My reflections on Week 8

Influenza may have slowly begun to pass but it has left behind a frequent loud cough. Keep on resting and keep away from others until it clears up is the idea for now. Sadly I’ll miss the Bristol trip to MPF and RPS exhibitions.

Written more as a progress report this reflection continues on from Week 6 Research-Driven Practice. This self-directed activity ran across Week 7 and Week 8.

As blogged earlier the research is being opened out in a number of areas.

After the last module Surfaces and Strategies, emergent themes are being researched to identify areas of contextualisation:

• Phenomenology and the Simulacrum – Spectres of Marx (extensively researched)
• Beyond the Unheimlich the Weird and the Eerie (part researched)
• Place (Philosophy) and Memory The Phenomenology of the Uncanny (awaiting research)

This work deals with the emergence of ghosts, historic places and inner or outer spaces. These are recurring outcomes when healing images are abstracted.

Further contextualisation taken or taking place include: 

• video documentaries concerning molecular biology around genetics and DNA and
• a research trip to the Wellcome Museum and Library.

(Instagram: foto_graphical or michaelturnercrj.blog for photo updates)

There is a catalogue of archive photographs recovered relating to the family maternal lines (mainly) linked to mitochondrial DNA. The stability of common mitochondria is the basis for time collapsing into a moment and creating the experience of identification. Finally, there is the unchanging flora of the Scottish lands and coastal areas of concern and again a metaphor for collapsing time into a single moment.

Really, there are lots of strands here that need to be brought into a consistent theme. The abstract visuals in the project have a strong element of randomness – results are hard to have any control over.

Lots of new healing sites have been photographed.but these need to be processed for glow and then be sorted through. Until this is done it won’t be known if there are enough good images to use in a publication edit. The best public work at present would likely result from taking selected abstracts from previous portfolios alongside new work. 

It is a slow burn process at the moment and hopefully well matched to the current stage of the Final Major Project FMP.