HUMANS & REMAINS
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My ideas were influenced by multiple sources of research that offered the disturbing upcoming possibility that is our species’ self-extinction. Lynton Keith Caldwell and Nick Bostrom put forward their views in separate chapters of books and articles, both titled The Future of Humanity. Both recognise that the culprit of this end result is in fact humanity’s own self-destructive behaviour, where our negligence has inadvertently led to our own demise.
Final Major Project
Fine Art Foundation
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Brief
The
B.Y.O.B
(Bring your own Brief)
I wanted to focus on the idea of what will remain as evidence of humanity after we are long gone. How will we be remembered as a species? Will it be for our self- destructive actions and behaviour? Will it be our appearance or our actions and what we do with our bodies?
I started by exploring how our appearance and behaviour will be remembered but in its simplest form; by looking at human body movement and behaviour. In front of a green screen, I idly walked around the small space in my bedroom on film with my features concealed. I decided to apply the same technique used in my paintings to my editing process, but with no specific outcome in mind. I created multiple layers of the same video over each other, as I had acknowledged from previous examinations of the eerie – that it is emphasised by repetition. The result: A documentation of human movement, illustrated by the large mass of "flesh" or human parts suggesting a sense of community and collective existence within a society.
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1. Physical Form
- Lynton Keith Caldwell, "Is Humanity Destined to Self-Destruct?"
Insight
3
"Modern society collectively has not yet comprehended that its course of development has brought it to a basic change-of state. Success in improving the human condition within the environment has obscured the risks incurred in its achievement."
2. Man-made Materials
Once I had my design sketches, I began to cast my limbs to create a human form that was deteriorating, using Plaster of Paris and spray foam to mimic concrete while still being light and portable. Although I was unfamiliar with these new materials, I was able to create an eerie eye-catching base to my final piece, learning and adapting my skills as I faced new obstacles along the way.
As my intentions were to create a piece that portrays a reflection on humanity as whole, I took into consideration what materials I could use that had dated associations, in order to position the viewer as looking to the past. I reflected on my own past, and what I considered to resonate nostalgia within myself - cream colours, CRTs, etc. I created a focus around the notion of human ‘remains’ being made up of the very substances and objects of our own fashioning - such as electronics, buildings and concrete.
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REFLECTIONS
In this project I learnt a lot of new techniques, partly through the need to adapt my process due to technical issues, or alterations. But I also found the need to try new processes and mediums entirely in order to perfect the vision and strong narrative I was driven by.
It taught me the ability to be resourceful and open to new ideas while creating. Therefore, despite being the result of a potential obstacle, not only did I overcome the situation by experimenting and playing, but I discovered a new medium that I would love to include in my future work.
