10 word pitch 3

Synthesising

1- Comparing quotes from Neil Gaiman about fiction being a doorway to another world and the use of doorways and portals within fictional writing and film. I started out looking at book ends as a way to show the journey of reading a work of fiction, then expanded the idea to try and explore a range of theories relating to fiction. Theories such as personal development, growing up and learning through the characters stories and themes in fictional writing. returning from the worlds explored through fiction with weapons and armour that can help the reader deal with situations in their real lives. Genre snobbery, the way fantasy and escapist fiction are viewed as inferior to other literary genre's and also the changing trends relating to which books we should get children to read, and the detrimental effects this can have. Through my research and visual investigation I have discovered the extent of the influence reading fiction can have on us as individuals and as a society and also the misconceptions we have about fiction and its influence. Empathy and the just world hypothesis are widely viewed as positive but can have negative implications whereas escapism is often viewed as lazy or self destructive but can have a positive impact.

2- Combining common forms of escapism with the idea of doorway and portals between worlds to explore the positive and negative impacts of them. I used drug addiction to illustrate the negative aspects of escapism as it is the escapist activity that is most condemned and has the most obvious impact on the individual. I wanted to show both the influence activities such as computer games, television and reading on people and the common perception of these activities. it is not only drugs that can take over someone's life, even escapist activities that appear to be positive like exercise can become an addiction and lead to that person choosing the activity over other important parts of their life. The activities are not necessarily bad but hey can come to be a place of refuge for someone who is struggling to deal with their surroundings, having somewhere to gather your thoughts and reflect on the world around you is a positive but feeling a constant need for that safe place is not. It is not necessarily escapism that is deserving of its negative public image but addiction.

3- I combined empathy with a portal or aperture that allows us a glimpse into another world. I wanted to show the problems that occur when we use empathy to make decisions. I was trying to use the aperture to show how when we use empathy to make decisions we are not seeing the full picture, our vision of events is skewed by our own biases that make us empathise more with some people than others, for example people we have something in common with such as ethnicity or location. this process helped me to look at empathy as reductive rather than widening our perspective.

*I am struggling with this task as I unfortunately missed the seminar where it was briefed, I think I have gone into too much detail and not in the ways I should have .I am going to carry on but shorten my points then analyse them afterwards in relation to process and results.

4- I used repetition and character to demonstrate empathy not being able to apply value to numbers of people. We feel more empathy towards one person we know something about than we do about 100 people we don't. I have tried to demonstrate this in a number or ways using scales to show one life being heavier (more important) than many, glasses, apertures or doorways obstructing our vision only allowing us to see the people we identify with.

5- I have used drowning and rain as a metaphor for depression to show the impact empathy can have on an individuals mental state. Someone who exhibits high levels of empathy effectively takes on the emotions of the people around them and it can start to wear them down. I wanted to show how this can make someone feel. I have tried to find the clearest and most effective way to show how this emotion is transferred.

6- I have used images of powerful books leading people to show similarities between classic works of fiction and religious texts. Fiction has been involved to major shifts in social and political opinion and whether the influence is good or bad it certainly has the power to influence individuals and societies. Fictional writing has an impact on how we act, think and treat other people, it influences our world view. Fictions influence is strong enough that certain leaders have tried to ban fictional texts within their societies. I aim to find ways to investigate these similarities through religious iconography.

7- Working on religious iconography made me think about the effects of the just world hypothesis and how it influences our view of people in the public eye. 'Good things happen to good people' so successful people must be good. I Have worked on some portraits of angels and devils based on celebrities and cultural leaders. I think this idea may work better with stereotypes instead of real people (homeless people, company execs) if I can make the stereotype clear in my images to remove any complexity from a celebrities character that could lead to the images having multiple meanings.

8- I have combined together the ideas of repetition, the invention of the printing press and the expansion of empathy. Printing presses that print hearts, doorways or glasses. I need to take this further and experiment with different signifiers for the effects of empathy and fiction. I could possibly take this further into 3d printing.

9- I experimented with genre snobbery and changes in the view of fiction over time. Genre's seen as superior in a private club with no fantasy or escapist fiction allowed or fictional stories that are now seen a literary classics remade now and being viewed as trashy fiction by todays values. I wanted to find a way to show the different levels of genre classification like leagues in football, this would also allow me to show the change over time (promotion, relegation).

10- I have been using super heroes and villains to explore the just world hypothesis, the binary idea of good and bad. It made me think about the simplification of the complex world we live in. It is a hypothesis that helps us to understand the world around us. We tend to see things in an almost binary way (politics, healthy/unhealthy food). I need to look at more theories relating to how we process information and see if and how they tie into the just world hypothesis.