experimental time for soliloquy

After choosing my final photograph, of the split man, I then tried teaming the photograph with the soliloquy.

However I felt that this didn't really show the emotion that I wanted out of this task and so I decided that I wanted to take the task further and develop the photograph into another final outcome of which I felt actually related through a deeper meaning of the soliloquy of which I chose at the start, 'To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow...'.

I wanted to show a deeper meaning of the photograph I had chosen, and not just keep it as a clean, crisp image as it wouldn't have even touched the surface of the meaning behind the soliloquy of Macbeth's degradation. I wanted the photograph to show the raw edge of the message of Macbeth's speech, like that of the darkness and nothingness of the scene itself.

This speech is not only showing the emotional degrading of Macbeth's character but it is telling us so much about everything that makes Macbeth what he has, by this scene, become. He no longer cares the way he did for his wife as he did at the start of the play. He has lost love. His sanity and being have been eroded away by the guilt and dread of what he has done and for the sins he has consumed within his recent past. He has lost meaning. His being is dying before us, becoming nothing but pure hatred, becoming but a spirit of hate of which nothing is stable anymore. He is now dying, soon to become nothingness.

To achieve what I wanted out of this photograph, I set out about completing some experiments including, photoshop and primary experiments, where I printed out the image and completed my experiment on the print outs.

Photoshop experiments:

1) Making the photograph black and white with a blue filter:

I opened my photograph up in photoshop and then selected the whole layer. I then went to Image > Adjustments > Black and white. This then lead me onto another page, of which you can see in the screenshot to the right. Here I then clicked on the little scroll down arrow in the selection bar and clicked on Blue filter.

This then left me with the image below:

2) Adding a faded effect to the photograph:

I opened my image in photoshop to start, then I went to image > Adjustments > Colour balance. This then lead me onto a separate screen of which I could then choose what heights of different colours I wanted. I chose +59 for 'cyan - Red', of which made the photograph have a more red influence rather than the deep cyan, -29 for 'Magenta - Green', this added a more Magenta tinge and took away some of the green tones of the photograph of which gives the trees a faded/ wash out look, then 0 for 'Yellow - blue'. I chose not to change the last option as I wanted both the yellow and blue tones of the photograph to stay as I was as I felt that I worked more as a faded photograph that way whereas if I added more blue or yellow then it would have taken the main appearance away of what I wanted to set out to accomplish from this experiment.

After completing the colour balance I then wanted to adjust the brightness and contrast to make the photograph stand out more as well as still retaining that faded quality. To do this I then went onto Image > Adjustments > Brightness and contrast, of which lead me onto a selsction screen where I chose +11 for 'Brightness' and -5 for 'Contrast'.

Below is the finished experiment:

3) Adding a red filter and creating dripping blood:

 

 

 

4) Crumbling/ cracking effect:

 

I opened up my image in photoshop where I then selected the 'quick selection tool' in order to select all of the sculpture. I then selected Filter > Texture > Craquelure. This then lead me to another screen of which can be seen in the screenshot below, left.

 

Here I then chose what crack spacing, depth and birghtness I wanted. I chose crack spacing - 20, crack depth - 6 and crack brightness - 9. This then left me with a statue that had a cracking effect. To make this photograph stand out better I then selected the whole layer and changed the brightness and contrast. To do this I then went onto Image > Adjustments > Brightness and contrast and chose, Brightness as -9, and  Contrast as +7.

Below is the final image for this experiment:

Hand experiments:

1) Burning:

This was the first hand experiment I completed in which I decided to have a go at burning the print out. I wanted this experiment to capture the essence of fire burning out of Macbeth's soul, as though the devil or witches in Macbeth's case has finally overcome him and he is now only the shell of what he used to be.


2) Placing in water:

3) Burying the photograph:

After knowing what I wanted to do for my final outcome of the soliloquy task I then had to find a way in which I would be able to present it in order for it's viewers to really understand it. I tried three different ways of presenting the 4 chosen experiments in which are shown below.

1) As a square format:

2) As a vertical format:

3) As a horizontal format:

I now knew how I was going to layout my 4 experimental photograph but I decided that I wanted to team the photographs with the original soliloquy text and so I had to experiment with different texts and calligraphy in order to find the one that I thought would fit best with my 4 final photographs. 

1) Times New Roman, Normal size :

'To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow...

...It is a tale told by an idiot, of sound and fury

signifying nothing.'

2) Times New Roman, Normal size, Italic:

'To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow...

...It is a tale told by an idiot, of sound and fury

signifying nothing.'

3) Georgia, Small size :

'To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow...

...It is a tale told by an idiot, of sound and fury

signifying nothing.'

4) Aegea, Normal size:

5) Times New Roman, Small size, 1 line:

'To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow... It is a tale told by an idiot, of sound and fury signifying nothing.'

6) Aegea, Small size, 1 line:

Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow...

"She should have died hereafter;
There would have been a time for such a word.
To-morrow, and to-morrow, and to-morrow,
Creeps in this petty pace from day to day,
To the last syllable of recorded time;
And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
that struts and frets his hour upon the stage
and then is heard no more. It is a tale
Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury
signifying nothing." — Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5, lines 17-28)

The ‘Tomorrow’ soliloquy is one of the most famous in the Shakespeare’s series. The speech comes from act 5, scene 5, of Macbeth and although there is a further three scenes of the play, in many ways this speech marks the end or, at the very least, the beginning of the end for the main named hero.


“Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow” is actually the third line of the soliloquy. It begins with Macbeth's response to his wife's death which is very much cold. "She should have died hereafter," he says, "There would have been a time for such a word tomorrow." In these first two lines, Macbeth essentially means that Lady Macbeth would have to die sometime, which is very different from the affectionate relationship the pair shared at the beginning of the play. His response shows his complete emotional shut-down and the unbearable personal cost of his rise to power.

In this speech, Macbeth battles with classical metaphors about the nature of life. Through his words, he shows the tragic consequences of his own actions: he has become an emotionless, apathetic creature, unable to feel even the most basic and primal of emotions which really shows Macbeth’s mental state at this point in the play in which is decreasing so much so that his sanity begins to unravel even before the murder of Duncan, “A dagger of the mind, a false creation, Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?”.


The news that he is ‘invincible’ only calms him for a short time and, as the armies draw closer to Dunsinane, Macbeth displays denial, “I have almost forgot the taste of fears.”, which is suggestive of his awaiting downfall. In fact, it could be argued that the ‘Tomorrow’ soliloquy is Macbeth’s first moment of clearness since the ‘killing of the king’ plot was decided upon. This speech takes place directly after Lady Macbeth’s plummet to her death.

By act 5, insomnia and increasing notions of paranoia have caused him to murder everyone who he thinks is a threat to his throne. He goes on to state that “It is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing.” which further emphasizes the notion that an individual’s life has no meaning, supposedly. The soliloquy suggests that Macbeth is struck by a clear realisation of the fragile and brief nature of human existence. Macbeth’s speech is an extremely depressed view of human mortality. His assertion that “Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player, that struts and frets his hour upon the stage, and then is heard no more.” suggests that he believes his efforts to become King have been in vain, because the nature of existence will make certain that his memory dies with him.


The only way that he can deal with the guilt of his actions is by insisting that they are ultimately insignificant. Macbeth's final speech makes the nature of his tragic defeat clear: in pursuit of his "single state of man," he has shed the complexities which once made him whole.


Macbeth's speech plays on the Biblical themes of life as light and life as a story; namely, it harshly refutes these ideals. Life, according to Macbeth, "is a tale told by an idiot...signifying nothing." This is in direct opposition to Matthew 5.16, which instructs the faithful to "let your light shine before others." Macbeth, unlike his rival Macbeth, is unwilling and unable to accept the "welcome and unwelcome" aspects of his life.


The soliloquy is written in iambic pentameter, (a particular rhythm, measured in small groups of syllables, that the words are established within a certain line). This provides an emphasis of Macbeth’s feeling of hopelessness and pointlessness. A regular beat coupled with the repetition of the word ‘tomorrow’ gives the reader, or audience, a sense of the never-ending sense of time, which leads to the last syllable, ultimately, death.

I wanted to research further into this soliloquy and find other peoples opinions and views on it, so I decided to turn to my preferred field, Art.
I searched through many artists including Leonardo da vinci and Durer, but I couldn't find any drawing or painting of which I thought had real substance to it in order to embrace the emotions and the character of Macbeth and what he was feeling within this scene. I then researched into Vanitas artists in which also linked within my head, to the period of time within Macbeth and so to Macbeth himself. The Vanitas artists are a group of artists who feature objects that are rich in morbid symbolism such as skulls, reminding us of death, rotting food and fading flowers symbolising decay and aging, smoke, watches and hourglasses symbolising the brevity of life as well as either a peeled lemon or seafood that sums up life as being attractive to look at but with a bitterness to taste. This intriguing genre of still life became known in the 16th and 17th century, actually 5 centuries after Macbeth was set but in the same century of when it was written.
It's known that Shakespeare actually drew inspiration of mobidity and the realism of life and death from these artists and their paintngs, to create characteristics within the characters of Macbeth.
I found a few paintings of which I found quite intriguing and had real substance to them, substance of which, to me, link to that of the scene concerned and Macbeth's characteristics.

The painting above actually reminded me of the first part of the speech, where Macbeth first learns of his wife's death, "She should have died hereafter;There would have been a time for such a word."

The painting reminded me of this quote as it's where Macbeth is sayingthat his wife would have died sometime in the future anyway so she hasn't really shortlived her death. Quite a harsh speech which links with the coldness of the painting. Eventhough the couple are within an embrace, capturing the loving emotions of Macbeth and his wife at the start of the play of which by this scene is lost,  you still have that dominant deathly eyre to it, not only because the couple are posed as skeletons but you can see within the body language that underneath the loving embrace you have a superiority of the male skeleton as he holds the womans head to his chest, almost saying that he would hold her to his heart if he had one, but only breifly as he looks on ahead of her body, much like that of Macbeth within this scene.

I chose this second image as a possible representation for this scene and the mental state of Macbeth as I found that the way the artist has captured the isolaton of the skull - standing within the centre of the painting, of which has it's jaw unattached from it really demostrates the feeling of becoming nothingness, with the break down of the skull and it's bodily components. It shows the breakdown of an object of which was whole and together and now is apart and broken. By having the candle by the side of the broken skull of which has no flame is the symbolism of the fact that Macbeth's time is up. His life has become nothing, it has been blown out from sin of which the writing beneath connects with the parchment of the ten commandments. The fact that the words are in a language we cannot understand shows the language barrier of which keeps us at distance with that language, keeping Macbeth at a distance from god and his sinless pastlife.

After looking through the paintings, above, I found that I didn't feel that the paintings were enough to sum up the complete feelings of this scene and speech, they could only tell half the story. So I decided to seek inspiration within another artistic medium.

The Split Man sculpture, created by a group of artists called 'Buddhists of Ireland', represents the mental state of the dysfunctional human - here represented as a 30 year old. This human is falling apart because he cannot or will not dedicate his life to one goal, consequently can’t create his true self, and, by failing to apply that true self, achieve self-realization. He has now realised how frail and ‘pointless’ life is for him and everyone else around him since birth. How he is not secure within himself and his surroundings around him. Failure to make the goal a reality results in endarkenment, to wit, and ends in depression. Achievement of the goal results in enlightenment of himself and experience the experience of rapturous joy.

The Split Man wants to die, in fact, needs to die. He needs to return to his original state in order to recover his essential self, therefore his unique life and purpose will not continue due to his past sins. It’s the 100% application of life purpose that leads to the experience of the true self.

I found that this sculpture, the split man, in particular links well to that of Macbeth's character and emotions within the soliloquy scene that I have chosen as the pure self expression and body language that you can see within the sculpture is the pure imaginary expression of what you can imagine of Macbeth's pain and facial expression. The hatred found on the face of the statue as well as the deep distress pouring out of the split down the man's body coming from within, that's maybe be covered up and kept inside for a long time, craving to get out. It shows just how much the man has suffered to get to this point in time, to his death brought on by his sins. His bad choices have brought him here. It's like the devil has finally split through him to reach to his soul just like that of Macbeth's. Macbeth had no love towards his wife, only a cold emotion when finding she had thrown herself from the roof. She was going to die anyway, is the approach he took to it. You can see within your mind the rapid downfall of Macbeth's sanity and the on come of depressive behaviour and hatred towards himself, which can be found within the very foundation of the sculpture above. The terror and yet liveliness of the piece is everything Macbeth is within this scene.

Expressions of myself: Self portrait

Out of the 4 possible self-portraits of myself, above, I decided that I wanted to use the portrait below as I felt that this really showed the grief and emotion of my Aunt's death, with the position of my face buried into my hands of which have now turned to fists. I chose to turn my hands into fists as this gives an insight into the anger I felt at the time of her death towards God. Why did he have to take her from me? Couldn't he have gave her more time? More time for me to get to know her better/ really get to cherish her?

To experiment and develop the portrait, above, I decided to add another aspect to the photograph. I wanted to experiment with adding a dying flower as another layer onto the image, of which I completed in photoshop. After adding the layer I then changed the opacity to create a ghost-like appearance to the dying flower, almost as a re-creation of the cancer slowly taking my Aunt away from me.

However even though I really liked the self-portrait, above, and I found that it really expressed the emotions that I was going through at that period of time in my life, I decided that I wasn't going to use this photograph as my overall self-portrait as I felt that it doesn't express my emotions that I now feel at 17. I have moved on since that time and this portrait shows that I haven't moved on, which is not the case. After looking at this 'self-portrait' for quite a while, I found that I had quite a big issue with the way that I am positioned within the photograph, as the meaning was getting quite waylaid by the position of the camera.

Maybe if I had zoomed in on my head and fists then I could have portrayed the meaning behind my 'self-portrait' as well as not being misleading or provocative in anyway.

I was now back to square one.

However, once looking back at the four original/possible 'self-portraits' of myself I took quite a liking to the two photographs above as I thought that the composition of myself, looking to either side with my body position within the centre of each photograph, I found that there was a likeness to them of which when positioned side by side the 'two girls' could have been mistaken for twins.

This theory of 'twins' then sparked off the thought of my star sign 'Gemini', so I then thought of ways in which I could somehow link them together to show both photographs within one, almost as though I have two sides/personalities of myself but within one body, relating back to the 'Gemini' star sign.

I knew that I wanted to link the idea of surrealism with my self-portrait and this theory of 'star signs' would be perfect to associate with this as many people believe that their sign determines what their personality and expressions are.

My star sign is Gemini and so I thought that the surrealist movement would work well with this.

Gemini: 

''THE Zodiacal Sign of Gemini -commences on May 21st, but for seven days it doesn’t come into its full power until about May 28th. From this date onwards it is in full strength until June 20^th.The people who were born in this period are widely known for their dual personalities and ability to change mood from moment to moment. The twin sides of their nature are perpetually pulling in opposite directions. Their brains are subtle and brilliant but they usually "lack continuity of purpose".
Of all people they are the most difficult to understand; in temperament they are hot and cold almost at the same moment. They love with one side of their nature and they are often critical or dislike with the other side.
It is difficult even for them to understand what they want to achieve. At heart they are ambitious for social position; but when obtained they have already tired of it, and are ready to go in for something else or for something totally opposite
They believe every moment has a separate existence.  
In all matters of affection they are human puzzles.''

I then began to experiment within photoshop. Below is a contact sheet of which have my experiments on them:

After looking through all the different experiments I found that the photograph below stood out most for me as it has captured the 'two beings/personalities within one body', the Gemini effect, as well as capturing my earlier meaning and thoughts of my Aunt with the positions of the two heads, with reference to the paragraph above of the Gemini zodiac (highlighted in red), of which once layered upon one another it almost gives off the feeling of movement, as though I am shaking my head. By giving off movement it's showing my emotion and confusion of the time of my Aunt's death as well as a slight tension with the way that I am holding my body in that awkward position with my arms by my side, as though I have given up the fight against God and I have now accepted the death of my Aunt.

Here is the process that I went through to create my final self-portrait:

 I first opened up my base image in photoshop.

File> Open new image> Browse> (then choose image).

I then opened up my second image as a new layer, so that it appeared on top of my base image.

File> Open as> New layer.

From here, I then lined up the two photographs with the 'move' tool.

After lining up the two images, I then changed the opacity of Layer 1 to 37.4%.

From this process I then ended up with my final outcome, shown below:

This self-portait sums up the whole of the 'Gemini'  characteristics and so I am quite happy with this outcome.