I See What You Mean

using the poem that we had to learn of by heart in the project of 30 things the brief was set of creating 50 typographical experimentations using only scale, type face and arrangement.  above it selection of these.  i really enjoyed this project, i think this was my perfectionistic ways coming through.  the overall effect of many black texts placed together on a white background was very visually appealing. 

Next we chose two of our favourites and added the element of colour and tone to the mix.   For the 'What You Have Is A Blundering Mind' extract i chose a fairly simplistic type face which i restricted mainly on the word mind to represent the confusion in that mind.  by adding the text behind i found that i achieved my ideal outcome, making the composition confusing as how you would imagine a blundering mind to appear.

The Mona Lisa Curse

Robert Hughes documentary really made me think about art today,  in my life time it has always been this way, a commodity, but after watching his take on the art world and his strong opinions of the business of art really made me question what i knew or thought i knew.  one of the quotes from his documentary that was memorable was that art is the biggest unregulated market in the world apart from drugs!  As i had questioned in my previous post, who decides what is art, Hughes postulates that auction houses are the new arbiters of taste,  if this is true then i find this disappointing for use of a better word.  i know there was always a lot of controversy about Andy Warhol's work, in the same way as Damien Hirst's work today i suppose, should it be worth so much, is it art, personally i would say yes but does that put me in the same category as people who visit the mona lisa only to say they saw it or the dealers who only see pieces of art as a commodity to sell and buy for a profit.  has by giving work this enormous price tag devalued it?

A friend of mine once said to me that Art is not a career but a calling, but by giving it this title of a calling does it not make art appear discriminative, i mean who are these called upon people and who decides what is art.  It just makes me wonder, as i suppose i consider myself an artist, i mean i love the subject and i'm studying it, but is that enough.  As a see art as or in my future, when can i truly consider myself an artist.  Everyones interpretation of art is different, we see this all the time, 'artists' are always being slandered, personally i don't think i could handle that, yet i do it myself; if i go to an exhibition i pick out my favourites and almost instantly know which piece i don't like, i mean everyone has their own opinions but who has the right to judge someone els's work.  personally i always seek approval from my tutors, some could call it a form of self flagellation, but i still do it, i guess its just the way i have always been (something i'm trying to work on!!) otherwise when it comes to real life and outside of the 'class room' how could i possible handle it.  Therefore i use artist as a fairly loose term, i mean anyone could be, i guess what i'm trying to say is its not up to me to decide.
- a random contradicting internal rant i was having, having never converted one to paper before i thought it would be interesting to see if it was possible.  still not entirely sure as it makes sense, it does to me but probably no one else (a common theme with me), especially with the total lack of punctuation.

Typography

This is an article i found, it features some inspiring examples of typography in album covers from 1960's until today:

50 years of typography in album covers

Lists Lists Lists

For all 17 lists i used simple illustrations to represent my ideas, for example the image on the left.  i found it helped to have these visual interpretations especially in the development process.  after the initial diagrams i experimented with different medias, for example in the pictures bellow i used a mixture of inks and pen.

i liked the element of abstractness in both of these drawings especially the idea of a swarm of flies.

continuing with this idea i experimented on photo shop with found images and adding flies to them.  i really like the way they look realistic and sort of creepy at the same time.

when it came to the lists, i found coming up with '10 places to hide' was the most enjoyable and i also felt it was the easiest one of all my lists to develop and represent.  from here i combined my previous idea of flies with '10 places to hide' by using a fly to represent the person and a type of food as the place to hide, i did this for each place on the list,  for example with the 'abroad' idea i had a fly with a foreign food.  instead of sticking to just illustration i decided to create model flies using wire form, clay, wire, and acrylic.  

below is a few of these models; 

• the top left is to represent jail, i used caramelised sugar to create a caged effect.
• top right is to represent a hat/hoodie which people use to hide their faces.  
• bottom left is to represent an invisibility cloak,  this one was hard to represent so i used the lemon to give an impression of only a head on show and the rest of the fly concealed.
• bottom left is to represent halloween costumes, i used a pomegranate in the place of a pumpkin. 

large scale fly

30 Things To Do II : Develop a Piece with Potential

Out of the '30 things project' the two i considered having the most potential were, as shown in my previous post, 'do a drawing for a matchbox' and 'write your name in water'.  after a lot of brain storming i decided that the water piece had the most room for development and the project i could have the most fun with.

                                                                   I decided to focus on the typographical aspect of my piece and the use of a liquid based substance as a medium.  in my first piece the text was displayed on a window with the view showing through a little. i liked this idea of displaying the text on everyday object, where this running effect might occur naturally.  the next challenge was deciding what the text would say, i wanted it to relate to the place its displayed but also link into the original brief: my name.   

What i finally chose to do was think of names which people can be called or words that can be used to describe a person,  then place them in a natural environment that somehow relates to that word.  for example in the photo above i used a glue acrylic blend to create the illusion of pancake batter saying the word 'wanting' because obviously everyone 'wants' pancakes!! but it also implies greed, temptations and many other connotations. the one thing i would change would be the letter W although i read it as wanting because i now what its meant to say, to someone else i think its not very clear.

for the word 'disposable' i used the same glue acrylic blend but in blue to represent toilet bleach, i could of used a bin for the word 'disposable' but i thought that was too literal and kind of left no room for a viewers interpretation.  so i chose a toilet as it is another way of disposing of something and also i liked the symmetry in the photo it would create.

30 Things To Do

This brief was rather ominous, at least thats how i felt when i was first given it.  i don't think it was the actual tasks but the sheer quantity of it, i mean 30!!

the first on the list, 'do a drawing for a matchbox' i had the most fun with,  as in the rich inspiration i could draw from, for example the image to the left of a soviet matchbox cover is in my opinion beautiful. especially considering it is for a disposable everyday object.  its also always fun to downsize and work on a very small scale. 

i tried to draw inspiration from vintage matchbox covers because they always were a lot more interesting.

another one of my mini projects i liked, and not only because i got to eat it afterwards, was 'before and after' :

i thing that i like about this piece is the very basic interpretation, and how fairly simple it was to make but in the end was very visually pleasing.  i think this is mainly down to the type face i chose to use and the arrangement.   i found it hard trying to get a very similar photo of the 'After', after i had moved it around, as the 'before' photo. also getting similar lighting and positioning was hard.  in the end however i think the slight difference doesn't damage the overall effect too much.

but my favourite one has to be 'write your name in water', i did a lot of experimentation with this title;  one of the things i tried was using actual water and an acrylic spray paint, but either they didn't work or i didn't like how it looked.  so finally i tried using a very liquid glue to write with:

coming in after reading week on crit day was really interesting, seeing everyones interpretations without any help or advise from tutors.   

Chosen Speciality

VISUAL COMMUNICATIONS

I chose vis com as my chosen area after meeting with Wendy and looking at the suggested research list, in particular http://www.ted.com/talks/stefan_sagmeister_the_power_of_time_off.html, it made me think of my gap year and how much more productive i could of been while travelling, and that by studying vis com for foundation i would be more able to see the possibilities of experimentation and possible projects in my surroundings.

Im exited to try new things in this area and basically experiment and push myself as you never know if an idea is going to work, even turn out ok, until you try it, which i always find scary, and something i want to overcome.

Crossroads II

I am incredibly confused as to which subject area i should choose to go into.  Throughout these past eight weeks i feel that not only my style of work has changed but also my style of working has as well.  These changed most dramatically in my first two weeks of rotations, vis com, where i was forced to work to a strict deadline, think fast, and depict every idea that came to me, which was very different from my experiences at A Level.  I'm unsure if this change was a result of this particular rotation or of the course in general but i like it as it makes me feel more capable of producing work.  After the initial shock of the first few days i found i enjoyed being out of my element in vis com, and the work i was producing was new and different. for these reason i am considering going into the area of visual communication.

After completing the 3D spacial rotation i realised that although i enjoy creating 3D physical things i didn't enjoy these two weeks as much as i expected i would have.  At A Level most of my work had 3D elements to it,  which was why i was surprised to not find the rotation very interesting,  however this could of been due to the project we were given or that my style has changed in this short time.  I also felt that the work i produced didn't really interest me.  

In contrast i enjoyed week 5 and 6 in fashion and textiles, and i have always been interested in these areas. However i am unsure if i would be good at doing it in part two of the course as although there was a very free feeling about the briefs i often felt like i had no direction while working which was very disconcerting.  But out of the three areas that started with still life drawing, fashion and textiles was the only one that i enjoyed it in and liked what i produced.

Even thought i found the lack of direction in Fashion and Textiles a hindrance in Fine Art strangely i liked it,  i felt the freedom actually led me to create something interesting and different from my usual work and something that i actually liked.  However even though there was little direction being given the word carnival was very mentally stimulating, helping me to comprehend what the tutors were expecting of us.  

The reason for my main uncertainty is that i feel i don't have one particular strength, that is why i find it often important for a second, subjective opinion.  At the start of the course i was very apprehensive about crit days but i have come to find them very useful, as it is always helpful to have other peoples opinions and suggestion, because sometimes you just hit a brick wall with your work and you have no idea how to progress, but getting back the feedback on these days helps tremendously. As everyone has different opinions and a different insight into your work it often makes for an interesting crit.

Fine Art

I was away for the first week of the fine art rotation so the second week was kinda rushed,  given the theme carnival, we went to Carnaby Street and took photos for inspiration, most were taken in Liberties as it was major hectic and also very colourful,  but we also took some photos of construction work and such to create a strong contrast. 

by combining all four photos i created two paintings on canvas in acrylic,  we were meant to have an element of culture to the final piece, week two of this rotation was the week before halloween so while out taking my photographs a lot of shop displays were advertising it.  i think i kinda drew from that theme which is kinda a cultural one.

Fashion/Textiles

The drawing from still lives we made in fashion/textiles was a lot more interesting than the ones in 3D spatial, maybe it was the subject matter or maybe it was just the day but i really liked experimenting with the materials and the direction the tutors gave were specific and very different, but i liked what i did.

below is two of a series of 9 photos i took of a square of paper burning,  we then had to manipulate each one in a different way for example; detaching and reattaching.

of the 9 photos i manipulated and defaced i chose my favourite one and photocopied it in several different positions, trying to create the most interesting and stimulating image that i could work with.

combining this same image with a shape from a previous manipulation, shown above, i duplicated it to for a whole new structure.

Although i enjoyed this rotation, in the second week i found the brief a lot less clear and was unsure what steps i should of took to progress my work. i wasn't really impressed by my final piece and thought i could of done better, but i did like my work from week 1.

3D Spatial

A photo of the instillation we created on our first day of 3D spacial, we worked in a group which was challenging at first as everyone had there own ideas of how they wanted it to turn out, but in the end we all agreed and it communicated the theme of places we were all from well.  we used strings in various colours to identify each person and the length of string to indicate the distance traveled from home to London.




After we had to draw our instillation, which i didn't really enjoy, having to draw string isn't really my idea of fun, and i wasn't very pleased with my drawings, but later we got to go outside and draw buildings which are a lot more stimulation, which i think showed in my work.

For friday we were told to bring in a whole load of different materials for example, electrical tape, pins, disposables and card which are all featured in the image above of one of my made objects; this was in the early stages when i was playing around with the materials and trying to make interesting things, it kinda reminded me of a dinosaur which i liked. 

We had to replicate one of our made objects and i think i chose the easiest one i made to replicate.
By adding the pins to the top corner i felt it resembled suit cuffs.Although it was a fairly easy design i think multiples of it look quite effective

These are two of my made objest, the one above is a walkway and the one on the left is something to sit on,  for both of these i used the same original design which i multiplied and fitted together, this original structure was made out of card and electrical tape which was folded many times.  i liked this overall effect especially the simplistic colour scheme.  i found that working to create something with my hands gave me a sense of achievement.

Vis Com

Being thrown in the deep end it felt like on my first day of this course and contextual studies, but towards the end of this rotation i found the pace not as stressful as i had first anticipated but oddly it made me think and work allot more impulsively and productively, leading to a more interesting outcome. It was  challenging having to depict every idea i had on that first day.

Brief 1:

Was given the word 'Trash' which after several different trains of thought and exploration lead to the concept of trashing things, then once joined by my partners word 'Ball' i decided to focus on the idea of balls that destroy (trash).
My end result was not as i had anticipated, but i was able to us photoshop in order to achieve my desired affect.  

Brief 2: 

i think my favourite part of the vis com rotation; using a combination of mixed media to create a final image, I worked with photos of decrepit buildings combining them with acrylic, ink, pencil, old newspaper and acetate.  i loved combining and arranging the different parts to create a new more interesting image.
 

Brief 3:

i found it hard to pick a message for this project, it took almost 2 days of playing around with ideas before i settled on my chosen one; which in truth was a little confusing, the message was 'Stop' which was transmitted from my mind to my brain, telling my self to stop giving me migraines, how i communicated this was in the stencil of the word stop on the parts of my body which were worse affected by my migraines.