November 30, 2016

When Worlds Collide Brief

The new brief, which runs for FIVE WEEKS, is titled ‘When Worlds Collide’ and looks incredible. We have been given two lists and are asked to pick a topic from each. The topics range from being pretty basic to being quite obscure- from teletubbies to feminism, and mexican wrestlers to folk tales there’s a lot of scope for potential combinations.

When choosing my two topics, I took into consideration how I’ve been feeling about the course recently. I am loving all of the experimental work and have created some pieces I am really proud of that have pushed me far out of my comfort zone. But whilst I want to continue this experimentation, I also want to explore what has brought me here in the first place. I want to create some more complex pieces and indulge myself in some time to do some drawing and painting. I want to regain some of the confidence in my work that I used to have.

So, in order to do this, on the back of a conversation I had with Claire I had in my tutorial, I chose Birds as my first category. Birds are something I love drawing, but whilst I feel they inspire me I don’t feel they are particularly challenging and after thinking about it a little, I decided also that I didn’t want to box myself into my comfort zone. Buildings, however, are things I have actively fled from tackling in my artwork. So, naturally, I’ve taken a topic rooted firmly in my comfort zone to contrast it with one so far out of my comfort zone in hope that could spark some interesting ideas.

With that I have decided upon Birds and Architecture! I am hoping that even if I hit a wall tackling architecture, my love of birds will bring the project back to life. I want to approach this topic as an exploration of technique, as it’s the last project of the first term I think it would be a nice homage to the course to try and incorporate everything that I have learned into this project. But we shall see!

November 29, 2016

Compositional Crit

A lot of the pressure was taken off the crit we had for the compositional project today. Everyone, including myself, has been pretty overwhelmed by the workload the past couple of weeks, what with the double project-essay deadline combo. However, the wonderfully lovely tutors that we have (sycophant alert) have let us off a little with a more relaxed approach to analysing our work. We were put into groups and each person talked through what they had achieved for the project in the time we had, with little emphasis on part II.

When looking at other peoples work it was fascinating to see how different people had approached the same brief. I had stuck to a very literal exploration of the compositions- with little contextual backing. Other people had incredible concepts to back up their work. It was a really enjoyable crit, and made me feel a lot better about the amount of work I had produced. There is a lot of room for improvement in my project, for example I have barely touched upon the requirements of the second half of the brief, but there’s time to explore this further I’m sure.

I agreed with Gary that my collages with images of ‘The Pink Man’ were a lot more lively than the 2D compositions I created. I want to explore more uses of layering and photography when I create more pieces from the given categories in the second half of the project.

November 28, 2016

The Art of Composition

Here I have followed through my plans of collaging the Pink Man! I really want to continue playing around with this method as I am really chuffed with the outcomes, but the deadline is fast approaching and I may have to present these for now. I have felt massively under pressure the past few days, with the essay deadline fast approaching, and must say it’s been a little overwhelming. But when everything has calmed down I think I’ll be able to create some more considered responses to the second half of the brief because I am losing faith a little in what I’m producing. It’s hard to know how to approach these briefs as I’m still finding my rhythm but I think it will come to me eventually!

November 27, 2016

The Pink Man

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Finally I have finished the ‘one day’ project! Having modelled my sculpture on the more obscure drawings that I had done of human figures, I had intended to paint this figure white to closely replicate them. However, once I had finished the white priming coat I realised that using too light a colour would only highlight any of the uneven surfaces made by the ‘low brow’ materials I had used. So, instead, I painted him pink! I have a complete love of pink which, I think, stems from hating it as a child and its associations with being a very ‘girly’ colour.

Anyway, I’m really chuffed with the outcome! I think the pink man worked well having such bright eyes and big hands- I found it really amusing that loads of people thought they’d been accidental. I really want to work with collaging him and working from the photos I took of him as I think this is a suitable progression! I’d love to make more sculptures as well, I have been intending to make some so I really appreciated that the ‘Composition of Space’ project kind of forced us to do so.

November 25, 2016

Wolfgang Weingart

Wolfgang Weingart was a Graphic Designer recognised for his explorations in typography. He was very expressive in his approach and as a result was influential all over the world. Through his experimentations he ended up forming his own visual language, and for this reason I think that he’s a great reference for my exploration of the project ‘The Art of Composition.’

I haven’t had much time to explore the project thus far, and am really concerned about when I’m going to find the time to do so. But I think a good way forward is to look into collaging some of the photography work we carried out from the ‘Let There Be Light’ project alongside text in a similar style to Weingart. I’ve brought some paint from home to add to the mix as well so am going to look more for artists to reference who collage with paint.

I really love Weingarts work. It’s really interesting how he chooses to arrange the shapes he creates from the type. It draws people in as you want to understand what he communicating to you as the viewer.

November 24, 2016

London Film-Makers Co-op 50th Anniversary

Dresden Dynamo (1971) – Lis Rhodes 5 min
Diagonal (1973)- William Raban (3 Screen) 5 min
Marvo Movie (1967) Jeff Keen 5 min

Tonight I went to a special screening of some of the work from the first decade of the London Film-Makers co-op. Upon introduction it was explained to us that the film makers approached their work as if they were sculpting a film rather than from a more traditional approach, and that they all came from an Art School background rather than a film makers.

The first Film-Makers co-op was set up in London in 1966 by Film Makers Bob Copping and Henry Matusow. Matusow had fled america after being incarcerated during the McCarthy trials, he was rejected by Film-Making circles in america and as a result immigrated to England. After a little while, a younger group fused with them and moved the focus toward production of film rather than solely distribution. With an investment of £3000 from a businessman with particular interest in the arts, the group bought the equipment they needed and the rest is history.

It was really brilliant seeing these films, I particularly enjoyed the three films I’ve featured above. The Dresden Dynamo film by Lis Rhodes featured lots of red and blue patterns transforming to a sound track appropriate to each transition. The Diagonal film by William Raban came to a dramatic climatic end where I was almost concerned it would blow the speakers. Mario Movie by Jeff Keen was particularly interesting, featuring an almost satanic whispering over the burning and distortion of objects and possessions.

It was really interesting going to see this screening, I’ve not had much exposure to film making in art before and it was really effective. I definitely want to explore the work of these artists further and maybe look into trying some film-making myself in the future.

November 23, 2016

Composition Experimentation

Here are some examples of compositions I have been creating using my pictograms so far! I love the variation in style that you can get from a somewhat limited selection of images. As an exercise the results and possibilities are endless and I feel I’ve created my own little visual language. I have included 6 images here to discuss as they have such different content varying from being quite dark to quite humorous.

The first image of the foot and the foetus can be interpreted as being very dark. I felt compelled to include the foetus both because of a personal interest and that as a symbol it represents potential. With the threat of it being crushed by a giant foot you can’t help but feel nervous for the thing, but similarly it would be interesting to see if substituting it for another pictogram would provoke a similar reaction, would you feel as bad if it were a woman being squashed? Or a heart? Who knows! Something to potentially follow up.

The Images in the middle are supposed to make you feel quite threatened, the man and the woman surrounded by knives look very vulnerable. But in comparison, the man and the woman also look quite threatened by the toothbrushes. It may confuse the viewer a little more, but the composition is threatening and therefore the toothbrushes are as well.

The final two images are very contrasting. Having recently quit smoking and realising how much good it has done for my breathing and so, in a very self-righteous manner, I made this wonderful anti-smoking ad! I joke, however it does make you think about the implications. The image of the kettle full of bananas is suitably obscure. I think for my final piece I would like to make a book full of the 20 images of a world that slowly descends into chaos. I’m really enjoying working on adobe illustrator but I do miss the tactile elements of working with physical work. I might look at reverting back to collaging for the second half of the project.

November 19, 2016

Pictograms

After extensively experimenting with my pictograms I have finally settled on these thirty! I cut quite a few, including one of a cat that, whilst adorable, detracted from a coherent ‘humanity’ theme. I’m also aware that things like hearts and brains aren’t something that you’d come across on a day to day basis but I want to have images that provoke emotive reactions. The weight behind the images of foetuses and lungs will add a depth to my final compositions that just can’t be achieved with drawings of cats.

I’ve used my newly learnt computer skills in all aspects of this project already! After scanning my drawings I processed the images in photoshop and have lifted them out of it using the Magic Wand tool before transferring them into Illustrator. I have been considering making a ‘Semiotic Pictogram Dictionary’ on Indesign and then threading it together in the book arts workshop, as a more professional way of presenting my final pictograms.

Animal: Brain, Hand, Foot, Foetus, Eye, Ear, Man, Lungs, Heart and Woman.

Mineral: Toothpaste, Toothbrush, Fork, Lightbulb, Knife, Kettle, Mug, Scissors, Tap and Television.

Vegetable: Banana, Apple, Lemon, Onion, Cigarette, Beer, Pear, Houseplant, Tomato and Wine.

November 19, 2016

Day trip to Eton

Waking up at some ungodly hour this morning was particularly grim, but my housemate had invited me to explore the infamous Eton. I accepted out of an urge to have a good old snoop and to really see how the other half live. It didn’t disappoint.

It did however, contradict the image of Eton I had in my head. No less lavish, but I had expected some secluded castle nestled in London overspill. The college, instead, had more of a feel of Oxford University. Sprawled over the town of Windsor were the buildings that housed lots of upperclass boys dressed in their white bow ties and black tails. Our tour started with the choir concert in the chapel which had what has to be the most ornate Organ that I’ve ever seen. So decorative, in fact, that it took me a couple of moments to realise that was actually what it was.

We proceeded to the library, through the corridors the headmasters office and his ‘suite for guests’ were located. Lining the corridors were portraits of each of the headmasters in varying artistic styles. Annoyingly I couldn’t take many photos in the library as they weren’t permitted, but I managed to sneakily take a couple- I couldn’t get a photo of the first European edition of the bible, however, as this was strictly guarded at all times.

We explored the art department and they had some particularly impressive work on display by the Artist in resident, and had an exhibition of work by the artist Adam Ball. One of his pieces I plan to explore further and feature here but I’m waiting for him to respond with a professional photo of the piece of work.

I had a great day exploring, it was an absolutely mad place with a hell of a lot of money poured into it. Wealth practically dripped from the silk drapery. The opportunities in tech alone were astounding, with GCSE students building fully functioning soapbox style race cars. However, my favourite thing to come out of today was the photo I took at the station this morning, definitely made it worth getting up so early.

November 18, 2016

One Day Project

For our one-day project we had to explore the composition of space by creating a sculpture out of provided corrugated card and masking tape. We were given a selection of themes to explore and could choose whether or not we wanted to reference our own compositional awareness projects. I chose to do both by looking at personal space and recreating on of my pictograms at the same time.

I was really pleased with the result! I had a very sculptural approach to my model, rather than the more precise approach others appeared to take. I built up the structure of the models face using layers of cut cardboard and finished by covering it completely in masking tape to give it a smooth surface. Whilst I got a lot done I think I will be carrying on the project, I want to paint the model white and paint on eyes so it really looks like the drawing I’ve worked from! It would be great to then expand the project further by creating a film or gif using the man as the subject.