Here are some of my initial ideas on the exam title of ‘Journeys and Pathways’.
I want to keep this topic on one level so that it all relates to Jersey, this is because I was born here and I’ve lived here over 5 years now, therefore I know the island well, however I don’t know that much about what it used to be like, there are many things which my Jersey relatives would remember and reminisce about which I (being a teenager in the 2000s) would have no idea about. So I want to explore the evolution of Jersey and the journey it has been through over the years, and maybe even talk to some Jersey born people who’ve lived here their entire life, and get their opinions on what’s changed over the years.
I think my main areas of exploration on this topic are going to be related to: the evolution of Jersey streets and architecture over time, street photography=art on Jersey streets and the expectations vs reality of what Jersey can look like to outsiders vs how it actually is.
-urban architecture/design
-street photography
-art into the streets
-drawing & painting over photographs
-buildings/landscapes in jersey, over time
-murals, introduction of art into the streets
-expectations vs reality on how Jersey can be seen by outsiders vs how it actually is.
Beginning with the evolution of Jersey streets over time, I’ve been coming up with some ideas on how I would be presenting this research, other than just having two photos beside each-other as this seems uninteresting to me. I would like to join the two (the old and the new) together somehow. My current idea is to search and find for archival photos of the old Jersey streets and then go into the exact same spot (if i can) and retake the new photo. This would show the development of the streets but wouldn’t really connect them. Therefore I thought I would incorporate a bit of art into it as-well and trace over the new retake photo, using clear plastic paper and a white pen to clearly show all the new additions and the modernity of what has changed but also linking both eras into one piece.
Moving onto the topic of art on Jersey streets. I personally feel like the streets are lacking some murals/street art, of course there are some very impressive ones which I like seeing when I’m out and about, but in my opinion they aren’t enough compared to some places in London/Amsterdam where there is so much art and creativity going on the streets, I feel like the look of Jersey can very much be dominated by the fact it is known for being a ‘tax haven’ and a financial industry area. So sticking with my initial idea of painting and drawing over some street photography photos in Jersey, I would like to experiment and ‘play around’ with how Jersey could’ve/still can turn out if the island would have taken a more creative approach instead of a standard finance/business look.
For my final idea, I really want to explore the expectations of Jersey as a supposedly well-off, tax haven island, with lovely beaches and complete safety vs what it actually is like to live here now + what it was like in the past, and see the realities of things. Such as some disturbing past and recent crimes and why the island is regarded as being ‘full of secrets’. For this specific idea of comparing the expectation vs the reality, I looked at the work of Alice Wielinga, an artist which I will be doing a case study and response to in the near future as a part of my project.
This is a brief mood-board from some of my initial ideas about street photography, which I made before looking into other ideas.
