Week Six: “Drawing Familiarity”
Title: Drawing Familiarity
‘Ingredients’
- three individuals
- camera
- pieces of paper
‘Method’ Get all individuals to repeat the processes below individually
- First, get all the individuals to draw what they describe to be ORGANIC
- Secondly, get the individuals to draw what they consider to be elements of TRANSPORT
- Finally, get the individuals to draw what they consider to be elements of NATURE
FILM
”Reflection’
Familiarity is something that is ingrained in us since we were children – often, we want to hold onto things that are familiar to us, and embracing change is something that many find challenging and particularly scary at times. From this weeks discussion in class, I gathered the sense of familiarity and almost ‘expectation’ of what a film, photograph or discussion should lead to. The documentary, H2O shows the rhythmical pattern of water and how to capture movement – it also classifies and exemplifies black and white film. Whilst watching this, I noticed not only the different patterns and textures that the film presents but also how my shift in attention span has changed – when comparing it to something like Ruhr, with the aeroplane passing the trees, for me, personally, I felt a shift in my attention span. I found it easier to watch H2O rather than Ruhr. But why is this? I thought it had something to do with my preconceived nature of what I am familiar with and how we perceive the world. To discover this further, I decided to conduct an experiment asking individuals to describe certain places, colours or concepts and how this would differ based on people’s experiences. In this experiment, I wanted to portray people’s ideas and what they consider and think about in certain concepts.
We, as humans, tie in certain elements and ideas due to our past experiences, thus, everyone’s past experiences will reflect and determine how they view certain elements of media. Through this experiment, I not only understood how each individual can input and outtake different parts of the world around them but how this influences how both the artist + consumer of the piece.
From this experiment, I gathered that many individuals had similar thought processes when given the task to draw – often drawing similar/the same objects or identifiers. The first two individuals come from an arts degree – although creative, the last individual is studying fine art at VCA (which, you can tell). The degree of abstract thinking is apparent from those who are more creatively inclined, although, I would hypothesize that most individuals would think about the literal meaning and the most obvious ideas that society presents when given these words, however, more abstract and artistic interpretations are harder to come by, but appreciated. Thus, through this thought, I have developed an understanding of the artistic approach to artworks and the media and how different individuals have many different viewpoints although stemming from the same original idea. One could speculate that your appreciation and/or exposure to different types of media can influence your thinking about given prompts and the world around you.