alethealtcontextualstudies

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Project 4; Photography

My final photo essay

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Project 4; photography

“To collect photographs is to collect the world”

This is a photo I took on holiday in 2020 at Robin Hood’s Bay in Yorkshire with my parents and girlfriend. My family have always taken photos when we go out, but I especially love it when I go away somewhere new; I see it as collecting memories from all my journeys across the globe, especially seeing as I have memory issues that often lead to me forgetting things like this. I specifically chose this quote because it aligns with how I personally view photography and how I’ve grown up viewing it; It’s an art form, and one that can capture memories that otherwise could be forgotten. Even though it can seem like you’re not living in the moment, having a few careful photos from a holiday is the way I love to relive those memories and can become a starting point to open up and share these memories with people years after its happened. What may seem like an insignificant photo in the moment could later become a tender memory to be shared with family, or a reminder to revisit that place. 

Sontag, S. (2005) On Photography. New York: RosettaBooks LLC.

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PROJECT 3; RESEARCH ESSAY

I chose to look at sexuality in art and the 2 artists Kyle Dunn and Robert Mapplethorpe. I found writing the essay difficult as I had outside circumstances that made focusing on it difficult. I used to be good at academic writing, but I really don't think this came out well. I think I didn't plan well enough, so when it came to writing I found it hard to make my points flow.

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PROJECT 2; MANIFESTO

We looked at how people often conflict themselves in life and how thats ok. I enjoyed working as a group and found that everyone contributed and were good to work with. I like how our manifesto came out; we all had our own part, our own drawings to illustrate what we meant; it was very personal and I liked that.

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PROJECT 2; MANIFESTOS; CLAES OLDENBURG “I am for an Art”(1961)

This manifesto is by Claes Oldenburg, a pop artist who is known for his absurdist and often suggestive sculptures. His manifesto is meant to uplift all forms of art, from the everyday scribble to the paintings in museums. It seeks to validate and celebrate art in every form, including forms that aren’t often considered like the human body itself, objects, and landscapes. It’s written in a poetic way with a repetitive format. I think the poetic way of writing helps to elevate the forms of “Art” mentioned into something that feels more eccentric like art tends to be. I love the whole idea behind this piece; I’m sick of how elitist the art industry can be and how some art forms like fabric work and hobby art are minimised as they’re not seen as “true art”. I’m under the belief that anything can be art, whether intentional or not, and that no form of art is better than another. This manifesto aligns, in my opinion, with my beliefs, as it rests all forms of art on a level playing field; neither is more worthy, a painting is just as important as a sewn repair on a jean pocket. Appreciating everything in life as if it is art is an optimistic world view in a pessimistic society, and an outlook I wish more would have; why should we strip joy from something like art which is, by nature, meant to be freeing and joyful? It shouldn’t be so competitive, there shouldn’t be this scale of worth.

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20/10/2022 // PROJECT 1: KEEP WALKING INTENTLY// F I N A L

For my outcome, I took inspiration from Jonas Mekas and his walk around New York. like his piece, I tried to talk more about personal memories and experiences in this video of my walk. For my outcome, I took inspiration from Jonas Mekas and his walk around New York. like his piece, I tried to talk more about personal memories and experiences in this video of my walk. For this walk I decided to go through the area around my new house. I filmed this on a body cam this time to show everything I was looking at rather than just my feet. I like that the bounce of the camera makes it feel like you’re walking too. I hope that my piece can show more of my thought process about life and my memories here as I adapt to living in a new environment; I’m viewing the city from the eyes of someone who’s not really been exposed to them much before. I feel like I worried a lot about my voice over being relevant to the video, but in the end, I realised that the purpose of my piece was to talk about anything I thought linked; while airplanes might not be seen in the video, they’re heavily tied to my experience in London, as an example. If I were to do this video again, I’d do it as multiple sections in different areas over different days, recounting memories in those spaces/environments like on the tube or at university. 

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07/10/2022 // PROJECT 1: KEEP WALKING INTENTLY

This 2nd walk was inspired by the work of Jonas Mekas in his piece A Walk in 1990. In this, he filmed a walk he took and talked about his memories of the places he went to. 

For my walk, I wanted to try and film from the perspective of someone with social anxiety; when my anxiety gets bad some days, I only really look at the floor so I thought it might be interesting to film from just this perspective. I also didn’t feel comfortable enough to talk as I walked, hence this voice over. I filmed it as a timelapse otherwise I would’ve ended with 40 something minutes of footage, but in hindsight I might need to adjust my settings as my video turned out quite comedic looking.

I wanted to try and film continuously like Jonas did in his piece, but I had to keep pausing as I got too self-conscious filming in public as I felt that people were staring at me. This was especially bad on the tube.

I set off from university and walked down to Hendon Central. This is a journey I normally take by bus out of sheer laziness, so the walk was nice. The weather was pleasant with some slight cold wind which made me excited for autumn and winter. There was an ambulance that was stuck in traffic on the way down and it continued to blare its siren, which cut through the usual buzz of Hendon. I got on the tube and headed to Camden. I chose to do this walk around Camden as I’m familiar with the area now, so walking aimlessly wouldn’t be so difficult.

I normally listen to music on the tube as I find the loud noise to be too overwhelming for me, but I couldn’t film at the same time, so I went without music. Most of the journey was fine, but some of the loud parts like the bends between Golders green and Hampstead were so loud It felt like my head was splitting. Luckily, the journey home wasn’t so loud. This might’ve been because I was more relaxed this time, so the loud noise wasn’t as overwhelming for me.

Not listening to music meant that I was more aware of the world around me; it was oddly soothing to listen in to people talking. I love to people watch when I’m in public; me and my partner typically do it together, so when I’m alone doing it, it reminds me of her. People watching and eavesdropping is often considered rude but it’s a useful tool to help keep me grounded when I’m alone in public or when I get overstimulated.

I got off the tube at chalk farm so I could walk through the back end of Camden market. I’ve always preferred doing it this way mostly because chalk farm is a quieter station, but also because the order of the shops works better for me that way. I wasn’t there to shop, of course, but I’m a creature of habit. I walked through my usual route, trying to be more aimless with my walk and absorb the things around me, but admittedly I was so conscious of filming that it was hard to focus on anything else.

Going into Camden to just browse is always fun, but something I don’t find myself doing often; I tend to get low when I’m browsing at clothes, but today I just wanted to explore. I went into some shops I knew well and some that were new to me. Just silently looking around and observing all the items but also the people was calming; Camden feels like a hub for alternative subcultures and being able to explore that more than usual was interesting. 

Occasionally in my footage, I pan the camera up to look around and things that catch my eye. It’s usually plants or views through the different streets. Even when I’m at my most anxious, things tend to catch my eye and will be able to pull me out of that state, so I thought filming some of these moments would mimic it.

I made my way up to the station and headed home. The journey back was much less overwhelming. The walk back from brent cross to my house, whilst not the most interesting location on my walk, is always my favourite part of any journey back. I must cross over this large bridge that runs adjacent to the tube rails that crosses a busy road. The bridge then goes under the rails, and you get an interesting view of all the concrete bridges of the north circular road. The bridge is also home to many abandoned trolleys. Whilst mundane compared to Camden, the eerie feels of the greenery mixed with the concrete and steel will always be my favourite part of my walks. 

Looking back, I found that filming my walk was a weird experience for me; I enjoyed watching it back and seeing my journey condensed, but I think using my phone meant I was way too aware of the camera and ended up being too distracted to really let loose on the walk. If I attempted this method again, I’d borrow my dad’s body mounted camera so I wouldn’t be so hyper aware of the camera. It would also mean I’m not always filming my feet, which whilst it gave an insight into being anxious it made my footage a little boring to sit through.

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30/09/2022 // PROJECT 1: KEEP WALKING INTENTLY

The second batch of images from my walk today. I took photos of anything major or minor that caught my interest

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30/09/2022 // PROJECT 1: KEEP WALKING INTENTLY

The first batch of images from my walk today. I took photos of anything major or minor that caught my interest

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30/09/2022 // PROJECT 1: KEEP WALKING INTENTLY

Today I went out for a walk, trying to follow the Theory of Derive. Below are my notes I made throughout my day and some sketches I did of myself and others.