Tuesday 29 June 2010
Wednesday 23 June 2010
Memories Brainstorm
I started by comming up with questions on what a memory is then I proceded to link these questions with my chosen item. For example I wondered if the real meaning behind my item was forgotten or was it simply passed on through generations.
Monday 14 June 2010
Pitt Rivers Trip
The museum
Last week our Diploma group visited Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford in order to gain inspiration for our projects, as well as get an idea of memories through time.
During our visit to the Pitt Rivers museum we were given various tasks. The beginning task involved in us getting into groups and then each group was given an item that they must look around the museum in order to answer questions such as where it came from and what it was used for. I enjoyed this activity as it required me and my team to think outside the box and not necessarily look for the obvious but for the little minor details that made the object special to a certain group of people.
Our next activity was to look around the museum and search for three items that caught our attention and then we needed to draw or take a series of photographs of these. I looked around for a while and then found - A samurai helmet, a samurai sword and a pistol. I really liked the samurai section as I liked the idea of a culture that was so against cowardness and giving up that a lot of their equipment revolved around this ideology.
The reason I chose to pick a sword-although predictable of me- was that not only did it hold the memories of who owned it but also the memories of the people that were killed by it and I found this fascinating. I chose the pistol because I found out from reading what was written next to it that it was intended to be used in a James Bond film, however because it looked so feminine it was replaced with a bigger model; it struck me why the film makers wouldn't want the gun to look feminine then i read that the film was shot during the Cold War and America wanted to portray itself as powerful as it could.
After finding three items we then had to pick one of the three items and oserve it in detail. I chose the samurai helmet because it was the item that I felt held the most significant value out of the other 2. Not only was it used for protection (as one would guess by just looking at it) but it was also used as a form of art. The more artistic a samurai you were the more fancy-looking your helmet would have been and the more you would have been respected. The colours used to decorate the helmet are also a key - only one colour would be used as the w
ord for two colours 'ni-ke' sounded a lot like the verb 'to flee' and any connection to cowardness was regarded as weakness. Lastly there was an adornment on my chosen helmet and I read that if a samurai disrespected the emperor then they would have this adornment taken of their helmet and armour to show that they've been disowned and would therefore be looked down at in battle
.
What I learnt
During the trip the most important thing I learnt was how a single object could hold the memories of an entire culture. I learnt how an object could be interpreted in many different ways and could mean different things to different people yet the object stays the same. This has inspired me for my project as it allows me to explore different options regarding the use of different objects and the different meanings they can have.
Last week our Diploma group visited Pitt Rivers museum in Oxford in order to gain inspiration for our projects, as well as get an idea of memories through time.
During our visit to the Pitt Rivers museum we were given various tasks. The beginning task involved in us getting into groups and then each group was given an item that they must look around the museum in order to answer questions such as where it came from and what it was used for. I enjoyed this activity as it required me and my team to think outside the box and not necessarily look for the obvious but for the little minor details that made the object special to a certain group of people.
Our next activity was to look around the museum and search for three items that caught our attention and then we needed to draw or take a series of photographs of these. I looked around for a while and then found - A samurai helmet, a samurai sword and a pistol. I really liked the samurai section as I liked the idea of a culture that was so against cowardness and giving up that a lot of their equipment revolved around this ideology.The reason I chose to pick a sword-although predictable of me- was that not only did it hold the memories of who owned it but also the memories of the people that were killed by it and I found this fascinating. I chose the pistol because I found out from reading what was written next to it that it was intended to be used in a James Bond film, however because it looked so feminine it was replaced with a bigger model; it struck me why the film makers wouldn't want the gun to look feminine then i read that the film was shot during the Cold War and America wanted to portray itself as powerful as it could.
After finding three items we then had to pick one of the three items and oserve it in detail. I chose the samurai helmet because it was the item that I felt held the most significant value out of the other 2. Not only was it used for protection (as one would guess by just looking at it) but it was also used as a form of art. The more artistic a samurai you were the more fancy-looking your helmet would have been and the more you would have been respected. The colours used to decorate the helmet are also a key - only one colour would be used as the w
ord for two colours 'ni-ke' sounded a lot like the verb 'to flee' and any connection to cowardness was regarded as weakness. Lastly there was an adornment on my chosen helmet and I read that if a samurai disrespected the emperor then they would have this adornment taken of their helmet and armour to show that they've been disowned and would therefore be looked down at in battle.
What I learnt
During the trip the most important thing I learnt was how a single object could hold the memories of an entire culture. I learnt how an object could be interpreted in many different ways and could mean different things to different people yet the object stays the same. This has inspired me for my project as it allows me to explore different options regarding the use of different objects and the different meanings they can have.
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