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First week back at uni!

After my first tutorial and week at uni, I feel pretty confident about my FMP idea. I’m glad I used my spare time during placement year to go to exhibitions and plays to stay creatively inspired. I definitely didn’t hold back when it came to putting together artists to research that I thought could be relevant to my future ideas. I know it’s a bit early to be confident about what I want to be doing for my FMP, but it has been a long-time coming idea that sprouted from the exhibition space I created at the end of the second year.

I feel like I’ve used the summer task to piece together my research and influences into words. I must stay reminded that even though I am slightly ahead of schedule, it doesn’t mean I should be too relaxed about starting my project. I guess I’m glad I’ve got a head start on this module so that my head is straight on when I start balancing my business and essay modules. I’m also excited to get to know the new tutors at uni. I think it will be helpful to get new opinions from different tutors with different specialities to strengthen my project’s aspects.

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Fashion Space Exhibiton April 23

I struggled to set-up my final space in time for everyone’s final exhibitions. The reason was that I had complications with the cyanotype studio bookings as it was very busy at this time of year. So I had to improvise and create a space prototype for the exhibition instead. In a way, I’m glad I got to do this and had something to show as it was good for me to idea generate for the real thing and I got to see what I wanted to change for the next time.

When making my prototype I realised that using metal loops to bind my images and hanging them wasn’t ideal as the loops weren’t strong enough to help the prints up. So I used fishing string instead, hanging one image under the other. I also added found objects that were relevant to my theme to the presentation. I used the national Welsh flower daffodils and an ironic Welsh keyring which added to the humourous side of my project. It looked pretty good in the end and was definitely a learning curve. My only worries now are that I won’t be able to finalise or further research into my final space as I wanted to experiment with sewing the final cyanotypes together. Either way, I will have enough work to produce as I have made an online zine.

https://taliesingwisggymreig.cargo.site

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Furthering my research 02/04/23

To further my research, I’ve been looking into creative Dion Kitson & photographer Elijah Thomas. Both demonstrate their creative reactions to their British surroundings. Using humour to communicate creative ways of sharing niche aspects of the community that aren’t often represented. This inspires me for my own work as Elijah Thomas captures the untold truths of the wacky Rhondda valleys, which made me feel happy to see my hometown represented on the media. It made me want to look into my own aspects at home I’d like to share that aren’t usual or are hidden.

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Workshop Evaluation 25/03/23

After doing the photogram and cyanotype workshop. I’ve concluded these are great mediums to work with when illustrating found objects as they use shadow as a form of illustrating shapes and shadows of objects. I really enjoy the finish of the cyanotypes so I will be including this medium in my final piece. It’s also relevant to my aesthetics of rural and natural forms based on my theme of preserving history within nostalgic futurism.

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Physical experimentation 22/03/23

Now that I’ve concluded that I want to physically make more. I went out and bought some historic family pictures from snoopers paradise to experiment with image manipulation. I got out my old watercolour paints and indian ink and started to doodle and create collages with them. It was fun to get back into physical sketchbook work as I hadn’t done it since I left an art course a couple of years ago. I also created a piece using indian ink, finaliser and candle wax which I’m pretty happy with. I had no aims with that piece but to experiment and see how I feel about it and if it symbolised anything relevant to the project.

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Understanding my choice of mediums 10/03/23

After attending a couple of workshops in the past few weeks. I’ve discovered that I’d much rather further my skills in the physical making as I often spend too much time staring at a screen. I’m also more of a physical learner and creator.

I recently attended the first CLO3D workshop where we were shown what types of digital fashion spaces and garments we could create using the platform. It was interesting to see the 360 rooms we could make. The lecturer also demonstrated an app we could use, where we scan our physical space and our phones create a 360 digital model of it. He also lectured us on a couple of things like the metaverse and gaming design digital platforms that are similar. He recommended sticking to CLO3D if you were going to make more garment-based pieces though. The lecture was very interesting and I enjoyed learning the basics about a new digital platform but, I don’t think this would be the correct direction for me to head into for my theme for the project.

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Choosing workshops to gain new skills 15/02/23

Elouise has recently given us timetables with selections of workshops for us to try and further our skills and experimentation for our projects. I decided to sign up for the CLO3D and Spacemapping workshops from the options as I am curious to see how I could learn how to create a digital space. I also signed up for separate workshops myself which are photograms and cyanotypes as I have always wanted to try these out. I would like to also sign up for the developing b&w film in the darkroom workshop but I’ll only do that if I have enough time.

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Starting the module 08/02/23

We recently were given the Fashion Space module brief. At first, I found it challenging to take an interest in the themes we were given for future bodies. But, I’ve been looking into found objects and it’s given me the idea to look into my culture’s symbolic national objects you can find. I remember a GCSE art project I did based around found objects in my Nans attic, essentially I could look at this and further it into something that will fit in with my goals. I recently saw a Dazed article about The Rhondda in colour which is my home area and it brought a smile to my face as it was nice to see my home rural area to be represented. I want to look into this meaning and possibly how I can illustrate my perspective of that.

 

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Video Content

As the art director I struggled to get through to the Visual Promoter to help with the 10 minutes of video content. So me and Freya ended up creating the video content together last minute as the Visual Promoter didn’t cooperate. Freya created a 5 minute video introducing our magazine and reading out our editorial writers note. I then helped by sending in footage that would be useful and coherent with the video. I also edited and merged a lot of the clips together as 5 minutes is long time to edit clips together. Me and Maddie then created another 5 minute video of behind the scenes content and also showcasing some audio clips of our interviews I did. Maddie sent in the 5 minutes of behind the scenes footage she had merged together and I edited the audio and visual to how with it. Me, Maddie and Freya stayed up until 2am before the deadline to ensure the video content was finished and edited before showcasing it to the class the next day.

It was shame as I think we could have done better to work together as a group to create a video that was a way more effective way of promoting our magazine over time. But I think we had all worked so hard on other aspects of the project, we had left the video till last minute. The videos in general represent our magazine well and what it’s about. But, we could have made it more professional and visually more interesting with higher quality content. Overall, I am happy with what we produced with such little time and help as we still worked hard on it.

Here is the link to the second 5 minute video- Freya will be uploading the other 5 minute video to her blog.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Yr4b09dE2o

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ZEAL Evaluation

Looking back I am very proud of myself with how I have managed time, kept organisation and learnt throughout this project. Generally I struggle with keeping structure, routine and organisation with my ADHD. But I feel as if I did well with this project and really pushed myself to learn and engage. It has been difficult and there has been days where I have struggled to keep concentration and communicate with my group, but I really gave it my best with this project and I hope the results show that.

Being the Art Director has taught me that communication is key when working with a group and that sometimes when others don’t co-operate it’s okay to improvise and move forward. There has definitely been some blips in our group throughout when it comes to miscommunication and not showing up to sessions. But hopefully it shows who has really engaged when looking at the end results. I found myself not only doing my own roles but improvising and filling in for others throughout the project, specifically with styling and photography. I don’t mind as I enjoy these roles and they are things I’m happy to help with. But there is a difference between helping out and having to cover other peoples roles completely because they don’t show up. The most difficult thing for me was constantly encouraging our group, settling plans and then having to take up half the roles as people would cancel last minute. In the end as it was difficult for us to all be in the same place at once due to travel costs and distance, some of us would often spend a lot of time over FaceTime discussing the project.

The highlights of this project for me were being able to branch out my creativity and learn new skills. I got to use the proffesional photography studio for the first time after booking an induction which was very fun. I also learnt more when using InDesign and Lightroom, which are softwares I hadn’t used before. I also contributed a lot more when engaging in front of the class, which is something big for me as public speaking is not my strength as I tend to stutter and get anxious. I have also made a couple new friends as the class has definitely got to know each other better since starting the project.

I personally think throughout this project I could’ve improved on time management and focusing on smaller details to perfect the magazine further. But those traits also come down to my ADHD so I will keep them in mind when working on my next project. I have specifically  been trying to work on smaller details but there are still some things I could pick on that I could’ve focused on better. I think after looking at the printed final magazine there are some graphics and images I would’ve changed/ swapped around but when having a deadline I did feel the need to rush to print the final magazine in order to focus on other aspects of the project.

Overall I am happy we did this project and how our end results turned out, but am also glad it’s over as it has been stressful for everyone involved! 🙂