beyond the pose
get me out of here...
Beyond The Pose was my final project during the MA Design Studies course at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and is a project about children and their memories in the form of family snapshots.
get me out of here...
Beyond The Pose was my final project during the MA Design Studies course at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design and is a project about children and their memories in the form of family snapshots.
My work was aimed at giving children away to explore memories, the evocative power of images and access the untoldstory that lies beyond the pose in an engaging and playful, but also criticalway, in order to develop a sense of belonging as well as a personal andcreative view of images.
The project consisted of an activity photo journal for primary school children, designed to enable them to arrange and narrate their memories and their world, and possibly interact with their parents and peers in the process.
A purposely informal photo album in which they can feel free to make their own aesthetic and narrative choices, re-enact past events, use existing family snaps as a tool for telling stories and be the subjects, rather than the objects, of their own histories.
A purposely informal photo album in which they can feel free to make their own aesthetic and narrative choices, re-enact past events, use existing family snaps as a tool for telling stories and be the subjects, rather than the objects, of their own histories.
My album is a safe place, a playground in which to develop a healthy relationship between time, events and experience. Under professional supervision the album can be used to set visual marks of those rites of passage customarily ignoredin family albums, such as separation, illness, death and to overcome or make sense of painful experiences, for example for adopted or refugee children, andhelp them build up a stronger sense of self and belonging.
I am intrigued by photography and its meaning, as well as its implications. I believe in the importance of mastering early in life the tools to understand the world that surround us, help us make choices, and consequently develop into emotion-receptive and creative adults.
Traditional family albums construct a tale where children are often the objects of a narcissistic need of parents, at times a capricious act of power play. In addition, consumerism and the industry built around amateurish photography pressurises us to capture the right moments luring us with the promise of a more beautiful past in the future.
In Rome I have organized and run a school project focused on family snapshots and test my idea with several children of 5 to 10 years of age. I also got the opportunity to work with a primary school in London too, gaining perspective on my ideas in the UK and being able to compare the two trials.
The direct experience with children was unique. I was able to spot patterns of behaviour I would have never learned from a text book.
Going off a tangent...
What was the primitive form of photography? What was there before photography? Isn’t memories the answer?Isn’t it memory that isolates a fact and prevents its obliteration?
Just like a snapshot.
But also celebrations and rituals can bereservoirs of memories, bringing them back periodically. They poke us and make us remember things, people and feelings.
I imagined a time device, an organiser of memories, an alarm clock that, once set, reminds you periodically and cyclically of past events. An object for pre-teen children that would grow with the user, hold a specific meaning and gain huge affective value as opposed to the mass-produced disposable gadgets that surround us. I called it The Knot, like a knot in a hankie. The Knot is a photo album without photos in it, only memories and the emotions that come with them. The Knot pokes us and makes us remember things, people and feelings.
What was the primitive form of photography? What was there before photography? Isn’t memories the answer?Isn’t it memory that isolates a fact and prevents its obliteration?
Just like a snapshot.
But also celebrations and rituals can bereservoirs of memories, bringing them back periodically. They poke us and make us remember things, people and feelings.
I imagined a time device, an organiser of memories, an alarm clock that, once set, reminds you periodically and cyclically of past events. An object for pre-teen children that would grow with the user, hold a specific meaning and gain huge affective value as opposed to the mass-produced disposable gadgets that surround us. I called it The Knot, like a knot in a hankie. The Knot is a photo album without photos in it, only memories and the emotions that come with them. The Knot pokes us and makes us remember things, people and feelings.
I got very passionate about this idea,to the point of losing the way forward with my work, and I realised that I had to re-define the way to test my idea and that I was jumping ahead leaving behind some necessary steps. The Knot had to wait…
Conclusion
The Album has gained good feedback from publishers for the originality of the idea and its potential whilst suggesting a more appealing make-over for the ultra competitive market of children books.
I am currently receiving enthusiastic feedback from both professional NHS child psychologists and teachers. According to them the Album would fit perfectly in the new school curriculum that promotes introspection and emotional literacy and would assist in an attempt at preventing behavioural disorders such as ADHD.
The end is still very open as I am determined to pursue two different paths to produce the Album, one aimed at the public sector and one through collaboration with an illustrator for a more commercial version.
