I’ve been thinking a lot about what I should do with this project.
So far I’ve had three ideas:
1. In a very contemporary way, I’ve had the idea that an alter ego doesn’t necessarily mean a personality split into two parts. Personalities are incredibly complex and versatile things as people’s emotions are very interchangeable and change massively depending on a myriad of social situations.
For this, I would have begun by painting two self portraits; one would be of how I see myself currently and the other how I wish I saw myself. Then I would print out ten images of myself with blank backgrounds and would ask a variety of people, all of whom I know from different settings e.g. A close friend, a work colleague, a fellow student, a tutor, a complete stranger etc. I would ask them to draw on the background things that they think would suit my personality and I would guess that every single person would show that they see me as having a different personality.
Unfortunately, as much as I consider this a good idea, I feel uncomfortable with this and would rather not pursue it.
2. Using a similar concept in that personalities are very complex things, I also had an idea to paint a cross section of the human brain and after researching which areas of the brain dictate which emotions, I would re-paint the brain in several images, each displaying a different emotion which would relate to the part of the brain in which it sits. As to whether the pictures would be portraits or paintings of social situations, I haven’t decided.
3. I was also contemplating that a personality isn’t necessarily a single mind, it could even be a collective, such as an organisation or business which in their own way, take on personalities of their own. Considering my own place of work (a supermaket) I was thinking of how they are so materialistic, yet over the past years they have increasingly tried to improve public relations by becoming “environmentally friendly”, “participating in charities” and taking “an interest in the local community”. All of these are ways in which to manipulate their customers into believing that the company values more than just money…
I would do three images, each based on how three different people view a supermarket and the people within it. Firstly would be from the customers perspective, then from a member of staff’s and finally from the company’s (by the company I mean one the the heads of the business).
Planet Snooch 