Circular Narrative: Words, pictures & feedback

Here are all ten final images that I brought along to the next feedback session, along with the accompanying tag-lines and text. I should note that I had decided that as a precaution, I should number each image, so that if the images in the stack were placed out of order they could easily be re-organised.

One – “Who am I?”

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As I pull back the curtain, this question begs itself once more.
Blinking, not really seeing, but knowing the constants –
The album sleeve obscured, A favoured shirt, the blinding light; The ties that bind – They’re still here.
Past, present, future – Memory, cognition and curiosity – the answer lies there?

Two – Fuzzy-head.

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Oh how I hate you morning, old friend! Nothing new there. –
No matter how hard I scrub and preen, I’m resentful to the last and fuzzy still.
So take your cold and your cold harsh light and do your very worst – I’ll be back again tomorrow with another hateful glare and an unfocused stare!

Three – “Don’t you dare!”

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A bowl, a book; made for a cook – an admonishing look, something I took; but shouldn’t.
Lost in a memory of my Nan, puzzled by this shy but bold child.
Don’t you dare? – You betcha! I took that lesson far too much to heart as I grew – and some lessons teach us the wrong things it seems.

Four – Do you see?

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No shade, just light – Do you see (me)?
– Are you coming or just going?

Five – Looking within, looking without.

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What’s inside – Half-seen, half-remembered longings and belongings?
– I really can’t quite make it all out, too much reflection – introspection!

Six – The need to lie.

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“Cup of tea?” … “Oh that? Just some whimsy I forgot to take down after a party!”
(There was never a party and I didn’t forget!)

Seven – Love.

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The lost and the found, the beauty profound, the thorns and the sound… of my falling!

Eight – Sunshine State.

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It was a joke – I’m never that sunny…and nothing is THAT funny!

Nine – Past times – Pastimes.

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It’s all here, all on view – It’s what I do.
…It’s not everything, of course!

Ten – Puzzling.

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It’s making all the pieces fit somehow. It’ll makes things clearer, better illuminated don’t you think?
Let’s see what tomorrow brings and the question that will inevitably ask itself again…

N.B – With ten being the last image in the series, the next image in the stack is the first image again, bringing the circular narrative back around again!

Feedback session:

Since the last feedback session I had made significant progress on the brief – I had fully developed my series of images to a state I was happy with.  In addition I had written the words and contrived  a means of dissemination that worked no only as a means of reinforcing the circular nature of the narrative, but in turn had also provided me with a basic mechanism and means of dissemination – that of stack printed images.

My job at the feedback session was to explain the mechanism of dissemination and then lay out the images in a series, and read out the words I’d written for each image. I hoped that this time my narrative would be understood and that my idea would be accepted. I had doubts about image nine ‘Past Times’ and whether it was necessary. So I was hoping to get feedback on that and on the words as a whole, as I  wasn’t sure if they were too cryptic, or even if they were helping the narrative or not.

What I had not anticipated was how emotional I became when reading out the words with each image. One of the reasons why I am doing this course is to express myself in ways that I have oppressed for most of my adult life – creativity, emotions and personal growth. So talking about my work here and of myself was more challenging than anticipated. Thankfully my group and tutor were incredible and in other circumstances I would have folded and not have been able to go on.  I did it though and I felt oddly stronger for it,hearing the reaction and feedback made me realise I had an idea worthy of the work I’d put in so far and that the direction I had taken was the right one.

Changes…

Comments from the feedback session were mostly positive to praising – the latter making for awkward but genuine thanks on my behalf, taking praise is an odd thing when you are as self-doubting as I am.

There were some things I’d looked for feedback on in particular and some that were not, but were good ideas…

Image nine – Past Times: It was thought this image visually was at odds with the others and in any case didn’t add anything significant to the series, which concurred with my view and so it was dropped from the set.

Number ordering the images: While the group thought that ordering the images wasn’t necessarily a bad idea, numbering them seemed the wrong way to go about it. I suggested maybe dating the images, but then someone suggested that as the images represented a day-night cycle, that perhaps time-stamping them would be better – i.e 08:02a.m – “Who am I?” This idea seemed to fit better and was generally liked and I decided that I would probably adopt this approach.

Border style:  The border style and thickness around the images was something I really needed to gain some wider feedback on. When asking about the polaroid-style border, my Tutor immediately pointed out the problem of polaroids in my scenario in that they are a square format image and my images were landscape (7×5). I could convert mine to a square format but all agreed my images would not have worked as well. He suggested a standard border, something that isn’t done in standard prints these days but would have been ubiquitous in the past. As I was presenting a series of images based around a theme of memory etc, this would be a far more contextually appropriate idea and I would still have a border to write the tag-line. I have taken this idea to hear and In respect to this decision I think this was a good choice, as in the back of my mind I wanted to avoid the much hackneyed ‘Instagram’ connotations of doing a series of polaroids. My tutor also suggested a physical hand-in of the brief to add to the digital one. He suggested this as it would give weight to the dissemination and emphasise the circular nature of the idea and narrative.

A much better and positive feedback session then, the final stage was getting the prints done and putting together the final dissemination.