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Through my progression of this course, I have been picking up threads of interest, which I have previously been unable to hold together on my own.  

These threads have appeared in my mai 120/30/40/50 and I hope to coalesce them, to an appropriate extent, within my 170.

My recognised themes are:

120	130	140	150
memory		memory	memory
	regionality	regionality	regionality
unreliability
sense of place	sense of place	sense of place	sense of place
	folkloric	folklore	folklore
		young person audience
		play
		identity	identity
material		material
transition
	liminality		liminality
	permeability		permeability
	light and shadow	light and shadow
	person/place – place/person
creative writing		creative writing	writing
		navigation	navigation
	territory		territory

PRACTICE 

I would like to combine my attempts at creative writing and image making into a series of short stories, with personal or semi-autobiographical influences. They would work both singularly and as a cohesive piece. I am wondering about the potential ways these stories could connect – maybe conversing with each other, arguing – perhaps the connected thread is a puzzle in itself.

I aim to continue reading a psycho-geographic/ mytho-geographic text to inform my ideas around territory and the capabilities of the concept of reality in a place.

So far, The Rings of Saturn by W. G. Sebald seems an informative text for my practice. His tangential style of language: stringing together non-linear moments, creating an atmosphere which rotates rather than points, is similar to what I found most interesting about mytho-geography. It is also of regional interest to be, being set in East Anglia. I keep thinking about what I would have been doing at the time of writing, and this is making me further invested in what could be described at times as a confusing narrative.

As a direct result of my practical ambitions, I would like to address the weight of authorship.  A lot of my ideas come from visual memory, or perhaps a developed memory – sometimes this is hard to separate. They deal with real people, and I am aware of personal thoughts being subjective. I see the practices of Lynda Barry and Dominique Goblet being informative here. 

CRITICAL PUBLICATION

This will be a continuation from my mai 150, where I spoke about mytho-geography in storytelling, as well as threads of inquiry from previous modules. I would like to look more broadly at geographically-informed/ inspired practices, where a site is informing the artwork (whether in real time or retrospectively) and how this contributes to that artist, or they have created for others, a sense of place.

I plan to point out the dominance of site-based walking being a pre-requisite to Situationist approaches, and furthermore, my inclination that there is more to place than this specification. If a broader version of the terms would be used, I can see this benefiting many types of audiences. For example, incorporating play to help young people and children who are experiencing transitional moments. I have come across several organisations who use psychogeographic techniques to encourage stability within people’s displaced lives.

I have looked briefly into the artist Adolf Wölfli who falls into the category of Art Brut and I am interested in how he created a whole world of his own despite living in a psychiatric hospital for most of his adult life.

Link to presentation:

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/63958cc6-d3a9-4a0c-8b55-51d02748c628

https://web.microsoftstream.com/video/33e4b2b9-a4f5-43f8-997c-9707596f550c

Group B: Bring one example of practice (not your own) and discuss it in relation to two research sources / critical theorists.

To Summarise: Familiarising oneself with terms such as: situationism, psychogeography, dérive, flâneurism, Haussmann’s renovation of Paris …. linking practice to these terms.

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Situationism & Psycho-geography.

– Prof. M John Doris (Characterological psychology essay: Persons, Situations, and Virtue Ethics)

– Author Andrew Hussey (podcast with travel writer Ian Marchant, Walking With Attitude)

– Example of practice: Mainly Picking Up Pieces (Christian Skovgaard) & a mention of Unearthing (Alan Moore)

Situationism places an emphasis on moment over virtue. It supposes that the way a person decides to instinctively behave is influenced more crucially by external forces placed upon them, than any type of “Aristotelian” ethics that also may be involved within this given situation.

In an opening analogy, Doris describes a phone box experiment (explain?.) It was nearly always a much safer bet to predict the outcome of the experiment by knowing the manipulated environment, rather than having prior knowledge of the person’s character. 

One of the main criticisms of situationism theory is that it “neglects various casual interactions between individual’s mental life and their situations.” (Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy.) The situation-influenced narrative within Picking Up Pieces is an example of how psychogeography can comment on an individual’s “mental life”, but perhaps maybe not in a casual sense. The interweaving of grief and archaeological salvage is a dominant feature, observing a deeply personal relationship between mind and place. The practices of psycho- and mytho- geography tend to comment on the importance of experiencing a place first hand (as does the character in Picking Up Pieces, partially.) I wonder how completely imaginary places can be illustrated within these terminologies.

Psycho-geography – psychological geography – was coined by Situationist International members Raoul Vaneigemand Guy Debord (Hussey.) The intention was to explore the possibilities of decentralisation with a Nietzsche-inspired playfulness. (Merjian.) By agitating a person’s (literal) view of a place, the removal of “the spectacle” within the city to discover authenticity which has been hidden by Capitalism. This awareness of “the spectacle”, Hussey explains, is the moment where the Situationists depart from flâneurism, who tended to absorb and report on their surroundings in a less filtered way. 

Within both the narratives of Picking Up Pieces and Unearthing (Moore), a distinction is made between person belonging to a place and place belonging to person. Both stories describe a moment where autonomy within a personally significant location is relinquished; the place has the upper hand.  

In Unearthing, the main character is inseparable from his local area in South London, but not symbiotic. “He dreams the hill. The Hill dreams of London.”.

I think this distinction is an important one, as it is nodding to the psycho-geographic focus on an “endlessly changing” environment, in which the participant is being led by unconscious wishes. The nature of Steve Moore, unable to separate his sense of self from Shooter’s Hill, is seen as a fleeting moment in comparison to the long, layered life of the place.

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1) What will you be focusing on and why?

‘Situationist Approaches Within Storytelling.’

I initially set out with the intention to use the presentation module to explore visual language which has been influenced by mythogeography, within the context of Phil Smith’s “manifesto”. This was due to an approach I was developing during the Mai 140, involving archived cartography > re-assembly > paraedolic character finding/ development. I could see parallels to mythogeography and possibly magical realism coming to fruition. This was in addition to the psychogeographic elements I have noted upon in prior modules.

I think it is more explanatory to include “site-based” practice as a whole, stemming from the original flâneur (note: would be interesting to think about what came before as well.)

Psychogeography was coined by Guy Dubord, a member of the Situationist International and mythogeography is an offshoot of this. So, I am currently thinking of rearranging the question to my presentation. It would be more along the lines of :

‘Situationist Approaches Within Storytelling.’

I am currently finding that I am more led down the path of inquiry which is: What constitutes as site-based? Do memories, dreams, migratory or immigrator (sp?) journeys, the journey through a bipolar episode, etc.

• Skovgaard’s use of psychogeography to highlight the journey of grief
• Garner’s inseparability from memory, place, family.

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2) What’s your most immediate challenge?

• To decide where and how to construct the walk I will embark on and how to incorporate it into my presentation (Taking instructions from Smith’s manifesto? How to capture? Where to situate the walk?)

• Does this inquiry need to be tightened, or expanded?

PS: Initial Thoughts:

Show work in progress: What’s your main current challenge? How are your practice and journal tackling it?

Intro:

The last 2 weeks have predominately been concerned with bringing the project into a cohesive stage, with a somewhat formalised physical object ready for the MAI 140 deadline.

Although I am at this stage satisfied with the outcome, this project has the potential to expand beyond August 12th. I feel that a retrospective look at the relationship between material and narrative would be beneficial. This is because there are stages to this project, due to formatting and getting it to a book-ready stage, that potentially distract from the original process.

Stepping back from the physical tasks and allowing breathing space to ensure it is reaching my original intentions will possibly render new insights into its next edition. The unpredictable nature of risograph printing may create unexpected results and also factor into this development process.

I intend to risograph print early in Week 10 with a variety of blue + white papers, to see which works best for the atmosphere and aesthetic, with the intention of laser cutting at the end of the week with my favoured pages.

Blue / pink layers made for risograph printer:

Week 4

During week 4, I continued my decision that the Lantern Man will be depicted through the eyes of the audience through provided written prompts, as opposed to being bodily represented in the object in front of them. The idea for this is that it involves the audience more thoroughly in the mind of the eponymous character, which will in turn hopefully a more personal, permeable connection.

This is a part of telling folklore that I would like to focus upon: helping others to feel a sense of place. Being situated in my region of upbringing, I want the piece of work I create to be informative and accessible to those who might not necessarily be aware of the folklore, but are a part of it just as much as anyone else.

This brought me back to thinking how a sense of place has been a continuing thread for my work and how the visual imagery can reflect this.

This has coincided with the beginnings of making some practical decisions about the paper engineering ideas that I may incorporate.

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Looking Back at “Mapping the Territory” with Phyllida Bluemel.

I thought back to a workshop I participated in during Semester 1, led by Phyllida Bluemel: a particular aspect came back into my head recently whilst contemplating how I can bring my project back to creating a sense of place. This was to dissect an image, physically cutting it up, and to place it back together and find what is created as a result.

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I think this process helps to highlight ideas surrounding making my own connections to a place in the way I can. It intentionally steers away from cartographic knowledge, which is not a bad thing but nothing I am trained in, and instead focuses on directing energy towards forming meanings idiosyncratically.

I am not an expert on the place I am aiming to navigate – neither East Anglia nor its folkloric realm. I feel that not many people from the area would be aware of such tales. I like the idea of bringing these nods to the past that they presently reside in through the eyes of a similar person. The

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Week 5

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During week 5 I wanted to start gaining a sense of the engineering behind manipulating materials in the way I am imagining the project will transpire.

I also have been looking briefly into the plant and animal life of the area of the Broads. I will use these within my illustrations to

I have been looking at the book “Midnight Creatures” by Helen Friel which use shadow play to depict animals from murky or hard-to-reach places.

The cuts throughout the layers is not an easy concept to grasp, but could definitely be simplified. There are of course many ways to create a shadow. I tried making a little one for myself:

Aims for the coming week:

* to create a portion of a mockup to take to the laser cutting technician, which will then give me a sense of how the machine works and the material limitations I will be working with

* start thinking about the activities / written prompts / directional cues to give to the audience. How and what to write and present.

* once again connecting to a sense of place, thinking I can connect people to the folklore – connecting originalprojects; (“originalprojects; works with contemporary artists and communities in Great Yarmouth, co-creating ambitious objects, experiences and developmental activities that respond to the place and people, building relationships for a sustainable future”) and discussing the project with people from the area into my research journal.

* creating a timetable for the rest of the project would be really useful and I haven’t got round to doing that yet.

PS – new artist of interest = https://www.lauracopseyart.com/about

Lantern Man: Creating Place with Material, Light and Shadow.

Practice Project Aims: Please elaborate on the above describing the area of interest you will be exploring, stating what the project sets out to achieve, and listing your aims

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My practice project aims are to develop a body of work and a finalized object related to the research I gathered during my MAI 130 critical publication. Specifically, I want this project to be led by a folklore known as Lantern Man. It is a regional folklore from the county of Norfolk and is a personified rendition of the globally observed folklore of will-o’-the-wisp (an ethereal, mysterious floating luminous entity usually found in marshy, uncertain places.) 

I found myself intrigued by the concept of Lantern Man during my research and yet I could not find much materiality concerning this folklore. I have been thinking about this bodily form could consist of. This ranges from its origin story, which archetypes it embodies, and how the influence of darkness – specifically twilight or gloaming – can empower its form. Furthermore, the way that light can influence a narrative’s path. 

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I aim to complete the term with an article/s which are the culmination of a considered time experimenting with light, dark and materials. I plan on working with materials which are both familiar and new to my practice. These include laser cutting, cyanotype, considerations of light/ dark, and possibly thinking about movement via analogue means and an introductory set of classes in Adobe After Effects. All will be chosen in terms of my initial aim: to experience place via narrative, materiality, light & dark

When reflecting upon my MAI 120 project, a critique I have is that the connection between application of research to my practice could have been more detailed and thoughtful. I am hoping during the MAI 140 to push myself to be bolder in image making and therefore do not want to solidify this project into a format as of this moment: I would prefer to the research and material experimentation to naturally inform me through the semester. I believe that fostering my own instincts is an important component to my authorial practice and connects to other positive and required skills such as confidence, decisiveness, and time management. 

I would prefer to not focus my project on specifically children, although my mind did immediately veer towards this demographic, due to my initial visions for the work and my past professional work in children’s design. Instead, I would like to think more about the article as a piece for perhaps both adults and children, something that both demographics could take information from. This is another reason that I see this project becoming a tactile, or interactive piece – to enhance the sense of inclusion in the creation of a communal space. 

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Creatives of interest:

Ways to start this:

• focusing on the main character and how they can be portrayed: creating shapes via various materials to get a sense of their presence
• Collecting photographic source material to gain a sense of the environment I want to portray
• thinking about materials which effect quality of light such as: drawing/ painting on transparent / translucent sheets, carbon drawing, tracing paper, thin fabric,
• how light would be used in relation to the project

0: introduction

1: sense of place 

1a: finding meaning

1b: connecting through sense of place with Leon Spilliaert

2: Norfolklore: Luminous tales in Norfolk and beyond

2a: understanding folklore (and its relation to place)

2b: examples of luminous lore

3: liminal place, creepy faces: thinking about topography and folklore

3a: light

3b: place

3c: effect on the person

4: Folklore being used in practice

4a: Folk Tales of the British Isles, edited by Michael Foss, illustrated by Ken Kiff

4b: Irrlichter, Gustav Klimt

5: conclusion: illuminating the unknown

5a: the folklore feeding into the modern day place:

– connections between folklore + current day = reasons why there is potential here for regional outreaching in the arts & heritage sector (tourism, class divide)

– (Weird Norfolk + Shuck Mag)

5b: Lou Benesch – example of practicing illustrator using’ personal mythology’ in her work: collecting memories from her past and combining with known lores to make a unique narrative

5c: How absorbing the folkloric material to tap into the current day aspects of the county has allowed me to think of opportunities for these themes to be an active part of my future authorial practice.