Why do we perceive things to be disturbing?

Ok so this is fairly random, but I have been doing some research as part of one of my projects and I found the results pretty interesting so thought I would share them :)

I am looking into how we perceive things to be disturbing or creepy, and how illustration can make things appear less shocking, and make subjects like death and violence easier to look at. 

I asked a group of people on my course to look at 5 images and rank them in the order of which made them the most uncomfortable, I then asked them to comment on why they found each image the most or least uncomfortable to look at! 

Here are the pictures in the order of least to most hard to look at, and some people comments. Feel free to comment and let me know what order you would have put them in, and why :)

(Illustration by Joanne Oldham)

“The character being stabbed doesn't look like they're in pain.. and it's a puppet, and a cartoon..”

“far away from reality. The colours are less intimidating/scary and the figures have no obvious expressions so it’s easier to distance yourself from what’s happening"

“the characters are too naively drawn, colours are whimsical (all 3 prime colours are used too, a device often used in childrens toys to make them more appealing) the witch is not looking at her victim, which detracts from the hostility the picture would otherwise have”

(from the gashlycrumb tines by Edward Gorey)

“more subversive almost Burton-esque horror”

“This one is really sinister when you think about it, but doesn't feel that disturbing to look at as an image”

“weird but its cartoon like so not as harsh as the more realistic ones.”

“is easy to look at because of the black and white and the snow. it reminds me of calvin and hobbes which i like to read.”

(from tumblr, if you know the artist please comment)

“not as realistic and sort of cute in a twisted way, but it’s a dead kid and that’s not nice, the colours are pretty morbid”

“The way the body is hanging and the sickly colours - It's looks like an old Victorian photograph, which is creepy..”

“cos its a child and it stands out from the others due to yellow colour”

(also tumblr, comment if you know the artist)

“It's the eyes...! She's looking right at you...! And I think the contrast in colours makes it the most intense and disturbing image”

“crazy eyes and depth of blood colour”

“because the eyes are staring directly at you”

(also tumblr, comment if you know the artist)

“claustrophobic images and graphic”

“feeling of claustrophobia and torment”

“very disturbing but the lack of colour causes me to mostly view it objectively rather than subjectively”

“realistic so easier to relate to and looks disturbing-not too bad cos’ there’s no blood”

In conclusion, this confirmed some of what I expected. We are more shocked by images that are more human and things that we can relate to. When things are more cartoon-like they seem detached from reality and therefore less shocking, even if the imagery is of dead children. Many found the fourth image most disturbing because the eyes were looking directly at you, the last image won out because of the feeling of claustraphobia and the fact that it was the most realistic.

One thing I hadn't thought about was how colour affected peoples perceptions, the first image uses bright primary colours which makes it more playful and the imagery was very simplistic, the blood made up of cartoon style droplets means it is very detached from reality.

In the other images, the sickly yellow in the image of the child made it more disturbing, and a few commented that the two monochrome images were easier to look at because of the lack of blood and colour. The face covered in blood was close to winning because people found the blood and colours gross and intense to look at.  

So, what do you think of this experiment? Some useful things to work with here if you want to make any artwork of dead people :)

Gig at Annabelles

So last night I went to a gig at Annabelles cabaret and discotheque in Plymouth. I had always wanted to go there since it just sounded awesome and they have the odd burlesque show which sounded even more exciting! Anyway, I got me and a friend in for free because I did some poster artwork for the band, Jessica and the Rabbits. They are a 7 piece jazz and blues cover band. They all dress in black white and red and play some seriously awesome tunes :)

I too, my friend Jess and we sat for a bit and drank pints of cider (cos it's cheap and we are poor students) pretending to look sophisticated in this very nice boudoir style bar before the band started playing.

We realised after a while that we were stood next to a group of drag queens who once the band started we're absolutely loving it! We had a good dance throughout their first set and left midway through the second set because the locals got creepy... No offence to most Plymouth locals but the odd ones ruin your reputation when walk around grabbing every single female in the room!

 

 

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London and procrastination

Ok so the last London post took 3 days to actually upload cos the wifi in my hostel was pretty darn shite! But here is the rest of what I got up to :)

Saturday I met my sister in central London and we made our way up to Chingford to see my cousin in his tattoo studio. This should have been an easy journey but for some reason over half the tube lines were having maintenance done at the weekend so we got 3 tubes, and a bus going in the wrong direction...

Anyway, so the summer before last I was going to take my sister up to London to get a tattoo done but it has taken this long to organise/be brave enough to just get one!

 

Here is mine finished, I did a load of sketches to decide what I wanted, this is the one he designed it from:

Obviously the final one is much neater haha. I am super happy with it, has been driving me a little crazy with itchiness the past couple of days but it seems to be stopping now (yay). After we had both been tattooed we all sat and had a drink and a catch up before we went back to the centre for my sister to get her bus home.

Next day I went to the Tate for the morning to meet my friend Neil who I haven't seen since art foundation. In the end it took him forever to get in (bloody tubes) so I had nearly 4 hours walking around doing crazy drawings from paintings and things. We went to brick lane for the afternoon and walked around going in some hipster galleries and drinking cider in bars with cushions on the floor, all good fun :)

For my last day I went to the Chelsea design showroom in Chelsea harbour. This is basically a giant building with 200 different rooms where you can look at anything from bathrooms to curtains and light fittings.

I spent 2 hours in there marvelling at the insane amount of different fabric there was, so much beautiful stuff!

Since I have been back have been trying to carry on work, doing some more crazy drawings from the crazy drawings I did in London and dissertation reading since I finally decided on a question :)

Pattern design from a sketch I did.

So many books!

 

New glasses! Plastic rims because I was feeling a little hipster at the time haha. Oh yeah and I also got instagram.. Can you tell?

 

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Landan-day one

So I am currently in London on a field trip to do drawings and research for my dissertation. Secretly I know this trip isn't exactly necessary but I had so much fun last time we came and museum hopped I wanted to do it again.

I got into Victoria coach station at 7, way, way too early for anything other than coffee shops to be open. One thing I love about London is the fact that pretty much anytime of day you can walk round the corner and find an English breakfast! I stumbled upon one just outside the station and it was exactly what I needed after nearly 7 hours sleeping on a bus!

I then headed to the V&A, though it doesn't open till 10 which sucked I sat on a drizzly bench with some pigeons and did some sketches until 9 when I knew there was an art fair opening around the corner. "Multiplied" is a huge art fair in Christies auction house, loads of people exhibiting prints and pieces of artwork that were being sold in multiples, I of course still couldn't afford anything.. I walked in and felt like a bit of a tool with two bags, converse and my cosy clothes on with all these smartly dressed art buyers in suits... Awkward.. Ah we'll, I got some nice postcards and left pretty quickly.

I then went into the V&A, I started off looking at textiles from all over the world as part of my dissertation research, took lots of photos of the plaques next to things because I am too lazy to write notes ;) I then went off and spent a good couple of hours looking at the most amazing Dresses in their current Ballgowns exhibit-that was nothing to do with any work and just me being indulgent because I like beautiful dresses!

I then accidentally ended up following a tour guide round and learning lots of exciting things about different objects in the museum. I only realised today how much of an at nerd I am, I stayed in the museum until nearly 7pm because it is late night opening.. I had a half hour break to go and look at some birds in the natural history museum but other than that I was there for about 8 hours!

Based on these sketches I wonder if I was going slightly mad....

Am a bit exhausted now, tomorrow I have a break as I am off to Chingford to see my cousin to get a tattoo with my sister. Not sure if that's a good break day or not, am a little bit terrified to be honest...

At least my hostel is nice, I took a photo, just cos I find it funny how it looks kind of like a purple prison... Everything is really new though, and its cheap, and I get free breakfast! Amazing! Anyho, this is just to save me going mad from no social interaction, some bearded guy just walked in in a towel, maybe we will have a conversation later..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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look who is back

I wish I had the time and energy to blog about the rest of camp, maybe one day I will do, there is literally just so, so much that happened that I could possibly talk about that I could go on forever!

The last few weeks went by really past, I got a lot closer to some people, and further away from others. The thing with camp is that at the start everyone is all shiny and happy and excited, by the end you have spent 9 weeks with people, enduring bonding, bitching, hook ups, break ups, people being either very helpful or very unhelpful with the amount of work they do. It all becomes pretty insane!

The last few days were pretty awesome, we made pancakes on the night we put up the art show. We had an icing tube to put the batter out and make pancakes in the shape of human organs, faces, spongebob squarepants-they were pretty hilarious!

The last day we all put camp away as a team, yay for team bonding! This involved lots of production line style putting away of chairs and dining hall benches. Art staff then had to clear the FAB for the staff party that evening. I went to buttermilk falls with a few people beforehand for some beers so by the time we turned up I was tipsy and finding it all very surreal. Seeing your place of work, where you have been teaching kids for 9 weeks, full of all the staff, boxes of pizza, wine boxes and kegs, with everyone drinking and dancing around-pretty damn strange!

Travelling after camp was awesome, I met up with a lot of people in New York after 2 weeks of travel. Was good to see everyone after a break to see what everyone had been getting up to and how they were finding real life. 

I flew home feeling a little bit sad, I had been homesick and kindof exhausted for a lot of the travelling but when I actually had to go I no longer wanted to. I had the most wonderful 12 weeks, there were times when being in the bubble drove me slightly crazy, but I loved it all the same, so, so many good memories and good people whom I already miss and want all my friends to meet!

I am now sat in my new room back at uni, wearing my bear hat (which got many comments at camp, and kept my head very warm when sat outside the bunk on duty). The last few days have been strange, I came back a little nervous about what this year would have in store. I found it hard to sort my head out and move on from things since camp was so, so far away from real life and the people I am with back here.

I think I have changed a little, I feel louder here, I feel like I want to make friends with and be nice to everyone, whereas before I was a little more shy of people. It is probably a good thing because I am social secretary for trampolining this year, and whilst I won't be standing on a chair to introduce myself as Josie Illustration anymore, I will have to get to know and be friendly to everyone :) 

This was going to be a post about how I just installed Spotify and how awesome it is, I got sidetracked. But anyway, Yellow Ostrich are becoming my absolute favourite band right now, perfect catchy, fun, room cleaning and course work music haha.

Now gonna get some sleep before sports and societies fair tomorrow, gonna be walking around for 6 hours in a leotard hassling the freshers. Apparently last year they all just got drunk, figure I may join in with that. Tipsy rambling about how much fun it is to bounce around will definitely get people involved, plus we have goody bags!

Peace out my lovelies x