Daily Archives: 24th Feb 2020

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taking and editing these images i found that layering over a coloured filter made them more interesting and look better when layering with text and other images. The colour overlay also makes these places seem more still and diluted almost more quiet and dream like, it pushes the images into the background.

Research

I also started researching into why people feel the need to keep secrets and how it effected them. 97% of people are keeping a significant secret at any one time. This makes this idea of having one more relocatable and feel less important knowing everyone else has the same “keeping” responsibility. Despite this topic occupying all of us, there is little research on what effect it has on us in our every day life. The ability to keep a secret is a big milestone as a child. It confirms this idea of having trusted information between another person. A lot of my project is going to revolve around this feeling of trust and inclusiveness

The majority of research suggests that keeping a secret weather that be just with yourself or a select few people can leave you feeling anxious and weighted with your own information and responsibility; sharing it with other people may only make it worse through fear of them telling more people. The idea that you are the one holding this information and choosing to share it or not seems to have negative impact on your mental and in your relationships with others. However the problem inst the actual keeping of the secret its the idea of having to live along side them in our thoughts. This is why i wanted the secrets i gathered to be in and amount my collages and images of places where your mind dose wander.

However in my own researcher as i found speaking and communicating with other people about my secrets and theirs a very positive thing. There is this idea and feeling of inclusiveness; being in on something and feeling valued enough that person would communicate something so valued and concealed with you despite the fact that that is you taking on more secrets that you need to keep. In relationships with other people i think that secrets are a real sign of trust and confessing things about yourself makes you feel better as you often get a similar secret or confession in return.

I wanted to explore the 2 types of secrets I was receiving and could differentiate:

• Shameful or embarrassing subjects- sex-money-cheating
• What people are really thinking – social commentary and thought and the social pressure to be polite

Layering/Print/Paint/Collage

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I experimented with layering college, painting, printing and text. As well as including the original confessions i included phrases like
“Don’t tell anyone but”
“Who am i going to tell like”
Phrases that came up a lot when discussing a secret or confessing things to someone. who am i going to tell becomes a question of someones character as appose to an actual question. Asking the person who is telling you if you trust them enough not to tell others. Because as an adult the reality is that you have the ability to tell anyone physically or even over social media. It reminds me of making a ‘pinky promise’ when you were younger.

starting point:

The initial theme for my projects secrets and my plan is to investigate and explore why and when we keep them. I would also like to research into the communication (or lack) of secrets and the idea of trust and confession.

I moved on to consider all the different elements I could respond to

• Being told to be quiet- where/why
• knowing something is hidden beneath/from you – layering images
• Chinese whispers- changing of information throughout poor communication
• The power of feeling inclusive
• Negative feelings associated with having a secret and not feeling authentic

Initial Responce

As my initial response to my project idea I asked people write down a secret or confession anonymously. I then re rote them in my handwriting just so they were consistent looking and it was easier to read. Me re writing them also took away and chance of recognising someones hand writing. The confessions themselves all focused around traditionally taboo subjects and were things people would maybe be embarrassed to admit to allowed. However, tho writing these things down isn’t the same as expressing them vocally I think that putting it down on paper and into text makes it feel more real and permanent. There were also some that were things people often think or wish they could express in response to what’s is happening around them or who they are around but cant because of social pressure to be quiet and polite. For example “CBA” “I think everyone is an arsehole”

This then got me thinking about place and where and why we there holds this social pressure to be quiet and respectable. Places like churches/bus/ stops/ trains/ waiting rooms/ in bed/ when someones on the phone. So i went and took images and sound clips of all these places i associate with quiet and being reserved. I also thought it was interesting that these are all places we tend to fine our-self’s alone and with our own thoughts – things that may be considered secretive are thought about in very public spaces.

Before taking my own images i just did some small experiments with layering the confessions with found images of these locations that are associated with being quiet.

I experimented with layering one on top of the other however thought that the image of the place layered over the confession worked better both visually and conceptually – the inner secret being hidden and compressed to the persons head because of the social environment and location.

I liked the layered contrast of the images and text as well as the shapes of the images hiding and obscuring the messages underneath. moving forward I wanted to experiment with layering and collegeing the two elements again with my own images.