PROJECT PROPOSAL

“Better to reign in Hell than to serve in Heaven” This quote, taken from Milton’s

Paradise Lost has inspired one of the major themes that will be recurring throughout

my project, which will consist mainly of an installation with film. I want to explore and

play with a space between life and death or heaven and hell. I will be looking at

scientific research on what happens after death and also religious opinions on the

afterlife. For example when researching this limbo/purgatory between life and death,

I will have a look at Dante’s Inferno, which takes the reader through the layers of the

afterlife. I will also rigorously research installation artists who have dealt with the

theme of death, such as TYPOE, a Miami based artist who has used skeletons in his

displays or Lucy Dodd who has also explored life and death and contrasts in space.

In the space I will be using I hope to look at using prints of photos on the walls, films

playing on various TVs and an uncomfortable atmosphere. I will look at film directors

who have dealt with themes of purgatory/limbo or the question of what happens after

death. For example Mark Isaacs short film LIFT which holds the viewer in a lift in a

flat and is shown all the comings and goings, the viewers are immersed into an in

between space, a temporary location between two real spaces. An immersive

experience is something I am really striving to create with this project.

To prepare myself for this project I will start with a wide range of research, looking at

different views on different types of media. The space between life and death has

been debated and researched by all sorts of groups of people, I hope to study

everyone’s view and implement my own thoughts to create an overall understanding

of this phenomenon. I will look at a wide range of media such as DVDs, news

archives, online articles and journals. I have already listed my initial points of

research. The nature of my concept: it being an intangible and debated thing, will

coincide with any changes I make to my project.