WHAT TO PHOTOGRAPH....?

I am going to try and extend my cherishing emotions to as many objects as possible by medium of photography.

COLLECTION-

By having a set, a family or a group i feel that the importance is elevated

ORDER-

By showing order you show that they are important objects and you have invested time to display them in a particular order.

DISPLAY-

By displaying them in an aesthetically pleasing way and making a pleasing pattern with objects it is easier to see the act of cherishing.

I think a way to see analyse a word is to analyse its opposite counter part

personally I feel that the opposite of cherishing is neglect, 

if I was to show something in a neglectful  way I would show it alone and abandoned, in a messy, lazy, haphazard way and make it look aesthetically ugly.

PLAN

I think that the essence of my ideas stem from the idea that

CHERISHING AS AN ACTIVITY CAN BE APPLIED TO ANY MATERIAL OBJECT

I feel I have proved that by collecting what is traditional seen as material rubbish and applying emotions to it and COLLABORATING, DISPLAYING and PRESENTING it in away which makes others cherish these objects.

To continue this I am going to try and distill the CURATING OF OBJECTS INTO A COLLECTION which evolves a sense of IMPORTANCE, INTEREST AND PRIDE. 

To do this I am going to collect objects and photograph them in a way which ELEVATES THIER STATUS.

By elevating their status I am allowing people to cherish a object which as a material is considered disposable. irrelevant and unimportant. It is easy to cherish gold; traditions, social cultures and our upbringing teaches us this. however we are not so used to cherishing deposable objects such as fruit, everyday objects like plastic tooth brushes and coins. I would like to challenge myself to present everyday un-cherished objects in a way which makes them appear important materials.

In a way I think I am trying to question our pre conceived ideas about the value of different objects and materials.

FEEDBACK

It wasn’t that I hadn’t done enough work or development of my ideas, and it wasn’t that I had missed the point of the brief it and it wasn’t that I was unhappy with the work I had achieved it was just that something was missing, a key linchpin which underpinned my ideas and a main drive of what I was doing and why and resolved answer for the questions the brief had raised within me.

I asked for feedback on what my final outcome should look like. There were lots of suggestions. I thought about what I personally wanted to achieve, I wanted to end up with an outcome which I could cherish personally. Over the Easter holidays I simply did what I wanted to do, I fancied going for a walk on the Thames foreshore and seeing what I could find, so I did. This relaxed way of thinking gave me room to be inspired. 

I enjoyed taking photos of my A-Z collection so I decided to continue taking photos of collections.

PRESENTATION

IDEAS TO CONTINUE WITH

PHOTOGRAPHING

MAKING THE COLLECTION

EMOTIONAL JOURNEY AFTER THE WEEK

THE RESULTS AFTER ONE WEEK

DIFFERENT INTENSIONS OF COLLECTING....

I found that i collected objects in two types of situations

1. While walking along the road I would see something that caught my eye, like a MAGPIE. It would be shiny, a bright color, interesting e.c.t I would pick it up, look at it and if I still liked it I would put it it my pocket. Whist carrying on walking I would think about the object and try and open up my mind to memories and try to allow connections to be made. What does it remind me of? What places have I been, How can I connected this object to an already existing memory?

2.Whist in an environment memories are being made, for instance having an especially good laugh with friends, eating some lovely food, the day has be really lovely. I then feel the need to solidify the memory of the particular time. I look around my envionment to actialy seek ot a 'little something' which I can remove from the environment but will inable me to be transported back when I look at it. 

HOW ARE THE MEMORIES ATTACHED AND EVOVED TO THE OBNJECT CORRELATE TO THE DEGREE OF CHERISHING ONE FEELS TOWARDS IT?

People were very critical at first and i do not think they understood my challenge!

I was picking up 'rubbish' and I could tell that this disgusted and confused people. However for me it aided in the cherishing process as i had to justify, back up and explain, these actions helped to solidify meaning to the object.

When I realised that my talking and explaining why and object is important was useful i began to do it more often to the objects i had collected. I would explain there meaning, symbolism and importance to myself, and i would layout my ever growing collection at least once a day to review it. i tried to think about the objects before i went to sleep and found myself carrying the collection in my bag to travel it to different places as a whole. i showed different people my growing collection as often as possible to review my emotions and by doing this i increased their importance.

CAN ONE FORCE EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT ONTO AN OBJECT?

To illustrate this idea of  Cherishing be a Verb i am going to challenge myself...

I will collect lots of items which i will CHERISH by applying the action of CHERISHING upon them.

These items can be anything, any item which i feel has the slightest to be cherished.

STATEMENT OF INTENT...

In my project I would like to Investigate Cherishing as a Verb, as an Activity which can be Applied to Objects in order to Elevating their Cherishing Potential.

COLLECTIONS

Shelves in my room at Home with arrangements of things i collect-2008

End of Year Project, brief was based on 'I ME MINE'
I produced a tent which inside had objects which described me-2009

Arrangements of objects I had collected, arranged and cherished which I felt sumnmerised me, gold thread trailing around the objects linked them together in the safe enclosed and protected environment of the tent-2009

Pile of dried seaweed, found old net, fishing line and beach debris found at Sidmouth beach-2008

careful arrangement of objects form dolls house, a summery of a larger object-2000

Still life arrangement of different colours, textures and materials, most old and worn. for art project-2008

HOW DO I CHERISH...?

When I thought about my room in London and my room at Home I tried to SUBJECTIVELY think about what objects I keep there which are kept not because of there function, not because they are useful but for another reason which I am interpreting as cherishing.

Items which I look after, care for, look at, have had for a long time, remind me of a time in the past, a person, an emotion.

There were many of these objects, I wanted to explore HOW do I display them, how are they presented in the environment of my room.

My room at home is very small so not many people enter it, however everyone who has been in my room has always been left slighly speechless at the tactile decoration inside, the walls are dripping with colourful 'bits and pieces' and people have descibed it as 'an Aladdin's cave' these objects are COLLECTED, SAVED, CALLOBRATED, ORDERED and DISPLAYED in order for there cherishing potential to be realised.

WHAT IS CHERISHING TO ME?

My next step was to analyses what objects I cherish? How do I cherish? If my room was on fire what would objects would I grab to save first?

There were two categories, useful objects I cherish because of their function, I cherish the job they do for me, like my laptop, I cherish chatting to friends, listening to music e.t.c but do i cherish this laptop? If it broke it and I got a replacement would it bother me? I dont think so, the same with most technological items such as phones, Ipods.

The second category was objects which are in many ways are USELESS they are purely ornamental (wether this is the objects intended use) they are kept because of an EMOTIONAL ATTACHMENT connected with them.

INITAL RESPONSE TO THE BRIEF...

I was excited and had many intial ideas however from previous experience I knew I had to set myself some personal parameters limiting the scope of the brief we were given. I decided that I would focus on a PERSONAL response to cherishing.

PROJECT 4...THE BRIEF