The plateau seems to have made way for some progress

So lately I've found myself on a bit of a plateau, unable to focus or find the drive to do any work...which was pants and very worrying! But today I went to the library, got some books out on John Baldessari, sat in the sun and flicked through them and then wrote some ideas down in my notebook. Oh my god my brain has not been this productive in a while I'm telling you! Sun seems to be good for me!

I wrote down my main core ideas again, reminding myself of what I was doing as I find after tutorials etc that my mind is full of new suggestions that pull me away from what I really want to achieve with this project. It's not that the ideas are bad, they just confuse me for a little while! A few little things came to mind to try out and test as I was doing this, so this evening I've been printing the photos I have so far (I've asked my family members for one photo of their family together in a group). I also printed the family maps off and decided to plot the points on pieces of acetate. I placed these over the photographs and quite like how they look. Not sure on the colours or sizes of the dots yet, but I like how it looks so far.

I also had the idea of what would the maps look like with curved lines instead of straight ones? This came about by thinking about boomerangs, as my family seem to move slightly away from the area and back again. I quite like how they look with curved lines, and I think the one on the bottom right of the image below looks a little like a signature.

I'm wondering whether to move away from the pin prick/space idea. As much as I love bringing my love for space into this project, I'm thinking it could be kept more of a research thing. It would also make the fabrication a lot simpler, which I know isn't the best way to look at things, but I really have been worrying about how to present my punctured prints. Getting them into frames wouldn't be a big a problem, but hanging them in front of a window for the natural light to come through would be a bit of a task, seeing as the windows in the space I shall be exhibiting in are huge with no frames or anything to hang work from. I'm sure I could do it, but I've been worrying about it and always thinking "I'll figure it out later". I now have thought about it...and I don't think it would be an easy task at all. I could use light boxes, but for some reason I am very reluctant to do so. I liked the fact the light coming through was natural and wanted to keep it that way.

I'm going to think about this a lot over the coming week, before my all day review seminar next Friday. Hopefully this will get things into perspective for me and hopefully finalise my thoughts!

Now time for some sleep as tomorrow is a big day! Publication meeting, lecture with Martin Parr, and then a Visiting Lecture! I wish it was a free day now I've got some motivation for my work back. But ah well that's what Friday and the weekend are for!