Featured above is a zine made by Singapore-based design studio, Practice Theory, as part of their exhibition revolved around identity, this publication and collateral with inspirations from Nobuyoshi Araki's work and philosophy. The zine follows a diaristic approach to document a personal perspective of love, death and sentiments consisting of photographs from Araki revolving around the relationship with his wife. 

The zine was actually made to be interactive and highlighted the production methods that Araki used, which were using a photocopy machine like many zine-makers use. Participants were able to photocopy a series of portraits from his works which they then got to sequence and bind themselves. The majority of the zine was black and white contrastingly printed on pastel coloured paper, images were laid across double spreads and layered on top of each other with the intention to “give birth to new and unique relationships across the pages, and breathe new life back into the diaristic photographs made by Araki”. Furthermore the studio outlines how this strongly relates to Araki's philosophy of "Photography is copying".

I like the way the publication is presented alongside the interactive element to it of building it yourself, I'd like to somehow find a way that I could make my publication interactive. The simplicity of the zine with the pictures being the main focus with the occasional personal text is extremely effective through how it subtly draws you in to an intimate area of his life, almost as if you were flicking through a journal. Despite it not necessarily being informative through chunks of text, the photography and writing there is really teaches you about who this artist was on a more personal and deep level. Overall, it comes across as a zine that was made with the upmost care and respect to Nobuyoshi Araki, who they clearly have taken great inspiration from. 

Ralph Steinbrüchel is a German musician and graphic designer who studied Communication Design at Central Saint Martins. His sound design focuses on forming texture and atmosphere which as a result creates visualised and intricate landscapes. His compositions link more to the genre of New Music rather than Club music, with it being perceived as digital art due to its high level of experimentation and sporadic melodies. 

His work can be described as detailed sculptures formed from the micro-sound aesthetics of simple tones. Rather than there being a range of individual songs, Steinbrüchel creates an overall distinct texture in which the listener feels as though they are travelling through his music. When listening to his albums, each track feels like a continuation from the last, almost like a story or a journey.

Sophie Calle was born in Paris in 1953. The interesting thing about her is that she never went to art school, as soon as she left secondary school at 17, she went travelling for 7 years. Her themes touch upon matters of privacy using a combination of photography, texts and video, however, she refuses to call herself an artist claiming that her work is a "private game". Sophie Calle talks about how she "did not think about becoming an artist when I began. I did not consider what I was doing as art."

The piece above is her first major photography piece, 'The Sleepers' (1979), where she invited strangers round to her home for 8 hours and documented the time passing with them there through photography and notes. In the installation the intimate nature of the text and photography feel exposed as they are enlarged against an empty wall at MoMA gallery. Even though they are in black and white and are high in contrast, they don't feel eerie to me they feel almost nostalgic, as if it was a photo of an ex or an old friend. I like the way the work was placed in the gallery, it comes across as a strange timeline consisting of different people and notes, it feels like you are looking through a microscope into Sophie Calle's life without her actually being in the photos. It's also interesting how all these photographs were taken through spontaneity, it was spontaneous of the subjects to agree to come to a stranger's house, and it was spontaneous in a sense that the photographer did not know what she was going to capture beforehand since different strangers will have different unexpected personalities. 

Jon Rafman is an artist, filmmaker, and essayist. His work is influenced by the impact technology on contemporary life, emotionally, socially and existentially. His work 'The Nine Eyes of Google Earth' is an archival project using automated photography. When this work was made in 2008, Google Street view was relatively new and was a way of neutrally capturing every street of the world through a moving car of which Jon Rafman was collecting screen shots from. Rafman was interested in how the street view photographs were purely for documentation rather than for aesthetics or framing purposes, and in a way it was a very advanced, yet simple, form of street photography from Jon Rafman. He manages to change the meaning of the intention behind these photos and transforms them into something surreal and quite invasive, he makes the viewer question the ethics of making somebody's life accessible and watched without direct permission. 

“It was tempting to see the images as a neutral and privileged representation of reality—as though the Street Views, wrenched from any social context other than geospatial continuity, were able to perform true docu-photography, capturing fragments of reality stripped of all cultural intentions.” - Rafman

Unfortunately, I was unable to find the names of these artists since I found them on Pinterest. But, these images were a significant starting point to my first strand of self portraits.  I am fond of how they look dated despite probably being digitally edited, it looks very natural and supernatural at the same time, as if the soul is leaving the body. The mystery behind properly seeing the images clearly had a sense of eeriness and curiosity, especially through the use of movement and expression from the subjects. 

When reading 'Escape Attempts' Dadaism seemed to come up a lot and the movement really fascinated me and really related to questions and thoughts that I have been trying to interpret regarding favouring escapism and absurdity over the banal daily life. 

To understand more about the movement, I watched this video that spoke about Dada, Surrealism and symbolism. One idea that they all shared was realism and how it fails to convey the truth of human existence. Below are some notes I took when watching the video about each movement.

SYMBOLISM

In 1886 French publication 'La Figaro' released The Symbolist Manifesto written by Jean Moreas, an essayist. To summarise, the essay outlined the beliefs that: 

- There is truth in excess and extravagance.

- There is truth in chaos and insanity.

- There is truth in subjective experience.

- Banality is is inadequate, we need to be more dangerous. 

The Tatra De Louvre theatre placed a lot of emphasis on symbolism where it held plays with non-representational sets and the acting was incredibly surreal. Maurice Maetlinck, a play-writer who believed that poetry is superior to reality, mentioned how he hoped that theatre would express the "beauty and grandeur of my humble existence to be revealed to me".

DADA

 Supposedly, the name was coined by selecting a random word in the dictionary in Zurich, Switzerland, after the First World War. The belief was that if logic can lead to a global war, then art should abandon logic in favour of nonsense, intuition and anarchy. 

1916 was the first Dada style performance at the Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich which involved clowns and stilt walkers. Overall, Dadaism believed in randomness, or in other terms aleatory (things left at chance), there was no distinction between what was high or low art and it was up to the individual to makes sense of it. In most cases, it strongly upset the bourgeoise audiences due its absurdity. Andre Bretton found Dada very silly and came up with a new movement in the 1920s, called Surrealism.

Surrealism 

Surrealism was revolved around unlocking the truth of existence, mainly inspired by Freud, the consciousness and dreams. Surrealism was autonomous where the artist should write whatever come's to their head and express the real functioning of the mean to be fundamentally human. 

I chose to read this book as it evidently outlines themes that strongly relate to my work since it talks about the way we try to defy dissatisfaction during our everyday lives. During sixth form, I studied A level sociology and this was something I thoroughly enjoyed and so I was very keen on incorporating observations on society into my work since it conveys reality, at least through one person’s lens.  What was surprising and thought-provoking about this book was that it was very confrontational and outlined behaviours that we do that we may not even realise we are doing. Not only did this give me so much inspiration through out my project, with each chapter changing the way I perceive  and work on my project, I also have become more aware of the way a lot of us react to routine which is especially interesting during this time of lockdown. Below are quotes that I underlined in the book that really stood out to me and shaped the direction I have been going in with my project so far (in my sketchbook I annotate the quotes and interpret them) :

• “Attempting to escape is an imaginative way to understand more about the limitations of our world” pg.28 
• “We are forever assessing our degree of satisfaction or dissatisfaction with everyday life” -pg 49
• We are “riddled with fulfilment and frustration, satisfaction and resignation” 
• “In what ways should one resist or yield to its demands in order to make life bearable, in order to preserve some sense of identity?”-pg34 
• “There may be moments where we look around and wonder where we are or what we are doing but we soon pick up the threads and get back to the rich fabrics of life” - pg 38 
• “Rituals, activities and conventions are fastened firmly to a set of structured ideas.” - pg 38
• “We are all prey to a recurrent sense of dissatisfaction. We are all intermittently bored, frustrated and neurotic” - pg 41
• “Reality is a nice place to visit but you wouldn’t want to live there” -pg43
• “People are becoming automated” - pg 48
• “The more we are able to view inessential elements of life as unreflective chains of behaviour, the more we can concentrate upon self-expression in the remaining areas.”- pg. 49 
• “We have been here before, said the same words, felt the same way, experiences similar irritations, anxieties and ecstasies” - pg 67 
• “Infancy represents a period of privileged irresponsibility and freedom from domination of the reality principle” pg 156 and this links to an “uncontaminated unconsciousness” - pg 158
• “Limited number of scripts our society provides” - pg 72
• “I don’t want realism, I want magic” - pg 88
• “ The mental magic of fantasy and about way in which it escapes from reality… also a support for that reality” pg88
• “The mind is the last and only domain of privacy, an internal space” - pg 89
• “Our lives are run through with fantasies: they invade our work-place, our kitchen table, our marriage bed”-pg 90
• “Concrete world” - pg 90
• “For the infant, most of activity has a play and almost dream-like quality” - pg 91
• “Hobby is one of the purest types of free area” - pg 115 
• “Private life is held out as an escape” - 155
• “Cultural pressures which insist that fantasy must be kept in it’s place, it must not be allowed to run over us” - pg 107 
• “Private life is held out as an escape” - pg 155
• “Irony involved in our committed artistic recourse to everyday objects as a way of distancing ourselves from everyday” - pg 145
• “There is never anywhere to go but in” - pg 180
• “I have decided to live in my head” (said by a prisoner coping with prison life) - pg 201
• “The world cannot be changed, only your perception and experience on it” - pg 201 
• “Ignoring, distorting or subverting reality” - pg211
• “I escape therefore I am” pg 236
• “The obstinate clinging on to the idea of a separate self” - pg 236 

Since I have been incorporating a lot of collaging within my work, I thought it would be insightful to look at an exhibition which explains the history of collaging and its impact within the world.  This exhibition has really changed my perception on collaging, to me it was simply just a DIY method of creating, something relatively easy to do and also not that impactful; just visually aesthetic. However, this really opened my eyes and shows how significant and deep-rooted this technique is through many different ways. 

I didn't realise how old the collaging technique has been around for, the portrait of St Dorothy made in the 1400s includes features of sparkling crystals and tinsel amongst her dress and the trees. The exhibition reminded me as well how collaging can be used as a form of documentation and learning through the use of texture (to understand how, for an example, a specific plant feels) and revealing folds (an interactive way to, for example, teach about the body). 

Moreover, I would never have thought about the way collaging holds a lot of gender and political history. It was seen as an amateur craft that women could get involved in during the nineteenth Century as a past time, as well as a way to creatively express ideas that only men are usually allowed to proclaim. Ironically, this was seen as amateur until male artists, such as Picasso, used collaging and experimented with materials to frustrate and divert narratives and logic, to undermine conventional reality until it inspired by the formation of the Cubism Movement, more specifically Synthetic Cubism . It's funny how it never held that much high of a regard or value until a man starts to coin it.  The Cubism movement was a revolutionary approach during 1907-1908 which represented reality in a surreal and subversive way through abstraction and fragmentation. Another interesting and brief point that I learned was how collaging can also be interpreted through techniques such a double exposure, a more modern approach to layering and adding dimension. It would be fascinating to see how collaging adapts in years to come as technology quickly changes. 

Cold War Steve, a contemporary artist who incorporates a lot of collaging into his work, talks about the way how collaging provides the ability to communicate immediately what you want to get across. He mentions the artist John Heartfield and how he controversially used collaging to mock Hitler and the Nazi-movement, it was  a life threatening decision to make with his art but it was a powerful way of satirically showing the absurdity of political figures. Cold War Steve also observes how Heartfield's work would have been seen as vandalism and a crime in his time, but now his work is very valuable art. This shows how the way we interpret techniques and visuals over time constantly changes where work becomes more and less significant, I think right now we are at a point where collaging is used playfully, especially within music posters/album art. Collaging now still seems to link back to the zine-culture in the 80s/90s where it is unapologetically DIY.

Melanie Hyams is a photographer who graduated from Glasgow School of Art. Her work mainly consists on portraits shot on film documenting themes to do with identity and culture. However, this shoot was of a band called The Drug Store Romeos. I am a fan of how understated yet colourful it is and I'd love to incorporate these tones into my next work. Similar to Amelia Galliford, the use of isolating the bodies from the rest of it's environment creates a quirky touch without feeling disturbing and the child-like quality to the final outcome feels very endearing. It is nice to see her other work which is presented very simply, whether that is just a print, calendar or publication, and then seeing this shoot be transformed into a mixed media piece with typography and collaging. I've never thought to really incorporate my photography into a mixed media piece where I have done a shoot to specifically make into a collage with the consideration of type, yet these last three research references have inspired me to do so with my next outcome. 

Amelia Galliford is predominately a textile artist who is currently doing a BA at Chelsea College of Art. I stumbled across this collage on her Instagram and similar to Demi Whiffin's work, I was really attracted to the playfulness of it. This was just for the layout of her website but looking at the rest of her work, Amelia tends to use isolation and really thinks about how she places each component. What I like about this collage is how she has a balance of white space and colour with the presentation of the body being discombobulated in a light-hearted way rather than eerie. This design has inspired me to isolate my images and play with collaging of people rather than just textures and patterns I find in magazines.  Using this technique of isolation and transferring it to my work also makes it feel relevant to the topical subject of COVID-19 and how it impacts the way we conduct a feeling of escapism. 

Demi Whiffen is a young artist who creates vintage-inspired collages expressing her personal thoughts. The work feels like a diary making it very relatable and open to people, especially because it isn't necessarily technical what she is doing, it means that her work is unpretentious and accessible to many. Overall, the work has a playful energy and is more about pleasing the eye and getting people to share common feelings rather than being of a high standard in terms of process and material.

A couple of Photoshop tutorials I watched to try and experiment with when making my poster for my livestream. My usual work tends to be hand-made and collage-y so with this one my aim was to be more confident with playing around with more digital-based techniques. My approach to the aesthetic is to have something colourful and fun, so I chose to look at tutorials that would add fluidity and movement to the work such as liquifying text and creating psychedelic shapes.

Graphic designer from St Petersburg, Dima Shiryaev provides a versatile portfolio of posters for party events. He tends to be experimental with his work by playfully working with mixed materials, typography and digital design, saying that “without being afraid to come up with a total mess, because sometimes the messier it gets, the better it is.” 

The poster above feels rough and hand-made, however, Dima also does have other work that’s crisp and futuristic-like showing that he can offer an array of ideas to clients. This has taught me that it is good to have a signature style that you are known for but you would be in a very strong position if you have an openness  and ability to be flexible with requests. I like that this poster feels child-like and imperfect yet, at the same time, it doesn’t feel lazy at all since you can tell that the colour palette and typography have been planned through how subtly structured it is.  It feels sporadic in a sense that everything is scattered around but I really like this unpredictable and blasé approach as it is different to most event posters you see which are extremely ordered with context and bold attention-drawing elements. Whereas, this poster has a subtleness to it that still catches the eye. I also like the way that this is a poster but it translates more as a personal art piece  that you could see in a gallery or in a journal, there is a tone of intimacy to it. This shows that, when appropriate, it is possible to do a poster that speaks for itself without needing a lot of information or forced eye-catching elements. 

Collin Fletcher is a designer who works mainly with music-related projects through designing posters, album sleeves, cassette tapes and T-shirts. His work noticeably involves the typography being apart of the artwork, rather than just as a form of providing information. The type ranges from hand-drawn work to sans serif faces combined with simplistic backdrops. The mix of his humble colour palette of blacks, navy, whites, pinks with subtle images blended together create a textured and punk feel to his works.  

I am drawn to the two I have added above despite them being contrasting. With the top poster, I find the two stylistically different fonts layered together attention drawing since even though it makes the page feel busy, it doesn’t feel chaotic and I feel that the white backdrop supports this really well through not being distracting. The poster altogether feels very cool, you straight away know what the personality of the musician may be. Weirdly, being that the event is stated to be in New York, the poster does really feel like it would be New York based as the typography gives off an urban and underground mood.  The only pop of red against the white space and black outlines makes it very easy to feel drawn to the design and, as a whole, even though the design is super minimal, it is well thought out and put together.  

The bottom poster has a completely different mood to it, however, he still successfully creates a poster that conveys the personality of the musician and keeps to two colours that give room for the poster to have an intricate design without being difficult to look at. This poster feels a lot more unconventional and alternative through the font being less confrontational and the mix between hand-written and serif faces being understated but still clear. Moreover, the comic-book like illustrations make the poster feel weird and exciting to look at as there is a story element to it without being distracting. Also, this poster seems DIY through the textured and photo-copy effect yet at the same time it doesn't feel rushed or low quality. It still has a clear and structured effect to it that makes it pleasing to the eye and this is possibly due to the use of geometric shapes and a two-toned palette, giving it a mix between consistency and versatility. 

I am not really a fan of the poster BoilerRoom has for their streaming event as I don't like the fonts of the bold gradient, it feels flat to me. However, I am aware that this is very on brand for BoilerRoom and their aesthetic, you look at this poster and you know it's from this platform (if you know who they are). As well as this, the poster is explicitly clear in terms of what the event is, who are playing, the set times, the logo and where you can find the event alongside the Boiler Room website. Despite me not liking the taste of the design, there is a lot I can still take from the poster when making my own advertisements for my own livestream in terms of context and structure. I also am aware that I should make the design suited to how I want my event to be perceived and stick with that area of design if I do anything in the future so that the audience can instantly connect it to who we are. 

"Stay safe, remain connected & support where you can

 Amid the pandemic, our number one priority is protecting our artists and audiences as well as all the BTS crew, from sound engineers to door staff from camera operators to security. As a result, we are postponing or cancelling over 40 upcoming shows between now and the summer. This includes our first ever festival in Johannesburg which will be rescheduled for later in the year. We will reevaluate the situation as it unfolds. Instead, tune into our new live series under lockdown and isolation. These broadcasts will stream from artists’ homes and private spaces, direct to our audience and without the need for interaction with production teams - as we practice social distancing to remove risk from our programming. Alongside a programme of re-ups from our archives, these transmissions are a way to remain connected while apart. Each show will give you the option to donate with funds raised going to Global FoodBanking Network, whose work providing emergency food and support to people locked in poverty is crucial at this time. Feel free to send us suggestions for charities to get behind in the chatroom, where we will also be sharing other causes to support. Please give if you can afford to — for example, what you might spend on a night out. Coronavirus has exposed the fragility of underground and independent music. Artists, labels, record shops, festivals and other creative small businesses are at great threat. Now more than ever, we need to find ways to support each other and the most vulnerable around us." - Taken from https://boilerroom.tv/session/streaming-from-isolation-2

This isn't necessarily an art piece, more of an interaction idea to keep the morale high in the world and keeping the dance scene relevant in a more accessible form whilst everybody is isolating due to COVID-19. Clubs and DJs at the moment, alongside everybody else, will struggle financially due to the fact that everything has to be cancelled and that their income comes from large crowds coming together. So, this is a way for the scene to stay strong and in solidarity, as well as, a way for people to offer financial support in return for very well known DJs to do sets from their homes. This has a personal and intimate effect since we only really know a DJ from behind the decks at a club, most of the time you can't really see them, whereas in this setup you have a clear view of them and their home alongside their set. 

I'd like to do a more lowkey and DIY version of this, I'm not on the same level of Boiler-room so my setup couldn't t be this widespread of professional but I think this is why mine might have the character it will have, the concept of just a group of people who share the same passion making something for people who aren't able to go to these nights at the moment. Rather than people going out for a feeling of escapism and energy, the escapism and energy are coming to people's doorsteps, finding a way to weave into a different form of lifestyle that we are all currently living. 

"Truth, myth and the spaces in-between in visual representations of the North of England. An exhibition exploring contemporary artistic and stylistic representations of the north of England. Featuring contemporary photography, fashion and multimedia work, sitting alongside social documentary film and photography, highlighting how the realities of life in the north of England captured in the mid-20th century continue to influence new generations of photographers, artists and designers." -https://www.somersethouse.org.uk/whats-on/north

I really enjoyed this exhibition and the way it had subtle but effective use of interactive displays. In most rooms it was simply just photography and garments from artists, designers and photographers, such as Alasdair McLellan, Corinne Day, Mark Leckey, Jeremy Deller, Alice Hawkins, Raf Simons, Paul Smith, Off White’s Virgil Abloh, Peter Saville, Stephen Jones, Gareth Pugh, Nick Knight, Glen Luchford, Jamie Hawkesworth, plus the likes of Shirley Baker, John Bulmer and Peter Mitchel, on display. However, in one room there was an installation of several documentaries in which each video had their own little designed area where you immersed yourself into that person's life whilst watching the documentary. For example: I found myself sitting on a church bench when watching a video about identity and religion, sitting on a karaoke stool in front of a microphone when watching a video about youth and femininity, alongside sitting on a train seat for another documentary. It was really fascinating since when I sat down in this space and put on the headphones you felt like you were sitting with the narrator of the video and experiencing their life and the time they grew up in. I believe that the simplicity and ease of just sitting down in different types of environments made it so memorable through how focused it made me feel on each specific section. 

Installation, film, photography and fashion by artists, photographers and club owners who are all synonymous in counter-culture in London during the early 80s to now. An example includes Jeffrey Hinton, a  resident DJ at 2vu, a club where young designers gathered; Hinton created a community and  became a name in the scene. It's almost as if its a community that you go to after dark and this reminds me of the voice note I recorded of the woman reflecting on the rave scene in the 80s where she describes it "almost a cult". Weirdly, this makes sense when you look more into the way people followed specific influencers. 

Another figure mentioned was fashion designer, John Cruncher, he produced radical chic which had  anarchist patterns creating a movement of political identity through what you wore.

Also, Imprint 93, one of the most influential art publications during the 90s made simply with a photocopier and a stapler. It was incredibly DIY, at the time were zine culture was soaring, it was more about getting the message across rather than how professional it looked. Yet, this in itself was stylistic in an alternative form. 

Overall, this was an insightful exhibition that provides the history of how artists cultivated their own subculture and following. It's interesting how one form of art led work led to even more, it was almost like a chain reaction or a web. For example: when Frieze came around, it was a new entity itself but through it, it introduced fresh artistic talent. 

My project is essentially about the community when the rest of the world sleeps and so, similarly, this exhibition focuses on subcultures during the periods the dance scene became prominent. Therefore, this is a  good source of research to keep going back to to look at ways rebelling artists used material, context and processes.

"bpm playlist 1 by Josh Woolford is a compilation of tracks to accompany this transition from high-power productivity to dreamy wanderings. Slowing down is beautiful.

bpm playlist has been born out of a curiosity for music production, use and experience - from meditative moments to purging our deepest emotions, music has the ability to connect us to ourselves and each other on a fundamental level. Each playlist will explore a different feeling, DJ, club night or theme through collaborations, self-directed exploration and research into the music that surrounds us." - RCA Visual Communications Instagram 

The poster was what I originally gravitated towards as it automatically felt like a club or music related poster. The QR code is a smart idea as it makes the work more accessible as it only takes a quick scan on a smartphone and it is at your fingertips - a well-thought out design feature rather than just art. When I listened to the playlist and read the bio I realised how relevant this was to my work and find it appealing the way Woolford treats music as a vulnerable form of expression, like a personal diary. He approaches escapism indirectly  and is able to make an audience feel specific emotions at the click of a button. 

Joshua Woolford takes interest in subcultures, identity, belongings and freedom and likes to extract the melancholic and detached side to them. He tends to use through digital and print-media, photography, performance video and fashion in order to gain raw and meaningful insights into the subject he is taking influence from. 

Max Jala is a visual artist and programmer based in Kuala Lumpur. He fell in love with the process of coding when becoming a mobile app developer and so he quit his job and now works within generative and interactive installation art. 

"I discovered generative art and realised that code could be an artistic tool. At that point it just seemed like a natural fit so I started messing around making small little animations with code.” I like this idea of transforming a non-related tool into something artistic, using it  as a material which as a result would lead into something experimental and unique. 

“With just a simple sensor you can take in one stimuli as a data input, translate it, and output it as another – blurring the lines of reality and our senses." This is what I want to achieve within my work, the ability to blur lines with reality and maybe the way to do so is to use tools that are used within reality in an unconventional way. He mentioned a lot about being multi-sensory which makes sense since his work feels liquified and has a lot of movement in it without actually moving, the colours all intertwine together creating a loss of structure, it all blurs into one. 

The three part series explores the pioneers of the dance scene through their experimentation with Disco, House, Techno and so on that exploded across the world. 

This documentary was very useful for learning about the history of the dance scene, how specific sounds just went nuclear in popularity, the way clubs gained famous reputations for example: the way The Hacienda nightclub was so popular, it became the basis of a whole dance movement. Most of my research has been learning about this scene from the dancer's point of view, however, it has been insightful to gain the perspective of the producer's and DJs and their take on the dance scene, how it effected them and how they navigated their careers through it.  The documentary really champions the dance music culture as if it was life-changing and formed a shift in the world which I find fascinating to see how something like this could be so profound and communal. As a result, the documentary expresses the love and hype of the dance scene that people chased after when work/normal routine comes to an end for the day. 

What I have taken from this video: 

- 70s/80s Gay nightclub scene in Chicago was "A haven, to be the person you want to be"

- The concept of rave and illegal club scenes being similar to the beginnings of Christian Churches, "Illicit and underground"

- Marxist theory of alienation, working people feeling separate to what they are producing and so therefore feeling separate from society. To not be alienated, one needs to take control of the means of production. Similarly, people taking control of themselves in clubs, making something for themselves, having a purpose. 

- Detroit (80s/90s).... A landscape of ruins, formerly known for the automobile industry that moved out onto the suburbs and so the central city became abandoned, post -industrial and ruined. "It's an emptiness in a city that's the wholeness in the music". "We took these other sense and enhanced them and that's how the music developed." 

- The 80s and 90s was a testing ground for new musical formats including European electronic pop.

-"Whether they are involved directly or not, they all felt apart of this big sound system" - Anthony Stevens, sound control of Shoom Club in London

- Miners strikes in the 80s led to food banks and Britain had to work as a community since the government weren't helping those in need. Work and pleasure had been inverted, music was used as a scapegoat and people would leave cities to go to countryside raves.

-"As a human being you cannot be effected by what is happening around you, the miners strike infected the rest of the 80s" 

Below are voice notes that I collected from a woman called Dina who used to go to raves when she was a teenager during the 80s and 90s. I asked her the following questions: 

 - What do you remember about going to raves? 

-Why did you go?

- Did you feel a sense of escapism/letting go? , if so, how did this feel?

-What was the political climate of the time? 

Her responses were very exciting for me to hear as being able to hear her experience directly sparked a lot of influence and wonder. I appreciated how honest are answers were also since it would be so easy to glamourise a time that I never experience since the past always feels so mysterious and unobtainable. Dina's responses were quite interesting since they were very similar to what you hear in documentaries and interviews. However, they also are fairly different in a way that it was necessarily a deep thing to her as she never really kept up to date with politics at the time and she also felt like it wasn't a form of escapism but an extension of herself, whereas, a lot of people describe it as a political statement and a way to get away from reality The reason why I got these voice notes were to then place into my video which I have done so but I will keep referring back to these voice notes when making more work since they are first hand experiences from just somebody who loved to party in those times. I will aim to get more voice notes from different people to try and get contrasting perspectives, as well as this, I may ask Dina more questions to gather more information which may continue to encourage new ideas for my concept. 

The majority of these posters stem from club events which is partially why they are an influence of mine since they link so closely to my concept. However, I also love the destructiveness yet strangely geometrically organised they are whilst being paired with one or two colours that make it humbly bold and cool. I am fond of the collaging and bordering Bauhaus style with some of the posters since the style is something I enjoy making. These references will guide me when creating my own posters because the layouts are the frame of what I am looking to make.

The spaces I mentioned are successfully interactive and interesting because they are unconventional for the context it is in. For example: Each artists take on a skate park, a memorial and a heritage trail are so out of the ordinary from the norm that naturally, it does take people off guard and encourage a feeling of presence within the spaces. 

This was installed at the Coleman/LES skatepark in New York, 2012. The skatepark is plastered with Kruger's famous style of striking text shouting "THE GLOBE SHRINKS FOR THOSE WHO OWN IT" and "WANT IT NEED IT BUY IT". Using this language at a recreational and youthful space invites the public, especially young people, to question, critique and gain insight into language reflecting on societal culture. Furthermore, the work also is a play on to the fact that skate brand 'Supreme' had taken Kruger's artistic aesthetic for their branding. So, maybe the audience of the work may feel indifferent to the installation as it is such a recognisable part of skate culture to them, they may even confuse it for Supreme marketing. 

The heritage trail at Battersea Arts Centre involves 13 unique and interactive art pieces celebrating the values of people in Battersea's history including courage and inclusivity. The space allows the public to feel as though they are experiencing magic in such an unconventional walking tour. As a result, the walking tour is a lot more stimulating and unpredictable which keeps it accessible and alluring to both the young and elderly. Overall, the heritage trail creates a fun way to learn the history of the building and the artists who embody the centre. 

Peter Eisenman, a New York Architect, was commissioned to design this memorial which was then opened in 2005. The site is 9000 square meters placing 2711 concrete slabs of all different heights and narrow corridors . The space confronts to people the concept of remembrance and completely immerses you in a way that makes you feel  uncertain of your bearings yet at the same time it still feels open and abstract. It is a space for remembrance which also makes the viewer question the concept of a memorial and way one can react with it. 

Making photographs for KangHee Kim, was an act of frustration due to her inability to leave the USA due to visa restrictions. Her photo book "Golden Hour" is self explanatory in that she simply documents the moment immediately before sunrise and sunset in New York, California and Hawaii.

“The sky felt so close to me. I saw palm trees for the first time, I’d only ever seen them on the internet.” - KangHee Kim

Through these photographs, the artist creates a form of escape and as she says "creating a new space that feels almost like travelling to an unknown place” due to how therapeutic and magical the moment feels. The peacefulness of the photos makes one almost forget for a second about the everyday stresses. Interestingly, KangHee Kim's motivation to take photographs stem from the need to feel distracted from the visa issues she was being weighted down by. This really enforces the theme of escapism in an authentic way since the photography focuses on nature whilst having undertones of the photographer truly seeking the moments of dreamlike states, away from reality.  As a result, this photo book helped me understand how strong a theme can be conveyed when there is a clear intention behind the photograph, the intention being very close to what the theme represents. 

I captured these videos on a series of nights out at techno events. I started to notice more of the sensory overload on nights like these combined with people probably being under substance/alcoholic completing losing themselves. This was the starting point which has influenced me to do my project on escapism and it was so fascinating watching someone in the same room as me but being completely elsewhere. 

The fact that these are at night as well feeds more into the escapism aspect as people leave their daily routine during the day to go into such a different world like this in the night. I'm still trying to navigate how I will develop this further but this combination of movement, night time, music, lights, haze and influences on people and their willingness to go to a different space mentally is something that I am interested in pinpointing within my project on escapism. 

Mariana Abramovic is one of the most pinnacle and riskiest performance artists known in the art world. She is known to use her body in order to push boundaries exploring the idea of meaning, endurance and physical harm.

Rest Energy is a loop series collaborating with Ulay, her ex boyfriend, where they both face each other whilst Ulay holds an arrow tensed on the bow directed at her. The image displays not only trust and vulnerability but also the middle point between what may happen next, that sense possibility and adrenaline which I was describing in previous artist research. In the video, there are microphones against the artists hearts which creates further tension and anticipation for both the audience and artist since you can hear their heartbeats beginning to race. The overall piece indicates the idea of love to the extreme through the intensity of their connection but also the life or death danger within their actioning. 

The image contains everything that I would like to convey in my work, evoking intense emotion from the audience, creating a sense of escapism from reality (them being lost in each others presence) and also portraying an in-between moment, the moment between a before sensation and an after sensation. 

Francesca Woodman has always been a key influence of mine within photography. Her style and work fascinates me and inspires me to go down a similar eerie yet minimalist route. 

Woodman was best known for her black and white, enigmatic self portraits often at a really slow shutter speed capturing only the silhouette and frantic movement of her body. “Am I in the picture? Am I getting in or out of it? I could be a ghost, an animal or a dead body, not just this girl standing on the corner …?” quoted by Francesca Woodman. Most of Woodman's work was shown in exhibitions such as, Life in Motion: Egon Schiele/ Francesca Woodman in Liverpool Tate, after she committed suicide due to having a very troubling creative career and difficult relationship with photography. I personally think this may be due to the connection between such a dark and sombre life story reflecting through her haunting photographs.  Overall, her work proves and captivates the idea that less is more, in the photo above we simply see a black and white film photo of her moving across the room yet it has endless and open narratives that the audience could interpret. 

This is a different approach to the theme of escapism; as usually people escape to a more positive place in their mind but in this image you can feel a lot of burden and weight. Experimenting with different ways of portraying escapism would be an effective way of creating something unique and also emit a specific emotion which Francesca Woodman was so tragically successful in doing with this series. 

Karel Chladek is a Montreal based nightclub photographer with a twist, rather than taking photographs of people posing and enjoying their night, Chladek takes a more surveillance like appraoch and captures moments of intimacy, people losing themselves and the overall atmosphere of nightlife. He accompanies DJs all around the world and focuses on people anonymous to him as well as to everybody else. Everybody in his photos are usually people who have met for the first time. He steers towards low lit, ambient neon lighting due to the air of mystery it leaves lingering in the photograph, also because that how the clubs are expected to look but coincidentally they do add a layer of emotion to the already extremely intimate images. 

I was drawn to these photos as I share the similar interest of electronic music that Karel Chladek has and looking at these pictures, I literally feel like I am in that space since he captures the essence of the electronic nightlife scene effortlessly. Regardless of whether there is one person in the photo or a handful of people, Chladek always manages to add an intimate and private feel to his photos. Even though the subject is not aware that they are being photographed, it still feels like there is a tunnel vision relationship between the camera and the subject, that the camera is capturing what nobody else sees. The colours combined with the actions of people being romantic, people dancing or simply being lost in their own world makes the photographs feel like an indie/art house film through how stylistic he has made something so introverted feel.  This will be a pinnacle point of research within my project as my main approach to my project on escapism will be on nightlife.

Allan Kaprow was an American pioneer in establishing the concept of performance art; he suggested that art in the future was to be art that was incorporated into everyday life and objects. 

In his series 'Comfort Zones' focused on intimate and private actions between a couple for example: staring at each other intensely, the performative act would be concluded once both participants have found their comfort zones. The extreme physical and emotional closeness carried out in this series intends to at first cause awkward discomfort as it is often unusual for an individual to experience someone entering their personal territory. Overall these performances had connotations of intimacy, vulnerability, mutual trust. 

I was drawn to this series due to the surrealist aspect of it, it feels so dramatic despite being so simple and minimal in terms of bodily movement. The concept is very interesting since, even though it is an art piece, it psychologically observes the shifts in comfort and discomfort between two people connecting emotionally and physically. I also love how the photography isn't technical, a trending aspect that I have been drawn to throughout my research for this project, instead it just documents what is happening, leaving the individuals in front of the camera to perform without interfering with any additional technicalities. This doesn't relate to escapism in the same way the previous artists I mentioned do, but it does link through a way of losing yourself through another person and the feelings of being present with them and it also identifies that middle-ground feeling, the moment an emotion beings to transition into something else. This 'middle-point' of just about transitioning into a different state really fascinates me, it would be a challenge but it is a subject I'd like to focus on at some point during my project. 

Peter Donebauer graduated from the Royal College of Art specialising in Film, Video and Photography. He was a pioneering artist in the UK in the 70s and early 80s working with video in colour with electronic musicians. His unique work places emphasis on improvisation, spiritualism and non-conformity. 

An outdated colour television studio was  donated to an art college, Donebauer attended, by a Midlands production company trying to recreate music through vision. His video work is abstract and people who engage and gain their own experience from it tend to experience psychedelic and  mesmerising sensations through it being within a square frame. Even though Peter Donebauer highlights how Entering represents terror and chaos, it actually also feels relaxing to watch through the combination of movements, graphics and colour.  The video allows the viewer to just zone out, there is no pressure to focus on it as it feels though it doesn't necessarily ask for pure concentration. 

Olaffur Eliasson's 'In Real Life' immersive exhibition at the Tate Modern was an experience of idyllic and mesmerising installations involving light, water, fog, reflection and many more heavily inspired by his strong interest in natural phenomena and weather patterns. His exhibition was a sensory experience which invited people to engage and interact with the issue of climate change, prompting us to question our actions on the planet.

I enjoyed the immersive aspect of this exhibition, the sensory experiences in each room caused me to feel spontaneous reactions that I normally wouldn't feel in an art gallery which therefore led me to want to see and feel a lot more from it. One thing I could critique about the exhibition itself was the accessibility of it, I believe  putting on work at a place as renown as Tate Modern, the artist should have been more aware of ensuring everybody could have experienced the magic of his exhibition; there were certain areas of the exhibition that wasn't wheelchair friendly. Even though this isn't a critique on the art itself, it made me conscious of how I would want to layout an exhibition if I was to ever put one on.  

This is encouraging me to want to create an installation of some sort during my final major project that has a sole focus on the senses. It would be very fitting to the theme of escapism since different smells, sounds and sights can take you to another a place, whether that is a place in the past that you are nostalgic for or just a state of daydream.

Video feedback is the process of pointing a camera at the screen displaying the camera's output. This creates a feedback loop of images infinitely repeating onto and over themselves creating interesting patterns.

Monitor by Stephen Partridge 

Stephen Partridge is a video artist who wanted to experiment with the structural possibilities with what video mediums have to offer. He turned to video feedback and recorded a 1973 monitor with a video camera creating a set of repeated images. The piece, as a result, doesn't just become a video art but also a sculpture piece.

The illusion of video feedback that Partridge makes, creates a magical effect which can manipulate and fascinate the viewers mind. I feel like this would link closely to my project on escapism as the process of using video feedback takes your mind into a different space that is so far away from normality. The irony of portraying escapism through a tight frame of a television box could be an interesting method that creates a juxtaposition between being stuck in a small space but being so distant from the realities of everyday.