Born in Glasgow, Mark Boyle teamed up with partner Joan Hills producing assemblages made up of found objects. Other subjects influences included the elements, humans, societies, animals and so on. They believed anything could be a potential subject. By 1968 "Journey to the Surface of the Earth" had begun. Their children, Sebastian and Georgia Boyle began their participation during the 1970s. The couple had moved onto encapsulate sections of the world. Blindly, throwing darts at a large map they found 1,000 places to cast and recreate a surfaces.
Why I was interested in their work was down to the blind and walking drawings I've been doing. The way they allow themselves to let go of control and use of autonomy contributes to the conceptual framework. Which is to showcase a truthful representation of reality. I have considered doing this myself to take control of the next dog walk. Picking somewhere in the local area at random, take the dog, and do a quick drawing at that specific location. The method used in the World Series has encouraged me to continue changing the process so my work can still link together without being tiringly repetitive.
The aim of the Boyle Family's works here was to show objective and truthful versions of the societies they visited. This makes them relevant to the research since that is what autoethnographic study aims to complete as well. This is also what I hope to achieve through my work.
Thirdly, what they physically capture isn't what would be the beauty of the city. They choose the curb sides, roads, paths etc. Subjects that are everyday 'boring' aspects. In turn, this can be linked back to the theory of the everyday and is again, what I have been looking at throughout this process. From this, I plan to look at more details rather than whole buildings or landscapes. Details of structures perhaps, the stick that Lulu chews on. The dog sniffs every corner she passes, maybe its those street corners, lamp posts and fences I should try to capture. To summarise, the Boyle Family's work has influenced this research in three main aspects. Liberating the creative process through autonomous drawing, through my autoethnographic methodology, and through Lefebvre's theory of the everyday.
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