MEDI 323: Individual: Initial Proposal

For this module I'm exploring the nature and relationship of the inner workings of the human psyche through image. I want to explore the nature of how human experience interlaces to create places in our minds eye. I have studied psychology in the past and I feel that it makes my ideas on these subjects somewhat informed, having said that however I also think that there is a very artistic and creative element to the human subconscious as most memories tend to work by linking 'pictures' of our world to other 'pictures' that are also stored in the brain relating to the first 'picture' these then link on and on eventually forming the web of own conscious and subconscious mind.

The work I'm doing builds upon images created in a module from last year which I termed 'Dreamscapes' because I wanted these to convey what humans saw when they dream and the random fusion of thoughts, memories and feelings blur to create a space that sums up something yet isn't actually that object or place etc. Dreamscapes used to be a landscape image all of my memories of a place but in this project have now evolved far beyond the original concept, with one of the new dream images I have mad actually being about a dream. This image 'Orca Dream' is essentially a picture of my dream, looking somewhat like a photograph of the unreal. 

This project also pertains to my idea of 'unreal estate', which is anything you feel some ownership over, but isn't actually real, for example  on-line games, on-line communities, or even popular franchises such as The Lion King. This idea I feel is relevant, as people often feel a sense of ownership over things such as a certain song, describing it as theirs, even though they have not written or recorded it. It is also becoming more and more prevalent in an internet obsessed, consumerism fuelled culture where sometimes the 'hyper real' is more important or valued than the 'real' and people view themselves more and more through their computer game based achievements and express themselves more and more using online avatars. 

I want my images to convey a sense liminality, of how reality and the imaginary can blur and smudge together where the thresholds cross and fuse. In some of the images I have already made I try to achieve this by havening no solid background or foreground and rather there are just layers and hidden things that 'move' when you view the images again or from a different angle.

 

My influences for this module in essence is everything, in so far as what I have seen, done and experienced in my life.  Artistically the surrealist movement and in particular Dali has been a huge inspiration to me.  Also video gaming has played a massive role in my life in all aspects including artistically and in a smaller way the same can be said for comics. I am also influenced by literature especially slightly surreal authors such as C.S. Lewis and Edgar Allen Poe.  I also like nonsense poetry since I am very much an escapist. I also think that children's or a child like style art is also very relevant to this project because children think a lot freer and faster than adults and also have a very different view point. I would like to explore what children think about when they create art or how it feels to create art in a childish way, this also relates to memories and psychology but it would be interesting to research if a 'childish' Dreamscape would be very different and how much 'Unrealestate' children accumulate.
   

The subject matter is at present quite personal to me, and I would the work to continue to evolve and steer itself, branching into any mediums I feel are relevant but I do intend for the end result to be image-based. So far the process has been very organic and it flows when I am making computer based images but it is so absorbing I will not stop until the image is (at least to me) finished or perfect.