1st-6th December - Film Week 2

1st December

Joey, Nathaniel and myself came into Ravensbourne to plan as best as we could for the next day of filming. We first finalised our grid of obstacles, before continuing on to working on the storyboard. I need to develop my skills in storyboarding and planning, as I have found out from this project. Once we had completely finished the story on our storyboard, we created a shot plan for the next day of shooting, which we were also going to use as a log sheet for our file names.

2nd December

This was the day we filmed, before coming in to university for class. Things started going badly straight away, with everyone running at least somewhat late. By the time we had everyone together at last and we were ready to shoot, we were three hours through our six hour shooting schedule. This is when we began to panic, and our shoot almost completely fell apart in my opinion. Through this panic, we ended up with quite a few more problems. The first being our sound recordings where completely useless, as we hadn't set up the sound recorder correctly. Our sound recordings ended up being too quiet to be used. The next problem was our lighting, we didn't have enough time to sort out the lighting properly, nor did we think about this in the planning stage, so we did not think about hiring out any extra lighting/spot lighting. After this we forgot to film the scenes all the way through, creating cuts throughout whilst filming, this caused our editing to become really difficult. During this shoot, I gave my opinion on some of the shots, but I was predominantly acting for this.
After we had finally finished, with a very close call, we went to uni. When we were here we began to edit things together, this is when we discovered we really needed to work on planning and filming properly.

4th December

During this class, we focused on finishing the edit. My job through the editing was to try and fix some of the sound, because we had to use the camera audio, and to try and make the images look a little nicer with some colour correction.

6th December

For this crit, we received a lot of feedback. Most of the feedback we had already worked out from our experiences with filming and editing, but it was really welcomed and helpful.

Film Project - The Chase - 25th-29th November - Week 1

25th November

We were introduced to the brief during this class. We then started learning techniques for story development and narrative in film. This included learning theory about moral premise and story premise. I found this class really interesting, as it took a lot of thinking and getting my head round learning how the moral premise and story premise work, and how they are used to help develop the story in film.

27th November

We began working on our ideas for story, developing them on our own at first, before merging into a group to pick an idea together. We then developed this chosen idea together. Our idea was about a transgender person, attempting to hide this from their friend, before having to reveal it at the end. We went through quite a few different ideas developed from this in this session. During this class we also watched a couple of short films, discussing the way the narrative and moral premise worked in them.

29th November

After developing our ideas a bit further, we were introduced to the more technical parts of filming the actual piece. The things we were taught about included the 180 and the 30 degree rule. We struggled with idea development, trying to get the three-obstacle table we were given filled. We couldn't quite figure out the best idea that was actually doable within the week we had left to film and edit.

Sound Journey Project - 18th-22nd November - Week 2

18th & 20th November

Both of these days were spent compiling sounds and editing our final pieces. I struggled quite a lot with finding sounds for mine, but ended up being happy with the sounds I ended up with. Other things that were included at this time was researching sound in film, by watching sounds. An example of one of the films I watched was Mulholland Drive directed by David Lynch.

22nd November - Crit

My final piece was a soundscape, that was based in a space station before an attack. Although I was happy technically with my piece, I found the actual idea disappointing as a final piece. It didn't quite fit the brief with the fact that the idea of Sound Journey wasn't portrayed dramatically enough in my opinion. After talking with Kat, I decided that a good route of choice, instead of completely starting again, would be to start the piece with a more serene feel to it, so that the change in tone is much more sudden and startling. Using this feedback I plan to develop my idea further, before finally accepting it as my final piece.

Sound Journey Project - 11th-15th November - Week 1

11th November

I was away for this class, however, through doing catch up, I found that we learnt about diegetic and non-diegetic sounds and their roles in visual media.

Diegetic sound is sound that is present in the scene, that is created by something you can see. Examples of this include:

• Dialogue
• Music from instruments seen in the visuals
• Sounds created by objects in the scene

Non-diegetic sounds are things like:

• Background music, to create a certain mood perhaps
• Narrators commentary
• Extra sound effects added for dramatic effect.

The project was then briefed, we had to create a sound journey as a soundscape, or create a sound design to fit with our own animation or an existing video clip. This sound design has to be around 1 minute in length.

13th November

During this class we learnt about the technical aspects of the project. We learnt about audio principles, and other things such as commonly used microphones and common polar patterns. This is also the first class that we were able to get to know how to use recorders. Throughout the class we were asked to go and find sounds to record, either to be used as sounds of what they are, or to be used to represent different objects or situations.

I found this exercise really interesting, as it led me to think about how sounds could be changed, to represent something else entirely when you hear it.

15th November

When we first arrived, we started by working on development of ideas for our soundscapes. I ended up choosing to do mine without visuals, within a space station. 

This class was also the introduction class to using Audition. I have previous experience with using Ableton Live as sound software, so I found getting to grips with Audition was nice and simple. This was predominantly due to finding it much more user friendly and intuitive then Ableton.

The rest of the class was spent using recorders to continue finding sound for our ideas, and starting to compile sounds for our final pieces.

Animation- Week Two - 4th November-8th November

4th & 6th November

During these days I worked on creating my background images for my final animation.

This was a longer process than I had hoped, due to me trying to get everything to look how I wanted it to, and then using the fineliners to complete the images. 

7th November/50 word review

Today I spent the day working on and finishing my animation.

The first thing I created was the animation itself, which I made in After Effects. After using After Effects for a while I started to get used to how to use it and found it quite simple after a while to completely finish it. Some of the timings are not quite right, as my PC was not running the footage in completely real time, which I'm not too happy with, but overall, I am happy with how it turned out, considering it was my first time using the software. After I had completed the animation part of the video, I exported it and put it into Premiere, so that I could add sound, as I couldn't work out how to input sound properly in After Effects. I found this project really interesting, as I got to work with new software, and think more into story worlds and developing ideas than I have before. 

8th November

During this class I worked on finalising my animation, and making sure it played correctly, and then made sure all my files had been kept in the correct places and were all in the same place.

Overall I am happy with this project, even with the animation being so simple, as it enabled me to grasp the basics of After Effects, something I would like to work with more in the future. Unfortunately, during the crit, I received no feedback on my piece, apart from that people enjoyed it, especially how the end was ridiculous. Personally I think that the narrative if expressed well, through the simplicity of the images and the story itself. The images get the point across and the sound enables you to follow the story easily.

Animation - Week 1 - 28th October-1st November

28th October

Today we focused on learning the basics of stop motion animation, and for this we were using iStopMotion. I had already used the software previously, so it was good to get reacquainted with it and the concept of stop motion. I worked with Julia and Joey to create a short title sequence using it.

Throughout the video we messed around with more and less frames for each name, which shows in the way the names appear faster each time.

30th October

During this class we were taught the basics of After Effects, which would enable us to be able to use the software for our final piece, using the concepts involved. We, again, made a simple title sequence using our names.

1st November

During this session I worked on brainstorming my idea fully, and then translating this into a storyboard for my final idea. I had a lot of trouble picking the style I wanted to use, as I liked the different ones I had in my head for the idea. The inspiration for two of my concepts can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=25SP4ftxklg which is The Adventures of Prince Achmed, an animation that looks like shadow puppets, and here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3j_A1s2NDU which is Bloom, a stop motion 3D animation, with the entire world created in the real world.

Photography Crit- 25/10/2014

This critique was really useful for me, not just for helping with my final piece for this project. I found that through all the feedback given to others, that research is incredibly important to working on these projects, no matter what you are doing. The feedback I received for my piece was about how I could have added more shadows into the piece, along with some feedback on my presenting, which was that I could have presenting one of the images as an example from the photoshoot I didn't like as much. However, I feel happy that I got a good response from people about my image, and that it did mostly portray what I had hoped. What I have definitely learnt for next time however, is to plan much more, and also to learn how to edit the images, to create the exact mood I am going for.

Photography- Week Two

20/10/2014

Today was the day that I went out and completed my photoshoots. I had one during the day, in locations local to my house, which was a photoshoot where I hadn't really planned out locations very well, so it contained a lot of walking around trying to find locations to shoot in. However, personally, I like this photoshoots turn out more than the one I did later on, even though it could have been greatly improved by properly planning out all the locations.

The later shoot was planned out to be with the graffiti, at night, taken in Shoreditch. Although the photos look good, they don't look like what I was really going for, and I personally do not like them as much as I like the ones taken in daylight. However, overall for the two photoshoots I am very happy with them, because I had never worked with models before, much prefering to take landscape photographs, and I had also never worked during night, so working in the darker environment was also a challenge.

21/10/2014-23/10/2014

On Tuesday, we had a group discussion to give feedback about what everyone had done so far. Using this feedback I ended up changing which piece I was going to use as my final piece, so I found this really useful. After this, for the rest of the class time we had I concentrated on editing my images, and deciding how I was going to present on the Saturday.

Photography- Week One

14/10/2014

Today we were introduced to photography and our brief for the project. We were introduced to the principals of photography, such as the ISO, apeture and the shutter speed. After we had been introduced to these, so that the whole class was on the same level, we started looking at things that inspired us, to begin our research for the project. The two things I chose to start with were a couple of music videos from the 90's that I really like the imagery from. The first was Sex and Candy by Marcy Playground (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-KT-r2vHeMM), the second, Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mbBbFH9fAg). The two videos are quite contrasting, but left me with some ideas for what I was to go ahead with for my project.

16/10/2014

Today I continued with my research, looking at further imagery to fit with the first two videos I had chosen to look at. I decided, from this research, to create two contrasting photoshoots, to see which one I personally liked the most, and to use for the final works in my project. One photoshoot would be a more, moody and darker photoshoot, the other, more in your face and colourful.

18/10/2014

Whilst continuing plans for my photoshoots, we also learnt how to use studio lights properly today, so that we could use them as a flash. This was really interesting, especially seeing the contrast in using them against a white wall and then changing again to work against a black wall. Unfortunately, I don't plan to use these in my photoshoots however, as I plan to shoot on location in existing lights.

7-11/10/14

In this week, we have focused on our essay, Is the future of exhibitions digital?
In the first session on the 7th, we concentrated on our introduction, and what that would involve. I found that I felt quite confident after finishing my introduction personally. I am never quite sure how to go about writing essays, so having the help from start to finish, really boosted my confidence about writing this.
During Thursday's session, we worked on how to create the main body. A large part of the session was focused on how to do Harvard Referencing. I still can't remember exactly what I am doing when writing the essay, so having all the forms of Harvard Referencing in our handbook was extremely helpful, as I could use it to look at when writing my essay, so that I knew I was doing it correctly.
On Saturday, we focused on conclusions, and how to finish our essays. This was a bit difficult at first as I had none of my main body of the essay completed, so I focused on writing at least a small bit of my essay before beginning the conclusion. We also had peer reviews during this session, enabling us to get some feedback on our essays, whatever stage we had reached in them. This was useful, as having someone else being able to give you constructive feedback, is always able to help you improve on the work you have done.
My essay has a large focus on Pinterest, and how this is used by galleries and museums to showcase exhibitions that they are showing, or have previously shown.

During the self-directed study section of this day, we had a small workshop on writing our blogs. The main focus of this was reflective writing as well as giving and receiving constructive feedback, I found this helpful, as a lot of my blog posts are quite short, and could do with some improvement. To tackle this I am trying to put in more reflective thoughts about the sessions and work I am doing.

4/10/14

We visited the Tate Britain today. I have to admit I could't really find anyway of properly engaging in the majority of this gallery, as it is a gallery mainly full of fine art. Although I can appreciate the skill in fine art, as it is amazing, I just don't enjoy it as much. I wrote my review on the 'Dock' exhibition, by Phylida Barlow.

After visiting the Tate Britain, the exhibition that most appealed to me personally was the commission by Phylida Barlow in the Duveen Galleries, 'Dock'. The mere scale of these pieces is what hit me straight away when I first walked through the archway to the Duveen Galleries. They are huge pieces, filling the entire space of the halls they are housed in. You notice when you are looking at these pieces that they are made from incredibly basic materials, such as cardboard and wood. Another thing I liked about this exhibition was that instead of sticking with the natural colours of the materials originally used, there was a lot of colour added in, especially with the tube piece, which was covered in coloured tapes, whilst the rest of it was only made externally with cardboard. The main reason these pieces attracted me however, was the way they looked to me, which was that they portrayed an image of destruction and chaos, instead of an exhibition full of neatly put together pieces. I liked the feeling this gave, as it contrasted to the rest of the gallery in my opinion, with most of the rest of the pieces in the gallery having more connection with the fine arts. Another part that I liked about this piece, was there was a small amount of interactivity to it, with people looking through parts of it, and into others, getting different perspectives of the pieces. For example, with the first piece you see when you walk in, the one with all the suspended, broken boxes, people were walking around it, as well as under it, and looking into the boxes that had holes in them, showing a curiosity to what was inside these destroyed items. Overall I really enjoyed seeing this exhibition, mainly because of how different it was to the rest of the gallery, where nothing much else really caught my eye.

30/09/14 - 2/10/14

Tuesday-
In this session, we had a few different topics. The first of these was a talk on how to improve and use our sketchbooks. I found this particularly helpful, mainly because so far my sketchbook feels more like a notebook, rather than something that actually expresses me and how I work. I plan on working hard to turn my sketchbook into something that actually does represent me and how I work rather than just something that looks generic and boring, and only contains things I have noted down in class and have been asked to do.
The second part of this class contained the remaining presentations from the previous session on presenting. This was just as interesting as the previous presentations, as we were able to learn more about the people who hadn't had the chance to present previously.
The last part of this class was going through how to get the most out of an exhibition, and how to go about writing a review of an exhibition. It was really helpful, as I have never really enjoyed exhibitions, and have always struggled to interact with them, but have started to develop an interest in looking for more exhibitions that would interest me more, so I could use exhibitions as something extra to draw inspiration from.

 Thursday-
In this session we worked on more ways to look into exhibitions, and what a curator might be thinking about when they are creating these exhibitions. We created brainstorms in groups, such as what stories they might try and tell, and how they might go about telling these stories.

Comparison Writing Piece - 1997

In 1997, a lot of interesting pieces of art were released, this includes the pieces I have chosen, which come from German artists. The first thing I have chosen is a series of photos taken for the cover of the album 'Sehnsucht' by Rammstein. This series of images is by Gottfried Helnwein, and involves a picture for each member of the band. The second is the music video for Du Hast, a song off of this same album, directed by Phillip Stölzl.

The first items I will focus on are the series of images, created for the fold-out album art for the 'Sehnsucht' album. In each image it shows the member of the band with some kind of face mutilation, using some kind of metal contraption, such as one of Schneider with his mouth clamped open with metal. 'The cover most commonly seen features Till Lindemann with a muzzle and odd metal objects blocking his view, as they are placed over his eyes.' (No Author, http://www.helnwein.com, No date) These images are dark, and have a horror theme to them. The second, the video for Du Hast, is a music video, with the imagery and story based on Reservoir Dogs, the film directed by Quentin Tarantino.

In both of these pieces, the styles are pretty similar, both being a neutral and dark palette, with gritty, almost horrific images. The photography is much more along the horror path, however, the masks in the music video have an aura of creepiness about them, by obscuring the upper two thirds of the band members faces in the first set of clips we see them in. There is a theme of dark colours running through the two pieces, the only breaks seeming to be pinks and reds in both of these. This gives a gritty feel to them, with the photographs taking it further into darkness by the photoset. The music video uses this to work around the model of the Reservoir Dogs movie, using a similar kind of palette and uses of cinematography.

During the music video we see the character played by the camera view get beaten, which you assume is to near death, considering the explosion of the containing building in the end of this video. This relates to the set of pictures through the imagery of violence, shown through the mutilation of the faces of the band members, although it is shown much more obviously in the the set of photos.

The first few shots at the beginning of this music video expose the end of the video, showing the remains of the explosion, you can see the shattered glass, and shows the shoes of the woman we see left by the car before it is blown up. The way this is presented is a lot less 'in-your-face' when compared to the photos taken for the album.

Overall, both of these artworks are running along a similar stream of ideas, due to them being created for and starring the same band. The both have the creepiness and both of them have a dark, some would say unpleasant feel about them.

 

 

Bibliography

No author, no date. 

Available at: http://www.helnwein.com/news/news_update/article_310-RAMMSTEIN-album-Sehnsucht-is-released-with-six-different-covers-by-Gottfried-Helnwein-RAMMSTEIN-album-Sehnsucht-is-released-with-six-different-covers-by-Gottfried-Helnwein;jsessionid=AF4EA67113F08D7E830E72BDA22CE720 (Accessed 30/09/2014)

27/9/14

In todays class, we worked on learning more software skills. We learnt a few skills on Illustrator and InDesign, to piece together our final piece for this assignment.

I am really happy with my final design, I aimed to create a poster that resembled a movie poster, about when I went to San Francisco. After playing around in photoshop for ages, with different designs for the image, I settled on the one you see as a final image, instead of choosing a full background image. I used illustrator to create the header graphics, using an image within the the text itself to create the effect you can see above.  Overall I'm really pleased with how this turned out, being my first time using InDesign and never really having used Illustrator before either.

25/9/14

In this class, we worked on presentation skills. We hadto present for two minutes each, on two different images of our choosing, regarding an artwork that has inspired us. This artwork could be a film, a fashion show, or from any other pathway that we are particularly interested in. I chose a still from the film 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' directed Terry Gilliam and from the TV show 'Twin Peaks' directed by David Lynch.
I liked being able to present for a short time, as there was a lot less time for me to ramble and go onto tangents, as well as being able to know what I was going to say a lot better, without taking odd pauses.

23/04/14

In this workshop we were introduced to the final assignment for this project, a piece of critical writing comparing two artworks from the same year. First though, we had to write a reflective piece on something that inspires us personally. This could influence the year we choose for our critical piece, by using it as one of the artworks, or it could be a completely separate entity with no relationship to the final assignment. I have decided to link mine in with the final assignment, choosing the film 'Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas' as my piece that has inspired me, giving me the year of 1998 to find another artwork to campare it with.

Bill Viola - Martyrs

Bill Viola's piece, The Martyrs, is a piece designed for St. Paul's Cathedral in London, as a permanent exhibit. The piece is four screens, placed vertically together, each showing a looped silent video, which are each just over seven minutes long. They all show 'a person undergoing a highly aestheticized ordeal involving, respectively, earth, air, fire, and water—all captured with sumptuous visual effects and all withstood in serene and saintly forbearance.' (Willis, 2014, http://www.nybooks.com)

These videos are beautiful to look at, watching each model going through a different ordeal, however, resulting in the same conclusion. When you watch these videos, you notice they all end with the same calming result, of them accepting the fate they have been faced with. 'The man doused in water is slowly raised up into the light. The other three just raise their eyes with restful looks on their faces.' (Willis, 2014, http://www.nybooks.com)

The way these videos have been shot, with the lighting and effects just adds to how mesmerizing the images displayed on these screens are. 'Viola is the venerable master of a video art that has long since transcended its own technology. All of his trademarks are on display at St Paul's – ultra slow-mo, cinematic lighting, bodies under extreme pressure, ascending and descending, in motion and at rest, a beautiful use of silver, blue and white against velvety darkness; above all, as direct an appeal to the heart as the mind.' (Cumming, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com)

As you look at these images, you can feel a sense that they fit in well, even surrounded by all the classical religious paintings, they seem to compliment each other, though being at opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to the methods of creation. 'Like the paintings around it, it functions both as a work of art – violent yet graceful – and an object of contemplation.' (Cumming, 2014, http://www.theguardian.com)

Overall, these pieces are amazingly designed, working beautifully within the environment they were created for. 

Bill Viola, Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water), 2014.

Bibliography: 

Willis, Simon (2014), Bill Viola’s Martyrs: Sleek, Glamorous, Empty [Online]

Available at: http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/gallery/2014/jun/20/bill-viola-martyrs-sleek-glamorous-empty/ (Accessed 23/09/14)

Cumming, Laura (2014), Bill Viola: Martyrs review – let the unbelievers come [Online] The Guardian.

Available at: http://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2014/may/25/bill-viola-martyrs-review-let-the-unbelievers-come (Accessed 23/09/14)

Fig. 1, Bill Viola, Martyrs (Earth, Air, Fire, Water), 2014 [Online] http://www.billviola.com/ (Accessed 23/09/14) 

20/9/14

Today we had our first workshop on software skills. In the two Saturday sessions we have, we have to create either a poster, or a book jacket, based on a memory that we have had.
In this session, we concentrated on photoshop skills, I am personally quite happy with the basics of photoshop, having used it in work before, so after completing the three main photoshop tasks, I went onto the extension resources, working on masking and using the pen tool, which I am slowly getting to grips with.
After this we went on to working on drawing out basic design sketches in our sketchbooks, before starting up our document to be used for our final design.
I gathered a few images to be used in my piece, and am still working on finding a texture, or background, to be used on my document to complete the photoshop stages of this design.
My final design is to be designed about my memory of when I went to San Francisco, and I have decided to create a poster of it.

18/9/14

In this workshop, we worked on the structure of reviews, and how to write them. This involves the fact that all reviews have a beginning, middle and end. We identified these sections, and identified the opinions, in two reviews, one of Dorothea Tanning: Web of Dreams written by Freire Barnes and one of Late Turner: Painting Set Free by Chris Waywell.

We then watched a few short videos, giving feedback on them. One was about Richard Mosse and his exhibition 'The Enclave'. This is my written review after seeing the video and a few of his images.

Richard Mosse, an Irish photographer, uses a discontinued military surveillance film, to create the works we see as 'The Enclave'. The first things that hits you when you see these images is the blast of pink, being picked up on the film being used, which registers an invisible spectrum of infra-red light. You look at it as if it is a beautiful landscape, altered to create the colours you see. However, you then realise the true subject of the images, the rebels of the Congo, going through an 'invisible', ongoing battle. The images then become hard-hitting, seeing the faces of these soldiers, almost as if they are staring right at you in some images, through the camera lens. Although you can see the strength and aggressiveness in the poses and faces of these men, you can feel a sense of vulnerability coming from behind it. With the use of the film, previously used in military warfare, that reveals this invisible light, to reveal the warfare that is going on now, unbeknownst to us, is what I find as a really interesting point, and has been worked together in a really clever fashion. This collection of images is a reveal of such a horrible subject, presented in a beautiful way.

16/9/14

Today was the first of our writing workshops. I have to admit now, that I have absolutely no confidence when I am writing, so I am already struggling with getting words out, and thinking of what to write.
We worked on reflective and critical writing. The reflective came first, which I will add to this blog post. This was to be written about a postcard with a piece of art on that we were given. I found this difficult, as I am not very good at explaining how I feel or what I mean about pieces, especially pieces that confuse me, which the piece I was writing on did.
The second is a critical piece of writing I have yet to complete, this involved one of two short films we watched. One of the films was about Martyrs, created by Bill Viola, the second was about a book of Nan Goldin's photography, which sparked a debate throughout the class the instant it had come to an end. Both of these films were created by the Tate, and are available to be viewed on the Tate website.

Reflective:

Fourteen Discs: July 20, 1963 – Patrick Heron

   When looking at this image I feel conflicted, on one hand, I really like the bold colours, and the colours that clash with each other, however, I don't really understand what is going on. I think, by looking at the colours, and trying to visualise them next to a different colour used in the palette, that the chosen colours were deliberate on this image. For example, the reddish-orange works well on this image next to the darker blue, however if you imagine it next to the lighter blue, it doesn't quite look right. I like the different techniques used that contrast with each other, you have addition through the layering of colours, and subtraction from the image by the inscribed circles. Although simple, it is a very bold image, even with the fact that I am still bemused about the meaning behind the piece.

   The artist, Patrick Heron, arranged blocks of pure tint together, in order to create what is described as a 'harmony of form and colour'. I can't personally see the so-called 'harmony' in this image, however I suppose that depends who is looking at it. To me, the colours clash, although they still seem to work well as a palette in some way. I feel that in my opinion, the image is too simple, it doesn't really have any meaning to me more than a piece of art a young child may bring home from a nursery class. I could understand the appeal of hanging it on the wall, as something that looks nice at a glance, with the colours, however, the more I look at it, the more I feel frustrated because I can't find a meaning within it. Overall, I am conflicted in opinion about this piece, as I like it because of the colours, however, not being able to find any meaning or defined subject, even after studying it for a while, puts me off of pieces.

13/9/14

Today we worked on our final pieces, our passports to represent ourselves.

Mine represents my journey through depression, to where I am now. At the beginning, there is a large hole inside the book, and at the end, there isn't one at all, to represent how the depression made me feel empty, and as I got through it, I began to feel more whole again. I was really happy with this piece, because although I am not that confident with my drawing, I feel that I managed to portray what I wanted too well. I love the concept, and how it goes on a journey through my life, showing you what helps to make it better and make me happy, in a way that isn't completely straightforward.
Overall, for my first piece of work, I am extremely happy with it.

11/9/14

So today involved utilising the library. I struggled to find things that related to escape, but then realised, that my project was showing things that made me happy, things that interested me. So here are my images, and the two text excerpts I chose, as well as some simple background as to why I had chosen these images.

 

These first three images show the excerpt from Subculture: The Meaning of Style by Dick Hebdige. This was of interest to me as it is about the punk movement, which is something I really love learning about and looking at, as you will see in further images. The next, as I couldn't choose between them are from Hippie by Barry Miles, which is another about another subculture I really love.

The following images are ones I have chosen for the relation to the subcultures.

 

The rest of my images are from comics, showing a couple of things, entertainment wise, that I enjoy, which are Star Wars, Batman and Watchmen.

 

This last image is an extract that caught my eye from a magazine that was also in the library.

9/9/14

So with this lesson, I had to conquer something I dislike, life drawing. After being told on previous courses that my work is too cartoony, even with the work I put in, I now struggle with having the motivation to complete tasks involving this. I didn't complete my drawing in its entirety within the 15 minutes, however, here is a picture of what I managed to complete.

We also had to be in groups of three, with people we had so far not really interacted with. This then resulted in one person having to interview the model, as a third person, writing down questions and answers from this interaction.

We also had a film showing, which involved these two shorts:
http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2014/08/01/a-new-man/
http://www.shortoftheweek.com/2014/07/30/whole/

I really enjoyed the concept of the 'Whole' short, and became inspired from it. I have used the idea of not being whole within my passport. After watching these shorts, and arriving home, I started properly looking into the ideas for my passport.

A short that really sparked my interest from this research was this one:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6XLcfdkkHQE
It really hit home for me, as I felt that I could remember relating to those exact feelings.

The major word that stood out for me was escape. I have a lot of things that I do that help me, in a way, escape. These include my books, music and films. So my idea was formed. A transitional passport, representing me, from when I was 'empty', and was suffering with depression, to where I am now, having nearly completely overcome it, and feeling 'whole'.

My journey to uni.

My journey into university documented in video and sound.

6/9/14

We went to view the Disobedient Objects exhibition, currently showing at the V&A.

This exhibition really interested me, especially the pieces that related to the local history of protesting, along with the current protests.

I worked on the things that interested me most, which stood out to me, making sketches of sections of the exhibit, which I did in pencil along with taking notes and documenting my favourite parts of the exhibit.

 After viewing the V&A museum, we walked over to see the current design of the pavillion at the Serpentine gallery.

Whilst there we thought about how we would design the pavillion ourselves. Mine was inspired by my love of Alice in Wonderland, so was designed as a giant garden.

6/9/14 - Disobedient Objects Review

This exhibition has a large variety of examples of ways that protests have been executed. It is a very interesting experience, showing the differences between how different causes and locations, along with periods in history, impact how these protests were carried out. It is a hard hitting exhibition which makes you think about what you would stand for, and which way you would do so.

http://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/section/disobedient-objects

4/9/14

After discussing the basics of the course, and why adult learning is so important we went onto looking at our journeys into uni. (Mine will be attached onto a future post)
After seeing that people all had different ways of showing their own journeys we realised that how we portrayed this you could learn about the person who had done it.
We then moved onto the 10 objects that we had chosen, and had to portray them into our sketchbooks, considering how scale, perspective, placement and colour etc, as well as medium used showed how you felt about that certain object.
I used pencils, colours and fineliners to draw the ones I did in the time we had at uni.

Above are the 10 items I have chosen. They are:

Books from two of my favourite authors- Hunter S Thompson and Stephen King

My favourite album, predominantly because of the cover art.

A picture of me from my 18th birthday, taken underwater.

My Holga 'toy' camera.

The DVD of Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

My skateboard.

A picture of me and my best friend.

My iPod.

A download festival wristband.