I visited the V&A and Science Museum to gather primary research and inspiration for my FMP.
Science Museum
In the Science Museum, I visited the ‘Who Am I?’ exhibit which explored the science behind why and how a person develops to be the person that they are. I decided the see this exhibit because one of the themes I considered was identity and, although it will be intriguing to investigate the meaning of identity through a feeling and emotional way, looking at it from a scientific perspective could inspire more original ideas in how I might want to portray this topic.
This exhibit made me think about how there are infinite possibilities for how a person could turn out and emphasized the many fine details that can differentiate one person from another that you might not even think about, e.g. genetic makeup.
[sketches]
here are some sketches I did in the museum.
V&A
In the V&A I went to see the ‘Manners and Modernity: Ukiyo-e and etiquette on the Seibu Railway’ and the ‘Laughing Matters: The State of a Nation’ exhibitions.
Manners and Modernity: Ukiyo-e and etiquette on the Seibu Railway
What I found most interesting was the use of the Ukiyo-e art style depicting modern events such as the use of smartphones. These works demonstrated that traditional customs in Japanese artwork from as far back as the 17th century are still being utilised, honoured and taken inspiration from. With the journey and identity themes in mind, I can recognise where my own culture is passed down – it might not necessarily have been from centuries before but as close as my parent, grandparents and great grandparents. What I might recognise as just the way we grew up could be classed as a tradition that may have evolved or stayed the same throughout the years.
[sketches]
Laughing Matters: The State of a Nation
I feel that this display examined how the media portrayed what it meant to be British through the humour we enjoyed and the topics that we chose to highlight. It helped me to consider the way in which the British tackled current events with the way that it asks things like “Is comedy a typically British way of overcoming trauma?”. What it means to be British can be classified in many ways and I find that the evaluation of the comedic approach is a light-hearted but meaningful way to go about doing it.
Other Interesting Pieces
I liked the colour gradients and subtlety of the patterns. Pieces like this could help me with the colour scheme and design.
These linocut pieces gave inspiration for different media that I could use in my FMP – methods such as mono-printing and charcoal and the reduction method.
What interested me about this piece was the composition of pieces in the display. It appeared as though it was progressive making me think about how I could use after image as a part of an animation.
I felt that this was a very unique idea to have two images of the same person but at different times. The fact that the pose is the same adds to the effect – it presents the idea that although you can have many different versions of someone, they will still be the same person in the end.
This progressive piece shows the many stages of a single leaf – demonstrating the stages of something as simple as a leaf in its life span implies that there are many levels of complexity to the journey of anything. This particular point has inspired me to think about the different ways I might be able to convey the journey of a person by using something symbolic, e.g. the water cycle, pollination cycle etc.
Jasmine Cooper 