User:Annalystad/secondyear/gratuateseminar/projectproposal

Draft Two

What do you want to make?

I will look at off-screen spaces and the relationships through images and the relationships with them. The project will contain stories of human beings, in a raw and truthful way. Attempting to communicate something that is not visible within the frame. One such story is about a mid-twenties female whom is saving herself for marriage and the only person who has seen her naked body is her mother. Over the course of a month she let me photograph her nude, in three separate shoots and locations. In this instance, there is a visible connection with the subject and something that is not in the frame, you can feel the photographer’s presence or the presence of something outside of the frame. Her story is not important although the fact that there is a story is valuable. Moving forward with this project I have a range of possibilities available to me, how to communicate a complexity of a person and how they appear on/off screen. As of now, I need to focus on what stories I want to tell or if they are important at all. One has little control over what and how any story is unfolding let alone how others will interoperate it. The photographs will consist of portraits of people in their homes – telling a story that will stay private.

How do you plan to make it?

While conducting research for this proposal I need to collect more information on off-screen spaces, surveillance, disconnection between photography and representation. I need to plan a few experiments, voice record as I photograph, or film the entire shoot and the process. Print out images, develop images, put them together, arrange, rearrange, and go in to my archive – look for clues and do some self-surveillance. I need to look more into other artist dealing with off screen space such as Gregory Crewdson, Hito Stayerl, and look at Degas paintings of the women undressing. I plan to write down phrases that comes to my mind, and see how I can use them in the project. Record myself and the conversations I have with other women. The project might be a series of large images depicting women in their spaces, exhibited in a small exhibition room where the main visuals will be prints, and possibly a voice over in the room or some moving images showing certain details or hints to the story or my thoughts on the bigger picture. I will conduct experiments with different mediums to find out what best helps my concept and how it will be perceived and come together as one cohesive project.

Why do you want to make it?

I want to make this project based on a personal experience with the naked body in an image and how the off-screen space challenged the way I feel about a photograph. The story of how this came project came to life is not special, it is one of the most common things that happens in today's photographic society – the nude image, both a celebration of the body and a tragedy at the same time. At the age of 13, anno 2006 - I sent a nude picture of myself to a boy, and he sent one to me. I am not blaming my age, being “confused”, young and stupid. I knew what I was doing, and so did the boy. This nude picture of me spread like “wildfire” through MMS and was uploaded online. I don’t remember how I reacted, how I handled it. I don’t remember much of that year at all. I am not asking for pity, all I want is for you to understand how this incident made me aware of the off-screen space, what is happening outside of the frame. How that personal story of what was going on outside of the picture frame was disregarded once it went public.

Who can help you and how?

Steve, Marloes and other students can help me find texts that relate to off-screen spaces. I would also like to record our conversations, both as a way for me to come back to it and as a possibility to use it in my project. Discussions with friends about their thoughts, and how they might know someone who wants to be in my project.

Relation to previous practice

In my previous work I have had a strong connection with the human body, although photographing it in a non-human manner. I created these beautiful abstract landscapes that looked more like they were from a different planet. I had this urge to make the body be beautiful, beautifying it in a way – almost making it into this object you could stare at like a fetish. Now, with discovering this side of myself that I had desperately tried to forget and succeeded with it, I see a red thread throughout my art and how I now can make higher quality work based on a more intense, true, and raw emotional concept.

Relation to larger context

Off screen space as the digital privacy/truth in an on-screen world.

References to look at

Visual Culture – Nicholas Mirzoeff (Chapter 6,10)

Draft One

What do you want to make?

I want to make a semi photographic exhibition exploring the physicality of image making and the difference between analogue and digital capture. While studying this concept I will look at off-screen spaces and the relationships through images and the relationships with them. The physicality of the image is exploring what an image actually is, what kind of truth does it hold and how does relationships with an image start and how can one erase the image one have seen. The project will contain stories of human beings, in a raw and truthful way. Attempting to communicate something that is not visible within the frame. One such story is about a mid-twenties female whom is saving herself for marriage and the only person who has seen her naked body is her mother. Over the course of a month she let me photograph her nude, in three separate shoots and locations. In this instance, there is a visible connection with the subject and something that is not in the frame, you can feel the photographer’s presence or the presence of something outside of the frame. Moving forward with this project I have a range of possibilities available to me, how to communicate stories, or how to leave the stories untold. By telling the story – one breaks the mystery but can a more accurate account of the reality of the process. If one leave the story untold – it creates a more intimate relationship with the viewer, although leaves a bigger room for misinterpretations. As of now, I need to focus on what stories I want to tell or if they are important at all. One has little control over what and how any story is unfolding let alone how others will interoperate it. As I am writing this, the stories might not have such a big impact on the project as I first thought. The main aspect of this project is not the stories, but the relationship one might have with an image and how it is distributed.

How do you plan to make it?

While conducting research for this proposal I need to collect more information on off-screen spaces, read about the physical image and discuss stories with others. I need to plan a few experiments, voice record as I photograph, or film the entire shoot and the process. Print out images, develop images, put them together, arrange, rearrange, and go in to my archive – look for clues and do some self-surveillance. I need to look more into other artist dealing with off screen space such as Gregory Crewdson, Hito Stayerl, and look at Degas paintings of the women undressing. I plan to write down phrases that comes to my mind, and see how I can use them in the project. Record myself and the conversations I have with other women. The project might be a series of large images depicting women in their spaces, exhibited in a small exhibition room where the main visuals will be prints, and possibly a voice over in the room or some moving images showing certain details or hints to the story or my thoughts on the bigger picture. I will conduct experiments with different mediums to find out what best helps my concept and how it will be perceived and come together as one cohesive project.

What is your timetable?

Timeline of what needs to be done and the order which those things will be done.

Why do you want to make it?

I want to make this project based on personal experiences with the naked body in an image and how the off-screen space challenged the way I feel about a photograph. The story of how this came project came to life is not special, it is one of the most common things that happens in today's photographic society – the nude selfie, both a celebration of the body and a tragedy at the same time. At the age of 13, anno 2006 - I sent a nude picture of myself to a boy, and he sent one to me. I am not blaming my age, being “confused”, young and stupid. I knew what I was doing, and so did the boy. This nude picture of me spread like “wildfire” through MMS and was uploaded online. I don’t remember how I reacted, how I handled it. I don’t remember much of that year at all. Although there is one incredible strong memory of a conversation I had with my brother who was only 10 years old at the time. He came up to me and told me his friends had seen a naked picture of me and asked me if this was true, I denied it - this is the most painful memory I have. I am not asking for pity, all I want is for you to understand how this incident made me aware of the off-screen space, what is happening outside of the frame. This image was meant for a specific audience, one person only, and the consequences that came with it.

Who can help you and how?

Steve, Marloes and other students can help me find texts that relate to off-screen spaces. I would also like to record our conversations, both as a way for me to come back to it and as a possibility to use it in my project. Discussions with friends about their thoughts, and how they might know someone who wants to be in my project.

Relation to previous practice

In my previous work I have had a strong connection with the human body, although photographing it in a non-human manner. I created these beautiful abstract landscapes that looked more like they were from a different planet. I had this urge to make the body be beautiful, beautifying it in a way – almost making it into this object you could stare at like a fetish. I believe I have been afraid to handle the look of a real body and therefore only exposing the beauty. Now, with discovering this side of myself that I had desperately tried to forget and succeeded with it, I see a red thread throughout my art and how I now can make higher quality work based on a more intense, true, and raw emotional concept.