Visual Research --The MLA Way

How do the main ideas, IMAGES, SYMBOLS and lines help us to artistically explore the main themes?

How can visual research help us to figure out what we want to say and HOW we will say it? 

1) Think about what the text offers you, paying particular attention to information that includes SENSORY details.

Let this guide your visual research. Take note of what you find intriguing/inspiring about each of the images throughout. You are trying to find a guiding image that will really help to frame your piece.

For example: When I search UNHCR Refugee Camp, these images were the two I found inspiring.

"Installation Model UNHCR Refugee Camp"; www.kickstarter.com/projects/87205916/

"Latest Updates on the Rohingya Refugee Crisis", www.unrefugees.org

2) REFINING Your Visual Research: It's essential to be resilient and try a variety of different ways to search (and find) the images you're looking for.

For example, when I added "Abandoned Refugee Camps", I came upon this image, which I found inspiring, especially as Beelzebub is an ancient religious devil.

"An abandoned church in a Vietnamese refugee camp on a deserted island in Malaysia." Photo by HENG FU MING on Wikimedia Commons, www.pinterest.com/pin/573153490063076849.

"Baalzebub (Lord of the Flies)" by: Louis Le Breton, gallica.bnf.fr.

3) It's important that you explore and make discoveries in this process! You are deciding which images work best for your ideas and are solidifying them through this process!

4) Try to find a GUIDING INSPIRATIONAL IMAGE (song, phrase, etc.) that will help you to answer the question: How can visual research help us to figure out what we want to say and HOW we will say it? 

Sometimes it's difficult to know when to stop exploring, but if you find yourself returning to an image or idea, that might be a clue! How does a particular image help you to really show what you're trying to say?

5) Show your progression. Don't be afraid to show how you got to your final image! The IB (and I) want to know how you got to where you ended up!

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Homework:
Complete your Online Inspirational Visual Research for your Director's Notebook play (Year 2) or Baalzebub (Year 1).  Make sure you have a series of images that help you to explain what you want to show about your piece. You should write a sentence or two about each image and why you chose it.

Suggestion: Year 2s should print out and add to their physical journals for the final DN.

Click here for instructions on How to Cite an Online Image (MLA Style)