Today I presented my NEW thesis idea. Although I didn't have photos to show, which is my concentration and will be a part of my show, my group was receptive to the necessary preliminary work that I had been doing. For my project I am planning to collect secrets and display them in the gallery, some of which will be done through the use of photography. For the first major stage of the project, which I have been doing for the past 2 weeks is collect the secrets that would be used in the gallery. At this point I have collected over 110 and hope to get many more.
Derek, our leader in discussion posed many curious questions about my work that made me think of it from different viewpoints that I had not yet contemplated. One thing he mentioned was that I should think of my role in this project. What he meant was that I could view myself as a collaborator with the people who confide their secrets in me or I could be seen as a facilitator of thoughts. My response was that I felt I was both. I am a collaborator with these people in the sense that the project would not exist without them. I am actually dependent on their responses in order to create my art. What is feel stronger about though, is myself as a facilitator. I am facilitating ideas and private thoughts by means of the internet. Without being put in this role, I don't think that people would willingly tell their secrets.
In my plans so far, my idea consists of 5-6 photos aligned horizontally with the remainder of the wall space filled up with the rest of the secrets that I have. My idea was to put the remainder on Post Its in order to lessen the seriousness of the secrets themselves. I am open to other ideas but this is what I have so far. If I go through with the Post It idea, there was a very interesting comment made that I should contemplate. It was said that I should think about whether or not I want to document the Post Its and have them exist far past the project's life in the gallery or whether I want for them to be lost forever after the show is taken down. I am still thinking about how I feel about this comment and am not sure which route I wish to take. A further idea was to make a book of all the secrets.
Another interesting point made was that I may want to think about engaging the viewers by having them write their own secrets and posting them. One thing I thought to be problematic was the idea that some may not take it serious and post something trying to be a jerk. Also, for the sake of privacy, I think some may be hesitant to post s secret when there are others walking in such close proximity to them. I do, however, think it may b a good idea to involve viewers. It may be something that further strengthens my piece.
Check my progress so far with my collection and feel free to post anonymously! Remember, there are more that were given to me through Facebook, word of mouth or are mine so theyre not listed on the site.
http://www.formspringme.com/dpozsony
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ReplyDeleteI think your secrets idea is very interesting, since people don’t know the author and the content is sort of vague. But that is the beauty of the project, the ambiguity is very intriguing. I feel the Post-Its actually increase the seriousness of the secrets. To me, handwriting is much more impactful because it seems natural; it feels almost as if the individual personally took his/her time to write the secret in person. This may seem slightly cliché, but maybe make your whole project based on Post-its, or something similar, this way you have one consistent system giving equal weight to all secrets.
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