Poppy Shakespeare

I've just finished watching Poppy Shakespeare, a programme on 4od about someone who is admitted to a mental institute... dispite appearing perfectly sane. The story tells of what it does to her, and explores the idea of a currupt medical system, where the sane are kept in, and the ill thrown out of the hospital- all to make their success rate look good.

I find the journey we see from sanity to madness interesting. The confusion of having to prove you're insane to prove you're sane reminds me of Muchausen's syndrome (which i looked at briefly on 26th April) - the need to do harm to yourself to prove you're ill... when it's thought you're not.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/poppy-shakespeare/4od#2918423

John Baldessari

I have found the correct spelling of his name! huzzah!

I've been looking through 'Life's balance werk 84-04' by Baldessari.. and unfortunately most of his work in this book is lost on me... although what I do understand of his work, I find humorous. For example, the wallpaper of his Zurich pieces compares the visual appearance of different items- a lightbulb to a potato, a pizza to a clock, an ear to a pretzel...

I find 'No more sin' to be an interesting piece- he gets rid of the sin of lovers by seperating them from eachother using a 'cut and paste' method. It seems a very child-like way of trying to make the world a better place- as if by cutting them from eachother in the image removes their sins.

However, my favourites of his work are found in his purely text pieces. The reason for researching him in the first place was for this piece:

I must not make any more boring art.

The piece is self- contradictory, as it itself may be considered 'boring', as it is merely a repetition of words on a page. However, this joke also makes the piece interesting, and no longer boring- a vicious circle.
In addition, I feel the piece serves as a reminder to artists- to remember not to produce work that is boring. To capture the audience's attention, to make them think, to get them interested. The act of writing lines forces you to remember what you have written- so that the message is so built into us that we can't help but follow the advice.

I'm an Art Student.

I was looking for John Buldazari ( PLEASE correct my spelling if you know the artist i mean- i can't find any info on him!!), as suggested by my photography teacher... remembering the work of Daniel Eatock, but not his name, I thought it was the same person.

I like this http://www.eatock.com/project/i-list/ piece by Eatock.. I think it gives an insight into the author, and their life. Some of the strange items on it, for example 'I have individually dotted every single millimetre square on an A1 sheet of millimetre graph paper using a 0.1 millimetre black Edding pen.' Remind me a lot of the strange things I myself have done as a consequence of being an art student (for example, last Thursday, I filled each square on a 2 sided squared A4 page each with a dot, in order to explore the idea of obssession. I have also done bizarre things like eaten caterpillars, cut up a pigs head, and bought over a kg of breakfast marmalade all in one go.). There comes a time where you realise that no matter how bizaare a thing it is that you're doing, it can be explained with the 4 simple words: 'I'm an art student.'

Psychology in Photography

There's another student in my Photography class looking into Psychology for her Final Major Project- she's currently consentrating on Schizophrenia, and the differences between sanity and insanity. We were discussing today how we'd both had trouble producing any actual *images* for our project as of yet- because Psychology is concerning the mind, rather than reality. It cannot *be* photographed in the same way as other things. This is a limitation of using photogtraphy rather than, say, painting, or drawing, which are much easier ways of expressing something that isn't physically there.
I've come to the conclusion that I will have to photograph... whatever takes my fancy.. even if at the time of photographing I don't feel it is relevant, or else I will get too bogged down on relevance, and never produce any work. After taking the photos, I will attempt to brainstorm from the contacts, in order to push my ideas forwards. This is not how I usually work, and I may find it difficult. To help me, I will continue to research artists and psychology, in order to inform my brainstorming.

Painting The Mind

Just finished watching 'Painting the Mind' on 4od. It tells the stories of several different people who are compulsed to produce art work- all the time. With two people, the art began with problems after a stroke, and is very expressive. The show contrasts these two with artistic savants, who produce much more realistic images.
I find the science behind the need to produce art to be interesting. I also noted the strong links between speech and expressivism vs. realism as interesting.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/painting-the-mind/4od#2930721

Munchausen's syndrome

After trying to produce and image for today's photography lesson, I realised I would need to do a LOT more research, which would mean narrowing down my idea.
Browsing through the internet for different mental health issues, I discovered Munchausen's syndrome, where people cause their own symptoms, and have them checked by different hospitals, waisting their time. They often have an extensive medical knowledge, and so the symptoms need to be checked thoroughly, waisting medical time.
I think depression, eating disorders, and schizophrenia also have potential to make interesting photographs. Synesthesia would also be an interesting area to look into further.

My Kid Could Paint That

Documentry about a 4 year old kid who became famous producing abstract art, and then fell from fame as the belief that her father had either produced the entire painting, or parts of it, spread.
Raises questions about what good abstract art is, what good parenthood is, and the power of the media.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00csk9p/b00csk8k/My_Kid_Could_Paint_That/