Primary Research Ideas

When I decided that I was going to do human function, I wasn’t necessarily thinking about how I was going to find my primary research, I probably assumed it would be okay to use the photos and models found in books.
I had almost decided to do a different theme before I had a discussion with a teacher and this prompted me to gather some ideas surrounding what I could photograph/draw.

Animal/Fish Organs

The problem I had was that I was unable to primarily access human organs and muscles to draw; it’s impossible. At this point, I decided to change my focus point from humans to all living things so that I was able to use animal organs instead. I would be able to access animal tissues and organs that are similar to humans from the butchers or even fish from the fishmongers. There was a suggestion of going to a slaughterhouse but I wasn’t quite up for that and it wasn’t overly relevant to my project. Another way I was able to get around this is to use a model of the human body so that I am able to compare it to the animal organs and to see the scale and arrangement inside the body.

Museum Bones

I had the idea of collecting pictures from museums of animal fossils, however, this was limited to the Manchester area so I was only able to get pictures from one museum.

Physically Impaired People

Since I am doing impaired function, another primary resource would be to look at people who are physically impaired and further investigate the idea of function that way.

Microscope/Cells

I may or may not investigate slightly into cells if I am able to have access to a microscope, however, I don’t know if I will be able to take pictures of this but I shall attempt and see.

Skin

My final idea of finding primary research for my topic of function is to focus the latter part of my project on the skin. I was going to try and incorporate my fascination for how our childhood can affect our function later on in life but I just think that it would be too hard to find research for this and I would struggle to sustain the whole project on this. This is why I decided skin is the way forward as I can take pictures of wrinkles, scars, excess flesh and common skin conditions that are our bodies way of saying – help!