Exploring ideas - 6th September 2016

This day was useful in terms of developing my ideas and doing experimentations to inspire me further. I began by collecting a number of items which i believed represented my perception of Utopia and then went on to use these as a starting point to generate ideas.

The items I chose:

• An egg - I feel as though this universally represents purity and rebirth which is something that automatically sprung to mind when first imaging the concept of Utopia. 
• An electronic wrist band from a Coldplay concert - This item was more personal to me as when thinking of Utopia I also think of the feeling of Euphoria which is something I always experience with music and art. Personally i think that coldplay (particularly performing live) are a perfect representation of these two notions
• A ring - This ring was bought for me by my Dad when he visited Singapore a few years ago. To me, everything about the ring represented love and Utopia, from the jade it was made of, to simply the gesture from a loved one. Also, considering I had never visited somewhere so distant and different to where I have lived my whole life, I would consider it to be almost 'magical' in some way.
• A picture of David Bowie - I have been played Bowie music since I was a child so he is someone who is extremely important to me and someone I have looked up to a great deal in my life. As well as his creation of euphoric music, he was an extremely significant figure in terms of equality and self acceptance for millions of people. He was not only a huge part of changing music forever, but broke stereotypes and allowed people to express themselves, actually creating a Utopia for a mass amount of people.
• A shell - I found this particular shell when i decided to dig up my garden and discovered it buried at the bottom of my garden. This was always an extremely important object to me as it was such a mystery and so beautiful, representing a Utopia I had found for myself in an unexpected place. Also, in more of a general sense, it is said that if you put your ear up to a shell you can hear the ocean which is much like having your own small Utopia in your hand.

With my items I did several drawings, some more detailed and precise and some which consisted of line drawings overlapping each other. This sparked an idea of layering for me as I found this to be an interesting way of working. 

Paris is burning

When watching this film i found a great deal of inspiration. I have always had a great appreciation  for drag and other culture represented in the film and i found it very enjoying to watch. As the people involved chose to come together with others like them, they were able to find happiness by making a Utopia of their own while others didn't accept them. This ideal world that they created was a way that they could find and express themselves with like minded people. This heavily influenced my final outcome as i wanted it to represent people searching for an 'ideal' or 'perfection' in their lives as they strive for their own personal utopia.