Your Title Here... Preserving Memories

purchasing something. Then on with the primary research, asking friends and family about their own past memories how far back they can remember, what they enjoy remembering and why, why they think they forget bad memories and what usually triggers their memory of a certain moment. With this information I will then be able to develop my idea further and produce the final artifact for this brief, by using materials and techniques such as stop frame animation to show a little about myself personally and what I enjoy working with.

For this project we were asked to self direct our own brief, so I started off by brainstorming what I’m interested in and what would say something about myself. I began by thinking about what I enjoy most, and what I thought I would enjoy working on most, for example photography, crafts, films, music, nature and memories etc. I chose to look at my own photography and what I get from that, it then lead to how I see these photos and events and the memories from them. I began working with the images from the places I enjoyed being at most and what memories make me feel happy looking back on them. By researching into how our memories make us feel and seeing how others cope with theirs I can transfer this idea into my final artifact. I plan to start off by gathering together secondary research through film and online articles on the topic of memories and what makes us happy and sad from those moments, why and how we find events more effective to make us happier for longer than

Emily Gutteridge GDNM Year 2Your title here...Preserving Memories EGNM2007

Secondary Rearch Video and ArticlesI began looking at articles online, including research and facts about memories in general, how our memories are triggered and what emotions they trigger by remembering something that made you feel good at that time. This then went on to how memories are more precious to us than what we buy, because it’s more personal and the feeling of that memory can last longer than the joy we get from purchasing an item. Then with feedback I got in a tutorial, I needed to expand the research I was going to look at, widen the area and go in more in depth. It was suggested to me to look at why people find that memories make their happiness last longer than when gaining a possession; to ask friends and family what they can remember most, whether it is an object or an event. How and why people forget memories, and why photography is important to our memories, as well as how we use it; uploading to blogs and social networks. Finally what styles/ types of photography can trigger our memories of what eras.

Through my research I found A documentary called ‘Happy’ which demonstrates how people all over the world experience new things and are enjoying life, Roko Belic who directs the film finds out how people get through life when it’s hard, who struggle with depression but are still keeping positive, it’s relevance to my research is that it shows how these peoples memories and experiences effect their emotions. Other films recommended to me were the TV program ‘Black Mirror’ shown on channel 4 and the film ‘Paper Heart’ a documentary on love. ‘Black Mirror’ was really helpful to watch, because in this episode showed the main concept of being able to project your memories out and allowing anyone or just yourself to view them whenever you want, controlled by a chip behind the users ear. It allowed them to control, delete and edit the past moments, I found this a very creative way of imagining how you could re-experience your life; it could be quite fun, entertaining but also damaging to others

relationships. ‘Paper Heart’ is a fun take on relationships, but what I took from it mostly was the use of elder couples being interviewed about their memories when they met and what they feel.about it now, having that description re-made out of card/ cheap materials as a short story, it’s fun unique and an interesting way to portray others memories.

(Top) ‘Paper Heart [2009] Nicholas Jasenovec

(Bottom Left) ‘Black Mirror’ [2011]

(Bottom Right) ‘Happy’ Roko Belic

Emily Gutteridge GDNM Year 2Your title here...Preserving Memories EGNM2007

Primary Research QuestionnaireThis research was really interesting and helpful to my project, I was able to see the differences between how people remember things, how far back they could remember and what they thought of their memories. I sent this questionnaire out to my friends and family, I got about eight responses back and most of them were filled out quite well with detailed answers.I asked various people of different ages so it was interesting to see how much they could remember and in how much detail, the younger ages seemed to remember less but also seemed to think about it less, so their answers weren’t in as much detail, however more recent memories would be of things that made them happy and say that memories they forget are usually ones they don’t enjoy thinking about because it makes them feel bad or sad remembering that time.Overall this research gave me some guidance on how I would see my own memories and thought how it would be better to concentrate on my memories which made me feel good.

Questionnaire

What do you like to remember most and why?

Do most of you memories make you feel good, why?

What usually triggers your memory?

What do you remember most?

Can you remember a lot from your childhood?

How far back do you remember, do you only remember pieces?

Do you have a favourite memory and what?Why do you forget memories?

Do you share memories with others or are they your own, why?

Do you have more than one good memory in one place, where?

Emily Gutteridge GDNM Year 2Your title here...Preserving Memories EGNM2007

Visual Research Animations

Not only did I look at films on happy memories and ways of seeing them, I wanted to create an animation from scratch so I went on to look at music videos, show reels, opening titles and advertising. I began by browsing on sites such as ‘The Link’ on our course blog, Booooom.com and vimeo. I searched mostly for stop frame animation using illustration, showing development of an image coming together, this gave me the inspiration for my own idea.Most of the videos do not have a reference to the context of my project, however the style and technique in them do, I used this visual research to imagine how my own work would eventually look and try to achieve a build up of an image from a photograph.Some videos however do have a slight reference to memories although not with stop frame animation for example ‘The Shins’ music video, the way they present their idea of memories in their video is very interesting and thought it would be helpful towards my work to analyse this.

(Top Left) The Shins ‘Simple Song” [music video]

(Top Right) Gotye “Somebody I udes to know” [music video]

(Middle) Outside in: The Story of Art In the Streets [documentary]

(Bottom Left) La Moustache reel 2011 [Show reel]

(Bottom Right) Starbucks “Introduce Yourself to a Free Tall Latte at Starbucks UK” [Advert]

Emily Gutteridge GDNM Year 2Your title here...Preserving Memories EGNM2007

Gathered Material and Experiments

Firstly I began with gathering photos/ images I had from home/ my own memories from events recent and very distant. Some images from different kinds of cameras, to help me decide what kind of style I would want to show my memories from and additional research to analyse how photos styles trigger memories from different times such as a disposable photo from your childhood or holiday.I wanted to give the idea of a photograph developing like it would if it were a polaroid camera, with the image just take gradually appearing.So to get practicing I started experimenting one with just pens, which I didn’t like as much because it didn’t give of the development style I was looking for and would need to be really detailed so would take up a lot more time. I then went on to work with Ink bleeding in water and taking photos of it running through, this idea came from a video from Solidarités International to show awareness of dirty water in other countries. This technique was much better for the look I wanted.

( To p l e f t ) Experiment one, with Ink and water

(Top r ight ) Childhood photo

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(Middle right) P h o t o g r a p h from Caversham

(Bottom right) P h o t o g r a p h from the Lake District

(middle left) Experiment two, pen and paper

(Middle right) D i s p o s a b l e photos from Isle of Whight

(Bottom left) Pin hole Camera pho t o s , i n Weatherspoons

Emily Gutteridge GDNM Year 2Your title here...Preserving Memories EGNM2007

My chosen Subject area is motion Graphics, specifically stop motion animation, I will be experimenting with illustration animation using stop frame techniques. The function of this will be to show a little about myself, to my friends, family or anyone new who is getting to know me. I tend to cherish my memories greatly, so for this project I wanted to show a way to display these memories in a way that would say a little about myself and what I can remember. I’ll look to see how others see their own memories, what triggers their favourite past times and how far back they can rememeber. By examining and analysing different techniques and materials used within stop frame anaimation I will work by experimenting with my own techniques from visual research gathered. However as well as the visual research from other practioners I will also gather images from my own photography (memories of my own) to carry out this brief fully. I will work to produce a series of experiments along with a questionaire to various friends and family, gathering information to then come to a final animation up to about 1 minute to demonstrate a way of seeing my memories developing, of what I enjoy looking back on and roughly from what I can remember.

Artifact and Brief

Emily Gutteridge GDNM Year 2Your title here...Preserving Memories EGNM2007

With my Artifact I wanted to demonstrate a way of seeing my memories, With one memory barely in tact is very simple and faded compared to a very recent memory that is very clear and in more detail.The photos at the beginning are a symbol of what triggers my memories and the ink bleeding through the water shows the image developing gradually as a polaroid photograph would.