Peer Feedback

In order to gage how effective my representations of the abject were, I asked fellow M.A Photography students to examine some examples and give me some constructive criticism. This took place in an organised tutorial session at Uni with a visiting specialist Lecturer.
I wanted to choose an area to focus on that seemed the most disgusting and that evoked the strongest reaction.

I explained the subject of my Major study was to create images that both seduced and then shocked the viewer. I told them how I had based my research on a set of global elicitors of disgust which were documented earlier in this blog. The elicitors were connected with diseased, distorted, injured, extreme bodies and what came out of them as waste matter. Other key elicitors of disgust were rotten, possibly diseased food, insects and creatures like rats and snakes with evil, dirty, disease spreading connotations.
Another elicitor was poor personal hygiene and anti-social habits like spitting and picking your nose.

I had six different categories and showed one or two images in each of the categories asking respondents to note their initial response, then any suggestions, comments or advice.
The categories were:-

'Bottled'

They found the ancient bottled body parts quite disgusting. Some found the fact that they were surreptitious made them more attractive and intriguing. They liked the sectioned images and found that once they knew what they were found the symmetry and attractiveness tinged with disgust.

'Gothic'

Although they liked the image of the old vine against the sandstone wall, the students did not expect the intricate interwoven pattern created from it. They talked about seeing insects and faces lurking in the pattern. they found the sectioned image attractive and 'eerie' but not disgusting or abject. One comment was that it looked like something from Harry Potter created by witchcraft or b elves to keep their money safe!

'Death'

There was much more expression of disgust at the top two images.The original image, discussed in an earlier blog post, is from ancient catacombs where saints'  bodies have been dressed and decorated in gold and precious stones. The juxtaposition of white skull and bright gold is quite spectacular and creates a sense of discomfort. With my image I chose to leave less detail, fewer multiples so that the subject matter is more easily definable. Comments were made about seeing a bright and beautiful pattern of shapes, then seeing the rows of teeth with a jolt of recognition. This was a popular image and the students felt it succeeded in being abject. Some people had to turn away as they found it too unpleasant.Another student said he was drawn back to the rows of teeth even when he tried to study the whole image.
The lower image was made from a skull in a museum. The deformity caused by the manipulation of sections adds to the sense of abject. This was described as 'very scary' by the group and represented death and decay to them.

'Snakes'

The original image on the left was an attempt to suggest the malevolence of snakes; the black snake surrounded here by feathers, fur  and a rat's skull.' Although The students love the image on the right, there was nothing in it that suggested malevolence or disgust. 'It is too pretty' 'It looks like wallpaper'

'Rotten meat'

These rotten food images proved to be considered the most effective in creating disgust in my tutorial group. They liked the visceral quality, but  it was suggested that I could make them even more slippery

by spraying the original dish of food with oil. I like the idea of making them more glossy. It was also suggested that it was easier in these images to look closer and see the pieces of meat and scraps of bone.

I am going to do another rotting food shoot with the inclusion of faeces and vomit perhaps I will get some intestines and organs from a butcher's?

. I will also spray it with cooking oil. The fact that these images are made up of only four repeats, makes their subject matter more clear and therefore more shocking rather than  a beautiful pattern.

The multi-faceted image below for example, was considered lees abject by the tutorial group although they liked it.

Because of the size of the pattern and the number of repeats, the meat, bone and blood are lost in the overall image. Perhaps if this image were printed very large, the individual components would be more obvious.