Courtesy Jonathan Hart (Timeline and Self-Portrait)
The Infamous Self-Portrait and Timeline Project:
“Who am I anyway? Am I my resume, which is a picture of a person I don’t know.”
-A Chorus Line
When was the last time you looked long and hard at yourself in the mirror?
When was the last time you wrote in your diary or journel?
When you meet someone new, how do you tell them quickly about yourself?
Sometimes it seems so obvious but the reality is that we are very complex and unique.
If you don't take time to know who you are then how will others know who you are?
Sometimes we like to think that the "work speaks for itself" and perhaps in some instances it does, but a designer must also learn to speak on behalf of the work that we do for clients. We have strategies and concepts that sometimes go unnoticed by the public and the client. With our voices we can speak to the reasons and come to the defense of our work. Learn to speak up with confidence.
This project should help you identify yourself at this moment in time. August 2011.
Let this be a snapshot of who you are and how you want to present yourself to others.
This project will be hung in the display cabinets so that other students, designers and faculty can get a chance to know who you are and what you think is important to yourself as a new designer...and as a person.
Throughout your career as an artist/designer, there will be occasions when you will asked to submit an "image" (usually a photo) of yourself for a variety of professional reasons. This personal image of yourself might be used in tandem with an article you might have written, winner of a competition, a speaking engagement, a blog, a newspaper article, a gallery exhibition or even an interview in a periodical. This project will serve to demonstrate how you want to project yourself as a designer/artist at this point in your life. This project will make you take a good long look at yourself and where you are currently in your life. Perhaps you create an image of yourself that will possibly follow you throughout your academic career here at GSU.
Background Info:
Self-portraits are not just a reflection of what they look like but also of how the artist interprets themselves and the world around them. It is perhaps the most personal story that the artist can tell and makes the self-portrait one of art's most important subjects. These types of self-portraits by artists/designers have quite a history. Since the fifteenth century and the advent of the mirror artists have modeled for themselves in their own works of art. Whether it is an in-depth exploration of the artist’s own psyche or simply as a model, the artist is clearly the cheapest and most available. Whatever the reason, most every artist, in every medium from painters to sculptors have attempted this exploration of self-image that is self-revealing.
Since the Renaissance, artists have used self-portraits to explore a basic question: Who am I?
While a mirror or a photograph can tell a person what he or she looks like, that physical image does not reflect the whole self, the whole persona. Self-portraiture insists the artist embark on a journey of self-exploration in order to make decisions about how to represent him/herself authentically. For each self-portrait, the artist must ask: What expression, posture, clothing, background, colors, texture, and style best express the real me? Might those answers be different at any given time or on any given day? Self-portraits may also represent an artist’s quest for immortality, as a way to leave behind an image that will outlive the artist. Sometimes self-portraits are celebrated for their pure vanity (see Warhol images.)
Production:
Be creative. Think outside the norm. Be Bold. Be Brave. Be Insightful. Be True.
How you wish to create this is up to each of you. It might be a really creative formal head shot or a series of images of you in various color palettes (again Warhol images), it might be a painting, a paper collage, a drawing, mixed media, film or video, print (Polaroid transfers/cell phone photos), high contrast b/w decal or spray transfer, image from video, etc. You might wish to present only a portion of your body (cropped images that are stitched together via thread) or a full-length image. Depending on your concept of who you are, it might be a classical pose (Rembrandt) or a contemporary depiction (see Lucas Samaras); it might also be an altered image of another famous self-portrait (cut-paste); and lastly, it might be an image of yourself on black velvet (ala Elvis.)
Experiment. Be Bold. Be Brave.
You can be daring or bold, but most importantly be honest and creative. You have permission to make this self-portrait however you wish (paint-by-number, arts and craft glued beans and macaroni, etc.) It might be a video that runs over and over on a TV set-flickering and edited.
*NOTE: All of these images will be displayed for others to “see” who you are and hopefully create a sense of conversation and spark enlightenment as to your new status as a Graphic Design major at GSU.
PART TWO
The Personal Timeline Project:
If you have ever taken the time to read “The Artist Way” by Julia Cameron the you will begin to
Know that the direction you are heading in is guided by your past and your place in this world, but more importantly your own world. I do believe we create our own reality. The Good and the Bad.
“See it. Believe it. Achieve it.”
By creating a creative timeline of how you got to where you are right now at this moment is critical to knowing where you might want to be in the future. This timeline should demonstrate (in any method you wish) how you got to where you are. It should reinforce all those “forks in the road” and those painful and ceremonial decisions you had to make to land up as a Junior in the Graphic Design Department at GSU.
How will you link your past to your future?
Who will show up on your visual timeline?
Will it be a historical timeline of names, places, and dates or will it be more esoteric?
It is important to retrace your steps and those people and places and events that changed the course of your life.
Are you the master of your own path or have others guided you?
Be creative.
Take this serious because I have seen this type of project actually change artist for the better.
For every action, there is a reaction and you are a part of that kinetic energy that moves us through time and space.
Use any method you wish to complete this project.
You might want to do a video, compose a song, create a printed document or a one act play just to name a few.
Presentation must be professional.
For Reference about "Who am I anyway?" Comes from the hit Broadway musical entitled "A Chorus Line" (below is a cut from the LaGuardia Arts rehearsal of the same show.
LaGuardia Arts - " A CHORUS LINE " - Auditioners introduce themselves - NYC - Dec. 13, 2009 from LaGuardia Arts on Vimeo.
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