Personal Analysis for second life project

Zoe Maltby-Baker

Individuality

 When looking at the summer project, ‘ Holding on: Letting go’ my first thoughts were for the Holding on aspect is the holding on of our individuality and how people are all different from the basic of levels of DNA to the way we dress. For the Letting go aspect it was all about letting go of my comfort zone and using different mediums that I had never used before and because I use a lot of mixed media in my work I wanted to go for a more painting style in my work to get away from my usual experimentations. From researching and feedback I had I realized that it was hard to get out of my comfort zone and using different types of medium. I could use this as a positive thing that can go towards a piece of work I had in mind. This takes us on to the Second life project in which I decided to use the letting go idea. By using the direction of interactive art which I had not used before and to build up my confidence in using myself in my own work and slowly getting people to know the real me and where my inspirations come from.

 After having made and created my Holding on: Letting go pieces from the summer and after doing intensive research I realized I could work in productive way and really use the potential of the university facilities. After showing my work to others and talking in my first seminar I realized the possibilities of where my work could head towards this is when the interactive art idea was confirmed by others as a positive idea. The second life piece is a large scale public interactive collage. It came about from researching ideas of fingerprints and how they are all individual and artists like Gillian Wearing who have the public contribute to her work. From researching interactive art I had the idea of different ways of the public giving their views on their own individuality and then leaving the work to create itself using the ‘Post-it-notes’ and ink pad for people to insert themselves into my work.

  After my second life seminar once the piece had been exhibited the feedback was positive although people seemed more drawn to the collage aspect and what they saw within the piece was me and my views and words. If going back to my first initial ideas from the Holding on : Letting go I wanted to try and lift my confidence and involve myself in my work and I feel that because of my life and having so many stories to tell people are more interested in my work when Involve myself into it. This is why I truly felt to build my confidence I need a complete fresh direction for my work which involves myself and what has made me the individual I am the good and the bad. Due to health issues my life is being controlled by medication and what I can and cannot do and I would like to express how this me I cannot change and would not change as this makes me an individual.

  By using collage on a large scale I feel that I can create a piece that will be visually clear to the viewer with what I am trying to put through. I have been looking into different techniques from photography to 3D works to how I myself can in vision my piece of art work. As research tool I shall be keeping a personal photographic journal as well as researching the medical angle of my life. Material I shall be looking into using is a range from Wood, plastics, resin and photography. Hopefully this experimentation will result in a large scale mixed media piece.

 I will be looking into different artist’s ways of exploring media and materials and how they represent themselves. I will be examining ways I can depict my individuality in an interesting and emotive way.