is gonna be a UCA Farnham student!!! :D

Hey guys! Just thought id say that Ive had my Maidstone and Farnham interviews this week! I recieved a comfirmation email last night for Maidstone and i recieved a place there and then in my interview at Farnham today!! I just wanted to say thanks to the tutors and Jackie and Alison for everything and to Ethan, Bo, Matt and Farideh especially for all their supportive comments :D :D

Would love to say a big thankyou to Phil for all the advice about the interviews on ym last day- i took everything on board and it paid off- Im also really grateful for all the help you have given me especially throughout that difficult time in the last project- i have learned from it and it has given me the confidence to be more proud of my work and have faith in myself!!

I miss all you guys already and hope everyone can make it to Farideh's birthday bash at Casinos next Thursday!! Hope your projects are going well and good luck!! :D

xx

Kseniya Simonova

I found a link to this youtube video in my inbox from a family member- I didnt know what to expect but from watching it, it is a very moving piece, especially the ending where many contrasting emotions are brought up. I know its a lot to read before hend, but here's the information I was given about it- reading it will help to better understand Simonova's art.....

"This video shows the winner of 'Ukraine's Got Talent," Ksneniya Simonova, 24, drawing a series of pictures on an illuminated sand table, showing how ordinary people were affected by the German invasion during World War II. Her talent, which admittedly is a strange one, is mesmeric to watch..

The images, projected onto a large screen, moved many in the audience to tears and she won the top prize of about £75,000.
1.The scene begins by creating a scene showing a couple sitting holding hands on a bench under a starry sky, but then war planes appear and the happy scene is obliterated.

2.It is replaced by a woman's face crying. But then a baby arrives and the woman smiles again. Once again, war returns and Simonova throws the sand into chaos from which a young woman's face appears. She quickly becomes an old widow, her face wrinkled and sad, before the image turns into a monument to an Unknown soldier.

This outdorr scene becomes framed by a window as if the viewer is looking out on the monument from within a house.

In the final scene, a mother and child appear inside and a man standing outside, with his hands pressed against the glass saying goodbye.

The 'Great Patriotic War,' as it is calles in Ukraine, resulted in 1 in 4of the population being killed, with 8 to 11 million deaths out of a population of 42 million.


quote from Simonova


"I find it difficult enough to create art using paper and pencils or paintbrushes, but using sand and fingers is beyond me. The art, especially when the war is used as the subject matter, even brings some audience members to tears. And there's surely no bigger compliment."

Class Night Out :D

Ok, well have been chatting with Ethan C and Ellliot and we thought it would be a great idea for the whole of CG class to interact more rather than just in lectures and crits.

I understand people have technical classes on Friday morning but we decided that we should go to Casinos on Thursday, since its reopened and have a well deserved night out- we know it may not be everyone's scene, but its a cheap night, local and will be great to have everyone out having a good time to get to know each other more...bring guests too :)

so, yeh thats bout it- would be really great if everyone could make it :D:D:D - if ur up for it, leave me a comment or add me on facebook...Jade Tamara Midson.

Hope you guys are having fun with the next projects and hope to see you all soon :D :D

Pirate Cove scene

Finished my pirate cove scene from lesson 1 ready for blogging at last!! It didnt take long and managed to whizz through it and yeah im proud of myself for finally getting the hang of it, co it is me after all!!! :)

Mirrors

So, after the in depth research about death and the uncanny, i remembered Phil in the last lecture saying about the breaking of a mirror and people's beliefs in this linking with the dead. Mirrors and shadows are uncanny objects- the reflections you see are familiar they're you- what could be more familiar? But there's always that doubt of whether it's the real you and whether if you look in one in the dark or glance away for a second, will the reflection change?

(sorry the image isnt great :S)

popular beliefs- mirrors

• The breaking of a mirror is said to mean 7 years bad luck and some people associate it also with the death in the family within the following year. The Ancient Romans believed that life renewed itself every 7 years; If the person looking in the mirror was ill of health, their image would break the mirror and the run of bad luck would continue for 7 years, at the end of which, their life owuld be renewed, ending the curse.


• poeple also believed that the reflection of themselves in the mirror was their soul or spirit. In Ancient times, it was said that mirrors had magical powers, including the power to fortell the future and were considered to be the devices of the gods. Therefore, the breaking of a mirror would end its powers and result in untold miseries and misfortunes upon the one whose reflectio it last held. Though there were plenty of totally crazy 'remedies' that were thought to break the curse.

Some other mirror superstitions are:

-Never see your face in a mirror by candlelight, it is unlucky to do so.
- If you stare into a mirror by candlelight you might see the spirit of a loved one who has passed away.
- Always cover a mirror during a thunderstorm as it is unlucky to see reflected lightning.
- It is considered a bad omen to receive a mirror as a present.
- If a mirror in the house falls and breaks on its own, someone in the house will die soon.
- Many families cover a mirror if someone dies, as they believe that the mirror will capture the dead person’s soul, thus preventing its entry into heaven. It is believed that the Devil invented mirrors for this purpose.
- And if someone sees their reflection in a room where someone has recently died, they will die soon too.
- It is said that if your soul wanders during the night, a mirror can capture it. Thus some people avoid having mirrors in the bedroom or cover them before sleeping.
- A bride should never see herself in a mirror while fully dressed just before the wedding.
- Also, as seen in movies, vampires have no reflection. This is because it is said that when you see your image, you are in fact seeing your soul and vampires don’t have one.

These factors are ones that I will think about when creating my ideas for the tableaux vivants as they give atmospheric images in your mind, the candlelight one in particular would create an uncanny envrionment. Ive thought about trying out with scenes as if I'm the spirit/soul behind the broken mirror, distorting the room, though i will create some thumbnails to see if this will work.

Julia Kristeva's theory of 'the abject'

After posting a little something on the uncanny, doubling and death, the topic began to take a deeper turn and Phil suggested that i look at Julia Kristeva's theory of 'the abject.'

Abjection
The abject is outside the 'symbolic order,' and being forced to face it is an inherently traumatic experience. For example, when coming face to face with a corpse, a person would almost certainly be repulsed by it because they have been forced to face and object which has been cast out of the cultural world, having once been a subject. To confront a corpse that is recognised as a human (something that should be alive, but isnt) is to confront the reality that we are capable of existing in the same fate.

The abject/ abjection is our reaction to the threatened breakdown in meaning caused by the loss of distinction between the subject and object or by self and other.

Kristeva associates the abject with the eruption of The Real into our lives. She particularly associates this reponse with our rejection of death's materiality. Kristeva is careful to differentiate between the knowledge or the meaning of death, from the traumatic experience of acutally being confronted with the materiality that traumatically shows you your own death.

As Kristeva puts it, "The corpse, seen without God and outside of science, is the utmost of abjection. It is death infecting life. Abject."

The 'Abject,' for Kristeva is closely related to religion- the various means of purifying the abject , make up the history of religions.

The uncanny and dolls

I also decided to look at the uncanny and dolls. As a child, many girls have an obsession with playing with dolls and making up games to play with them, almost making them real in our imagination. It was a little while after I grew out of the whole girly phase, when dolls were just eerie to me. I remember my nan having a doll in my room at her house and i would always ask her if she could remove it from my bedroom when i went up to bed- there was just something about it that didnt seem quite right to me- but it was just the dolls piercing eyes + the dark, that uncanny feeling.

i stumbled across this website when i was reasearching the uncanny and dolls- there was a lot of relevant information on it and videios so it will be better for me to provide the website

http://www.gorelets.com/uncanny/tag/dolls/