Month: October 2020
WEEK 3 – ANALYSIS – TASK 2 – TOM WOOD
Tom Wood Photography – Merseyside’s 80s club scene
Dazed Digital is one of my favourite online (or print) sources to gain research from as I feel like the content on there explores such a diverse range of art, photography, fashion and art which suits my style. Their content is catered for someone like me as their audience and therefore everything they put on their I usually find interesting. This led me to finding Tom Wood’s photography of the Merseyside’s 80s club scene. Authentic club photography has always interested me, especially when looking into the club kids of the 1980s from a previous project as it shows genuine snapshots of people enjoying their time during a night where they are completely free, focusing on the music, the environment and the energy rather than posing and constructing something spurious. In particular, the 80s has so much character and energy, it was the start of defying gender norms more prominently than before (I know this had been done previously) also the clothes and colours are extravagant.
“Drunken activity of a young, working-class community getting pissed, dancing, and letting their hair down against a backdrop of huge unemployment and economic hardship.”
Wood’s images feel like he got his camera quickly in people’s faces with flash and captured a moment that he had been looking at for a while. They seem quick and authentic, telling stories and allowing natural movements and situations to be captured. This makes me want to go to my own friendship group during a time when we’re all drinking to capture the scenes and see what I find when you look closer. Wood said that one of his images gained a lot of exposure he noticed there was a prominent part showing a man’s bulge. These details add humor and personality to the work which is something I would love to bring into my own work. Tom Wood would redistribute his photographs to the people who he took the pictures of in the clubs as his way of giving back to this community by leaving all of his prints by his door for people to look through and if they see their face, they were more than welcome to take the picture back home to keep.
“This is a labour of love. I consciously knew all my life that I didn’t want to be a professional or, if I did, I couldn’t make the pictures.” Another thing I respect Tom Wood for was that he clearly took pictures as a way to express his love for photography. He created a sense of community through his photography by capturing friendship groups and creating a nice environment for the club regulars as they could gain memories from their nights out. I would love to create a community using my own work. Either by capturing my friends like I mentioned before or by creating some sort of platform to engage people somehow. I was discussing this with my tutorials as part of my TASK 1 for this module and might investigate different types of artistic platforms further in order to gain some inspiration for my work.
WEEK 3 – ANALYSIS – TASK 2 1024 ARCHITECTURE
1024 ARCHITECTURE
I chose to look at 1024 architecture as I wanted a different type of research to investigate compared to what I had explored previously. I had recently discovered the ‘Electronic Music’ exhibition at the Design Musuem and although I had not been in person, I explored various aspects of it within my sketchbook including early pioneer of experimental electronic, music Daphne Oram as well as the general exhibition but I was intrigued by the artist 1024 architecture who created a sound reactive visual installation for the exhibition. Among further inspection of their website and work on YouTube, they have really caught my attention with their style as they are so unique and captivating through their use of colours and shapes through an installation. I would love to experiment with lights and installations within my work which might be quite different in terms of gathering equipment with this global pandemic however I could always give it a go or create something using an online program.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91aSqBk22zc
“By adding energy to the matter it interacts with, questioning public space, stage and performative arts, 1024 creates an immersive world made of abstract geometry, lights and movement.”
This quote explains why I was captivated by their work in the first place, my tutors encouraged me to explore the link and connection between lighting and electronic music and how the two work together to influence each other. For example, when in a club, I much prefer if there’s different types of lights especially in distinct colours as I always feel like this enhances the experience better and creates a more interesting and sensory escapade than if there were not any lights. This logic can also be applied to installations and exhibitions with music, especially electronic music. Also, as this is my third-year project and I love electronic music, I thought even if I do not include it within my work, it is such a part of my identity I should professionally research more into it.
SPHERE: Compute Shader Test
I watched this video of 1024 doing a compute shader test for one of their projects called ‘Sphere’. I was unaware to what any of this meant but was intrigued by the look of the video and was not disappointed. A computer shader is used commonly within 35 computer graphics to shade three dimensional scenes and this video shows a trial using it. It was as if I was watching something form and collide in space due to the fact that it was an orange, orb like object with light coming from it, and looked exactly like a meteor or atom in space. A lot of energy is shown within the video as it seemed like it was sped up as it is going so fast; the sphere changes shape and changes as if it is affected by a light. It also looked as if there was a bright orange light reflected in a body of water moving around to the natural waves. I found this interesting as something computer generated reminded me of two completely different types of nature. I would love to create some shapes and textures like this through video using a colored light and some water to experiment and see what I could create.
WEEK 3 – ANALYSIS – TASK 2 – VITAL FRAGMENTS: NIGEL HENDERSON AND THE ART OF COLLAGE – TATE
VITAL FRAGMENTS: NIGEL HENDERSON AND THE ART OF COLLAGE – TATE
Although I did not go to see this exhibition, it looked vital for my research into different types of collage as this was recommended to me by my tutors once again. I have discovered this series on Tate called “Animating the Archives” which has proven to be such a useful source as we had a talk on archives previously. Archives are such a reputable source of information which I feel like I have not used enough of within my time at university and now as I am in my third year, I want to push myself to use more sophisticated sources of information as previously I could go to Google for information whereas since it is on a video, I am able to look at it more in depth as someone explains the background etc.
Nigel Henderson’s work has a lot of character to it in terms of people’s facial expressions, contrast used and the subject matter which is what attracted me to his work in the first place. Henderson wrote a lot when he was younger which is shown in the archives. It can be inferred from these writings that Henderson was unconfident and insecure within himself as a young boy. Henderson fell into photography from his mother as well as when he acquired a Leicia camera from a friend as a loan. He also worked closely with Eduardo Paolozzi who helped him within photography. I noticed how different their styles are in terms of colour and process, but they have similar execution when it comes to space on the page and how busy their work can be.
“A Photograph of a Photograph” and “A Photograph of a Photogram” are two of Henderson’s pieces that I am extremely inspired by. I was attracted to the two of them because of how effective they are while in black and white, both extremely dynamic with a lot of character to them while being distorted and surreal which is my favorite type of work. It has made me question the meanings behind them as well as the processes, I would love to create something similar potentially in the darkroom or using my scanner and Adobe Photoshop to create a more modern approach and compare the two processes. Henderson uses an enlarger in the latter, instead of putting a negative for a photography, he places an object or materials he found in the East End and places them on there to create a new image. Something new has come from found material as if he has transformed rubbish into art. This inspires me to go around and start using found material within my sketchbook ort in my artwork as I am interested in the themes of sustainability and repurposing which could tie in appropriately with my studio practice too. In the former, he uses a technique that I have used previously in my own work which I feel like worked effectively before as I enjoy making distorted work. He plays around with images and distorts them by hand by bending them or folding to create new shapes and forms. Once again, this inspires me to take some of my own imagery, print them out, use my scanner or cut them up and transform them, this module is all about experimenting within your specialism and this would be a perfect way to push my work further and make something more unique and dynamic like Henderson’s.
WEEK 3 – ANALYSIS – JOHN STEZAKER
John Stezaker – John Stezaker, Pair IV, 2007, Private Collection. © The Artist
I will be exploring one piece of work by John Stezaker in depth with general context to his work from an interview as previously, I had spoken about an entire exhibition as well as a whole magazine and therefore wanted to investigate something in slightly more depth to expand on my critical analysis skills. This was another collage artist recommended to me by one of the tutors based on the direction that my work was going in so far. I’ve gained my research from this using the Mousse Magazine website, an interview with him by Laurent Dalaye Gallery as well as looking at his exhibition at The Whitechapel Gallery online.
John Stezaker states in an interview that in the 70s, he personally felt as if the idea of conceptualism within art had been overdone, looking at concept over image had been “exhausted” which led him to focusing on showcasing the images that he wanted to portray. His images are simplified for this reason compared to collage artists like Linder who create something purposefully unconventional and distorted whereas Stezaker creates imagery, which is still surreal, but simplified and focused on the images rather than the concept, like Linder does.
This image shown by John Stezaker is called Pair VI as he makes a few of these and places them in a series. Even the name of the piece highlights that the people in the image are secondary, as they aren’t given faces, names or a context behind it considering their most prominent features are hidden and therefore it could be anyone. Interestingly, Stezaker usually using famous film stills, vintage postcards and book illustrations as the feature for his work. The process is incredibly simple by placing an image on top of another to distort it and give it a new meaning, however finding the perfect image to place over the original would take time to find. Shape is an important factor within Stezaker’s work due to the fact that the image on top, of a lake and mountains, allows the rest of the shape of the people’s faces to be taken up by the mountains. This brings the image together as a whole and connects the two pictures together otherwise it would seem like a randomly placed image over the top. The shape pf the mountains directly line up with the tops of their heads and the man’s neck as well as the girl’s hair which is cleverly placed.
Although Stezaker states that he places image over concept, erasing the people’s faces made me wonder what other meanings this piece could have. I felt as if it could potentially tell a story of how two lovers could have become strangers, they are facing each other technically however their faces are removed and could have had any facial expression underneath, yet we are made to think they looked really close and happy. He pushes the boundaries of representing a connection between two people as another meaning could be that these two people have a strong relation to each other as images of water are shown which has a constant flow within a water cycle, and therefore could be a metaphor for their love. Similarly, he could have just placed the image as it fit on top and he wanted to relate the connection between humans and nature in terms of shape and form.
WEEK 3 – ANALYSIS – TASK 2 – SPARE RIB MAGAZINE
SPARE RIB MAGAZINE
I discovered Spare Rib Magazine when looking closer in Linder’s work, and she cited this as one of her inspirations for her feminist-based work and it looked like a key piece of research to include within my exploration of different themes in this project. Surprisingly, I had not heard about this magazine before even though it had been a key indicator within the Women’s Liberation Movement in the 20th century considering I am familiar with the works of the Guerrilla Girls and other pioneers within 20th century feminism. I have gained all my research for this on the British Library’s website which has a good section covering all areas related to the Spare Rib magazine which is obviously a reputable source. Spare Rib’s beginning was in the 60s-70s around the time where the punk movement was at its peak, underground print culture was building along with women’s liberation. The combination of these led to Spare Rib magazine, questioning the inequality of women, the unnecessary oversexualization of their bodies from men as well as the fact that the media industry was particularly male dominated, and this called for a change in their eyes. The contrast between Spare Rib and other magazines who were also catered to women of the same age where that the other magazines were more focused on health, beauty, makeup, and fashion which was arguably more shallow while Spare Rib focused more on critical issues facing women’s rights, women of diverse backgrounds for a more educational purpose as well as being a lifestyle magazine. I think a magazine which has something slightly more educational to it is essential for modern print media as people are always looking to learn something new otherwise they could go on the shelves and pick up any other magazine which does not add much value to their lives.
“What is a liberated woman?” Was the question surrounding the first issue of Spare Rib magazine and was answered through letters within the first few pages. I found that this was such an interesting question to ask even now, but especially within the 70s as people would have such an extensive range of extraordinarily strong opinions to share. I feel like I need to ask myself more questions like this in order to stimulate a creative response through the form of collage in order to answer more questions within my artwork as well as solving issues or pushing myself to research into different themes. As a woman feminism is particularly important to me especially crediting the key pioneers, artwork, and movements up until now as well as understanding and appreciating the origins of the movement that allow women to speak up and have more of a voice than they have before.
Another thing I appreciate about the magazine was that the people involved understood areas for improvement, listened to their audience, which is key as they are the ones who are reading this and will be affected by it, and criticized aspects of the magazines that needed work. This led to improvements taking place to align more with them. Things such as allowing everyday women to share their stories more rather than only having widely known authors creating articles as well as featuring people from more diverse backgrounds. As one of the things I noticed was that a lot of the women on the front page were mainly of a white racial background, however, as the years progressed there were woman from other races featured which is important within feminism; to be intersectional and multicultural. However, I know I must look at this magazine in context of it coming out in the 70s, while feminism within the print media industry has progressed massively since then, but this magazine which such an important piece of media within this movement.
WEEK 3 – ANALYSIS – TASK 2 – Linderism Exhibition (Linderism at Home) – Kettle’s Yard
WEEK 3 – ANALYSIS – TASK 2
Linderism Exhibition (Linderism at Home) – Kettle’s Yard
Linder as an artist was recommended to me by my tutors, as my style of work resembles Linder’s in terms of techniques and process; I enjoy creating different types of collages and once I discovered Linder’s work, I wanted to explore further into the exhibition ‘Linderism’ at Kettle’s Yard. Due to the Covid-19 virus, this exhibition has been placed online with many resources covering the video elements of the exhibitions as well as a curation tour on YouTube which allows me to gain information on all dimensions of the exhibition effectively. This is something I know I need to keep in mind when presenting may work, as presentation and curation is a huge part of representing the work I have created especially during a time where we need to adapt and highlight our work in more creative ways during this pandemic.
Through exploring the exhibition curation tour guide on YouTube, it is highlighted that the three key themes that run through Linder’s work are Feminism, which is inspired by her reading the magazine ‘Spare Rib’ in Manchester in the 70s, which was a key element within the Women’s Liberation Movement in the late 20th century as well as Dada, which Linder read in Dawn Ades’ book ‘Photomontage’. Dadaism is essentially political print culture which directly feeds within the themes of her controversial and provocative work but adapted to her own unique style. The last theme that runs through her work clearly is punk, she has the energy of the punk movement shown through her imagery of a sexual nature, the performance elements as well as the political side which links back to Dadaism.
“The Light with Nothing to Rest Upon”
These are a series of images Linder took in the Dicken’s club in Manchester during a drag competition in 1976-1977, the same time she made her first set of widely known collage prints. The name of these images really stood out to me, I later found out it was from a Charles Dicken’s book which links to the fact that these were taken at the Dickens club in Manchester. Personally, the energy in these pictures really excited me, they reminded me of the club kid scene in the 80s, where the youths were unapologetically themselves, enjoying the energy and spirit of being free in the night club as I could feel the emotions of the people through the pictures. All of these images are black and white which take away from the fashion and extravagant outfits that these people were wearing but highlight the emotions, the connection between the people in the images and their personality that you can clearly see through the pictures. Although Linder is not known for her photography as well as her collage, I feel like these show a key theme that she projects throughout all her work and shows how authentic she is when it comes to representing people’s identity and style.
When looking at her work from a more modern perspective, it is nice to see a woman creating work showing the naked body of a women and owning the sexuality of it herself, instead of creating something using a woman’s body and having it sexualized by the male gaze or men in the industry, it shows she is owning her own sexuality before other people can overly sexualize it themselves.
WEEK 2 – TASK 1 TUTORIAL – Group with Jules
TASK 1 TUTORIAL – Group with Jules
Attending the group tutorial was really reassuring for me as it was a positive online tutorial, was really nice to see other people on my course and have discussions in smaller groups, as well as it being useful for me to hear other people’s ideas and the way that they research as they could always teach me something new. It also reminded me that everyone’s brains work individually, and I need to find my own unique way of working, researching and documenting in order to progress my professional development too. For example, one of the girls in my group had a fairly positive idea for an outcome she wanted to present and is working backwards to achieve that goal which works for her, but I know that personally I work better by gaining a lot of research and making small experiments first, and therefore will continue to work more that way.
I was thankful for the tutors to clear up the confusion I had between both tasks and now I am aware that as I research for each task, these can cross over and inform the decisions I make for each outcome. Task 2 is the academic and critical written outcome when task 1 is focusing on my sketchbook and concept development right now. I was also given a lot of points of research from the tutors to progress my work in therefore I feel quite positive about this project.
WEEK 2 – TASK 2 TUTORIAL – Myself, Jules and Hannah
TASK 2 TUTORIAL – Myself, Jules and Hannah
For my actual topic of exploration for task 2, I was unsure on what direction I wanted to go in as I had generated a lot of potential ideas within my mind map in my sketchbook. I was aware that there must be some sort of link between task 1 and task 2 however the key to this module is research and experimentation and therefore even though I had no solid ideas, I had done some research prior to the tutorial which was useful to talk through with the tutors.
I spoke through my sketchbook work, highlighting that my specialism lies with collage and graphic design and that doing my written essay in the form of a magazine tutorial would be useful in progressing my fashion communication skills towards the area that I feel like I’m strongest in and want to push myself further in. The fact that I’m interested in layout and collages would therefore seem like an appropriate way to present my work, however once I’ve refined the concept down, I’ll be able to review the best possible execution of the subject matter.
My advice was to carry on researching the way I do; looking at both online exhibitions as well as primary research and was pointed in the direction to investigate sensory exhibitions, virtual world, electronic music, lighting and time lapses in terms of presentation, Linderism by artist Linder, John Stezaker, cut and paste National Gallery Edinburgh , Schwitters collage artist Tate Britain etc.
The tutors also suggested that I could complete a technical report on the process of collaging, exploring the origins and pioneers of the movement as well as the political sides. This seemed very interesting to me as collage has now developed digitally as well as having thousands of techniques as a tactile, hands on process.
My next steps will be top research all the artists etc that were recommended to me by the tutors, as well as keep the collage idea in mind and learnt that I need to do a lot of research in order to narrow down a more specific and original idea.
WEEK 1
WEEK 1
After watching the prerecorded lectures and taking part in the live Q&A sessions I’m feeling more confident about both task 1 and task 2 of this module: Fashion Communication Research, Investigation and Proposal – Theory and Practice. I’m excited because this seems like the project to find out my individual identity within the realms of fashion communication after doing a lot of guided group work, as this is far more individual and original.
Learning more and graphic design and layouts, especially during the magazine project was a highlight of my second year as I have found the direction I would like to progress into creatively and would like to incorporate further in my task 1 and task 2 for this project to push my visual identity further. Creating visuals for a zine in first year for the illustration project was one of my favorite projects as I really furthered my love for making illustrations especially with collage as my method of creating work has been fairly consistent over the past few years as I build up my visual identity. Studying visual promotion previously was also very interesting to me through learning how to build a brand visually as well as from the business side was such an interesting project in first year to create a sub brand. However, I’m aware the business module would focus more on this therefore it would be wiser to practice more with graphics/illustration.
Lately I’ve been looking towards potentially doing a masters course in marketing; and wanted to push myself with this project in terms of presentation and layout, which is key within marketing. Therefore, this led me to do some initial research on Pinterest where I’m constantly inspired by the designs I find and begin making a board for this project. Pinterest boards are an effective visual research tool for me as I can see hundreds of ideas in one place, it highlights similar visual techniques that are shown in the imagery I save and can help refine what stands out to me to further my research into which is why I’m using it for my starting point.
SKETCHBOOK
After viewing the PowerPoint and talk on student central regarding presentation; it was highlighted to me that, as someone who enjoys using a physical sketchbook as I work more effectively hands on and tactile, the presentation of my physical sketchbook should also be considered. Not necessarily all the time but in terms of presenting information and documenting I feel like I should be using my book to experiment freely and learn to document information in a range of different ways.
WEEK 1 – “Can you submit a short written and illustrative reflection of what you did /or felt over the summer in your blogs and where you see your next steps progressing, if you haven’t already done so. Please bring these together with your research ideas to your group discussions on Tuesday.”
During lockdown I, like many others I am sure, were feeling less than motivated to complete creative tasks or engage with our more creative side in terms of making content. I felt limited and deflated in terms of keeping myself going with a strict routine and therefore produced a limited amount of work and even struggled with my modules due around the beginning of summer.
However, although without making much work, I kept engaged with the art and design world and kept letting things inspire me; I started getting more into watching documentaries about topics which interested me such as “Have a Good Trip: Adventures in Psychedelics” and “The Social Dilemma”, as I know it’s important to involve myself in what’s trending currently and watch things that question and delve into interesting topics. Luckily this has made me value videos even more as a source of gathering information as documentaries cover a range of topics.
Looking through the Lockdown Diaries on Dazed was extremely interesting for me as since the world has completely change and resources have become limited, this has made artists more creative and resourceful in the way they produce and present their work; which could come in handy for when I need to present my work later on as everything is still currently online. It allowed for a community to be brought together in such uncertain times and highlighted the connection that art and design can bring worldwide through a simple hashtag #AloneTogether. What stood out to me was the Lockdown Diaries: New Dehli on Dazed.com. India is one of the most populated areas and went into one of the biggest lockdown which would have been a great contrast to reality and how people had been previously living their lives and therefore a lot of adaptation and adjustment would have taken place.