Task: Creative Passport

The task is pretty open to interpretation - create a passport that expresses your creative identity. Could it be a free drawing activity? Perhaps you could do a comic? Or take the reader on some other narrative journey?

My natural instinct was to transform the pages in some other way, not least to avoid unleashing my terrible handwriting. So, where to start? With what most people might think when asked of 'the self', their own face.

I drew the outline of my face, then moved to cut it out. Then, through the new hole, I cut a smaller, more abstract shape, in order to create a layered tunnel - this would also create a sense of distance and therefore the sense of taking a literal journey.

In each double spread, I visually represented a new layer of my psyche. These layers consisted of imagery including fish, dragonflies, geometric curves and masks, all with a smaller and smaller hole in the page until finally what started as a face has become an eye. 

The female at the end of the book can be taken to represent the realest, most private self. Her hair spills on to and across a series of ripped pages, which increase in size until the back cover is finally reached.

Added as an afterthought, one of these pages is not only shorter than the one on top (and therefore hidden to the casual viewer) but bit is coloured the same deep blue as the opening spread. This was to express the idea that although you might know someone to the extent you can, even then you will be surprised by something! Indeed, perhaps there simply is no knowing, after all, people are in constant flux in both personality and experience as time progresses.

The most important feature is the tunnel and how the reader can interact with it. When you look at the cover you may make a judgement of the contents, however you have no way of knowing for sure. Then, you look through the face and you see that there is a more and more - humans are complex beings with sophisticated levels of emotion and experience. Then after a while you reach the final level. The key part of the inner face however, is the fact that when I am looking out I do not see myself, just like when the reader looks out through the tunnel of the book they cannot see any of the previous pages.

I feel that in my passport I adequately communicated the many layers and questions to the self, how we perceive it, and lastly, how others might perceive me.

Trip part two: The V&A

The second part of the outing was spent entirely in the V&A, a place I'm sure I could live in for weeks without being bored.

To better engage with what the rest of this project might entail, I was looking at pieces first that appealed to me, then asking myself why. Unfortunately when it comes to a lot of pieces, it was merely aesthetic fancy. Not that I indeed to disregard any pieces for that reason, I suppose it may just be telling of the value to which I hold appearances (self esteem be damned). 

The first piece worthy of mention was a rather fetching sword guard taken from a katana. Appearing pure gold save the black fish swimming in the depicted waves, it was not lost among the rest of ornate sword guards.

I believe it stood out to me because in both colour and design it was one of the simplest.

The second piece that particularly caught my eye was the side of a Korean vase. The design is fairly standard you could say, not that that detracts from its charm.

In fact, walking around the Musem I certainly noticed that my love of the colour blue was undiminished in the two years since I obsessively declard it beautiful. 

After wandering for an indeterminate amount of time around the cased artefacts, I found myself back in the original stretch of hall I had entered - containing the complex figurative statues out of marble. An area I feel most comfortable with after having spent due time learning about Greek and Roman legends, many of which providing inspiration for the statues.

After a quick giggle at the (I would say comical) composition of the figures of Thetis and Achilles at the scene of the river Styx, I moved on to one sculpture in particular.

Titled 'Valour and Cowardice', it is part of a set completed by Alfred Stevens. I stood and spent about 45 minutes sketching it in pencil.

You can see clearly that it's not finished - however it was the female figure of Valour which attracted me to the piece and so her that was the priority. Indeed, I find bravery to be an aspect of myself that I highly value; I have had many say 'I could never do that' when talking about many aspects of my life that I've simply had to face. (Then again, for all that I consider myself brave, if there is a spider in the room I hate to be the one to deal with it when a parent is handy.)

It is almost impossible for one to view the piece without the thought of the genders of the figures - in the other piece by Stevens 'Truth and Falsehood' it is also notable that the nobler faculty is represented by a woman, the dishonourable counter part shown to be male.

I honestly like the gender granted to the traits, especially given the historical importance and emphasis given to 'brave men', when historically the women have had to brave just as many (perhaps more in number, some different in nature) hardships. 

This line of critical thinking definitely called my sister to mind - and as I had been in contact with her throughout the day it is almost impossible to ignore the fact that I drew the statue to more closely resemble her.

The final drawing of the day was completed shortly before I had to remind my body that yes, my left arm is indeed useful for more things than holding a sketchbook.

The piece, 'Virtumnus and Pomona' by Laurent Delvaux depicts the scene in the story in which Virtumnus, who up until then had been disguised as an old woman, reveals himself to be the young spirit of seasons. It also includes Cupid, seen sitting at Pomona's feet, to better express the situation - that Pomona has decided to finally welcome the advances of her suitor.

I felt that this piece was particularly relevant to my project, as it is about examining the 'true self', the implication being that there might be a false one. This the theme of disguising oneself seemed perfectly fitting. In all variants of the myth, Virtumnus disguises himself to get what he wants (the love of Pomona), and it's impossible to say that you have never changed anything about yourself on order to achieve something. From pretending to like people in order to socialise with their more likeable friends, to smiling at workers despite a foul mood - I alter their perceptions of myself to suit my needs.

Though I don't think I would lie or conceal anything to a degree beyond this, it's certainly true that the person you see is not always a true reflection of the self.

Trip part one: Serpentine Pavilion

After a nerve wracking exercise in solo navigation, the first stop of the trip was to the Serpentine Pavillion. I had never been there before, to the gallery nor even Hyde Park beyond Wireless festival and Hard Rock Calling, so the entire surroundings of the installation were also a new experience.

Wandering around and sketching was the main activity. After establishing the general feel of the place (I say general, it was like a giant hollow space doughnut, it could also be likened to a shed snake skin or the leftovers of a giant's cast over a broken bone) I attempted to take a few panorama shots from the inside of the structure.

This was the only one that wasn't an abysmal failure. The central circle is almost fully intact, just as it was when lying down and looking up. I thought it interesting that there was a huge, flat stone in the centre actually; as perfect as it was to flop down on and stare at the sky, it had a strange isolating effect - sat in the middle you felt very much isolated from those on the outside, as if all your attention was being channelled upwards into the sky.

I wonder if the feeling would still be there if the weather hadn't been quite so pleasant?

Possibly my favourite feature was the window. It felt entirely out of place (in a place that felt out of place) and provided a small portal into the outside world, as if to provide a small manner of context to the alien experience.

Yet another feature was the interior - again, aided by the good weather was the most unsettling feature of all - the walls were warm. Not simply warm in colour (they were a rather striking, mottled gold) but warm to the touch. At first it seemed like there was some form of highly impractical heating, but touching the walls left you even more reminded of the earlier impressions concerning snake skins. And snakes. Or aliens. After all, the concept of an alien craft having a 'life' of its own is surely older than Doctor Who.

Besides taking photos and putting other senses to memory, I completed three rough sketches of the area, then a fourth which I cut out two sections from - it was an experiment inspired by the use of negative space and light in the space-doughnut. 

And finally, a feature of the installation that caught most of us by surprise, was the way the sound carried. Just like the whispering walls of a Roman amphitheatre, certain spots amplified sound. This was noticed when a conversation concerning the warm walls was interrupted by a woman half way around the curve talking enthusiastically about her recent weekend away. I say interrupted - we were quite stunned that we could not see the source of the voice that for the life of is could've been sat at our table.

Once I totally disregarded how odd many of the features were, I found it to be a very calming and enjoyable experience. However, as it would not do to disregard such a large quantity of attributes, I'll conclude that it was certainly memorable, unique, and worth visiting. 

Task: Create Blog

The first official day of term has proven just as tiring as any drastic change in routine. That is to say, a bit.

Task one was to create a blog, one which will remain updated with records and the products of daily tasks and creations as I progress throughout the year.

The day started off with an activity related to ten objects which we were required to bring in: objects that either had personal significance or represented something alike, in order to aid us in answering the question 'who are you?'. Though, that's possibly the bluntest way of phrasing it.

Indeed, the upcoming research will really familiarise myself with who I am, and whether or not I am correct in my initial assumptions of what makes me 'me'.

Though it may not be terribly clear, the above work are the quick, 5 minute sketches of each object. Each sketch was completed in charcoal, and the various arrows and labels in gold are attempting to illustrate the various connections I found between the items as I considered their significance in my life.

Already I have discovered that despite my long held belief that I am quite capable of remaining alone and enjoying myself, 8/10 items were only valued because they represented my love of other people. In fact, not one single item was chosen because of what it was in itself. Even a book which I prised for its content would be easily replaced if (god forbid) my house burnt down.