This exercise seemed to be very similar in structure to Exercise 2.3, so I decided to take a similar approach in my execution. I followed the exercise's instructions to use Microsoft Word's thesaurus. I tried an online thesaurus, but the results were grouped in such a way that it was hard to know which word I should choose for the next prompt. With Word, it was easier to always pick the third item on the list.
Probably the most difficult part was deciding what word to start on! I ended up choosing the word 'contour' and went from there. You can see the list of words that I came up with.
Sometimes I felt like the words that were being generated were too similar, and I had to stop and think about how I was going to tackle that problem. I thought back to 2.3 and the way it asked me to interpret a word (and the use of the word) in multiple ways.
This allowed me to try and think laterally about the word, and depict it in a way that might not have been directly associated with the prompt from the thesaurus. A good example is the last word, clutch. In the context of the suggestion, it meant to hold something. However, given that the previous word was 'grasp' it was difficult to differentiate. So instead I thought about 'a clutch of eggs' and decided to depict that instead.
As I went through the list, I drew each on an A4 piece of photocopier paper, which I had simply segmented into eight sections by folding. I did these quickly with a cheap ink pen. I was not trying to rush the exercise, more I was trying to remove myself from being attached to the quality of the image. I wanted to try and make it simple if I could. Here is the visual word poem:
When it came to the composite picture, I wanted to try and get as many items in as possible. Some of the items in the word poem were too conceptual to put in, and others were easier to combine with other words in the poem. Some I changed the representation completely - such as undefined, which I changed into vague and shapeless clouds.
As I looked at the poem, I started to build up a narrative in my mind's eye again, and I am pleased with the concept I produced. Like the image in 2.3 it has an overall narrative element, and I also enjoyed all the little stories to notice as you look around the image:
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