Proposal

MA Animation and Sound Design

Laura Cain

COMPLETION DATE
18 August 2011

Assessment Methods:

• My Masters Project will result in three separate pieces of experimental film with sound, based around representation of my body, displayed as part of my exhibition in September
• Creation of a Masters Project Blog to show development of research and practice as I progress
• 1500 word Critical Evaluation

Autobiography through Self Expressive Animation

Thinking back to when I initially started my Masters Degree, I intended to concentrate on revisiting traditional techniques. These included some of the painting and drawing I did before my undergraduate degree, but with a continuation of themes explored throughout my creative career so far. These themes were based around the body and its representation through different concepts of identity, figurative portraiture, philosophical ideas of what it is to be human (during my undergraduate dissertation), etc. My ideas started to take the form of very abstract, self representative and expressive reproductions of myself, which was very much due to a self-driven desire to experiment and create. This was partnered with my love for traditional techniques and wanting to ‘get my hands dirty’, along with a seemingly lifelong obsession with the figure and body as represented in art and imagery. As a continuation and conclusion of my Masters Degree, the basis of my Masters project will be the development of experiments of three different film representations of autobiographical animations. Each film has a different approach via scale and mixed media, though all are direct applications of me, my body, my skin, and my own brain scans.

My first idea is to produce a stop motion animation showing full body marks of paint on full size bed sheets. I will pin white bed sheets to a wall, cover myself in dark paint and press my body against them to make marks, imprinting an image of my body on the sheets. I will try a series of different techniques, pressing very lightly to begin with, and then getting heavier and heavier as the animation progresses.  The process of producing this animation will be very emotionally driven and involve a lot of movement, it will be almost theatrical. This animation appears to represent my obsession with my own body image, particularly my frustration with western culture’s pressure for women to conform to a physical ideal, to be ‘perfect’. The female form in contemporary culture is under constant pressure to take on the ‘ideal’ appearance and body shape. My images represent this by looking almost skeletal to begin with, getting larger and larger until completely distorted and unrecognisable. I will be animating the weight and density of myself through the medium of paint on sheets. I want my animation to appear very ‘alive’, presenting my form, body shape, movements and emotions. Different ways of pressing against the sheets will give different effects, all of which will be explored and documented as I progress. I hope to present one of the sheet prints as an installation in my exhibition, as I really want the viewer to see close up the marks of paint on the sheets where my body has been. As this is very much an autobiographical approach, my intentions for the viewer are to be almost voyeuristic, but also curious and provocative. The animation presents the form as possibly objective to the viewer, a female body imprinted on a sheet, but, like all my ideas for my Masters Project, it is actually very personal and represents my exposed form. 

Yves Klein, Anthropometry ANT 85

 Yves Klein, has produced similar work to what I intend to produce for my first idea. He used the body as a paintbrush to produce a series of images of the female naked form. His Anthropometries series of works were usually performance art based using subjects and spectacles. While the end results are very effective, Klein’s work to me feels very objective. I want my work to be autobiographical and emotional, hence using my own body as the ‘paintbrush’. The way he has ‘used’ the women to produce the paintings, as seen in video footage of the performances, feels indirect to the artist, although the idea of having the subject itself forming the image is a strong theme seen in my ideas for films. My animations will also add the dimension of time, through animation rather than a sequence of stills.

Closed Contact #10, 1996

An artist who has used her own body as a subject is Jenny Saville. I would like to draw attention in particular to her Closed Contact series (a collaboration with Glen Luchford), where she squashes herself against glass to produce images of her own body looking almost deformed and misshapen. This was a response to Saville’s observation of reconstructive surgery. She wanted to represent the violence of what she had witnessed through her work, in the form of these abstract self portraits. The way in which she has distorted herself is not necessarily the approach I will be taking; my work will not involve the violence and distortion of the body to the extreme Saville has taken it, but more a direct application of my form. I admire the work she produces and how she represents herself, especially in this particular series. Jenny Saville’s approach is more about an obsession with self image and representation in regards to ideals of beauty. This is admirable and evokes a powerful response in the audience and I would like to attempt to gain the same type of responses in my films.

My second idea is a piece of animation displaying close up skin prints, derived from images of marks made from dried PVA glue that has been peeled off my entire body.

I have previously produced work of a similar nature in my self-negotiated briefs. Now, I want to expand on this and produce a whole body version of skin on film. The length of the film will be determined by the size and shape of my body. I want this film to be autobiographical, but this time, it has a much more visceral approach. The skin is the largest organ of the human body, and this will be represented on film in almost its entirety. Indirectly, the film will show my size, age, scars – general history of my body as represented through the imagery of my skin on the film. I also wish to make another installation as a result of this animation, to have the glue ‘shell’ of myself hanging for people to look at closely. This will help the viewer to understand what it is they are seeing in the film (close up imagery), as well as presenting the skin another scale (actual size), and the ways it can look when presented in different forms.

Lastly, I want to produce a short, possibly looped, film using images of a brain scan (my own brain). As part of research for previous self negotiated projects, I applied to scientific research laboratories to have my brain scanned in order to gain reference imagery. I was contacted after the project had finished, but I still went through with the scan. From these images, I wish to reproduce the very measured, digital imagery of my own brain by drawing and animating them. This will suggest themes of my obsession with my own humanity, connecting my mind and body. Although the imagery produced is not direct (unlike the previous two ideas) the mark making could look very similar.  When the scans are put together as an animation, they suggest breathing. Thus the imagery becomes very organic, a direction the previous two ideas may take. An important aspect of this idea is that the images are of my own brain and this is what is, in my opinion, essentially me.

So the three ideas are my form, my flesh and my mind. To make all three ideas work and run fluidly together as part of my exhibition presents me with a huge challenge. The films will need to fit together and themes will have to be clear and not confusing or too conflicting. I realise that this will require very careful consideration and that sacrifices may have to be made whilst exploring and developing the artworks themselves. My intentions are really to invoke curiosity in the viewer, to share my own curiosity for the themes and experiments I do. I wish my audience to see the figure represented in interesting ways, through animation that is not normally seen, and to evoke empathetic responses in the audience. When considering sound for the animated pieces, I want the sounds to be fairly literal and direct, much like the animations themselves. I plan to produce sounds made from rubbing my flesh together, the sounds of the glue peeling off my skin, the sounds of my skin pressing against the fabric sheets.

The animations will be presented as part of the show reel during the Masters Show in September. They will be shown alongside installations, including a sheet of one of my body prints hung against the wall and a glue skin ‘shell’ of my body hanging. Lighting will have to be considered carefully in order to achieve the best viewing conditions in the projection room that I am hoping to have allocated.  Recording the progression of these ideas and the resulting animations will allow me to achieve my goals when displaying my work on exhibition in September.