Initial Concept

My previous presentation spoke of creating an alternative landscape and an attempt to map out the subconscious connecting out disconnected layers of thoughts.

I referenced Suminagashi (Japanese Paper Marbling), Jean Dubuffet and Keith Haring as three possible inspirations for this project.

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Looking at the bigger picture: Connectedness & Disconnectivity

Based on the idea of connectivity, I brainstormed and threw out all possible directions i may go into.

The rough points below shows these directions:

1. daydream- absence of conciousness/ control/ lack of awareness of lack of control
2. Concious action of losing control, Techniques that limit control?
3. Have a greater intention from the action of doing nothing
4. the idiosyncratic ways people moved when they day dream/ which parts of brain active during day dreaming
5. inability to control their habit of daydreaming: maladaptive day dreaming
6. state of suspension; free falling
7. static and suspension: not retreating into an inner world but putting a hold on my real world?
8. interesting fact: dreams arise on their own, not from perception
9. sleep, block out all realities
10. safety net, like a baby
11. maruo suehero

 

Further Research : Yokai Monsters

Yokai Museum: The Art of Japanese Supernatural Beings from YUMOTO KOICHI Collection by PIE Books

 

I stumbled upon this book with ghastly graphics on a trip to the national library. It spoke of these monsters that the Japanese have been ‘keeping a record of’ since the Edo period through paintings, wood blocking, etching etc. They are found everywhere; books, childhood games, furnitures, clothes etc

Here is a short description from the internet:

Yōkai (妖怪, phantom, strange apparition) are a class of supernatural monsters and spirits in Japanese folklore. The word yōkai is made up of the kanji for “bewitching; attractive; calamity;” and “spectre; apparition; mystery; suspicious”.

Yōkai range eclectically from the malevolent to the mischievous, or occasionally bring good fortune to those who encounter them.

Japanese folklorists and historians use yōkai as “supernatural or unaccountable phenomena to their informants.

1. Youkai Kanji and Youkai Definition via Denshi Jisho at jisho.org Retrieved 5 March 2016.
2. “Toriyama Sekien ~ 鳥山石燕 （とりやませきえん） ~ part of The Obakemono Project: An Online Encylopedia of Yōkai and Bakemono”. Obakemono.com. Archived from the original on 26 July 2013.Retrieved 5 March 2016.

 

Further Research : Types of Yōkai Monsters

Yōkai can be the transformations  of animals, plants, utensils, natural phenomena (e.g. sun, wind etc) or humans.

For more information, check out this book from the ADM library: Traditional Monster Imagery in Manga, Anime and Japanese Cinema by Zilia Papp, NC 1764.5 J3. P218t

Refined Direction: Yokai dreamscape

My final direction is to show how everything in this world is linked- Fragments of dreams are just pieces of reflection of reality.

This alternative landscape of human – like monsters helps me fulfil this direction.