THE PROSPECT OF IMMORTALITY

Jacob Ham

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DATE BRIEFED

6th March 2017

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DATE

27th March 2017

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DEADLINE.

27th March 2017

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Newcastle Trip.

On 16th March 2017, a majority of the class visited Newcastle, to take a look at two galleries. Those being the Baltic and Laing Art Gallery. Although the artwork interested me and I was able to take aspects away from the exhibitions, there was nothing that stood out to me and really grabbed my attention as a designer. 

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Prior to leaving Newcastle, I visited an extra gallery known as "Side Gallery" which is based around Photography and at the time hosted two exhibitions, shortly after the gallery had reopened to the public after being refurbishment.

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The Prospect Of Immortality.

During my visit, there were two exhibitions present at the gallery. The Prospect of Immortality and Under Gods. The exhibition that appealed to me the most out of these two, was The Prospect of Immortality by Murray Ballard.  

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This exhibition is based around the concept of people in today's age preferring to cryogenically freeze themselves after death rather than being buried or cremated. This concept was originally published by Robert C.W Enttinger in 1962. Murray Ballard took this hypothesis and between 2006 an 2016 developed a range of 22 photos that each display a story of the process of freezing a human body after death. 

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What Can I take way?

This project, is rather interesting and I can tell a different story from each photograph within the series. However the main reason to why this entire project grabbed my attention is that each photo follows the same style, with a main focus point in the centre of the image and then everything that helps to create the environment around the object making it feel more real. From a design perspective this can help me when creating compositions for editorial designs such as my critical study next year.

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