Today’s Tutorial with Jonathan has been really useful as to date I have been going through quite a lot of confusion with regards to my way forward and my Project Proposal.
I began by explaining to Jonathan the point where I’m at now. Prior to starting the MA I had been intent on my project being based upon Women in Work and I originally wrote a proposal for this as a theme. However in one of the recent group chats Jonathan had asked me if I always worked to a theme and this raised for me the fact that I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the Women in Work theme I was planning.
I decided to take time to reflect on my work over the last two years in particular and review my motivations for creating the work that I had to date. See UAL First Year Symposium for an overview of my work to date.
In short I had been focussing on the Social Political elements of particular historical incidents that had occurred locally that I felt I was not yet finished with and that I had only just scratched the surface of. My final piece of my degree, about Tryweryn had been the most potent for me personally and had affected me on a very deep level. Through my reflection I began to realise that the subconscious connecting theme throughout my work was about memory both cultural and personal, historical yet up to date and that in my photographs I had been attempting to show unearthed memories in the landscape. I created the following mind map to try and make sense of my much confused thinking.
We then discussed my perception that I have yet to develop my own particular artistic style and whether in fact this is important at all. From our discussion about this it became apparent that perhaps the important thing is the motivation/trigger that stimulates the artistic process. For some this might be using specific materials that the art then flows from the act of using those materials.
For me, I feel an empathic connection to a situation or event that I need to make art about. I then research the subject and decide on what materials would be appropriate for each project.
Perhaps I was looking for some clarity in my work that I had not yet seen. After my discussion with Jonathan I can now see that there is a clarity in my process and that is enough, that a particular artistic style is not always necessary and has been a distraction to me. I already know I’m a maker and that I see the digital realm as an extension of any work that I make and now I’m more aware that I do have a clear process – even if I couldn’t see it until now.
Whilst we were talking about motivation, it also became apparent that to be able to visit a location or site that relates to the work I am making is very important to me – being able to sense the physicality of the landscape and the emotion and feeling of the events that have gone before.
Moving on to the subject of memory we discussed my proposed artists that I am considering for contextual reference; Christian Boltanski, Rachel Whiteread in particular, and also Anselm Kiefer, Mona Hatoum, Joseph Beuys and Louise Bourgeois. We also discussed triggers of memory such as smell, location and sounds that often pull back memories that had been long forgotton. Jonathan mentioned the piece Keicheyuhea (2017) by the artist Aslan Gaisumov on display at St Georges Hall for the Liverpool Biennale 2018 and her rememberance of a life gone by brought about by the sight of her homeland.
We then spoke about my intention to bring my more successful elements of my practice forward to help me with my project enquiry. These would be introducting stitch and photography, akin to the piece I produced for the Elfennau Exhibition – Galeri Caernarfon from my previous degree.
I also mentioned the use of sound that I am going to experiment with having been expoosed to Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) sound recordings at the Liverpool Biennale 2018. ASMR recording is used for the hidden sounds of everyday life that often go unnoticed, for example whispering and the flicking of a piece of paper.
I feel using these sounds with the site specific experimentation that I intend to do will potentially provide me with a method to invoke feeling or emotion, not just through the visual communication but through an auditory method also. I definitely am keen on the idea of producing multi sensory work and my experimentation will include elements of this too.
Along with ASMR sound recording Jonathan mentioned Binaural sound recording and Directional sound recording and I plan to research these further so that I can experiment with them.
Very happy with today’s tutorial – positive and excited and now ready to begin experiementing.
She's a Fine Artist 
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