake in. It made me think more freely and widely about what I can produce for my final piece, it doesn’t have to look aesthetically pleasing, it is more important to have a journey behind the piece of work. This helped me find other areas that I wanted to look into and explore further into how I can document my journey so that it is different to anything I have ever done before.
My biggest inspiration has been Steve McQueen’s film ‘Drumroll’ where he rolled an oil barrel down a street in New York with video cameras mounted on the ends so that it shows a different perspective of what is happening and how it is hard to comprehend the subject of the film whilst it is rotating. I like the idea of taking video from an unusual viewpoint. I took all the research on board and decided that for my final outcome I would like to make a film. This is something that is completely out of my comfort zone as I have never made a film before and personally I think that I am quite risk averse which made this very difficult for me to achieve. I decided that I wanted to film parts of a journey that I was going to take by using a camera that was connected to a chest strap and worn backwards, this meant that the camera footage would be quite shaky and from a weird perspective as it would be as if I was walking in reverse. My journey consisted of walking around Waterloo, Southbank and Spitalfields Market. In each of these places I filmed for 1 minute, walked for 5 minutes then filmed for another minute.
When I looked at the footage I was very happy with the result as it was quite disorientating. It sways from side to side with each step I took and is also as if it is already in reverse as it is recording behind whilst I was walking forward. Once I had looked at all of the clips I then had to start to focus on mastering iMovie. This was quite difficult for me as I had never used iMovie before and didn’t know how to use it. Firstly I investigated with putting two clips side by side and playing them simultaneously without editing the images any further, I then over-layed the two clips to see how it turned out and I really liked the double exposure. Once I decided that I liked overlaying the two videos I then wanted to experiment with the colour, speed and more overlaying and cutaways. After a lot of experimentation I finally completed it. This consisted of 4 different clips side by side all of which had been overlayed multiple times meaning that there are more than 40 videos playing at once. The film is in black and white and some of the clips have been slowed down dramatically whilst others have been sped up. Overall, I am very happy with the resulting film as making it was completely outside my comfort zone.
During my personal investigation I have learnt a lot about photography and myself. I have found out that I am very risk averse. However since I experimented with film I feel a lot more confident with risk taking rather than hoping that the result produces a ‘good photograph’ that is conventionally successful. I have also tried to challenge myself to not give up on something if I think that it is quite difficult. I have also learnt along the way how to use film editing software which was quite a challenge as I've never done this before. I am very happy that I have learnt some editing skills. Due to my newly founded editing skills I think that the film that I made is the best thing that I have ever made in photography. I love how it is something that is completely out of my comfort zone but I have grown to love the unknown.
The aim of surrealism was to liberate people from conventional ways of seeing the world, this was so that they could be free, both personally and politically. Surrealism has had an impact on me on a personal level as it has made me feel more confident with taking risks and going to new places.
The surrealists were interested in games because they deny the action of logic and require risk and chance processes to be dominant. The surrealists were reacting to the violence and chaos of World War 1 and how the culture of rationalism and the Enlightenment had led to such an awful conclusion. Games can often require spontaneity and provide access to the unconscious mind. I have experimented with playing surrealist games like the Exquisite Corpse. It is intriguing to open them up at the end and see the final collaborative creation. I invented another version of Exquisite Corpse where several classmates took four photos which were placed side by side as a collage. We also played a lucky dip game where we had to pick a piece of paper out of the hat and follow the instructions to create photographs. I have attempted to create photographs using game-like strategies using instructions. I found some old photos and played with chance by tearing them up and then shuffling them and placing them down again. This was influenced by Jean Arp’s experiments with creating images according to the laws of chance. These experiments have affected me in a positive way as I feel like I have been enlightened by the world of surrealism and opportunities to incorporate chance in my own practice.
I started a dream diary in order to create a record of my subconscious thoughts and thereby generate subject matter for photomontages. I found this task very difficult to carry out, not because I find photomontages difficult but because I find it very difficult to remember my dreams. However from the dreams that I do remember I am very happy with the results. However, I decided not to pursue this idea. I became interested in the notion of Equivalence in photography. It occurs when a photograph is taken of an object that represents something else, like a state of mind or emotion. Alfred Stieglitz photographed clouds which he entitled ‘Equivalents’. I attempted to make my own equivalents by channelling my subconscious mind, trying not to think about what I was photographing or whether it was aesthetically pleasing. I found this very difficult to achieve as I just kept thinking about whether it would create a successful picture as I found it very difficult to to channel my subconscious mind and taking photographs without thinking in the conventional way when taking a photograph.
Once I had finished experimenting with equivalents, I decided to start investigating Rorschach blots. These relate to the Rorschach test which was used by psychologists used to analyse a subject’s personality characteristics and to detect any underlying disorders. They are very fun to make as you get a piece of paper and fold it so that there is a crease down the middle, you then have to drop ink from a height so that it is not controlled as it gives it the element of chance. Once you have done this, you fold the piece of paper in half and smooth it over to smudge out the ink blots, open the paper back up again and you have a Rorschach blot. The Rorschach blots are connected with photography as they can be changed to look like a piece of art for example they could be filled with a photograph and mirrored to give a completely different effect. Whilst experimenting with Rorschach blots I learnt how to take a chance and not have any control over the outcome, I also learnt how to insert photographs into the Rorschach blot in photoshop.
For my first final piece I decided to make something inspired by John Baldessari. John Baldessari is a conceptual artist who sometimes uses photography. I became interested in his work when I was researching ‘Throwing three balls in the air to get a straight line’. I decided to read the John Baldessari catalogue ‘Pure Beauty’ to get more inspiration for what I wanted to do for my final piece, I found the book very interesting and got a lot of ideas from it for my final piece. I wanted to make something that seemed to have a direction geographically and was reliant on chance. I came up with the idea to take a batch of photos whilst searching for a specific object. The first plan was to take pictures whenever I saw three cars of the same colour parked in a row. It seemed to be kind of like a game as it was a hunt or search for a particular thing that you might not come across. In my case I only came across one lot of three silver cars parked in a row in an hour of walking around. This idea was very similar to Gabriel Orozco’s piece ‘Until You Find Another Yellow Schwalbe 1995’ where he took a photo every time he came across another yellow Schwalbe. After discovering that the chance of finding three cars of the same colour in a row is very small, I decided that this was not the best option for my final piece as it didn’t complete any type of journey- instead I moved onto my next idea. The second idea was to take pictures of front doors with a target to reach a particular colour front door. The images had arrows edited onto them to show the direction in which I walked to find the particular coloured door. The first set was ‘The Search For The Black Front Door’. I chose this colour as I knew that it was quite common and I didn’t want my first test run to be too risky. The second set was ‘The Search For The Light Grey Front Door’. I decided to choose a specific shade as I thought it would make it more challenging. I quite liked these images however I decided that the end product with the arrows and the directions that I went in on did not look as good as the first one so I decided to make another set of photographs. ‘The Hunt For The Yellow Front Door’ produced the best outcome. I also like the direction of the arrows and how they create a path that your eyes follow to the end. The arrows for the direction are also yellow on the final piece as I thought it would be a good idea to colour code the arrows to the door that you are searching for as it gives you a bit of a clue whilst you follow the path around to the end product.
Following useful feedback from my classmates, I decided to take a further set of images. I took two sets of photos whilst walking around Greenwich. The first involved a search for an orange front door. As soon as I had done that I then decided to find a yellow front door again as a bit of a challenge as I know it is a very difficult colour to find. After walking down multiple streets and taking pictures of about 80 front doors I finally found the yellow one. I then printed off all of the photos so that it was four to an A4 page. I decided to mount these images as series of concertina booklets on card.
For my second piece, I decided that I would still like to carry on with documenting journeys in the style of a quest. The first journey that I documented was an car journey home during which I took photographs of every road sign along the way. I also documented my journey to see the ROC at the Olympic Park, a trip to the Science Museum and my trip to the Apollo Theatre. I have researched the work of more photographers. I looked at Sophie Calle and Vito Acconci who followed strangers through the city. I quite liked Sophie Calle’s photographs of her following strangers, this is because they are not always in the centre of the frame however you can still tell that they are the main focus in the image. I also like how the images are in black and white which in my opinion make them look creepier than if they were in colour. Another photographer who followed strangers was Vito Acconci however I don’t think I would want to follow the same person until they go on private property. Bas Jan Ader attempted a search for the Miraculous, this influenced me as I liked how there was no end result of his search due to the fact he died as a consequence when he chose a small boat to travel across the Atlantic ocean. Researching Bas Jan Ader was the turning point in my personal investigation, the miraculous is something that is impossible to find but it was a journey that I wanted to partake in. It made me think more freely and widely about what I can produce for my final piece, it doesn’t have to look aesthetically pleasing, it is more important to have a journey behind the piece of work. This helped me find other areas that I wanted to look into and explore further into how I can document my journey so that it is different to anything I have ever done before.
My biggest inspiration has been Steve McQueen’s film ‘Drumroll’ where he rolled an oil barrel down a street in New York with video cameras mounted on the ends so that it shows a different perspective of what is happening and how it is hard to comprehend the subject of the film whilst it is rotating. I like the idea of taking video from an unusual viewpoint. I took all the research on board and decided that for my final outcome I would like to make a film. This is something that is completely out of my comfort zone as I have never made a film before and personally I think that I am quite risk averse which made this very difficult for me to achieve. I decided that I wanted to film parts of a journey that I was going to take by using a camera that was connected to a chest strap and worn backwards, this meant that the camera footage would be quite shaky and from a weird perspective as it would be as if I was walking in reverse. My journey consisted of walking around Waterloo, Southbank and Spitalfields Market. In each of these places I filmed for 1 minute, walked for 5 minutes then filmed for another minute.
When I looked at the footage I was very happy with the result as it was quite disorientating. It sways from side to side with each step I took and is also as if it is already in reverse as it is recording behind whilst I was walking forward. Once I had looked at all of the clips I then had to start to focus on mastering iMovie. This was quite difficult for me as I had never used iMovie before and didn’t know how to use it. Firstly I investigated with putting two clips side by side and playing them simultaneously without editing the images any further, I then over-layed the two clips to see how it turned out and I really liked the double exposure. Once I decided that I liked overlaying the two videos I then wanted to experiment with the colour, speed and more overlaying and cutaways. After a lot of experimentation I finally completed it. This consisted of 4 different clips side by side all of which had been overlayed multiple times meaning that there are more than 40 videos playing at once. The film is in black and white and some of the clips have been slowed down dramatically whilst others have been sped up. Overall, I am very happy with the resulting film as making it was completely outside my comfort zone.
During my personal investigation I have learnt a lot about photography and myself. I have found out that I am very risk averse. However since I experimented with film I feel a lot more confident with risk taking rather than hoping that the result produces a ‘good photograph’ that is conventionally successful. I have also tried to challenge myself to not give up on something if I think that it is quite difficult. I have also learnt along the way how to use film editing software which was quite a challenge as I've never done this before. I am very happy that I have learnt some editing skills. Due to my newly founded editing skills I think that the film that I made is the best thing that I have ever made in photography. I love how it is something that is completely out of my comfort zone but I have grown to love the unknown.
The aim of surrealism was to liberate people from conventional ways of seeing the world, this was so that they could be free, both personally and politically. Surrealism has had an impact on me on a personal level as it has made me feel more confident with taking risks and going to new places.