Assignment 3

May 1st:

For this assignment I'm continuing to build on my theme of making props or images to conceptualise the events in the book "The Men With the Pink Triangle". In addition to this, because of the reading I've been doing on my Contextual Studies module, I'm also looking at making a prop based on themes of power and control. I've read Focault's essay on Panopticism and other pieces regarding representation and social control of LGBT issues. I'm yet to write these up and have a bit of a backlog of posts for this blog that I need to do publish before I move back to Contextual Studies.

I've had an idea to a make prop to represent a machine that can take hatred and bigotry and turn it into edicts that sound logical but are based on ideology. A lot of Nazi propaganda was issued in the run up to the war that severely restricted the movement and freedoms of Jews and other minorities. Book burnings took place and art shows were held to highlight degeneracy. These were all attempts to enforce control and a particular way of thinking on the mass public. My machine will have keys like a typewriter (or an enigma machine) and uses the framework of science and religion to convert bigotry into law.     

I'm quite looking forward to making a new prop.

May 10th:

I've started work on my Education machine today. I drew some sketches and spent an enjoyable couple of hours working out the dimensions and cutting out the shapes and constructing the pyramid.

I'd already sourced some typewriter style keys (missing the arms) so needed to find a suitable replacement to stick them to. Thankfully some wooden bamboo skewers from the kitchen drawer were perfect.

It's just a case of spray painting them black so they look right and re-assembling the machine, ready for photographing.

I had an idea to use the tile wallpaper to cover the machine instead of keeping it plain grey. I'm not sure if this idea will work visually but I will give it a try. I can always change it.

May 15th:

As well as the Ediction machine I am making some digital images using the human body. This is to represent the illegal and unethical medical experimentation that was conducted on the pink triangle prisoners. As horrific as the experiments and human suffering were I don't think I could ever convey the depths of such depravity in a photograph. I can only hope by using my constructed images to convey a sense of the injustice and repulsiveness of such an act. I'd thought about using clear medical tubing containing the barbed wire that I'd obtained previously. I thought juxtaposing the tubing against naked body parts would make a powerful statement.

I did a shoot on the kitchen floor with my model laying on top of strips of the kitchen tile wallpaper. This gave a backdrop that had a sense of a clinical environment. Then I placed the barbed wire tubing around the body. Once I had my images I then digitally manipulated the limbs and areas of the body to create new organic forms that looked familiar, strange, and slightly grotesque. The idea behind this piece is to convey the futility of the hormone experiments that were attempting to cure Homosexuality and the unsound science behind sexuality conversion and eugenics. A lot of time was spent working digitally on three images. By the time I'd finished the third my skills had improved and the first one looked weaker than the other two. I will need to re-assess at some point how to use these images.

22nd May:

Today I began scouting for suitable locations to photograph my triangle props. I had a choice of two nearby woodlands, both with different types of tree cover. I packed up my equipment (the Ediction machine in a plastic box to safeguard against accidental knocks and damage) and drove out to my first location. I was hoping for grey, even, bright light but it was partially sunny. It didn't take me long to find a couple of tree trunks that looked interesting and with enough space to not make the photographs look too crowded in. After all my thinking and planning there is no substitute for actually getting out and making work. I also wanted to test my machine design of white sides with gridlines. I can't decide whether to keep this design or spraypaint it gun metal grey. Only by taking photographs could I hope to make a decision.

My trial run made me realise I would have to get down quite low to include the distant treeline. This meant laying flat on my side or front at times. Although I'd thought about tough jeans and boots I should also have brought along some sort of ground sheet. I ended up getting quite muddy. Lesson learned for next time.

I packed up and moved to my second location and walked around for a bit looking at different scenarios. I took more test shots and again, it was only by being in the woodland environment that I began to see different visual possibilities for each of my props. For the Ediction machine I've decided to use a backdrop that includes paths and trails because they make me think about train tracks and columns of prisoners marching to and from the internment camps. More organic backdrops that would include twisted tree trunks and limbs could be used for the medical experiment triangles that I have yet to make. There is no way I could have sat at home and thought up these scenarios. The visual stimulus of actually being at the sites fed into my creativity.

I need to make several more visits and make another prop or two, but I am on my way with this assignment.

23rd June:

I made my third visit to my chosen woodland today. This time I took along the Ediction machine (now covered in grey paper) to try some more test shots. The previous shoot made me realise that the angles I was using for my composition gave me the backdrop I wanted but the machine's pyramidial form was somewhat lost. I've decided that at least one of the Ediction machine shots needs to be a downward facing image to capture this quality. By having possibly three shots of the education machine I hope to illustrate my intent whilst showing form in a way that would be too difficult to convey in one image.

When scouting the woodland floor for the shoot I noticed an area that had a thick covering of dead leaves. I thought that they would make a good juxtaposition for the Edicition machine and the devastation caused by the implementation of an ideology based on Panopticism. The image below came from today's shoot. The Ediction machine is starting to look a little battered by its travels around various woodland locations and being in the boot of the car. I noticed in this shot that the symmetry is a bit ruined because the machine's keys are becoming a bit wonky. This needs addressing  so some salvage work needs to be done before I take the machine back out again.

Edit 24th June:

Today I took the triangles that I made in assignment 1 out to the woodland. I played around with placing them in rows or on tree stumps but wasn't happy with the results. They look forced. Eventually I tried leaving them in a pile. Looking through the camera lens I could see the possibilities for this image. I was reminded of the photographs of piles of bodies taken in the concentration camps. I think this is quite an effective image in that respect.

  

Edit 26th June:

I showed the above image to a number of OCA students who's opinion I value. There was a consensus that there is something not quite right about the image. I had this sense myself and comments ranged from "It looks like it is floating" "Reminds me of the intro to Star Wars" and "The object looks too disconnected from its environment". I agree with these comments and went back to the woodland this morning for a re-shoot. This time I made sure that the leaves either touched the base of the machine or they reflected light and shadow onto its sides to help anchor the object in place. I also added a further element, a piece of barbed wire, to the background. I think this shoot has been worthwhile and I am much happier with the images. I'm really glad that I put up my orignal image for discussion. It has been most worthwhile.

Edit 30th June:

Back to the woodland today with some of the other images that I've made. As well as presenting them  as images in their own right I wanted to re-photograph them in the woodland setting too. I'm quite pleased with the results. The horror and suffering in the images is somehow magnified by the quietness of the natural setting without being more graphical. I chose to use barbed wire to hang the images to reference the concentration camps and as a visual link to some of the other images. I have about 12 images I'm think are ready to present for assignment so these will be sent to the online printers and along with my notes sent to my tutor for comments.

18th April:

I've finally returned to update this post almost a year later. My time has been mainly spent on completing my Contextual Studies module and completing my dissertation. I've also completed assignment 4 for this module and have a breathing space to update the backlog on this blog. My tutor feedback for assignment 3 mostly revolved around my need to justify my choice of a woodland setting for photographing my props and images. I've been asked by both my level 3 tutors about the possibility of using a woodland in Poland, nearer to the historical Nazi concentration camps. My response to this argument has always been that I do not view my work as documentary. It is primarily conceptual in nature. I chose a woodland for its anonymity. I want the work to be displayed in a space that has no name or location. The reason for this is that the project's foundation is in LGBTQ hidden history, but I don't want the viewer to draw a line under this event as if it is a closed chapter. LGBTQ oppression around the world still continues and the events of Nazi Germany could happen all over again, anywhere.

Alain Resnais script for the 1954 documentary 'Night & Fog' which looks at the aftermath of the camps draws attention to this misapprehension:

'There are those who look at these ruins today
As though the monster were dead and buried beneath them.
Those who take hope again as the image fades
As though there were a cure for the scourge of these camps.
Those who pretend this happened only once,
At a certain time and in a certain place.
Those who refuse to look around them,
Deaf to the endless cry.'

Alain Resnais, Night & Fog. (1954)

My BoW tutor's feedback also mentions that it may be helpful to think where the work is located in terms of other precedents of practice. Now that my dissertation for CS is almost finalised I will have more time to do more research into this aspect.

I also need to think about how the work might be viewed or engaged with, in terms of who the spectators might be and what I am expecting in response to the work. This aspect makes me feel slightly nervous. I know from reading the PhD dissertation of Nigel Hurlstone, who has undertaken similar work involving oppression of gay men in Nazi Germany, that he experienced homophobia and attempts to have his work removed from exhibition. Hurlstone's work took place in the UK between 1996 & 1999 so attitudes have changed somewhat since that time.

I primarily make work for myself and would also particularly like for it to inform a younger LGBTQ audience too; It is clear that those who are unaware of their own history, and kept in the dark, are often not politically motivated enough to stand up for their rights. Rights and privileges that minorities have often had to fight hard for every tiny step forward. It would be complacent to think that the human rights we have today are sacrosanct and could never be taken away. I need to think about engaging with an LGBTQ based art group of some kind. I will look to doing this fairly soon.

The reception of my work by a wider audience is partly dependent on location; a small provincial town, a coastal enclave with an art's based community or somewhere cosmopolitan like London, will have different perceptions and internal biases. All these issues make it difficult to think about the perception of the work by a larger audience.

I also need to relook at Heidegger as one read through is not nearly enough!