Final Photographs
Psychogeography – Visual development
I had a meeting with David today because I was finding it hard to put together everything and create a final outcome. The meeting with him was very useful because I came out from it with few ideas and potential outcomes that all seem to work really well. I think I was finding it out to decide on what I want to say and I think now with some small research I decided. The first thing I thought about was using these tracing paper marks to use them in an exhibition, using projection and light to create this big piece of work. The way it would go is in a big white space the tracing paper would be hanging form the ceiling and behind it it would a silhouette of a woman with the light projected you can only see a blur. This would also bring the initial idea I had earlier on but decided not to go with but in a different way and much bigger scale. I think this would be a really interesting idea that brings together all the materials I have. This idea seemed to be really good. 
After some more discussions and thinking about how I would show this in an exhibition I decided to change my idea and focus on leaving a mark. The first initial idea came from speaking to David about leaving a mark on clothing, marks on women’s clothing walking around and maybe turban was it the most common religion practiced is muslim. However, from the images I had I didn’t have enough documentation and images of women to go with this idea. I didn’t want to use other photos that weren’t from the area as well so I decided to change this idea to leaving a mark in the streets. I thought women have no representation in those streets, the main street is full of barber shops, grocery shops that’s all. There is nothing that shows or represents women a hair salon or anything to do with females. So for this, I decided these charcoal marks will be marks for women, to represent their voice and me as well. I would put these marks back into the streets on walls, floors, houses. By this way, I would be leaving a mark in those streets to show that I have been there and I was able to break those social boundaries. For this, I think it ties together all marks and images I have taken. I would be creating a photography exhibition.
Visual development
These are the first two images I created on photoshop using my photographs. I scanned the marks and then adjusted the colour, brightness and cleared up any dark smudges. The next step was to place them on to images. The first image I chose was this image of houses lined next to each other. I then placed the scanned images on top and started to clear any areas. The point was to make it look like those lines were actually sprayed, drawn on to those walls. I made the decision to cut out the dark lines and only keep the layers of lines representing women to show there are women living inside those houses and wanted to show that they exist, by this way it stands out. This is the first image so I had few mistakes and areas I had to improve. I had a tutorial with Craig and he mentioned I shouldn’t cut out windows or the doors the lines should go over on those as well to make it more realistic and it would have a stronger ever. I do agree with this comment, I have to think about objects stand out like satellite.
The second image I wanted it to have more impact and stronger sense of what I’m trying to communicate. This photograph is from the most male dominated area, where I call it the ‘the meet up’ for all Turkish men. This is the street Turkish women always avoid. The photograph I think shows off this with few men standing outside the shops and no women insight. The way I used the marks on this image I wasn’t quite sure on how to place it, I wanted to show this is very male dominated area with layering the dark lines on to the houses. I showed this to Craig and he suggested that the other image with houses was more stronger visually than this one. I do agree, I don’t think the marks stand out and create the effect.
I then carried on editing the images and I chose few more photographs. These are the final images. The first one is the row of houses and I edited again but this time leaving marks on the windows and doors. I really like this version and I think visually it is very strong, it looks very real and I like the composition in the image. I didn’t want it make it so crowded and busy so there is a clear flow of lines from one corner to another. I didn’t edit the image, only small changes such as brightness and contrast. But I liked how the image was darker, sky is grey and cloudy, different pastel colour row of houses but it’s not happy, positive tone. I think overall I really liked this shot. I wanted it to reflect and show who are behind these closed doors. The way women are absent from the streets but only exist behind these closed doors next to their children and husband.
Each image focuses on either women or male dominance. The next photograph is from the most male dominated area in the high street. Where male machismo is at its highest, ‘meet up point’ for Turkish men to socialise before going off to work and earning money for their families. In this image, I think the timing in this shot is really well, in front of the shops you can see few men having a chat and discussing something probably work related. For this, I wanted to include my marks, earlier I created an edition but I wasn’t satisfied with it visually. So this time, I didn’t cut out the marks and layered. I just played the full image on, covering the food shops, houses the whole area behind those 3 men. With this image, I wanted the same effect, show male domination, machismo and I think the shot really gives off these messages. When I was creating the image it was challenging adjusting and cropping at right places such as doors and object that are standing out to make it look as real as possible. If the image didn’t sit well on the image then the whole effect would be lost. You can see the lines cross over signboards, doors, windows. This image is also as a whole shows the dark mood with grey sky and the shot being from opposite shows as if the viewer is in this street and looking directly at this place from across the street. They can clearly see everything. I think most of the images especially is from this angle. This wasn’t calculated or I didn’t choose to photograph this way, I think I avoided getting closer I was in my comfort zone across the street but didn’t walk past those shops.
This is also another photograph I think is visually so strong, the shot is perfectly timed as you can see few people gathered around for an event which I didn’t know why. You can see a divide in groups which I realised when I was editing. There is a group of women across the street and group of men opposite. This was an interesting separation and I don’t know why it was like this or whether these people know each other I am not sure but this clearly shows the divide between men and women in the area. For this photograph, I again used the same mark but didn’t crop any parts as in this image you can see men and women together for the first time. When I had the meeting with Craig, he told me to improve few things like adjusting the mark to fit the top the house and clearing lines etc. I edited the mark by adjusting by increasing brightness and comtrast so the mark stands out and gives off the ‘graffiti’ effect”. This is the final image, I am really happy with outcome I think the composition of image and the charcoal marks really work well together.
This is another image I captured while walking through the alleyways, I saw a mother walking with her daughter I wanted to capture this moment. I liked the way the little girl was wearing a bright red coat and her mother was all in black the contrast is so interesting. They were going through these alleyways that are known to be very dangerous. I wanted to use the photograph in my final piece because I used her location in one of the lines in the charcoal marks. So she is represented in my mark. The first edition I wasn’t happy with the visual, I placed the mark onto a brick wall but it didn’t stand out as the background was dark.
This is the final image I created, I focused on another photograph. This was because the brick wall didn’t show up and stand out. I decided to use on the side wall which is lighter in colour so the marks stand out. I decided to use the perspective tool on Photoshop. I edited the photograph by increasing brightness and contrast. In all images I didn’t want to change much by adjusting colours I wanted to keep it raw. At first, I did think about black and white photographs however I thought it would hide everything and decided to go with original images.
This is the final image, I again used an image of a closed grocery shop. The reason I chose this image because the only thing the whole area has is either barber shops or food shops. There’s nothing else for women and using this closed shop I wanted to reflect this message and leave a mark. To create this, I used the perspective tools, clearing sections and erasing parts. I used the mark very large to cover most space to it stands out and it creates a strong visual.
These are the final 5 photographs I designed as an outcome. I am very happy with the outcomes and from this I need to think about what I can do with these images. My idea was to create an exhibition. The next stage is to research into interesting exhibitions for inspirations.
Psychogeography – Turkish Feminist Artists
Sukran Moral
I chose to analyse and use Morals work as an inspiration because she challenges public space in Turkey, her work is provocative and focuses on male machismo in Turkish culture. Her ideas and the message she wants to communicates is very similar to mine my idea and I want to also challenge male machismo. Her work is of course way more provocative. Her major 3 video works are Bordello (1997), Hamam (1997) and Married with Three Men (2010), on view in her exhibition at Es Baluard museum in Palma de Mallorca. The work I liked the most was Married with Three Men, she challenges cultural traditions, patriarchal system in Turkish culture. The video work is a wedding organized by a woman, Moral dressed up in white gown walking through a village street with 3 young men as groom. In Turkey, in this context this is unheard of and most commonly wise verse. I think her work is inspiration, it is brave and it addressed issues where you can clearly see peoples reaction, in the photograph you can clearly see people looking at them with shame and they are confused. However, if a man acted this way I think they wouldn’t have the same reaction. I think this shows the sexist two faced side of capitalist society, how mens actions are normalised then accepted but same principles will never apply for women. I think the photographs have a clear sense of what she is trying to communicate, she wants people to feel uncomfortable, to question whats going on
Nil Yalter
Yalter is Paris-based Turkish artist that works on politics, feminism and migration. As she moved to Paris when she was 4 she can relate and has experienced migration. She uses photographs, videos and installation to communicate her work with viewer. The reason I chose to analyse her wok because I think working on immigration sharing their story and experience is fascinating. Below is her painted polaroid of a women in 5 different ways, she uses blurs, distortion and layers to distort portraits. I think the documentation and the way she uses these images to portray their experience is really interesting. She is one of most famous artists in Turkey I think her work inspiring and will influence my work. Also, I think her work is a portrait of people whore presence is at once evident and absent: the very essence of an indeterminate existence. When we started this project, the one of the ideas I had was focusing on immigration, I could relate to it and use my experience as the base point. I wanted to explore the feeling of home whether migrant feel at home in the place they live and share their experience. I think this is why I was interested in Nil Yalters art work.
THE WORK IS A PORTRAIT OF PEOPLE WHOSE PRESENCE IS AT ONCE EVIDENT AND ABSENT: THE VERY ESSENCE OF AN INDETERMINATE EXISTENCE
The next stage is start making visuals and figure out what I want to make with the images. I need to figure out what I want to say at the end of this project which is the challenging part combining the marks I have made and the images for a final outcome.
References:
https://theculturetrip.com/europe/turkey/articles/10-best-turkish-artists-and-where-to-find-them/
https://artreview.com/features/april_2017_feature_nil_yalter/
https://frieze.com/article/sukran-morals-humorous-scrutiny-patriarchal-traditions
https://www.e-flux.com/announcements/251736/nil-yalterexile-is-a-hard-job/
Psychogeography – Experimenting #4
The next day I started to explore with charcoal and paint to create the maps. I thought red was suitable due to like how on google maps when the road is busy or theres traffic it comes up as red, so using red in that street could highlight how busy it is full of men. Then the charcoal I thought it was suitable as it can be blurred and I can draw very thin lines to show the scatter around the streets. The contrast between red bold paint and charcoal smudges I thought would have a stronger visual language.
Images above show the process of making the prints with charcoal and paints. I created a few prints on tracing paper because I thought with this way I could layer all of them or when I scan I can create a big piece digitally. I was also inspired by this by a group who did similar things on tracing paper in one of the group tasks they drew sections of streets and layered on top. I used the map from google maps to trace over on to tracing paper.
These are all the prints I created, I tried to use different ways to communicate so on the left I used a really harsh lines to show the high street then the blurs are the streets and symbolises women being blurred. I think this is a strong way to show it. The images in the middle I made them with paint and charcoal The red paint is just the high street very similar like the digital versions. The ones on the left is my favourite as the harsh lines are really strong, you can clearly see the difference then the several thin lines cross over each other, they represent the women I saw in streets that I recorded when I was walking around. Also, it shows the path I was walking through as well. I think that one has the most strongest visual.
After creating these I didn’t know to do I had to use these marks somewhere or create an overall piece. The first thing I though about was scan these images so I have them digitally. I started to think about what can I do with these first thing that I thought was create a one large piece by layering them on top but it would need some context, as when people look at it they wont know what the dark red lines mean or the blurred thin lines. I thought I could communicate this by adding some quotes an example Turkish sayings I heard from my family or friends about that area to prevent me from going there. These are like “Sen arabada dur” “Bosver baska bir zamanda gidersin” “Biraz erken git, hem turkler de olmaz”. I used some of these quotes in the digital piece before. They translate as you should wait in the car, maybe you should go an earlier time so Turkish men wont be there etc. I think this could make the visuals stronger and show why am I creating these images and prints why am I focusing in that place. I tried to do these in the studio using a white board, layered the images and added quotes but I think this was very weak, it made me feel like its a GCSE work. I had to use these marks in a way stronger sense so it would mean something when people look at it.
The next step is to do more ideation, research some Turkish feminist artists for some inspiration and then decide what will my final piece should be.
Psychogeography- Ideation #3
After artist research I had some ideas on what I want to do. Especially after Rebecca Solnits text about gender implications on the act of walking. I realised that I have a similar experience in Swindon. The first and main I have is focusing on a street called Manchester Road. The reason I want to focus on that street is the area since we were little has always been told to us that is is very unsafe and its dangerous that we should always avoid or never walk through it. The street and that area is next to the Swindon town centre but I never had the chance to walk there due to all these things I would hear from people around me. These factors really drew me into that area and I wanted to explore for this project.
The main reason I want to focus on that area is also the perception of Turkish women always avoiding that area. They always seem to never go there alone due to many things being said. It was a socially not accepted to go there as an alone woman. I think this is why I really wanted to focus on that street after reading Rebecca Solnit because I myself and also other women also experiencing these issue sin our day to day life and I thought I could create a body of work showing these issues and explore the position of women in society and how it is challenging for women to even do a humane act of walking without being restricted by a man or the society.
For this reason, I read Janet Wolffs ‘The Invisible Flaneuse” in the essay, she explores womens experience in the society and mainly how they are invisible. She focuses on the concept of ‘flanuers’ which is why I was drawn into it. Wolff talks about the public life for women. She says that “even by the late nineteenth century women could not go alone to a cafe in Paris or a restaurant in London.” The idea of women having the freedom to enjoy quality time outside, socialise in a cafe or a pub was not accepted. But for men they was granted this freedom, their private social life was a need and was simply because out of the domination. Wolff uses Sennets arguments as support as Sennet says “In the earlier ‘public life’ women had to take a good deal more care about the ‘signs’ of their dress, in which would be scrutinized for an indication of their social rank; in the nineteenth century, the scrutiny would be in order to differentiate ‘respectable’ from ‘loose’ women.” I think this is a significant issue in todays society even now, when a women walks down the street they will always be judge by what they wear by men and other women. Wolff links the public life to flanuers, she uses George Sands experiment or her experience when she dressed up as a boy and walked through the street. Her main aim was to have the freedom and to explore what men always have. Wolff linked this to flanuers she said women could not adopt the non- existent role of a flanuese, “women could not stroll alone city”. She says the flanuers are always men, we hear the city from a males voice. Charles Baudelaire and other flaneurs which created this concept they are are men, the reason for this because women do not have the freedom to walk through a street and explore without being judged, without being categories into some system like Charles Baudelaire did in his essays.
So for this, I decided that for this project I want to focus on Manchester Road, a street I never been to, never had to chance to walk through and explore due to social barriers. As a Turkish woman I wasn’t granted the freedom to walk wherever I want but for this project I think it will be the perfect time.
I had a group tutorial with David today and I explained my idea to him and the main focus point using the articles I have read. The feedback was positive and he suggested that I should talk to Ashley Morgan. The small meeting with Ashley was really beneficial I explained her the area and that I want to focus on women. She suggested I should read few more articles.
I went to Swindon this weekend and recorded the streets, people and noises around the area. My first initial reaction to the area was that it felt like I was not part of the place, the area is very multicultural and diverse. The main high street is full of food shops and barber shops. The images below show some of the things I was noting own when I was walking around. The main thing I noted down was how many men and women I was seeing around the area. I noted that in the few hours I was there I saw 9 women and 22 men. As I was walking around I defiantly realised the area was predominately male dominated, especially the main high street.
These are the photographs from the area, I wanted to capture the essence of the streets so we can understand the area as it would tell us a lot. The area is very diverse and multi cultural, theres a mosque and a church in one street. There are so many alley ways connecting streets and main street is full of grocery shops and barber shops. There are 10 barber shops on the high street.
Visual ideation
I then moved on the creating a mind map noting down potential ideas. The main two ideas were one is to focus on the invisible women in the area. From the recordings like I mentioned earlier the area is predominantly male and women have no representations in the high street or around the area. There are 10 barbers focused on men but not one hair dressers or any mention of women in any place. They all live there as the area has many married couples and theres schools. However, they are not presented in the streets or their existence can’t be seen. So for this, I thought about using the photographs I took especially the ones where you can see women walking through the alleyways, use the images and design a map that shows men walking the main streets and their dominance but also show women walking through the alley ways and being pushed and isolated. I could either show this with a digital piece using illustrations and images or videos of movement.
The second idea I had was to still focus on invisibility, I wanted to use the images that I took on the high street and illustrate women silhouettes figures. The reason behind this was to show that they are physically there but they are invisibility. The silhouettes will just be outlines and could be blurred out so the invisibility is minimum. These two ideas seemed the strongest to me and they both have a strong message they want to communicate.
The next step from here was to explore with my ideas and figure out which one would work the best. So the first idea I tried out was the invisibility in the streets. My idea was to draw silhouettes of women in these streets to represent that they are invisible but physically they are living there. I had to figure out how I would draw on the illustrations, the first thing I thought was to screenprint them but then I had a meeting with David and he suggested maybe I could stitch them onto the paper which also links with stitching is stereotypically associated with women. I created few potential layouts on photoshop
These are the images I used, one of them are photograph of the alleyway I saw women walked through and the other 2 images are from the main high street which is the male dominated area. The white silhouettes I tried to incorporate them as if they’re walking through. I spoke to David after I designed these he said I should consider who these women are, what are they wearing. From my research, the area is predominantly muslim and christian so I would have to reflect this on to the women. The next day as I have no experience in stitching I went textiles to ask whether I can use their machines.
However, after a lot of thinking I decided that this idea wasn’t as strong, I think women are already invisible but I should have another way to communicate this. I moved on to the next idea which was women walking through alleyways. To design this, I did some research on maps created my psychogeographers and other artists. I first started off digitally designing it on Illustrator.
These are the first few designs using some lines and shapes. The idea behind it was to show male dominated areas. The red thick rectangles show the main high street, some areas are shorter to longer wider rectangle show the most male dominated area. That part on the map shows that section where a lot of Turkish men come together and it’s like their meet up point which is why Turkish women always avoid that area. I tried to communicate this with shorter, longer lines. To show women walking through alleyways I used thinner lines showing them walking away from the main street, it also shows my path when I went there I was mainly walking through streets and shortcuts.
I had a group tutorial with Craig today and he suggested some interesting things. I said that I think something is missing from the digital designs it doesn’t have the effect I want it too. Craig suggested maybe I should explore this idea of the map even more, he suggested I should do multi media and explore other materials to create the map which then it could be stronger in visual. He also suggested stitching again for the women section walking through alleyways. He also suggested few artists for inspiration such as Larissa Fassler and Barbara Kruger.
Psychogeography Research #2
The next step was to research about artists and writers that could influence me in the project and for inspiration in the idea creation process. The first writer I found in one of the articles I was reading was Rebecca Solnit, her book Wanderlust. Solnit writes about walking in San Francisco: “I was advised to stay indoors at night, to wear baggy clothes, to cover or cut my hair, to try to look like a man, to move someplace more expensive, to take taxis, to buy a car, to move in groups, to get a man to escort me – all modern versions of Greek walls and Assyrian veils.” Thus she ascertained that “many women had been so successfully socialised to know their place that they had chosen more conservative, gregarious lives without realising why. The very desire to walk alone had been extinguished in them …”This was a clear example how even such humane things as walking can have gender implications and I think Solnits sayings about the issue really shows the horrible truth for women in todays society which is argued by many Feminists. For this project, as I have always been interested in feminism especially women’s position in todays society in all aspects I think focusing my project on gender implications could be really interesting. This passage from Solnits book already gave me few ideas and inspired me to think from more than just buildings and spaces we visit. The psychogeography focuses on the geography, environment around us but the person experiencing this can also effect our perception and behavior which is an interesting concept.An example, walking through a city or a street from a women’s perspective, what would they notice, what do they have to think about when walking a street on their own, this idea focuses on Solnits statements of women are being sexualised walking though a street due to the socialisation from young age and the position of women in todays society. Solnit focuses more on this issue in “Walking After Midnight: Women, Sex, and Public Space,” Solnit begins the discussion with three prerequisites for taking a walk: you need to have free time, you need to have a place to go, and you need to have a body unhindered by illness or social restraint (234). It is these “social restraints” that Solnit discusses for most of this chapter. She says that women’s walking is seen as performance as opposed to transportation (234). Later on in the same chapter, she says, “Going out walking [has] become evidence of sexual activity, and sexual activity on the part of women [has] been criminalized”. Like I said this issue is very common in society, I think the way I communicate this issues would also be an important part as it would have to be eye catchy and communicate clearly double standards in society. I also think there should be many artists focusing on the issue.
Francis Alys, belgian-born, Mexico-based artist. His work emerges in the interdisciplinary space of art, architecture, and social practice.
I cam across his work when I was searching for artists focusing on the art of walking and I found so many inspirational work already and one of the works that inspired me the most was created by Francis Alys, Mexico based artist that focuses on space of part, architecture and social practice using different mediums and created a diverse body of artwork and performance art. His works examine the tension between politics and poetics, individual action and impotence. The photo below is from his work ‘The Green Line‘ 2004’ Alys explores the power of walking but also the main focus and purpose is to draw attention to political history of the ‘Green line’. The Green line boundary largely separates the Israelis from the Palestinians, about 1.5 million Palestinian Arabs are citizens of Israel, and more than 500,000 Israeli Jews now live east of the Green Line. Alys draws attention to this boundary by using a poetic language in his protest or what he wants to communicates with underlining political message. I think his work is very powerful in many ways, the message he wants to communicates is very clear and he uses a can of paint and the power of walking. He uses the ‘flaneur’ in his work and The Green Line is a clear example and an inspirational work.
Another artwork I really from Francis Alys was the ‘The Collector’. He collaborated with Felipe Sanabria and the purpose behind this work was walking through Mexico city using a small machine that picks of loose metal objects on the floor. I think this artwork is very inspirational as it showed me that what recording or documenting a place doesn’t have to be photography, draws or paintings it can be actually collecting objects from the area or space which can also capture you the essence of the place, people walking through it or just the urban life.
The Commuter is one of the Alys work that I found really interesting, the main reason for this was because the ‘flanuer’ concept isn’t performed by a person, it is created by a painting. The way this as created was that it is comprised of an oil painting, which depicts the legs of people as they walk through London, and eighteen photographs. The painting and photographs are accompanied by a framed work on A4 paper entitled ‘THE COMMUTERS, London 26 Sept – 20 Nov 2005
typewritten bullet points which provide instructions for the fate of the painting. The instructions outline that the painting is to be removed from 21 Portman Square at 7pm and taken away by a visitor. It will then remain with the visitor until 11am the following morning, when it is to be returned to Portman Square. This sequence is then to be repeated. The eighteen photographs show the oil painting in various places, such as strapped to the back of a moving motorbike, propped against a sofa in a domestic space, and being carried under the arm of a man down one of London’s Regency streets.
Vito Acconci
I think his work very interesting and a different approach which can be seen unethical. Acconci followed a random stranger around the city until they walked into a building. I t was really interesting to read his recordings.
Richard Long
I also really liked Richard Longs work ‘A line made by walking’ I found his work by searching up for artist that focusing on walking and this is a similar approach as Francis Alyss but they have different purposes. I think I like this work because it is leaving a mark when your walking it leaves a mark behind you which you can trace back too.
Flâneur with a Movie Camera
I also did more search into video making and I found an artist called Dziga Vertov. His aproach is really interetsug and I also watched a short part of the documentary. Vertov does not wander in straight lines, nor in temporal sequence. In Vertov’s “Man with a Movie Camera,” the flâneur, the eponymous “Man,” is a collage/montagist, collecting and arranging is hosts and images without regard for narrative or temporal sequence. I watched the documentary and I think it was really capturing and showed the ways I can go for this project. The documentary has no narrative or a story lines it was a collage of different images and different techniques. For the project, I don’t think I will be using videos for my project as I don’t have much experience with editing.
Alison Barner
Alison Barners work caught my eye in the lecture we had on the way to Birmingham. She used the graffiti in the streets in Nottingham. The first work I saw was the map she created using different types of graffitis aorund the city. But also they created a type face using different styles used in the graffiti ‘New Basford”.
The font family of New Basford was created from the initial dérive of graffiti gathered and investigated on location. The graffiti ranged from what we defined as New Basford ‘industrial light’ consisting of basic graffiti ‘tags’ to New Basford ‘heavy’ consisting of aggressive, and even abusive graffiti. This reflects the changing nature, the ongoing palimpsest of the area dating back to the early 20th century.
Helvetica Neue was adapted in Fontographer with the graffiti replacing a range of ‘official’ characters from each weight. Helvetica Neue was chosen as its range of functional, adaptable weights coincided with the range needed for the New Basford family, its ubiquitous nature gives the graffiti a universality, and conceptually the visual contrast of the book set in historical Baskerville contrasts with the contemporary now in the form of Helvetica.
I think this project is really interesting because graffiti is something that we usually see on the street and walk past it, no one really pays attention or wonder the artist or people. I think using the graffitis really shows the essence of the city as they are part of the city that is over looked. The map which has several categories of types of graffiti is also really good but I was more impressed by the type face. I think it is smart and captures something that is over looked in the city.
I want to search some more and look into gender implications especially after reading Rebecca Solnits sayings in her book. I think this could be a really good topic that I can explore and create something that links with psychogeography. I also need to decide where I want to ficus this project on. I think it will be Swindon as it is my home town and there’s a lot of potential ideas already in my head.
References:
http://www.thedoublenegative.co.uk/2014/12/an-introduction-to-psychogeography/
tate.org.uk/art/artworks/alys-the-commuters-t12183
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/alys-collectors-t12410
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/atlas-group-raad-my-neck-is-thinner-than-a-hair-engines-t11912
Psychogeography Research #1
I started off the project by research what is psychogeography, what is the purpose meaning behind it all. I think it is a interesting subject mixing psychology and geography towards and it is something we are all aware of sometimes and sometimes we don’t notice. An example, when we sometimes walk into a new street or a new room we feel different. In addition, in todays society as psychogeography focuses on walking ‘derive’ getting lost and exploring can be seen as boring and most people don’t have time for things like this. The main focus on psychogeography is the dérive is the letting-go process of navigational prerequisites (getting to the job for instance) — usual motivational demands for walking from place to place are stripped and replaced by exploration and attraction to various environments and experiences. You may know a wealth of different routes, but how well do you understand or feel your area, or any area?. Dérive confronts you with the psychological and societal; the power an environment wields to manipulate and control society and your own psyche. Atmosphere can change within a very minute distance; every setting is full of life and character — something often overlooked by preoccupied thought. The whole drive and letting go and exploring the city started in Paris, Paris is known as the birth place of psychogeography. The roots can be traced back to the French poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867) who described the “flaneur”: a person who walks their environment in order to experience it. The term “psychogeography” was defined as: “the study of the precise laws and specific effects of the geographical environment, consciously organized or not, on the emotions and behavior of individuals” in 1955 by Guy Debord (a French Marxist and social theorist). Baudelaire would stroll around Paris streets exploring and observing the surroundings and in todays society this carries on with artists, writers like Iian Sclair and Will Self. I think psychogeography is a massive concept because from a Surrealist perspective the city can be seen as a projection of our own internal desires. We pretend the city is all-rational and that cities are about traffic circulating and getting your work done, getting things produced and buying and selling etc. But they question what if it’s all about our desires. They can a completely different outlook on a city and they think about more than they can see, feek or touch, they create new meanings and go beyond the literal thinking.
However, Situationist International believed there was something more sinister was going on – that a conspiracy by the state and capitalism was afoot through the construction of buildings. Simon Sadler, Professor of Architectural and Urban History at the University of California, says, “If you think about urban development in the mid-20th century, it could be argued that cities were becoming more boring. The Situationists thought that by building more sterile, vacuous and boring cities, we were in turn making our lives more sterile, vacuous and boring. They believed that it was a conspiracy led by capitalism and the state, in an attempt to make us more obedient and productive beings by depriving us of the stimulus that make us really human.” There is a political aspect behind the psychogeography concept and buildings, cities are believed to be designed to satisfy the needs of the capitalist system. As Sadler explained through Situationalist International approach I did some research on this movement and artists writers who were part of it. The IS developed a critique of capitalism based on a mixture of Marxism and surrealism. Leading figure of the movement Guy Debord identified consumer society as the Society of the Spectacle in his influential 1967 book of that title. In the field of culture situationists wanted to break down the division between artists and consumers and make cultural production a part of everyday life. Situationists ideas and beliefs played a big role in the revolutionary Paris in 1968 but the group separated 1972. I think their ideas about the capitalist system in cities can reflect the truth, especially in todays 21st century, our environment is full of long skyscrappers, massive malls and other concrete buildings. When people walk around they don’t have anything interesting or unique to look at because it is all the same concrete long buildings it’s like we’re all being trapped. But also, the idea of people not noticing thing around you, the people that walk past you or the noises you hear, symbols and other small but maybe unique things can be linked to the rush of life, everyone focused on going to work and daily life routines. Sadler says, “They would drift around Paris aimlessly, just letting themselves be repelled and attracted by different buildings and areas and they started to calculate which parts of Paris were still good and conducive to being human and whole and which parts were designed to destroy us.”
References:
https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/columnists/will-self/will-self-psychogeography-5342715.html
https://360.here.com/2015/05/07/psychogeography/
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/art-terms/s/situationist-international
http://www.thedoublenegative.co.uk/2014/12/an-introduction-to-psychogeography/
http://poool.co.uk/news/2015/1/27/the-flneur-psychogeography-and-drift-photography
https://www.theguardian.com/books/booksblog/2007/nov/12/mappingwillselfsmind
http://theconversation.com/psychogeography-a-way-to-delve-into-the-soul-of-a-city-78032
Click to access New%20Basford%20paper.pdf
https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/atlas-group-raad-my-neck-is-thinner-than-a-hair-engines-t11912
Psychogeography Brief Launch
Today we had the brief launch with David and Craig which was in the afternoon but in the morning we were all told to get in groups towards the end of the Birmingham trip and was set a task to find and focus on one special secret area in Birmingham and record this with any medium you want. As a group, we decided to walk to Baskerville House which was right next to the Birmingham library. We all wanted to focus on Baskerville House because as graphic designer we all focus on typography and Baskerville font is a historical type face we all use. We thought this was a special for us graphic designer and wanted to record and documents things around. We all walked and recording things such as photographs, some rough sketches and I recorded voice notes to grasp the essence of the place in that moment. We then also had the idea of focusing on the floor, as Carl told us Birmingham’s old buildings, factories used red and blue brick. On the floor as well all walk in the city, there are construction everywhere things being built and floor can really show an insight of the place. We took several photographs of the floor and pathways in different locations as we were walking around in the city. You can see which location is old and has heritage then the newly built pathways. We presented this idea this morning and Craig really liked the idea. I think this project is new to many of us and it is very broad in the context this mini task helped us to grasp what we need to do and made me realise there’s so much that we miss out on day to day life. The main concept in psychogeography I think is realising the small things that we all ignore and focusing on your surroundings even with this mini task we had so many outcomes and ideas. The trip was useful start to get us in the right mind set and gave me a lot of inspiration.
The brief seems very straight forward, we were told we can do anything we want that can either focus on Birmingham, Cardiff or can be an other place, street that draws our attention. We can either record and reply to the project in photographs, sketches, printing, sound anything we want which is appropriate to our project and idea. I think to start the project I want to do research on psychogeography to understand the concept, the purpose behind and develop my knowledge so I can think about ideas as the next step. I also want to research on visuals, designs of artists for inspiration and in the branding project Davids feedback was to focus more on visual research to explain why I like the certain design, what it communicates to me. I already went through the keynote lecture and founds few interesting designs and psychogeographers that also caught my attention.
Field – Psychogeography Birmingham Trip
We started the Psychogeography project with Birmingham trip, this trip was focused on the meaning of psychogeography and we were ‘drifting’ through Birmingham with a tour guide and he was explaining us the history of the important locations in the city like around the docks, council building, Jewelry quarter, library of Birmingham. In the morning, we all went to an exhibition in Ikon contemporary art venue. In the exhibition, the most interesting and inspirations art I saw was the new video installation, – door open – (2014–2019), is by ZouZou Group, comprising two anonymous artists, one Syrian from Damascus, the other British, living in England. The work comes from their ongoing dialogue, made possible (and frequently impossible) through online messaging and filesharing mobile phone video footage. The work exposes the constraints and imbalances of working together across the boundary of a war zone and longstanding military dictatorship. Three screens speak to and across each other, exploring, interpreting and finally overcoming the many impediments to making the work.
The video installation is very inspirational, I think seeing both sides and kind of comparing the life styles shows the way some people live across the world and the difference is really shocking. The Syrian artists videos were mixture of videos layered on top to give the essence of a daily life for a Syrian civilian the streets, the nature. at one scene she was walking bare foot and the video was layered with wind nature noises and she was talking over the video. I found that really inspirational the whole installation was how two artists from two different worlds can meet but through emails and online messaging. I think it’s a very inspirational piece of work.
Then next we had the tour around Birmingham and we took photos, sketches, voice notes of things that we found interesting. As I was walking around I focused more on the photographs and voice notes. The photographs focused on the difference in buildings, the main thing I noticed from listening to the tour guide and looking around was the Birmingham was a long history and I feel like it’s made up of layers it went through stages. One of the ways to see the history in present is the buildings, the old is with the new contemporary style buildings I can see this with the Baskerville building a very old historic building and next to it was the Birmingham library building in completely different modern style. Another thing I noticed was and that is known about Birmingham is the construction works in the city. The noise from the construction sites is really over whelming, especially in the centre I think it became part of the city and everyone is so used to it. I have several noise recording from different parts of the city.
I think the trip was really helpful and it was interesting to walk around a city I have been for the first time and learn about the past and how it was before. I was quiet unsure on what was psychogeography and what was expected from us. I am not sure on what to create or design for this project but it was a good way to start and I have several images things to work from. I’m not sure whether I will focus on Birmingham as I don’t know much about the space. I want to start mind mapping ideas this week after the launch of the brief on thursday.
References:
Interior Styling – Evaluation.
Overall I really enjoyed this project, Interior Styling was one of my choices and actually the ones I wanted the most. So I was very happy when I was chosen to be in this project. At the start, I didn’t realise we had to make a set I thought this will be more focused on the printing, fabrics, interior design. However, it was really interesting to make a living space set for 5 weeks. We were put into big groups and this was a first seemed to be challenging as there was a lot of us and this meant a lot of opinions. However, I think my group worked really well together, we all listened to each other contributed as much as we can.
The project brief at first seemed very organised for few weeks with the lectures and studio space however, when we started to make the boards I think from then on everyone was really confused on what to do. Each group was allocated at different places, the boards were made by us and it took a whole day which meant people were just waiting around the day. We only had a week to create the sets so I feel like everybody started to stress and we didn’t have much guidance as well. In that sense, I think that is the only negative feedback I can give about this project. Overall, I enjoyed working with a team, being hands on painting, working with layouts as in Graphics we don’t usually do hands on practical things so this was a really nice change and also I feel like I gained a lot of new skills. At first I couldn’t understand how we can create a living space with no materials but as we all worked together, went to scrap stores it started to come together.
Busra Yildiz 