WEEK 6: SUPERVISOR SESSION (W/ SHANE)
Language of Creative Research: Objectives
I S O – S P E C T I V E
To create staged photographs to explore the psychological impact of restricted personal freedom.
To create a series of photographs from overlays of projections from digital archive images to explore denial of reality and yet to reveal a deeper idea of memories and dreams.
To create digital photographs consisting of fragments, details and moments to explore several and different dimensions of my psychological state.
S O L I L O Q U Y
To create a sequential series of photographs of my immediate surroundings in order to explore my personal inner thoughts and soliloquies.
To create digital photographs that capture reflections on mirrored surfaces in order to explore layers of meaning and the question of representation.
To create photographs that capture layers on and through water and glass to represent layers of my psyche.
F E E D B A C K
Language of Creative Research: Objectives (rewritten in the supervision)
I S O – S P E C T I V E
To create staged photographs exploring the psychological impact of restricted civic freedoms during a city lockdown.
> listen to the Podcast Philosophy Bites »Spinoza on Death«
To explore photographic archives for projecting a denial of reality through notions of memories and dreams.
To create a series of photographic works exploring ways in which details, moments, and fragments define psychological states of reality.
> Isolation is missing.
Language of Creative Research: Rationale pt.1 (in bullet points)
What is the broader artistic, philosophical and/or theoretical context for your project?
Psychology (perception/reception, psychological states, layers of psyche)
Philosophy (representation, layers of meaning / meaning of being)
(Goffman, Varcoe, Langer, Calle)
Interpretive Paradigm (there is no single reality, reality is created by individuals in groups; therefore, reality needs to be interpreted)
What particular ideas have influenced you the most? (< not sure how this differs from question above)
Philosophy: representation of self
Perception of others (?)
Psychology: layers/facets of psyche
Why are these ideas interesting to you?
Understanding of being.
Understanding of my social and cultural belonging and who (me or others) defines it. (Where is my position in the world/group? How do I see myself? How do other see me? Who defines who I am? Me or others? Where do I belong? Do I want to belong?) > Individuality
Select 2 or 3 key artists, theorists, writers, or creative practitioners that address your key concepts. Undertake further research and identify the following:
Sassen (career, practice-based research)
Varcoe (supports psychological meaning of fashion with her experiments)
Goffman (representation of self)
Langer (intuitive working)
Calle (observing individuals)
What is their creative or theoretical approach?
Sassen (performative paradigm: “new objects of thought to emerge through cycles of making and reflection: practice-based research, iteration”)
Varcoe (investigates meaning of fashion with her experiments and draws psychological and sociological conclusions)
Goffman (theorizes about representation of self and different personalities)
How is this relevant to your own project?
Sassen (exploring, investigating, working over and over to get closer to the goal; investigating a problem from different angles; relevant to validate my process)
Varcoe (asks similar questions as I do but tackles them in a different way; her conclusions support my thinking and allows me to break it down to the individual)
Goffman (explains and validates my psychological/sociological assumptions)
How does your art practice relate to contemporary ideas? For instance, does it position itself with a particular movement (ie materialism, social practice, phenomenology, relational aesthetics, Post Humanism, etc)
On the boarder of fashion and art photography
Hermeneutics (= interpretation; philosophy of understanding life as a whole; the nature of perception depends on experience and cultural history; knowledge is individual; all understanding is context dependent; not relativism but critical realism for which personal involvement is essential to how we understand things)
Language of Creative Research: Rationale pt.1 (in text form)
In this photography project I explore the psychology of fashion and the underlyingly open-ended question about the meaning of being. Yuniya Kawamura once stated, “Fashion is […] the invisible elements included in clothing” (p.15) and Adele Varcoe concludes in her PhD thesis – in a simplified way – that fashion origins in the space between the person wearing the clothes and the audience (p.37). Like in my earlier projects, layers of meaning are the foundation of this investigation. And the overarching viewpoint for all my projects is interpretive paradigm.
In this project, I am taking the focus away from myself as the solely origin for creating ideas. I now enhance the representation of self with the perception of others. Again, the psychological focus, the different facets of psychological states, play the main role.
My motivation for this intrinsic investigation is to understand the meaning of being through representation. Understanding of my social and cultural affiliation and who defines it (me or others?). And opening the exploration to others, to find out if they experience being and meaning in a similar way as I do or how it differs.
The contemporary Dutch photographer Viviane Sassen, practices performative paradigm, as her practice-based research becomes refined through iteration. Her earlier fine-art photography works with the shape of human bodies, colored surfaces and mirrors. She uses these elements over and over again, in similar but different ways. And adapts these techniques to her fashion photography.
In my own practice, I investigate the same themes (meaning of being, question of belonging) from different angles. I explore, investigate and work over and over again on the same questions to get closer to the answer. Analyzing Sassen’s way of working validates my process.
Adele Varcoe, who is a fashion designer, explores the psychological element of fashion with her social experiments. She investigated the meaning of fashion in her PhD thesis “Feeling Fashion” (2016). There she describes several experiments and draws psychological and sociological conclusions.
The questions she researches in her PhD thesis are similar to mine (“[T]his practice research proposes that fashion is something we feel, rather than see. The research questions how fashion affects social relations between people.” p.15) but she tackles them in a different way (social experiments vs. fashion photography). Her conclusions support my thinking and allows me to break it down to investigate the individual.
American sociologist Erving Goffman, who lived in the 20th century, is also one of Varcoe’s key references. In his book “The Presentation of Self in Everyday Life” he theorizes about different personalities and form of presentation humans take on in different everyday situation.
He explains and validates my psychological and sociological assumptions.
My project is situated between fashion and art photography and positions as Hermeneutic.
Language of Creative Research: Rationale pt.2 (in bullet points)
What are the salient elements of your work?
Reflections and layers
Why are you interested in making this kind of work? Why is it culturally and personally relevant?
Questioning meaning and being
Trying to get to a deeper level
What is the potential of the project to produce knowledge for some useful application?
F E E D B A C K
General approach
Intuition as a philosophy, methodology.
Identify some of these ideas and see philosophies and theories etc., as an opportunity to learn. They inform us over time.
But maintain within the practice to keep up the openness and intuitive reactions as what drives what I am doing. That's where I work best. That's why the framework around fashion is a good one.