Proposal in Response to Research

• A proposal of what you intend to produce in response to your research.

I spent the summer thinking about what it was that interested me in art and in psychology and philosophy etc that could inspire my COP project as I knew I could find something I was more passionate about than my previous idea. 

I did psychology as an Alevel so I have a base knowledge on the different perpectives and I have always found the evolutionary perspective really interesting and explanatory as to why we behave and think the way we do (even though it is just one of many approaches and probably just a contributing factor - nature rather than nurture.).

Simultaneously I was thinking about an idea of looking into the current health issues concerning poor lifestyle choices such as poor diet and a lack of sufficient exercise. I also did biology at A Level and have always been really interested in the workings of the body. But instead I thought I could combine this with the evolutionary perspective approach and thinking about humans as animals. 

Once you start thinking about how we, in western culture at least, interact with animals, both in life and in art, it is pretty shocking how far we've separated ourselves from animals! I totally believe in evolution and I love nature, so for me I am so surprised that the majority of people see humans as above animals. It is obvious that looking at the world, humans are predators, violent and dangerous, willing to do anything in order for their own survival - which is why we have survived and why in most situations we are at the top of the food chain either through natural processes or through our wit and ingenious weapons etc. 

However now I think most of us are very seperated from the reality of our natural instincts. The direct stimuli such as hunting, gathering, killing and birth/survival may be muted in daily life, but our reactions still reflect these evolutionary practices, such as stress, rage, joy, jealousy, love etc. 

I want to look at social situations today and strip them down to their raw evolutionary meaning. 

I will start to do this by looking at current affairs such as the 'migrant crisis' and the headlines, phrases, photographs and editorial illustration depicting these and how they use animal similies, metaphors, symbolism, linguistics etc to evoke a primal instinctive and raw reaction in the general public... we are naturally fearful of strangers as often it meant competing for resources; food and housing, and sexual mates - basically a disruption to the way of life that allowed humans to survive to that point and a direct threat to our survival. The feeling of distrust, fear and rage at strangers coming to our country is natural. That does not mean its fair or moral. We are all humans and people are dying doing all they can to get out of a horrific situation in a place they call home. These people want peace in their country, they don't want to invade ours. We know that in our educated minds however the primal instinct is still there. 

This animal and primal instinct will be the main theme of my work for COP. 

I want to look at how other satirical editorial illustrators have used animal imagery to depict people of power/politicians etc and why this effects the readers view on that individual. 

This means I will be exploring and investigating into animal symbolism and the history of animal imagery in art, which will be tied into animals role in our lives; religious/catering/cultures etc. 

I have got 5 books out of the Leeds College of Art library at the moment which I thought would be incredibly helpful for this project...

Title: Drawn from paradise: the discovery, art and natural history of the birds of paradise. 
Author: Fuller, Errol; Attenborough, David 
Classification: 704.9432 
Barcode: R79266X0084 

Title: The postmodern animal. 
Author: Baker, Steve 
Classification: 704.9432 
Barcode: R40069X0084 

Title: Animals in art. 
Author: Brion, Marcel 
Classification: 704.9432 
Barcode: R01268F0084 

Title: Considering animals: contemporary studies in human-animal relations. 
Author: Watt, Yvette (ed.); Leane, Elizabeth (ed.); Freeman, Carol (ed.) 
Classification: 704.9432 
Barcode: R76029L0084 

Title: James Gillray: the art of caricature 
Author: Godfrey, Richard 
Classification: 741.5 GIL 
Barcode: R28502F0084 

For my physical work I will be exploring animal form and other animal imagery such as crosses of human and animal, animal gods, mystical animals etc and why these images have been used. 

I have been reading The Postmodern Animal and it is really interesting to explore the idea of whether it is possible to actually depict the animal without the 'human eye' depicting meaning and symbolism within it - reading our own emotions in it or relating it to humans. We are just too self obsessed as a species! Reading into animals may have helped our survival and it definitely is engulfed within folk law etc - the symbolism and innate reactions to animals probably helped us to survive and adapt to working with - or running away from the animal. 

However some animal symbolism is extremely complicated such as that of the bear and the lion. BBC Radio 4 has currently been running a series called Natural Histories which I have been following. I was so shocked when I found out that I believe that the king of the jungle is the lion purely because of Christianity, and that my teddy bears are a result of Christianity making a laughing stock of the pagan sacred animal; the bear!