Surrealism was a culture movement starting in the 1920’s its best know for it’s writing and artworks.The leader of surrealism was Andre Breton. The aim of surrealism was to “resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality.” The artists created painting of everyday objects but turned them into strange creatures which allowed them to express there selfs. Surrealism was created out of Dada which was from the first world war which originally started in Paris and in the 1920’s became a global movement and affected literature, film and music. I like the idea of using photography to try and manipulate and push the boundaries of reality. I think that surrealism links in with Tom Pope’s work although he doesn’t use magical creatures he has a few photographs were he is ‘standing’ in mid air which is physically impossible and therefore also blurs the line between reality and dream.
Situationism is the theory that behavior is mainly a response to immediate situations.
The situationist international was a group of social revolutionaries, which was made up of artists, political theorists and intellectuals which started in 1957 and ended in 1972. Guy Debord was one of the members who stuck out the most. At first the situationists were concerned about how art had been held back and wanted to make art and culture one in everyday life. Then they became concerned about the capitalist society. They believed that capitalism gave humans dissatisfaction so human desire needed to be fulfilled by finding an alternative to a capitalist society. They are well known for their wildcat strikes and riots in Paris 1957 where there were general strikes all across France which almost put Frances capitalist economy on a stop although the strike did turn violent it was mostly artistic it included things such as songs, graffiti’s and posters.
Tom Pope was inspired by the situationists, I think there is a link between the work he does and the situationists because Tom Pope looks for a reaction and he challenges the norms by pushing boundaries.
The Space Hijackers are one of the groups that inspired Tom Pope to do his work. They are a group from the UK, who ‘fight to save public spaces’. Their purpose is to change how spaces are perceived by the public and to take away some of the power from the people who built or own the space the reason behind this is because they think public spaces are becoming to politicised. They try to change the public’s perception by performing unexpected non violent events for example: they organised a ‘party’ at the London underground once the trains had left as form of protesting against Mayor Boris’ new law to ban drinking on public transports.
The Space hijacker’s work links in with one of our project themes challenge because they challenge the authorities by pushing boundaries in an expressive non violent way as well as challenging the public to change their perception of public spaces, this is also closely linked to what we were doing in St.Malo as we were testing what is and isn’t accepted in society.
Dérive is an unplanned journey through an urban landscape which is led by the colours and architecture, with the aim of experiencing something different. It was made by a French situationist called Guy Debord in 1958. Dérive is closely linked to psycogeography which means exploring the urban environment being led by curiosity and allowing your senses to ‘discover’ the landscape. I think that Dérive is also linked to our project theme chance because of the uncertainty that may not find a new interesting landscape.
Situationist theorist Guy Debord defines the dérive as “a mode of experimental behavior linked to the conditions of urban society: a technique of rapid passage through varied ambiances.” He also notes that “the term also designates a specific uninterrupted period of dériving.”
During our photography trip to St. Malo, we took some time to ‘derive’ we walked around St. Malo without a destination, we walked through the main urban area and ended near the beach taking photographs along the way and doing small activities which link in with Tom’s idea of pushing the boundaries of what is and isn’t accepted in society for example we climbed some tree trunks which were placed along the beach and seen as a tourist attraction because this isn’t seen as ‘normal’ behaviour in public. Overall I think that Dérive is a good and fun way of exploring new environments which I think could be more effective than actually planning places to visit.
Tom Pope is a British performance photographer born in Bristol, he studied photography in arts at Swansea Metropolitan University, 2008 then he went on to study photography at The Royal College of Arts in 2011. Tom Pope’s work involves photographing an act, he uses videos because he thinks that one still image can’t capture the whole performance. Some of his videos are humorous where as others have a deeper meaning to them, Tom likes the idea of repetition and incorporating the public into his work as it makes it more interesting. Although some of his work looks spontaneous he puts a lot of work into them behind the scenes such as getting permissions. However, Tom also likes to push the boundaries of society by doing things which aren’t seen as acceptable in society. Some of the awards that Tom has won include: 2013, Public Arts Grant, Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. 2011
Deutsche Bank Award Winner of the £10,000 Bursary Prix Leica Photography Prize and in 2010 Photograph of the month, National Portrait Gallery London.
Whilst we were at the Societe Jersiaise, each group was given a photographer to research from the archive, then we had to choose one of his photographs to illustrate performance photography which links in with our course work theme change, challenge and chance. The photographer my group got given was Emile Guiton.
Emile Guiton is a Jersey photographer, who was born in 1879. Emile chronicled photographs of life on the Island during the 20th century. There is now a collection of 781 photographs taken by Emile at La Societe Jersiaise. He photographed big events such as the German Occupation and the Liberation of Jersey as well as his personal life.
This photograph is about a “presentation by the vice president Colonel Collas DSO, at the Jersey Museum, of a photographic portrait to Emile F Guiton on his retirement as editor of the Bulletin and other Société publications” therefore the photograph shows a performance which is the act of them both shaking hands as well as giving a presentation. I think this photograph also links in with chance because there was no guarantee that this moment was going to happen or that it would be captured. I think challenge is also portrayed in this photograph because the photo challenges the idea of a typical portrait and it has a portrait within the portrait. Finally, it shows a change in Emile’s life as he Is now retiring as the editor of Societe publications and moving on to a new chapter in his life.
On Tuesday the 9th of June we went to the Societe Jersiaise, to learn about the archive which can be seen as a visual history of Jersey. We then met the photographer in residence which was Tom Pope, who is a performance photographer. In Tom’s work he likes to push boundaries by doing something that is seen as socially unacceptable however isn’t against the law he does this in public spaces and wants to get audience’s participation.
One of the first activities we did with Tom Pope was, we got into pairs and throw an orange at each other with the aim of taking a photograph of the orange as close as possible to the camera. The main idea behind this activity wasn’t to necessarily get a good photograph of the orange but to show the performance/ act and push the boundaries of social acceptance. The second activity we did with Tom Pope was a ‘selfie war’ where in pairs you had to take as many selfies on your pairs camera while trying to stop your pair from doing the same thing but on your camera.
At the begging I struggled to understand why Tom was incorporating performance into photography, and how his short clips were seen as photography. By the end of his presentation I think I got a better understanding of why he was doing this as he explained the concepts behind each of his ideas.
‘Chance, Change and challenge’ is the title of our 6 week project, this title is closely linked with the work we will be doing with the archive at the Societe Jersiaise and the photographer in residence Tom Pope. Chance is the possibility of something happening. Change is to make or become something different and challenge is to dispute the truth or validity of something. I think that this title will allow us to explore, think deeper into the subject and learn about the history as well as engage with the community that we live in. The photographs and videos that we will be taking will have a deeper meaning and context behind them rather than just taking a photograph because it’s appealing to the eye. I think that this project will be interesting because it’s almost as if we are ‘discovering’ new things and changing the way at which we look at photography.
