Wednesday 19 October 2011

Textiles rotation

Ok, so I've missed out a few roatations in my blog, which was very bad of me!But i'll be doing them in a different way during hald term, However Textiles more suits being created as a blog, as main topic, 'Street style', was perhaps first discussed online.

in initial research I've looked up a few street style blogs

http://streetpeeper.com/fashion/shalas-corner

http://thelocals.dk/

http://www.styleclicker.net/

Each blog features photos taken of what could be random passers by that just happen to look good. This seems like a very good way of following the current trend and to stay on top of your fashion know how. However according to dictionary.com :
any offbeat or avant-garde fashion inspired by contemporary culture of urban street people

Which I take to basically mean:

Street style was invented by the people and for the people, it is not created on a run way, but by the creativity of the individual. Each style varies and of course there are sub categories such as; punk, glam, rock, boho etc.

My task this week in my textiles fashion rotation is to use a demin jacket. and create a street style garment from it.

Wednesday 28 September 2011

Influences to be researched...

After Monday's lesson we were given the following artist influences to research to help with ideas for Thursdays Fine art class.

Monika Grzymala

(WEB PAGE) http://www.t-r-a-n-s-i-t.net/
(ARTICLE) http://www.dazeddigital.com/artsandculture/article/2350/1/monika-grzymalas-ruptures-at-the-drawing-room
 

Monika Grzymala works with tape as her main media and creates large abstract pieces based on the skyline of london.

Tim Knowles

(WEB PAGE) http://www.timknowles.co.uk/

One of my new top ten favourite artists! He doesn't actually touch the media he uses to create an image unless he is attaching it to an object or removing it. Tim Knowles uses objects that are influenced by natural or man made movement to draw his pen studies. For example he tied over a hundred pens to the branches of a willow tree, of which branches' hung low to the ground so that with a circular canvas laid beneath, a study could be created of the movement the tree had made.  


Paul Klee: ''Drawing is like taking a line for a walk''


Other artists mentioned in our brief are:
Roman signer
Harrison and wood
Gabriel orozco
Damien ortega
Tony bragg
Fischli & weiss
Richard serra
Anthony caro
Bill woodrow
Michelangelo Pistoletto

Monday

On Monday we entered into various tasks, the first of which was Pictionary.
In this game we were put into groups and given cards with verbs on.

We had to silently describe using only our pen to paper, the movements we had been given. We were not allowed to write any text or draw objects directly linked to our verb. for example running we couldn't use people or feet.
I had walking. so drew my map to school and drew marks representing foot prints.
This was a very interesting exercise and had us thinking about the movement and what it represented. people were moving their charcoal in the manor of their verb. shuffling it across the paper and jerking it around.

Later we studied our model Marilyn  who was wearing all black. She held objects and moved with them, moving them in turn. We were not studying her, but the object and how it moved. She held a hockey stick, a hat a ball, a broom and a bike. We used various ways to study these too. I used charcoal, fine liners, marker pens, biros and pencils. We used our mouths, left and right hands and feet to draw with. my favourite ways to study were using my mouth and my left hand. I'd like to do more of this in the future.


Next we lined the floor and wall in paper ready for the next exercise, which was much like the first in what we were studying; instead this time we were using blind drawing, a technique we were introduced to in our Wednesday life drawing sessions. (Where which we study the subject closely with our eyes and DO NOT look at our image at all. This helps us study the lines, angles and dead space).

Week 2: Fine art rotation

In this week's rotation We've started studying fine art :

Many object become animated through everyday actions; a ball is kicked; an umbrella put up; a door opened, a saw pushed and pulled. through movement, what at first appears mundane can be transformed into something extraordinary.

Your Task on the fine art rotation is to explore the movement of each of these objects in as many different ways as possible. You must draw, photograph, assemble,map,install. you can work directly with objects as well as creating representation or them. The aim is to explore the action rather than the object itself.

Thursday 22 September 2011

Explaining what I want to do:

So After all this development of ideas, and feeling as though I am truely repeating myself; I'd like to make a clear message imitt from my final presentation.

Modern life is rubbish

this to be became a statement. It is telling the reader that this is the way. Modern life IS rubbish with rubbish being the adjective in the statment. Very informal.

Reading into that more, This became more of a puzzle. IS modern life rubbish?' I myself don't feel I can answer wether or not modern life, or infact my own life is rubbish. So I read into the material further


Rubbish Is modern life. Modern life is rubbish.
Rubbish the noun for waste.

It was an obvious conclusion to come to, that I should have seen sooner

So modern life IS rubbish, It creates rubbish. This is true! and I totally agree with that statement
 Modern life flys by, creating new technology and ways of thinking and believeing in life. Things move so fast that things become out dated or 'vintage' as quick as a flash. New, 'modern' living is discarded for the next, new and 'moderm' upgrade. Anything that is popular and desirable will inevitably be upgraded and remade to hlep improve modern life.

For example: the Ipod.
I myself don't own one because I feel i've left it too late to learn how to use one. I'm quite happy with life not knowing the 'joys' of it's technology
As I hear, the Ipod has been upgraded to the Ipod5.
meaning that IF you were a 'modern' person who prided yourself on being high tech, you'd purchase the Ipod2. Then the Ipod3. but where do the old 'outdated' ipods go? They become 'rubbish'
Modern life, as fast and easy as it is. creates rubbish.
Recently on the news they've been talking about abolishing the 'sell by date' on food becuase it creates so much waste. perfectly good food is thrown out because of this and millions of pound and tons of food are discarded.
50 years ago would this have been the case? People could judge for themselves the quality of food. modern life appears to be so 'easy' that this is done for you. How many times have I myself thrown away a meal because it is supposedly 'off?' Probably hundreds. how much money could I have saved? probably hundreds as well.  Modern life creates rubbish with it's ease and simplicity.

And this is the angle I hope to approach my photography rotation.
I hope to see this message clearly displayed in my final three images.

Wednesday 21 September 2011

Developing Ideas






noun

[mass noun] chiefly British
  • waste material; refuse or litter:householders may be charged for the removal of non-recyclable rubbish
  • material that is considered unimportant or valueless:she had to sift through the rubbish in every drawer
  • absurd, nonsensical, or worthless talk or ideas:critics said their work was a load of rubbish[as exclamation] :some MPs yelled ‘Rubbish!’

verb

[with object] British informal
  • criticize severely and reject as worthless:he rubbished the idea of a European Community-wide carbon tax

adjective

British informal very bad; worthless or useless:people might say I was a rubbish managershe was rubbish at maths

Thought....

Thinking today about something I came up with yesterday about 'Modern life is rubbish' and how you can change that into 'is modern life rubbish?'
 how many possible ways can you change that around?

1234
2143
2413
4231
4321
3412
3142
1324
1234

MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH
LIFE MODERN RUBBISH IS
LIFE RUBBISH MODERN IS
RUBBISH LIFE IS MODERN
RUBBISH  IS LIFE MODERN
IS RUBBISH MODERN LIFE
IS MODERN RUBBISH LIFE
MODERN IS LIFE RUBBISH
MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH


Tuesday 20 September 2011

Looking back at notes

I've been working all day, editing photos from a short shoot I did last night, researching photographers and writing this Journal.

I'm looking back through my original notes I made during class. It's good to keep looking back at notes, to know how you came to certain conclusions and to help with progression.

Here is a thought trail that I wrote down in my note book:

'MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH'--> IS--> IS MEANING '=' --> MODERN LIFE = RUBBISH--  MODERN LIFE CREATES RUBBISH--> NEW TECHNOLOGY--> OUT WITH OLD (RUBBISH)--> IN WITH THE NEW--> NEW BECOMES OLD--> ETC.

I came to the conclusion that modern life is all about rubbish in a way. I can't answer the question 'Is modern life rubbish?' but in this sense, of modern life IS rubbish, Modern life CREATES rubbish. I can Answer the question. Does modern life CREATE rubbish? and I can look at what can be created out of rubbish.

Vik Muniz, an artist I studied Back in my A-levels is an artist that used rubbish to re-create existing masterpieces, and create masters of his own.
Artists that I've just begun to study are:
Edward Burtynsky
Richard Billingham
Elliot Erwitt
Fischi and Weiss


Nick Gentry, an artist I've studied also in A-level, and whom I've had contact with is another artist who uses 'rubbish' to create his works. He Focus' on using past media such as floppy discs, videos, tapes etc. and paints portraits of 'memory' or 'data' over the top of them. He is one of my favourite artists because of the thought he puts into his work.

My emulation, and album:


Modern Life Is Rubbish - For Tomorrow

Ok, So re-visiting the song, 'For Tomorrow' By blur
My weeks brief is to use the photography as my medium to answer to myself, 'Is modern life Rubbish'?
 The brief asks me many questions:

  • First of all, do I agree with Blur's album title and why? 
Personally I find this very hard to answer, Oxford dictionary's definition of modern is:

'' Adjective
Relating to the present or recent times as opposed to the remote past:the pace of modern lifemodern European history
 Noun
(usually moderns) a person who advocates or practises a departure from traditional styles or values:they were moderns, they must not look back towards the old generation ''
 
 As far as my values are, I am fairly old fashioned, I like the idea of marriage before children and respecting your elders etc. But that's all mainly common sense. Children (I feel) need to be brought up in a stable home, to feel safe; and a couple that are married  are brought together under one roof and name, so the child knows exactly where he or she stands in that family. And as far as respecting elders is concerned, well my grandma's 82 and has had a long, busy and knowledgeable life, she knows far more than I ever will when I reach half her age! She has so many funny/useful and informative things to say to me so I respect her entirely.   
 I feel I stand somwhere not past and not entirely present. I can work a computer to an extent but I can't internet bank/use an Ipod (or own one for that matter) or listen to music that's entirely 'now'  
I don't feel I fit into a particular time as I  have carried past ways or working/cooking/speaking/living etc. with me from different years of my life and learned some traits from my parents, which I would expect they may have taken from their parents etc. etc. 
This is all getting very confusing. but I think I've explained where I feel I stand in modern life/society.
 
But is modern life rubbish? Not really. Some aspects are I suppose for myself; but this question's answer will most definitely vary from person to person. I feel left behind a bit my modern life, and I doubt I'll ever catch up, because I'd have to know exactly what would be happening next, to expect it to happen, To know when to act like the 'now' or 'current' time. Again. This all hardly makes sense. 
But time is all very confusing. 

I don't feel I'll ever be able to say that Modern life is rubbish. because It will always be the current time that I live in. Meaning i'd have to ask myself, ''Is my life rubbish?'' I can definitiely answer that one though. DEFINITELY NOT! Yes my life is hard, and I've taken on way more than I can chew as far as work, college and my seperate A-levels are concerned. but I'm young and if I want to become the person I want to grow to be I'll have to continue to work hard. 
 
IS MODERN LIFE RUBBISH? - IS MY LIFE RUBBISH? DEFINITELY NOT RUBBISH!-
MY LIFE IS HARD.




  • What is modern to you? 
To me Modern is to be entirely current in the day and moment. To be on edge and with the Time.  I feel 'Proper' Modern people are those who read papers daily, have the latest phone, know the latest news, fashion, technology. and are almost ahead of time. As they know sort of what might happen next.

I prefer to plod along at the end of the parade, whirling my 5 yeah old samsung around by the phone charm, wearing clothes my nan gave me from the sixties and using terms like 'Oh Roger! You are a brick!'


  • What is different about how you live today to how your grandparents (for example) lived? 
The first major difference that is brought to mind is, Technology! My grandparents, though they do try to keep up never grew up with all this technology and electricity. I can't blame them for being slow because I have no Idea how to use an MP3 or Ipod. I don't see the use for them when I still have tapes and Cd's. Yes I see why technology keeps improving, it saves space and energy. But it's expensive to keep updating. I know full well that in about 10 years time I will be completely useless in the 'Modern-technological world' and will still be using Cd's which will probably be called 'Vintage' and will be sold in charity shops for 20p. . . (Or has that already started happening?)

Another main difference between present and past is the PACE. Life used to be much slower, but again, due to technology, life has sped up. Communication is much faster, meaning in turn, travel, news, etc. speeds up as well. There;s no more carrier pigeon and 'snail mail' is soon becoming 'Old fashioned.'


  • How does modern life make you feel? Illustrate your emotions.
A little lost, a tad confused. 
It's like asking me constantly how I feel as a result of what I am doing right now. I know where I want to be, which Is why I do what I do now. I know what I've done, and what not to do, which also in turn influences what I do right now, this second. But I feel content with it. Not knowing if what I do now, in my modern time will really work or not. My mind is all over the place constantly, and I think that is something I like about Modern life, It moves so fast that I can't stop to regret what I've thought. but I'll learn from it and not dwell.

Composition continued:

After this we selected and image from magazine and newspapers sources. Our quick brief was too: Chose a photo that could be cropped in different ways to create a different meaning tot he image. I found this very hard actually. It's a difficult decision to say whether I feel I failed at this because I couldn't find a picture in the sources provided, or whether or not I was just generally rubbish at the task.
The image I selected was this: 


It shows a man in a deck chair on top of a dam/old fort/general tall building. he is the main focus of the image. but if you crop the image in different ways, it automatically adopts a new focus. 





Each new crop has become a whole new image in itself. 
I feel that this was a very useful lesson on composition, and It really brought the message across.

Composition

The next part of the day was all about composition. We looked at John stezaker, an artist I am already very familiar with from a past photography project.

His pieces are quiet disturbing, possibly because they cause us to look between both sides of the picture constantly. He puts the photos together so well that at first we accept the image as one person. then are made to double back.


Above I attempted to emulate stezaker






Then I remembered that the compostiton of my emulation was not the same as Stezakers, so here I've croppped and rotated it ina similar way. 
Photos taken from adverts in vogue. I'm pleased that I managed to find photos similar to the original actually. The only major difference is that mine is in colour. though I like that difference between the two. 


EDIT: 

upon looking up 'how to make photos look aged' in google search I came across 
http://labs.wanokoto.jp/olds

A Japanese website where you upload a photo and it will process it to look aged. I used it on the image above: 



I love the technique. I make upoad old paper and use it to layer over photos I take to attempt to achieve this aesthetic myself

Photograms

After we were introduced to our project brief, we were taught how to make Photograms.
This is always a fun activity, and It can really draw forth the imagination of the student.
However, I have already been doing photography for 2 years prior to this course, so for the first part, I did find myself staring at walls and trying to find the red filter that goes over the enlarger lens, (something my old college had on theirs and which I will be VERY lost without! They make life so much easier, saving a lot photo-paper.) When the short lesson on how to use make a photogram was complete I began by arranging my objects on some photo-paper. I admit I didn't use a test strip, but the end result was deep black and sharp white.
I exposed my paper for 7.5 seconds under an aperture that was 2 marks from the highest level on these enlargers.

I used some old broaches I had at home that were in the shapes of  a fairy, flower, leaf and beetle.. Very unoriginal I admit, and it was entirely my fault that I didn't hear that we needed transparent objects for the activity, not translucent ones. All a bit of a muddle in my head, but still I'm fairly pleased with the result.. My photograms remind me of 'cut-out art' something I've always wanted to do, but have never really experimented with.

Peter Callesen for example : http://www.petercallesen.com/
 Has some brilliant examples on him website.
It's the innocence and the scale of them that appeal to me so strongly. The white paper ones look so angelic and delicate. It screams patience and a steady hand. something I wish I had more than most artistic abilities.

My experiments:
(I was trying to make a story from them)



This first one, uses my broaches and some pins that I punctured the paper with to cast their shadows at different lengths to create a dandelion. Not very original, but it was my starting point.
(this became the beginning of the story. The spring fairy working at night to create flowers. (here she spreads the seeds) 





Here is the scene at night. using cling film to create a cloudy sky, and  paper cut-outs to build a clichéd scene of a farm house in the country with a tree on a hill and the moon shining bright. Obviously I've delved deep into my imagination for this one!

  Next I Cut out some tulips from paper, (which was difficult in the dark!)
To test if the paper was thick enough to block the light from the enlarger I made this one. 
The composition is off, but it is still a test so it'll do. 



This is the result I came out with after my test strip. I was trying to go for a 'cut-out art' effect. 
I'm please with the composition of the mirrored pattern, and like the progression from the first. 

After finishing my photograms I decided to make a reverse print of a couple of them.
The house scene now looks like it has changed the time of day, and I like how the flowers look so different in black to white. 


And at the end I threw together all my pieces of rubbish. I like the sporadic placement of the pieces of paper I threw onto the photo-paper. 


Overall from this lesson I learn't not much about photography technique, but only because I'd already done it. I did however take away with me some very interesting things to think about.
  • using transparent objects can create beautiful tones on the photo paper, like wine glasses and glass trinkets and bottles.
  • Focusing on one object but at different angles can give very interesting results
  • Look at the composition of your piece, a good result will hold the attention of a viewer for at least five seconds. 
I found this session helpful to me mainly because:
  • I learn't a bit more about my environment.
  • I Liked the showing of everyone's final outcomes at the end, creative criticism is always good to help improvement. 



Monday 19 September 2011

Monday 19th spetember, ''Modern Life is boring''

Today started off with a short introduction to the photography rotation.
Our tutors spoke to us about photography and our brief, telling us how the week would be organised.

''MODERN LIFE IS RUBBISH'' - A song by blur

'Jim stops and gets out the car,
Goes to a house in emperor's gate,
Through the door and to his room,
Then he puts the TV on,
Turns it off and makes some tea,
Says modern life is rubbish I'm,
Holding on for tomorrow,
Then susan comes into the room,
She's a naughty girl with a lovely smile,
Say's let's take a drive to primrose hill,
It's windy there and the view's so nice,
London ice can freeze your toes
Like anyone I suppose
I'm
Holding on for tomorrow...'

For Tomorrow, Damon Albarn, Graham
Coxon, Alex James and Dave Rowntree

Sunday 18 September 2011

Rotation: Photography

Upon starting my Art foundation course, I've been told that it's a brilliant thing to keep a journal, so i'm changing this old blog I made into my Art journal to document everything, the how's the why's and the why not's :)

I'll be hopefully uploading everyday, but don't hold me to that as I can be pretty lazy!! but fingers crossed it'll all go to plan. I may need to change the layout of my blog too, just so it's easier to understand from an arty point of view.

Isabelle -x