Author: Carla Torrado Mouzo

For my manifesto, I was heavily inspired by Grayson Perry RA’s ‘Red Alan’ Manifesto. It is very tongue-in-cheek and intends to be silly and ironic. I wrote it about being an artist in modern society and the rules and shame that come with it, from the perspective of ‘Disappointed Parents and Humble Billionaires’. There are some doodles throughout to reinforce that silly and informal vibe I was going for, one being a replica of the doodle from the ‘Red Alan’ manifesto in the corner, as a dedication and a little nudge to my inspiration.

Below is the transcript of my manifesto for easier viewing.

being an artist in the REAL world requires rules and beliefs. these are outlined below. remember, u r not art and ur art is barely art either. 1. do NOT take urself too seriously. art containing serious matters shout be hidden at worst, burned at best. 2. artists require daily SILLY TIME. this prevents regular civilians hearing u lament about how beautiful/horrible/mundane life is. keep it to SILLY TIME. 3. remind urself hourly that art isn’t! a real job. if you are not making money, you are not serving capitalism. this makes you WORTHLESS. 4. do not be worthless. get a real job. 5. if you find urself becoming 2 interesting, tone it down! you can be an artist (debatable) but don’t be THAT kind of artist. Follow these rules and hopefully art and creativity will subside enough that we all remember this as an awful nightmare. Signed, Disappointed Parents and Humble Billionaires.

We were told to tell a story, and while my mind jumped to creating something completely new narrative wise, I decided to surprise myself instead and tell the story of My Life. When deciding on an interesting way to tell a narrative my mind went to one of my favourite movies- Midsommar. The opening shot is of a beautiful mural that- without the viewer’s knowledge- tells the entire plot of the movie. I wanted to do the same, but replace the mural with key moments from my own life.

I tried my best to keep the messy medieval style, although it’s not something I usually make. The final product turned out to be a lot more personal than I intended, and touches on things I haven’t told anyone about, but I’m happy with this- since I think the best art is intimate. Not to mention, most stories require vulnerability.

Of course I had to simplify and condense a lot, but it begins with my earliest memory, and ends with me going to UAL and starting a (closely-surveilled) journey. Some of the scenes are almost exactly the same because I resonated with them, and some are blatantly pulled from the original mural, like the creepy ending sun.

I was of course restricted in the sense that I am still very young and have an entire life to live, but I think my mural is effective in telling a very condensed (and cryptic) summary of my life thus far.

A proposal for an exhibition.  

For the brief ‘LOCATION’ the Bermuda Triangle (also known as the ‘Devil’s triangle) first came to mind. It’s a notorious yet mysterious location, known to many but known very little. I think it would bring a fun and interesting twist to the exhibition space. 

The idea is to take the Bermuda triangle literally and conceptualize an actual triangle in the space, I envision this as a hole in the ground- though I acknowledge that this may be difficult to implement into the exhibition space, so this can be adjusted into a triangular container, perhaps like a tank that can only be seen from above. To convey the mysterious air of the Bermuda triangle and what it is infamous for- being the site of countless missing aircrafts and ships with no conceivable explanation- there would be everyday items that one might lose very often, such as keys, socks, earbuds etcetera. To simulate the immense size of the actual Bermuda triangle (estimated to be at least 500,000 square miles) all of these objects would be cute and miniature, no bigger than a coin, for example. The exhibit is intended to be a fun and playful representation of the Bermuda triangle, and a tongue in cheek explanation to all of your seemingly missing household items.  

Considering that this is a miniature exhibit, it would take up little space in the exhibition hall. I envision around 2-3 feet would be necessary. It would have to be accessible from all angles of the triangle so that visitors could walk around to view all of the art and miniature figurines in detail. If the hole is unattainable, glass could be used to make a tank in a triangular prism shape. It would be tall, so that the attendants don’t have to lean over to see the art and it will be clearly visible, around 3-4ft high.  

The miniature figurines will be constructed in metal and suspended in the prism using blue resin to communicate ocean water, the resin will get darker near the bottom to convey the deep sea, though not too dark that the figurines are not visible. Lights may have to be installed in the ceilings pointed directly at the exhibit to make it more visible. The glass of the tank may use a magnifying effect so the detail of the figurines can be seen, though if that is not possible, magnifying glasses may be provided around the exhibit- this may also make the art more accessible to attendants with sight issues. At the top of the tank around the edges there will be islands to represent the masses of land (such as Mexico) that constitute the Bermuda triangle. These too will be populated with miniature figurines, perhaps of people and animals. The concentration of figurines will be higher nearing the bottom of the glass prism to convey the items sinking to the bottom of the sea.  

In order to take a risk with my art I decided to use a new medium. I thought clay would be interesting to explore since its more hands on than I’m used to. I made some small animal figurines that generally fit my art style but essentially translated into 3D.

I realised that making clay figurines was a lot more difficult than I thought it would be, but I still had a lot of fun messing around with the colours and design. They are a little messier than I’d like, but still cute and a solid first attempt. I didn’t have any tools because I thought I’d be able to just use my hands, so I improvised with things around my house, like sewing needles and scissors to make some more detailed shapes.

By taking a risk and trying out a new medium, I found that I’d really like to make more art with clay, and found a new interest. I also learnt a lot in a very short time, and think I will be more equipped to try some more complicated designs next time.

When I was thinking about what problems I would like to try and solve for this week’s task, the bee population crisis came across my mind. We tend to overlook the importance of bees in our ecosystem, but the simple fact is that we can’t live without them- and we are the reason they’re dying. I did a lot of research for both personal and more worldwide approaches we could take to solving this issue.

1.) Replace all harmful pesticides with natural alternatives.

2.) Bee farm/sanctuary, would have a simulated outdoor environment with an emphasis on protecting the bees rather than using them for their product.

3.) Robot bees, would replace all bees and their functionality, with no risk of harm or death (to them or humans).

4.) Bee modification/armour, would reinforce their little weak bodies to protect them against the elements.

5.) Bee training, train bees to become stronger and withstand harm, also train them to keep them out of the rain (which can drown them).

6.) Build manmade hives for the bees, they can suffer and die making their hives, and cannot live without them, so why not build larger, stronger ones that bees can stay safe in (essentially, do their job better than them).

7.) Many bees suffer from nutrition deficiency so I suggest prescribing them tiny personalised bee vitamins to help combat this.

8.) Tiny bee umbrellas attached to all bees to help prevent them from drowning in the rain.

9.) Fossil fuels are harming the environment and thus bees! We replace all harmful forms of energy with only natural ones (solar, wind etc…) to help save the bees (and the planet).

10.) Enormous artificial (though preferably it would be natural) tree- reminiscent to Yggdrasil- to work as a vacuum to suck all the excess carbon dioxide and bad things out of the air and save the ozone layer, thus saving the bees (and ourselves) from our dying planet.

Below I have drawn the Ideal Bee, a bee designed to withstand harsh environments and live longer, allowing them to continue to survive and reproduce. They have armour to protect them and keep them warm in the winters, and an umbrella to keep them safe from the rain.

For this week’s task I’m going to be reflecting on my ‘OverstimuLocation’ project and prototype.

Overall, I was quite happy with the result. I think it was an interesting idea that could realistically help a lot of people, though I’m glad I scrapped my plan on it being its own app, I think it would be far more effective as an extension to Google Maps- and would be able to reach more people in that way. I’m also pretty happy with the visuals of the mock-up I made, I think the eye icon is simple and recognisable and the purple colour palette works toward the calming aesthetic I was aiming for.

However, I do wish I expanded on this idea more, as I think I could do a lot with it, and I had a lot of ideas when I made this mock-up that I don’t believe were thoroughly expressed, along with new ideas I think could be added now or in the future. It would be interesting to revisit this when I am more confident in coding, perhaps if I learnt a bit more about app development I would be able to make a more comprehensive and realistic mock-up than the simple sketch I made.

Below is a personal/artists statement I wrote for this weeks task.

I’m Carla. 

I find it hard to define myself as an artist, even after years of clawing away at my own art trying to find a meaning buried under too neat lines and blinding bright colours. 

In a way, I think the insecurity in my own art adds something to it, lets me improve, lets me pick up the pieces of a ripped-up sketch and keep on trying. 

I can’t define what I make into a simple paragraph, because I don’t want to place myself in a box that won’t permit growth or make it seem like I know what I’m doing, because I don’t. But, to try to define the undefined, the definitionless, I try to make art that I know I enjoy, or more specifically that I think Little Carla, a younger, brighter-eyed me, would be proud of. I have never believed that art needs to be meaningful or complex or even profound, I have always thought that pretty art can be made simply for the sake of making pretty art- and yet I hunt, and I dig, and I claw for that meaning. 

Little Carla drew squiggly trees and messy stickmen to catch up with an imagination too big, too fast for small hands and empty sparkly gel pens, and I think today she would just be proud that I kept on drawing, and never caught up with that too big, too fast imagination. 

I’m proud of the way I depicted myself and wrote about my art and touched on some of the struggles I have when being creative, especially because I find it so hard to talk about myself. I decided that my personal statement would be a little more abstract and read a bit more like a story than something very matter-of-fact or like a list of facts about me as an artist, because I enjoy to write and it is it’s own form of artwork to me. It also feels a bit impersonal and misleading to write a ‘proper’ artists statement when I am still exploring what it means to me to be an artist or identify as one, and exploring my own styles and the mediums I like etc.

I struggled finding a binary system I’d like to disrupt with, but the first system that came to mind was most obviously the solar system. I thought it would be fun to mess with the solar system and… basic science. I thought the best way to do this would be to recreate the solar system all out of order, with different sizes and such. I also thought it would be interesting if everything revolved around the Earth since that’s what humans first believed when theorising about space. I played around with the style and came to something that reminds me of science posters they would hang in primary schools to teach kids the order of the planets, so I aimed to make it look at ‘childish’ as possible, like a kid just guessed where all the planets went, which is sort of disrupting a system in and of itself. I wanted to name the planets so the viewer would be able to tell which was which, but I mixed the letters around to make anagrams.

I do like the final piece, but I think I could have made it a bit neater and nicer looking if I had some more time and maybe played around with the colour palette to mix things up even more.

For this week, we have to solve a problem. This was a really difficult task for me since I find it really hard to come up with ideas when I’m put on the spot and they don’t come naturally to me, and it was a very open task. I decided to make it a bit more personal instead of a large widespread problem since I think that’ll be easier to connect to and understand and thus, solve. I went through a lot of ideas and decided to try and come up with a solution for overstimulation issues. It’s something I struggle with really often and it can impede on my daily life a lot. There a ton of reasons someone might feel overstimulated and it can vary massively from person to person, but the ways to help are usually similar for most people. I know that getting to a quiet familiar place to reset can help calm me down and reduce my senses, but sometimes when I’m out and about, especially in a bustling city like London it can be hard to find places like this when I’m in need. So, what better than an app to help people in crisis find a safe place to unwind and calm down. This is applicable to various audiences and isn’t just limited to those that experience sensory overload, it might be useful for people who suffer from panic attacks and anxiety, or even people with chronic illnesses who struggle to find places to safely and calmly manage their pain.

In theory, this might work a bit like Google Maps, where you would share your location and the app would show you places within a specific radius that might be best suited to help you. These might be quiet places like a library or a coffee shop- or in an emergency, might show you hospitals and ERs near you if you feel like you need one. The app would be called ‘OverstimuLocation’ because puns are funny and make catchy app names. The app would also include customizable options so that you can decide what best might help you personally, like whether or not it is important to you if the area is completely quiet or not. Ideally, places marked on the map would be ‘OverstimuLocation approved!’ and would have stickers or signs on the door welcoming users who need a place to relax. The places would of course be made aware of the app and it’s purpose, and if willing would provide specific services to help the users, like maybe noise-cancelling headphones.

The app would also have a ‘help’ section where people who are struggling can find advice and affirmations to help them through whatever they need. This might include breathing exercises to help someone out of a panic attack, or tips to help prevent/stop sensory overload. It would also include the number to a helpline for anyone feeling too overwhelmed or who feel as though they cannot handle it alone.

Having interactivity would also be great, users would be able to make comments on certain locations and how helpful/unhelpful they were. They may also be able to post affirmations and advice on a community page, or ask for help from other users if there is a specific problem they would like to ask about, either personal or app-based.

If the app became particularly popular, ‘OverstimuLocation’ pop-ups could be installed around London. These would be essentially rooms people can access with their app that are made to be quiet and dark to help people unwind. Headphones and comfortable seating would be provided and warm drinks can be purchased. In a way, it would be similar to sensory deprivation tanks, built to not overwhelm the senses and provide a healing experience to those that need it. These pop-ups would of course be marked on their app maps.

My biggest issue with this idea is that it may be a little too niche and will only help a very slim audience of people. If not popular enough, it may work best as a sort of optional extension to Google Maps rather than it’s own app- though this may remove the community aspect of the idea.

Below is a mock-up of what the main page of the app might look like.

This week’s task is to create an artist’s response to ‘No Ghost Just a Shell’. As soon as I heard the short briefing Jazmin gave us I already had a pretty vivid idea of what I want to do. I thought a video providing dialogue from AnnLee’s perspective would be interesting, backed with images of different interpretations of what she is (or is not). It would be a short video explaining her loss of identity, her ownership or lack thereof, how interpretation affects art and other topics that came to mind.

I think I will split the video into parts, with the first part being a continuation of the ‘No Ghost Just a Shell’ project. I gave some friends and family the prompt to draw “a sad girl with blue hair,” using whatever medium they want. These will of course be their interpretations of AnnLee.

The second part will consist of things that arguably aren’t considered ‘art,’ random blue objects meant to represent AnnLee and her lack of identity. She can be seen in everything and thus she is nothing. These might objects that I find around the house or while I’m out and about.

I want to express her sadness, but more importantly her frustration with the loss of her identity, and explore how that might affect a character. I thought it would be an interesting touch to ‘break the fourth wall’ in way, by having her address me specifically, since I technically am also contributing to this ‘pain’ she is feeling.

It was interesting to do this project since I had never done any video editing before, so essentially everything was new to me. Though it took much longer than expected, I have no regrets- it was fun exploring a new medium and I found I liked video editing more than I thought.

I used an AI voice for AnnLee, and tried to match it as best I could with the voice I clipped at the beginning of the video, though for me, the voice is probably the most disappointing part. I think she sounds a bit too cheery for such a serious topic.

I thought it would be fun to sort of toe the line between humour and crisis in my video, like AnnLee calling me out for being a uni student and using silly drawings to represent her, without drawing away too much attention from the message.

I was inspired by many different medias and pieces of art but surely most notably by the film ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’. The humour, using everyday objects to identify a character, the separate parts of the video- even the font I used was inspired by the movie. They are quite different in meaning, however. It was fun to draw so much inspiration from a piece of media with such a different story than the one I am trying to convey.

The ending is a clip I got from an art exhibit called “Smile Without a Cat (Celebration of the disappearance of AnnLee)”. I thought it would be a bittersweet ending where AnnLee finally escapes this identity crisis but her only way out being through self-destruction.

In retrospect, I do think there were a lot of things I could have done better, but with the time restriction and lack of editing skills I’m really happy with the final product, and had a lot of fun making it. Unfortunately, my laptop was also laggy so some of the captions are slightly out of time with the video. A regrettable technological error. My biggest gripe was the aforementioned AI voice, and with more time I would’ve liked to make it a longer video with an even deeper more meaningful dialogue from AnnLee.

Enjoy!