Every term we have a Cross Course Crit where a couple of students from each year group sit around and discuss what projects we are currently working on. We also had to create a poster detailing our progress, which I will upload when I can scan it in.
I spoke about both my Platt Hall project and my puppet, with most of the feedback regarding the puppet project. One girl suggested an exhibition at the Tate Modern which has a series of images detailing the separate stages of a horse running, which would be helpful to me so that I can learn how to realistically move the horse puppet to look like a real horse.
This also lead me to think of working in animation on the horse subject, and the stages of a horse running made me think of creating a zoetrope so I would be drawing the sections of a horse moving and really studying them while also creating a new piece. I would like to develop the zoetrope into more of a new idea and try experimenting with projections.
I was also asked about how I was planning on filming the horse puppet i.e. backgrounds, lighting. I was thinking of a having a black background with a blue tinted spotlight and have black paper cut tree silhouettes that would be pulled on a track against the puppet to give the effect that the horse is really running. I want to create a really strong atmosphere with this piece and with the horse being the main focus of this certain scene I don't want a background that is too fussy or bright to detract the audience's attention.
Another person's idea in the Cross Course Crit also interested me as they were working with doll houses, as am in the Platt Hall project. Their idea was to have a doll house and then project film on to the separate rooms, footage that will have been filmed, hidden camera style, in her own house. I really liked ho this project was mixing the traditional idea of doll houses with the modern technology and suggested that she could extend her work into looking more at surveillance which in itself is an interesting concept.
I'm not sure how useful the Cross Course Crit was at this stage as I hadn't developed that much of my project so think it was harder for people to give me feedback, I think if it was after Christmas then I would have a lot more to say and hopefully other people would have a lot more to say back.
Sunday 5 December 2010
Tuesday 23 November 2010
Puppets update
For the past couple of weeks I have been working on creating my horse puppet as a prototype for my future film. For the film I have decided to create lots of sub-projects so that I can have a broad range of work done while also given as much detail and focus on each separate part of the project. Each part will be an extraordinary vs ordinary element which I have also decided to develop to also look at why we might create fantastical worlds, by comparing the magical world with our harsh reality. To keep focus, after I have finished these horse puppets I will storyboard the film so that I have a general gist of what direction I am going.
As for the horse puppets, I began by making the separate horse parts from clay which I then cast in plaster to make a mould. From this mould I have made, or almost finished making, 5 puppets with :- wax, latex, papier mache, salt dough and cloth with a egg whites and flour mixture. I tried to use materials with different densities and moveability as I thought it was important to explore which materials had the necessary weight without being to heavy or without having to much friction between the parts.
The wax I found had the best density, it is solid without being too heavy; however, the parts are quite brittle in the smaller areas and it is quite greasy to use as the wax rubs off on your hands. The plus point is that it is reusable so if something does sanp I can melt in back down in the mould, however, this isn't the most convenient of things to do.
The latex is very light, which for the body and head could be solved by stuffing it however, the way the legs are designed they couldn't be stuffed. There is also a lot of friction between the parts, so even if I could adjust the weight it is never going to be the most ideal puppet material. The plus point however, is the difference in the tone of laex where parts have been applied thicker which I think gives a nice effect of the complex muscle structure of the horse.
Papier mache had an unusual effect. I used a different recipe than usual which used wallpaper paste, which I think I mixed too thick as when I put it into the moulds I couldn't really see where there was paper and where it was just paste. Therefore, when the mache dried it had gaps and speckly bits in it which actually made it look quite skeletal and ghostly which while not directly relating to my project was an interesting effect. The mixture also dried harder than normal papier mache with PVA so it was better built for puppet making. The wallpaper paste, however, meant that it took up to a week for the castings to set.
The salt dough was experimental to see what a heavier material would be like but the salt dough turned out to be a bit too heavy. I baked the salt dough in the oven but on a very low temperate so that it is still fairly soft in the middle, it does, however, keep its shape. It is not impossible to use, with its weight, so I will continue in the exoeriments but it does make it more difficult to use.
Finally the egg whites and flour mixture was a medieval plaster casting recipe that I found online and tested with cut up pieces of cloth as I was intrigued into how it would work. i didn't have measurements so I used 2 egg whites and just poured in the flour until I got a smooth and creamy texture. I was surprised by how well this experiment worked as it dried very hard but gave a much smoother finich than the papier mache did. The change in texture, however, is a plus point on both sides.
From now I will string all the puppets up to crossbars and then film them doing a short run and judge which puppet has the best movements. From then I will move on to think about the added element of disappearing wings and think about filming the final scene.
As for the horse puppets, I began by making the separate horse parts from clay which I then cast in plaster to make a mould. From this mould I have made, or almost finished making, 5 puppets with :- wax, latex, papier mache, salt dough and cloth with a egg whites and flour mixture. I tried to use materials with different densities and moveability as I thought it was important to explore which materials had the necessary weight without being to heavy or without having to much friction between the parts.
The wax I found had the best density, it is solid without being too heavy; however, the parts are quite brittle in the smaller areas and it is quite greasy to use as the wax rubs off on your hands. The plus point is that it is reusable so if something does sanp I can melt in back down in the mould, however, this isn't the most convenient of things to do.
The latex is very light, which for the body and head could be solved by stuffing it however, the way the legs are designed they couldn't be stuffed. There is also a lot of friction between the parts, so even if I could adjust the weight it is never going to be the most ideal puppet material. The plus point however, is the difference in the tone of laex where parts have been applied thicker which I think gives a nice effect of the complex muscle structure of the horse.
Papier mache had an unusual effect. I used a different recipe than usual which used wallpaper paste, which I think I mixed too thick as when I put it into the moulds I couldn't really see where there was paper and where it was just paste. Therefore, when the mache dried it had gaps and speckly bits in it which actually made it look quite skeletal and ghostly which while not directly relating to my project was an interesting effect. The mixture also dried harder than normal papier mache with PVA so it was better built for puppet making. The wallpaper paste, however, meant that it took up to a week for the castings to set.
The salt dough was experimental to see what a heavier material would be like but the salt dough turned out to be a bit too heavy. I baked the salt dough in the oven but on a very low temperate so that it is still fairly soft in the middle, it does, however, keep its shape. It is not impossible to use, with its weight, so I will continue in the exoeriments but it does make it more difficult to use.
Finally the egg whites and flour mixture was a medieval plaster casting recipe that I found online and tested with cut up pieces of cloth as I was intrigued into how it would work. i didn't have measurements so I used 2 egg whites and just poured in the flour until I got a smooth and creamy texture. I was surprised by how well this experiment worked as it dried very hard but gave a much smoother finich than the papier mache did. The change in texture, however, is a plus point on both sides.
From now I will string all the puppets up to crossbars and then film them doing a short run and judge which puppet has the best movements. From then I will move on to think about the added element of disappearing wings and think about filming the final scene.
Platt Hall Tutorial
After the Platt Hall visit we had a group tutorial where about 12 of us (extra people had to attend) sat around and spoke about our own initial ideas and then we each gave our own feedback. My idea stemmed from focussing on bringing in the children as the targeted audience and it was turn Platt Hall into a doll house. This would be achieved by creating a miniature version of Platt Hall in doll house form and have pieces of the collection in this doll house. The pieces in the doll house would then be super sized and placed in the exact same positions in the real Platt Hall. The doll house would be placed in the entrance of Platt Hall so that visitors would see it before anything else and then when they walk through the real Platt Hall it is as if they are walking around the doll house. The aim of this idea was to bring the objects to life and involve the audience mor, I thought the contrast between the minute detail of the doll house and the sheer size of the large objects would be enough to impress all age ranges and visitors.
To run alongside this idea I also had the idea that dolls would be placed in the doll house and then acting students could volunteer to dress up as that doll and be placed in the same room and come to life to explain to visitors their own backstory and the backstory of other objects in the room. This again runs along the theme of bringing toys to life and involving the audience but is less practical as it would mean ahving volunteers, costume and also timed tours so that the visitors would be able to turn up for the start of the talk.
In the tutoria, I am not sure if I explained my ideas that well as most of the feedback seemed to run more along the lines of making the audience smaller and Platt Hall bigger, which they quite righly thought was impossible. One idea was to make a fake door at the front of Platt Hall that was tiny and would then open up into the Hall. I liked the idea and thought it was very 'Alice in Wonderland-y' but the idea I was working with wasn't so much changing the size of the house and more putting the audience into the doll house version, which if the audience were shrunk down, they would be proportionate to the rest of Platt Hall - apart from the Mary Greg objects which would be large in the doll house.
After the tutorial I was talking over my idea with Philippa Watkin who was also part of the Mary Greg project but not in my tutorial and it turned out that one of our ideas - and our main one - was to make Platt Hall into a doll house. We then discussed how we were planning on developing these ideas, me with the larger objects and Philippa wanted to make the doll house fully fitted with lights so that people had to look through the windows to see what was going on and also to have a mechanical Mary Greg wandering Platt Hall. I liked this idea as I thought it would convey some of the eerie element that we all felt when wandering the back rooms of Platt Hall, particularly with the dresses. I also thought it would be another idea to involve and interest both adults and children. We then decided to collaborate on the project, working on the doll house together and doing the presentation together.
We researched doll houses by getting books from the library and Philippa was also fortunate enough to find a doll house book in a book sale. After seeing all the intricacies of doll house making we decided to make cardboard versions of our own houses as practices for layout and design.
To run alongside this idea I also had the idea that dolls would be placed in the doll house and then acting students could volunteer to dress up as that doll and be placed in the same room and come to life to explain to visitors their own backstory and the backstory of other objects in the room. This again runs along the theme of bringing toys to life and involving the audience but is less practical as it would mean ahving volunteers, costume and also timed tours so that the visitors would be able to turn up for the start of the talk.
In the tutoria, I am not sure if I explained my ideas that well as most of the feedback seemed to run more along the lines of making the audience smaller and Platt Hall bigger, which they quite righly thought was impossible. One idea was to make a fake door at the front of Platt Hall that was tiny and would then open up into the Hall. I liked the idea and thought it was very 'Alice in Wonderland-y' but the idea I was working with wasn't so much changing the size of the house and more putting the audience into the doll house version, which if the audience were shrunk down, they would be proportionate to the rest of Platt Hall - apart from the Mary Greg objects which would be large in the doll house.
After the tutorial I was talking over my idea with Philippa Watkin who was also part of the Mary Greg project but not in my tutorial and it turned out that one of our ideas - and our main one - was to make Platt Hall into a doll house. We then discussed how we were planning on developing these ideas, me with the larger objects and Philippa wanted to make the doll house fully fitted with lights so that people had to look through the windows to see what was going on and also to have a mechanical Mary Greg wandering Platt Hall. I liked this idea as I thought it would convey some of the eerie element that we all felt when wandering the back rooms of Platt Hall, particularly with the dresses. I also thought it would be another idea to involve and interest both adults and children. We then decided to collaborate on the project, working on the doll house together and doing the presentation together.
We researched doll houses by getting books from the library and Philippa was also fortunate enough to find a doll house book in a book sale. After seeing all the intricacies of doll house making we decided to make cardboard versions of our own houses as practices for layout and design.
Thursday 18 November 2010
Mary Greg - Platt Hall Visit
A project was set at University to create an event at Platt Hall - a local Costume Gallery in Platt Fields near Rusholme - that would be held in conjunction with Manchester Art Gallery and inspired by their Mary Greg collection. The Mary Greg Collection are objects that were donated to Manchester Art Gallery by Mary Greg in the early 1920s after Mrs Greg's husband died. The objects are largely everyday items and often in tatty conditions but reflect a lot of ordinary life in the late 19th century and early 20th. The event would be held in September 2012 and we were told to be as ambitious as we wanted and then it could later be reigned in later.
Befor our visit to Platt Hall to see the collection and the building I read the copies of Mary Greg's letters to the Manchester Art Gallery curator Mr Batho. the two created a great rapport over the time and you can tell from the letters that they bothed warmed to each other a lot. While reading the letters, I noticed that Mrs Greg wantd to donate part fo the collection to create a special Children's Collection as she thought that it was important to intice children back into galleries and museums. Therefore, I went to Platt Hall with the idea to mainly focus on the children's part of the collection and to hold the event with the same mission statement as Mary Greg first started her collection, while also having an event that would impress adults.
When going through Platt Hall I first noticed the great staircase at the entrance which I thought would have to be utilised in some way and at the moment had huge, beaded necklaces around it, which made me think of using oversized objects to draw attention and attract both adults and children. I also noticed to the left that there were two rooms - one medium sized and one large, that are largely free to use and could be used to hold part of the collection or art pieces that are a response to the collection.
We then went into the first back rooms where there were rolling cupboards with lots of period dresses. I really liked these as they reminded me of an artist I had already looked at called Isabella de Borchgrave. De Borchgrave makes paper period dresses that are created as exact replicas, with the papers painted and embroidered to look like fabric. De Borchgrave then poses mannequins wearing the dresses and photographs which I think create quite a creepy atmosphere, as if the people are frozen in time and this was a possible idea to do with the collection.
I found the contast between the front and back rooms another interesting concept. The front rooms were much more bright, clear and welcoming with the walls painted pastel blues and white with large windows to brighten the space. However, the back rooms are darker and gloomier with mainly wood furnishings in worse condition. The windows are also smaller so there is less natural light.
The part I liked the most was in the final room where we were left to look through the drawers of the collection ourselves. One drawer was full of silhouette paintings which initially gave me the idea of having a shadow puppet erformance. I thought this could tie in with my personal puppet project and would be a good way of entertaining adults and children while also giving the chance to explain the backstory to the Mary Greg collection.
There was also a drawer of delicate hair combs. I liked the fact that these objects would have had a use in their day while also being impressive pieces on their own. There was great detail in each comb and they were all individual and each in their own condition, a fact that I think makes them more charming as the combs in the worse condition were also probably the most loved.
It was the dolls, however, that took my interest the most. I found one doll that was named fishwife, which showed the attitudes towards women at the time. I also found a fortune telling doll in a box. I thought this was most interesting as it felt like my own discovery on the shelf and the actual doll was in great condition. The doll was in a striking red cloak and was placed on a circle that had different text written on it such as "There's witchery in those eyes" and "A sincere friend." I really liked these as I thought that they were quite cryptic and creepy while also being in doll form so seemingly aimed at children. This gave me an idea to bring th doll alive by the staircase by having a person dressed up as the fortune teller or having a human sized mannequin and then creating a game where people can find there fortune on the disc below.
Befor our visit to Platt Hall to see the collection and the building I read the copies of Mary Greg's letters to the Manchester Art Gallery curator Mr Batho. the two created a great rapport over the time and you can tell from the letters that they bothed warmed to each other a lot. While reading the letters, I noticed that Mrs Greg wantd to donate part fo the collection to create a special Children's Collection as she thought that it was important to intice children back into galleries and museums. Therefore, I went to Platt Hall with the idea to mainly focus on the children's part of the collection and to hold the event with the same mission statement as Mary Greg first started her collection, while also having an event that would impress adults.
When going through Platt Hall I first noticed the great staircase at the entrance which I thought would have to be utilised in some way and at the moment had huge, beaded necklaces around it, which made me think of using oversized objects to draw attention and attract both adults and children. I also noticed to the left that there were two rooms - one medium sized and one large, that are largely free to use and could be used to hold part of the collection or art pieces that are a response to the collection.
We then went into the first back rooms where there were rolling cupboards with lots of period dresses. I really liked these as they reminded me of an artist I had already looked at called Isabella de Borchgrave. De Borchgrave makes paper period dresses that are created as exact replicas, with the papers painted and embroidered to look like fabric. De Borchgrave then poses mannequins wearing the dresses and photographs which I think create quite a creepy atmosphere, as if the people are frozen in time and this was a possible idea to do with the collection.
The part I liked the most was in the final room where we were left to look through the drawers of the collection ourselves. One drawer was full of silhouette paintings which initially gave me the idea of having a shadow puppet erformance. I thought this could tie in with my personal puppet project and would be a good way of entertaining adults and children while also giving the chance to explain the backstory to the Mary Greg collection.
Overall, I really enjoyed the trip to Platt Hall as it was an oppotunity that not many people get, to be up close and personal with such a large collection. The trip really inspired me to create ideas for the event and I am now raring to go with the rest of the project.
Thursday 11 November 2010
Glossop/Wittgenstein Project
Towards the end of the second term, Interactive Arts will be taking a trip to Glossop to fly kites that we will already have made and also put on performances in a local pub, all derived from the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein who worked at a kite flying centre in Glossop. For my first personal project I have decided to create a film and performance based on Wittgenstein's philosophies and using my own interest in stage puppets which is something I already wanted to explore.
This will hopefully become quite a large project, as eventually I would like to become an art director in films so I am looking at this project from that angle to create a lot of atmosphere and eeriness. The puppets will only be my starting point and will really act as props to the entire project. To start the project, I took a book on Wittgenstein from the library I work at that explains his ideas in simple terms. From the talk we were given by Michael Howard in university I knew that I wanted to explore Wittgenstein's ideas of the mystical more than anything else. It initially took quite a while to decipher any meaning from his sayings but I eventually found some quotes from Wittgenstein's book 'Tractatus' that helped steer my project. The first was:
"6.522 There are, indeed, things that cannot be put into words. They make themselves manifest. They are what is mystical."
and
"6.44 It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists."
I interpreted the second quote to mean that the very fact that things are in the world is an amazing thing and we should look more closely at what is here. I then got the idea to have my 'puppet show' focus on the ordinary versus the extraordinary.
For example, my first prototype is to make a horse puppet which in the film would have wings shadows on it and change from the mystical flying Pegasus to an ordinary running horse. I first made a paper version and then a clay model. From this I made plaster casts and am now in the process of making casts from these moulds using papier mache, wax, latex, sugar glass and will upload photographs when they have been assembled. I am making many versions to see which has the best sturdiness and mobility when in puppet form.
I will also be thinking of other segments to feature in the film such as the simple growing of a plant versus the sprouting of a beanstalk, the birth of a baby versus the creation of a monster etc. Because this will be rather a large project and I tend to want to move onto trying other forms of art after a while I will incorporate animation, painting and drawing in the project as part of the film and also as side projects for myself.
Running alongside the film I also want to have a puppet performance of the birth of a bird. Originally, I wanted it to be a Phoenix but now my idea is simple to have a large bird puppet that will slowly hatch and against the film it will hopefully mystical and slightly creepy on it's own.
This will hopefully become quite a large project, as eventually I would like to become an art director in films so I am looking at this project from that angle to create a lot of atmosphere and eeriness. The puppets will only be my starting point and will really act as props to the entire project. To start the project, I took a book on Wittgenstein from the library I work at that explains his ideas in simple terms. From the talk we were given by Michael Howard in university I knew that I wanted to explore Wittgenstein's ideas of the mystical more than anything else. It initially took quite a while to decipher any meaning from his sayings but I eventually found some quotes from Wittgenstein's book 'Tractatus' that helped steer my project. The first was:
"6.522 There are, indeed, things that cannot be put into words. They make themselves manifest. They are what is mystical."
and
"6.44 It is not how things are in the world that is mystical, but that it exists."
I interpreted the second quote to mean that the very fact that things are in the world is an amazing thing and we should look more closely at what is here. I then got the idea to have my 'puppet show' focus on the ordinary versus the extraordinary.
For example, my first prototype is to make a horse puppet which in the film would have wings shadows on it and change from the mystical flying Pegasus to an ordinary running horse. I first made a paper version and then a clay model. From this I made plaster casts and am now in the process of making casts from these moulds using papier mache, wax, latex, sugar glass and will upload photographs when they have been assembled. I am making many versions to see which has the best sturdiness and mobility when in puppet form.
I will also be thinking of other segments to feature in the film such as the simple growing of a plant versus the sprouting of a beanstalk, the birth of a baby versus the creation of a monster etc. Because this will be rather a large project and I tend to want to move onto trying other forms of art after a while I will incorporate animation, painting and drawing in the project as part of the film and also as side projects for myself.
Running alongside the film I also want to have a puppet performance of the birth of a bird. Originally, I wanted it to be a Phoenix but now my idea is simple to have a large bird puppet that will slowly hatch and against the film it will hopefully mystical and slightly creepy on it's own.
Monday 8 November 2010
Liverpool Biennial
A University trip was organised to go visit the Liverpool Biennial on 21st October. We started this trip by having a quick stop and look at 'Turning the Place Over' by Richard Wilson which I really enjoyed. I thought that it was so interesting because it was new. It's rare to find something that actually amazes these days and especially just in the backstreet of a city so I was impressed so much more money was put into public art an it should be done more often as I think it gets people interested in art which is important when so many cuts to the art industry are being made.
When we got off the coach we went to the Walker Gallery to have a look at the John Moores Competition. I was at first surprised to find a black gloss painting exactly like the ones I saw at the NeoArtist's studio and yet this was painted by Michael Miller and titled 'Suspended Animation' while the NeoArtist was called Jason Simpson.
In contrast to Nicholas Middleton's piece I thought this was a much more modern, and loose, way of painting as this is treated more as a sculpture. I liked this because it makes the canvas part of the 'painting' rather tha just being a surface or a means to an end.
From the Walker Gallery we then went down to the Information Centre which had 3 floors which were quite a mixed bag. The piece I liked the most was The Mending Project by Lee Mingwei. This was where people would bring in ripped or damaged clothing and it would be mened by 14 volunteers. The thread used to mend the item is still attached to its spool which is then fixed to the wall. This piece was interesting because it involved lots of different people, from the donaters to the menders. I also like how the clothes are real people's so they all have their own history i.e. who wore them, how they were damaged etc.
Another highlight of the Biennial was Tehching Hsieh's 'One Year performance' which was a series of photos of the artist as he punched in a time sheet on the hour, every day for a year. he didn't cut his hair in the whole year so throughout the photographs you can see his hair gradually growing from shaved down to his shoulders. I admire the sheer perseverance that Hsieng displays and how fully he involves himself in his art.
Finally, I visited the A Foundation 'Bloomberg Contemporaries.' The piece that stood out the most for me was the 2D animation by Kristian de la Riva, 'Cut, 2009.' This was a simple line drawing animation that had a male figure hurting himself in various way such as cutting off his fingers and knee caps. This piece stood out to me the most becasue of the reaction that it created from me and everyone else around. It gathered quite a large audience and everyone was squealing at what was happening, despite the fact there wasn't any detail or colour in the animation. I think that any art work that can create such a strong reaction deserves some merit and I think that the fact that the artist didn't resort to full on gore and detail is even better on it's part.
When we got off the coach we went to the Walker Gallery to have a look at the John Moores Competition. I was at first surprised to find a black gloss painting exactly like the ones I saw at the NeoArtist's studio and yet this was painted by Michael Miller and titled 'Suspended Animation' while the NeoArtist was called Jason Simpson.
Other paintings that caught my attention were 'Protest, 1st April 2009' by Nicholas Middleton.
I liked this painting becasue of the amazing detail and also because it tells a story from a moment in recent history. I liked this because it reminded me of th oil paintings from years ago that were used as social commentaries and also as recording key moments in history, which is a way of using art that has been lost because of all the new technology.
I also really liked Adam Fearon's 'Untitled.'
From the Walker Gallery we then went down to the Information Centre which had 3 floors which were quite a mixed bag. The piece I liked the most was The Mending Project by Lee Mingwei. This was where people would bring in ripped or damaged clothing and it would be mened by 14 volunteers. The thread used to mend the item is still attached to its spool which is then fixed to the wall. This piece was interesting because it involved lots of different people, from the donaters to the menders. I also like how the clothes are real people's so they all have their own history i.e. who wore them, how they were damaged etc.
Another highlight of the Biennial was Tehching Hsieh's 'One Year performance' which was a series of photos of the artist as he punched in a time sheet on the hour, every day for a year. he didn't cut his hair in the whole year so throughout the photographs you can see his hair gradually growing from shaved down to his shoulders. I admire the sheer perseverance that Hsieng displays and how fully he involves himself in his art.
Finally, I visited the A Foundation 'Bloomberg Contemporaries.' The piece that stood out the most for me was the 2D animation by Kristian de la Riva, 'Cut, 2009.' This was a simple line drawing animation that had a male figure hurting himself in various way such as cutting off his fingers and knee caps. This piece stood out to me the most becasue of the reaction that it created from me and everyone else around. It gathered quite a large audience and everyone was squealing at what was happening, despite the fact there wasn't any detail or colour in the animation. I think that any art work that can create such a strong reaction deserves some merit and I think that the fact that the artist didn't resort to full on gore and detail is even better on it's part.
Tuesday 2 November 2010
NeoArtists - Bolton
I work, on a casual basis, at Bury Art Gallery and Museum wheres some staff have set up a creative collective for people to meet, interact and share ideas which I was invited to. On Monday 18th October we visited the NeoArtist's studios in Bolton.
The NeoArtists are their own collective who have their own studio spaces that people pay to use and have facilities such as screen printing (with a machine taken from MMU mind!) and plastering. The group also hold group exhibitions and put on workshops around schools.
On the Monday we not only visited the studios but had a look around the exhibitions the group had in Bolton at the moment. The work was mainly painting and the work that interested me most was by one artist who used only black gloss paint. With the work in the gallery it was a curved canvas, curved around a corner, covered in black gloss paint with the paint then dripping down the wall and hitting the floor and skirting board. I not only liked the fact that the gloss paint looked like it had it's own elasticity but also that the piece was done in the gallery space which I think changes the relationship between the gallery and work as usually the gallery is merely a space for the work but here it is part of the work. Obviously, this is easier done as the space that the piece was exhibited is owned by the NeoArtists. In fact the whole gallery space was used in such a way with the exhibition title being 'Source' and the artists were looking at the ways that work occupies it's space.
When visiting the studios I later saw more work by the same artist, again working with black gloss paint where he had experimented with how the paint can manipulated...dripped, stretched etc. One piece I liked was a big map that worked like a jigsaw, which was sheets of MDF stuck together, the edges sanded into a curve and then covered in black gloss paint which gave it a very smooth and finished look. At first, I thought it was all made from plastic so I was impressed by the sleek, professional finish that the paint gave it and I would like to work with gloss at some point in my projects.
As usual, I forgot to take a camera but some photos were taken to prove I was there, and despite my face I had a good time...
The NeoArtists are their own collective who have their own studio spaces that people pay to use and have facilities such as screen printing (with a machine taken from MMU mind!) and plastering. The group also hold group exhibitions and put on workshops around schools.
On the Monday we not only visited the studios but had a look around the exhibitions the group had in Bolton at the moment. The work was mainly painting and the work that interested me most was by one artist who used only black gloss paint. With the work in the gallery it was a curved canvas, curved around a corner, covered in black gloss paint with the paint then dripping down the wall and hitting the floor and skirting board. I not only liked the fact that the gloss paint looked like it had it's own elasticity but also that the piece was done in the gallery space which I think changes the relationship between the gallery and work as usually the gallery is merely a space for the work but here it is part of the work. Obviously, this is easier done as the space that the piece was exhibited is owned by the NeoArtists. In fact the whole gallery space was used in such a way with the exhibition title being 'Source' and the artists were looking at the ways that work occupies it's space.
When visiting the studios I later saw more work by the same artist, again working with black gloss paint where he had experimented with how the paint can manipulated...dripped, stretched etc. One piece I liked was a big map that worked like a jigsaw, which was sheets of MDF stuck together, the edges sanded into a curve and then covered in black gloss paint which gave it a very smooth and finished look. At first, I thought it was all made from plastic so I was impressed by the sleek, professional finish that the paint gave it and I would like to work with gloss at some point in my projects.
As usual, I forgot to take a camera but some photos were taken to prove I was there, and despite my face I had a good time...
Wednesday 13 October 2010
Recorders - Manchester Art Gallery Exhibition
'Recorders' is the current temporary exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer running from 18th September 2010 - 30th January 2011. It's an interactive exhibition that requires the audience to get involved with the pieces for them to work and the pieces in turn react to the participants. For example, one piece, 'Microphones 2008,' is a set of old style microphones placed in a circle so that people can record a message. When the message is recorded, then the previous participants message is replayed to you so the next time someone records a message yours is the played back. The piece can hold up to 600,000 voices and is designed to be playing back echos of the past, capturing people's moments in time, when they recorded the moment.
Another piece that I liked from the show was 'Pulse Index 2010,' which was a machine where a person places their finger in a hole and their fingerprint is recorded and played back on a screen along with all of the other participants. I liked the interactivity of it and also seeing the intricacy of my own fingerprint, something I have never seen in such detail before, and also the stark contrasts between other people's fingerprints with my own. The idea of exploring everyone's individuality and then having it stored into a uniformed system was an idea that I found really interesting.
The last piece that really interested me was 'Pulse Room 2006' which is a black room filled with lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling. A person then hold on to two metal bars, like an electric shock machine, and then keeps their grip for up to a minute. When they release their hands the lightbulbs briefly turn off and when they come back on the lightbulb closest to you begins got flash along to your pulse. Everytime a person records their pulse, yours moves across one, keeping one hundred participants pulsing at a time. I liked this because made something invisible into something real and more solid, moving it form something you feel and sometimes hear (a heartbeat) into something you can see. It's like capturing a heart or even spirit and digitizing it and preserving it, and living with 99 other flashing pulses which when in the room almost resemble stars.
Lozano-Hemmer's work brings audience participation and interactivity into a new digital age and the fact that the artwork doesn't work without an audience makes it even more interesting. Although I would rather work in a more traditional way it has made me think more about how thinks affect an audience, how to involve an audience and how to stage things in the best way for the audience for a performance piece I would like to work on soon.
The last piece that really interested me was 'Pulse Room 2006' which is a black room filled with lightbulbs hanging from the ceiling. A person then hold on to two metal bars, like an electric shock machine, and then keeps their grip for up to a minute. When they release their hands the lightbulbs briefly turn off and when they come back on the lightbulb closest to you begins got flash along to your pulse. Everytime a person records their pulse, yours moves across one, keeping one hundred participants pulsing at a time. I liked this because made something invisible into something real and more solid, moving it form something you feel and sometimes hear (a heartbeat) into something you can see. It's like capturing a heart or even spirit and digitizing it and preserving it, and living with 99 other flashing pulses which when in the room almost resemble stars.
Lozano-Hemmer's work brings audience participation and interactivity into a new digital age and the fact that the artwork doesn't work without an audience makes it even more interesting. Although I would rather work in a more traditional way it has made me think more about how thinks affect an audience, how to involve an audience and how to stage things in the best way for the audience for a performance piece I would like to work on soon.
Video Project - Miseryyyyyyyy
For the second week of the Interactive Arts course, and for our second group project, we were set the challenge of creating a 'sweded' film. A sweded film is a low budget production of a film condensed into around two minutes and usually a funnier version. I was in a group with Kirsty (who was in my party project group), Amy and Yasmine and our film was 'Misery.' I was the only member of the group who had seen the film and couldn't remember much so we began by watching most of it on Youtube picking out the key parts. We then gave each other roles to do as in creating a certain prop or finding objects of use. We decided to go down a comic book style route 1) to make prop creating easier as we they didn't have to be truly realistic; 2) so we didn't have to talk on camera as the audio is often fuzzy (we used speech bubbles on camera); 3) to make it more comedic.
The next day we met again at 10 and used the morning to storyboard and refine our ideas so we could get straight on with filming and in the afternoon we took on the filming at Amy's hall's flat which was the setting for the main bedroom. Originally, I was to play the James Caan role of the writer with Yasmine being Kathy Bates' psycho roel, however, at the last minute Yasmine had to take her boyfriend to hospital so Kirsty had to step in so the performance's are not meant to be great and weren't very prepared.
Editing took place the next day, which took 6 hours to complete as we had a lot of ideas to include, such as a staged car crash with a toy car and fight scenes and we also layered in sound bites from the film, sound effects and background music. We did get confused by the timing on the Final Cut Pro software and thought our footage only hit 1 min 5 secs but when screening it, it turned out to be 6 minutes so it was longer than we would have liked.
Overall, I thought the project went really well. It was fun to take part in, I relearnt editing techniques I had forgotten and the final product makes me laugh so because of that I preferred this project to the party project.
Monday 11 October 2010
Book Work
As I have said in my first post, I have worked from books before and thought I would put up a few sample from my Wuthering Heights project on the Foundation course last year.
This was a corset I began as a strand of my project looking at the idea of dresses representing the ghost of a person. I was looking at the paper dresses of Isabella de Borchgrave and wanted to create a grand paper dress that was mangled and worn to represent the Wuthering Heights character of Cathy, the wild and passionate main female role. The corset was made by image transferring a photocopy of a flower paper cutting I had done on to white fabric. I then padded the fabric and stitched around the black lines to create texture to the piece. I then burnt the chest area to show her intense passion and decorated the rim with paper roses, thorns and leaves. In the end it was deemed to complicated and I was encouraged to focus on a more simple method, however, I still like this piece and it is an avenue I would like to further explore in the future.
I also looked at, in the same project, paper flowers. I chose flowers as they were the best symbol of life (folloing the life of Cathy), and romance as well as wild abandon. SPOILERS... Because Cathy dies in the book after going slightly mad I looked at the decaying of flowers and this paper rose had its petals cut up and suspended from wires to look like they are rotting away. This is partly inspired by the Su Blackwell piece 'While You Were Sleeping' which was also an inspiration for the above paper dress idea....
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| While You Were Sleeping - Su Blackwell |
Thursday 7 October 2010
Party Project
For the first week of the Interactive Arts course we were put into mixed 1st and 2nd year groups and our theme was to do a party on 'Something We All Dislike.' Our initial idea was to do a darkness, as this is generally a dislike of people and with this idea we would hold our party in the darkroom and focus on the senses with things hanging from the ceiling and blindfolding people, however, the darkroom was already taken so we had to rethink.
While discussing our dislikes, the Pope came up as a topic as he had recently been ion the media for his controversial visit to Britain, amid reports of security costs and sexual abuse claims. We all agreed we were not fans of the Pope, some to varying degrees and the ideas came thick and fast such as having a female Pope and bringing them in on a trolley as they flick holy water at people. The idea was that the party would poke fun at the position of Pope and the rumours of indecency surrounding him so one idea was to have the Pope run away with the collection plate of money at the end of the party. At the end of the first meeting we were all designated a part, I was to sort the music out which we decided would mix Gregorian chanting with modern hip hop to keep up the satirical theme.
The party was on Thursday 30th September and we came in at 10 to set it up with an altar as the centrepiece which we decorated with red candles, tealights a Bible and various other religious icons. The food and drink of the party were crackers, rice paper and red wine to resemble a holy communion.
We knew that the subject matter of our party was controversial and because of this a complaint was made on the day of the party. Our intention was never to offend anyone or cause controversy for the sake of controversy and we wanted to make it clear it was simply problems we had with the Pope and not an attack on Cathlocism or religion as a whole.
Because of the complaint we did tone down our party and kept it to simply the Pope and Cardinals walking in to the chanting and then 'Ridin'' by Chamillionaire.
Despite the mixed reaction to the party I personally wouldn't have changed it as it is our own expression and I don't think any part of it was or would have been extreme and I personally would not have complained about a party in favour of the Pope. As for our team, I think we all worked well together as we all had the opportunity to have our own input and we all brought our own parts in for the party, rather than some people coasting through it.
While discussing our dislikes, the Pope came up as a topic as he had recently been ion the media for his controversial visit to Britain, amid reports of security costs and sexual abuse claims. We all agreed we were not fans of the Pope, some to varying degrees and the ideas came thick and fast such as having a female Pope and bringing them in on a trolley as they flick holy water at people. The idea was that the party would poke fun at the position of Pope and the rumours of indecency surrounding him so one idea was to have the Pope run away with the collection plate of money at the end of the party. At the end of the first meeting we were all designated a part, I was to sort the music out which we decided would mix Gregorian chanting with modern hip hop to keep up the satirical theme.
The party was on Thursday 30th September and we came in at 10 to set it up with an altar as the centrepiece which we decorated with red candles, tealights a Bible and various other religious icons. The food and drink of the party were crackers, rice paper and red wine to resemble a holy communion.
We knew that the subject matter of our party was controversial and because of this a complaint was made on the day of the party. Our intention was never to offend anyone or cause controversy for the sake of controversy and we wanted to make it clear it was simply problems we had with the Pope and not an attack on Cathlocism or religion as a whole.
Because of the complaint we did tone down our party and kept it to simply the Pope and Cardinals walking in to the chanting and then 'Ridin'' by Chamillionaire.
Despite the mixed reaction to the party I personally wouldn't have changed it as it is our own expression and I don't think any part of it was or would have been extreme and I personally would not have complained about a party in favour of the Pope. As for our team, I think we all worked well together as we all had the opportunity to have our own input and we all brought our own parts in for the party, rather than some people coasting through it.
Sunday 3 October 2010
My First Post - Summer Project
This is my first ever blog post so please bear with me.
Over the summer we were set a project to start the Interactive Arts course at MMU, to create a game that could be played by 6 players and had to reflect our interests and show an element of creativity. I struggled. So instead of thinking of a game I thought of what interested me so, having done worked based on books before, I decided to base my game on 'The Wizard of Oz' as the theme of a quest or challenge ran through lots of games I researched.
Front Cover Carving
Because of this I could then base the game on events that happen through the book. I chose the key moments:
Over the summer we were set a project to start the Interactive Arts course at MMU, to create a game that could be played by 6 players and had to reflect our interests and show an element of creativity. I struggled. So instead of thinking of a game I thought of what interested me so, having done worked based on books before, I decided to base my game on 'The Wizard of Oz' as the theme of a quest or challenge ran through lots of games I researched.
Because of this I could then base the game on events that happen through the book. I chose the key moments:
- The Twister in Kansas (anagrams);
- Landing in Munchkinland (pairs);
- The Yellow Brick Road (tiddly winks);
- The Emerald City (trivia);
- The Wicked Witch of the West (throwing).
Pages from the game and counters
For the players to win, because it wasn't like a board game I made Oz Balls (green salt dough balls) that the players would collect through each game and also made pouches from brown felt to keep the balls in.
When we played the game I thought it went quite well but more thought could have been put into the games to make them more stimulating to play but admittedly I thought more about the look of the game than the game itself.
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