Commission Unit

Summative Assessment

Context for both landscape and city projects

Nowadays society has lots of different social and even psychological problems. One of the main cause of it is the fast life speed when all days are going as fast as it looks impossible. That is why nowadays society is also called the hectic society. Fast life problems are really obvious when people are running in other to achieve something more than others, when even in the night city is not sleeping, it is still crowded and people are still consuming, creating, using, developing and etc. Running, running, running... Current world people should be strong, comprehensive and really unremitting in order to be able to face all the challenges and go step by step with hectic society. According to these facts in my projects I am going to represent how nowadays personalities features and psychology can be reflected in the nature (landscape) and I will try to stop the hectic city life in my city project.

Contextual research
American psychologist Dr Misty Hook article in which she discuses the todays people life speed and its impact to families life, people health and relations with other people. Writer and speaker Jay Walljasper article (published in the book Less is More) in which he express current societies life view. No matter how fast we go, no matter how many comforts we forgo in order to quicken our pace, there never seems to be enough time.

 Anxiety is being called the disease of the 21st century. Everybody seems to be either afflicted - or knows someone who is. According to the World Health Organization, disorders related to dread are the most prevalent mental illness on the globe at the moment. (CBC
NEWS NETWORK)

Article Tips for Handling Stress in Today's Busy Society by Jason Ladock (publishers of Health Guidance) Article "Family meal time victim of today's hectic society which reflects the current society problems within relations between families and the dicrease of human communication

Contextual research proved my initial idea for both projects and gave me better understanding about hectic society problems.

Landscape: The tree as a symbolic sign of human psychology.

Trees in mythology offer us a living reminders of past events. Pagans used the trees in order to make representations of gods that they worshiped. The old trees as symbols of elder people. Trees are natures gladiators, who despite the great imbalance in odds, fight to keep a foot hold in the most extreme conditions.

Tree as the symbol of person

The roots which provide all the needed nutritions also can be interpreted as a symbolic connection between person and his surroundings, people and places by which he can be affected.

The branches - as a symbol of person's needs to get knowledge, experience and historical herritage from life going. The trunk is the strongest part of the tree which can be understood as person's inner strength which is needed by person in order to overcome all life difficulties

Visual research: Ori Gersht "The forest"

That is the powerful and haunting film which was shot deep in the forests around Kosov in Ukraine which was witness to atrocities against to the local Jewish population among which was artist's family during the Second World War.

The camera's gaze looks through the sun-dapped forest and the trees start mysteriously fall down. After that the silence of the forest returns and the viewer can not be sure if he was a witness to the things that just happened. This film is related with my own project idea because it reflects the personal life experience and his feelings.

Jitka Hanzlova
Her pictures are one of the best example of human's senses reflections on the landscape. It reflects the photographer's senses and experiences caused by historical circumstances. According to that I found out how differently human senses can be reflected in the nature: composition, light, day/night time, weather conditions and etc.

 Painted by Vincent Van Gogh when he was suffering periodic attacks of what seems to been epilepsy. Particularly about this painting he wrote three letters to his brother and sister in all the words describing this mulberry tree while he was painting it he seems happy. This instance proves the idea that nature can reflect the sense of the human.
Gustav Klimat. The Tree of Life is an important symbol for almost every culture. The branches of the tree reach the sky while the roots are deep in the earth. It is like a connection among three worlds - a link between heaven, the earth, and the underworld. The example express tree as the life symbol idea.

Mulberry Tree, October 1889

The tree of life, 1909

Visual changes
The first choices for formative assessment were too complicated. The three was surrounded by unnecessary objects in the background and the idea of different sky light does not reflected the idea of various life challenges. I found out that it is better to represent three different trees in the same weather conditions just in various sizes as symbolic views of different strength of personalities.

Final images
The final series consist of three pictures. It includes three different compositions of different trees as different lives, personalities and theirs understanding symbols. The size of the objects reflects the idea of various characters and psychological features. The same weather conditions the same world.

Self evaluation
Project is based on the current societies and personalities problems. I suppose that my contextual research gave me better understanding about it and helped me to visualise my ideas. With my project I tried to look within the person psychology and find its expressions in the nature objects. Moreover, I tried to bring people attention to other people and find ways how confident and brave people can provide useful help to others. I am quite happy with my visual achievements. Nevertheless, I had problems with landscape printing. I needed to dodge all the series pictures in order to achieve the same neutral sky which was not achieved during my exposures. According to that it will be more considered by me on the next shooting time. In my view I managed my studies and I have answered the brief requirements. I suppose that my time management was better on the second term when everything was more understandable after the first verification and feedback which I got for Body and Object unit. I think in the future I need to do more test shoots which as I already understood are really relevant for visual choices developing and better visual achievements in the end. Additionally, I suppose that contextual research can be improved as well. I think the great research in the beginning gives your more understanding about you topic and brings more visual ideas. The most challenging part of this unit was the looking for appropriate idea which could answer the brief questions. Furthermore, I have found challenging the beginning of contextual research then I was not sure what were the expectations of me.

City: the stopped hectic world

The main goal to represent different face of current city life. Show the audience that even in busy and hectic world we need find time for ourselves and beautiful things around us. The visual idea abstract city view was inspired by surrealism painter Salvador Dali work The persistence of the memory.

Visual research: Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet

In these particular paintings I like the black background which helps to accentuate the colourful lines. In my view it is relevant for me to photograph my city during the dark time when all the lights will be accentuated.

Joseph Mallord William Turner

Color is overflowed by another color, all the recognizable forms are changed and transformed. I learnt how painter managed to hide the subject in the color and tones pattern.

Naoya Hatakeyama
In my view both technical choices: to capture city life through the wet window and on the rivers reflection, create abstract forms of casual buildings, signs and lights and present the cityscape which is not seen by hectic people.

Visual changes
After my formative review I found out that my first choices were a bit opposite to my project concept. According to that I came back to my initial visual idea to create abstract view through the wet window. The idea of night time and accentuated night lights remain the same.

Final images
The final series consist of three images. In the final shoot were captured the casual hectic society objects: banks, cafes, restaurants, petrol stations, traffics and etc. Nevertheless all these commercial objects in my series are not recognizable. It express the notion of beautiful hectic city view which is not seen by rushing people.

Self evaluation
Project is highlighting the social problems within the hectic society and incredible life speed in today's world. In my view I have quite good understanding of this topic because I am a part of hectic world. Moreover, I think my contextual research brought me even wider understanding about that. With this work I am trying to appeal to current world person and turn his attention to the hectic world problems which should not take the main part in our lives. I hope that my work can encourage people to reconsider their life priories and hopefully find more time for themselves and their beloved people. In my view I managed my studies and I have answered the brief requirements. I suppose that my time management was better on the second term when everything was more understandable after the first verification and feedback which I got for Body and Object unit. The most challenging part of this unit for me was the looking for technical solutions when I was trying to capture the city view through the piece of glass. During the process I and my assistant have broken not one glass what was stopping my work establishing. Furthermore, I had problems with the camera when instead of 8s exposure I used 1/8s exposure and etc. I suppose that next time it will not be a problem. I think in the future I need to do more test shoots which as I already understood are really relevant for visual choices developing and better visual achievements in the end. Additionally, I suppose that contextual research can be improved as well. I think the great research in the beginning gives you more understanding about your topic and brings more visual ideas.

Waste
Project idea is based on problems within current society and the huge amounts of plastic resources we consume daily which destroys our environment. The context behind it is the massive amounts of plastic waste which is used by us every single day. The work should expresses the notion of current societies' indifference towards the plastic waste caused environmental problems.

Contextual research: plastic waste

The production of plastic uses an incredible amount of fossil fuels. The environmental balance of the waterways is being thrown off by the rate of plastic bags finding their way into the mouths and intestinal tracts of sea mammals. In the woodland one bag has the potential to unintentionally kill one animal per every three months due to unintentional digestion or inhalation. Plastic is breaking down into smaller and smaller pieces and entering the food chain and releasing chemicals into the fish that eat them Less than 1% of all bags sent to recycling plants world wide end up in the recycling project. Most are left to become a pollution problem in one way or another.

 The contextual research helped me better understand the seriousness of the plastic pollution problem. Moreover, the incredible statistics proves my idea that today's individual does not care about any of these problems or is just trying to turn a blind eye.

Visual research
Visual choices are based on three wise monkeys which together embody the proverbial principle to "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil". The phrase is often used to refer to those who deal with impropriety by turning a blind eye.

How I can cover the subject?

John Stezaker's works. Using found photographs and printed material, Stezaker's collage involve various interventions such as excisions, maskings, cuts, rotations and etc. His work creates compelling new images. The Stezakers works made my think about photo montage possibilities.

 The works of Solve Sundsbo and Steven Meisel gave me idea of shadows. I thought that maybe various shadows can cover my subject. Moreover, I thought that maybe even colourful shadows can bring even more effect.
The works of Tina Berning helped me to consider the models posture and appropriate gaze.

 Vogue Italia Mar. 2012 - Haute Mess by Steven Meisel I liked how the plastic packs of chocolate were used as model hair style.
The second picture I found in the internet and unfortunately it was without the author name. Nevertheless I like how plastic forks are used as accessory for models hair style. Additionally, it also covers the eyes what is really relevant for my research. Visual choice to cover my subject with the casual consuming plastic fabrics.

Visual choices
I have made five test shoot which helped me to developed my visual achievements. The plastic covers type, lighting, background and posture were clearly considered before my final shoot. Nevertheless, after my final shoot I found out that previous test shoot with black and white film works better then the final shoot in the color film. The neutral black, white and grey combination in the plastic fabrics don't distract the view and helps to pay the majority attention to the asking gaze and posture of the model what represents the idea of this series.

Final prints
The models eyes, mouth and ears are covered by plastic waste. This photographic choice reveals the idea that person is pretending not see, not hear and not talk about the obvious problems. The main purpose of the project to encourage people to uncover their attention and respond of the problems caused by all of us.

Self evaluation
Project is based on consumer societies daily consumption caused problems. I suppose that my understanding after lots of reading for the contextual research is wider then it was before I even started to consider such a problem. My work is the visual representation of todays person indifference. It reflects the notion of misunderstanding and looking for comfortable benefits instead of thinking how we can get less but give more for our future generations. With this project I am trying to get the audience attention and highlight the obvious but invisible problems. I suppose that my visual choices strongly emphasize my series context. In my view I managed my studies and I have answered the brief requirements. I suppose that my time management was better on the second term when everything was more understandable after the first verification and feedback which I got for Body and Object unit. Moreover, it was one of the most free choices project so far what made it much more interesting for me. The most difficult part of this project was looking for appropriate visual choices which could reflect the strong idea and effect the audience. I think that contextual and visual research helped me to overcome all the problems that i have challenged during the process of creation. Nevertheless, in my view I can improve my research and achieve even better results .