Lesson one: Using art as a political tool stimuli




 In today’s lesson we were put into five groups and were given a (stimuli) picture each. All the pictures we’re completely different but all related to the theme ‘Using art is a political tool.’ We had five minuets at each picture to write down any thoughts or feelings that they provoked. We wrote down questions or phrases that came to mind when looking at them. As we got to the latter pictures it became harder to think of new ideas that the other groups hadn't already stated, but we were able to answer some of the questions they had and ask new ones. 

Once we had finished this task as a group we were asked to pick one of the five pictures to take as our own stimuli and start creating a phrase of movement, taking inspiration from the picture and the thoughts and feelings written around it. The picture my group chose was an image of a woman in a museum covered in oil. (See attached photo) Some of the words that were written around the image were, trapped, hiding away, climate change, sticky and smothered. My group decided to take inspiration from the feeling of being coved in oil to create our movement. We thought that it would make you feel heavy and weak so we decided to keep our movement close to the floor. It would also be difficult to move as we expected oil to be sticky and thick. This resulted in us deciding that our movement should be slow, with a feeling of resistance. To help our movements have a purpose we had the idea of trying to reach the front of the stage. Throughout our phrase of movement we reach the front by pulling and pushing each other, helping each other move through the oil. 

Overall I think our piece was very successful in portraying the stimulus as we used ideas from the picture, to create positions similar to the one the woman was lying in and we tried to represent the feeling of oil being all over your skin. I think our piece was engaging as the use of contact work helped us to create unique shapes that the audience was never expecting. 

To improve we could have used more emotion in our faces to represent how the woman might have been feeling in the picture. 

References:  

Artist: Amy Scaife. Title: Human Cost - Protecting Cultural institutions for taking money from companies that have connections to unethical/immoral behaviours link: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/boards-museums-money-2019-1600507

Comments

  1. Storm IdeOctober 19, 2020 at 2:53 AM

    This is a very descriptive blog Erin well done! I really enjoyed how you have used specific parts of the image to influence your movement as well as the feeling of the oil on your skin, to influence the dynamics of the phrase. Why did you decide to chose this image as your stimulus? Did you have more initial ideas towards this one or did you maybe feel as though it would have been the easiest one to chose?

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  2. Erin TaylorOctober 23, 2020 at 6:08 AM

    Thank you for your comment storm! My group were drawn to thus stimuli as when discussing the image we all had many ideas about what the hidden messages of the photo could be. My group wanted to look further into those ideas and explore the more physical and emotional side of the picture so we decided to pick that stimulus.

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  3. Devanshi GanatraNovember 12, 2020 at 2:25 PM

    I agree - you were able to take very much from the image, but I admire the fact that the choreography also remained abstract. Would you say that the task influenced your approach to finding and interpreting a stimulus for your final piece?

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    Replies
    1. Erin TaylorNovember 14, 2020 at 11:50 PM

      Thank you for your comment devanshi! The task has definitely influenced my approach to finding a stimulus for my final piece. When my group was deciding on a stimuli we looked through images which I wouldn’t have done before. I would have just talked about ideas instead.

      Delete
  4. Lucy Athorns choreographyNovember 15, 2020 at 5:56 AM

    The layout of your blog is excellent and I appreciate how you included the image. As a reader, I can see what the task consisted of, well done. Maybe try and add some more of the images you saw and annotated, as I would like to see how they were different but all related to the same theme. I found it fascinating that you decided to focus on how you think oil would feel on your body. Furthermore, you mentioned that you stayed close to the floor as you interpreted oil to feel heavy. Was there any specific movement that you thought really captured your image and if so why?

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    Replies
    1. Erin TaylorNovember 15, 2020 at 11:34 AM

      Thank you for your comment Lucy! We incorporated the fetal position which I thought captured the image as the woman lying in the picture is also in the fetal position. We hoped this would capture the feeling of isolating, fear and trapped.

      Delete

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