We were told the story of Babel and asked to take inspiration from it to shape our film ideas. I chose to focus on the part of the story where the people are divided by different languages, unable to understand one another, and so they can’t complete their task. I began to realise how silly this was, that there are so many ways to communicate that don’t need to be verbalised. As a person with autism, I struggle to communicate what I mean at times and definitely do not always understand others, so I began to research language and how it shapes our interactions with one another and what languages through time have been utilised. By looking at other animals and insects, communication began to feel less about verbally understanding one another and more about how actions and gestures can also convey information.
I continued my research by reading about the history of language and taking trips to observe animals interacting with one another. From my research, I found the history of cave drawings and paintings intriguing. Staying with this fascination for a while, I began sketching observations in my notebook and reading books solely about cave paintings/drawings. Learning about the practices that have followed us today, such as stone carving and wood carving, and how we have also lost so much of that history due to climate change, as well as so many caves being left undiscovered.
Considering the cave paintings as a record of a moment in time that was captured through essentially ‘life drawings’, I thought about how we record moments now through technology and the shock that would transpire if we were to travel back in time and explain all the new ways we communicate past moments with other communities and people.
From this, I began experimenting with a variety of mediums, while continuing to research and visit galleries that sparked small moments of inspiration throughout my project.
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