The Year 2 undergraduate project brief for Narrative: P*Q*A Author: Amelia Johnstone

1. Narrative 2012
in three projects
Amelia Johnstone MA RCA

2. P * Q * A

4. Painting * Quote * Adjective

5. In project you are give given three
ingredients as a starting point for your
narrative. The idea is to use the adjective
to add power to the story which you are going
to tell; it will help to set the tone. The
painting will provide the palette and to a
degree the content and the quote will help to
work as a catalyst with the painting and the
adjective to accelerate the story and bring
it to life.

7. „Mr Holohan, assistant secretary if
the Eire Abu Society, had been
walking up and down Dublin for nearly
a month, with hands and pockets full
of dirty pieces of paper, arranging
about a series of concerts. He had a
game leg, and for this his friends
called him Hoppy Holohan. He walked
up and down constantly, stood by the
hour at street corners arguing the
point, and made notes; but in the end
it was Mrs Kearney who arranged
everything.‟

9. „Did you ever see your husband‟s face when
you went to a party – I mean this kind of
party?”
„Of course she didn‟t ,” said Joyce.
“She might have,” said the superior
Beatrice. “E.S.P. they call it. Extra
sensory perception,” she added in the tone
of one pleased with being thoroughly
conversant with terms of times.
“I read one of your books,” said Ann to Mrs
Oliver. “The Dying Goldfish. It was quite
good,” she said kindly.
“I didn‟t like that one,” said Joyce. “There
wasn‟t enough blood in it. I like murders to
have lots of blood.”‟

11. „To remember what it feels like to wear
other people‟s clothes. To begin with that,
I think. Assuming I must. Back in the old
days, eighteen, twenty years ago, when I had
no money and friends would give me things
to wear. J‟s old overcoat in college, for
example. And the strange sense I would have
of climbing into his skin. That is probably
a start.‟

12. „And then, most important of all: to
remember who I am. To remember who I am
supposed to be. I do not think this is a
game. ON the other hand, nothing is clear.
For example: who are you? And if you think
you know, why do you keep lying about it? I
have no answer. All I can say is this:
listen to me. My name is Paul Auster. That
is not my real name.‟

14. „In Paris, Violet had rummaged through documents, files,
and case studies called observations from the Salpetriere
hospital. From these accounts she had cobbled together a
few sketchy personal histories. “Bothe her parents were
servants,” Violet told me. “Not long after she was born,
they sent her away to live with relatives. She stayed with
them for six years but then was sent away again to
convent school. She was an angry girl – unruly and
difficult. The nuns thought she was possessed by the
devil, and they threw holy water in her face to calm her.
When she was thirteen, the nuns expelled her, and she went
back to her mother, who was working in a house in Paris as
a chambermaid. The case study doesn‟t mention what
happened to her father. He must have disappeared. It does
say that Augustine was hired „on the pretext‟ that she
teach the children of the house to sing and sew.‟

16. „Margaret was silent. Something shook her life in its
inmost recesses, and she shivered.
„I didn‟t do wrong did I?‟ he asked, bending down.
„You didn‟t darling. Nothing has been done wrong.‟
From the garden came laughter. „Here they are at last!‟
exclaimed Henry, disengaging himself with a smile. Helen
rushed into the gloom, holding Tom by one hand and
carrying her baby in the other. There were shouts of
infectious joy.
„the field‟s cut!‟ Helen cried excitedly – „The big
meadow! We‟ve seen to the very end, and it‟ll be such a
crop of hay as never!‟

18. „I am standing in our bedroom in the future. It‟s night.
But moonlight gives the room a surreal, monochromatic
distinctness. My ears are ringing, as they often do, in
the future. I look down on Clare and myself sleeping. It
feels like death. I am sleeping tightly balled up, knees
to chest, wound up in blankets, mouth slightly open. I
want to touch me. I want to hold me in my arms, look into
my eyes. But it won‟t happen that way; I stand for long
minutes staring intently at my sleeping future self.
Eventually I walk softly to Clare‟s side of the bed,
kneel. It feels immensely like the present. I will myself
to forget the other body in the bed to concentrate on
Clare.‟

20. Wickedly

21. Exhaustedly

22. Sarcastically

23. Optimistically

24. Hurriedly

25. Objectively

26. Painstakingly

27. Rose-tintedly

28. • An 8 page full colour book 28cm wide
and 20cm high. Alternatively you may
wish to make a short film or
animation please discuss this with
me at your tutorial.
• Responding to one adjective, one
painting, and one quotation from the
the slides provided, using the
palette from your chosen painting.
• Include a cover and title for your
book, you may use words or tell the
story with just pictures.

29. Compulsory individual tutorials: Thursday 4th October
*I would like to see the whole narrative in thumbnails,
all development work so far including sketch books and
work sheets, i.e. experiments with palette, method and
your interpretation of the texts and paintings with the
adjective giving an accent to your tale.
Group Tutorials: Thursday 11th October
Deadline and critique: Thursday 18th October