My dissertation proposal seems to go together with my literature review. One makes less sense without the other. I have therefore added my proposal to the literature section of this blog but have copied the proposal for my dissertation here but with knowledge it is part of a bigger essay.

19/10 – proposal version ii

Dissertation Proposal, Research to Date and Future Aims

It would seem a natural human reaction to death or impending loss and as a reaction to grief caused by such loss to seek to capture that moment in time. Whether by looking at existing photographs or to reach for camera to create new ones, this appears to be attempt to find an image that conveys a sense of what has been lost, to freeze moment and cast a memory which preserves a sense of that person in happier times or to try and store the last precious moment of life before death. To capture the very essence of that time and, mirroring the capture of the photographic image, to fix it forever.

My research into this subject builds upon written works by Roland Barthes, Geoffrey Batchen, Marianne Hirsch and Susan Sontag. My inspiration stems from living through the deaths of my mother and daughter.

To date, my research and test pieces have considered medical treatments and investigation into cancer and how a person is portrayed by the medical scan, I have shifted medical scans into different contexts for example a child’s game or onto wall of an art gallery. In current year of study, I have looked at social conventions surrounding the death of children and of sudden death versus expected death. I have explored the symbolism of death and the graveyard as a type of theatre for a specific kind of performance but have also looked at memorials outside the graveyard setting and of those who die and are forgotten, their graves abandoned, eroded and overgrown and those placed into unmarked graves. I am interested in providing dead people with a new story through my photography, not to bring them back to life, but instead to say to the living that these people are not forgotten and to demand that my audience confront thoughts of their own deaths. At all times I am aware that working in the field of death and memory, this is about the living for simple reason that the dead have no wish to be remembered and indeed have no wishes at all.

In my dissertation, I intend to look in more depth at emotionally challenging areas of death, loss, grief, memory and memorial through the optic of photography. This is a very large field so in attempt to narrow this down to a manageable essay suitable for undergraduate level, I have detailed my current thoughts on questions I would like to explore:

• To better understand and learn to accept my own grief.
• How death is portrayed in visual culture?
• To understand the societal response to the death of children.
• An understanding of the use of memorials and why large segments of society are not remembered.
• Explore the act of assigning new memories and stories to those who have been forgotten.

 

This is my initial draft of my proposal for my dissertation for next year. I was unsure on structure and layout but maybe those things are less important than the ideas contained within the proposal.

30/09 – proposal version i

Dissertation Proposal: How are the Dead Remembered through Photographic Representation?

Introduction

It would seem to be a natural human reaction to death or imminent death and to the emotion of grief caused by loss to seek to capture that visual moment.

My personal research into this subject uses many sources but specifically builds upon research conducted by Roland Barthes, Geoffrey Batchen, Martha Langford and Susan Sontag. My project is based upon my personal experiences of dealing with the deaths of my mother and daughter within 3 days of one another.

Research to Date and Aims of Dissertation

My research and creative test pieces started in a previous unit of study by considering medical scans and cancer and shifting the medical scan to a different context for example a child’s game or to the wall of an art gallery. In this current year of study, I have developed my research to look at the social conventions when considering the death of a child and of an older person. I have started to explore the ideas around the symbolism of death and of the graveyard as a type of theatre for a specific kind of performance, memorials outside the graveyard setting and of those who die and are forgotten, their graves abandoned, eroded and overgrown or even those placed into an unmarked grave.

I am interested in providing such people with a new story through my photography, not to bring the dead back to life, but instead to say to the living that these people are not forgotten and to demand that my audience confront thoughts of their own deaths. At all times I am aware that working in the field of death and memory, this is about the living for simple reason that the dead have no wish to be remembered and indeed have no wishes at all.

Next year in my dissertation, I intend to look in more depth at the emotionally challenging areas of death, loss, grief and memory. This is a very large field so in an attempt to narrow this down to a manageable essay suitable for undergraduate level, I have detailed my current thoughts on what my dissertation will explore:

• My ongoing research allied with the creation of physical test pieces, is an attempt to better understand myself, my own motives and as a form of self-healing.
• How is the certainty of death portrayed in visual culture?
• How does childhood death fit with conventions on the certainty of death?
• Is the death of children a hidden, almost unspoken, part of death culture that is death at its most shocking?
• An understanding of memorials left to symbolise the memory of those who have died and a recognition of the lack of commemoration for large segments of society.
• An exploration into the act of assigning new memories and new stories to those who have been forgotten.