I’ve been reading the essay ‘travels in hyperreality’(Umberto eco) for my MCP(geraint evans cited this essay in his essay on his website) and it is one of those treasure finds, like a gem among the rubble. I feel I finally found someone that is thinking at the wavelength I was floating around in. So far Eco has been making really interesting connections to the ideas of hyperreality - guiding us through superman’s fortress of solitude where copies of him are made and gone out to save the world, wax museums in America (described in a way like I’m really visiting these places - taking inspiration as I definitely want to take up toms advice of me writing about the visit to the museum) - and Disneyland etc…. I haven’t finished the essay yet but, I really love the tone he writes in - not too formal or structured at all - I wonder if I could do that with my essay too… I love the way he also uses a lot of rhetorical question because that’s how I write too… is it unprofessional? Does it fit with my ‘context’ for this essay? Well, I really want to focus on the emotional reaction to those artificial places, and what it means for us to feel those things… so, the experience, as tom said in our tutorial. I am not sure where my essay is heading yet.. which is concerning! But if I read further hopefully Ill hit something that reveals a path in which I can drive my points on this whole topic … I got out a bunch of animal-human books (including some from the edit) but I am not sure how much I will dive into this specific side of animal human now - as it seems what I am thinking about is much more than that? The artificiality of places and beings, the hyperreal, unreality, in turn questioning our own existence. I asked dan hays about if he knew any artists or books about this subject but I don’t think he does, at least for now. (Just thinking now - Charles Avery’s long-term work of building his own world of creatures and people - is that reality?) when I’m thinking of this ‘artificiality’, is it the same as ‘reality’? In that context I really can talk about anyones work… but I want to start off and end with the diorama, maybe. How much do I dive into the diorama itself? What central things could I connect everything together? The Surface? The illusion? The artificial? The human perception? The contrasts? (Conclusion - the conflict of Ideas that make it so gripping: unreal and real, death encased in death or the other way around?) use o live animals in work…kitsch.. is that too far from the subject? The miniature.. everything ‘dovetails’ the other, as tom said when I mentioned how all my previous ideas seem to link together as well. Does this artificiality idea also have something to do with why I feel sad when I look at urban buildings? That it reflects something back at me, that makes me realise how human I am and what it means to be one… I really also want to use cinematic references as I am really informed by film as well.. I have a handful of Life films, who I cling onto like treasure gems, again, I feel I am collecting experiences from these films, I am a collector, I cannot help it (tom said you are either born a collector or you’re not, and I think that’s so true) Confessions, Fantastic Mr Fox, Princess Mononoke are some of those films.