Faculty of Fine Arts: B-FA F303A

Contextual Studies: Professional Practice

FACULTY OF FINE ARTS 2013/2014!

!Professional Practice (Semester I): PROPOSAL GUIDELINE!

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Name
: APARAJITHA VAASUDEV
Student No. : 13624
Class
: BAFAN5D

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Title and summary of Project
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In this age of the information revolution, issues of time and memory have become an
obsession in contemporary culture. The world seems to be struggling with, and succumbing
to, the influence memory in every aspect of its existence, from grocery lists to accounts to
genealogy. There seems to be a constant, if unobtrusive, demand for tools and stimuli that can
help us to remember.

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Objective
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The imperfections of memory have always fascinated me the gaps and blanks in it, and the
quality of evanescence of our memories; the different sense memories involved in an
experience, and the layered visuals that appear in our minds when we try to remember; and
how sometimes, only certain words, images or other memories that we have associated with an
experience at the time of experiencing it, trigger our memories of the latter.
I want to explore this subject in my practice and I want to use mixed media paintings to bring
out the intangibility and flux, as well as the coalescence of different pieces of knowledge, that
is the characteristic of memory.

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Rationale
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I feel that the significance of this subject lies in the fact that memory is, and has always been,
vital for the knowledge of the self and of the world. It is one of the most vital of our faculties,
the apparatus that calls for recognition (re-cognition) without which the powers of cognition
itself remain transient and unframed. Given the mutability and, if I may use the term, fallibility
of memory, it is interesting that the stories that are told and the claims that are made in the
name of memory can alter people's understanding of the world, and the ways in which they act
in or upon that world.

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Outcome
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Several medium-sized mixed media paintings.
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Methods and Time Line
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Use a semester table to create an outline of a weekly schedule and how you intend to organise
the specific areas of research.

List the methodologies and materials you are planning to use to prepare for your works. List
the kind of methods you will be using to explore and finalise your works with.

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Faculty of Fine Arts: B-FA F303A

Contextual Studies: Professional Practice

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References
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Louise Bourgeois
Tracy Emin
Rachel Whiteread
Frida Kahlo
Nan Goldin
Miyako Ishiyuchi (concept, visual)
Felix Gonzales Torres

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Thesis Outline
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In my thesis, I would like to explore the need for memory in human life, bombarded as it is by
the inexorable deluge of information in media, and how this return to the past might be a
reaction to an ever-expanding, omnipresent electronic archive, which renders cognitive
memory, the instigator of its emotional counterpart, obsolete.

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Bibliography
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List readings, videos, films and any areas of interest that help to inform you of the work you
are making. Example:
Bell, John. What is Painting? Representation and Modern Art. Thames and Hudson, New York
1999

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