Thursday 17th March, 2023
The Lovers, the Dreamers, & Me…
Does that make me both? All three? Maybe I’m just a green frog with big dreams to make people happy. Maybe I’m a mad genius tinkering away with the next big thing, or no… noooo… Maybe I’m the robot who’s coming to terms with his own consciousness. Whoever I am, it’s becoming clear that I need to start living that way, & exploring the depths of this ‘character’ of mine.
For my final year of college I’m intending to dive into the world of archetypes, & cultural ‘characters’. Using them to define an artist & their role in the public eye. If you think of someone like Marilyn Manson, Alice Cooper, or Lady Gaga… what comes to your mind? A bunch of freaky people here to shock you, to push the boundaries of acceptable & hopefully piss off your parents. Now, think of Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, or ABBA. Not quite the same image comes to mind right?
For every popular musician, celebrity, or fictional character, I’m posturing that you’ll find a tried, tested, & told character that hey could stand alongside. Is Lady Gaga the Devil? Medusa? Cruella Devill? (who’s also the devil btw)… These days she’s changed… gone the way of Madonna & Bowie. Those artists who redefine themselves. Those artists who become so many different characters.
The idea of an archetype is the idea of a recurring set of characteristics, embodied repeatedly throughout time. They are echoes of something considered fundimental to the human experience.
We are all ‘the hero’ (Hercules, Matilda, Aladdin).
We are all ‘the mad genius’ (Willy Wonka, Daedalus, Abed).
We are all ‘the lover’ (Juliette, Venus, Cassanova)
Look, you get the point. We see over & over again the same kind of character roles popping up throughout our cultures. The characteristics usually stay within the same ballpark & don’t stray too far… hence why they can be made a recognisable category. What DOES change quite a lot is the context in which these characters live. A ‘devil’ character like Alice Cooper would have been both unthinkable & completely shunned if it had been attempted 100 years ago. Likewise, the ‘saviour’ character (someone like Jesus) isn’t super popular these days.
It’s the interplay of character, & context that fascinates me. It seems so potent a device for those seeking to create an image of themselves in the public eye. Or, for instance, someone developing a persona on social media. In a little way, without knowing, we have always tried to embody aspects of these characters. They come from within our natural tendencies defined by the limits of our bodies, minds, & time. What’s become quite an interesting factor is how social media’s performative nature has made us all portray these characters. We are all communicating some kind of archetype… most likely a messy combination of them. (because we are all of them) It’s the celebrity, the artist, the politician, that needs to play a distilled form of these characters… & it seems that those who stick to one archetype imprint into our collective minds.
Donald Trump has been the ‘firebrand’… the ‘rebel’. Weirdly enough you could put him in the same category as Che Guevara & Ghandi in some ways. These are all rebels who disregarded the established power structures. You can, of course, play the same character in a myriad of ways… hence, you can have people so different, playing the same ‘character’. (some you hate, some you love)
The cynosure of my final year project shall be…. dum da da DUMMMM!!!!!!!
Me.
Of course it’s me. I’m a great guinea pig. I like hay, I enjoy running in a big wheel… etc…
Who am I then? Not as a person of course, but as an Artist. As a CELEBRITY!!! Well, if you have to ask, then whatever I’m doing isn’t working is it? You see, WHO I am as a character should be blatantly apparent. That’s what I consider my job to be at this ‘early’ stage of my career. Establishing & communicating who I am to you, in a way that you already understand. I don’t want to teach you a whole new ‘language of me’, at least not straight away. What I really need to do is show you who I am through the people you already know. The characters from your childhood, from your present, from our shared history.
So far, from my basic research & questioning… I have been connected to Peter Pan, Willy Wonka, Howl, PT. Barnum (the fictional one), & Kermit the Frog. I’m starting to conclude that I’m ‘the dreamer’. This conclusion comes from not only those connections, but from my own will. As an artist, what I make comes from what I wish to make. My public image is not only who people think I am, but who I wish to become. So for any artist that I work with, I must take the same combined approach.
What can I do with this information?
A whole lot.
To start, on a surface level, I can find the most iconic images of them, their pose, costume, & settings… I can then recreate those images with myself in them. This is a tried & tested technique, mostly used for power projection & legitimacy in the royal families throughout history. A lot of ‘great’ leaders would pose for portraits in the same clothes, with the same items, & the same positions as the ‘greats’ of their time. Napoleon wanted to be Cesar, & I’m sure Cesar wanted to be someone else. So, expect a photoshoot of me in a green jumpsuit & collar sporting a banjo & kissing a glamorous pig.
To take these associations further I can implement the same philosophies & language of these characters you already know, through lyric & interviews. I can embody the ‘spirit’ of freedom, of magic, of wonder… simply by being amazed, & enthralled in the most wonderful things… & showing them to you, introducing you to a world bigger than you could have ever dreamed of. The magic in metaphor, how it can move mountains. How the history of a colour can shine through a stained glass piece from Harry Clarke, & how the beauty of blue can make you cry, just a little deeper, for the rest of your life. Ahh there’s a whole host of wonders that lie out there beyond the fringes of your eyelids. Magic lives in the corner of your eye after all… along with the fae & the sandman.
Eventually, through all of the ways in which we communicate… music, lyric, image, style, etc, we can embody these characters, of which we all are, so well, that it’s as if you’ve always known us. Then you’ll find the subtle nuances yourself, later on.
Oh, I’ve gone on a bit of a ramble.
You can tell it’s something of a passion of mine…
Until next week,
Nathan
