Claire

Moving on from 'A day in the life of Claire' - I knew I wanted to film something that was a bit more individual.  From my trial films, I think the video of her leaving to go to band was most interesting.  I wanted to have her band (The Nonsense) in full set up (unlike the practise session I attended which was in a different location to usual), however over the past few weeks this was not possible, due to a variety of factors - illness, holiday, unable to get the practise room and Claire having other commitments.  I wanted to stick to the music element, as it is something that my sister is passionate about and very talented. 

I filmed a session of her practising in her room, and made it into a short film.  I started it using the morphed photographs as trialled in my previous film.  Ideally I would have liked to have her then leaving for band, and playing these 2 songs in full band set up however this was not possible.  

I would display these 2 films on different screens in the studio - ideally in the same room, both playing at exactly the same time, so that when people came across them they would think that they have already seen it - until they look a bit closer.  I like how the films leave a small element of mystery, tricking the viewer into wondering who is who.   

Simulating Expereince - Final Film

(with sound)

Claire                                                                          

or Claire?

Double Screen:

A day in the life of Claire

I took onboard the feedback from the tutorial & tried to develop the idea of being Claire's clone.  I filmed Clare's typical day and tried to re-enact this myself and edit it together so it is confusing for the viewer to work out whether it is the same person or different people.  I tried to incorporate everything from a normal day - getting up, leaving the house, arriving home, going for a run & doing lesson plans.  Unfortunately I was not able to go into work with her, as this would really have added to the simulation.  

A day in the life of Claire

I like how I started this film morphing an image of Claire into myself.  However, I don't feel that the video was very interesting, and wanted to focus more on something that is individual to Claire.

I tried to take a few images next to Claire similar to those of Monette & Mady by Photographer Maja Daniels.

Being Claire when Claire was not there

Since deciding to continue the idea of becoming my sister, I struggled at times to get hold of her!  As she is near completion of her PGCE she is very busy with lesson plans, as well as having to complete her masters essay, be the stage manager at the school production, and play in her band.

During this time I was wondering where Claire was, I decided to become her - think like her & do what I imagine her to be doing.

I wore her clothes, played her guitar, took over her laptop - replied to Facebook messages, and had a look in to work she does for her PGCE.

I created a lesson plan - very similar to the format Claire needs to use, but instead of doing GCSE Chemistry - I took my own focus on it and made a year 2/3 Art lesson:

The Marx Brothers & Maja Daniels

The Marx Brothers

During the group tutorial, I was lead to look at the Marx Brothers.  5 brothers in a family comedy act, originally from New York, enjoyed success in broadway and motion pictures from 1900 to the 1950s.  Each of them talented and unique, they made their way into singing and then into comedy.

From my time as 'cloning' my sister Claire, I felt there were similarities that linked to the Marx brothers mirror scene in their movie "Duck Soup".  The way I became my sister - adapting her mannerisms, clothing, attitude etc.

Maja Daniels

"Sometimes they don’t quite understand why I want to document their everyday life. Its an interesting challenge to make them understand how fascinated I am by this symbiotic existence that is so natural to them."

Whilst at the Sony World  Photography Awards at Somerset House, London, I came across a photographer Maja Daniels.  I was really fascinated by her photos of Monette & Mady, identical twins who are inseparable and have lived their whole lives closely together.  After further research into the photographer and this long-term project documenting the lives of Monette & Mady, the images become as much about sociology as they do about photography.

They refer to themselves as "I" and not "we", and often finish each others sentences.  Neither Mady nor Monette are married or have children. They live their lives closely together and they have created an image as one.  They act, dance and model as a couple, and Paris is their stage.

“If we ever go out dressed in different outfits people will come up to us wondering why we are arguing. Perhaps it has become even more important for them to see us dressed identically than it is for us.”

http://majadaniels.com/projects/monette-mady/

I also had a look into a National Geographic Article about twins which was published in January 2012, which explored not only the common factors of being a twin, but also some startling differences between twins - wether through separation, environment or DNA.  This article was also accompanied with some amazing photographs.

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2012/01/twins/miller-text

Diana Bozza comforts her identical twin, Deborah Faraday, at an assisted living facility in Front Royal, Virginia. Diagnosed eight years ago with early onset Alzheimer's disease, Deborah is now completely disabled, while Diana shows no symptoms of the illness.

Juan Barbachano (right) and his identical twin, Liana Hoemke, hold a photo of them as little girls with their baby brother.   Juan, born Juanita, says that from an early age he felt like a male trapped in a female's body.  Ten years ago, at 32, Juan began treatments to change gender.  

Board Game Development 2

After the group tutorial, general feedback was that I should continue to try and develop the film of being my sister's clone.  I intend to film further aspects of her day - a Day in the life of Claire Hunter - and try and make these clips as similar as possible.

People in the tutorial still liked the board game idea and so I thought maybe I should try and incorporate it into the filming.  I continued to complete the board game - box and game cards included.  

Adobe Illustrator board game development:

The Game Board

The Box (Top)

The Box (Base)

Game Card Holder

Playing card
Domino (family dog)
Arthritis hits back legs
- Miss a Go - 

Playing card
Domino
Yummy toast crusts
- Move forward 1 space -

Playing card
Dad
Post Office release special
commemorative stamps
- Roll again - 

Playing card
Dad
Badminton partner injured
call off the game
- Move back 1 space - 

Playing card
Dani
Body combat class at the gym
- Move forward 2 spaces - 

Playing Card
Dani
Get stuck in an art project
- Miss a Go - 

Playing card
Mum
Zumba time
- Move forward 1 space - 

Playing card
Mum
Phone rings  - Blackburn again
- Miss a Go - 

Playing card
Claire
New series of Dr Who
- Roll again - 

Playing card
Claire
The Nonsense get a gig
- Move forward 1 space - 

Developing the Board Game

The Hunter Household Board Game

The Hunter Family

I initially drew some ideas for board game designs...

...and then tried to develop this idea on to illustrator.  Having not really used illustrator before, I have found this particularly difficult, getting to grips with the software and trying to get my ideas onto screen!  This has certainly helped to develop my skills.  

Board Game Development 1

Making my Family into a Board Game

Even though I liked the idea of being a 'clone' of my family members, I found this difficult to document and expand.  It felt like I was playing a game - which lead me on to the idea of creating a board game incorporating the typical life of a Hunter family member.  A board game would give anybody the chance to experience a moment of time within our household.

I started by brainstorming my family members everyday ups and downs, and then researched different board games to help me expand on my idea.

Different style games include ones which use a game board, use cards, roll a dice, collect money, race around a board, draw pictures, collect points, chose characters, 2 player, multiplayer etc.

The Game of Life
A popular board game which simulates a person's travels through his or her life, from college to retirement, with jobs, marriage and children possible along the way, collecting both points and money along the way.

7 Wonders

A card-based civilisation board game, created in 2010 and considered the current number 1 board game.  The game is played through 3 different ages in history, and aim is to build your city and win the most victory points by encountering different achievements/delays in science, military or economy opportunity. 

Monopoly

The best selling, most popular board game in the world.  A game of chance, luck, wheeling and dealing - buy, sell, mortgage houses and hotels whilst avoiding time in jail!  The person with the most assets and money at the end wins.  Now adapted to fit any country/city/cartoon/band/fantasy possible!

Pay Day

The classic games which makes family finance fun as you move along the game board designed as a 31-day calendar.  Make a profit, win the lottery, or lose on a bad investment.  Play as many months as you like and after you've paid off all your bills, the richest is the winner.

Cloning

My time as family members, and trying to be their clone, reminded me of Dolly the Sheep and the controversial breakthrough in science back in 1996 when Dolly was the first mammal to be cloned from an adult cell.  Dolly was important not only because of the breakthrough in science, but because she captured the public imagination.  The idea that there might be an exact copy of oneself somewhere in the world is a theme that has been pursued in science fiction many times, and the prospect that it might be possible to clone a human being excited a lot of speculation and interest.  

Dolly the Sheep

From this idea of cloning I looked into artists who used this theme within their work.  

Mauro Perucchetti

"12 years ago I created a body of work inspired by the dilemma between cloning and religion, and cloning and medical ethics.  I decided to use the jelly baby as an impersonation of cloned making.  I was trying to capture the ambiguity that could be present in a cloned being.  On first glance, they seem very sweet, but from certain angles they can look slightly sinister, especially on a large scale."

Simulating my family's reality

One idea I tried was to simulate someone else's reality, by becoming that person.  I picked members of my family & tried to become them - their mannerisms, clothing, facial expressions, phrases, handwriting etc.

Dorothy:

This is a short video of my time as my mother.

Claire:

This is a short video showing part of my life as my sister.  (Claire is on the left of the movie clips).  I wore her clothes, tried to copy her mannerisms, facial expressions and became her 'clone' for a few days.  

David:

Photos taken from my time as my father.

Expanding Research

Simulate

To reproduce the conditions of,

To assume or have the appearance of,

To make pretence of,

To appear real.

Initially I had much difficultly in thinking of an idea which creates a simulating experience.  Ideas were either too large scale and inappropriate for the time scale, or they did not seem to fit the brief.  As well as looking at the recommended artists, I tried to expand my research and find other artists who's designs I thought linked to this theme.

Noam Toran

'Desire Management' is a film comprising of 5 sequences in which objects are used as vehicles for dissident behaviour.  It includes an air hostess with a unique relationship to turbulence, an elderly man who enjoys being vacuumed, a couple who engage with baseball driven fantasies, the owner of a box which men ritually visit to look inside, and a man who is forced to cry into a strange device.

Fernando Casasempere

The latest work currently at Somerset house by artist Fernando Casasempere, is an installation of 10,000 ceramic flowers.  The artist is trying to re-create the joy we feel at the sight of blossoming daffodils signalling the end of winter and the beginning of spring.

I like how this artist has emphasised on trying to re-create a specific feeling.


Leandro Erlich:

Erlich has created a full sized swimming pool, complete with a ladder, which when first viewed creates a surreal scene: people standing, walking, fully clothed and breathing under water!  It is intact a layer of water only 10 centimetres deep suspended over transparent glass.  

I found this artist really interesting, how he brings impossible and exaggerating scenes to reality.  I then looked into some of his other works including: 

The Boat

Rain

Jeff Koons

Jeff Koon's flower puppy is a permeant display outside the Bilbao Guggenheim gallery, Spain.  "I wanted to make a piece of work that people could really feel a sense of warmth which has to do with the relationship of God".

Oliver Voss

A 13ft, woman statue "Die Badende" was installed on Hamburg's Alster lake.  It was created to encourage people to enjoy exploring the city via water, however I thought the design fitted this brief of simulating reality - either for the reason of sexual pleasure, or simply simulating the pleasure enjoyed when taking a bath.  

David Cerny

Climb the ladder, stick your head into the bottom, and you'll find yourself watching a short film of 2 politicians feeding each other, and a musical loop of Queen's 'We are the Champions'.  Simulating all sorts of reality?!!

Bird Nest Bed

If you ever felt the desire to sleep like a bird - here's the answer!

Pop-Up book phobias

I liked this idea of trying to simulate a feeling through a book, rather than a series of photographs or films.