Presentation Boards

Summative Project Report

Overall, I genuinely enjoyed writing about my chosen topic. As mentioned in my proposal, fear is something that is very personal to me; understanding it has been an interesting journey. I wouldn't say that my practical work has been fantastic, I spent quite a bit of potentially useful time engaging in external art events (not necessarily negative, but has impacted my outcome). This being said, I am pleased with how my final images produced for the experiment turned out. I hung the first image (66x66cm) in an exhibition and got mainly positive feedback, it felt rewarding to produce something that had influence outside the confines of university. My process researching and making notes happened almost simultaneously to my writing, I think this may have let me down as I didn't pre-prepare. I also must make a note to stop ripping pages out of my sketchbook to work on as although it makes it easier to scan it, it makes a huge mess! The primary research I under-did, especially the responses to my paintings, were particularly eye opening. Often during crits my work gets missed or the feedback is sparse, this time it was so direct and personal it gave a new sense of why I create the things I do. It is particularly easy as a creative to fall into an abyss of self doubt and dislike everything you create, I’ve never felt before now that my work could mean something to someone other than myself. I think I can say with full confidence that despite my time management not quite being down to pat, I have exceeded the previous two years of work. COP has never been my strong point as I struggle with a very low attention span and writing makes me feel a little stupid. This being said, I enjoyed this topic considerably more, and I think it showed. This project has propelled me into generally  considering how and why people act the way they do, alongside learning new things about myself. This has got me considering how I want to spend my time after graduation and I believe I want to take the path of supporting people with disability, even if just by raising money for select charities through exhibitions and performance nights.

External Responses to Practical Work (Experiment)

Support
Differ

Response 1:

"The use of black and white checker paths in both images conjure up feelings of duality, an internal debate. Ambiguity leading to anxiety. This is confirmed more in the first image with the use of sharp edges and a cloud surrounding the figure on the paths head. Feelings of being lost and confusion are also evoked from looking at the figure in image one as she is reaching for something she is unable to see while focusing on the thoughts lingering above her head with tears in her eyes."

Response 2:

"First image - This looks more like a confrontation, rather than there being a victim and an instigator of fear. The creatures look quite cute, and I don't really find them scary, though the hallucinogenic quality of the piece is definitely disorientating.

- The lack of colour in the second piece makes it immediately more daunting, the characters seem to operate on a 2 dimensional plain, giving a stronger sense of direction to the action. I feel like what makes this piece feel more frightening then the other are the subtle contradictions that exist within the suggested motions of the subjects on the dimension. For instance, the cat is pointing forward, but its weight seems as if it could topple backwards, the mosquitoes would act to counterbalance to the sense of direction across the painting, but the middle one isn't uniform with the others and slightly breaks this effect. Little moments like this halt the natural flow of the eye across left to right and subtly undermine the cohesion of the experience, and give the illustration a much more uncanny and unnerving quality."

Response 3:

I think the works, while not scary in themselves, do well to connote the overwhelming sensation that occurs in fear

The first image makes me feel uneasy and anxious, I can see the character isn't in their preferred situation, instead tormented by their surroundings, or their torment is embodied by their surroundings

Both images, to me, appear to be some form of nightmarish dreamscape. I like this because, other than tv and film or videogames, dreams/ nightmares are the only chance humans get at experiencing their worst fears, a type of catharsis man has spent thousands of years stripping from real life only to repurpose through film, tv and the mass media

Response 4:

As a psychologist I am particularly interested artistic interpretation of the primal emotions. Rather than systematically studying emotions, it is refreshing to see them laid bare by the artist, in all their raw and unconstrained splendour.

The first painting speaks to my fear of emotional instability. At the outset, the painting and its accompanying text direct me inwards, evoking a sense of fear as it is experienced internally, within the psyche. The insect-ridden border that separates myself from the outer world appears malleable rather than distinct and secure. Unbidden visitors that have exploited this malleability plague my psyche, and I, clearly distressed, attempt a balancing act to manage this emotional onslaught, only to be infected in the struggle.

Within the second painting I take on the standpoint of the girl, adrift in an external environment of fear; my only direction forward, as paved by my inner psyche, leads to its epicentre. Even my journey into this exotic darkness looks to be thwarted by unruly troublemakers. 

Because the second painting appears as an external, material reality, my sense of fear in response to it is lesser than in the first; there is room for action in the face of the exogenous adversity. The first painting however cripples my sense of agency as I am overwhelmed by its internal devastation.  

Response 5:

The first image makes me think of being trapped in a situation where Im surrounded by things that make me uncomfortable. Pretty fearful stuff. 

The second image makes me think of a weird dream where Im not really with it, maybe on some weird journey where I have no idea what lies ahead. Also pretty fearful stuff.

Proposal for Experiment

I intend to gage how my work might make the viewer react through a simple experiment. Looking the themes of social transmission, learned fear and observation of fear I am exploring in my writing, I have produced two paintings; one a commentary on a personal fear, and one a disorientating image with no context. For the first image I give a background explanation as to it context and a short quote lifted from my own diary which serves as inspiration. The first image is in colour and clearly shows a human woman, something I hope promotes relatability. The second image is in black and white and was produced during a moment of psychosis. There is no context to the image other than a note I wrote while in a state which simply read "cat with human hands". I have not provided this information to the subjects. The goal of this experiment is to discover if I can elicit a sense of fear through my art. However, more importantly, I hope the subjects will be able to identify themes from fear conditioning (second image) and fear observation (first image), as inspired by Ito and Bosch respectively; referenced in Chapter Three (Case Studies).

Below I have attached the document sent out to all who agreed to participate. Note; I believe the experiment may not be 100% accurate as I neglected to consider size of image. Where the images are comparatively small on screen, the original paintings are 66cmx66cm (first) and 56cmx76cm (second). The size of the images in person may have more of an intense effect.

Also, I incorrectly used the word "pretence" in the first sentence. Only one person noticed.

Text on document reads;

Please observe both paintings, they are similar in size and both comprise of acrylic on wooden board. They were both created under the pretence [context] of “fear”.

The first painting is a commentary on fears revolving around losing a sense of self when overstimulated either socially or environmentally. Specifically, the experience of physical disassociation. There is text alongside the image which reads;

“I remember being a child and lying in bed feeling like my arms were miles away from my centre, but simultaneously too close. The surface of my duvet felt soft and cushion-y yet like it concealed something hard and solid, akin to metal. I no longer get these feelings but occasionally it feels like

I am flailing around like viscose jelly and my surroundings are being zoomed in an out of focus at rapid speed. There are millions of bugs under my skin only exiting through my gums and the snakes in my skull render my thoughts foggy.”

There is no context or description alongside the second image, and no intention to explain. 

Given the information you have just received, please emotionally respond to both images separately. I am looking for a description of how they both make you feel in relation to the topic (fear). Please write as much or as little as you feel necessary.

All responses will be kept anonymous and recorded on a private blog to be assessed. If you have any other questions, please do not hesitate to ask.

Thank you for your time, it is much appreciated.

Junji Ito

Why have I chosen Ito?
In my eyes, Ito is one of the most successful manga artists within the genre of horror. I'm particularly drawn to his narrative and short story dynamic.

Points to research;
- Narrative structure
- Creature design
- Endings/ conclusions
- The Hanging Balloons
- Uzumaki (longer series)
- The Enigma of Amigara Fault
- The unknown?

Images:

Bonus 2:"The Enigma of Amigara Fault" (阿弥殻断層の怪 Amigara dansō no kai)
Inital realse date (Japan); 
September 10, 2003 (1st ed.)
October 16, 2007 (2nd ed.)
ISBN 1-56931-995-2 (1st ed.)
ISBN 1-4215-1387-0 (2nd ed.)
Junji Ito

Hieronymus Bosch

Bosch is the king of dreamscape surrealism in my opinion! Im obsessed with this creepy little creatures and religious motifs. I want to look at The Garden of Earthly Delights in my essay, as it is the most prominent of his works. Mainly I want to focus on the 'hell' wing of this painting.

To cite:
Hemphill (journal)
Taschen (book- library)
Walter S. Gibson (book- library)

I'm Too Big! (Not Big Enough)

I feel too large! Sometimes space feels too small and I am a tall woman with bendy, pointy limbs. Here are some images to demonstrate my fear of being too big for my environment that I did with my finger on my ipod.

Screenprints

Normally screenprinting doesn't go too well for me, not that I don't enjoy it. This time however I am genuinely quite happy with how they turned out! I decided to draw a giant bug to demonstrate my fear of being constantly ill (which I am anyway, thanks). I tried to sell these at an event I was involved with recently, I packaged them nicely and included business cards however I didn't even sell one, wether it was because of their placement or the genre of the even I don't know but I cant help but thinks its because my work is shit and no-one likes it. I will only be submitting a selection of these as I am going to attempt to sell them again at an event I am selling and performing at on the night of the deadline, fingers crossed!

Making Sense of My Work

I noticed that my work was a little (ha) disorganised so to clear my head and explain anything confusing I've complied a brief summary of what I've produced so far.

Some sketches regarding intrusive thoughts of physically harming my cat, my childhood fear of having my eyes gouged out, and my overwhelming phobia of needles:

Finished images; these were displayed for an exhibition. 

These next images represent my fear of illness (the irony is I'm always very sick). Ive represented illness with little bugs and clouds. The "Sick Bug" is a small booklet of some drawings based around this theme, some also explore my fear of being too big.

Next images represent my fear of creating work that no-one likes/ work that is essentially shit. 

This is a fear of mirrors, or something you don't like being reflected:

Public transport terrifies me and makes me sad:

Fear of the woods as mentioned by a subject in an interview, also similar to my own fear of being followed/ watched:

Some exploration into faces and how to make them ominous:

Pointy shapes and uncomfortably disorientating trees:

This is a large painting of a fear of ghosts (I quite like the theme of the supernatural/ unknown):

Practical Peer Review 2 Notes

At this point I still haven't produced a great deal of practical work, I am considering doing an experiment regarding two paintings I intend to produce but I didn't pitch that in the review. The feedback was very much the same as the first peer review; make it scarier, do more work. People did however seem pretty keen for me to make work on a larger scale (this will be fulfilled with the paintings) and use different media. I am really enjoying using ink and keeping my images black and white, I feel like it makes them automatically more ominous. Some peers specifically liked the images where I smushed paint between two sheets of acetate. I was toying with doing this again but actually, it didn't have the desired effect, I was hoping it would be more translucent so when suspended would produce different textures. I think the only logical course of action now is to start with the planned paintings.

Interim Feedback

First Draft/ Interim Deadline

Context and themes; (2,000 words)

Definitions - fear, anxiety, phobia (nervousness?)

Fear itself needs no introduction; everyone has at some time or other known this sensation or, more precisely, this effect. It seems to me that we never seriously inquired why the nervous suffered so much more and so much more intensely under this condition. Perhaps it was thought a matter of course; it is usual to confuse the words “nervous” and “anxious” as though they meant the same thing. That is unjustifiable; there are anxious people who are not nervous, and nervous people who suffer from many symptoms, but not from the tendency to anxiety. - Freud

In order to fully understand the context of this essay we must first distinguish the differences between fear, anxiety, and phobia. According to The Oxford English Dictionary fear is simply defined as “an unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm”, “The likelihood of something unwelcoming happening” and “A mixed feeling of dread and reverence.” However, when reading further it becomes apparent that the language of fear is ambiguous, using the term “anxiety” in order to describe how fear might make the subject feel. Oxford English dictionary https://en.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/irrational accessed Sunday 11th November 12.14pm 

From an anatomical perspective, when a human experiences fear the medulla oblongata (portion of the hindbrain that controls autonomic functions such as breathing, digestion, heart and blood vessel function, swallowing, and sneezing) is irritated, thus also irritating the vagus nerve; which controls and interfaces with parasympathetic control of the heart, lungs, and digestive tract. This causes the body to learn that it is suffering in a neurotic fashion. More specifically the amygdala, is the section of the brain that is responsible for detecting fear and preparing for emergency events. The amygdala is an almond shaped section of nervous tissue; there are two amygdalae located in the temporal lobe of the brain. They are thought to be a part of the limbic system within the brain, which is responsible for emotions, survival instincts, and memory. However, this inclusion has been debated heavily, with evidence that the amygdalae function independently of the limbic system. The amygdala itself is responsible for the perception of emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness, as well as the controlling of aggression. The amygdala helps to store memories of events and emotions so that an individual may be able to recognise similar events in the future. This is why when discussing fear, the amygdala is a key element in embedding fear as an emotional response to certain situations. For example, say you suffered an animal attack, the amygdalae helps in processing that event and, therefore, increases your fear around said animal. 

Where fear is typically related to a definite and immediate threat, for example, being physically threatened with a weapon; according to authors Sadock, Sadock and Ruiz (2015), anxiety is “a diffuse, unpleasant, vague sense of apprehension.” Instead of being a cause of direct stimuli, it is often a response to an imprecise or unknown threat. An example of anxiety might be the feeling of unease and discomfort while walking alone. Your mind has fathomed a situation where you might be in danger; a mugger, the prospect of assault or harm. This is not the product of an immediate or specific threat, but rather your minds interpretation of what might happen hypothetically. Although the direct influence of these emotions might be different, the emotions experienced are interrelated; physical reactions to fear can also described as relating to symptoms of anxiety. Fear causes anxiety, and in response, anxiety can also cause fear. https://www.verywellmind.com/fear-and-anxiety-differences-and-similarities-2584399 Sunday 11th 12.20pm

So when do we distinguish fear from phobia? Simply put, a phobia is a fear in its most extreme form; a fear which interrupts day to day life and is intense, severe and persistent. According to Herbert (1994), the origin of the word “phobia” is in ancient Greek mythology, taken from the word phobos, meaning “fear,” “terror,” “panic” or “flight.” Phobos was a Greek god who’s image was painted onto war masks and armour in order to provoke fear and terror on the opposing soldiers (Kavilas (1988)). In the 17th century, Robert Burton commented on the effects of phobias: “They that live in fear are never free, resolute, secure, merry, but in continual pain….No greater misery, no rack, no torture like unto it.” REFERENCE. Franklin Delano Roosevelt also famously stated during World War II, “We have nothing to fear but fear itself.” - phobia is a fear which has spiralled into ‘insanity’?

http://ilanarosenberg.com/2013/11/06/phobias-and-fear/

Fear has been ingrained in our biology for a reason, wether that be to encourage us to run from a predator, or to not put our hand into a fire. Almost all common fears come from deep in our evolutionary history. Fear of the dark makes sense; we’re more vulnerable in the dark because we can’t see approaching danger. Irrational blindness to fear of the unknown could lead to chaos. However if people let fear hold them back, there would be no pilots, divers or astronauts. The balance lays in understanding the rationality of the fear; is it justified, or irrational?

… 

This peaks the question; are fears learned or inherent? Freud distinguished these concepts to be “real” fear and “neurotic” fear. He stated that real fear is seemingly rational and comprehensible, even from an outsiders viewpoint, and can be backed up by the perception of tangible, external danger. This is still however influenced by perspective; he uses the exemplar of an experienced sailor noticing a cloud that informs him of an upcoming storm and reacting with fear and terror, where to the uninstructed passenger the cloud is insignificant. 

Neurotic fear on the other hand, he describes as “…a general condition of anxiety, a condition of free-floating fear as it were, which is ready to attach itself to any appropriate idea, to influence judgement, to give rise to expectations…” REFERENCE 

Go on to talk about neurotic fear (freud)

Introduce Olsson and Phelps …

The expectancy of danger  

In 2007 Olsson and Phelps published a review on the social learning of fear. Their mission was to explore ways in which fear can be conditioned by exploiting the experiences of others through social fear learning; deciding it less risky than involving direct adverse experience on the subject.

A team of scientists ran experiments on the neural processes associated with he development of fear and found that the reaction is the same wether the subject experienced the adverse event personally, or just witnessed it. The New York University study REFERENCE is the first to test responses based on indirect stimuli and fears grown through the observation of others. The findings appear in the most recent issue of the journal Social Cognitive and Affective Neuroscience. 

As we are aware, fears are commonly developed after first-hand experience of an aversive event; for example being burned by a hot pan or getting bitten by a dog. This process is called ‘fear conditioning’ and the brain’s amygdala plays a critical role in the process. 

“However, it’s unclear if fear conditioning can occur indirectly—that is, through social observation with no personal experience. It is also uncertain what neural processes take place in the acquisition of fears stemming from events or circumstances not experienced first-hand.

In this study, subjects witnessed a short video of another individual participating in a fear-conditioning experiment. In the video, subjects saw another person responding with distress when receiving mild electric shocks paired with a colored square.
The subjects watching the video were then told they would take part in an experiment similar to the one they just viewed. Unlike the experiment in the video, these subjects never received shocks.

The results showed that the participants had a robust fear response when they were presented with the colored square that predicted electric shocks in the video, indicating that such a response resulted from merely observing—rather than directly experiencing—an aversive event.

In addition, using brain imaging techniques, the researchers found that the amydgala response was equivalent with both when watching others receive a shock and when presented with the colored square that was previously paired with shock in the video. This finding demonstrates that similar neural systems are engaged when fears are learned through first-hand experience or by merely observing others.”

Quotes;

“In our daily lives, we are frequently exposed to vivid images of others in emotional situations through personal social interactions as well as the media,” explained Phelps.

“The knowledge of somebody else’s emotional state may evoke empathic responses. However, as our results reveal, when others’ emotions are accompanied with vivid expressions and perceived as potentially relevant to our own future well being, we may engage additional learning mechanisms.”

Olsson added: “In a way, learning by observing others’ emotional responses is like exploiting their expertise without being directly exposed to the potential risks associated with the direct learning. This seems a very adaptive thing to do for most social animals, which could explain why it is commonly seen across species. However, it remains to be explored in what way uniquely human social abilities contribute to learning fears through social observation.”

Current understanding of phobia tells us that …

According to the guardian, phobias can be categorised into three possible headings; specific phobias, social phobias and agoraphobia.

Specific phobias are simply defined as “an irrational fear of a specific thing or situation.” These types of phobias can be subdivided into situational, environmental, animal, and injury or pain related. Some examples may include claustrophobia; phobia of small spaces (situational), or trypanophobia; phobia of needles and other such invasive procedures (pain and injury).

Social phobia might be felt towards public speaking for example. In its essence, all it consists of is talking; something which most of us have been capable of since our first year on this earth. Yet a large majority of us feel nauseas at the prospect.

Agoraphobia is potentially the most misunderstood out of the three. Commonly seen as a fear of “open spaces”, or a fear or leaving the house altogether, agoraphobia actually describes a phobia of being in a situation with no obvious escape, or where help or a sense of safety would be tenuous. Such situations may include; queues, public transport or busy supermarkets. This phobia can often result in the subject favouring staying in their safe environment of their home to facing the outside, hence the confusion with “open spaces”.

https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2013/jun/28/phobias-rationale-irrational-fears Accessed Wednesday 28th Nov @ 13.16pm

So are we born to be afraid? One perspective could be to approach fears as a “threshold effect”. Some fears wont be manifested until hormones kick in and your brain has matured to encompass stress, shame and panic.

Internal/ external influences, shift into rational thinking/ nature vs nurture - are fears learned emotions?

Influences to fear - environment, education, micro to macro understanding of the world

Chances are, as a child, fear was a part of the natural process of becoming aware of your surroundings, and facing the vast unknown for the first time. Common fears such as a dislike for the dark, monsters lurking under the bed or a trip to the doctors might have aroused butterflies in your stomach or bouts of crying and general upset, which were sedated with the presence of the familiar face of a parent or favourite stuffed toy. As children, the world is new, things are unfamiliar and acts such as using the toilet, something so natural to an adult, are grand feats to be overcome. However as you age and obtain rational thinking your world view grows from micro to macro. Surprisingly often, childhood fears and anxieties are carried into adult life, just in a different form. Monsters under our bed become burglars and intruders, a fear of strangers may have turned into social anxiety, fear of getting lost becomes fear of losing others, and scary nightmares become fitful dreams about debt and responsibility.

If we are to study childhood fears in a more general sense, it is safe to assume many of these feelings came from the unknown.

Made popular by Mary Shelly’s ‘Frankenstein’, fear of the unknown is now a running theme in genres science fiction and horror. The ‘unknown’ is something that regularly crops up when discussing fear. A new mother fears giving birth for the first time. A teen might fear their first day of school. A child fears what happens when the lights turn off in their bedroom. Fear of an unknown future always comes to the forefront. It is human nature for a person to have a need to know everything around them and to strive for control of their journey. When someone is faced with the unknown, the initial reaction is usually, if even for a second, fear. In Frankenstein, we learn as readers over the course of the novel that the monster is in fact not to be feared and instead we are encouraged to feel a level of pity for the monsters circumstance. This can be applied to most fear we discover as a child. Take for example a fear of dogs or other such animals. After time and the growth of rational thinking, most adults are made aware that dogs are in fact harmless for the most part, and familiarise themselves with their mannerisms. By learning and understanding the animal, they are no longer unknown, and therefore no longer something to fear.

It is common for people to confuse the correct language for how they are feeling; especially in a world where social media and the internet has made expressing emotions so easy and flippant it has caused a potential devalue in the terminology. Colloquialisms such as the overuse of “literally” and the desensitisation of words like “depressed” and “anxious” have normalised the common terminology for mental illness. Although on occasion this has sparked positive steps for the open discussion of mental health in the modern day, it has blurred some definitions. In everyday conversation, we use the language of emotions that we're comfortable and familiar with. "I'm stressed” can often translate to something more serious such as a compulsive disorder, but for those who might be adverse to sharing vulnerability. Or, exaggerating otherwise normal situations with language such as “sheer terror” might actually just translate to mean “concern”. https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/the-dance-connection/200910/fear-vs-anxiety Sunday 11th 12.24pm

Coping mechanisms/ rituals (fight or flight), Do childhood fears disappear with age or do we simply repress them due to increase in responsibility?

NOTES:

“For the only purposeful behaviour in the face of imminent danger would be the cool appraisal of one’s own strength in comparison with the extent of the threatening danger, and then decide which would presage a happier ending: flight, defence, or possibly even attack. Under such a proceeding fear has absolutely no place; everything that happens would be consummated just as well and better without the development of fear. You know that if fear is too strong, it proves absolutely useless and paralyses every action, even flight.” - freud 

"DSM-IV codes are the classification found in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th Edition, Text Revision, also known as DSM-IV-TR, a manual published by the American Psychiatric Association (APA) that includes all currently recognized mental health disorders. The DSM-IV codes are thus used by mental health professionals to describe the features of a given mental disorder and indicate how the disorder can be distinguished from other, similar problems.^[1]"

"The coding system utilized by the DSM-IV is designed to correspond with codes from the International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, commonly referred to as the ICD-9-CM. Since early versions of the DSM did not correlate with ICD codes and updates of the publications for the ICD and the DSM are not simultaneous, some distinctions in the coding systems may still be present. For this reason, it is recommended that users of these manuals consult the appropriate reference when accessing diagnostic codes"

"It's not like those with phobias aren't aware of them. One of the criteria in the DSM-IV for diagnosing phobias is that the sufferer is aware of the irrational nature of their fear. There are a lot of brain regions involved, like the insular cortex and amygdala. And you can't simply make someone encounter the thing they're afraid of to show them it's harmless. As far as the brain is concerned, the fear response IS a negative physical consequence, so on a subconscious level the phobia is self-fulfilling.

There are methods of treating phobias if they're genuinely debilitating. Systematic desensitisation is one approach (where the source of the phobia is introduced in easily-managed stages), cognitive behavioural therapy, even antidepressants if all else fails.

It's different if you're talking about things like homophobia or Islamophobia, as often these are more likely to be misleadingly named prejudices than genuine phobias. There are fewer options for treating these though; science has tackled many psychological conditions, but there's still no known cure for being a dick."

https://www.theguardian.com/science/brain-flapping/2013/jun/28/phobias-rationale-irrational-fears Accessed Wednesday 28th Nov @ 13.16pm

Case studies; (1500)

Paula Rego (book)

Francisco De Goya (jstor) https://www.jstor.org/stable/428115?casa_token=MH4Z5p5GzDwAAAAA:Q0W4lmvVXzl8eJYeWtpXscFHyvBfJjulJLLd-OAuC_CVNMZZdzrFFl3L-6FCHDW_SLqETaGrN442cbEKY53LH9vv4pbLuMxao5V1w2JBILYsKC8cz-8&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents

Junji Ito (thesis) https://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/handle/2027.42/136820/Two_Way_Mirror_Joel_Reynolds_IP_Final_Thesis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lIIA6QDgl2M&feature=youtu.be

Hieronymus Bosch (PDF)

https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/003591576505800224

Bosch

Hieronymus Bosch was a Dutch/Netherlandish draughtsman and painter from Brabant practicing in 15th and 16th century, when demonic activity, witchcraft and myth was universal belief. What makes his work noteworthy is it continues to arouse interest, and maintains it appeal despite more than 450 years worth of changes in religious beliefs, knowledge and culture; despite to their lack of topographical or historical incident. Bosch used common dream mechanisms to convincingly portray scenes of twisted creatures in  a world under the domination of devils who are set out to successfully and relentlessly torment and vanquish mankind. One hypothesis put forward by R E Hemphill REFERENCE is that “Bosch represented the devil’s campaign on earth” … “influenced by this belief as that of a phycotic by his delusions.” These fantasies he created corresponded well with and reflected the fears of the great witch hunt period REFERENCE . In regards to fear, Bosch’s paintings showed obsessions with the concepts of absorption, penetration, metamorphosis and teratogenesis; these continued as running themes in his work. 

There are said to be two types of artist in this genre; a visionary artist, and an artist of imagination. Where a visionary artist paints images as they see them, an artist of conscious imagination will illustrate an idea based on how they consider it ought to appear. Bosch is claimed to be the latter, although there remains some speculation as to how he viewed his work; there is a fine line between imagination and hallucinations and due to his ambiguous and undocumented personal life this leaves us unclear on the matter of his mental state. 

Bosch’s most recurrent and important visual motif was of trees, either dead, alive, or somewhere in between. We see this imagery quite blatantly in his painting “The Human Tree” REFERENCE (pg20/ 142 of hemphill) 

How does the human tree utilise fear? How do his motifs tie in with my previous comments?

“The effect is of a dream that has been secured with all its action, emotion and strangeness” - Hemphill pg 16 or 138 (check this!)

Goya

Link religious themes??

Junji Ito 

Introduce horror as a genre to exploit fear

Junji Ito is famous Japanese horror manga artist and writer who focuses on turning the everyday horrific by perverting imagery and landscape.

The Enigma of Amigara Fault - comic about a mysterious stone formation that draws people in like hypnotic personal voids

Ito’s lack of reliance of what's come before in regards to the horror genre really makes him reach to find horror in places we might not have otherwise considered. He finds fear in our everyday lives and represents it visually without delusion.

Horror as a genre is generally less effective in frightening viewers after the subject or threat of the fear has been explained. Explaining why a sinister entity is the way it is lets us understand its logic, and in doing so allows us to confront and deal with our emotions surrounding it. This is never the case with Ito’s work, instead of an explanation, we are only allowed glimpses. This strengthens our fear; a threat you can understand vs. one you can't even comprehend. This brings us back to a previous reference made to humans fear of the unknown. 

The hanging balloons - no understanding of where they came from or why they wish to complete the acts they are set out to do. In a normal plot this could simply ensue frustration with the reader or viewer. 

Developed his own unique narrative structure - instead of the gentle rising arc from build up, to conflict, to resolution or conclusion; Ito relies on a sudden spike of intense fear directly towards the conclusion of the narrative. In order to achieve this he uses a technique entirely exclusive to novel or illustrated comics

"Anxiety is the handmaiden of creativity." 

TS Eliot

"I’m not afraid of failing, but I am afraid of doing bad work." 

Steven Bochco, writer and originator, Hill Street Blues

"I never sit down to write an advertisement without thinking THIS TIME I AM GOING TO FAIL." 

David Ogilvy

"When I face the desolate impossibility of writing 500 pages, a sick sense of failure falls on me, and I know I can never do it." 

John Steinbeck

"The unpredictability is what makes what we do in advertising so exciting. You literally don’t know where you are going to end up." 

Sir John Hegarty

"The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize." 

Robert Hughes, art critic

"I’ve learnt that it is far easier to write a speech about good advertising than it is to write a good ad." 

Leo Burnett