EXPERIMENTATION STAGE: BEGINNING TO EXPERIMENT WITH MATERIALS

After the progression of my idea for this project I began to experiment with materials. I started off with simple materials that I found at home such as PVC tape (black and white), bits of wood and pins. I started off by using the PVC tape to experiment with a certain emotion, so I chose anxiety.This was only to get me started as my project is not about negative emotions but is mostly focused on capturing a memory and emotion in an abstract way, as that's how memory works. As I was doing this experiment with PVC tape and notepad paper I was focusing mainly on the texture of the design than the aesthetics of it, thinking back to the question 'If I was blind and I asked you to describe an emotion to me through touch, what would it feel like?'. I made the texture rigid and bumpy to resemble spikes by bunching up the tape as I placed it on the paper and placed them in different directions. I did this to show the unpredictable nature of anxiety.

After making the two 3D experiments, I scanned them in and then began to play with the effects of the photocopier. I photocopied them in different colours that I associate with the emotion, keeping in with my original idea of using colour and movement to capture an emotion or feeling. I chose the colours red and blue: Red to show fear or panic, and blue to show the physical effects of anxiety. 

After the first experiment with PVC tape, I used wood chips, however I couldn't make it 3D as I didn't have the right resources. If I was to re-do the wood-chip images I would try to make them 3D relief by using a hot glue gun and a material that the chips could be stuck to. I will be making sure I have all the correct resources when I begin to use mixed media on my photographs so that I avoid this issue in the future. I arranged the wood in two different desigins: One where the wood-chips are laid on top of each other to show layers and texture, which is a road I definitely want to explore, and one in a more neat fashion that rather (and accidentally) represents vampire fangs. I then photocopied the scans in different colours that I thought complimented the designs. 

Lastly, I used pins from my cork board in my bedroom. I tried to arrange them in a circular pattern as if the pins are going outward, like an explosion. I originally wanted to put the pins so that the sharp points were facing upwards towards the scanner, but after attempting this several times it didn't work. Because of this the pattern went a little wrong as all the pins fell down and spread out, however I decided that I liked this new form the pins had taken as it looked purposely disorganised and random, as if to fit the emotion. I then experimented with colour photocopies once again, but this time I used a different setting of a single colour and black, and the results were better than I expected. I originally disliked the fact that all the pins were different colours, so when I discovered this setting made them all a single colour I was pleased with the results. I will be using some of these techniques when I start to layer on top of my photographs that I plan to shoot soon.