I ask myself the question; Do we even need the land? Whilst deep in experimenting with acetate light and texture. I have thought a lot since the group crit, of Illustration, and mark making. And theses current experiments are a direct response to Briony talking about old maps and missing bits of land.
An interesting result when put on the scanner with the lid up. The acetate has been coloured with ink and watercolour, and non reflective plastic, of which I had some scraps. These show up in the preview but the scanner is unable to scan the image. Below is screenshot of the scan preview.
The acetate scanned ok with the lid down, and I also tried with a coloured backing behind. This backing was a doodle sketch made whilst wondering what to do next. I like the ethereal feel of this, and it made me ask the question; do we even need the land?
Blurred lines and ink spats on acetate and non reflective plastic, over pencil.
I then proceeded to experiment with a variety of different materials behind the acetate. With an off cut of blackout material above.
With tin foil, shiny side is darker than the matt side when scanned.
Lucky or Unlucky
Playing about with my scanner reminded me of a scan I took some years ago of my (then) black cat, Jack, sitting on my my scanner. The black cat abord the ship was seen as a lucky omen, more so than black cats on land, whose association with witches still gives them a bad name to this day. This eerie scan of cat paws appears to come form the deep, the black of the cat hidden in the surrounding darkness.
Another scan is of some old shoes. It was said to be good luck to throw an old pair of shoes over board before departing out to sea.
Photos of the sea, manipulated and laid under the acetate map.
Spectral Images
During these experiments I have been asking myself not only ‘do we need the land?’, but also do we need the globe? Originally when thinking of superstitions, i had a space in mind and I started the doodles on a map as I needed to do something visual. The more I experiment the more I feel that these images would work well in a space. I am also trying to get the feeling of the unknown and uncertain with these scans and images.
It would be good to have a central focus which could be globe of sorts in amongst the spectral images. I have been thinking along the idea of a suspended spherical buoy. It is one of the things that represents safety at sea, it provides certainty and safe passage.
I took a look at different colours and meanings, and there is more psychology reading on this subject.
Colour: its influence and impact on the way we live
In a sea of uncertainty superstition gives us hope, a chink of light, a fleeting warmth, reassurance. It takes the issue out of our hands into a higher plane, we are but children.