For today’s tutorial we were left to our own devices, therefore the search in creating a self portrait without including myself continues. It’s amazing how there are so many ways to express yourself in an artistic form. Currently listening to music, pictures hung on the walls of my kitchen with a pile of dirty dishes, I’m thinking that this obviously represents our own inner turmoil with last nights dishes, which are ready to put away next to a pile of new dirty ones awaiting to be cleaned. It probably just means that we’re lazy and should empty the dishwasher. From this I think that there are literally so many things that could represent your personality or characteristics if you’re willing to put an inch of symbolism into it, including a pile of dirty dishes. Everything tells a story. 

This blog post – although seemingly pointless – did in fact help me see that my products for design brief 1 could be anything imaginable. Although this has its positives and negatives ( too broad of a focus but more of an idea about the symbolism I want to achieve ) it’s kicked my unmotivated creativity into gear ( I think ), and so hopefully I can now go full steam ahead, noticing the things around me that tell others who I am. 

In today’s tutorial, we were given our project briefs. At first glance, creating images, audio, film and text reflecting yourself in a self portrait like manner seems simple, as who knows you better than you know yourself? Then after I sat and looked at it in further detail, actually thinking about the task at hand, I realised how hard it actually is to present yourself to another via a series of mediums, in a creative sense. How much of yourself can you consciously tap into after prompted to do so? It is challenging, trying to think of a way to explain to a certain degree who and what you are, trying not to place your literal being in the centre of a simple image. For a self portrait is not just a lovely posed moment or a mug shot like photo, it’s an expression of soul and identity. All of that said, I have no idea, at this current moment, how exactly I am going to execute this in a poetic and ingenious manner, hoping that my travels – or lack thereof – in the next few days may allow me to strike some inspiration from my surroundings, both familiar and unfamiliar. What is my essence? How do I perceive myself?