Kitty Center

Kitty Center

Picturing Domestic Space: Sociocultural Perspectives

Spring 2013   

Project Proposal

 This project is aimed at constructing a book of photographs, recipes, and interviews with sideshow performers within their domestic space. The goal of this project is to explore the relationship between sideshow performer and audience via domestic space.

 There are two circumstances to consider in this study:

1)    Side show acts involve common household items such as screw drivers, nails, cans of soup, silverware, dishes, clothes pins, safety pins, BBQ skewers, clothing irons, power tools, etc.

2)    Identity within domestic space is different from persona projected in the public eye. How one presents themselves to others is influenced by where and how one lives and what one brings into their dwelling and why. This study explores how stationary domestic space and the “every day” objects within it influence side show performance and how those every day objects used out of context can illicit powerful emotion from an observer.

 This project involves digital portraiture lighting and lighting diagrams, photographing and troubleshooting available light photography, ethnographic methodology and interview technique, and hand bookbinding. The following books will inform this study:

Cover to Cover: Creative Techniques for Making Beautiful Books, Journals & Albums

Laplantz, Shereen.  

The final product of this project will be a bound book of photographs, stories, and recipes. I will learn how to create and bind my own book. Cover to Cover provides step by step instruction on seven different methods of binding art books.

 Ethnography: Step-by-Step (Applied Social Research Methods)

Fetterman, David M.

This project involves spending time with people and interviewing and photographing them in their domestic spaces. The concept of ethnography and the scientific approach to observation and methodology will be applied in this project.

 Shooting in Sh*tty Light: The Top Ten Worst Photography Lighting Situations and How to Conquer Them

Adler, Lindsay

This project involves portraiture photography with single light source and available light. This book is a guide to trouble shooting light problems.

A good book on portraiture lighting that does not focus on selling a lighting or software product will greatly aid this project.

 The final product of this quarter long project will be a tactile, visual, and “verbal” art book that explores relationships between sideshow performers, domestic space, and the public eye.

 The criteria for evaluating the success of this project include:

1)    Improved skills in lighting and portraiture

2)    Utilizing concepts and methodology in participatory ethnography reflected in interview and observation process

3)    The finished book must speak for itself as a result of colleague critique of process method and book development.