For my 30 pictograms of animals, minerals and vegetables I decided to do 30 ink drawings using a paint brush. I had recently been very in spired by David Attenborough’s launch of ”Planet Earth 2”, because of the amazing visuals, this is what I based my pictograms for animals on. It was interesting yet slightly challenging to translate the images I saw on the screen into my own style of drawing. I found this challenging as usually I don’t draw from observation, and as I explained in my ”Drawing Is” project I find perspective and accuracy when drawing from observation very difficult, I also find merely coppying images bit boring and pointless sometimes which is why I generally choose to draw from my head or create things in a more abstract style. However despite this, I really enjoyed applying my (very limited) observational drawing skills, to my own style when drawing the animals.

For the Mineral Pictograms I again decided to keep things more literal in my approach, and after research into what defines a mineral I decided to depict to chemical formulas for a list of minerals enclosed in books. I thought this would add some variation when creating compositions with all of the animal mineral vegetable pictograms, as the letters and numbers in the chemical formulars would contrast with the standard pictures I’d drawn for animal and vegetable. I also thought the formulas o the books would add an element of interest and mystery to the compositions.

Finally for my vegetable pictograms I decided to bring things back to my favourite area of interest – Philosophy. A while ago I had read a really interesting theory by philosopher James Lovelock; called the Gai Hypothesis. Lovelock said ”The earth is a living system and we are part of it” , I really liked the idea of bringing the earth alive – which is what inspired me to draw each pictogram as a living earth, Whilst still being a vegetable.

As a Group we decided to experiment collaboratively with our individual objects to play around with light. For example we used one of the lockers in the studio to project light through my object (The five pound note) and using a prism and phone light we managed to project light through the note to make different coloured patterns onto the other side of the locker.

After experimenting with the DSLR cameras in the photography induction, and as a group, I decided to experiment with using a disposable camera for my own side of the project. The object I decided to use to experiment with light was the new five pound note, as I found the clear part of the note, intereresting to shine light through and project shadows from. I experimented with different strengths and sources of light to create the photos (as shown below). I enjoyed the mystery in using the disposable camera as you never know how the photo will come out, I think this added to the illusive quality that the final images had. I also experimented with shining light through the negatives of the photographs to project images on different surfaces. Overall my photographs had quite an abstract aethetic to them.

I decided to go and see the V & A exhebition You say you want revolution : Records and rebels 1966-70, as part of my investigation for cultural and critical studies. Overall I really enjoyed the exhibition, learning all about the emergence of a youth driven sub culture, and looking a different social, cultural and political turning points of the 1960s. 

My initial thoughts upon receiving a brief based on photography was panic. I’ve never really ventured into the realms of photography before, I’m dyslexic and I find picking up new technical skills very challenging, I also find working in groups challenging sometimes as its hard to keep communicating with new people. However the positives of working in a group for this project could be that others in the group where familiar in using photography equipment, thus this is an opertunity for me to learn from others. We where told to keep an open mind about the project, however after my studio induction to using the cameras and lighting equipment, I felt very overwhealmed with a whole new vocabuary of camera setting and lighting terms, and I felt like a bit of an idiot having to keep asking the tutors running the induction to repeat how to use each piece of equipment. Despite this I contined to brainstorm ideas, to contribute to the group project and for my own personal side of the project.

Having never had any experience or lessons on my foundation, I thought it essential to sign up for the beginners photo shop tutorials. I found the class bit difficult as I’m bit slow and it was quite fast paced, however it really helped to introduce me to the basics of photoshop, and gave me something to build upon.

It was my first time doing Lino, and I really really enjoyed it. I did find it had at first to try and be precise with the cutting tool especially when making circular shapes, however by the end of the session I felt like my precision had improved. Unfortunately a week later when I went back to collect the prints they were no where to be found. I enjoyed experimenting with the ghost prints too. 

I really enjoyed learning more about Mono Print in my rotation, I found the process of generating the prints immensely relaxing, I also enjoyed the factor of layering the colours, it was reminiscent of an exhibition i saw in Leeds last year, entitled ”Colours my vary”, at Munroe House. The colours may vary exhibition housed prints that were also limited to three colours, and it was interesting to experiment myself in layering the initial colours to create new colours. The patterns I chose to recreate in mono print where previously generated from the ”Drawing is” project, to illustrate the mundane rituals of everyday life. It was interesting to see how the layered quality of the mono prints added (in my opinion) to the ritual like quality of the patterns, as it intensified the repetitive action of a ritual.

In my book binding rotation session we where taught how to make concertina books; I thought this would be well suited as a final outcome of the layout of the concertina would mimic the monotonous feeling of the ritual patterns. I decided to add hand lettered typography on the first page of the book as when producing this final outcome I was also watching another one of Adam Curtis’ documentaries – however this one was called ‘every day is like Sunday’ about the evolution of tabloid and broadsheet newspapers. (cliche) but every day is like Sunday, by Morrissey is also one of my favourite songs, and I thought about how Sunday is kinda like a ritualistic day, so linked well to the topic I was investigating.