STEP ON A CRACK, BREAK YOUR MOTHERS BACK.

STEP ON A LINE, BREAK YOUR MOTHERS SPINE.

I wrote these phrases on the paving stones outside my house, and watched, as people altered their behaviour...

I went on to make 'lucky stickers'

This was an experiment to collect feedback from the public, looking at how people are open to taking opportunities/ how people become more aware of the good things that happen when they have somewhere to source their good fortune, even if it is just through an inanimate object. I posted flyers with these lucky stickers around the city and provided an email adress 'myluckhaschanged@hotmail.com', and got quite a few nice responses from the public, commenting on how what i was doing was 'good karma'

I don't know whether this counts as good luck/fortune but is more serendipity I guess. I think the latter is an accident with a happy outcome?

Anyway I was committed to something today that my heart really wasn't in and that I wished I could get out of, but couldn't. Anyway it was cancelled and not by me! So I pretended to be disappointed but was secretly glad! Does that make me a bad person? Probably!

So one thing that may be ascribed to your "experiment".

I hope you get lot's more positive replies.

I'm going to keep the sticker with me for a bit longer to see what happens.

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         I wouldn't necessarily say this bought me luck but it brought me karma, as i found out that my ex boyfriend has become fat..

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          What Was This Lucky Sticker All About?

I Didnt Have Time Too Take 1 Sticker, So I Tool The Page, However I Have Re-Posted The Lucky Sticker Poster In Liverpool City Centre Town :)
I Have a Photograph Too! So Nw Many More People Will B Lucky.

This Was a Nice Thing Of u Too Do. Good Karma.

I further investigated the idea of luck. Derren Brown's 'Secret of Luck' programme was very interesting.

In the programme, a simple question was posed 'have you heard about the lucky dog statue?'. Rumour spread, and so did stories of luck achieved by petting the ‘lucky dog’. People put rational thought aside , drawing cause and effect where there isn't one.

BUT it became apparent that if you do something that you believe has granted you luck it will affect your behaviour. The more open you are to opportunities, the more you engage with the world around you, more things will happen to you therefore more good things will happen, and you will be more aware of these good things happening. therefore you become luckier.

I decided to visit an old peoples home. My grandma had numerous superstitions, and i began to wonder if beliefs were directly related to different generations. Here are some rough line drawings i did of the old people while there (they didnt mind)

Here are some of the more obscure superstitions they gave me.....

•Green is unlucky

•Never clip your toenails on a Tuesday

•If you head footsteps behind you, never turn around: it may be the dead walking following you

•Never face the foot of your bed towards the door, for that’s the way the dead used to be carried out.

•Its bad luck to light three cigarettes with the same match

•Ghosts love the smell of lemons

•Your reflection in a mirror is your actual soul,therefore breaking the mirror brings bad luck.

•If the flame of a candle or fire turns blue, it means a spirit is in the room.

Its been a while blogspot. I'm going to try and summarise my year of work. Here goes.

OK. Folklore. Theres tonnes of it. More than i ever knew. I developed an interest in obscure folklore traditions and superstitios behaviour that have stood the test of time. I became intruiged by films such as 'the wicker man'

Unsettling superstitions are evident throughout the film , for example, the local apothecary has foreskins pickled in a jar, Myrtle must swallow a frog to cure her sore throat, tied to a tree over Rowan's grave is her bloodied naval skin.

Although many of the traditions in the film seem laughable today, superstitions are still evident in contemporary society and have stood the test of time. Exploring how even to this day, we still cast rational thought aside when it comes to certain superstitions.

Photographs by Paul Trevor

13 May to 25 September 2011

This exhibition of photographs taken during the 1970's of working class estates in the poorer areas of liverpool, demonstrates how significanty things can change over a relatively short period of time. Despite the impoverished conditions, the families and people living within the area seemed to be having a happy and content life. Families are seen to live together in apparent harmony, with a strong community spirit. The photos are captured honestly, documenting a moment in time that was not staged nor posed. Whether or not this was an accurate depiction of the general mood of the people living within this era is unknown, but the photos ultimately illustrate that happyness is found in relationships, not necessarily in the aquisition of material goods that modern times suggest will make us happy.

 "In 1975 Paul Trevor came to Liverpool to document inner city deprivation for the 'Survival Programmes' project. His remarkable photographs tell a different story however. Their backdrop may be the dereliction of post-war Liverpool. But these images go beyond this bleak cityscape and get close to his real subject: families and children.

Paul's direct and honest street photography shows life as it was lived in a community defiant in the face of poverty, unemployment and the state of their surroundings. He depicts a place where the streets and wastelands became playgrounds, the family was a constant, and where children seem fun-loving and free.

Paul returned to the same Liverpool communities in the summer of 2010. After a lively reunion with local residents, one said:

"Paul, it's like you’ve never been away!" - Walker Art Gallery

VG&M

The Quay Brothers
I was advised to go and see this exhibition by a fellow art student (shout out to Reuben), as he felt the work had the same 'atmosphere' as my final installation. The work consisted of a series of box setups that were dark and surreal. The Quay Brothers create stop-motion animations within these sets using puppets. The films avoke half-remembered dreams and long suppressed childhood memories. I have a massive urge to start making puppets over the summer, but have no knowlegde about film, and wouldnt know where to start with a narrative. I could always cross that brigde when i came to it. I think im a 'maker', i've always enjoyed creating physical objects, and creating film within box with dark puppets would really push me to try new things, and  could be an interesting development of my previous work.