This is my final design for my photo book ‘The Colour And The Shape’. The front cover is something i had been playing with a lot when designing the book. this allowed me to develop the final design seen on my front cover. I used a bottom layer image with 40% opacity through a brown mask layer, this helped darken the image, I then used the same image on the front cover and a supporting image on the back. I used red and yellow because I wanted people to know it was a book full of vibrant colours. I am very pleased with its final sequence. I sequenced my images in a way that flowed predictably and unpredictably. For instance, on page 20 i used an image i thought did not suit my book but i used it as it created a unique contrast between other images displayed. Throughout the design process, i thought of different colour combinations that would look suitable. I came to the conclusion of using tonal colours. I would colour match the focal colour in the image and i would make that the colour of the page. Although, i did not use this method for all pages. I found other colours that compliment the colours within the images to almost extent my own image.
The THEATRE OF CRUELTY is a form of Theatre originally developed by avant-garde French playwright, essayist and theorist, Henry Becque. Antonin Artaud – originally a member of the Surrealist movement in Paris during the 1930s – around 50 years after the first developments of the Theatre form, is also seen as a main contributor to the genre. His essays in The THEATRE AND ITS DOUBLE, were written with the intention of attacking theatrical conventions and the importance of language of drama, opposing the vitality of the viewer’s sensual experience against Theatre as a contrived literary form, and urgency of expression against complacency on the part of the audience. THE THEATRE OF CRUELTY can be seen as a break from conventional Western Theatre and a means by which the artists assault the senses of the audience, and allow them to feel the unexpressed feelings of the subconscious.
Antonin Artaud
Antonin Artaud was well known as an actor, playwright and essayist of avant-garde Theatre. While Artaud eventually broke away from the Surrealist movement, the movement helped to shape his later theories on the THEATRE OF CRUELTY. Led by Andre Breton, co-founder, leader and principal theorist of Surrealism, Surrealist Theatre reflected a belief that the unconscious mind was a source of artistic truth. In his manifesto on Surrealism, Breton writes,
“pure psychic automatism, by which is intended to express, verbally, in writing, or by other means, the real process of thought. Thought’s dictation, in absence of all control exercised by the reason and outside all aesthetic or moral preoccupation.”
In 1926, Artaud founded the Theatre Alfred Jarry, which only produced non-naturalistic drama. The Theatre only lasted 2 years. After his work in Surrealist Theatre, Artaud went on to develop his theories on THE THEATRE OF CRUELTY after he was inspired by a Balinese dance troupe performance that he viewed at the Paris Colonial Exhibit in 1931. The performance conventions of Balinese dance were different to any Artaud had previously experienced, and he was struck by the intense physicality of the dancers. Artaud went on to publish his major work on THE THEATRE OF CRUELTY in his essays THE THEATRE AND ITS DOUBLE, several years later in 1937.
In his writings on the Theatre of Cruelty, Artaud points to both “Theatre” and “cruelty” that are separate from their colloquial meanings. For Artaud, Theatre does not merely refer to a staged performance before a passive audience. The Theatre is a practice, which “wakes us up. Nerves and heart,” and through which we experience, “immediate violent action,” that “inspires us with the fiery magnetism of its images and acts upon us like a spiritual therapeutics whose touch can never be forgotten.”
Similarly, cruelty does not refer to an act of emotional or physical violence. According to scholar Nathan Gorelick, “Cruelty is, more profoundly, the unrelenting agitation of a life that has become unnecessary, lazy, or removed from a compelling force. THE THEATRE OF CRUELTY gives expression to everything that is ‘crime, love, war, or madness’ in order to ‘unforgettably root within us the ideas of perpetual conflict, a spasm in which life is continually lacerated, in which everything in creation rises up and asserts itself against our appointed rank.”
Artaud felt that the focus of Theatre in the west had become far too narrow—primarily examining the psychological suffering of individuals or the societal struggles of specific groups of people. He wanted to delve into the aspects of the subconscious that he believed were often the root cause of human being’s mistreatment of one another. Through an assault on the audiences’ senses, Artaud was convinced that a theatrical experience could help people purge destructive feelings and experience the joy that society forces them to repress. For Artaud, “the Theatre has been created to drain abscesses collectively.” Insufficiency of language
Artaud believed that the focus of Theatre in the west had become far too narrow – primarily examining the psychological suffering of individuals or the societal struggles of specific groups of people. He wanted to explore the different aspects of the subconscious that he believed were often the root cause of the human being’s mistreatment of one another. Through an assault on the audiences’ senses, Artaud was convinced that a Theatrical experience could help purge people’s destructive feelings and experience the joy that society forces them to repress. For Artaud, “the Theatre has been created to drain abscesses collectively.”
Artaud felt that language was an entirely insufficient means to express trauma. Accordingly, he felt that words should be stripped of meaning and chosen for their phonic elements. According to scholar Robert Vork, “speech on THE THEATRE OF CRUELTY’s stage is reduced to inarticulate sounds, cries and gibbering screams, no longer inviting a subject into being but seeking to preclude it’s very existence.” Contradictory of this statement, Artaud claims that his characters are able to express things that others are unable to say. Vork claims, “Artaud seems to be suggesting that his play reveals emotions and experiences that we all attempt to proscribe and are unwilling to acknowledge, but which nevertheless occur.”
Stephen Barber explains that “THE THEATRE OF CRUELTY has often been called an ‘impossible Theatre’—vital for the purity of inspiration which it generated, but hopelessly vague and metaphorical in its concrete detail.” This impossibility has not prevented others from articulating a version of his principles as the basis for explorations of their own.
Personally, in my opinion, even though the aims of THE CRUELTY OF THEATRE are almost impossible to achieve in a performance; use of no language and opening up the minds of the audience to reveal their unconscious feelings and emotions that society represses. Achieving these aspects in a photograph is more simple than in a performance. By using a camera, it can capture the movement and facial expressions of a person that otherwise would not be noticed by an audience perspective because of how fast small hand gestures and transitions of facial expressions happen. A photograph also eliminates speech and language which almost counts as a distraction when analysing someones movement while they interact with other people. An audience would only be able to pick up on these movements that someone performs after long repetitive exposure and analysis. Even then, the subject that performs these movements in a daily routine of interaction and expression, they do not necessarily notice their own movement that has been built up by their personality and subconscious mind. The hand gestures and facial expressions that someone displays when interacting with another person is built and influenced from copying and mirroring movement from people they repetitively spend their time with, as well as their movements being unique to them. A photograph will eliminate distractions of speech and capture someones subconscious movement and preserve it. The only difference between a photograph and THE THEATRE OF CRUELTY is that it doesn’t stimulate any senses other than sight, but it allows the viewer to deconstruct and analyse the meaning.
For my Final Selection I choose the edits that i thought worked best and that I thought would be most successful to take to print.
1.
I chose this typology as a collection as the image works well as it highlights more then just a singular image and drawing the viewer of the image to several products and make them look at the branding and packaging of the products more then they may usually as mostly they are consumed without thought. The image fits perfectly with the theme of consumerism displaying a wide variety of everyday products.
2.
I Chose this typology of images as well as it was interesting as the images gave a completely different feel once edited in black and white. The tonal range and contrast in each of the products gives the image a deeper dimension as it is drawing away from the vibrance of the products which is used to draw consumers in and instead focuses on the products shape and illustration.
3.
I chose this Image as it worked well in response too Andy Warhol’s work. The image shows an interesting view of this product which wouldn’t be seen normally. The illustrations of the product as well as the vibrant altered colours forms a aesthetically pleasing image with the unusual colours highlighting the parts of the product which would not usually stand out.
My response was captured during my shoot inspired By Hansen, i enjoyed his minimalism and i thought abstract photography would compliment other images with similar colour. I plan on using this idea when creating my final piece. I feel that this image is successful in capturing Hansen’s aesthetic. His image is very symmetrical and bold with washed out colour. This is what i tried to capture with my subject in my response, I located some tiling in one of the London underground tube stations and i immediately had to capture the tones of the tiling. I took it face on so it would be symmetrical and balanced just like Hansens.
For my first experiment with my images, I decided to create panoramas. In order to do this I had to go and take enough images to be able to create a seamless panorama. To create the final panorama I used the option in photoshop, ‘photomerge’, by doing this it created a clear image with no visble breaks or repetitions within the image.
Images used:
Low Tide
High Tide
Using a tripod I took a seperate image as I moved 180 degrees from East to West of the beach, by doing this it meant that I had enough images to create an accurate photomerge to create a successful panorama.
My outcomes:
Low Tide
High Tide
For my second experimentation I decided to show a clear difference between low and high tide by cutting the photographs in half and presenting them next to each other as one whole image.
As part of my final display I plan on printing some photographs of the back of the postcards which I have. I have edited the tones within the images to ensure that once they are printed onto matte card and trimmed down to replicate the postcard backs, that the white would show clearly.
Among the 24 postcard prints which will make up my final postcard display, 8 of these prints will be the backs of the postcards. Here are the 8 final postcard backs which I have decided to use…
Overall I believe that these images of postcard backs are very successful and will help to ensure the classic postcard aesthetic in my final display. They also represent the connection between Jersey and the rest of the world which I have been exploring throughout this project.
Born in 1972 in Chiayi, Chen Po-I received his master degree in Ocean Engineering at National Cheng Kung University (NCKU) in Taiwan. As a photographer, Chen’s works concern the humanities and social aspects of Taiwan, using his lens to connect himself with the greater context of Taiwanese society. With this, his photographs have the power to express the collective memories of Taiwan.
I chose Chen Po I to study as he fits into my project perfectly. My project is focused on the idea of using frames to create social commentary, which is what Chen Po I does. It is unclear wither Po I edits his images to include another image, or the view through the frame is the original view. I am going to use his work to further develop my project and use as inspiration for my next photo shoot.
For this photoshoot I am planning to visit the Milltary Battery and take photos of the sea from up high. I want to take more images of high and low tide.
I feel successful in capturing Keld-Helmer Peterson’s aesthetic. Although both images are different, they share some characteristics. For instance, The subject matter is fairly similar, but the thing that sets them apart is the angle it was shot and the colours within the image.
I think was a strong response as it shows clear signs of inspiration yet it meets the specification of my own project. This image also contrast really well with my response to Hansen
