Proposal

My project for my moving image piece is about Dementia and memory loss, inspired by the work of Christopher Nunn and Phillip Toledano. I plan to use my Nan who suffers from slight memory loss due to age, and document her doing simple tasks and forgetting about them. The thing she does most is make cups of tea and forget where she places them, therefore, I plan to have her making cups of tea and placing them on the side table, forgetting about them and making more – the end conclusion being the cups of tea stacked on the table half drunk and forgotten about.

I have used the work of Christopher Nunn, Phillip Toledano and Keith Arnatt as my main body of research. Christopher Nunn was my initial research material, due to the fact I found his series based on David Blackburn and his struggle with dementia online. I fell in love with the simplistic shots of items around Blackburn’s home, as well as portraits of Blackburn reading and looking at old photographs, showing how weary he has become. Following on from this research, my tutor told me to look into the work of Phillip Toledano, who created the series “Days with my Father”. The series looks into the heartbreak and stress that people with dementia or severe memory loss go through, as Toledano’s father had no idea where his wife was, even though she was dead. The portrait of Toledano’s father looking in the mirror at his reflection was the photograph that influenced me most, due to the composition and meaning. In my video, I plan to use very still video clips to represent the stillness aspect, whereby the viewer is forced to focus on the facial expressions that the subject is making. It also gives the notion that the person is still because she is thinking. Further from this, I looked into the work of Keith Arnatt, who produced a series of images called “Notes From My Wife”. I wanted to incorporate hand written notes in my video, to help guide the viewer to understand that the video is about dementia and not about someone who just likes tea!

Christopher Nunn

Phillip Toledano

Keith Arnatt

I plan to use two cameras for filming; my boyfriends Canon C100 cine camera to make sure my video is high quality, as well as using my Canon 60D to film the notes that are going to be left around the house. I already know how to use Premiere Pro to a basic level but it will be good to learn more about the program. In terms of technical aspects, I need to make sure that I film with the right settings so I do not have to film more than once, as well as making sure my lighting is adequate and there are no items in the background that could cause continuity errors.