week five, stimuli

This week we looked at the stimuli for our solo performance and brainstormed our initial ideas for each one.

Stimulus One

In this photo I was drawn to the fact that the man's eyes have been blanked out, his head is low, the outline of his head can be seen but his mind is empty and the colours are quite muted and bleak. This led me to having these initial ideas:

• a struggle to see yourself the way other people see you
• feeling incomplete - perhaps losing a part of yourself when a family member passes away
• erasing a memory of a past event
• feeling shameful or guilty
• being blind - may feel like you are lost or trapped, unable to form images in your mind without a view of the world, dreams are only a compilation of sounds
• mental health, male suicide, loss of identity

Stimulus Two

• The bleak setting made me think of an abandoned, broken and derelict city - similar to the result of the disaster in Chernobyl
•  I thought about being the only survivor of a natural disaster and the whirlwind of emotions that may follow when seeing the world you live in being reduced to a state of ruin and isolation
• The falling pylons made me think of rigid and powerful structures becoming weak, rotting, crumbling
• mass fires -causes destruction to both the natural world and humans
• running away from the unknown or not knowing what lies ahead

Stimulus Three

• a life seen through the camera, growing up through images, family photo albums
• evolution of technology
• models and celebrities living a life with no escape from the camera (paparazzi), always being watched and critisised
• pictures showing a filtered and edited version of life that is 'perfect', when reality is much more challenging and depressing
• history captured in photos in newspapers

Stimulus Four

• The long lines of children reminded me of concentration camps and the Holocaust
• fearful children forced into fighting due to the war torn countries they live in
• loss of innocence as childhood games are replaced with the horrors of real life - toy guns are replaced with real guns and fighting games become a reality
• fear being used as a weapon, children kidnapped and forced to mature at a young age

Stimulus Five

• The patterns in this photo reminded me of constellations, horoscopes and stars deciding your fate or destiny, your future written in the stars
• The sharp lines and connections made me think of energy and sparks in the transference of electricity
• I also thought about what social media would look like behind the glass, with your online presence, friends, connections, popularity and identity all saved in the depths of the internet
• This led me to think about likes and dislikes online taking control of you and determining your mood

Stimulus Six

• This image made me think about the industrial revolution - improvements in the industry caused a social decline, poverty, poor health and a bleak atmosphere
• The thick black smoke made me think about the damage caused to the body from smoking cigarettes
• A theme could be rising pressure and intensity like swirling smoke
• Inspiring words- swarming, choking, overwhelming, surrounding, breath

Stimulus Seven

• I initially thought about the transformation from birth to death or from death to birth, showing either growth and discovery or loss and deterioration
• The idea of advances in technology surpassing human ability
• The fact that the shapes making up the human body are slowly breaking away made me think about losing confidence, becoming weaker, breaking down
• This idea of breaking down could relate to life threatening illnesses or diseases causing the body and mind to deteriorate

Stimulus Eight

• The cogs and mechanics in the head made me think of social conditioning - everyone being programmed and molded to think a certain way and to share the same beliefs. This raised a few potential topics such as perceptions of beauty, rape culture and stigmas around mental health.
•  I also thought about the cogs as being the building blocks for someones characteristics and personality, with the combination of cogs influencing how people may cope with different events, such as losing a family member, and perhaps if a cog was broken, their mood may be affected. 
• This led me to think about mental health, for example if a cog got stuck or damaged this may trigger feelings of depression or discomfort. The intricacy of the cogs and all the small parts that come together to build a machine may represent all the layers that play a part in recovery, showing that it isn't as easy as just smiling to help someone heal from a mental illness. 
• The fact that you can't see any of the skin of the person in the image made me think about how all humans are 'programmed' and built the same underneath, we all have emotions, opinions and a voice, no matter what race or gender.

At the moment, I am most drawn to stimulus one, two and eight, however I would like to further research music and my ideas to help me finalize my decision.