Collection of items!

Throughout the summer I had to collect and document as much of my activity as possible so when I return to class, I have a significant body of evidence to gather inspiration from. At first I found this task tedious and resisted it a bit, but as I found myself doing it, I realised the vast scale of grand things that I have done that exist only in memory, and whilst I still have those memories, something personal yet shareable, not to mention physical, would have been a lot better- doing this also actively encouraged me to go out and have loads of fun and be really irresponsible and travel far! It made the idea of going out and then eventually having to go home not as miserable as I'd know I'd return to documentation of the day which was always thrilling.

I started off where most artists would, with sketches of where I visited, whenever I see these, I remember the exact time and place, which must mean they're very powerful

View from power box on Putney High Str.

        Need I explain where this is?

  My room before it underwent changes.

Discreet section of Wimbledon Common.

 The sketches were an opportunity for me to remind myself of a enjoyable memory in a very specific moment, when I reflect on memories, I'm always aware of the place however I could never specifically say where they were just give a general description, on the other with these sketches; not only do the sketches depict accurately where I was, but my actual raw memories from doing them has aligned them to a very accurate place in time and space within my mind which I'm finding to be increasingly helpful. 

 Visual responses were also very helpful but what would be equally as helpful is an actual physical collection of materials and resources- I needed to collect stuff to respond to, you can't sketch absolutely everything, well you can but when you're in a restaurant you're there to eat, not draw, so it doesn't always prove practical, whereas a leaflet, or a menu is a direct indication to anyone rummaging through your items that you went to that specific place, accopanied by a receipt and you have yourself two things which depict exactly where you went, what you brought, and when you did it. The box also proved itself as a practical solution to sketching with respect to the size of these items, I couldn't physically record a book in my journal, responding would seem odd, instead I simply placed it in the box and receited the significance of it in class, simple.

 In between sketching and some cumbersome box, I wanted to create something more compact, yet, three-dimensional, physical and presentable, a journal. The journal would admittedly prove to be my most enjoyable yet time-consuming of the three, we put so much emphasis in this world on 'capturing' a moment yet people seem to think that capturing is limited to photos, anywhere I'd visit, I'd keep tickets, flyers, sweet wrappers, receipts and photos..(yes but they're amongst a host of other things!) 

and create a piece out of them themselves, arranging them in exciting positions followed by writing and a quirky response and I had myself a book I could say I was very proud of! One of my most memorable days in the summer, seeing the Rolling Stones 'live' by climbing to a ridiculous height in a tree in Hyde Park, was all documented, hanging on with one hand and taking photos with the other, this was an example of the standard of pages that I was creating.

Due to my 'success' at collecting in various different ways over the summer I now have a substantial body of work to gather inspiration and ideas from, as you can see from my journal my days out were already producing some work so getting started and excited by this shouldn't be too difficult. Memories is such a broad topic, (within reason) which allows for me to respond to a seemingly endless number of things and events, which is also very promising!