The stimuli for this project was ‘beyond photography’ here we had to explore the boundaries of photography.We explored three units of ‘surface’, ‘time’ and ‘archive’ after the workshops on each I decided to take forward surface. In one of the workshops we looked at creating colour photograms, this initially spurred my interest in creating bright work around colour and imagination. After looking at the work by Walead Beshty I wanted to experiment with physically altering film and looking at this effect. Before this project I hadn’t used analogue or the dark room printing process which I found a challenge but at the end couple weeks I really enjoyed this process and self taught myself. When destroying the surface of the negatives it led me to thinking about destroyed memories. I then came up with the concept of exploring how the formation of dreams comes from memories altered in the subconscious.
By looking at Freuds theories on dreams and keeping a personal dream diary it helped me create a better understanding on how dreams are created and the content in them. Other artist works such as Alison Scarpulla who created surreal dreamlike images influenced me to really experiment with mediums on altering film. I used process’ including bleach, hair dye, boiling the film, vinegar, nail polish remover etc. I really enjoyed this process and how the images turned out. I also looked at burning the film strips, this was really effective and the melting emulsion created a stronger link between the visual and the concept of destroyed memories in dreams.
In regards to the context of the images I took photographs of things around me like places I had been, people around me, houses etc. I also used some old negatives from childhood to further the notion of memories in dreams. I felt like my work presented a narrative and after looking at Five revolutionary seconds by Taylor-Johnson I enjoyed how her panoramic images showed a ‘middle’ scene which furthered the idea of a surrounding story. I then went on to creating my own panoramic images by merging the individual images ,scanned in, together. I felt this worked really well and almost showed a passage in someones thoughts representing the joined memory elements. It was from this I wanted to create a moving image, this would reinforce the narrative section. I wanted my work to be visually surreal and dreamy, almost psychedelic. This process really helped create that atmosphere.
Via post production on premiere I created a short video of all the panoramic images combined. These slowly scroll past whilst others then flash and move faster. These are all visual elements I added in post production in regards to the pace of dreams and the ability to remember showing dramatic changes. I also think this breaks the video up and makes it more capturing. Other elements I added to tie in the concept with the video was voice snippets. These were appropriated from old films. This again worked well in showing ‘memories and experiences’ and brings together different senses. However where the images where personal to me I felt it may of worked better if these voice overs where ones I had recorded myself day to day which is something I can look at next time.When editing I overlaid flashes and burning film to again reinforce the atmosphere of destruction but in a flowing nature that almost keeps you in a trance.
I then choose to present my video on a DVD inside a book, this just reinforces the whole idea of narrative and telling stories but in relation to how dreams tell stories on memory.
abigailedwards 