India at Chelsea

[indiagillettthree]

Final Summary Statement

My final project is a self-written collection of poetry, recorded by myself and two actresses. The collection exists in a zine and in audio form: https://soundcloud.com/user-538719748-389365816/sets/verbal-diarrhoea. A free-standing toilet cubicle has been built as an instillation as part of this project too. 

This project has really allowed me to focus on developing my writing skills. I have honed in on directing skills whilst recording other actresses and I have had to learn about carpentry and building for the instillation whilst talking to professionals in the field. 

On this project I have worked with and received feedback from the following professionals: 

Nic Thomas, Carpentor

Kelly Sinclair Smith, Art Director

Fred Rowson, Director/Writer

Anna Rhodes, Art Director

Leah Joyce, Academy Films

Sara Stewart, Actress/Writer

Ciara Baxendale, Actress

Sophie Warren, Actress.

I have shown various versions of the poems to professionals and asked which were the strongest, how to improve the rest and which should leave the collection. I’m excited about expanding my writing and hope that it will influence my career in someway, whether it’s through writing on the side of assisting art department, or if it becomes a career in itself. Having this time to focus on it has allowed me to realise just how much I love it.

Working with a carpenter was really interesting in terms of the practical application of my idea. It is a very useful skill to learn in order to go into production design.

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I tried to re-edit my London and Partners video but totally lost faith in what it was I was trying to achieve. However, I did start playing around with stock footage and ended up creating an interesting mash-up between Eastern and Western cultures. I am much happier with this outcome than my last. https://vimeo.com/218749125

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Revised SPMP

My Self Proposed Major Project is centred around a collection of poetry that I have written called ‘Verbal Diarrhoea’. In order to best communicate the poems, this project will centre around an instillation where people can lock themselves into a toilet cubicle providing a sense of privacy and intimacy.

The poems are strongest when spoken aloud so there will be an audio element to the instillation through a CD player with recordings of the poems and headphones. The poetry will also be graffitied on the walls of the cubicle among other toilet graffiti. The audio tracks are also on a soundcloud album so that people may listen to them again if they want: https://soundcloud.com/user-538719748-389365816/sets/verbal-diarrhoea

So that the poems exist as a written record, there is a zine that people can take away from the instillation. To continue the raw, naive style of graffiti, the zine is heavily inspired by punk craft and contains collages specific to each poem inside.

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Inspiration for poetry zine.

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Managed to squeeze in a visit to the Hockney exhibition at Tate Britain before it ended. Really inspiring work. I loved the photograph collages and the kind of punk approach to Cubism. His colour palette is of course beautiful and up-lifting too. 

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Broken Walkman

The walkman that was going to be attached to the cubicle to listen to the poems from is broken. It doesn’t seem to be able to play the CD. I will find an alternative in time for the show, but for the hand-in I will have to just hand in a CD with my zine and hope they can listen somehow as there is no time before hand-in. 

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When handing over pens to other people you have to accept a lack of control. There are a few things I would change if I were in control, perhaps better spacing so some of the poems could breath more and slightly less sexually graphic doodles, but the brilliance of toilet graffiti is that people can do whatever they want so it is fitting that I shouldn’t dictate how people write the poems or what they want to draw.

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Listen to Verbal Diarrhoea by India Gillett #np on #SoundCloud

A soundcloud album containing my poems in audio form. I may try to re-record the tracks for the exhibition as the rooms I recorded in were not ideal and some tinny echoes can be heard in some of the tracks. I would also like to spend more time refining the tracks to all be the same volume and tone.

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Checking out toilet fixtures! 

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Started collaging for images in the Verbal Diarrhoea zine. 

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adidas Originals | ORIGINAL is never finished

Introducing a new film by adidas Originals: ‘Original is Never Finished’ We feature visionaries from the worlds of music, art, skate, and sport. Reaffirming ...

Creative Director: Johannes Leonardo. 

This campaign came out shortly after my London and Partners project. It’s EPIC! The kind of film that makes me want to be a director. I know that my footage, (let alone my skill), is not in a place where I can achieve that, but I’m going to try and use this campaign as inspiration as I re-edit the footage to try and amp up the energy. 

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After showing a tutor the collection as it stands we’ve agreed that there are two poems that don’t match the personal, ‘gritty’ vibe of the others. I’m going to cut them out of the collection and work on creating more personal pieces. I wrote another one last night that I feel is one of my strongest, so hopefully they are getting better and better. We’re still working on the idea for a name. ‘Verbal Diarrhoea’ is a maybe. It’s had positive feedback but there’s definitely a feeling that maybe ‘diarrhoea’ is not the best word to have associated with your work! I’m going to see if I can generate other ideas. 

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Philip Larkin - This be the Verse

They fuck you up, your mum and dad.      They may not mean to, but they do.   They fill you with the faults they had    And add some extra, just for you. But they were fucked up in their turn    By fools in old-style hats and coats,   Who half the time were soppy-stern    And half at one another’s throats. Man hands on misery to man.    It deepens like a coastal shelf. Get out as early as you can,    And don’t have any kids yourself.

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John Donne - The Good-Morrow

‘If ever any beauty I did see, Which I desired, and got, ’twas but a dream of thee.’

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Frank O’Hara ‘Ave Maria’

Mothers of America                                   let your kids go to the movies!   get them out of the house so they won't know what you're up to   it's true that fresh air is good for the body                                                                 but what about the soul   that grows in darkness, embossed by silvery images

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Recommended Poets

Fred Rowson also recommended listening to/reading Phillip Larkin, Frank O’Hara and John Donne for inspiration. It’s really useful to get guidance on expanding my poetry knowledge as it’s a field I know so little about. 

Larkin photograph sourced from: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=philip+larkin&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjDlermrL3TAhXIKsAKHYzKBrMQ_AUIBygC&biw=1280&bih=568#imgrc=OtDIEtW8P1AZLM:

O’Hara photograph sourced from: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=philip+larkin&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjDlermrL3TAhXIKsAKHYzKBrMQ_AUIBygC&biw=1280&bih=568#tbm=isch&q=frank+o'hara&imgrc=AKbKeTQb2nUlsM:

Donne photograph sourced from: https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=philip+larkin&espv=2&source=lnms&tbm=isch&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjDlermrL3TAhXIKsAKHYzKBrMQ_AUIBygC&biw=1280&bih=568#tbm=isch&q=john+donne&imgrc=jLvrt5CQeeePeM: 

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Fred Rowson

Last week I met with Director/Writer Fred Rowson to discuss my FMP. I sent him recordings of my poems beforehand. He was really encouraging about the pieces and his general advice was to write everyday, constantly go back and re-write and the more specific my pieces the better. His favourite piece was ‘Mother Fucker’, which I wasn’t sure would communicate to people who had never met me/didn’t already know the story. But it was really useful to be able to test my writing on someone who didn’t already know me going in. I feel assured in the poems’ abilities to communicate. 

He loved the toilet idea. I’m testing out the name ‘Verbal Diarrhoea’ on people to see how it goes down. He was also a fan of that but encouraged me to keep testing reactions. Fred felt that the instillation should be as realistic as possible and for the audio element to be more of a mystery for the viewer to discover by accident. In theory I like this idea but also feel that in a GDC space the audience is used to having a project spoon-fed to them and I’m worried if people don’t instantly understand how to interact they’ll move onto another piece. Meanwhile in a tutorial, Anna Rhodes is encouraging the idea of working the instillation into existing toilets for the exhibition as well as possibly existing in the Triangle space. 

All are good food for thought. Right now I need to work on cubicle mood boards and toilet references to know what it is I want to work towards aesthetically and continue to edit and write poetry.