My Proposal

When considering the “uncanny” I took into account Ernst Jentsch description in 1908 of the “uncanny” being ‘whether an apparently animate being is really alive or whether a lifeless object might be animate’.

When also considering the idea of things not being as they seem I watched different film versions of the book “Alice in Wonderland” that takes everything expected and switches it round. The main scene that caught my attention was the scene in the animated Disney version (1951) where the flowers all came alive and were singing and dancing. They all were given different personalities and features depending on what species of flower it was. I decided I wanted to incorporate flowers into my own piece as they both agree and disagree with Jentsch’s idea on the “uncanny” as they are alive but not fully in the sense of being animate or with set emotions.

My idea is to create a piece as if flowers were humans. Flowers will depict everyday human activities in one room of a house such as the kitchen. This will hopefully make the audience consider what being “alive” is due to the fact plants do not usually fit with the human idea of being alive.

For the set I wanted it to represent an everyday kitchen but have some twists to it that show a family of flowers live there. The wallpaper in the kitchen will be that of trees due to plants normal living in forest type areas. The flooring instead of carpet will be that of grass either real or simulated to again emanate the idea of living outside. On the walls there will be pictures of the “family” on trips out such as day at the museum to highlight that this is just a normal family but just the members are that of flowers. The rest of the kitchen will be the same as any normal human kitchen such as table, cutlery etc.

After the set and scene have been established of the flowers just sitting around together and breakfast time together there is a knock on the door that one of the flowers goes to answer. It is a man and he comes into the kitchen. He begins by just looking around the kitchen before getting out a match and setting fire to it.  He then runs away while the flowers watch as their house is destroyed.

The message that I want to depict is that of whether deforestation or the destruction of the countryside would happen if humans viewed plants being alive in the same way as them. If they viewed them as being alive in that way would they see the damage of the countryside as being like destroying a neighbour’s home.