A-Level Coursework - Year 2

The sub-sections will be here

Inspiration/Moodboard

Right at the end of year 12, moving into year 13 and the second year of A-Levels, I had decided in my evaluation that I wanted to explore human life on a larger scale and think outside of the body. I wanted to explore how our self/destructive tendencies affected our surroundings (nature, the people around us, etc.) and how our surroundings affected us in return. As I explored more into these ideas, the project also touches on ideas around corporation's poor care of the environment and the cycle of extinction events caused by nature and the cycle of terror we cause ourselves.

Artist Research: Anna Pollack and Cole Kush

These are the first two artists who have inspired these half of the coursework. Pollack especially, inspired me to explore outside the body and body horror and build on the environment and space that the narrative should exist in. Thanks to me trying to create a narrative in my end of year 12 final piece and the inspiration drawn from Pollack's work I decided to create a narrative. I felt a narrative would give me the proper boundaries to create more meaningful art.

Cole Kush's work centered around using digital 3D software. I felt using him as inspiration will help draw lines back to the first half of the project, while also still progressing and exploring new visual ideas.

Worldbuilding

I wanted to create a world for the narrative to fit into. This lead me to creating a fictional planet called 'Trill' ("a rapid reiteration of the same tone") and is where I also got my current online username from (Trillione). Trill is an earth-like planet and got its name due to it having undergone several extinction level events both naturally and human caused. The narrative is set within a 'post-post-apocolypse' time period, where the efforts to rebuild failed and all that remains are scarce mysterious structures from a time long forgotten and the flourishing life of nature, which has grown and adapted.

The story is from the perspective of 'Someone' and their musings. They're stuck in a never-ending loop, lost and completely alone. While previous pieces were a more 'minimalist' style of isolation focused only on the body - here I explore the vast and empty surroundings as part of that isolation.

Photoshoot 1

It just so happened that in the summer between year 12 and 13, my family and I were going on a week long trip up to the Lake Distrct - the perfect location to explore vast empty fields, tall forests and places where nature have completely taken over.

I carried over all of the materials I needed - cardboard boxes and self-adhesive reflective film - and put it together while up at the Lake Distrct and carried it around everywhere while I walked around, exploring and gathering inspiration for this photoshoot and future photoshoot locations.

As part of the narrative, there is a giant human-sized reflective obelisk. It's meant to represent the artifical. In the narrative, 'Someone' is always trying to reach the monolith and sees it as their only form of freedom, despite their naturally free surroundings. The mirrors are a way for the monolith to disguise itself as part of the environment - implying it's freedom and existence is artificial and misleading.

The monolith is also not-of-this-planet. And potentially has links back to the most recent extinction-level event that lead to 'Someone's current situation.

Further Inspiration

At this point I wanted to organise and consolidate some small and big places of inspiration for this project. I felt that directly searching out and going through my 'subconcious' inspiration would help me get a clearer image of the visual aesthetics and narrative themes I wanted to explore.

Longlegs

-- I remember watching it in cinemas and feeling really immersed and at awe in the detail and thought put into the visuals. The film is a big source of inspiration for the isolated settings I'm going for, but with a slight horror twist.

THE ROOM BETWEEN - Shrimp

-- An album by Shrimp. It was released alongside an album-length video and really added an extra dimension to the albums sound and themes. Again, there's more feelings of isolation here, but they're explored from a melancholy perspective. I also really liked the album cover and it's use of overexposure.

F# A# ∞ - Godspeed You! Black Emperor

-- A cult classic concept album, telling the story of the world ending. Combining elements of field recordings, samples and vocal-less instrumentation.

Social Bunny from the Sims 2

-- This one stands out from the inspiration pieces here I must admit. This is a character that appears in the game when your Sim is low on their social needs. I found the bunny costume and its circumstances for its appearance very creepy. You'll see some very clear inspiration for this in the coming photo/videoshoots.

UZB-76/UVB-76

-- A Russian radio station that's broadcasting a strange beeping buzzer 24/7 and is occasionally interrupted by garbled Russian voices. It's been broadcasting since 1997 and seems to have links to the Russian military. I felt that its existence and potential uses came right out of a conventional apocolyptic world-ending movie and decided to add elements of this to further build the world of 'Trill'.

Photoshoot 2

This is where the narrative really starts to form and develop. This was literally one of my first few times using Premiere Pro and I had a very short amount of time to create an edit for the videos I recorded. So the first cut of this was very rushed, but further on in the course I refine this and eventually create a full short film.

I chose a pylon as the main centre piece as it emphasises an alien and technological vibe, but also still works within this post-post-apocolyptic setting where all that remains are isolated and lonely power pylons in random forests and fields as nature reclaims it all.

I also made a photo edit alongside the video. I do this with every shoot and these photos will act as a photo version of the narrative, each with a subtitle on them acting as written descriptions of the story. They also all have a glowy/blurry appearance with washed out colours as technology would be scarce and primitive. It also implies the narrative is almost like a flashback and perhaps this isn't the first time 'Someone' has gone through this.

Even more inspiration

To try and build a proper world and narrative, I ended up finding it really helpful to just keep on going back to the drawing board regularly. Watching new films, researching more interesting topics and going over the ones I already know. It helped me stay on track to build something thematically cohesive.

The Mandela Catalogue

-- Something to bring it all back around. My main inspiration was drawn from the idea of the "alternates" and their often humanoid forms acting as the perfect template for body horror. I also took direct inspiration from the robotic voices often used in narration.

No Through Road

-- I'm fully embracing stylistic elements of analogue horror at this stage in the project and what better way to do that than watch one of the first analogue horror films produced.

The Blair Witch Project

-- You can't mention analogue horror without the film that arguably started it all, with it's immersive marketing campaign and unique take on the horror genre. I loved how the 'monster' of the film was never actually shown and worked off our fear of the unknown.

Inland Empire

-- My favourite David Lynch film. I adored how the Phantom was shown throughout the film and especially near the end.

German Expressionism

-- An art movement focused on the artist's emotions rather than trying to be realistic.

Worldbuilding Continued

I created an in-lore 'introductory video' that goes over the narrative in the most cryptic way possible. All read by a robotic tts voice.

I also created an old government style document that you'd see in all sorts of sci-fi films if the government is hiding something. I used an image from a public archive as the base and the photograph itself was one I took in a boat yard.

Photoshoot 3

A continuation of the narrative. This was taken in a forest behind a crematorium where I slowly poured fake blood I created onto the ground. I chose a spot with plenty of moss and a stream of sunlight as I thought the contrast of colours and the textures would look the most visually appealing.

This is where I began to refine and create a cohseive style for the video side of the project. Taking on an analogue horror inspired aesthetic - long and creepy shots, glitchy buzzing noises, haunting birds and a noisy and distorted video.

Photoshoot 4

It was at this point I had decided I wanted to find a way to get all of these videos to connect into one continous video. I also wasn't able to get the same model here so I had to model myself, fortunately this section is fairly blurry and doesn't show too many revealing details of the character's face.

I used a torch with an ajdustable size to create a spotlight effect - like a deer caught in headlights. Except here the character is caught in the light and influence of the silver monolith we saw earlier. At this point the cyclical nature of the story is revealed and how Someone is unable to escape their fate.

The whole narrative is a way of showing human kind's self destructuive treatment of ourselves and our environments. It's a never ending loop, while we may try and grow, something or someone happens to hold it back into the loop of destruction. That someone or something is the monolith - a representation of all things artificial and false.

Photoshoot 5

Going back to Kole Kush. Here I took videos and photos in a similar way to how I was at the beginning of the coursework - up close, overexposed lights and funny faces. The videos and images are intended to be during the final sequence of the video where the character will be going through what feels like a blinding and painful magical portal right back to where they started.

I chose one photo of myself to edit and use as a still example of what the photoshoot had achieved so far. It's a picture of me with a torch in my mouth.

Artist Research: Brendon Burton and Nam June Paik

Back to the drawing board, I decided to take a look at a couple more artists to be able to base some potential ideas off. Part of how the coursework is graded is by showing clear and detailed examples of how I got my ideas, which is why I've looked at so many artists by this point.

Burton's isolated setting and haunting subjects were my main source of inspiration from him. He's worked heavily with musicians I love, like Jane Remover and Quadeca, which is how I originally found his photography.

Nam June Paik is a revolutionary artist and pioneered video art and using screens like TVs to present art. I thought the idea of using old monitors to display the videos would add an element of immersive set design to the final piece.

Final Piece: Part 1

At this stage, the final piece was merely a pile of screens repeating the edited together 'long' version of all the videos so far. By setting them up at this point it gave me a physical idea of how the potential setup could look.

Artist Research: Laure Prouvost

This will be the final artist I research and list as taking direct inspiration from. I found her multimedia installations and themes of the flow of language and perception very inspiring.

Final Piece: Part 2

By this point, with the inspiration of Prouvost I'd decided I wanted to create a more immersive installation that revolved around a 'scrapyard' type theme. The idea was for it to be this 'out of bounds' type of space, filled with junk and relics from the planet Trill. So some parts may not directly contribute to the narrative, but are there to build the world.

I took a polystyrene head, drilled holes through it's eyes and stuck a torch in each hole to create homemade/destroyed robot appearance. I also attatched two sets of fairy lights around its head with tape to create the effect of electrical cables running all over - as if the cables have been exposed over time due to the weather. I used a coaxial cable to hang it upside down by its neck, as if it's head was caught on something and was torn off leaving a disconnected cable stuck around it. It also furthers ideas of self destruction.

Final Piece: Part 3

This is where I began truly planning all the small details of the props I'd like to include in the final piece.

I'd decided on remaking the monolith from the start, but in a much larger size and making it the centre piece - with the monitors surrounding it on the floor.

I'm really grateful for the teacher that gave me an old satellite dish and big pile of bricks, that they luckily had just at the right time as I was looking for those very items. The satellite dish was going sit alongside the monitors, adding to the idea of a scrapyard but also implied to be acting as to how the monolith is sending and receiving signals. The bricks and dirt are to create a more believable set piece.

Using all the darkroom skills I'd learnt and practiced throughout year 12 and 13 I created a whole bunch of scrap 'photos' that are, torn, soaked and dried, dirty and incoherent. I used the pictures from the photo version of the narrative alongside the photos from the boatyard. Like it's a culmination of all these visions and past repeats of the narrative.

Final Piece: Part 4

The final piece is finally put up and displayed for the exam. I later had it exhibited at my school's A-Level and GCSE art exhibition in July 2025.