Reflecting on Module and Feedback
Monuments to the Oneiric House (installation detail)
Click on Image to see Work in Progress Portfolio
This module was difficult for me in some respects because I was juggling working on it with a lot of other life commitments including planning, managing and working on our house renovation. However, as mentioned before, I feel that the momentum of the house work fuelled my photo-making and I was able to find a way to do both simultaneously. I was inspired by the environment I was spending much of my time in and was able to make work in this time without the stress of finding or making time for my photo-making.
From this perspective, I can see that I created a solid body of work. There was much experimenting and playing and many of these didn’t make it into the final edit. This is fine and part of the process. I may come back to some of these methods later, or not.
In this module I was able to balance out the reading research with practical research. I read much less texts than the previous module but feel these impacted my practice and ideas in a more direct way, particularly Bachelard’s Poetics of Space. This balance is something I will take forward into as I move forward. Focus on important texts, not every text!!!
I’m considering the WIPP as conclusive of this chapter of work. It is impossible for me to continue as the space I’ve been working in is now our functioning home. Translating the monument making into this living domestic environment would feel like going back on myself, revisiting ideas from previous work and the first module. Although I don’t see this as a bad thing necessarily, I’m keen to follow the momentum of this work; moving myself and my photography along.
I don’t want to make ‘interior’ photographs but I’m interested in the space. It’s now full of objects and devices for living so it’s hard to access the pure space I was able to use and photograph previously. I feel a way around this will be to simulate space. The model I made in this module was something I’d like to go back to and refine. My model was inspired by a visit I made to the architecture school here in Cork during this model where I viewed some simple one room maquettes used for modelling light across a space. Out of coincidence these looked like pinhole cameras. I should reach out and try to make another visit here. I will also look for model making courses too.
Lighting models at Cork Centre for Architectural Education, June 2022.
I want to stay plugged into ideas I’ve drawn from Bachelard, particularly the place of the home in the universe (cosmology) and this idea of an imagined or idealised version of a home (oneiric). I don’t want any model making to be illustrative or and example of a ‘dream house’. I also don’t want to get into the psychology of the home, or my home. Less Freudian and more phenomenology. The pure image of a house that we carry around inside of use. However, as an exercise I am interested in reflecting on my past in the hope that it will give me a bit of a clearer idea of why this all interests me so much. I’ve recently discovered the method of autoethnographic writing and plan to use this to visit my own oneiric house. Hopefully this will reveal some of the ‘whys’ in my work.
I’m happy that my work was considered ‘accomplished’ and ‘innovative’ so I want to continue making strong work but take risks too. I also want to stick to work that excites me and feels like ‘something I would do’. I’m happy that the quality of my photomaking is improving . I’d like to focus on printing and learning how to get the best out of my image. I’m also keen to continue exploring the presentation for my photographs as structures or sculptures in their own right, but perhaps in more formal ways than used in this work.
I feel it’s becoming more important for me to zero in and focus on something specific. I did a lot in this module and the WIPP had several elements and different methods working with and maybe against each other but I’d like to challenge myself this time by being very specific, almost single minded in what I’m doing and see where this goes. This is something I struggle with!
