Field of light in the desert, 2016, must have been experimenting with my camera and long exposure, Dan in hospital somewhere, hadn’t seen him but less worried because he was safe, spoke to registrar when I know wilfred lopez, champagne with cheese before sunset, mum, deb, john wanted dinner but deb couldn’t afford, have to be guided by debs frugality on holidays I seem to resent Deb a lot she is happy in her frugality but I worked because I was not I guess, still struggling with that even in retirement but learning to be a bit more frugal love the sea of colour in this photo drawing with light in photos that’s a thing, feel a bit guilty about the desert could be a bit less racist didn’t always put aboriginal people first got annoyed tired frustrated didn’t like the smell scared of germs magenta’s not in the rainbow but I like it best that and teal another non rainbow colour must be secondary colours I like. have to be a strong tone a patient with cancer once said that it’s the tone you like not the colour so jewel tone colours is my thing St johns that’s a long time ago that patient is probably dead now howard is dead even though he continued to look well sarah is dead feel guilty that i didn’t see her at the end wanted to believe that she wasn’t dying and was busy tired working the kids resentful of intrusions on my time always that just want to be left alone with no committments a lot of the time but it’s almost never that, mum, dan, dad, jesse just ignores me mostly but he did spontaneously contact brian yesterday when he must have heard from christine about the ankle. Christine is the only one who follows social media but jesse still bothered to call brian @brian how does that even happen I don’t get prompted to do that in messenger.
This is a combo of stream of consciousness and memory. I haven’t used memory of other senses other than vision much that. Vision and a memory of the time around when I took the photo.
Caption from the above:
Thoughts of death, illness and regret swirl in my head. I drink champagne and eat cheese. ThenI submerse myself in the gold and magenta sea and experiment with the moment to keep from drowning.
Just a reminder to myself that this subject does not assess the journal.
Next assessment is image and caption and it is preferable that this is part of the final photoessay.
Therefore it’s crunch time. I have been mulling over themes and I’ve decided to stick with James Turrell’s Skyspace as my theme of the year. I’m making a little quilt for Australia wide eight that reflects this and this photoessay will tell the story of pain eased by art at Skyspace.
It will have to tell it through metaphor and words rather than actual pictures of the place.
Research – Photoessays using metaphoric photos, Skyspace and James Turrell, art – pleasure nexus,
Sequence of photos:
Pain – 2013, estrangement, fear, worry, guilt, shame, encompassing – pincushion filling the frame with possibly red tones background, shallow depth of field.
It was Canberra, 2013, and I had failed to help my son who was in trouble. Years later I would know it was schizophrenia, but all I knew then was a painful hole in my chest and the relentless sound of worry in my head. I wondered if James Turrell’s Skyspace could offer me any relief.
I don’t like this longer version. Actually maybe I do. The writing does set the whole scene but the challenge is getting the photo to do that. I’m hoping that it will be an artwork not a doco though. hear, smell, feel, taste, proprioception. Remember to consider these for all photos. How to I photograph the sound of worry. I guess the oud makes a sound so there is reference to sound in the photo.
And the image could be a ukulele or guitar lit red. Probably only the body of the guitar, or maybe the whole guitar chiaroscuro in the dark with red light. Maybe done in the bedroom, even perhaps on the bed.
As this is the lead image it needs to be compelling and should also give an overview of what is to come so probably should mention seeking solace and maybe a bit more detail about place. I think I need to introduce the skyspace into the image too. Maybe by simply introducing the night sky. Or the sky with clouds. Maybe I could have quite tight focus on the red hole but somehow get a sky reflection in the bulbous bottom of the oud. So that the hole is front and centre but a little bit of hopeful sky in the periphery. Like a portal for escape.
The line that says I’m visiting skyspace is so hard. Discussion on a zoom with Olivia suggested that I could put the prosaic info all in the title and leave it out of the text of the photoessay.
Need some research about metaphorical photos still.
Title –
Seeking solace in art: A visit to James Turrell’s Within Without, (2010), a permanent skyspace installation at the National Gallery of Australia in Canberra.
Ramp – stepping between worlds, down into darkness, cool, descending, leaving behind, anticipation,
Establishing shot – often a large shot so maybe Tasman Bridge at dusk with the ramp descending into the dark created by the sunset above. Telling the time of day and where and entering. Bridge has safety signs too. I like the mention of safety – adds a feeling of a different environment but also perhaps safety in a positive sense. Remember to include sound smell feel as well as see – hushed
The long ramp descended into cool hushed darkness At the entrance there was a sign about safety. Dusk was approaching in the world I sought to leave behind.
Thinking I might be able to take a sunset photo from the 61 st floor with colour in the sunset and the lights on in the city below. Hoping that some ramps might be visible in the photo but wouldn’t be obvious. I could make the sky the feature and just maybe I could turn the photo upside down so the it read as the world above and coloured skyspace below. Not sure how that would really read. Wonder if I could edit so that I placed the sky on the bottom but everything was up the right way at the top???? doesn’t include the ramp or the safety sign.
Photo down the bike path on the bridge. Could have shallow depth of field and go into quite strong blur. Maybe an overcast day, maybe at dusk. Could be taken into the sun a bit so that the ramp was visible but not the end of the ramp.
Bricks – organic, textural, pinkbrown colour, tactile, walls, muffle the outside, looming over a bit. Actually had no roof but I didn’t notice that. Rough
Could be our own home bricks. Could look for a wall of pinky bricks, maybe the old bricks in the wall at the Bot gardens.
clothed me – thinking about using my dress that is the right colour and hanging it against the grey concrete under the bridge.
Pool – glacial blue smooth, glassy, my favourite colour, quiet, remembered colour but not reflections.
The break sea islands photo had the right colour but not smooth.
Mum’s blue bowl somehow against a background in nice flat light.
Dome – hugging around, inlaid floor, white, curved at my back,
The white dome curled its arms around me.
? Bahai centre, something encircling, maybe the fountain area. inlaid floor – mum’s bit of taj mahal inlay. Maybe make a white funnel and photograph the inlaid thing with the lens in the hole at the top. Create a white circle around the inlay.
Sky – separated from the world, hole through to immeasurable distance, out of context, distance
Find somewhere where the sky is partially visible through something else. Or maybe mask out a hole of sky in a square. Could do the sky on the cenotaph. Photo of only sky looking straight up. Thinking about a dusk full moon. or a ball thrown in the air in colour with blue behind. (sort of reverse of hole through to sky) Or the sun through a telescope collaged on to sky. A balloon floating. Maybe a solid colour painted of watercolour or something. Maybe if I even painted the whole thing and photographed it. Or I could layer by just cropping a circle and pasting it on to another layer. Wouldn’t need to do any masking. Just two full opacity layers where they are different sizes. Like when I put multiple photos on the one canvas. I could even make the coloured circle myself on the computer but that might look too artificial. The best would be one photo. Maybe a helium filled balloon against a vivid blue sky. Might even be better to have not a circle but just the balloon from an angle that creates a rough circle. I could suspend it with ultra thin thread that you wouldn’t see.
Maybe flowers with complementary colours juxtaposed. Possibly find something at the bot gardens. Other idea is the reverse of skyspace – an orange ball thrown up into a blue sky. Or the sun photographed through the telescope and then collaged on to a blue sky. All colour in the sun pasted against blue. Would mean I need to learn those techniques in photoshop. Sky and colour seem to be coming together in the one picture
Sound – didgeridoo, droning, throbbing, also encompassing, swirling low sound
Swirling water around a rock? Train passing with slow shutter speed
Night – emerging and the world has changed, become darker and quieter, more peaceful, emotions less raw, slight hope,
Night photo with street lights, maybe in the wet. Maybe a softer photo. Just a tinge of lower clarity maybe. Peaceful night photo. Maybe of beth house or common ground. Beth house at night could be good. Relevant.
Resilience – curiosity retained, added something to my mind other than Dan, moving forward with art, inspired, see outside myself again. Strength to move forward. Keep going, doing other things, lighter
“big picture” photo like the misty islands of the south west. Sugimoto photo. Looking beyond myself and aware of the world again. maybe a photo from the plane.
Big problems trying to export my image into a pdf. It changed to faded and muted colours. Need to make sure I save the jpeg in photoshop by using export and choosing embed colour profile. Then I can use word or powerpoint to make the essay and turn it into a pdf without the colour changing. I’m confused because I thought that a jpeg would automatically embed the colour profile but maybe it was because I was doing it from lightroom rather than photoshop. Possibly all photoshop saves embed colour profile and it was a lightroom problem, although it has happened once before.
Feedback for my first photo was 74. Two things specifically mentioned was the saturation of red on the fretboard was blown out and the mention of the sound of worry was unclear.
The saturation was said to look unnatural although it actually wasn’t. It was from a red light. But in view of the feedback I do agree that it looks a bit blown out. I’ve gone back in and done a complicated edit over the area alone to not just reduce saturation because that just makes it look grey/white, but to add in green and reduce exposure. Now I have detail in that red area which looks better I think but I’m not sure if there is a hint of unnaturalness about it because it now has been created very unnaturally. I like the way shadows have appeared within the red but there is something super sharp and patchy looking about a couple of the strings. I’m going to leave it for the moment because it now doesn’t represent a large part of the assessment but I could go back in and edit that area again. Or I could accept a tiny broken look because after all that is what I’m talking about. I upped the saturation around the hole and that is subtle and works although now there is a stronger contrast with the oud face below the hole. But I am trying to draw the eye to the hole so hopefully that works.
In regard to the sound of worry – I now say worry resonates in my ears. I have used resonant to link to the resonant instrument but resonate really is a word I should save for the didgeridoo. I hope that it evokes a sort of intrusive hum although the sound of worry is really words which are not evoked by this picture. Will probably revisit this but need to move on to put some up. Today I’m going to put what I’ve got in and then I’ll look at what I need and what is wrong.
Putting together the photoessay with draft photos and words I can see more easily where the problems are and I get inspiration from surprising sources, like what powerpoint thinks the photo I am inserting is. Trying to use words that relate to the images without being a direct description. No problems with making sure I include something that is not in the photo because my whole story is not pictured. I’m trying to use other pictures to evoke a sense or atmosphere of my story without using actual photos from the event. I guess I’m trying to make my words and images a peaceful enjoyable experience that takes you out of yourself and speaks of hope, in the way that James Turrell’s skyspace helped me.
For the reflection I’m going to have to find some photoessays with a similar feel. Not sure how I do that but I will try. Also probably reflect on what was happening for me at the time of the skyspace, as well as whilst revisiting and creating this work, and also how telling this story could connect with others. Back to my old reveal thing.
Going to Mum’s today to take the inlaid floor photo. I’ve made a sort of circular light box out of stone paper and now I’m going to set that up in the sun on top of my light panel. Hoping that the inlaid white marble will be a little translucent. Tested out with a plate and seems to work to give a flat white surround. You almost get the feeling of a white dome. I’m excited.
Now I need to go on and do the patchwork blue photo. While I was still nearly asleep I thought of some writing. The still glassy surface allowed a view of the ice blue of a glacial run off stream.
I also thought that I can’t say cool walls if I’m referencing a sunset for the colour. So maybe I should drop the cool and even change it to warm. I want to reference texture here too – subtle roughness – even that doesn’t fit with a sunset picture. I think I will still try for the ramp and the dress photos so I can compare.
Trying for a sugimoto type photo for the final one but my only similar photo doesn’t have the impact of his photos. Possibly I could edit it to do so but I’m not sure. Thinking I might use a photo I took with foggy boats down at Melaleuca instead.
Changing my idea about the rock walls – thinking I’ll try and take a photo of rocks with my pink clothing. I’ve used the word half- light now so I could image rocks half in and half out of sunlight. As I think about it I wonder about Chauncy vale as a good place for photos. Especially as it has caves. It would be a while before I could get Brian to come there though. Brian has found a thing called lime kilns which are on the Derwent on the way to New Norfolk. Could get a good photo there but it’s very white. Would need good pink lighting. Another thought I had was off the back of the top of mt wellington. The rock formations there would have good light and shadow and could loom over me a bit. I could put my pink dress at the base and then have the rock face above me and the natural rocks might make a more attractive photo than under the bridge. I just think I don’t want two photos using the bridge, especially in a row.
My idea is to have variation in types of photos and techniques. Exploring lots of compositions.
If I wanted to avoid a title page I could try summing it up on the first page like the example which says blah blah blah This is our type 1 diabetes story.
eg this is the story of how a visit to james turrell’s skyspace helped turn the situation around.
Reading in creativity for life discusses how james turrell also worked with light to create a room without shadows. I could use that thought in something I write, and also to inform my photo – in fact it already does inform the photo with the marble inlaid. I will add something about shadows there. Not sure how I could work it into a cake photo. I could think about mentioning the way people looked weird and ghostly and odd coloured in the intense all encompassing flat coloured light. This kind of speaks to the surrounds and might go better with the floor photos. Unless I made the cake a centrepiece on some red lit cellophane. But it would need to have white sides to maintain the integrity of the teal icing. Red cellophane over a light box with a white sunlight light panel behind might work. Thinking I might make a small round cake and trim off it’s crusty sides to reveal the red that would then be on red cellophane to equate with the old teal bleeds crimson that I’ve written before. Perhaps I could get a better colour simply by using muffins and when you take the case off they are good. Should stop talking and go and try. Although it’s too dark and late to photograph now so maybe tomorrow morning. Maybe I could do the muffin or cake full side on and have the lit red cellophane behind as the background.
great page showing the details of the skyspace I’m talking about
Bear in mind that if I’m going to suggest a flow state I need to talk about cognitive engagement – in this case it was trying to work out what was the mechanism of the simultaneous colour contrast I was experiencing. Still need to look this up again. At that stage I went away and looked it up and discovered the term simultaneous color contrast. In the neurology of art book I’ve got it mentions simultaneous contrast as one colour bleeding into the other and creating a grey ring? I’ve seen that somewhere anyway. But is it just cone fatigue? Still not sure. Turns out the answer is not clear. Could involve all sorts of visual pathways including ones which average the colour. It seems that the rule is that surrounding colour effects the central colour but why is certainly not clear. Brightness also plays a factor and all the skyspaces use brightness contrast too. With the light really quite bright compared to the sky. Or actually undergoing variation through the show.
‘To prepare for your discussion post this week, you should watch the video above and do a little research to find out what arts engagement possibilities might be available to older people in your local area, that may provide improved health outcomes or better wellbeing.
Your post (no more than 200 words) should describe one arts engagement possibility for older people in a 5km radius of your home if you are living in a city, or up to 25km if you are living in a regional town. (If you are living in a remote region, identify the nearest opportunity). What do you think has been the effect of policy frameworks? Are there better ways of facilitating access to the arts and serving the needs of older Australians?’
Mather House – Positive ageing program – administered by Hobart city council. Goal – Overarching – support people’s ability to have control over their own quality of life and encourage continued participation in all aspects of community life. Including – Strengthen social inclusion of older people, celebrate diversity of older people, encourage old people to feel valued, listened to and empowered, Facilitate positive ageing opportunities within the community, promote events, information and programs.
Specific program within this – art from scratch – Week day Tuesday 1.30 -3.30, 6 week course, located in the city in Criterion House. Costs $60 per week. Pay upfront and limited to 15 people. – Led by an artist called Yilian Basser- good value compared to her classes for adults which cost $270 for eight classes.
Policy frameworks I can see do not directly specify improvement in health but do mention improvement in other aspects of ageing that link to health and wellbeing. So there is no framework to specifically improve health through art but rather an apparent tacit recognition that art is an event that fits with “positive ageing”. Perhaps if this art engagement was more clearly spelt out as specifically beneficial to health then it may play a bigger role in the program, by being ongoing. Having said that there are other ongoing art groups that involve music or knitting which are part of the positive ageing program. This short program is pretty accessible costing only $10 per week. Also lasts for a couple of hours per week which IF stretched out over the whole year would meet the 100 hours per year of art engagement that is shown to be the minimum for benefit (what was this reference – came out of the module info)
Discussion post for week 5
For your post (not exceeding 150 words), write a short description of the project you found, outlining its aims and outcomes. What was the nature and quality of the interaction between the project leader(s) and the participants?
Peace by Piece: The Norwalk Community Quilt Project – This is an ongoing project whereas participants are able to collaborate making quilts destined for personal use, public display or donation. It occurs in after school hours and is situated within a housing complex for the elderly. As such it accommodates all ages from the young to the aged. It was originally proposed by the organiser, Lizzie Rockwell, for social and emotional benefits to participants, as well as a pragmatic fundraiser for charities, or for the Norwalk Children’s Foundation, who were the original funders of this project. Lizzie continues to lead this project 12 years on and has seen a large number of people engage through the years. There was no formal evaluation of outcomes that I can see, other than anecdotal observations of increased social interaction between participants in a making environment. But the popularity and sustainability of the project suggests that benefits were recognised by participants. The interaction between project leader and participants appears to be as friend and fellow community member.
People are able to reinvent themselves as artists with an identity that displaces or subsumes disability. This is a quote out of week 11 learning materials but is something I thought about in Honours – using art to reframe my identity from failed mother to something else – quiltmaker. Going to use this type of idea in my project proposal for “parents of mentally ill adult children” Ran over this with Ben today and he seemed keen even though it will be very specific and come with lots of obstacles to locating and engaging people in the first place. He agreed I should use a tiered approach to research. Parents in this situation have increased stress, anxiety, depression. These can be addressed with art engagement. So really just looking towards wellbeing, time out, flow, reframe identity, connection, reduce isolation, empathic environment, unrelated bonds that can reaffirm individual worth. Can’t use it to alter the situation itself.
Connection seems to be a feature of the groups for refugees. I might be able to show that parents of mentally ill are a bit disconnected, isolated, lonely in a study and then how groups address this. Physical outcome of the art would be good to improve environment. Probably I’ll consider the benefit of making comfort items that can be used at home as well. Also incorporate learning to enhance flow but also to be translated for use at home. Like stitch meditations. Maybe in fact I’ll propose a project that is done piecemeal all by hand and slowly and then brought together into a unified work later to keep and hopefully offer comfort. I think all hand work because it can then be done at home and then participants don’t have to provide anything. I can bring fabric from my stash and needles and thread to rummage through and enjoy. Scissors to cut out squares and rulers to rule around squares. I can also bring rotary cutter to show but can be done without that. We could make cardboard or other templates to take home in the shape people wanted to do. Wouldn’t have to be square as long as it tesselated. Sewing and quilting to express how you’re feeling. Making something beautiful out of a shit topic. Can actually do anything in terms of pattern. Can use text if it helps but no pressure to reveal inner feelings unless it’s something people want to do. Primarily aimed at entering flow and increasing happiness and pleasure in life. Improved quality of life.
Mending connection comforting accepting. Something about creating something that holds together and functions but is less than perfect is my aim for the project proposal group.
TASREC run by Richmond fellowship and open to anyone with “lived experience of mental illness. Has art programs – could a group for parents be run under a banner like this, or at least be a source to find parents suffering – so Richmond Fellowship, Langford (also deals in mental health), clozapine clinic, GP practices are the ideas I have so far, Tolosa st Rehab also maybe.
Sue Lacey 