Develop a ‘Visual Narrative’ in the form of either moving image, film, 2D print, 3D, installation, or screen based outcomes. There will be lectures to inform your understanding of what a visual narrative can be. The content or subject is up to you to decide and is open for interpretation. There will be opportunities to investigate 2D and 3D outcomes, Film, Sound, Virtual Reality, multimodal and cross platform or multidisciplinary outcomes involving live action, animation, performance or site-specific intervention.
Assignment Brief: Visual Narratives.
Here we are again, chucked into a bottomless ocean of endless possibilities! As I’ve said time and time again – the idea of it is equal parts exciting and equal parts horrifying, then again, that might just be my megalohydrothalassophobia kicking in.. in a non-literal sense, that is. The brief is very straightforward and non-explanatory – essentially just “do the thing”. What is “the thing”, you might ask, well, that’s for us to figure out on our way to the finish line! Crazy to think that this is the module that’s going to close off the second (of three) year of our uni experience. This time next year we will be adding pre-finishing touches to our degree pieces, that’s absolutely mad to consider.. But it’s something to worry about when we get there.
For now I want to focus on developing a solid concept for this module as well as producing something that I would feel satisfied knowing that it was the piece that I finished my second year off with. I must say, I feel as though I’ve had a rocky second year but at this point in time I feel a sense of major personal growth, I have come to terms with what has happened in the past and have now moved far enough from it that I cannot see it anymore, the only residue lingering at the back of my mind, destined to surface in moments of uncertainty and weakness. But also, destined to be netted from my mind and dragged out of it once and for all when given the opportunity, I owe myself that much.
I promised myself I won’t go mad this time, nor that I will be delusional with my goal for the final piece. That was my fatal flaw in Process and Practice – ambition got the better of me, tangled me up and it was my inexperienced that sent me flying down hundreds of flights of stairs. Not this time, not ever again!
When I first read the brief, I had no idea in which direction I wanted to go with it, but seeing as my last project was based around the idea of self-love and how much exploring a topic of that relevance to me has allowed me to understand more about myself, it only made sense for me to explore something that I would consider to be the bane of my existence – regrets. I had thought about exploring self-forgiveness initially, but I figured it would be easier to start from the beginning – figuring out the things I would like to forgive myself for. I do think that in the end, I could turn it into a piece symbolizing self-forgiveness, but that’s something for future me will have to figure out.
The way I want to approach this subject matter is with extreme precision and care – almost as though I was performing an autopsy on myself, or rather, the autopsy on my regret.
The tutorial with Jonathan helped me take the pressure off myself to do what I had initially planned to and I would even say improved my concept by a whole lot. I had considered how each regret I had written down would correlate with a body part and how it would change the physiology of it but in the grand scheme of things, I was more looking at making the whole body, as opposed to focusing more on the individual pieces that form this chimaera of regrets. The last image in the gallery above is the finalized rough of a narrative that I would like to follow in order to create my final piece for this module. A tad sad I suppose but at least the ending seems to lighten it up slightly – a fresh start awaits, but I cannot move on without addressing the past, shedding my skin and letting go of it.
I intend to make it a multi-medium project – trying out multiple approaches and seeing what works best. In my tutorial, Jonathan suggested working on a proposal as my final piece with a couple examples as well as some testers and whatnot, I think that’s what I should do for the sake of my sanity and the quality of the piece.
One of the visual references I thought I could use are pieces of work made by an online friend of mine – Davey Krofta. Davey has been an inspiration to me since the moment I laid my eyes upon his work, I feel a strong connection with the visual language and adore the colour palettes he incorporates in his work, I also love the versatility and diversity in his mediums and just how universal his style is. Would even go out of my way to say that his work is the closest thing to what I envision myself doing after graduating, therefore using his work as an analog for my final second year piece only makes sense.
My idea as of now is to create a display of medical wonders, the pieces I’ll make will be informed with real-world medical knowledge, just exaggerated and fit to the regret it’s meant to represent. I am currently working on gathering the information I need to inform my pieces as much as possible.
Robertas Tijusas 
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