Notes from tutorial

• How do I make the project visually interesting?

• Film more authentic?

• Subtlety – aesthetically?

• Excess – Hedonism, a contrast to austerity measures. Interesting connections between those things.

• Do we need another cynical critique?

• Flogging a dead horse?

• Combining image with the found text.

• Look at propaganda

• Artbuster

• Gorilla Girls

• Peter Kenard

• Beware of plagiarism with using images that are belonging to other people.

After my first tutorial the above points were discussed. The first half looks at making the project interesting and with developing my own interpretation instead of closely following War Primer by Adam Broomberg and Oliver Chanarin, which formed the initial inspiration for the idea.

Originally I did plan to make the images challenging to the text in a cynical way to highlight the difference between what is said and what is actually meant. So my original idea was to produce a booklet of the conservative manifesto with pictures that are inspired by George Orwell’s novel, 1984. However, I did also consider using images that were inspired by Aldous Huxley Brave New World.

After talking with my tutor we came to the conclusion that the subtlety of using photographs showing a beautified utopia would be more visually interesting than a series of images criticising the ideals. Both sets would achieve the same result, which is to challenge the ideas and inspirations within the conservative manifesto, but the subtlety would make it more interesting as the cynicism is a bit predictable.

So the areas I need to look at now are things such as propaganda, hedonism and beauty. I think it will also be worth looking at the philosophical theory of existentialism as this also contains elements of self-indulgence.

I’ve also decided to use digital technology to capture the images rather than analogue. This is for a number of reasons. Firstly, it’s all virtual and a physical copy doesn’t exist, there is no artefact and it seems fitting that I am photographing something that’s not real with something else that is just virtual and not physical. Secondly, it will be easier to manipulate than film as digital photographs have been designed to be manipulated. Thirdly, it means that I can use different devices, such as my phone or tablet and so gives me the opportunity to be more flexible.

The last point to mention is that the photographs used will be all my own, I wont be including any found photographs. This will mainly be because of issues to do with plagiarism plus the finished product would be better and have a more cohesive authorship if the images are all my own.