Dreams reponse

"I was on a road trip with my friends, we were all dressed up in halloween outfits, it was suddenly pitch black as we were driving down a lane then a car behind us started speeding up and chasing us, there were two people dressed as pumpkins in the car and as they crashed into the back of our car I woke up"

At first I had no idea how to respond to this dream, I had a lack of props (no pumpkins or cars anywhere) so I decided to team up with Shannon who hadn't been able to choose a dream and together we decided that instead of literally photographing what was said in the dream, so cars, pumpkins, people dressed up in halloween outfits, we thought about exploring the psychological side of it and what being chased in your dreams meant. We researched into and gathered information into how we could photograph.

"Chase dreams are one of several common dream themes, stemming from feelings of anxiety in your waking life. Flee and flight is an instinctive response to a physical threat in the environment. In such dreams, the scenario often features you being pursued by an attacker, an animal, a monster or an unknown figure, who wants to hurt or possibly kill you. Consequently, you run, you hide or you try to outwit your pursuer. Your actions in the dream parallel how you would respond to pressure and cope with fears, stress or various situations in your waking life. Instead of confronting the situation, your dream indicates that you have a tendency to run away and avoid the issue." - http://dreammoods.com/cgibin/chasedreams.pmethod=exact&header=dreamid&search=chaseintro

With this extract in mind we decided to create photographs that link more to the psychological side of the dream, trying to show feelings of distress, anxiety and loneliness. 

Spike Island gallery review.

My first thoughts on Spike Island gallery were that I didn't find it very visually inspiring. Although many of the galleries were good, I found Spike Island too out there and didn't quite understand all the pieces. In my opinion it felt like I would need something like a paragraph explaining each piece for me to have understood it properly, it was a bit annoying having nothing to go by but once I had discussed pieces with others I started to understand them more.

One of the pieces that interested me a lot was the one with fluorescent lights and water bottles

I found these interesting as you get completely lost in it even though its simply some lights and a sheet of something reflective. I found it quite inspirational how the lights can represent infinity. I wasn't too sure about what the water bottles were there to represent but I just found it weirdly hypnotic how the light working with the reflective sheet changes light and how you see things.
  Although that was the only thing I found particularly interesting in the exhibition, I would like to see if I can look at pieces of work like this differently and ask myself different questions instead of trying to just find the meaning behind something and hopefully understand contemporary art better.

Photographer Timothy Archibald photographs his five-year-old autistic son's unique behaviour to better understand his condition.

I recently stumbled upon an article about a photographer called Timothy Archibald that started documenting his five year old son's, Elijah's, peculiar mannerisms to show behavioural specialists. Repetitive behaviours that were difficult  to understand, an obsession for mechanical objects and being socially withdrawn were characteristics that eventually led to Elijah’s diagnosis of autism. 

As he continued to photograph Elijah, Elijah became interested in the process of making the images and would provide input on changing the setting or the position. And the project, “Echolilia,” was born. Echolilia is a term the refers to the repetition of words or phrases which is often a symptom of those diagnosed with autism. I found the photographs interesting in the way that they all seem to be very dream like and what I get from them is a sense of loneliness that no one can understand and I think these photos capture how a child with autism soothes themselves. I just found the whole project they both did extremely interesting as it was a way of them both getting to know each other as father and son. 

http://content.time.com/time/photogallery/0,29307,2027433,00.html

Grayson Perry - 'What the boundaries of arts are' Lecture.

I recently listened to a Grayson Perry lecture on what the boundaries of art are. He talks about what does and does not qualify as art and how the limits of what we can call art are softer and have become softer since modernism began in the 60's, since then people have started to question the nature of art and what can actually be called art.  How arts boundaries are psychological, financial, philosophical and tribal. At the start of the lecture, the first thing the lady that who introduced Perry asked him whether him being dressed as a woman to the lecture was art, he replied with no and further on in the lecture explained how you can literally make anything and call it art these day.
   He talks about how he determines whether something is a work of art and explains the boundaries and questions you can ask yourself when trying to determine whether something is a piece of art; is it in a gallery or art context? Is it a boring version of something else? Is it made by an artist? If they're smiling its probably not art? etc etc. He quotes Martin Parr who said "If its bigger than 2 meters and priced higher than 5 figures then its probably art", I think that this is an accurate representation of what art basically is now, something is only considered art if it is made by someone that is already famous and the piece of work is priced high and although he says that contemporary art has no boundaries at all, I believe that there will always be something holding someone back from doing something purely because they think because of whoever they may be they won't get recognised for that piece of artwork, which links in to what Grayson says in the lecture about the boundaries of art being psychological.

Gregory Crewdson - Brief Encounters

Seeing how Gregory Crewdson show people how he creates his photographs makes me appreciate his photographs more. When I first saw some of Gregory Crewdson's photographs I thought that they were paintings. The way that everything in the photograph is perfectly placed and staged it almost looks too good to be real. 

I like the way that his photographs have a dramatic, cinematic feel to them and how they often feature disturbing surreal events. His use of surrealism in his photographs has led me to research more into that method of photography and  incorporate some of his techniques into my own work. 

http://viooz.co/movies/18512-gregory-crewdson-brief-encounters-2012.html