Personal Project Report

My name is Javier de Muller, my personal project, which title is The voyage was
supervised by the teacher Ricardo Roque Martins in the year 2018.

The goal of the project was to transmit the message that the voyage (the path we
follow) is as important as the destination itself and finding an appropriate way to transmit this
message. I always liked more some ways things were thought to me than the knowledge
achieved. An example of this is that I like mathematical proofs because of the way knowledge
is achieved and not by the fact of learning a new thing. It was difficult to develop this project
because until I arrived at the final idea, I had to think on many different projects and evaluate
if they were good enough to develop them or if I had to discard them. It was also difficult
because I had to explore the ideas I chose until exhaustion to arrive at all the possible
meanings and interpretations possible for the same idea. My project makes part of the global
context Cultural Expression and of the part The ways in which we discover and express ideas,
feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values because I have been investigating an appropriate
way to express and transmit a message. To make this project I had to investigate aesthetic
education, linguistic education, contemplation, relations between concepts and visual,
metaphorical language, visual metaphors and visual culture. I have made my research on Art. I
have used some books as sources:

BLACK, M. Metaphor. Models and Metaphors: studies in language and philosophy.

Ithaca, Cornell University Press.

PARSONS, M. Interpreting Art Through Metaphors. International Journal of Art &

Design Education p. 228-235.

LAKOFF, G; JOHNSON, M. Metaphors we live by. University of Chicago Press.

HOMER. The Odyssey. Penguin Books.

HERNÁNDEZ, F. ¿De qué hablamos cuando hablamos de cultura visual? Educação &
Realidade, vol. 30, núm. 2

GOODMAN, N. Ways of Worldmaking. Hackett Publishing Company.

GOODMAN, N. Languages of Art. Hackett Publishing Company, Inc.

DANTO, A. The Transfiguration of the Commonplace: A Philosophy of Art. Harvard

University Press.

KACHARAVA, K; KEMERTELIDZE, N. Visual and Verbal Communications: Similarities

and Differences. European Scientific Journal December 2016
GARDNER, H. Frames of Mind: The Theory of Multiple Intelligences. Basic Books.
VYGOTSKY, L. Thought and Language. MIT Press.
BRUNER, J. Toward a Theory of Instruction. Harvard University Press
 These books, except the Odyssey, have served me to develop the knowledge required
to make my project mainly by letting me develop a theory that is that art can transmit
messages and that their main function nowadays is to do it, many times with the form of
metaphors. Some of them, such as Frames of Mind, Thought and Language or Toward a
Theory of Instruction have let me demonstrate that metaphors can be transmitted by
languages and that those languages had different stages of maturation. I have used the others
to explain why and how art can transmit metaphors. The Odyssey has let me deepen my
understanding of the poem Ithaka of C.P.Cavafy, that has been one of the main sources of
inspiration. I have taken the poem from:

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/51296/ithaka-56d22eef917ec

Then, I have used some sites to understand what a curatorial rationale is, to develop
my own. These sources are:

https://sites.google.com/a/hbuhsd.edu/ib-art/artist-statement

http://bluelavaart.com/curatorial-rationale.html

https://www.fairviewhs.org/staff/michael-jaramillo/classes/ib-visual-arts/files/31301e

In the beginning, I started searching for symbolic systems because my supervisor told
me to. As I did not find enough information, I did not develop that concept, but as it helped me
understand some things, I also referred that source on the bibliography:

https://symsys.stanford.edu/

With the new learning, I have found a justification for making my project as an artwork
(my future project) and I have understood more precisely the implications of doing this type of
project. I have also discovered that my target public could not be children, because they would
not understand the metaphors.

The criteria for my project were: first, I had to get a concept that I could develop, that
it would influence the quality of the project, because the greater the concept was, a greater
outcome would result. Then, I had to imagine different ways to materialize the metaphors and
decide what was the most appropriate. This criterion was related with the material form of the
outcome. After this, I had to develop a “metaphorical world” developing the most I could the
concept, deepening its understanding and analysing all the possible interpretations that I could
make from it, this was the most important part to analyse the success or failure of my project
because the most important part of the project was my ablity to develop the metaphorical
background behind my material exhibition. As I wanted to transmit a message, the most
developed and complex the message was, the better the outcome would be. These criteria
were implicit, so I did not make any list because it was unnecessary. I repeated this process
many times to get previous ideas because if I found that, for example, the metaphorical
message developed had some negative aspects that I could not correct, I had to abandon that
idea. When I got the final idea, there was a problem that was materializing it. As it required a
time-lapse, it also required a great amount of time to use some boots and make a film long
enough so that the shoes would be almost to go to trash. As the idea was too good to abandon
it, my supervisor told me to develop it in the next year and to make an essay explaining why I
wanted to do this project, how would it be and investigating to find a justification for the
method used, the visual metaphor. So the criteria changed and I now had: First, to think how
the essay would be, then present my previous ideas, search and explain why I can use
metaphors on art, describe the metaphorical background of my project and its layout. I
evaluated the success and quality of each criterion by talking with my supervisor. On the first
months, I developed many ideas and discussed which of them was the better one with my
supervisor. Then, I had the problem I have already exposed, and so I started thinking the better
way to solve it. In the last week of March, I started working on the essay. The main aspect to
which I dedicated more time was to justify the language I used.

My project’s outcome represents my global context because I have developed a

justification by which arts can be a way of discovering and transmitting ideas, concepts,
cultures, beliefs and values.

The main part of my project has been thinking about the metaphor behind my
artwork, and I have had many previous ideas that have been developed and many messages in
which I have thought before arriving at the final idea and developing its full meaning by
reflecting on it.

I think I should have level 7-8 on the criterion Investigating because of my goal and
global context were really challenging and I have had to investigate and to learn about many
things in order to develop a consistent outcome, searching on many sources. I think I should
have 6-7 on the criterion Planning, because I have changed the project in the middle of the
developing, but I have a detailed and accurate record of the development process of the
project on my journal and I also have demonstrated great self-management skills. I think I
should get a 7-8 on the criterion Taking Action, because my outcome is a developed one, that
has taken many time to do it, and I have had mainly to reflect to show my thinking skills. There
was no opportunity to demonstrate communication and social skills. I think I should get 7-8 on
the topic Reflecting because I have been objective on my evaluation and I have developed a
large and consistent reflection.

I have learned that different cultures have different ways of expressing themselves and
that different cultures also understand the same metaphors (linguistic or visual) in different
ways because they associate different aspects of one element to the other. I have also
discovered that art can be a way to express ideas, culture, values, etc. and that can be more
effective than other ways of written ways.

There have surged other imteresting themes to develop in future works such as
cognitive education or the theory of multiple intelligences related with the different stages of
development of a person.

I think this project has helped my in my development as an IB learner generally in all

the aspects of the IB learner profile, but principally, it has helped me to be more inquirer,
because I have worked on this personal project impelled by curiosity. It has helped me to be
more knowledgeable I wanted to know more about the visual metaphors. I already had a
general idea before, but this project has helped me to systematize it. The aspect of the IB
learner profile in which, in my opinion, I have made a greater development is to be more
thinker, because I have had to reflect on many aspects, sometimes related with myself.