#integrated project

I've been saving some ideas under my bookmarks folder for my Integrated Project and I thought I would share:

1. teenageshrines – I found this blog on tumblr, it has a collection of teenage shrines and I think it's incredible!

2. teenage bedrooms – Since my project is about the impact of manic pixie dream girl movies on teenage girls, I thought it would be interesting to see some bedrooms of teenage girls in movies.

Mia's room in Princess Diaries (2001)

Bianca's room in 10 Things I Hate about You (1999)

Minnie's room in Diary of a Teenage Girl (2015)

Juno's room in Juno (2007)

I ended up finding a whole database with teenage girl's bedrooms

I ended up finding a whole database with teenage girl's bedrooms on tv: https://teenagebedroomsonscreen.com

3. style rookie and rookie mag posts – I found some great post from these two mags about teenage girls rooms and also a great paragraph on The Virgin Suicides (1999) that really helped me understand my love for the movie despite its problematic nature:

Quickly, a disclaimer: because I've written about TVS so many times now while being a feminist, I think it's worth acknowledging the criticism of it as a male sexual fantasy creating unrealistic ideals of women. I've heard this a lot, I've considered it, but I really disagree. The fantasies are there for sure, but I've never read the narrator as reliable. It's clear, especially in the hazy visuals of the movie, that the neighborhood boys' ideas of the Lisbons are highly romanticized, but the boys are portrayed as a bit too dumb and bewitched by their own boners for those ideas to demand respect from the audience. The book and movie aren't about getting down to who the Lisbons truly were and the real reason for their suicides, or the boys' tragedy that they never got to take that road trip with them. The Virgin Suicides is, as a book, movie, story, and aesthetic, about adolescent sexual fantasies, what good examples they can be of how, as a teenager, one might tend to approach adult life still with a childlike perspective, and how that leads to a feeling of loss and broken dreams. It's a love letter written in retrospect with a pitiful and bittersweet smile, it's signing a yearbook next to your school photo from September when you looked infinitely different. Will I be an asshole if I link to Roger Ebert's review of it? Yes? Then google it. – Tavi Gavinson (http://www.thestylerookie.com/2011/07/room-part-1.html)

I have finally gotten around to adding the commentary track to my book, here is the link to the video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQwGHjnY6II

the manic pixie burn book!

So I've decided that I'm following the advice I got in my feedback and making a manic pixie burn book. I've been looking at some inspiration for the book's style, I'm thinking of making it digital due to lack fo time as I've been procrastinating and ruminating on this project for 1 whole month.

the original burn book from Mean Girls (2004)

part 2!

Integrated Project

again, in the first slide, I really tried to show the style and feel of the project – moving forward this was still the artist direction I wanted even though the project was far from being finished. A lot of people gave me great feedback on this slide and suggested it looked quite like a poster – which was interesting!

When I first started this project I was so secure of these images and super excited to complete them, but as weeks have passed I didn't really relate to them. I think I started straying from the main focus of the work – using references to older classic hollywood actresses that didn't really relate to the manic pixie trope at all.

When I first looked into obviousplant's work I was instantly drawn to make something related to them.

I showed these prototypes as they were real pieces of development, however, I had already decided against this direction. In fact, my stencil idea was something that I decided to use for my Design Artefact, alongside my thesis. I really enjoyed making these and was looking forward to crafting the real thing, but they weren't right for this project.

today was my critique session!

I was asked to prepare a short pdf with some key moments from my work.

As I have been lacking in my Integrated Project, I focused mainly on my Minor Project.

Here are the slides I prepared:

Minor Project

one of the most important things to me in creating (and what originated this project in the first place) is aesthetics – I always try to make my presentations exude the essence of the work. It was important to me to establish the colour pallet, textures and iconography related to this project.

As a visual person (with the addition of adhd) it helps me to see things displayed in ways that are interesting, digestible and fun. I try to include diagrams, soft fonts and short captions that will easily guide people through my often messy thought process.

realising the importance of observational research was essential to this project. I often forget how important it is to document things, but most of my inspiration comes from the day to day. Although they may not be the most valid sources, most of the time when I start a project, I first go on pinterest or instagram and save a bunch of photos – it helps me brainstorm.

The 25 postcards workshop was one of the best tasks I had in all my years at uni, i found it really enlightening even though I was forced to execute it in a less ideal way (digital).

I think it was useful to create this to-do list, it was great for me during the creative process as it kept me focused on what to do next.

I've started doing some thinking about my integrated project. I have a lot of ideas as I feel this could be quite a politically loaded project, which I often avoid. When projects are important, it's defiantly harder to execute them. My thesis revolves around the manic pixie dream girl trope, which was first used by film critic Nathan Rabin, who used it to describe Kirsten Dunst's character in Elizabethtown (2005).

In short, the reason I chose to talk about this subject is because I grew up watching movies and tv shows who really brought to life this kind of character. Unlike the girl next door or bombshell stock characters, the manic pixie felt real and relatable. However, although many girls just like me found comfort in these character whilst growing up, now reaching adulthood and viewing these characters from a different perspective, I realise how they're just another extension of the male gaze – a smart one.

Indie writer-directors evolved and were able to breathe enough life into these characters to convince young female audiences that they were realistic portrayals of flawed woman with agency, when that's very much not the case.

some little character cards/profiles I made for the most iconic manic pixies i know.

a little creative note on them:

for claire, I used safety pins and band-aids to show her care-taker nature. I chose some of my favourite quotes from her, I think the second one is very representative of all manics pixies: "I'm impossible to forget but hard to remember" – for the most part, manic pixies embody a character that previously was overlooked – not quite a bombshell, not the girl next door, they're the weirdly conventional unconventional love interest.

for clem, I used her most iconic quote which is very contradicting. This quote dismantles the idea that she is a manic pixie, whilst also making it true – because only a manic pixie would think of herself that way (she's like a career mpdg who's had enough). I added the moth and the scorpion, the moth mostly because they're attracted to light – in the same way that most male protagonists (including Joel from Eternal Sunshine) are drawn to mpdgs.

As for the scorpion, I've always found it interesting that they glow in the dark. Again, playing with the concept of the moth, the moth would be attracted to the scorpion at night, but flee from it during the day – it parallels with the scene where Joel remarks that he can't find anything he doesn't like about Clem, but she warns him that she will.

for penny, wanted to make it feel groovy (Almost Famous is set in the 70s). the arts and crafts style/ art nouveau style was very popular during this period, so I tried to mimic it a little.

for ramona, in scott pilgrim a lot of video game and comic book iconography is used – it kind of made me think of ramona as a player/avatar in a game. I applied that concept to playing cards, because I think her character is sometimes deceiving like a Joker.

for sam, I made a labelled diagram as she is, to me, the most definitive manic pixie there is.

Today we had our final showcase, with the whole of the third year. It was important to think about how I want display my work, especially because there are a lot of different elements. I really wanted to create a little corner for myself, using different props and items related to my practice.

From the feedback I got, I think the presentation was quite effective, even if a bit disturbed by other things going on. The point was to get people to interact with the objects – like the magazine, sweets, old photographs etc. ; because my minor project is so tightly linked to the concept of nostalgia, I wanted to almost force that on people in a way by having to

From the feedback I got, I think the presentation was quite effective, even if a bit disturbed by other things going on. The point was to get people to interact with the objects – like the magazine, sweets, old photographs etc. – because my minor project is so tightly linked to the concept of nostalgia, I really wanted to call on all of the senses.