Maps and Journeys- Kathleen Rogers Lecture

I found the lecture this morning very helpful in looking at different ways to interpret the brief. Kathleen talked a lot about the creative process and the reasoning behind each outcome that she presented to us. She made it clear that her belief is that the journey of making the piece is as important, if not more so than the outcome you produce. She highlighted some very important points about how extensive research and pulling concepts from many different places will ultimately make the piece have a much better grounding as you will have more of an idea of where you are coming from when making the piece, and the likelihood is that this will show through in the outcome.

Another interesting thing about the lecture, with reference to the pieces she showed us, was her challenging the meaning of 'site specific'. We looked at a piece on lace that was handmade, and she commented that handmade objects have a particular 'vibe' about them, in the sense that there is a lot of cultural history behind them that give them some sort of value. Also, the observation of the object, and our interpretation of the object changes the object itself in terms of what it means to the viewer. We co-create the objects even after they have been physically made. She said a similar thing about site-specific with reference to places as well. The known history of a place, with links to culture, can produce a particular vibe about the place, as she showed us with her video on the group of mediums in the mines. Visiting a place, can give you an experience, and in turn your experience of that place adds to the culture and memories surrounding that place, both in your personal experience and the stories you may tell to the younger generation. Thinking about maps and journeys in this way is a different approach from what I was thinking of before.

Following on from this, we had a large group tutorial with Kathleen to discuss my ideas for the project. One new idea that has struck me since my last post about it, is to combine some of my earlier ideas of looking at processes, and the human body. I feel that some of the structures we place around us are reflective of processes and networks which happen within the human body, and the actions that humans take in the world outside the body reflect the processes that happen inside the body as well. Kathleen said it was a nice idea and started to talk about several examples of the kind of thing I had in mind. She highlighted things such as 1920's exercise regimes which involved making shapes which were considered unnatural movements:

This is much like modern yoga, which is all about flowing from one pose to another. 

Kathleen also recommended a book called 'The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction' by Walter Benjamin. I have taken out this book in the hope of coming to understand works that follow a similar line to what I am interested in.