Phobias / Mental Disorder

Phobia - 19 - cooleyelizabeth_11945_1115

Phobia / Mental Disorders

Understanding visual world

Problem Statement:
Create an artwork that visually describes a phobia and mental disorder (2 separate images). You will need to pick and research 1 phobia and 1 mental disorder. Ultimately, you will create a sketchbook entry and final photograph for each one.

You will need to shoot at least 2 of the 4 categories for each phobia / mental disorder:

Problem Statement

Idea Brainstorming

Sketchbook Specs: Do in order

1. Create a 2 page spread. Address the background (10 Points)

2. Include an "essential question" and answer for each entry. Start with why or how... minimum of 5 sentences each (10 Points)

3. Create a 3 layer web (each layer is branched out 2 times)

3. Include a thumbnail for each concept below for both. Label with photographer choices. - Failure to label photo choices will result in zero credit for this portion. ( 5 for phobia, 4 for mental disorders)

a. Through the eyes of someone who is affected:
Put yourself in the mind of someone who is affected. What will their world look like? (can include people)

b. An environment that showcases the phobia or mental disorder. What does their environment look like? Sarah Hobbs' photography showcases an exaggerated environment for personalities.(cannot include people, environment only)

c. Draw a thumbnail that only uses studio lighting in school

d. MENTAL DISORDER ONLY - Use found materials to showcase what it may be like for someone who is not effected to understand what it may be like to have it. An example of this is Emily's photo of Autism. She utilized duct tape over the mouth and an extreme close up, blurry image to showcase the difficulty it is to communicate clearly.

e. PHOBIA ONLY - Exaggerate the worst possible scenario (phobia only):What does the worst fear look like? If they are afraid of spiders, maybe its 40 spiders crawling on them.

f. PHOBIA ONLY - Create a photograph that would make the viewer who has the phobia fearful to look at it. See Claire's example of the dummy.

Sketchbook

Exemplar Artists

Sarah Hobbs:

Sarah Hobbs constructs and then photographs uninhabited domestic spaces whose aberrations and excesses illustrate psychological pathologies. In her series of large-scale images taken with a 4 x 5 camera, entitled "small problems in living", benign and familiar settings become overwhelming and threatening, as they might be perceived by a person suffering from paranoia, obsessive compulsive disorder, agoraphobia, anxiety or the type of generalized postmodern neurosis embodied by Woody Allen's comic manifesto, "i can't express anger, I just grow a tumor instead".

Hobbs's work eloquently evokes the psycho-social pressures associated with big city living - she currently lives and works in Atlanta, GA. Her work is especially powerful because of its empathetic treatment of people suffering from irrational fears, whose legacy of alienation from those who are not afflicted is often as painful as the symptoms of the disorder. Though her images are not intended to be self referential, Hobbs writes, "being alone can be very comfortable, but there can also be great discomfort when you are alone with your own psyche. Little neuroses, phobias or the like can have room to grow. Further, at one time or another each of us has probably had the idea that we were the only person in the world with a certain foible, and possibly on a certain level felt that this made us weird or compelled us to keep it a secret. What a relief when we realize that, not only are we not the only one, but that the problem is quite common. Psychology connects us, just as sociology does."