A note to underpin

"What gives houses of our childhood such depth and resonance in memory is clearly this complex structure of interiority, and the objects within it serve for us as boundary markers of the symbolic configuration known as home" Baudrillard, J (1968) The System of Objects

The idea of a "symbolic configuration" is at the core of what my final project deals with when considering living alone, current life and coping with loss. A symbolic configuration of images can be seen in the exhibition setting.

Exhibition format and delivery

I've recently had a bit more time to consider exactly how my final piece will be delivered. I really want to emphasise the sense of entering a personal space, therefore the exhibited work should be accessed by physically walking into a room rather than simply wandering along a corridor.

There is a room within the university that would suit the project well, but negotiation with other students is required before its use is confirmed. The room has space to place roughly three small tables with free-standing framed images, and enough wall space for eight large framed prints. I plan to use an old photo album placed on one of the tables to hold a large number of images. This will allow an audience member to sit in the space and contemplate the work deeply while being surrounded by an overall impression of the location.

I've identified the perfect aged album to use (pictured below), this album has resonance to myself, my brother and our mother as it contained images of us as children. The childhood images have been removed and stored to allow the album to be used for images produced during the project. I like the idea of an audience being able to physically engage with an aged container of memories now acting as a window to the present life of one of the brothers.





Current tasks i'm engaging with include examination of more photographers who capture images of private dwellings/scenes. I am also further investigating the power of text in accompaniment to images.

John R.J Taylor's Work

Here are some of the images I discussed. Annoyingly the captions were scanned separately as the the double-page spreads couldn't fit on the scanner bed. But you get the idea.

John R.J Taylor

I've found a photographer who has conducted a similar project to that which i'm undertaking. Effectively his work shows the interior of various suburban London homes, with textual captions which are direct quotes from a tape recording.

What led to this finding is my continued pursuit of wishing to display my images with captions, based on the explanations my brother gives of the scene or object. I think it will personalise the images further and remove some boundaries between audience and exhibition. In this vein I also want to use free standing frames of varying sizes on a table that the audience can pick up and examine. Not too sure whether that approach will work though.

I also like the idea of viewing the exhibition as a museum of life and emotion. My brother can be viewed as the curator for example. This can lead to the notion that the images displayed in the exhibition space, are artefacts of importance displayed for a specific purpose. Although the images may show relatively unglamorous scenes or objects, it will urge the audience to think about their importance.

Tangent over, back to the work of John R.J Taylor. The front cover of the book i've looked at is below;




It seems difficult to find any of the images in the book online so i'll have to scan some and put them up. Initially, the one that I find quite inspiring is simply a face-on picture of a potted plant on the landing of a staircase. The image does seem to show the audience a corner of the next set of stairs suggesting they warrant walking up in exploration. The scene has the caption "I always have something like that up there. There's a table up there at the moment with something on it. I get fed up with seeing things in the same position...I just like change."

Text can be powerful in accompaniment to the images for this project and is something to look at in depth.

All the other images in the book are interesting so i'll post them up here soon.

Final Project - Ethical Considerations

After the hand-in of project two, the focus has quickly shifted back to the final project. After brief discussion with a member of the support staff, it became apparent that i've failed to fully acknowledge the ethical implications of undertaking a project of the nature desired.

The ethical implications to consider can be divided into loosely defined points;

1. In a basic sense, ethical implications of exhibiting images of a person's private way of life to an audience.

2. How aware my brother is of certain undertones the exhibition could transmit to an audience. Themes could include family loss, personal struggle and/or living alone.

It will be crucial to discuss the exhibition and images with my brother to confirm his awareness and comfort. There are texts that i'm yet to fully read that offer a good grounding in ethical concerns surrounding a project of this nature.

A text that at first glance seems useful to incorporate into the initial stages of exploring prevalent ethical issues is from Tom Wheeler entitled 'Phototruth or Photofiction?' Not all of it is relevant as it is targeted at journalists, but i'll look to pick out some key points to note on here and in portfolio two.

I've not really got anything definitive to write about at this stage, i've just realised I should examine some ethical considerations.