For my FMP I am focussing on irrational fears & phobias humans experience.
Common irrational fears: fear of water (hydrophobia), fear of small or crowded spaces (claustrophobia), fear of heights (acrophobia) are fears experienced by all kinds of people. I think this will be a very interesting topic to explore as an irrational fear is a state of mind, not something physical that you can see. I would like to experiment using photography & styling and moving image to capture the essence of these phobias.
An irrational fear I am particularly interested in is ‘Social Phobia/ Social Anxiety’. This is where a person experiences extreme fear of social situations. The fear causes the person to overthink positions they could be put in from undertaking everyday activities as simple as meeting strangers, eating in public, speaking on the phone etc. The fear seems irrational however affects millions of people. The Anxiety UK website quotes ‘In a survey covering Great Britain, 1 in 6 adults had experienced some form of ‘neurotic health problem’ in the previous week (1). The most common neurotic disorders were anxiety and depressive disorders. More than 1 in 10 people are likely to have a ‘disabling anxiety disorder’ at some stage in their life (2). An estimated 13% of the adult population will develop a specific form of anxiety known as a phobia at some point in their life (3). Large scale studies have suggested that around 2.5% of people are likely to experience OCD at some point in their life (4 & 5).’ This shows the scale of Social Phobia and the amount of people affected by it.
Many of these fears make a person feel small and suffocated. My first idea is to portray this feeling of suffocation through textures, fabrics & layering. I will specifically use materials such as tulle and wool that feel irritating and itchy against the skin and look uncomfortable, this will subtly represent these phobias.
