Breakthrough

Auspicious adj. Marked by success; prosperous. Suggesting a positive and successful future. “An auspicious time to purchase the stock.”


A fitting word for a fitting time.


I feel I have finally broken into something successful. I was looking at the case of the man who mistook his wife for a hat, an individual who see patterns and shapes instead of the objects and what they are, when he is handed a flower he describes its visual, geometric qualities but fails to reach the conclusion that it is a flower.

In this image i was focusing on what it is to be a patent of medical condition, you are isolated, judged for your characteristics and impairment, you are not seen as an equal and in this same sense the medication often prescribed acts as a barrier between the patent and him/herself, further complicating their functioning as a valued and equal member of society.

This image was a displaying part of the patients symptoms of only recognising shapes and pattern. The font used again is considered (as before). I was carrying out some reattach when I discovered a section about the font 'Albertus' one which was used in the 60's tv show 'The Prisoner' which is a favourite of mine. I decided the font would be a very good choice to be within my images, not only acting as a binding of sorts but also because in carried the mysterious elements seen in the prisoner, the illusion of identity, the experiments to change characteristics, I felt the show had strong connection with what was seen in the case studies in Sacks' book.

Textures

Today I wanted to find more texture to use for my project, I have previously been using textures taken from mono printing onto paper with a roller and then scanning these in, but i wanted to expand from these and I took my camera outside. I found textures such as scratched metal and tarmac were quite interesting and so I took these images for use in my work.

Some examples of textures used in my work- a red filter has been applied to all.

States of Mind

Dogmatic adj. 1. Expressing rigid opinions; Prone to expressing strongly held beliefs and opinions. “A dogmatic speech.” 2. Asserting opinions in a doctrinaire or arrogant manner; opinionated.

Im definitely very dogmatic, and probably too much of the time.

I began exploring ideas with the ideas of the mind within my images, I took to an early photograph i had found of a patient in bed and began playing with what I could to do the image.

I enjoy the suggestions of these images but again there is not enough meaning, I need to really include the stories of the patients.

Mental

Austere adj. 1. Markedly simple without adornment or ornamentation. “An austere office;” “An austere writing style.” 2. Strict or stern in appearance or manner. “He was an austere movie critic.”

I guess sometimes I can be too austere.

My project is coming to its conclusion and finally I feel I'm coming to a resolution. I've spoken with Jonny and Pete these past few weeks and have been discussing my ideas and images, I'm very happy with them and feel they've really progressed visually more so than in terms of what they say, design wise I'm very content with but I'm not sure if I was putting a strong enough message across and was worried about this. Pete said for me to be considering how I'm telling something, I'm telling a story and I thought about how I could do that in a subjective sense and stray away from an objective sense because of the nature of my abstract drawings, subjectivity is much more successful for me and the issues of the body were not translating. I discussed the idea of dementia and forgetting and this sparked ideas for further work. I felt something was brewing.

An example of the place my work was at.

I was also speaking to Jonny and we again had a conversation about mental health issues and how this alternative perception of reality could chime with the work I was creating. It was during this talk I realized that at the very beginning of the project ( possibly before) ,I bought a book by professor Oliver Sacks called the man who mistook his wife for a hat,  which is a series of psychological studies on patients; delusions and breaks from reality. It was interesting that my whole visual and mental journey this project, had come round to one complete circle, starting where I finished. I decided to venture down this avenue of case studies from the book.

Beryl

I was visiting my grand mother and I took some photos while i was there, she suffers form osteoporosis and struggles to walk and I wanted to document her feelings of frustration when she is unable to interact and move around like the rest of the family.

The photos are double exposure with a cooler filter to emphasise her sombreness. 

Some images I created using the previous photos.

I later used the these images to create some new designs, I was very pleased with the outcome but I did again feel that there was less meaning and that the pieces were far too self indulgent, where they really telling a story? I spoke to Merielle, Pete and Ceri, and they all agreed that they were far too focused towards personal interests. I still needed that window to allow the views in, I need broader context. 

Isolation

Prodigious (pro·di·gious) adj. Remarkably or impressively great in extent, size, or degree. “Her prodigious sales performance resulted in a promotion.”

On my gravestone it would say, ‘Prodigious Individual.’

I have continued down my avenue of focussing on patients and their health conditions. I was thinking that maybe my inclusion of images of individuals creates more of a personal tone to my artwork, by seeing the individual does it inject some sort of emotion, does it reel in the viewer?

I decided to experiment more with the images that I had, I took images of patents and tried to see what I could create just adjusting the photos slightly , whether that be with, contrast adjustments, repeats and overlays, I wanted to represent the mindset and sorrow of patients in distress. 

In sickness. 

In isolation.

The aforementioned images.

Hospital Doors

Insipid adj.  Lacking flavor or zest; not tasty. Lacking qualities that excite, stimulate, or interest; dull. “The insipid play caused many to walk out of the theater.”

I have felt that some if my images have been a little insipid recently.

After my visit to the hospital to collect pamphlets for research, Immediately started working on images of the elderly and tried to construct an image of a heart condition, of patients of medication. When I had visited the hospital I noticed the vast number of elderly patients wandering around the building. It made me think about what happened as we get old, and our bodily structures begin to fail us. I know this is a somewhat stereotypical view to have of the elderly but there is a sense of loneliness and sadness that I felt on that visit.

These are a collection of images I found that represented what I felt and envisioned on my visit to the hospital, I cropped and then merged them together to create a montage of hospital experience. 

I was also looking at the way that you can combine different images in a montage to create a sort of shutter speed of a scenario. As I had earlier seen in my first prints, something as simple as applying a similar tone to various images can unite them into a complete piece. I like that this image reads like changing shots in a film sequence, there is a sort of movement in a very static piece. It’s just a simple idea but its quite interesting to see how pictures can work with each other, through composure and relation.

More progression:


I then subsequently moved on to develop the images, partnering them with my drawings from my sketchbooks, as well as ideas of font choice:

These are some variants of my designs.

In these new images I wanted to contain this idea of the patient, that sense of personalizing what I was representing in the collages.

To ask the viewer to look at the man in the piece hopefully asks them to associate, to empathize and perhaps build a scenario of his suffering or condition or maybe he is happy? The image is almost open, but the ideas point to a sadder affair, The red the locates the illness in his heart, the pills, the washed out portrait and the Number, the counting of his heart beat, the seconds slipping away with his life.

Further progression, this time i was focussing the images towards coronary heart disease, hence 'CHD'

Heart Patterns

This was an idea that came from just a bit of experimentation, I don't think it will necessarily have a place in the project but it was a considered image in terms of placing of layers, again the meaning is not in the foreground but the colour and layout is something thought out. The black shape is an abstract drawing of a heart.