Projects 7, 8 and 9 will focus on identifying, planning and setting your own aims and objectives mapped out within your Personal Framework. You will use the space and time within these projects to create a body of work that brings together aspects of your practice and research activities to date coherently and professionally.
In Project 7 you will spend time reflecting on what you want to do, map out the connections between your practical work and Critical Review, and, importantly, plan how your work is informed by and communicates a perspective on the wider world.
During this course unit, you will have expanded your understanding and knowledge of how creative arts connect with many other areas of our lives, including technology, history, anthropology, science and climate change. You have reflected on how various creative practitioners communicate points of view and shape the way communities think and identify themselves.
The creative arts have a long history of intersecting with many areas of our lives and inevitably impact how societies change and grow. Although the intersections between the creative arts and other subjects are endless, you should begin your project by mapping out the interrelationships within your practice, the disciplines you employ, the context you work within, the methods and approaches you apply, the themes you are interested in and the audiences you are engaging with.
Case Study: Anna Atkins by Annabel Dover
Anna Atkins is a mysterious figure of the Victorian era and one often hailed as a naive amateur who stumbled upon a beautiful early photographic technique; cyanotype. She was, however, an accomplished draughtswoman, novelist, photographer and botanist, and her work exists between the disciplines of science and art.
The artist Annabel Dover studied Atkins for her practice-led PhD at Chelsea and, after studying Atkins’ original prints, discovered that the botanical specimens Atkins used as her photographic subjects may well have been ‘faked’. Atkins gave these prints to the scientific institutions that refused her as a member due to her sex.
Through this discovery, Dover uses a collection of found photographs and creative writing to write the novel Florilegia (2021). This novel is the basis of an upcoming podcast with writer Jennifer Higgie, and Dover is currently writing a second novel that considers Atkins’ work in the context of contemporary art.
Annabel Dover uses a variety of media, including drawing, painting, film-making and writing, often responding to historical female figures and the natural world around her.Annabel Dover, Botanical Storytelling and Collections: Anna Atkins Plants and Lies [padlet].
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Exercise 1: Planning a ProjectReflect on your work to date and write a plan and introduction to your project, setting out clear aims and objectives. Aims define your intentions, and outcomes are what you hope to produce by the end of the project. Your self-directed project should have elements of what you want to do as a creative practitioner – what you find interesting and motivating – and what you might need to do to help you develop. Respond to these questions to get started:
- What is the starting point for this work?
- What are your main areas of research within the context of perspectives?
- Does your work explore a new way of seeing the world?
- Who is your audience, and what message are you conveying?
- How is your specific practice situated by your perspective on the world?
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RESEARCH
Leukothea, White Goddess: the nymph of the foam of the waves.
Rhapsody V of the Odyssey tells the story of Odysseus’ return from the island of Calypso to the island of Phaeacia, which is very close to Ithaca. This return is also a return to the human world. After the gods decided to let Odysseus return, and their message was conveyed by Hermes to the nymph, it was necessary to organize the hero’s departure. He had to set about building a small advantage in a few days, equipped with a foresail and a rudder, as well as a mast and sail. For seventeen days and without any sleep, Odysseus sailed straight ahead, with the Great Bear in his left hand. Although Homer mentions the Great Bear in conjunction with the polar star, the route follows a constant easterly direction. On the eighteenth day, Odysseus sees the land of the Phaeacians and its dark forests. He is therefore almost there. At that moment, Poseidon, returning from Africa and seeing the situation, realizes that his old enemy has almost managed to return to good conditions. Then the god unleashes a storm where the winds blow simultaneously from the four points of the horizon.
If he drowns, the sailor fears a fate harsher than if he died on land, in front of Troy, because then he would have a funeral with all the honours, praising his glory. At that moment, a large wave throws him into the raging sea and breaks up his ship. He is drowning, unable to surface due to the weight of his soaked clothes. He tries to grab what he can from the remains of his raft. But then the four winds push him here and there, each in its own direction. At this point, a goddess, Leucothea, takes pity on him and offers him a sure way to save his life: a veil (Rhapsody V, v. 184). Offering this veil to Odysseus, Leucothea advises him to swim steadily by spreading it across his chest. This veil is “immortal”, since it comes from a deity and protects from death. After this, the goddess dives back into the sea, which “covers” her.
Odysseus does not rely on this promise of salvation and prefers to hold on to what is left of his raft for as long as it lasts. No matter how much the veil protects him, he will ultimately decide to swim only when he cannot do otherwise, that is, soon. At this point, he takes off the clothes that Calypso gave him. He then covers his chest with the immortal veil and throws himself into the water: “he dives headlong, both arms open and begins to swim”. Poseidon can leave in peace: Odysseus has no chance of surviving.
However, he swam for two days and two nights. On the morning of the third day he is very close to the shore, but the force of the waves hitting the sharp rocks of the coast prevents him from reaching land. Another big wave throws him onto the rock, from which he is holding on, scalding his fingers. And then, as the wave abruptly recedes, he is swept out to sea and the sea covers him. Then Athena decides to help him and he is able to swim again, looking for an accessible shore. When he finally steps on land, he takes off Lefkothea’s veil and sends it back into the sea, as the goddess had requested, and she takes it. Odysseus may then think that it is time to rest. He makes a bed of dry leaves and covers himself with them.
In this entire scene with Odysseus’ swimming, the saving veil stands out, which, worn around his chest, will save him from the wave that could cover him, or even swallow him. He throws himself into the water with this veil only on him, as if he absolutely needs it to swim, that is, to avoid being completely covered by the water. When he reaches land, he makes a cover of leaves and the veil of sleep covers him.
References:
Homer. The Odyssey. London : New York :W. Heinemann; G.P. Putnam’s sons, 1919.
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My China odyssey keeps on inspiring me. Reflecting on the original, I can’t help but make connections all the time, parallelising my adventure with Homer’s work. A name that has always meant something to me is Leukothea. The Goddess that saved Odysseus. In real life, being isolated and stranded somewhere in China, unable to communicate appropriately and being through complex tasks, it would be very logical to lose faith and quit: Forget this journey and get back to the safety and the comfort of home and family. It is like living in the perfect storm Odysseus faces, as described by Homer. But the crucial moment, the time faith is lost, there is an unexpected visit. In Odyssey, a goddess orders Odysseus to strip naked and use a veil to save his life. My veil is art: the force and the powerful light that comes with it is my saviour who holds my hand and becomes my refuge until the storm passes.
Leucothea
Desperate from the hunt of the wild Poseidon,
I fell into the sea to save myself.
The journey ends here! I said.
I should not have left the certainty of Calypso,
and asked to go far away!
And then she appeared before me.
Take off your clothes! She said.
This veil will save you!
She threw the garment at me and disappeared.
I did not believe her, I confess.
With the storm around me,
The winds blowing from all sides,
I thought I would find a way.
But there was no way.
The raging Sea swallowed my raft.
I took off my clothes.
‘Thus naked I will face you, Poseidon!’ I said.
With the transparent veil girded
And with my gaze towards the Phaeacian Land,
I did not stop swimming.
…That morning, she found me with my face in the sand.
I had reached the shore.
And then she reappeared before me.
Could you give me back the veil? she said.
I returned it to her with respect.
This piece of cloth saved me! I said.
You saved yourself alone! You just had to believe in something!
The veil gave you the certainty that you would be saved,
But the one who swam and came to shore was you.
I knew it from the beginning. I said.
I wanted to have someone who would believe in me.
Who would offer something of themselves and give me faith?
Leukothea turned and disappeared into the foam of the now-calm sea.
Now that I think about it, life always needs a Lefkothea,
who will wrap you in her veil and fall into the void,
sure that you will always be saved,
even if you are walking towards destruction.
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