Chelsea Swan

Following the one to one with Jonathan, and the apparent lack in my statement that the lampshades ‘show everything’ I thought I would expand a little.

So first why do I want to make lampshades – because they are symbols of consumerism and the traditional home and its link to femininity and womanhood, as consumers, as aesthetic items, as objects, as part of the home, and of the difficulty to always have to rely on appearance and fitting in and looking good and decoration and prettiness and being appealing. This annoys me but I also take part in it. I am part of the system because I buy things that are marketed and made for me, by having them I encourage others to buy through making items seem appealing. I add to the data of things bought and where, films see, clothes worn, my desires are added to a spreadsheet somewhere. I am outwardly very feminine, dresses and pink and make up, I take part and continue that system of oppression and what it means to be a woman.

Second, why do I want to lay everything out like this. I see it as a form of diary where I take everything from the last few years that I have wanted to express, all my thoughts, ideas, experiences, I lay it all out in one place, show the complexity, to make a record, and to see it all for myself at once in the hope to better understand it all. I said that I was wanting to use my practice and this course to find an answer even though I am not even sure of the question yet. That I wanted to explore and play and hope to find what is on the tip of my tongue by the end of it. This is may way of doing that.

This is all very personal and very much like a diary and it is my way of expressing things in a way that combines autoethnography, phenomenology, and psychogeography, as I went over in the previous post. This is where I start to glitch, however, as it seems tedious to go into detail and explain the thought behind each panel. I did the mind map, I did the sketches, and labeled them with what they are about. I would rather explain each lampshade as I finish it . Some of the themes didn’t even make the cut and some have been altered. I am making more of a effort to be reflective. I am just saying I will reflect on the individual panels later.