Tag Archives: conference project draft #1

Conference Project Draft #1: Map of Feelings

This is the sketch of my map surface:

My process of doing this conference project was quite different from my usual routine. I used to make plans and tried to think everything through before starting. However, this time I tried to reduce my complicated planning in advance and start play around my project visually. I took the chance of spring vacation to have my friend take many great photographs of me on our trip to the Bahamas. And played around with them on the photoshop. Here are some images of my signs:

I am going to map out my feelings either of the time that the photo was taken or the feelings that I had when I saw the photos. Some of them are abstract and some of them are concrete. My map is going to define my invisible thoughts and feelings. And I am making them visible on my map. It is a combination of real life(recording of my moments through camera) and world of thoughts(things going on in my mind). The surface is a calendar. The sign system is my collection of photos. And the connection system are my feelings. My project is going to be a print out. I am doing most of my work on photoshop and my own sketches. The technic and style of doing my sketches came from the artist Abby Phillips(outside of class). The book on psychogeographic from our class discussion.

Conference Project Draft #1: Happiness at SLC

My map defines the process of trying to calculate the happiness of Sarah Lawrence’s campus. I am in Adam Brown’s Psychological Science of Happiness class and for my conference project I administered a survey to attempt to map the happiness of students at this school. The survey drew results explaining the overall happiness, and personal, social, and intellectual fulfillments based on where people live. Because my data was limited by a small sample, Andrew’s Court and the Mead Way houses were not included. My sign system pinpoints the living spaces that were included by participants in my data, and the surface was made out of watercolor. It is the system of roads that makes up the geographical campus. The connection system is a visual representation of the data that came from the survey. It’s colors categorize social, personal, and intellectual fulfillments and the number of concenctric circles shows the degree of that category for each living space. I chose blues because of its placid tone. At first I was going to do a pictoral map so I photographed my sketchbook where I started to draw the buildings, but I decided the shapes were more evocative of the sterile atmosphere that is science and conducting experiments. By choosing to use photoshop instead, I think it gave the project a completely new aesthetic.

Conference Project Draft # 1: Mapping Relationships to Infection and Disease

Conference Post #1: Overwhelmed by Fact

My conference project is centered around the theme of being overwhelmed by facts, more specifically statistics concerning the state of Syria and Iraq during their “war” with the IS. On TV and through other media sources we are reminded of the horrors that occur in places that are safely contained in the frames of our devices. We never expect to experience the horror, much less think about it in any more terms that the “factual evidence” given to us. More attention is paid to the numbers, the data that events produce, rather than understanding or even delving into their constructive nature—it doesn’t so much matter why the IS is on the offensive, but the deaths, or more correctly the number of deaths, is what we use to measure our horror. I want to highlight the many aspects of life in the war effected areas that go unrecorded- just because a country is at war does not mean that war is what constitutes it, I plan to bring to the viewers attention the “invisible” but very real, statistics of the lives lived as a juxtaposition to the overly paid attention to negative “death” aspects of war. It is hard to begin giving agency and legitimacy to peoples or cause if they are only seen as victims (like most of the effected peoples in Syria & Iraq), the other that must be saved. In order to engage this conflict I want to create a structure that will be an interactive (sort of) sculpture/installation intended to overwhelm the senses on the issues of war (paying particular attention to the IS situation in Syria and Iraq) using the most beloved tool of news reporters: statistics. The structure itself will be a large rectangular structure that a person can enter and be able to turn and view all sides. As the person enters the first thing they will encounter is a screen with slowly increasing numbers, this will reflect the real time death toll [one person every 10 minutes, 3 people become refugees every minute]. This will be the first jarring image, I want the viewer to be consumed at first by this changing number, it should disturb, but then encourage the eye elsewhere. Behind the screen will be a chicken-wire fence (attached to the metal structure) with barbed wire on top. Through the holes of the fence will be very gorgeous pictures of the places destroyed and pillaged during the fighting (many Babylonian and Assyrian sites have been damaged, temple of Ur, Mosul) to really create that sense of unease—you are seeing at once both the rising death count and the beauty that there was, diminishing more and more as each number changes.

The walls on either side will each also have monitors and will be playing scenes of violence from the wars on loop, volume on. This will be accompanied by stereos that will be within the structure that will provide a constant mélange of sounds and voices (guns, bombs, traditional singing, birds, prayers, political activists speaking, riots, chants, children…), in conjunction with the monitors the auditory as well as visual effect of this collaboration will hopefully overwhelm the viewer. On the walls behind the monitors there will be recorded statistics regarding the two countries and the area on varying topics that do not necessarily pertain to the horrors of war, but still reflect its impact (such as, how many marriages were performed? Or how many houses had lights in the evening, how many olives were cured? How many students graduated?) to contrast the blatant war and violence being shown on the monitors, the ticking death toll flickering in the periphery.

With the way we are bombarded with images, statistics and “data” in our everyday lives, we do not pause to think perhaps their true importance or weight- the only difference between 200 people being dead and 1,000 is the amount of breath you take to say it, it doesn’t really affect you any less or more. I want to take the singular statistic and make the viewer engage with it in the multiple- will you feel it more if it’s bigger? We take in world horror so easily because to many, it’s just a number, but what happens if we multiply? One becomes movies and shots and screams, laughter and agony. By bombarding the viewer with all the information s/he is paralyzed, forced to stop and really look, look at war (the screens), and look at everything you’ve missed (the backdrop).

right and left side panels with background statistics, right side Syria, left side Iraq

close up of two panels

blue-print (ish) sketch/construction plans

Conference Project Drat # 1 : Mapping Freelance Media Production

I started working in film when I was sixteen, and became really obsessed with keeping track of my ‘network,’ aka the contacts I’ve acquired through my working in freelance. I’ve done this in order to jump on it if these contacts start businesses/projects of their own (which they often do) so that I can reach out to them immediately — usually they need the help of someone with my skill set. So I strive to capitalize.

In a way, this path has been a dérive. Because I still sit fairly low on the totem pole in the world of media production, it’s been easy for me to observe those who stand above me. And because I work freelance, I’ve crossed paths with all of them many times, in differing situations (different commercials, short films, PSAs, etc…). I’ve sort of stalked them via social media (linkedin, facebook, instagram..) and whenever I run into them I don’t hesitate to ask what gigs loom in their futures. I’ve kept track of all of this information over the years, so for my conference I plan to map this network. I will probably map 20-50 people. I’ll include information such as where they’re from (usually NY and LA, but a few hail from the midwest), what they studied (or didn’t study) in school (not film, in most cases), what sort of gigs they set out to work (usually indies / short films), where they are now (mostly doing commercials (duh)), and what their goals are / whether or not they’ve achieved them. Most people who work in freelance film hope to start their own production companies – and many of them have done so. I think this is important information to include. My map will probably be a series of intersecting circles. The intersections will signify a crossing of paths — so, for example, ADVIL will be a circle, as will Under Armour, Venus Razors, and various short films. I’ll also be sure to signify the production companies that bring the freelance workers together. In my circles, SMUGGLER and INTERROGATE tend to dominate. These circles will lie over a map of the US. The paths the freelance workers have taken to arrive in NYC will lead to the circles, which will then intersect.

Conference Project Draft #1: Mapping Morbidity and Bodily Alteration

Mathilde and Simon, for their conference project, have created a set of uniforms to use as wearable maps. The uniforms are a short and T-shirt set in all black. The shirt have a grid of holes.

The mapping project, will be to weave through the holes with grey, white, and black string to record their movement based on their decoding of signs throughout the East Village.

The signs will be attached in the turning or transitional moments of the grid, each block will be another stitch, and each symbol will mark the transition. The symbols will be morbid tattoos, signs of death, and signs of caution in the physical realm.

The project was inspired by Merlin Coverley’s Psychogeography and Marina Abramovic’s trauma performance art. Mathilde and Simon will be wandering through the city as psychogeographers, while creating a performance art piece at the same time.

The purpose of the project is to uncover an untold narrative in the urban landscape and to archive the accumulated knowledge in an abstract context. the wearability of the map emphasizes the transformative nature of costume in urban exploration and geography, it allows for the participants to separate themselves from their preconceived context, and consistently re-imagine the world, as if they were seeing it for the first time.

Our two perspectives will create two maps, and our collaboration an entirely new narrative. Our perspectives both unique in the sam experience.

Conference Project Draft #1: A Narrative Map of the Imaginary

My project is a hybrid narrative- choose your own adventure- scavenger hunt. Participants will read the story in pieces and make decisions about how to navigate the landscape. They will be given a map which will help them to determine the location of the next note/story fragment. Above is an image of what the first note will look like. Below are images of the site where this will take place and some details of places notes will be hidden.

The invisible thing that I am making visible is an imaginary landscape. The narrative I am creating is intended to lead the reader to identify themselves with the narrator and navigate the landscape as though it is, as depicted in the story, a forest. I was inspired to do this project in a choose your own adventure format after reading Psychogeography. I thought that the way individuals choose to engage with the story would ultimately be reflective of a type of landscape navigation, much like there are several different types of psychogeographers (ie stalkers, flaneurs etc). I was also influenced by Ghosh’s novel, Shadow Lines because it provided a kind of narrative mapping that was very interesting to me, and is similar to the project I am undertaking.

Conference Project Draft #1: Mapping The Topography of Film

For my conference project I have decided to map the invisible topography of film through an automatic drawing process. The photo I inserted is from a collage and drawing I did when watching The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover directed by Peter Greenaway. As I watched the filmed I continuously drew the outlines of significant shapes and figures within the composition of each scene without looking at the paper. I wanted to create a direct link from my consumption of these shapes visually to my representation of them physically without re-imagining them at all. When I finished this piece and looked it over I began to think of it in terms of mapping the invisible. I realized that this process could be viewed as a way to map the intangible topographies of a film while simultaneously mapping my visual processing of these topographies. For my conference project I would like to repeat this process, in a more refined way, for five (or more if I have time) different films. I will specifically choose films with contrasting aesthetic sensibilities in order to see if this effects the quality of line, or general affect of the finished ‘psycho-topographical’ map that I create. It will be interesting to see if there is differentiation within the set of drawings depending on the film. As well as playing with the idea of immateriality in film and positing an interesting way to make a process driven map I think that this series will be aesthetically engaging and cohesive (which is very important to me as an artist!) My process was largely influenced by many of the concepts that fuel surrealist practice, and in terms of psychogeography the surrealist derive. Automatism is of course very important to the surrealist process and I think that this system of mapping can serve to subvert accepted modes of navigating perceived space in film similar to the way derives subvert conceptions of how to navigate urban space.

Conference Project Draft #1: Mapping Light

My map defines the invisible process of the way in which natural light adds to the beauty and theatricality of specific buildings in New York City. I feel as though sunlight that streams in through the windows of these architectural monuments adds to the beauty and warmth of the building itself, and ultimately leads to a type of performance put on by the interior of the structure. This “performance” leads to the audience (or people within the structure) paying attention to the way in which the light hits various parts of the room, allowing better understanding and absorption of the architecture.

Our initial discussions about what renders something “invisible” to society greatly influenced my thoughts the process behind figuring out this conference project. I feel as though light is something that is so common that it is frequently overlooked, yet it still possesses a beauty that in the rare moments it is recognized, there are always feelings of warmth and pleasure associated with this experience. In this map I hope to bring this invisible process to light and make this beauty available to be viewed consistently rather than in the brief moments of time when natural light is visible indoors.

The vague areas of this piece are the how I will plot each building on the compass. I intend to pick a direction (south-west, as this tends to be the side of the building that gets the most sunlight, without acknowledging in the vast amount of factors that alter this statement such as floor level or proximity to other buildings) and place the most color in the surface in this part of the map, making these places/points deemed more “beautiful”.

By choosing to map this process on photoshop, I will be able to attempt to copy the various color gradients of natural light through the multiple functions on paint. Additionally, the text and the straight lines of the compass will be done entirely on photoshop, making the map neater and allowing the pictures stand out against the soft background of the surface.

Artist Reference: Original maps and cartographers

Conference Project Draft #1: Fear

For my final project, I will be creating another 40×40 map exploring fear. The map will be divided into four different layers, with the center most point being the a depiction of ‘the self’. Each ring on the map represents a different fear of mine, and the closer to the middle, the deeper the fear. The idea of dividing the map into rings was done to create a gradient of fear.

To help inspire me, I have been reading Dante’s Inferno. The idea for this map came from the nine circles of hell. by exploring fear, I am hoping to make this a very personal and perhaps even expository map. There will be no fixed colour palette for this map, as each layer might look quite disconnected from the previous. Another source of inspiration were Buddhist and Hindu mandalas. Although I have moved away from the original concept, I am trying to use particular elements. For the first circle, I will express my fear of spiders. For this ring, I am choosing to employ a more hazy, almost cutesy art style to show how irrational this particular fear is.

For the second circle, I am exploring my fear of the dark. This layer will not consist of any images, but will play primarily with light and other manipulations. Currently, the biggest obstacle in my map is working with the third and fourth rings. For the third ring, I need to find a way to represent my biggest fear, which I will not discuss for now. For the fourth ring, I am trying to find the most accurate way (to me) to create ‘the self’. I hope that once I complete my first two rings, I will have enough inspiration to address these two issues.

Conference Project Draft #1: Manderley Map

My map shows the way in which the narrator emotionally views the space in which she’s inhabiting; it challenges the question of presence- demanding that one consider the elements that combine in order to create someone’s presence: are they solely physical? are the mainly psychological? In some ways, my conference project is tied to psychogeography, because I’m trying to view the space as the narrator does, and sense the invisible presences of the other characters! I was originally struggling in trying to find a way to show the presences of the other characters in the book, but am now going to use color as a way of doing so. I decided to go for a thick creamy paper, so that the colors I use (including white), will really stand out. I was actually heavily influenced in my illustrative style of the map by children’s illustrations, Korky Paul, in trying to evoke the Victorian homes through huge amounts of high detail. Screen Shot 2015-04-28 at 8.41.26 AM

Conference Project Draft #1: Lost Countries

(This is a close up, the full image does not adequately convey what I have done so far) I was inspired for my conference project by a plot element from G. Willow Wilson’s comic Air.

The country of her story never existed, of course, but it got me wondering about countries that had existed and no longer do. Of course there are many thousands, and we cannot even begin to know the names for lands in pre-historic eras, but still there is something incredibly compelling about the idea of philosophical or metaphysical ramifications for a nation which ceases to officially exist. Ceasing to officially exist (or never being recognised as a legitimate state) is of course a highly political subject, however I want to refrain from making too many political judgements and focus more on something a little more occult. Supposing a country only existed for a few years and then became something else, or was annexed – what about currency, stamps, birth certificates, criminal proceedings…all the little things that make up people’s lives. Those can’t just be wiped off the map, so to speak. Various philosophical and quantum mechanical theories engage with the idea that everything which existed must still exist, otherwise it couldn’t have ever existed. My question then, is where do these lost countries exist? And what would that space look like? I’ve always loved old imperial maps; they’re preposterously gaudy and often filled with information.

Given that the vast majority of the better recorded disappearances occurred during the imperial period, I thought it would be interesting to map these lost countries onto an imperial map, as opposed to something more ostensibly impartial and modern. The first image above shows the beginnings of my superimposition of the countries onto the old map, which will be aesthetically dismantled and warped into something more ghostly and difficult to understand. This is still a rather vague area in the project, and it will be interesting to see how it turns out. Getting the names of the countries on there will also be very important.

These are some of the lost countries I have put in so far (as best retroactive estimates can describe them). The Bavarian Socialist Republic, Chechnya, and Katanga. They were all secessionist states of varying degrees of recognition. Initially I was going to only use secessionist states, because I think there’s something prettily tragic about a failed attempt to form a nation, but I have decided to add annexed states (where they do not overlap). That should populate the space a little more. Aside from learning a lot about history and geography, I’m sure this project will be an interesting artistic challenge.

Conference Project Draft #1: Map of Ordinary Affects

A sketch I made during my conference of a potential layout with notes around the side

a digital “sketch” of my preliminary idea

I began thinking about my conference project inspired by a couple of different psychogeographic and map inspired projects. I found the idea of ‘mental travel’ that Merlin Coverley wrote about in Psychogeography incredibly compelling, and I identified it with a lot of my own experiences of daydreaming about distant (or nearby) places. Additionally, over spring break I found the book Atlas of Remote Islands by Judith Schalansky in a book store over spring break. The subtitle of this book is “Fifty Islands I have not visited and never will,” and in the introduction Shalansky writes about her experience of mental travel through looking at atlases as a child growing up in East Berlin, a place she could not travel beyond.

Shalansky renders a map of the island in question and on the proceeding page, she describes the island’s history and facts about its location and habitability.

The night before I found the book, I was aimlessly looking through Google Maps when I located a series of islands I had never heard of before called the Faroe Islands. I was surprised to know that 50,000 people lived there, and I clicked through the photographs of the towns there and tried to imagining what life would be like if I had grown up there. This is where the full idea for my conference project came from.

When school started up again, I began to explore different parts of America on Google Map street view. I was drawn to the most rural places, because I grew up in a city and have minimal exposure to living in rural America. Also, often when traveling (at least in my family), we tend to visit cities, both familiar cities where family lives like Los Angeles and Denver, as well as cities we have not seen before. In my writing class, we were talking once about the experience of driving through rural, almost empty areas of the country and trying to imagine what kind of person lives in the houses you pass by. As I looked through Google Maps and chose specific locations to zoom in on, I kept this framework of trying to imagine the lives that inhabit these locations in mind. I selected which specific roads/towns to zoom in on based on whether the street or town names appealed to me.

My map will depict aspects of American life that do not appear on maps but that mark the memories and locations of experiences in peoples’ memories. For example, a field where a child found a four leaf clover, or a road where a car accident occurred, or a place where a teenager smokes their first cigarette…these types of milestones do not show up on the terrain or maps of America, but they are very much a part of growing up in the specific spaces. The inspiration for the “invisible” aspect of my map comes from anthropologist Kathleen Stewart’s Ordinary Affects, an ethnography of American life that she depicts through non-fictional vignettes of the ‘ordinary’. I hope to map ordinary affects in my conference project. I am still decided how exactly to present this concept. I began with collage of rectangular pictures shown in the second image of this post and intended to make a 40 by 40″ map in that style. On top of the ‘surface’ (the screenshots of different street views), I would write in sharpie the ordinary event that occurred there which would be the sign system.

I’m not sure what the connection system would be in this map. When I brought my digital sketch to conference, Una and I discussed ways that I could use the map to combat competing discourses that define American life. We thought of using a chart of the stock market crash as a “surface” containing holes which reveal the screenshot images I took and the sign system details that explain the ordinary events that occurred in the spaces.

The issue now is that the draft I have is rectangular and therefore not 40 by 40, and I can’t use as many images as I hoped to. I also want to make sure it is read as a map.

A Story is Not a Tree

… but maybe it's a system?