Final year project
Me We Here [Read more]
Me We Here
Selected digital collages from a handmade book. Merging digital and natural landscapes, designed to be taken out into an environment and used as a prompt and visual guide to encourage engagement with what is encountered there.
Proposed Exhibition Spaces For 'Me We Here'
Digital representation of proposed degree show exhibition. A multi-room installation of books, moving image, soft sculpture and textile work. Through pooling imagery across sources, scouring digital landscapes for material, I have repeatedly become aware of diverse forms of ‘knowledge’ - what does it mean to know? To speak out a Latin name, read a description of its components on Wikipedia, or search up an image on google? To know is also to feel, to see, to sit with. Knowledge is built from multi-sensory experiences because our lives are multi-faceted, and this project aims to demonstrate this.
I Am a Rock
A garment made from digitised imagery of rocks, designed to be worn in (and metaphorically encourage viewers to) begin to re-inhabit natural landscapes. By placing their body within the garment, and interactively collaging onto themselves (through placing natural objects in the pockets), the wearer becomes part of the ecosystem, playing with the non-hierarchical ideals of deep ecology.
Stills From 'Me We Here'
Stills from a moving image works for 'Me We Here.' A playful approach to making videos, with imagery collected across the internet as well as in physical landscapes. Sound sourced from personal accounts, stories and narratives, archival audio and field recordings. Exploring the space in which the digital meets the organic and the dialogue that emerges here.
Booklets From 'Me We Here'
Booklets and zines created from digital collages and collected imagery centred around geology. Rocks, whose unfolding meaning and symbolism have formed themselves into a vehicle to explore all concepts, are central to the human species’ growth and survival; we build with rocks, we worship rocks, we kill with rocks. More broadly, rocks form the foundation from which the earth on which we stand is formed and hold millennia's of knowledge.
Here
Image still from a short film created as part of my final project. To know is also to feel, touch, be with - how can I know through a physical encounter, and how does this compare to knowledge gained through a screen?
Me We Here
Pages taken from a booklet created as part of my final project. Digital collages with imagery sourced from both personal and digital archives, library books and online videos, which juxtapose technological and human narratives - both holding pivotal roles in establishing ways in which we encounter the world around us.
Me We Here
Laura Evans
Work made in the space where organic matter meets the digital world of ‘0s and 1s,' expressed through moving image, collage, sound and textiles.
"Man is placed at the pinnacle, all else falls beneath his feet, perpetuating the western ideal of human dominance." 'Me We Here' aims to re-imagine ways in which humans can sit amongst their non-human counterparts to re-establish kinship across biospheres and genealogical family trees.
Archaeologically digging into Wikipedia entries, scrolling through the natural environment, excavating stills from YouTube tutorials and ‘browsing’ digitised geological sites that hold pixelated rocks - I have endeavoured to cross-contaminate approaches that are typically used when working with the organic, the digital and the anthropological, forming an ecological approach to working that straddles all that these worlds encompass. Viewing my work as an ecosystem, I have aimed to produce in the midst of, and in collaboration with, these externally disparate entities, observing the triadic interplay between them.
As we take up more space digitally and less space geographically, we are increasingly encouraged (or enticed) into a state of unawareness, preferring to engage cognitively. My work aims to bring awareness back to the body and all that surrounds it - lessening the space between ourselves and our organic 'others.'
Using rocks as the subject, my work spans a vast array of mediums, narratives and performative expressions. I enjoy using art as a tool to explore the world, learn about all those that inhabit it and ultimately express my findings in collage, textile work, moving image, sound, soft sculpture and books.
After graduation, I hope to remain within the creative sphere, working collaboratively with others as well as continuing my own self-guided projects. Ultimately, I'd enjoy working within the events sector; organising and hosting spaces for creation, communication and collaboration. I am also driven to pursue a career that resides within the world of film, TV, video, music video production or moving image, as this is where I have found the most creative freedom.
Final year project
Me We Here
Awards
2020 LU Arts Short Film Competition | Second Prize | Chosen by Nick Slater and Alex Widdowson.
2019 Architecture Summer School | Fruit Routes | Second Prize.
Work Experience
Creative Director for LBORO Vintage, a student-run vintage clothing business.
Responsible for producing and editing video content. Collecting, collating and curating media outreach. Organising, managing, styling and photographing at photoshoots. Working collaboratively with a creative team. Building branding guidelines and planning the future aesthetic of the business.
lborovintage.com
Volunteer at Modern Painters, New Decorators, an artist-led studio and gallery in Loughborough.
Installing exhibitions. Publicising events. Supporting creative projects and working with an artist collective.
Volunteer at Mansions of the Future, a three-year arts and cultural hub in Lincoln, hosting a public programme of talks, workshops, communal lunches and family activities, alongside national and international artistic commissions.
Community engagement. Supporting creative projects. Setting up and supporting the general public and artists during workshops.