Neoteric Photography aims to explore photography in an age where the image is everywhere. The image has become prolific yet easily forgotten. Hoping to find something to hold onto, something that will survive longer that it takes for pixels to appear upon a screen.
Today we were creating our Contact page to begin with. So I went to my menu and to Contact Page and then clicked on the add button and chose a contact form which I customized the Input fields to match my website design
I have completed the form settings to ensure that the contact page contacts go directly to my email.
I then I added a picture from unsplash just as a placeholder until I add my own images so I clicked on the 'Add' button on the left hand menu and then I chose the image that I wanted to upload. I changed the Title of the image so that it was not the file name and format.
I then previewed checked the design and in noticed that my name and title of website were not in the header so I changed this so they appear on each page and then I wanted the design of the website to be consistent so I went back to the contact page and right clicked on the background and then clicked on 'change section background' so that it could be the same grey as the homepage.
I then checked my mobile view and I needed to adjust my heading and name as these were too big so I just clicked on these and changed the font size and used the move tool to realign these. I then changed the order of the image and contact form were the wrong the round so I adjusted these and the saved.
All other pages are working okay at the moment so this has been checked.
I now added my social media links I wanted to add these to my footer so they appear on every page, I clicked on the 'Add' button and then social and then I chose a social bar. I put this in place then deleted the ones that I was not using and added blogger and the link to this and the link to Linkedin. I then saved and previewed these to check they were working.
I then checked the mobile view to check they were also in the right pace and worked correctly
I added a gallery to my portfolio page ready for final project - I will adjust this once my project is completed
The next project for class should follow the brief for The Free Project - this should be a very exciting undertaking as it allows me to explore ideas and mediums outside what I would normally create. On first thoughts I am tempted to create a performance piece and use sound for this piece. I would need to ensure here I have a very strong concept as this will need to really push the boundaries creatively. I started to think about performance sound that I have enjoyed and one of these was Pippi Lotti Rist. Her videos explore the the feminine, gender, the body and sensuality. IO lay on the gallery floor of The Hayward Gallery and her film engulfed you as you lay there; 'Down on the floor there is a projection of a woman's body. The camera homes in, turning as it delves into her lipsticked mouth. Unexpectedly, the next thing we see – just for a second – is the woman's puckered anus' (Searle, 2011)
Rists' images merge together and flow and you as the viewer become part of the performance this interactive and overwhelming feeling is something that I would love to be able to do on a large scale, obviously we are rather confined here to something a little bit smaller scale. I can't necessarily have people lying on cushions in a gallery like Rist; 'Up on the mezzanine, I lounged on body-shaped cushions, pairs of stuffed jeans and headless upholstered torsos, plumping them up in vaguely orgiastic piles. It was soothing to lie there, amid a labyrinth of diaphanous curtains' (Searle, 2011) so perhaps I need to think how else I can engage the viewer in the performance. In terms of concept for performance I do want to really do want to look to something that is different and so this time I do think I would like to perhaps move away from gender and womanhood and into something perhaps more existential. Something more about life and death and the nature of existence as lately I have been reading Nietzsche again and Zizek and the important questions of life need to be addressed within art. This reminds me of the neo expressionism of David Bowie...
This artwork was used for the Outside album however I like the idea of neo expressionism used within the film/performance work as this might express ideas of existence and following in Burroughs and Bowie's footsteps using the cut up techniques to really start to explore ideas could be interesting as a starting point, perhaps the resulting work will be a dithyramb of some beauty. Burroughs technique involved; 'The cutup is a mechanical method of juxtaposition in which Burroughs literally cuts up passages of prose by himself and other writers and then pastes them back together at random. This literary version of the collage technique is also supplemented by literary use of other media. Burroughs transcribes taped cutups (several tapes spliced into each other), film cutups (montage), and mixed media experiments (results of combining tapes with television, movies, or actual events).' ( Burroughs Cut Ups 2001) I like this as this technique was not confined to just words but to film and sound. This is something I would like to explore as recently I had stared to consider the moving image and how I might use this within my work, I had ideas of layers of days upon each other and this existence and the repetitive nature of life. Below is Burrough's film that does use a series of cut up clips to create an Avant Garde film which does use repetitive sound and movement and has its roots in Dada and Surrealism; 'It almost has the same air as a drug trip or a severe fever dream. Even the most esoteric of film students would have trouble arguing that this does' (Kahn, 2022)
"The Cut Ups," (1966) William S. Burroughs
The idea that it is almost like a fevered dream does appeal as I do think my own best ideas come in the night in a fevered dream! The Dadist and Surrealists were keen on the unconscious and using this as a source of inspiration and with rise of Freud and Jung and psychoanalysis this method exploration in art is still used to today and many artists look to their unconcious for inspiration. Like automatic writing perhaps almost this could be an 'automatic film'
Here I am just exploring ideas and thoughts in my next post I will start to bring together final ideas that I would like to develop for this small project.
References
Searle, A. (2011) Pipilotti rist: Big time sensuality, The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/sep/26/pipilotti-rist-hayward-gallery-review (Accessed: February 20, 2023).
Rutten, M. (2023) David Bowie: From popstar to neo-expressionist painter, DailyArt Magazine. Available at: https://www.dailyartmagazine.com/david-bowie-from-popstar-to-neo-expressionist-painter/ (Accessed: February 20, 2023).
William S Burroughs Cut Ups (2001) LanguageIsAVirus.com. Available at: https://www.languageisavirus.com/creative-writing-techniques/william-s-burroughs-cut-ups.php (Accessed: February 20, 2023).
Kahn, J. (2022) Watch William S. Burroughs' 1966 avant-garde movie 'The Cut Ups', Far Out Magazine. Available at: https://faroutmagazine.co.uk/watch-william-s-burroughs-1966-avant-garde-movie-the-cut-ups/ (Accessed: February 20, 2023).
The Book of Lost Things II was created because I very much enjoyed the process of creating The Book of Lost Things I. The Story of Milk in (Lost Things I) was a vibrant tale of a young woman whose life had become rather directionless until she has a very strange encounter with the church of St Jude and Matt the Monk. In the mirror story The Story of Honey (Lost Things II) Honey is just about to embark on a journey to England for his PhD studies which is on the transformational power of St Jude . The book if it was made into one would have alternate chapters of Milk and Honey and I do think that this would work very well indeed. I enjoyed the process of writing these stories and using literary devices of teh short story and comparing my work with Maupassant as this was an interesting exercise and made me really look at how I had used language with my story and how this is conveyed to the reader. If I had more time on this I would do much more analysis and research as I do think that this would prove most interesting. I will add a little more research on target market as I have placed this book for sale on Blurb and I want to test where I would find an audience for this work.
I will continue on this journey with thsi work and I do think it has 'got legs' and could certainly become a larger book. Also I would be interested in how I would develop this as a writer and turn it into a longer novel, I know that I want to find out what my charaters will do next..
After uploading the book to Blurb, I then began to set up my book on the site.
I went to 'Sell Your Book' and completed the details of the book
I then set up my book for sale and chose my profit margin
My book was now set up on Blurb and I could now add this to my website. At this stage, I also ordered a copy for myself so that I had the physical version. I think copied the invite link to add to my website so that users could preview my book on blurb
I created a page on my website and added an introduction to my book, I then added an image of the front page as I wanted to add a link to Blurb for the flipbook preview. I created a back to portfolio button and linked this all up so that the site is easy to navigate throughout and is consistent.
I finalised and then republished sit and checked this was all working correctly with all links working live. I also checked the mobile view again to check adjustments that needed to be made.
I added more space for each section and then republished. Everything is now working and This project is complete!
I have already downloaded Bookwright onto my desktop and so I begin by choosing the book I would like to create, in the spirit of the chapbook I choose a trade book, 6"x 9" in standard colour with a hardcover image wrap.
Bookwright then open and asks me to add photos and as I had a few I had already chosen I imported these into my project.
I then carefully chose the layouts of each page using the payout tabs and customising size where needed and then I copied the text for each page from my google docs on my Drive.
I added all the picture credits at the end as these were not y own and came from Pixabay and Unsplash contributors, I also added copyright.
My additional piece on the theme of lost things was of loss of knowledge/memory, just some of my musings
I then added all the chapters and the Story of Honey
I spellchecked and proof read this several times but I always fear I will have missed something...
I kept the layout simple and added page numbers through the top menu on Add and Page Numbers which I place in the corner of each page.
I added title pages to each section and I used Century Schoolbook font throughout just varying text size for titles and credits
I finally saved everything to a file on my computer and then uploaded this to Blurb
As this could take a while I will complete another post once my book has finalised.
