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MAKING THE JARS

To make the heads for the canopic jars, I started with a disk of clay roughly the size of a soup pot lid, this allowed me to make them slightly more uniformed in size.  I then added more clay on top of this base until I had the head shape I wanted. The next step was to use a carving tool to sculpt out the features of the faces and add any 3D elements, such as noses or ears.  

Despite some irregularities in size I'm very happy with how the heads turned out. The irregularities of course are not a major flaw anyway as the original jars are all hand made and would have had their own imperfections.  

While making the heads I felt like I was creating my own sort of ritual or method of modern medicine. The hands- on process felt very meditative once I got into the process and found my rhythm. I like that this happened as it feels as though an unintentional link between the old and new 'rituals' has formed for me.  

Writing

Writing

For me, writing is a very meditative process. I often find that when I write I don't feel as though I am paying attention to the movement of my hand, I am simply having a conversation with myself in my head and subconsciously writing it down as I go.
I had not previously thought of writing as a form of art until a drawing session with Beth Heaney at the start of this module. We began the session by writing our signature multiple times
until we filled a page, eventually I realised that I was more focused on the movement of my pencil in terms of shape and rhythm, as opposed to the actual letters I was spelling out.
I wanted to capture this meditative process and focus on movement as opposed to the actual text being produced. I then set my phone up to record at an angle from which an audience can't read the text but can get equally lost in the movement of my hand and the pencil on the paper.   

After making the first video for Writing I noticed how significant the physical sound is in the meditative process, it sounds the same as sketching and I found it had quite a relaxing and nostalgic feel to it. Therefor, for the second video I decided to keep the audio, so as to fully include the audience in the process. 

KNITTING

Knitting

I took up knitting in the 1st lockdown of 2020 to fill time and give me something to focus on. Since then I have really come to love knitting and use it for enjoyment and as a form of stress relief. I find the repetitive nature of the process relaxing and the final product incredibly rewarding. I wanted to capture this repetitive process and steady production of work in a video. I sped up the process so you can see the block I work on develop and get longer through the 26 seconds of footage. 

I might try this again but set up the camera so that it points down over me, this way the viewer would see the same process I do and feel more of the experience I have while I work on a piece.
I might may also try filming over a longer period of time so that the work produced is more obvious and the overall feel of the video is less sporadic. 

Walking

WALKING

When I walk, especially if I take a camera with me, I feel as though I see my surroundings in more detail. 

The video to the right is a slideshow collection of some photos from a walk on the 6th of March. 

My plan was to simply wait for a nice day and go for a walk so that I could get nice photos. However I ended up feeling as though I needed to go for a walk in the evening of this date. This worked even better in terms of the project as I use walking and photography as a form of stress relief, which I needed on this day. 

I feel that this makes the photos more personal to me as I took them on a day where I was actively looking for thinks to cheer me up and make me feel relaxed. Because of this, looking at the pictures now I still get this feeling from them. 

 

I wanted to film a whole walk so an audience could feel as if they were coming with me on the walk. I filmed this by putting my phone in a exercise phone holder so I could strap it to my arm, giving as close to my view as possible. Unfortunately the way I was filming the walk meant I couldn't see the screen of my phone, because of this the video hasn't come out as I'd hoped. I tried to angle the camera ahead so it would point down the roads/ paths. Instead the footage shows more of the hedgerow which I feel doesn't track the walk very well at all. 

I also think the speed of the video is too fast, you can't focus on the footage and process what you're seeing. This completely distracts from the idea of the walk being a calming process.

I think I'll try this again by filming without using a time-lapse, then I can adjust the speed of the video afterwards, giving me more control. I'm not sure how to fix the angle of the camera so I might have to do a few tests to get this right. 

I went for another walk and this time decided to take photos every few steps to create an almost stop- motion like video. I'm quite happy with how this video came out and decided to print these photos and turn them into a flip book. 

Flipbook 

Overall, I think the flipbook was successful. Some parts work better than others, particularly the images where you can see a person moving down the track. The photos in the woods where the path is less clear look more jerky and don't flow as nicely as the last section on the road. I think the only way to have fixed this would have been to have taken more photos. The book is slightly clumsy to flip through most likely due to the pure volume of images on relatively thin paper. Unfortunately this was all I had available and due to time restrictions I'm unable to try this piece again. 

Drawing  

Drawing

Drawing is a medium I've worked with since I was little, growing up in an arty family it was a go to pass- time. This gives it a familiar and comforting feeling when I use it in my practice now. 

I like to draw when I'm stressed or feeling anxious as I find it quite a grounding experience. In the same way as writing focuses on what you're thinking and what's going on in your head; drawing focuses on what's going on around you. This is why I like to do observational drawings. It brings me into the space I'm in and allows me to focus on one thing, when in my head I might be overthinking multiple things. 

 

I wanted to include painting in this as I think of it as an extension of drawing. It's still the depiction of shapes and forms just in a more abstract manner. There is definitely a stronger sense of freedom when painting, especially when using an abstract or impasto style.    

This page documents

the videos made during

my process for this project.

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