ANXIETYsenior thesis, october 2012caitlin clingman

STATEMENT

I am interested in surveilling, cataloguing and creating images of anxiety in the context of city living. Through this exploration I will use mechanical and natural ways of distorting, repeating, and concealing images to communicate stress and anxiety.

INTERESTS

stresshysteriapanic attacksimage distortion surveillence crowds montage concealing suspense

CITY LIVING

(L) Paul Citroes, Metropolis, 1923 collage (R) MRI of brain, “researches found that regions of the brain that regulate emotion and anxiety are overactive in city-dwellers.”

HYSTERIA

(L) Paul Sharil, Seizure Comparison, video at The New Museum(R) Louise-Bourgeois, Arch of Hysteria, 1993

CROWDS

(L) Etching, by myself, of a partial crowd(R) Photo by Michael Ruetz, Berlin Alexanderplatz, 1973

OBSERVATIONS

Through research, I found that I am interested in imagesof crowds. I experience episodes of anxiety in crowds of people and in the past have made a series of etchings to cope with this.

I am interested in images of hysteria or panick attacks and the syptoms that follow; inclusing seuzures, vertigo and hysteria.

VISUALIZING SOUND

Screen shots from Norman Leto’s film Sailor, visualizing the ear drum and the effects of stress inducing sounds

MONTAGE

(L) Screen shots from Jørgen Leth’s The Five Obstructions, this version filmed in Cuba, had no shot over twelve frames.(R) Screen shots from William S. Burroughs Cut-Up films.

OBSERVATIONS

These three films create suspense, stress and anxiety through motion and sound.

I would like to explore the use of montage techniques and play with speed and multiplicity to mimic these feelings.

DISTORTION

Oil paintings by Adrian Ghenie, manipulating materials and defacing subjects

DISTORTION

Collages by Office Supplies Incorporated, collage of found images and photocopies

PLANNING

Through techniques of concealing, distorting, sensoring and masking, I will explore ways to communicate feelings on anxiety. I will incoperate my surrounding environment, and explore the effects of living in a city on a person with high stress levels.

I will use this as a project to explore many different mediums, and as a final result I plan to have a book as a collection of all the images.

READING LIST

Masochism and the Perverse Pleasures of the Cinema, Gaylyn StudlarFrancis Bacon and the Loss of Self, Ernst Van AlphenFantastic Reality: Louise Bourgeois and a Story of Modern Art, Mignon NixonMadness and Civilization: A History of Insanity in the Age of Reason, Michel FoucaultInfinite Jest, David Foster Wallace The Berlin Stories, Christopher Isherwood Notes from Underground, DostoevskyThe private journals of Edvard Munch