Year 2 Stage 2

Monday 9th November 2020

This Stage deals with Unit 10 and Unit 11 and is following the pathway of Moving Image & Photography (MIP). The rationale is is explained in the project brief and I will put that here :

" In Chemistry, a steady state is a situation in which all state variables are constant in spite of ongoing processes that strive to change them. With this in mind we will be using this project to explore the theme of altered state to deconstruct or reinvent, to interrupt, change and challenge our preconceptions of “state” in relation to how we might record an image or explore our ideas and imaginations through the use of moving image and photography. An altered state of consciousness also called altered state of mind or mind alteration, is any condition which is significantly different from a normal waking state. The projects aim is to broaden your means of expression and expand your visual awareness as well as your technical skills and application."

Below are the aims, I am skeptical as to whether I will be able to achieve them.

. Understand the audience for a chosen creative media production activity.

. Be able to plan and implement a creative media production activity for an identified audience

. Be able to use evaluation in support of creative media production for an identified audience.

. Understand progression routes and related application processes

. Understand communication skills and knowledge for progression routes

. Be able to use promotion and presentation skills and knowledge to make applications for future study or work

As I understand it, for this project we will have to create several things all with the bigger theme of 'Altered State' in mind. The first being a self portrait. I am going with a basic theme because it suits me well. My latest catchphrase at this current time is "You know what I mean?" which no one does but since I am usually talking to myself, it doesn't really matter but it is an annoying catchphrase and is difficult to get rid of. I want to keep all the focus when taking the photograph on the scene and the personas as opposed to light and angles.

I did some research into some artists'' self-portraits. The first one was Ana Mendieta. I looked at 'Untitled (Self-Portrait with Blood)' from 1973. I looked at the Tate website for most of the information.

https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mendieta-untitled-self-portrait-with-blood-t13354

The photograph that I was specifically looking at was a colour photograph and shows the artists with blood trickling down her face and is a series of photographs. At the time of the creation of this photograph, the artist was a student on the innovative and influential Intermedia Art course. Mendieta commented that she ‘started immediately using blood, I guess, because I think it’s a very powerful magic thing. I don’t see it as a negative force.’ I don't understand the message of the photograph but it was interesting to explore the possible connections to her other pieces and her usage of blood.

The next self-portrait I looked at was by Gustave Courbet, 'The Desperate Man' where he is portrayed as "a tortured genius struggling for recognition and a bite to eat." For this research I looked at:

https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-probing-gustave-courbets-inner-thoughts-the-desperate-man

And though I know it is not great to only look at one source when researching, that is exactly what I did.

"By the artist’s own token, 'The Desperate Man' should be taken as a literal expression of his lived experience. After all, in 1843, when Courbet undertook this anxious self-portrait, he was a young man without a manifesto, still labouring to build his reputation. Despite his enthusiastic drive, Courbet was still searching for his own artistic identity. Yet he found himself growing increasingly disillusioned by the art establishment as he faced repeated rejection from the state-sanctioned salon. 'The Desperate Man', focuses in on a moment of division in the artist’s life: Just as Courbet began to shed the Romantic tropes of his forebears to attend to a new, modern art, he experienced the now-cliched insecurity of the young artist who stares down his own unknown future." I think that I can sort of relate to how he felt when he was creating this piece.