Week 6

8th April- Artist research--Shalva Nikvashvili (extremely helpful, much like Bart and Hess has an interesting use of materials which I found inspiring)

9th April- wrote about using an alter ego to express the subconscious, thought it was an interesting subject to touch on but not something I want to be the main theme of my work

10th April- used history of body modification research to create a collar in an attempt to extend the image of my neck, effective illusion

11th April- built off of previous experimentation on body modification and started making a harness out of plastic material, was more of a failure than the collar however

12th April- wrote about how the plastic material failed, from here I could use the material as an accent to other experiments but cannot work by itself as an outfit

13th April- wrote up about how effective the collar was, a lot easier to work with than the plastic, I enjoyed this collar a lot more than I thought I would

14th April- wrote up about how Rebecca Horn and Fakir Musafar helped with my project. Realised from Fakir Musafar's work that I wanted to push towards a more meaningful alter ego

Week 5

1st April- Can't stop thinking about how it felt to have such a small waist from duct taping my waist and going to that queer night, I think my idea of beauty comes from pain much like Fakir Musafar, made note to research Fakir Musafar

2nd April- Thinking more about what my alter ego would've been used for the other night, my mind is heavily focused on sexuality, maybe that could be the theme of my alter-ego

3rd April- Stuck on what else to research to improve my body modification

4th April- Tutorial- "research Bart and Hess and Rebecca Horn"

5th April- Artist research- Bart and Hess (really inspired by bubbly textures)

6th April- Artist research- Rebecca Horn (less helpful than Hess but still gave good insight on how to present work)

7th April- Artist research- Fakir Musafar (unhelpful, only philosophies apply definitely not as useful as originally thought) note to move away from 'pain  = beauty' 'shock value = art' mentality

Week 4

25th March- Stuck on where to move onto from here, had a brainstorming session but nothing useful came up, will ask tomorrow for guidance

26th March- tutorial: "contextual research, how has the body been modified culturally and historically? eg. African, South American, bound feet, Beau Brummell, body building"

27th March- Researched codpieces

28th March- Researched tattoos

29th March- Researched piercings, went to experimental queer night with a friend who created a devil mask from fabric and used it as her alter-ego to explore her sexual confidence, met drag queens and club kids who use their alter egos for sexual expression and entertainment, I made my inch two inches smaller using duct tape and used a look similar to the Mr Pearl inspired photo, maybe my alter ego use was for one of those purposes too, maybe it was vanity

30th March- Went to Elizabeth Price exhibit at Nottingham Contemporary again

31st March- Researched history of body modification

Week 3

18th March- During a tutorial was given the suggestion to research artist Cindy Sherman. Researched and evaluated Cindy Sherman's work. Next step: find a way to apply that to my own work

19th March- Wrote about my mind

20th March- Made cluttered red composition of me in different poses because my brain feels red and also cluttered

21st March- Breast corrections

22nd March- Made hip pads out of chicken wire, thinking of moving towards an alter-ego of the physical body

23rd March- Used chicken wire hip pads with tights to alter my form,

24th March- Wrote about hip pad look, effective in evaluating how ineffective the material was and what to use next time

Week 2

11th March- Evaluated my image and decided the visual consistency was effective but the effect on my waist wasn't noticeable enough, one of my peers mentioned corsets and I looked into getting one

12th March- Made corrections for Mr Pearl inspired image and used a corset to morph my form further, a lot more effective

13th March- Thought of hypothesis "to create an alter ego you have to ask yourself 'who am I?' 'who was I?' 'who do I want to be?'"

14th March- Answered 'who am I?' Stuck on how to answer "who was I?"

15th March- Made a Venn Diagram of all my good and bad character traits which helped me come up with the idea of coming up with an alter-ego of all my bad traits

16th March- Used the Venn Diagram and applied it to who I was to answer the question "who was I?", just need to answer "who do I want to be?"

17th March- Made fashion drawings, to move on from here I need to develop macquettes and create the outfit

Week 1

4th March- Decided my second idea for the pitch (drugs) Made both moodboards

5th March- Pitch, came to the conclusion of "Alter-Ego" after being told the Club Kids were too specific a topic, hope to include them in the theme though. Made some initial notes on how to incorporate Club Kids into Alter-Ego

6th March- Didn't know where to start with my ideas so I created a mind map of all the uses and examples of alter-egos I could think of, thinking of looking into male to female alter egos

7th March- Researched Grayson Perry and his alter-ego which inspired me to create fake breasts with condoms and play around with how to pose with them so as to encapsulate the same energy as a woman

8th March- Evaluated the breasts and decided to improve I need to make them less translucent and add nipples

9th March- Researched Mr Pearl to gain inspiration on how to shrink my waist, thinking of experimenting with shaping my figure

10th March- Created a look inspired by Mr Pearl by duct taping my waist as tight as possible

Week 0

25th February- Looked at previous year's sketchbooks, no ideas yet

26th February- Toying with the idea of making another film for an FMP, watched my last FMP to contemplate that idea

27th February- Watched interviews and documentaries on Club Kids after discovering fashion designer Susanne Bartsch. I liked the exhibitionist lifestyle they all lead

28th February- Still stuck on ideas, inspired by body transformation videos such as drag. Watched more videos on Club Kids

1st March-  Asked Tracey about how I could generate an idea of a theme. Made mind map on potential topics

2nd March- Watched a lot of videos and documentaries on mind altering substances and drugs, has potential for one of the pitch ideas

3rd March- Decided one of my ideas is going to be on club kids

FMP

From here all Final Major Project work will be done in my A3 sketchbook and the only posts on here will be quick reflection and tutorials.

My colonoscopy and Me

After exploring the idea of the body being sexualised I tried to create something that conveyed how the body isn't glamorous.

(had to repost in high saturation because Tumblr's a bloodhound for fleshy tones, photography by @abbyy-richo , modeling and body edits by me)

Being Human+

One of my university home assignments coincided nicely with the concept of being human. Additions to the body have existed for centuries with the earliest prosthetic dating back to Ancient Egypt. In this film, I set out to create a story of a headpiece being trialled that allows the wearer to look out the back of their head. The added 'malfunction' of the headpiece adds another aspect of being human as it creates a sentient, digital version of the self, a sort of artificial disassociation which raises ethical questions as to what constitutes sentience in the first place.

Experimentation into art censorship (video)

Experimentation into art censorship

Edited photo exploring censorship of the Self

‘A fig leaf away from a tiny dick’ 

Being Human: Flesh Exploration

A video experimenting with how a nude form can contort and move, creating interesting shapes 

Yayoi Kusama

Considered the most prolific living artist of our time, I have always revered Yayoi Kusama ever since finding out about her. Upon reading her autobiography I found that in the 60s and 70s Kusama took part in what she would call ‘Happenings’. These were mass performance arts taking place in major landmarks of New York involving such crimes as, nude dancing in the street, burning flags and homosexuality. Despite causing a constant struggle with the law and the general public of America, Kusama rose in fame for being a sexually liberated, anti-capitalist ‘queen of the hippies’ and pioneer in gay rights through the art world with an army of gay men and women at her fingertips who would drop what they were doing to join in on these Happenings. She even had seven gay men who lived with her in her studio and acted as her friends, advisors, actors, models and bodyguards, being wary of any man who entered Kusama’s studio making sure they never lay a hand on her. Despite her liberal ideology towards nudity and sex, Kusama herself had a complex relationship with the act and had a fear of the phallus itself. It is for this reason that I gain a tremendous amount of inspiration because like her I do not like the idea of sex even though my outlook upon it is very free.