This week we had an excellent lecture from Rebecca Hobbs. She concentrated on important factors and ideas that influenced and helped her photography to develop. These idea's ranged from, cinema, music, images [form] arbitrayness [I hope thats a word] commitment, pathways, tangents and planning.
How do I approach idea development do you ask?? Thats a great question and one that I know that I'm going to struggle to answer. Soooooo I'm just going to have a crack at this and say what ever comes to mind. First, let me start with influences. I am greatly influenced by music. Seldom do you see me without my ipod. Seldom do I not have a song stuck in my head. Sometimes music would influence my work, but really its just a motivator, it keeps me going. Its music artists and singers such as Nightwish [Finnish, Symphonic power metal] Lacuna Coil [Italian, Rock metal] Otep [American, Avant-garde metal] and more recently Crystal Castles, You Love Her Cause She's Dead and Kap Bambino, who are all electronic, experimental, noise bands. They sound a bit like nintentdo games. Movies and cinema also influence me, I really enjoy Film Festival movies etc. But when it comes to my work and starting it off I often feel blind folded. I dont know where its going to go and where its going to end. It would be safe to say that my work develops via experimentation and artist models. So, artist models and research is important. I do it because its second nature to me, it was drilled into me at college. All I heard was 'Artist models!!! Artist models!!' and 'Development and regeneration!!'
Sometimes I don't have a reason for making the artwork, there isnt a special meaning behind it, man half the time I have no idea why I do it, I just do it because I love it or because I want to learn and improve, sometimes it just comes to me, call it intuition. But thats stupid, of course all work has a meaning, the meaning or ideas of my work usually come to me at the end when I sit down and actually look at the work. So right now I'm going to bullet point my process of working:
1. Medium: whether it be photography, 2D, object, moving image, digital.
2. Idea: Wait do I actually have one?!!! Do I even like the medium in which I'm working with?? When will I get an idea?? Am I inspired??
3. Stew: It cooks up in my mind. Sometimes I write the ideas down.
4. Learn: How do I do it??
5. Do It: If it fails, I'll do it again!!!
6. Research: Look at it, does it remind me of any artists?? Consume books, images, internet.
7. Do It Again!: Try to improve and develop it. Experiment with it.
8. Completion: Hurraaahh!! Its done! Now I can properly look at it and find out new things about the work and about myself.
Now once the work is done I can look at it and see the meaning behind it. This year I have found that my work within studio practice deals with family, especially the family members that are no longer alive, its probably because I didnt get to give them a proper goodbye, my screen printing dealt with my Grandfather. I only want to concentrate on the past of people and not where I've been or have come from. Where I am now is a good place, right now and in this moment is good. Secondly, people. Portraiture and bodies. Faces, expressions, emotions. Third, music and how it makes me feel and how I want it to make others feel. Next is lighting, its beautiful thats all I can say. Fifth would have to be words, the content and meaning of words, how they are put together and create impact. How I can change the formation of words to make it look or feel different to people. And possibly for my last studio rotation I am going to concentrate on my family.
As for the X factor, I think everyone has the X factor. My X factor comes from my experiences [which arent all that interesting, some people have better ones] but they make me who I am today, they make me Kerrie. Also my surroundings and what I'm dealing with internally at the time, by that I mean in my mind.
How do I approach idea development do you ask?? Thats a great question and one that I know that I'm going to struggle to answer. Soooooo I'm just going to have a crack at this and say what ever comes to mind. First, let me start with influences. I am greatly influenced by music. Seldom do you see me without my ipod. Seldom do I not have a song stuck in my head. Sometimes music would influence my work, but really its just a motivator, it keeps me going. Its music artists and singers such as Nightwish [Finnish, Symphonic power metal] Lacuna Coil [Italian, Rock metal] Otep [American, Avant-garde metal] and more recently Crystal Castles, You Love Her Cause She's Dead and Kap Bambino, who are all electronic, experimental, noise bands. They sound a bit like nintentdo games. Movies and cinema also influence me, I really enjoy Film Festival movies etc. But when it comes to my work and starting it off I often feel blind folded. I dont know where its going to go and where its going to end. It would be safe to say that my work develops via experimentation and artist models. So, artist models and research is important. I do it because its second nature to me, it was drilled into me at college. All I heard was 'Artist models!!! Artist models!!' and 'Development and regeneration!!'
Sometimes I don't have a reason for making the artwork, there isnt a special meaning behind it, man half the time I have no idea why I do it, I just do it because I love it or because I want to learn and improve, sometimes it just comes to me, call it intuition. But thats stupid, of course all work has a meaning, the meaning or ideas of my work usually come to me at the end when I sit down and actually look at the work. So right now I'm going to bullet point my process of working:
1. Medium: whether it be photography, 2D, object, moving image, digital.
2. Idea: Wait do I actually have one?!!! Do I even like the medium in which I'm working with?? When will I get an idea?? Am I inspired??
3. Stew: It cooks up in my mind. Sometimes I write the ideas down.
4. Learn: How do I do it??
5. Do It: If it fails, I'll do it again!!!
6. Research: Look at it, does it remind me of any artists?? Consume books, images, internet.
7. Do It Again!: Try to improve and develop it. Experiment with it.
8. Completion: Hurraaahh!! Its done! Now I can properly look at it and find out new things about the work and about myself.
Now once the work is done I can look at it and see the meaning behind it. This year I have found that my work within studio practice deals with family, especially the family members that are no longer alive, its probably because I didnt get to give them a proper goodbye, my screen printing dealt with my Grandfather. I only want to concentrate on the past of people and not where I've been or have come from. Where I am now is a good place, right now and in this moment is good. Secondly, people. Portraiture and bodies. Faces, expressions, emotions. Third, music and how it makes me feel and how I want it to make others feel. Next is lighting, its beautiful thats all I can say. Fifth would have to be words, the content and meaning of words, how they are put together and create impact. How I can change the formation of words to make it look or feel different to people. And possibly for my last studio rotation I am going to concentrate on my family.
As for the X factor, I think everyone has the X factor. My X factor comes from my experiences [which arent all that interesting, some people have better ones] but they make me who I am today, they make me Kerrie. Also my surroundings and what I'm dealing with internally at the time, by that I mean in my mind.
Hi Kerrie two substantial entries here, both good. Enjoyed your unpicking of your research practice. While artist models are useful, in the end I think you have to let them go as a research source. Looking at how another artist has dealt with a material, a space or an idea can br useful, but I think I want something closer to me to drive my work. I thought it was interesting that Rebecca suggested that the starting point is not for her important, anything will do, but you have to commit to that starting point and follow through, which is probably difficult in a four week brief, but maybe useful if it stops you procrastinating. And yes, there is such a work asd arbitrariness
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