Nostalgia, Mad Men and Applications

What a great response I had yesterday launching my blog! Thank you all for the kind words of support on Facebook. I'm very excited about this blog and it seems that many of you are too. That's a very nice feeling indeed ;0) Please feel free to comment here instead of Facebook so conversations may be encouraged and make sure to fill out the box on the right to receive updated posts straight to your email inbox. And lastly, thanks to my friend Gennady Revzin who sent me two amazing photos, of which one I have used below.

Today I decided to write down what Don Draper said in that Mad Men episode I last posted, with the idea to ponder over the written word. Here is the transcript;

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"Technology is a glittering lure. That said, there is the rare occasion when the public can be engaged on a level beyond flash; if they have a sentimental bond with the product.

My first job; I was in-house at a fur company with this old pro copywriter; Greek, named Teddy. Now Teddy told me the most important idea in advertising is ‘new’. Creates an itch. You simply put your product in there as a kind of calamine lotion.

He also talked about a deeper bond with the product. Nostalgia. It’s delicate...but potent.

Teddy told me that in Greek ‘nostaglia’ literally means the pain from an old wound. It’s a twinge in your heart far more powerful than memory alone. This device isn’t a spaceship. It’s a time machine. It goes backwards, forwards. It takes us to a place where we ache to go again. It’s not called the wheel. It’s called the carousel.

Let’s just travel the way a child travels. Round and round and back home again, to a place where we know we’re loved."  Don Draper, Mad Men

Recently, I have been applying for all sorts of exhibition and grant opportunities using my research project on carousels as a source of inspiration for the projects I'm proposing. After transcribing this scene, I realised I had a very similar theme coming through my applications as to why I am focusing on the carousel. Here is some of what I have been writing lately;

Photo courtesy Gennady Revzin

"I am currently embarking on a yearlong research project to influence a new direction within my artistic practice by contemplating the craftsmanship, imagery, sounds and personal experience of the historic carousel. 

The image or idea of the carousel is surrounded by nostalgia and sends us straight back to childhood. The music, colours, lighting and general aesthetic is ingrained in our memories and gives us a sense of familiarity. The experience of the carousel is very much felt. We feel the wind against our cheeks, we see the blurring of the lights and colours as the carousel goes around and around and we are conscious of being looked upon by our parents, friends or passer-bys. In other words, we become part of the carousel experience.

It is this feeling of being gazed upon, the feeling of becoming a part of something outside of the body, surrounded by a childlike atmosphere that I aim to capture with these projects. By using and being inspired by the universal childhood imagery of the carousel, I hope to transport the viewer into a feminine perspective of beauty, attraction and sexuality constructed in what appears to be a never ending action of turning through materials such as video, sculpture and the direction the audience physically moves around the exhibition space."

The one thing I am very much enjoying so far about my electronic visual diary is that I am able to make sense of all these pieces I have been carrying around. Now, I can read my statement next to the transcript from Mad Men and really see why it is that short clip my friend posted on Facebook really stood out for me.