I carried on developing my 'BLUE IS A BOY'S COLOUR' piece through then transforming the prints into cyanotype. They didn't come out as clear as I have done cyanotypes before, partially because everyday I tried to experiment with exposure time, it was quite cloudy. The photos came out and you can distinguish what the photos are but they are slightly blurred and not as crisp as I expected them to be.

Part of me likes this though as the photos themselves aren't of high quality or technique, it was more of a documentation and so maybe these prints are appropriate to the context. Next, I'd like to attach the prints to fabric to elevate this essence of softness and fluidity alongside a possible quotation or a simple time stamp. 

In the morning we went through everybody's work where the audience would give their interpretations and our tutor would also give constructive feedback. It was really useful presenting my work and also seeing other people's work as presenting helped me practise how to show my work to a large group of people, whilst seeing other people's work inspired me through understanding how others took on the brief. 

FEEDBACK FOR 'BED' SERIES 

Self portraits taken from the ceiling of myself and what I was doing at that present time in bed. 

- The bird's eye view angle is effective, enjoys the concept, the surveillance like aspect to it whilst it being quite intimate. Interesting how sometimes the subject doesn't notice the camera but sometimes they do, who is watching who.

To improve: Make the series longer to create more of a story and have a longer period of time as there were only 8 shots so it feels limited. What would be the difference in effect when it is printed? The last photo is really offbeat in comparison to the others so it might be more impactful if this came as a surprise to the audience rather than one of the first things you see on the page. 

'BLUE IS A BOY'S COLOUR'

Photographs of two boys displaying moments of trust, affection and vulnerability to be eventually printed onto cyanotype paper. 

- Clear concept, likes the composition of the photo and the rawness of it, likes that you can't really tell what time it has been shot due to the fuzzy camera, vintage clothes, naturalistic element to it. 

- Would be interesting to see what it would be like when it is printed on the cyanotype, some of the photos don't work well as a series but they do work individually so I need to think about which ones I'd present and whether it will be a series or individual pieces.

In the afternoon, we had a movement tutor come in to do an active workshop where we focused on creating simple sequences and gestures whilst playing around with ways to direct it in small and large scale groups. At first, I think our class found it quite awkward as it involved a lot of being silly and experimental with our body but eventually it became something very comfortable to do and it was fun to just focus on the artistic element rather than appearing 'strange'. Coming from a performance background, I really enjoy movement and so really enjoyed that we have been able to dip into a performance art area as I feel more confident now in expanding torwards this direction. 

The benefit of working in a studio in comparison to working alone is that you're in a creative space where you feel inclined to put the work in, especially if the studio costs money and time. Moreover, in a studio you have more access to backdrops, lighting, more space, more freedom to make a refined piece. Working alone can tend to be distracting as it is very easy to procrastinate. You are also very limited in terms of lighting and space as well as the creative atmosphere where you can be inspired by other people and things. However, working alone would be very effective if you are an independent worker. This is because you would be able to get stuff done, how you like it, with your own vision and moreover, some artworks don't have to be in a glossy studio environment; raw outcomes from the space you are given can be more creative and evoke more complex emotions. For example: Francesca Woodman's self portrait series was simply taken in a derelict-like house but the photos were extremely effective through how chilling and dark they made the viewers feel. 

The skills I have are being a strong independent learner whilst also being able to confidently pitch ideas and work in groups. Coming from a performance background, I am skilful in evoking emotion through movement of the body and theatre; I'd like to think that I would be useful in the role of a film-maker or performance artist as I like to and I am strong at telling stories through voice and the body whilst having a very visual mind to transfer it onto camera. 

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY WRITE UP 

"Eloise Thomas is an experimental photographer and film-maker who takes a playful and performative approach to her work. From the use of colourful crayons to black and white photograms, Eloise is multi-faceted with the materials and processes she takes as she carves out work which navigates their way through themes of the self, time, relationships and subculture. Coming from a background of acting and now studying an art foundation at Central Saint Martins, Eloise is beginning to explore 4D fine art and the way she can combine performance and lens-based means to create more emotive and developed work. Currently, Eloise is working on her photography self-portrait series 'Bed': an invasive yet intimate birds eye view experience on herself in bed creating a surveillance like atmosphere in a space that should feel so comfortable."

Today Julie Greve came in and gave us a talk on her work, processes and advice to us. Julie Greve is a Central Saint Martins graduate, in fashion communication, specialising in photography she entered her photos in 'The Your Picture/Our Future Initiative ' launched by Jonathon Anderson. The prize was to shoot imagery for the JW Anderson's winter/autumn campaign in which Greve won the opportunity to do. 

During the talk, I noted down some useful things that Julie Greve stated that I felt would help me progress with my own personal work, considering that photography is something I would like to specialise in. 

Notes:

- When planning a shoot, create mood boards for idea and research photographers, look through books in the library. 

-  Julie Greve steers towards using long exposure photography on medium to large format as it helps models figure out how they are going to pose.

- Always talk to the cast before the shoot as you do not want them to be nervous/put them on the spot. Plus, learning something new about the model may shift your vision in what you have in mind for the shoot with them. 

- Julie Greve uses social media to cast 'real' faces over models to capture the rawness and naturalism of taking a photo of a human rather than forced/pre-planned poses. Cast instinctively. 

- Enter photography competitions.

- Photograph subjects/concepts you recognise from within, things you can relate to emotionally. 

Today was the first day of our new brief: Self, Portraits and Body Politics and I feel really excited for this one as it is a chance to finally make work that I feel really relates to my practise and something that I can delve into creatively since I have struggled with the graphic communication briefs recently that related a lot around function rather than conceptualism. 

As an introductory into the brief and as a way to conduct some test shots, we were put in pairs and were told to interview each other in order to plan a quick one hour shoot relating to what the other person said. I am really interested in what makes an individual feel vulnerable and so I wanted to explore this deeper side to someone that I haven't really spoken to beforehand. The questions I asked were: What makes you feel vulnerable? What do you think about the most? What colour best describes you however after exchanging questions and answers our conversation developed into further spontaneous questions such as Why does this make you feel vulnerable? Where are you from? Are you a morning or evening person? things that are a bit more light-hearted and curious.  I feel like I really got to know my partner and felt a lot of empathy and admiration of them through how open and confiding they were with me; I felt as though I had to do them justice by taking sensitive and well intended photographs based around themes such as gender, insecurities and self-observations. The conversation never really fell silent, at first it may have felt a bit forced considering we didn't know each other and we had to really raise our voices to ask such intimate questions but after a while the conversation flowed and it was a lot more authentic and spontaneous. 

My intent for this project at this stage is to capture intimacy and vulnerability. I have three potential ideas I could develop but my main interest is capturing a sensitive side to someone since we live in a society where we feel the need to portray ourselves with pretences that may not actually reflect who we are; I believe that in itself outlines the insecurities and vulnerability of being a human in such a material and image driven world. 

IDEAS:

1: 'Blue Is A Boys Colour'

To capture moments of trust and sensitivity between two men and then printing it on to cyanotype to contrast the connotation of blue being 'masculine' to being honest/open/vulnerable.

Casting: 2x Men, not necessarily models, people that are relatable to the real world, comfortable with movement and intimacy with another man.

Props: Very simple, the main focus is on the cast, maybe a chair to sit or use of architecture. 

Location: Studio or a very plain house ie. white walls, wooden floors. 

Pose: very natural but also elements of surreality for example: two men staring at each other, doing trust exercises, but then also just realism of two men placing trust and closeness into each other. 

Framing: Intimate, as if the camera is someone observing, a lot of white space to have this natural/documentary like feel. 

Lighting: Use of flash to make it feel dated/DIY 

Rules: That the models feel comfortable with touch and poses, that consent is given, no filter or layering that would make the photographs look artificial, no forced poses. 

IDEA 2: Club Culture 

To take secret/surveillance like photos of people within electronic night life e.g losing themselves dancing, being intimate with another person, being alone, etc. to capture the subculture and element of intimacy that you don't usually notice in general. 

Casting: Guerilla/street casting, just capturing people in the room anonymously  

Location: In an electronic/techno event. I choose electronic specifically as I believe there is a different atmosphere in comparison to student events/mainstream clubs as there is this specific industrial style, people come specifically for the music, a lot of electronic clubs are queer safe spaces, there's more of an edge that you get within this scene that I don't think you could find at a freshers event for example. 

Pose: whatever happens in the moment that catches my eye 

Framing: Secretive, as if looking through the crowds, from a distance. 

Lighting: Dark, ambient and fragmented lighting, but taken under the specific lights to have a clear image. 

Props: No planned props, if someone is holding something and I choose to take a photo of them then those props will be included.

Rules/Restrictions: No flash in order to respect the atmosphere and not startle someone, the subject cannot know that they are being photographed in order to avoid a sense of self-consciousness, taken on a film camera, if someone does not give permission to use the photograph then their request should be respected. 

IDEA 3: BED 

Taping my phone/camera to the ceiling and videoing myself in bed either alone or with my partner or with friends, taking stills from this video to create a series of the way we let go of any stress the minute we are able to go to bed/the intimacy and softness that beds have connotations of. 

Subject/casting: self portraits potentially also with close friends or boyfriend 

Location: Bedroom, in bed

Pose: natural , whatever happens in the moment will be documented

Framing: Birds eye view looking down on to the bed.

Lighting: Low lighting, calming and soft. 

Props: bed and bedding as well as whatever is used in the moment e.g phone, headphones etc.

Rules/restrictions: Must be taken from a birds eye view, must be a video to then translate through a series of stills, nothing should be staged, even feelings of awkwardness or discomfort from the camera should be documented, must be in a bed. 

I used Final Cut Pro to edit the final outcome, it was fairly simple as I wasn't using any fancy effect. I made the film black and white and added a slight grain so that it felt dated and eerie. The hardest part was syncing the sound and making sure that it made sense and wasn't out of time over the video; I have never really experimented with sound editing before but navigating my way around this was an interesting learning curve. 

Next, I would love to make a short film revolving around video feedback as it would be exciting to add my own personal take on a manual and dated technique. 

Now that I had my mood boards and story boards set, shooting the film was very simple as I already had my rules laid out. I decided to go for an outfit that felt like it came from another period, nothing specific, but different enough to feel like it wasn't 2019. I had to relearn some tap dancing through a Youtube tutorial and decided that it would be cool to learn one specific move and, in the film, do the move repeatedly until it becomes chaotic.  Relearning old skills was an interesting aspect to this project as I actually set myself  a challenge rather than just simply making a film; I ended up persevering with a skill I once gave up on. 

Because I was my own cast, it was time-consuming since I was doing the role of actor, director and DOP. It was frustrating sometimes trying to set up a shot so that I was in frame and also at times doing the shot to then realise it was unfocused; the film-making itself was an act of persevering through and not just giving up. Overall, I feel like I achieved what I needed to and also discovered new aspects along the way that I wanted to incorporate into the short film.

Coming up with ideas for the film was really difficult and I felt as though I was in a creative block. It took me longer than I wanted to, to come up with an idea I was pleased with. I think this was because I kept critiquing my ideas rather than just going for it. The minute I went into plotting ideas with no ego or negativity behind it, the quicker I came up with an idea. 

Recently, I made a music video that was inspired by film-noir aesthetics. I really enjoyed the surreal and theatrical look of this and wanted to carry on seeping this into further work, specifically this film. Moreover, despite wanting to make the work abstract, I still wanted to make this work personal to me. Coming up with the plot was a process of thinking of one thing and then leading it to another idea. 

Originally I thought of tap dancing, something I would repeatedly start and stop and so something that I became good at but not as good as I could've been if I just kept at it for all of the years I kept starting and stopping. This was an old habit of mine that I tended to do where I would want to try and be good at loads of different things but through spreading myself out too thinly, I never really achieved anything. When thinking about tap dancing, the sound of it reminded me of a clock and so therefore I came up with the idea of combining the sound of tap dancing and a ticking clock to comment on how through my fear of never doing enough and running out of time, I try to do everything but through trying to do everything, I never achieve to the best of my ability and so I run out of time. 

The outcomes I would like for this video will be:

- Surrealism

- Performance art 

- Abstract 

ETHICS AND VALUES 

I have a strong interest in politics and sociology so this week in contextual practise, I felt very immersed in the work. 

My table were asked to do some research on the practice of protest, specifically researching into case studies involving Extinction Rebellion and BP. 

NOTES

TO BP OR NOT OT BP: 

What are the aims/manifesto? 

The whole aim is to target cultural institutions who are sponsored by BP to cut the relationship with them and collaborate with more eco-friendly and ethical associations. This is because BP is damaging to climate change through continuing to pursue extreme levels of fossil fuels, tar sands, deepwater drilling and Arctic exploitations which are harming the natural environment. 

Who started the campaign?

We found that a contributing organiser to the campaign is a woman called Helen Glynn, also an artist. 

Who is it aimed at?

The campaign is targeted at cultural institutions who are still sponsored/in partnership with BP such as The Royal Opera House and The National Portrait Gallery. Recently, through the campaign challenging the Royal Shakespeare Company via theatrical protesting, in October 2019 the RSC dropped BP from their sponsors.

How did they use location/format/material to address the audience?

They did large scale, bold and invasive protesting to grab the organisation's and the public's attention immediately. For example: Hundreds of people occupied the British Library during the' I am Ashurbanipal' Exhibition. The exhibition features artefacts that were taken from Syria from the Ottoman era. Protestors would chant "We are the people rising, when oil burns and armies grow” in front of the artefacts whilst holding banners saying “Crisis colonialism” and “Stolen objects”.  The additional controversy to the exhibition was that BP were sponsoring it, campaigner Yasmin Younis emphasises how "BP advocated for the war which destroyed my homeland and slaughtered my people all in the name of oil". Despite the 350 people protest in the museum being direct and large, it was still peaceful and orderly. 

 What are the aim/manifesto?

1. For the governments to declare a climate and ecological emergency, acting to create change.

2. Government must act now to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2025.

3.Government must create and be led by the decisions of a Citizens’ Assembly on climate and ecological justice.

 Who started the campaign?

 Gail Bradbrook : economic justice campaigner and compassionate revolutionary.

Roger Hallam: environmental activist

Who is it aimed at?

Extinction Rebellion is aimed at the government for macro change and to the public to make changes in their lifestyles for a better climate. 

How did they use location/format/material to address the audience?

Large masses of people would gather in central London spots such as Oxford Street and Waterloo and camp out with tents. This in turn would prevent transport and normal life to continue through the middle of London which effected daily life from running normally. They would also do things like boycott work, have sit ins amongst events such as London Fashion Week. 

Alexandra Green is a director, choreographer and movement director. We were fortunate enough to have a workshop with her in devising a small movement piece, investigating and using our body to create a communicative art piece. 

At first, the atmosphere of the class was quite awkward and unsure as we are so used to just working from our sketchbooks rather than from our bodies. However, after doing some short, fun partner work, our class started to relax and focus on creating the work. Gradually, we went form doing small routines with small groups to directing a large group with bolder movements. I really liked how we were able to be the performers and the directors as it allowed me to see both perspectives and by knowing both perspectives, I was able to do both roles with a more clearer idea on what my work partners wanted. 

Overall, being an actor and director of music videos, this was something I was very interested in participating in, it was fun being able to bring this into the classroom and within this project and I am sure that I will take a performative approach to my film. 

FEEDBACK ON OUR INTERACT PROJECT 'ALL SINS ARE ATTEMPTS TO FILL A VOID'

PROCESS

Did they use testing and an iterative process effectively to develop, refine and ensure the success of the outcome? 

'Yes. For example, the pair tried originally sugar for the water bottle challenge but realised it didn't work out and so ended up using water. However, they could have experimented further with more tests to keep on discovering new ideas '

Was the audience meaningfully engaged in an interactive communication? 

'Yes. Adults were surprisingly immersed into party-like games and were encouraged to be playful and childish again whilst reflecting on feelings of temptation and satisfaction. They also got free sweets as an incentive.' 

What was the effect of the interaction? Did it change the way people thought? Did it provide an experience?

'The effect actually was a stress relief to a lot of adults, e.g hitting the piñata which wasn't what the pair was anticipating but is still an interesting response to what they were exploring.  Participants gave meaningful responses mostly which meant that they did take the time to actually question their reaction to the tasks. Overall it did provide an experience as it took people away from their everyday lives for a moment to take part in a public challenge that pumped adrenaline within them for even a split second.' 

Did the interaction effectively communicate the pair's interpretation of the quote? 

'It effectively communicated the idea of trying to fill a void but maybe not the sin element; raise the stakes of the challenges, make it more guilt-ridden/tempting/violent/addicting for it to feel more sinful.'

How effectively did they document the interaction?

'Well documented, concise video. Maybe use more people or varied questions to get more of a range of reactions to compare.

Today we carried out our interact project. We started off outside Central Saint Martins campus with the 'only hit the piñata once' challenge. We had a couple of people take part, however, because a lot of people were going to classes, nobody wanted to stop; even the sweets were not encouraging. 

So, we moved to the shopping centre next to the campus but was quickly escorted away by security. After this, we went to just outside of the Google HQ and had a positive outcome with the piñata challenge and the hit the ball in the target challenges. I felt this was because Google workers are probably leaning towards being inquisitive and open to interact since their whole brand is to do with connecting people to places online. We then moved back to Granary Square as people were starting to come outside for lunchtime and managed to get enough people to cover all of our projects.  I am very happy with the fact that we got a range of people rather than just students, we managed to cover students, office workers, adults and tourists. 

The reactions that we got from the activities weren't what we expected a lot of the time. We expected people to feel frustrated and tempted to 'win' against the interaction challenges, however, a lot of people weren't actually that fussed OR discussed their emotions behind it that actually were mostly positive e.g: hitting the piñata, despite not winning any sweets, people felt as though they released anger. This made us as a team question how there must be some sort of high stake to be involved to trigger very strong feelings which our interaction challenges didn't necessarily have. But, from this we were able to tell a lot intricate emotions through people's body language e.g subtle feelings of deflation or excitement that is quickly brushed over once the challenge is done and they go back to their normal lives. This does somewhat back up the whole idea of attempting to fill a void but never achieving that; since we only feel different types of feelings in spurts. 

If I was to do this again, I'd link the challenges more to the idea of 'sin' as most sins are often led by temptations and even though our challenges were very accessible to any audience, no extreme emotions really arose from it. I'd also really like to focus on the aesthetics of how we portray the interact challenge through doing it within a studio and placing emphasis on awkward silences, specific sounds, lighting that sets a specific tone and also close ups to focus on reactions. 

TYPES OF INTERACTIONS:

Action: two or more objects have an effect upon one another; a two way effect.

Communication: two or more people talking to each other. 

Communication among groups

Human Machine Interaction: The feedback during the operation of a machine or tool.

One of the artists I was really interested in was Martine Syms conceptual interactive website 'EverythingIveEverWantedToKnow.com' featuring a drop down menu including all of the topics that the artist had searched about during the years 2004 to 2007. I like the invasiveness of it, the way you are invited to look into someone else' life and curiosities, I also think it has aged really well in the senses that now data is a relevant and controversial topic that all of us with social media and technology have been affected by. Moreover, the simple and clean website presentation makes the work initially appealing. 

Interaction within design adds a new level of playfulness and curiosity that you don't receive with general art/design. The concept of allowing the audience to engage physically opens up a method of emotionally impacting the viewer in a more personal way since they are apart of the design, building a relationship with it. 

The visualisation and pitch task was very helpful as it helped me and my partner to have an outside perspective or the strengths and weaknesses of the task. Overall, critiques and suggestions of aiming to a range of demographics and health and safety tips, such as using sugar instead of sand, for the piñata task means that we will now go into doing our idea with a more refined approach. 

In today's session we were put into pairs and given a quote. My partner and I's quote was "All sins are an attempt to fill a void" by philosopher Simone Weil. I was really excited by this quote as there were so many potential connotations and ideas that could stem from it. We had to take the quote and transform it into an interactive piece of work and as a result my partner and I came up with the idea of creating a montage of activities where you expect something great/satisfying to happen e.g: smashing a piñata for sweets, completing a task successfully etc but instead having anti-climatic results for example: when the piñata is smashed, sugar comes out or when trying to fill the bottle to the line, water comes out of the bottom. The aim is to observe the reactions and potential frustrations of the audience to question whether tempting/drive to fulfil something actually does fill a void.

I was okay with this idea, however, I wish that we could have done something a lot more risky and daring as sin holds a lot of heavy and playful ideas that we could have explored but working with someone else is teaching me a lot about making compromises and working to the best of my ability with what I am given despite disagreements. 

The interactive experience will be all to do with touch and attempting to complete activities which we will document through video in order to capture specific reactions through emotive expressions, body language and dialogue. At first we were going to do this in a studio to make the video feel bland and place emphasis on specific sounds such as the balloon popping, sugar falling out of the piñata etc. to highlight the awkward atmosphere. However, we were told to do it in public in order to make the whole scenario a lot less intimidating to the audience. We decided to do our project around Granary Square where we can include students, tourists, office workers and even children to allow a diversity of people rather than just classmates.

We will encourage people to get involved through offering an incentive of sweets, if somebody takes part they then get a chocolate in return. Lastly, we hope that people come away from the interaction questioning how temptation and drive makes them feel and the way people impulsively react or not react to something when it does not go they're way.