Final Piece Presentation Experimentation...

For the presentation of my final piece I have looked into ways in which I can present my theme of 'sleep' in an interesting an innovative way rather than just framing them on a wall.

For example, using a bed and bedding to illustrate the idea of someone being asleep and have the images mounted onto foam board and laid on top of the bedding. Another option could be to use a dream catcher to present my photographs and have each one dangling from the ceiling as dreams are often pictured alongside dream catchers, however I didn't want the presentation of the dreams to be too obvious as dreams themselves are often unambiguous, as they are so unrealistic and fantasised.

1st Experimentation:

I also looked into the idea of tearing up my images into strips and framing them to make the whole image as a way of symbolising the idea of how our dreams can often be mixed up with memories and flashbacks and are often disjointed and confusing. The presentation would mirror the way we think in a chaotic way rather than clear, solid images.

2nd Experimentation:

I experimented with printing the images onto tracing paper and then layering them over each other to give the effect of how our dreams repeat and become chaotic as we sleep. By doing this it creates a crowded view of each image which again enhances the idea that dreams repeat and over lap each other through the night. The reason I chose not to use this as my final piece presentation is that the images were unclear in illustrating each dream and although I want them to overlap each other, I still wanted the original dreams to be clear and open for interpretation. I also wanted to develop this idea, into a more refined version.

3rd Experimentation:

Another option for the presentation of my final piece was to drop ink onto the images. This illustrates the dark side of dreams and how when we sleep often our thoughts become chaotic and appear to be messy when they present themselves in our unconscious mind. To portray this in the form of ink, I used black ink and added water to it so that when it was dropped onto the images it would run into the photos and appear messily onto the page.  

4th Experimentation:

I then started looking at merging three of my images and overlapping them onto one image. When people dream it is common that their dreams will overlap and repeat and become blurred and chaotic as they sleep. This presentation technique illustrates this idea in that they are all blurred and unclear from each other. The reason I chose not to use this presentation in my final piece is due to the layering of three images, the viewer is unable to make out the initial dream and I want the dreams to be clear throughout.

5th Experimentation:

I wanted to show the theme of dreams within the presentation of my final piece as my projects title is 'sleep' and I have developed the theme of dreams from that. To illustrate the theme of dreams throughout my final piece  I will be presenting the images onto pillows to symbolise the way that when we sleep we lay our heads onto pillows; As we sleep we dream and a lot of dreams stem from imaginations and fantasies taking place in our minds eye. The reason I will be printing my photographs onto the pillows is to be symbolic of how when we wake from a dream its as if we are leaving the dream in that sleeping state as we often forget it and it becomes unimportant so we leave it where we found it, and where we last had it, from our mind onto the pillow. Although, this technique allows the viewer to clearly interpret each dream, it lacks the ability to illustrate how our dreams overlap and become chaotic as we sleep. To make this more evident I chose not to use single images , and instead merge just two of the same image so that you can clearly see each dream but it also allows for the development of layering to imply reoccurring dreams.

The above images are some mock trials of the single images onto the pillowcases. Although this illustrates the idea that when we sleep our dreams go onto our pillows. However, I also wanted to incorporate the merged effect of the overlapping images to emphasise that they over dreams which have blurred into each other which often happens when we dream. To develop the presentation of my images further I chose to merge just two of the same images as I didn't want the images to become so distorted that you couldn't make out what was going on in the photograph. By merging to photos from the same series together it further enhances the idea that our dreams are often repeated, and seem similar but not the same. Furthermore, sometimes people say they cannot remember a dream when in actual fact as we sleep some of our dream merges with a similar dream we had years ago and become one unfamiliar dream which is easier to 'forget'.

6th Experimentation: 

These are the final images that I will be using in my final piece, transferred onto pillowcases. The reason I chose to overlap two images from the same series instead of three from different series  is because I didn't want them to become too blurred that they were unclear as to what they were trying to portray. I still wanted to show how our dreams layer and reoccur as we sleep but in a clear and sharp way, that still shows each colour within the images rather than a grey blur of images. However I wanted to developed the images from just one image on each pillowcase to illustrate the chaos and layering of dreams which mirrors the way I chose to present my photos.

I will also be putting feathers on top of each pillow, which ties in each element of the development work I did leading up to my final piece, as I used feathers in other pieces of photography within this project as a way of symbolising what we think of when we think of sleep as well as dreams.