IDENTIFYING DIRECTION

these photographs are from the seaside, they are the same photograph which i edited on photoshop to research Jill Greenberg’s photo-manipulation. 

*my photography* - underwater camera

In this project, I will be identifying the direction that I want to take my art in. For the past 8 years of studying art in education, I have always had a distinct take on the illustrations that I have produced. I haven't really changed the way in which I illustrate- (pencil, then liner pen, then watercolour/gouache) and I was beginning to feel frustrated that I couldn't produce something more expressive and thoughtful. I decided that a positive way to try and discover something new, would be to take something that I am already interested in, research it, and try to find a way to visually communicate my thoughts towards this topic. One subject that has always interested me, is the way our eyes and brain interpret light. I started to research the scientific way that visible light affects the brain, and I found some really interesting studies on how visible light affects the brain, and the effect of lighting on the neurological and endocrine system. Different wavelengths and amount of light affect the rate of transmission of action potentials and hormone secretion. Sunlight in particular is essential to human brain health. It is a source of vitamin D, maintains normal circadian rhythms and hormonal synthesis. A lack of sunlight can lead to afflictions such as seasonal affective disorder, which is believed to be caused by a lack of serotonin, and an increase in melotonin, which is produced in dim-lighting and dark conditions. Melotonin is suppressed by bright light, which is used effectively for seasonal affective disorder therapy. This substantiates that light is inherently linked with human emotion, and I feel that exploring this through art could be incredibly interesting.

I wanted to find a practitioner who uses light to visually communicate. I found Tracey Emin’s works, using neon as a medium, incredible. I decided to explore this further for my project, as I felt that she linked light and emotion in a beautiful way. I wanted to explore how you can convey emotion through illustration that contains no ‘human expressions’ - switching between portraiture and facial, emotional, recognition to portraying vast ranges of emotion through light, illustrated words, and phrases. I feel that this is something Tracey Emin does with great success, as her pieces can make you feel emotions from grief and anger, to appreciation, love and tranquility. Aside from facial expression and body language, spoken and written word is the main way that humans communicate. This is therefore imperative in conveying emotion. There is great relevance and cultural significance of the way in which words are written, with every person, no matter the language, having their own handwriting and its individuality is very personal and unique to themselves. Emin’s pieces are moulded in her own writing, a feature that juxtaposes the mass-produced motel signs, and brings a sense that the pieces are words glowing straight out of her personal diary, which they probably are. The handwritten form differs to the commerical output of neon signage- everyone’s handwriting is different, and this personalisation appealed to me as it brings a very personal, secretive feel to her pieces, almost as if you're being shown something that no-one else has seen. I therefore wanted to create my project in my handwriting and I spent a while deciding how to write the word, ending up using the first attempt as it felt the most real. Neon signs are a medium that usually serve commercial purpose, for instance the signs that light up gas stations, clubs and supermarkets during the night. This I feel juxtaposes the depth and intimacy of Emin’s ‘I Promise To Love You’, and also exposes it further- as the night is naturally and culturally, a time for revealing emotion, intention and the subconscious hope. I feel like there is something inherently ‘seedy’ about neon signs. Whether this is because they evoke to me images of run down petrol stations, imagery of red-light districts, American cheap motels, Las Vegas gambling or late-night club strips, but they make me think of retro Americana and nostalgia.

“Nostalgia is a tricky word: it implies a longing for, or romanticising of, something in the past. With photography you can’t make pictures of things in the past because your subject exists in the present, right in front of you.” -Steve Fitch

The word that I would like to create is ‘moonlight’. I feel that it encompasses the different aspects of this project, as it embodies the feel of ‘neon’- a sign for the dark nights, the moon as a reflector of light itself- and the juxtaposition of natural light with electric light. To create this project I used some metal wire that I bent into the word, in the style of my handwriting. I wanted to choose a lighting colour that I felt was in the style of ‘motel’ neon, whilst also reflecting that the word was ‘moonlight’. I decided on a pale lilac light that glows beautifully in the dark, appearing pink when turned off. The lighting wire I chose is called electroluminescent wire. It is a copper wire which is coated in phosphor which glows when alternating electrical current is applied. To expand on this project I would like to explore lighting animation, as it is possible to create moving illustrations, with EL wire specifically, set on a sequence, which in the dark, gives the illusion of movement.

America’s highways are notorious for their neon signs. The gas stations, motels, casinos, supermarkets, all are lit up in blazing light. The signs give small businesses and shops a chance to emerge from the highways and generate business, as they attract attention for miles. I love the visual impact these signs have and it is something which I feel is so iconic and very artistically effective. A photographer who I feel captures this aesthetic compellingly is Steve Fitch. I have explored his work in my journal and I just love his capture of the essence of those highways.

Instead of producing a sketchbook for this project, the visual journal is on the blog I created, which is www.americana-lights.tumblr.com I decided to do my visual journal online as I felt that the majority of my work for this project has been physical and photography, and therefore it would have been a waste of paper to print everything, and also I had no two-dimensional experimentation, as it was physical sculpture.

Questions from this project that I would like to try and explore further in L6- -Does art induce a release of emotion, or does it artificially create it within the viewer? -How far are we limited by our own ability to only see a relatively small amount of the colour spectrum?

Glass Ceiling

The second project that I did for this module, is based on a set of Fine Art photography that really inspired me, and I felt was incredibly effective at communicating a serious societal issue in a thought-provoking and visually stunning way. This was the series ‘The Glass Ceiling’ by the famed photographer and photo-manipulation expert Jill Greenberg. She had the idea to create this project after being commissioned to photograph the US Women’s Olympic Synchronised Swim Team, with the women in their Olympic swim kits and high heeled shoes. She described the photo project as showing ‘the tension of her models coming to the surface gasping for air while wrestling with the weight of the water as a metaphor for the role women must play in the outside world.’

The beautiful colours and the way the light shines through the water in her images really inspired me to study this project, as I feel that the soft, alluring colours of the water and the overhead lights simultaneously contrast and endorse the feminist message of women struggling to succeed, having to ‘carry the weight’ of not only themselves but the pressures and indoctrinated societal inequality that women alone face. To create my photography, I asked some friends and borrowed an underwater camera to take some pictures in the local pool. I wanted to incorporate the colour and vibrancy of Greenberg’s photography whilst also focusing on the movement of the women in the water. I wanted to create a sense of flow and energy in the photographs, and I chose not to ask my friends to wear high heeled shoes as I wanted to emphasise and subvert the irony that Greenberg utilised in her set, and surpass the notion that women have to comply with set, idealistic beauty standards to succeed. I think that the photographs that I took, colour and feel-wise, came out much better than i expected. I have never taken photographs under the water before and I didn't know what the best exposure would be. I like the way that the photos are composed, and I am happy with how they turned out, as I think the vibrant pastels of the water and the lights show stereotypically feminine colours, whilst also being strong and saturated. This could symbolise that whilst some women may comply with the societal norms, it doesn’t mean that to be feminine is to be inherently weak. I wanted to emphasise the beauty of women, naturally, whilst also acknowledging that it is okay and not anti-feminist to want to comply.

I felt that this project, although being photography, ties in with my ‘Lights’ project as I wanted to focus this Direction module on colour and light and the way we, as humans, perceive things. Because I have spent so long creating illustrations in a very concise and congruent way, I didn't want to limit myself for L6 by heading in a direction that I couldn't expand upon. I have created a mini RVJ for this segment of the project to include all of my photography, and some mood boards that I think represent what I wanted to convey in this piece.