New Idea... Staircase...

So after Phil's comments and the websites he used to give me some examples to set me on the right path, i got talking to Allison about my ideas. We were talking about my other ideas and how they alseemed to make things in the image too obvious and stand out, they weren't normal. I was flicking through the Chernobyl fairground which definitely had an unheimlich feel, it was familiar, but i didn't feel comfortable, however i do feel the affect of the images would have been slightly different if it didn't say it was destroyed by the Chernobyl disaster, but i can't say this for sure. The second set of abandoned fairground images didn't have much of an affect on me, i didn't find them particularly unheimlich. I then started to look at the abandoned britain website, wich had some interesting images, i became interested by the Hornsey Road Public Bath images, particularly the ones looking up and down the staircase.

I loved the idea of the perspective you got of looking up or down a staircase, it reminded he of flats of big buildings where you could see all the way up the gap in the middle of the stairs. so i decided to look at different staircases where the camera is looking up or down, and i found a particularly interesting image which i believ looks like an eye staring back down at you. The idea of giving something inanimate or inhuman, human characteristics for me is extremely uncanny and follows a similar idea i had before with a hairdressin machine which had face like features and sat in the corner of a normal living room, based on a friends living room. I find after one particular image looks like an eye, it becomes more obvious in the rest. These are just a few examples of staircases which bare that resemblence.

I feel this idea definitely feels normal, it a staircase probably to someones home, but we feel safe and comfortable, we're indoors and away from harm. but the idea that something is watching you, in this case the fact that the staircase forms an eye shape, for me, creates an uncanny and unheimlich feeling, it's a familiar place but i feel slightly uncomfortable. This could also be to do with perspective and camera angle which is omething i will experiment with when i start my thumbnail sketches and concept designs for this idea.

I also found just the idea of looking up a staircase which has a view of the sky or outside at the end has a similar feeling of unhomeliness. We want to be outside where we feel safe, but it seems so far away. It feels quite clostrophobic and sucluded which, to me, doesn't feel comfortable or happy. Again it is familiar, but there's something about it which makes me feel uncomfortable.

Finally, i've looked at some ideas for looking down the stairs as a lot of the other images were looking up. I feel these have a similar effect to the ones looking up and i particularly like this image, which without the people could give a really unheimlich feel. That idea of a place that should have lots of people, but doesn't.