Kits coty Location information

As a child i was made away of the history behind the two neological burrial sites near me called 'kits coty' and 'little kits cotty' both are said to be extreamly haunted.little kits coty is the site i wanted to focus on, as big kits coty is closed off by barriers. Its neolithic chambered tomb, or rather the sorry remains of it. It was once also a burial chamber, but today the stones are a confused tumble. They are also called the countless stones as supposidly you will never count the same number of stones there twice. I should say that the place is supposed haunted; ghostly re-enactments of a battle are said to have taken place at one time or another. Another tradition is that at full moon you may place a personal object on the capstone, walk around the dolmen three times, after which the object will have disappeared. Alot of paranormal activities from random smells, sounds to full blown apperitions are ment o have occured here. the site itself is said to be sacred.

where to go from here?

since the change in direction with my work and the technique leading me to go for far more abstracted images, i wanted something far more substantual for a basis of my work. while the idea of shooting haunted locations in this style is working out, as an artist i like my work to have more depth to it. While having a chat with my father actually about my work (he was playing taxi) something he said gave me a real brainwave about what i could do with these images.  He asked me if i was developing my films andi saw an apperition or a face, what would i do? with this in my head and lookikng back at my images it made me look deeper into the images and start to see stuff that wasnt there. It also reminded me of the idea of matrixing of the eye which i reserched as part of my haunting reserch. This made me think, what would the audience see when presented with my work and told that there are ghosts in the images? would it make them look deeper into the images and start to see things that are not there.
i did state from the begining that i wanted text to play a big part of this project, so what text could i add to sway the audience to look for ghosts?

Mary Mcintyre

Once again looking at atmosphere and the creation of tension in images my work was lead to look at the work of irish photographer Mary Mcintyre. Her images are normally landscapes, and very atmospheric. She makes use of lighting and specific weather to give her work. She makes the most of the light avalible.  Each image almost has a spiritual feel and its clear she has a very close relationship with the locations she shoots.

Out of all her collections and images the ones that stand out to me the most are the images in fog. its just the ambiguitiy of the location when only parts are visible in comparison to images which are clear and obvious.

'haunting' reserch- Matrixing of the eye and pareidolia

Often refered to as Matrixing, Pareidolia is the phenominon often uses to explain faces seen reflected in 'haunted mirrors,' and many ghost 'photographs' It is the idea that the brain and eye recognises certain shapes and automatically translates that it is a more common form such as a face.
 By definition, it is a psychological phenomenon involving a vague and random stimulus (often an image or sound) being perceived as significant. Common examples include seeing images of animals or faces in clouds, the man in the moon or the Moon rabbit.
I first was made aware of this phenominon on one of my fave shows (mentioned before as one of the key influences for this idea) ghost hunters. As i was not able to find a clip of this show on youtube without a whole episode, i did find this video below done by another Paranormal investigation team. Which explains it in good detailing.





Other, more common examples of matrixing is seeing images in clouds as well as the ink blot test.

'haunting' reserch

According to most paranormal investigators and books that i have researched, there are four kinds of

apparitions and hautings .

Residual:

The most common style of a human haunting is a residual haunting. A residual haunting is like having an impression made in time. The entity may seem to be lost in a time warp. The spirit really isn't even there, only the energy is. In most cases people may here screaming or crying due to the violence factor that may have caused this traumatic event to happen. People may also hear the sounds of footsteps walking on the stairs or through hallways.
Typically the repeated event is whatever the person who left the energy behind did often or an significant event that they remember happening to them. It is almost like it the energy has become part of the dwelling that they once occupied on an every day basis. These haunting styles always seem to happen in the same place every time. Like a tape recorder stuck repeating itself over and over. 

Intelegent

In this style of haunting the entity or entities are aware of their surroundings. Most of the time you will find that these spirits can move around freely. Also, they will acknowledge the existence of human beings and even try to communicate in certain ways.

They are limited in what they can do. Most of the time they only move very light objects.t hey are looking for people to notice them but they end up scaring people a great deal instead.

These spirits can be benevolent or mischievous, depending on the reason that they are haunting a location, and there are several reasons. They may be haunting it because it was once their home and they want you to leave. They may be there because they've found that a child is able to see them so they feel noticed and are willing to stay around for this fact. There may be some kind of artifact that they are staying with and following due to some emotional bond with it. They also may be looking for something or someone. They may even not be willing to except that they have died. Whatever the reason may be, they are there and they do not want to leave. 

Demonic

 Demons are one of the known inhuman entities out there. Fortunately, they are a rare occurrence

They are usually very easy to identify as long as they are not hiding. When it is a demonic haunting you typically notice a revolting stench similar to rotted flesh or sulfuric acid. They often let loose a growl that sounds like it is coming from everywhere at once. They like to make contact by pushing, shoving, hitting, and even scratching. The whole air in the affected area will feel thick like fog and the temperature will drastically change, typically becoming warmer.

These creatures are very strong, unlike human spirits, and they don't mind showing it. There have been cases where people have been thrown through the air and even attacked. Apparently, their main goal is to break down a person's free will in order to make way for possession. This can take days, months or years, but time is of no concern to them.

Poltergeist

poltergeist is from a German word meaning noisy spirits. Reports of poltergeists date back to Ancient Roman times.

The activity that takes place will start of with knocks and bangs, furniture starting to move around by itself. Then, the activity will become more intense, manifesting itself through voices and even the appearance of full apparitions. Furniture may slide across the room and beds may shake. Many shows are based on this is a style of haunting because it tends to be the most terrifying and rarest type of haunting that occurs.

Most of the time, in the case of a poltergeist, the haunting circles around a female in her teen years. Some of these cases seem to be caused by the female unknowingly controlling the energy around herself. Some cases happen around people that are stable and in the right mind space.

Abbey Park experiements, without tripod.

I revisited abbey park location, its easy for me to get to so its worth experimenting in this location to get a feel for the camera and technique and such without loosing time traveling somewhere just to find out that it didnt work. Here i experimented more with the holga pinhole and how it is effected by having it off tripod and experimenting with double exposures and movement.

While some of the images didnt really come out, i was rather suprised at how some came out. I really like how the movement and double exposures effect the film and this is ALOT more of what i wanted creatively for my project. They just have a much more darker, tence atmosphere and some are very much abstract. These images are really the kind of thing that i wanted, so im both excited and happy to have found a technique that works and i can use. It is very much an experimental process, i dont know what has and hasnt worked till the film is developed but if i can acheive more images like this i will have the basis for a great project.

the use of tone and the ambiguation of the images is what i like about the images. out of the three shown here, the bottom is my fave. theres just something about this image that makes it to striking. it was a double exposure, but doesnt look so obviously like one. the strange shapes and creation of new shapes. i like how some of the image is still in focus while other sections are just a jumble of tones nicely blended into each other. The atmosphere of all 3 are quite dark which again adds to one of the aims i wanted to achieve with these images, a sence of atmosphere, a sence of what could be there. They visually work better then the other images ive taken before. While its moving away from the idea of the mix of human and places of tragidy, i actaully think i prefer these to that theme. Maybe if i continue with this style of shooting, what im trying to say about the images will become more apparent.

Pinhole abbey park - with tripod experiements.

As i said i would, i revisisted Abbey park with my pinhole holga 35mm camera. To try and capture images that i feel i wasnt achieving with my work on digitial. Here i wanted to experiement with a range of different ways to try and achieve what i want with these images. Another thing learnt from experiementing with this project on my first shoot was to make more detailed notes in my book as its very difficult to get used to useing the cam. So far i have worked out from the last shoot that about 6seconds is average for an avaerage, not sunny but not overcast day.

Shoot Abbey park  with tripod.

These images came out very clear just with a hint of the feel caused by the camera. While these images are good they are still just a little bit well picturesqe. they still dont have the same feel as what i want to achieve.Its hard to explain to say what exactly i want to do to create the correct feeling that i want, but i guess thats what experimentattion is all about?

Suspicions of a peninsula town- Glen Jamieson

This book was given to me to look at by one of my lecturers, it was a book created by a previous student here at DMU. The book is a collection of images based around returning to the town he was born and brought up in, Norfolk. The images are paired with Poetic prose that discusses the history of the location and talks about its state in the present. The images are all shot on a lomographic camera of some form, and have this feeling of being vintage. The colours are dulled and the way that light looks on these images create an interesting mix. the use of texts makes you re look at the images in a different way. It allows the audience to be drawn into the world created for them by the artist. The surreal texts adds a sense of oddity to some of the images. The title of the book 'suspicions' allows the audience to be skeptical of the realism of the text, and differentiates the opinions on how it should be read.

Examples of the text:
'In the cafe, a customer revealed to the waited that police had blocked the main road.'
'Walking past me in the street, a girl talking on her phone animatedly described that a "lady's leg was hanging off"

Its very much an interesting take on the use of text and the imagery. I stated that i did want to include text somehow into my images but i am still unsure how.