FMP Week 4

Thinking about how I might display my final presentation, and also about the concept of removing the artefacts further from their functions, I laid out four of the nuts on a plain white table, in the exact composition of an earlier photograph I had taken of the same objects.

I did this because I wanted to see if people viewed the objects differently to the photograph. I have found that as the compositions I lay out are temporary, the only way I have of preserving them is the actual photographs I keep, and therefore my sketchbook is full of these 2D images. 

But if these photographs are to be treated as a ‘final piece’, then this means that they are one further step removed from their function in the original object. I need to remind myself that these experiments did start from removing an object from it’s purpose, and then took a step towards experimenting with perception.

When looking at the photographs, people thought that the layout was nice, the composition seemed very much ‘like me’. But that was really the extent of the reaction, whereas when the physical objects were before them, they were more inquisitive - perhaps just a sign that they’re most certainly members of the 3D class? But also they went to pick them up, to interact with them, they moved their heads around to get different views of them and looked at the texture of the rust.

I think that this was a big wake up call to me, as before this point I had been starting to lose the difference between a pointless object and a photograph of a pointless object. Really, I learnt that when a strange object is facing a stranger, they assume that there is a meaning, they assume that there is something important there, whether they are capable of seeing it or not. 

I don’t know how much of an impact this will actually have on my work though, given that my plan had always been to display some form of 3D object, and my platform of working had always been beyond 2D. I suppose this means that I was already running along the lines I would prefer, so it’s nice to have developed the presentation there and back again.