Alice Partington FE Foundation Course (Design and Media)

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Statement of Authenticity

I confirm that the published work for the Unit 1 assessment of my UAL (Awarding Body) Foundation Diploma is all my own work and does not include any work completed by anyone other than myself (except where credited) and sources have been appropriately referenced. (Alice Partington, Date 29/10/22)

State Of Play

PROJECT 1: ERROR

Initial Notes and Ideas on the Theme of "Error"

My first thoughts and ideas when thinking of an "error" piece. The 'photo of steps' can be seen below.

Photo from (Korolkovaite, 2017)

Gallery Trip to Somerset House

In order to be inspired by other artists, I visited Somerset House's exhibition entitled Eternally Yours, which had a variety of artists' work relating to the topic of "repair". I particularly liked a piece called Norwegian Sweater (2009) by Celia Pym, of an old Norwegian jumper that had been fully repaired with white wool. The shape of the repaired sections combined with the pure white wool made it look like the jumper's pattern had been covered with snow. This added an emphasis to its Norwegian origins and improved the jumper's visual aesthetic by adding another layer of winter imagery to its composition. This piece stood out to me not only for its pleasing, nuanced design, but also how by taking the time to lovingly repair a damaged item, the object itself was improved upon, and became instantly unique and more personal of an item. This idea of appreciating the potential beauty of errors consistently influenced my ideas and can be seen in my final outcome.

Norwegian Sweater (2009) by Celia Pym

Analysing Films Relating to "Error"

Skip Day (2018), Dir. Patrick Bresnan, Ivete Lucas

Stills from Skip Day (The Guardian, 2018) via Youtube.com

Landline (2018), Dir. Matt Houghton

Stills from Landline (Houghton, 2022)

Films To Break Projectors (2018), Dir. Tim Grabham

Stills from Films To Break Projectors(iloobia, 2018)

Both Landline and Skip Day show social injustice in everyday life. Skip Day uses 3rd person, minimalistic cinematography to showcase a closer perspective into the lives of black youths in Florida, and specifically focuses on the everyday racism that they encounter. On the other hand, Landline visually depicts phone call conversations from the Gay Farmer Helpline, where closeted farmers talked about their experiences feeling trapped and misunderstood by their close-knit communities. Films To Break Projectors differs from the first two as it uses abstract looping visuals of altered film reel and bright colours to create ‘visual music’', focusing primarily on visual error rather than social and contextual error.

In Skip Day, there is a visual error where you can see the microphone pack from underneath the man’s top at 02:49, a camerawoman can also be seen in the rear view mirror at 03:07. By leaving these errors in, it allows the film to feel authentic to the people’s everyday lives: a truthful documentary rather than a scripted film. The entire medium and method of Films To Break Projectors involves visual and subject errors in order to create a melodious chaos of visual and audio looping input. By animating the recording of a film reel rather than directly presenting it as the medium was intended, Films To Break Projectors utilises error to experiment with the unexplored creative opportunities of the media of film reels. This can also be seen with the many layered reels of different shapes and sizes, where the holes punctured on the sides don’t line up, or the reels have been scratched or marked over with different shapes and colours. The film’s title directly links to error, intending to inflict system errors of audio and visual overload on ‘projectors’, extending this overload of stimulation to the viewer by forcing them to contemplate on the presented images by repeatedly looping them and framing them with bold colours and perfectly timed audio.

Social errors are the predominant and focusing theme of Skip Day; the film purposefully highlights the subtle racism of white families leaving the beach as groups of black people arrive, and re-entering the beach at the end of the film once the black people leave. An obvious demonstration of the racism that occurs is when a white man dribbles his football through the group of black friends, knocking over a girl who playfully tackles the ball off of him; following this the man blatantly ignores the harmed girl and the politeness of the black group for handing his ball back, and continues to walk off scornfully without a word of apology. In Landline, the closeted gay farmers express how they feel scared to be themselves, hiding their identities from their families and local communities because they fear they won’t be accepted. One caller expresses how he let go of his first love because he had a wife and kids, while another explained how his family interrogated him over the possibility of him being gay rather than being supported and celebrated. All of these narratives are examples of social errors with communal attitudes and lack of familial trust and support. In Films To Break Projectors, there are a few frames potentially displaying societal errors such as violence (02:18), wounds (02:50) and war (03:02).

Due to ignorant stereotypes and harmful prejudice, certain behaviours are considered as “casual mistakes” for some demographics and as “incorrect” for others. The standard to which different types of people are held changes based on what is believed to be normal behaviour for that demographic, what people believe to be a “correct” way of living, or a lack of empathetic understanding of diversity. This lack of equality itself is an erroneous way of thinking.

While it is not initially wrong to make errors - making mistakes is part of life - if they aren’t acknowledged and reflected on, it can be an error itself to be stuck in an “incorrect” mindset or behaviour. For example, as we see in Skip Day and Landline, the social error of prejudice is committed by the racist white families and the homophobic farming communities. If this behaviour is not reflected on and the people do not learn from their errors, then the people themselves would not consider it an error. However, the rest of society would consider these errors as morally wrong as they are showing repeated intentional behaviour and inflicting harm on those around them. The difference between a one-time mistake and a closed-minded, erroneous attitude is the willingness and ability to reflect and re-evaluate one’s personal values. Alternatively, Films To Break Projectors shows a different type of error which can be a positive thing. By exploring the variety of visual opportunities through “incorrectly” layering and marking film reels, Films To Break Projectors uses errors as a stepping stone to achieve aesthetic visual harmony, which would not have occurred by sticking to the “correct” way of using film reels. In this way, Skip Day and Landline highlights how repeated social errors can be wrong, while Films To Break Projectors shows how making errors can be a positive creative experience.

V & A Gallery Trip: 5 Relating Works

Reproduction of Trajan’s Column (cast c. 1864), of which the original took seven years to complete and has survived for nearly 2000 years in Rome.

This piece displays the theme of “error” due to the immense amount of precise detailing that had to be hand carved. The pressure of committing errors when creating detailed work like this is due to the intimate minute details and high skill level and patience required to achieve creation. The opposing desire of perfection rivals this pressure of error.

Set of posters from a series displayed across Tokyo’s Seibu Railway network [2016-2019], created by Yumiko Yokoyama (Art Director) and Takahiro Kadowaki (Illustrator). Left: ‘Please do not block doorways!’ June 2018. Centre: ‘Please turn down your volume’ December 2016. Right: ‘Please consider others when bringing baggage’ October 2017.

This series of posters directly comments on what society deems to be erroneous behaviour, as the aforementioned societal “errors” are discouraged to the general public, in an attempt to create a positive and peaceful environment on Tokyo’s Seibu Railway.

Cast of Peter Vischer the Elder’s Monument to Elisabeth of Brandenburg and Hermann VIII of Henneberg, c.1510, based on a design by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528). Peter Vischer the Elder lived c. 1455-1529.

As seen by the decapitated bird’s head, the child’s missing arms and the bull’s broken horns, the “error” in this piece is the damage that has occurred over time. While this cannot be considered intentional error, there are parts of the work missing that have been lost to time. Commenting on this piece, one can see how errors are an inevitable part of life; nothing created will remain as it was supposed to forever, and the harsh nature of time will cause decay to all around us.

Marble statue created c. 1860 by John Gibson (1790-1866) in Rome, depicting Pandora contemplating opening her box.

In Greek mythology, Pandora was the first woman created - by Hephaestus, commissioned by Zeus - as a punishment to mankind, to balance out Prometheus’ stolen gift of fire. Bestowed upon her was a box that she prohibited from opening, but in the end her curiosity overwhelmed her and she opened it, releasing misery and evil onto mankind, with only hope remaining inside. In a later version, Pandora’s box contained blessings which were lost due to her decision. Discussing errors of character and moral judgement, this statue directly links to the theme of “error”. Quoting John Gibson: ‘The figure is motionless, but her mind is in full activity, labouring under the harassing feelings of intense curiosity, fear and perplexity’ (quote taken from the V&A Gallery information plaque). Pandora makes the error of giving in to her desires of curiosity, which lead to mankind’s downfall.

This piece is a Yobitsugi vessel entitled ‘Eternity’ (2020) by Nishnaka Yujito. Yobitsugi is the ancient Japanese tradition of mending ceramics with alternative broken parts for purposes of restoration and artistic expression (Scythe, 2021). The artist fuses fragments from a broken vessel onto the surface of a free-blown glass core; in this work, silver leaf was wrapped around the core.

This piece links to the theme of “error” through its ties to repair and the use of restorative methods in order to transform errors into beauty. The method can also be interpreted as conveying a positive message of sustainability and the meaningfulness of repair.

Mindmap of Photography Ideas

Sketches of Final Outcome Ideas

Sketch 1: Close up photo of error messages on a computer screen, using previous idea of computational system overload as a metaphor for anxiety and feeling overwhelmed mentally. Planned to take the photo from extremely close up to showcase the pixels of the screen. Sketch 2: Photos of broken items, taken close up to abstract the object beyond recognition, highlighting the potential beauty of damaged objects and the opportunity they bring to see things from a different perspective. Sketch 3: A more detailed version of idea 1, using the error messages and glitch effects to create a silhouette of a person, or having the errors and glitches overlay the silhouette, to more clearly communicate how computational system error is being used as a visual metaphor for anxiety.

Close up photo of error messages on a computer screen, using previous idea of computational system overload as a metaphor for anxiety and feeling overwhelmed mentally. Planned to take the photo from extremely close up to showcase the pixels of the screen.
Photos of broken items, taken close up to abstract the object beyond recognition, highlighting the potential beauty of damaged objects and the opportunity they bring to see things from a different perspective.
A more detailed version of idea 1, using the error messages and glitch effects to create a silhouette of a person, or having the errors and glitches overlay the silhouette, to more clearly communicate how computational system error is being used as a visual metaphor for anxiety.

10 Sources of Further Research Related to my Ideas

YEESOOKYUNG - Translated Vase (2010)

Physical objects being repaired.
Makes the object more unique, more personal, more authentic.
Item becomes more valued due to its personal history.
Relates to fixing errors, personal growth and taking time to learn from mistakes.
Links to own planned work: use of repaired object to show the beauty of error.

Photos from (Saatchi Gallery, 2022)

BING WRIGHT - Broken Mirror / Evening Sky (2012)

Photographic focus on broken glass against blurry background
Juxtaposition of natural beauty behind damaged man made structure
Use of refractive light to create a surreal composition
Links to error with the imagery of shattered glass that distorts the image subverting its original intention
Erroneous technique allows viewer to perceive abstract depictions within the fractured composition

Photos from (Wright, 2022)

TATIANE FREITAS - Old New Series (2010)

Relating back to the error of physical damage
Replacing lost or damaged parts with clear perspex to create a dynamic contrast between new and old
Links not only to physical damage, but also the damaged caused by progressing time
Showcasing again how damaged items can have a new life after having the time taken to repair them
Use of clear perspective acknowledges the loss suffered whilst simultaneously celebrating the art of repair

Photos from (Freitas, 2022)

PEJAC - Camouflage (A tribute to Rene Magritte) (2016)

Links to societal errors of violence and vandalism
Contrasts between imagery of freedom (flying birds) and secluded industrial enclosure
Error depicted as the window has been damaged which opposes its original intended purpose
References to error of bad aim due to some of the breakage is shaped as would be expected when hit by a flying projectile
Juxtaposition of accidental damage against intentional error for the purpose of artistic expression

Photos from (PEJAC, 2022)

MICHELLE TAYLOR - Stitching Ceramics; Narrative Artefact 1, 2, 3 (2020)

Use of mixing multiple medias to transform a useless damaged object into a creative piece of artistic expression
Salvaging broken ceramics and breathing life back into them by beautifying their errors
Contrast between original intended purpose and new state of completion
Objects are now errors in themselves due to their loss of practical functionality
With the new additions, while purpose is lost, appreciation for the beauty in imperfection is gained

Photos from (Selvedge, 2020)

MELANIE WILLHIDE - To Adrien Rodriguez, With Love

Contextual link to social error of thievery as these images are the result of the artist's laptop being stolen and broken
Digital error has created "glitch" effect, transforming the original photos into new pieces
The series celebrates accidental positive outcomes of errors
The artist has dedicated the work to the thief through the title, appreciating the creative outcome
This piece reflects both social and digital errors

Photos from (Willhide, 2022)

MARTINO PRENDINI - An Exit (2017)

Use of multimedia spontaneously appearing, interspersed parallel to the dancers movement
Contrast between simple black and white hand drawings and brief frames of realism reflects the dancer's emotions
Use of "glitch" effects directly links to theme of error specifically linking to computational malfunction and system overload
Depictions of visual digital glitches are shown, creating a visual metaphor for the dancers state of mind

Stills from (Prendini, n.d.)

UNCV x NUKEME - Glitch Coats (2014)

Overwhelming use of colour to create a visual "glitch" effect
Use of self made, originally designed fabric to emphasise the digital chaos
Extreme amount of detailing highlights uniqueness of individual "glitch" errors
Translating digital glitches onto clothing can communicate feelings of mental and physical overload

Photos from (Irenebrination, 2013)

FERRUCIO LAVIANI - Good Vibrations (2014)

Use of unnatural abrupt distortion of the expected shape
Mirrors glitched digital imagery and uses accurate detailing to bring this into the real world
Brings computational error into realism
Subversion of the expected

Photos from (TLmagazine and Castermans, 2014)

MATTHEW PLUMMER-FERNANDEZ - Token Homes (2018)

Repetition of singular house imagery reflects erroneous cascading windows
Uses inspiration from digital error to create a structural composition
Use of reflective colouring elevates the sculpture into a higher level of artistic appreciation
Links to social error of overpopulation and industrialisation

Photos from (Plummer-Fernandez, 2018)

Practising Photography

Before going through the process of developing my final photos, I took practice photos of the Design District with the camera that would be used to take my final outcome photos. During this practice I attempted to capture the story of the Design District through photographing its unique architectural features. I experimented with focus, positioning the camera behind objects such as leaves, a chair, and wire fence, and taking photos with the focus on both the background and the foreground. Some of these experiments were more successful than others, highlighting contrast between the natural greenery and the man-made colourful structures of the Design District. Others were not as successful, lacking vibrancy or focus where I desired. A few of the photos I thought lacked interest in composition, or did not convey the landscape as I had wanted to. However, there were a few that I was happy with, and I learnt from the ones that I wasn't. Unfortunately I lost my first few photos while transferring them from the camera to my laptop.

Photos taken from the food court in the Design District. I attempted to capture the dual use of bold industrial architecture and natural greenery by angling the camera behind the tree leaves and pointing up towards the clear, bubble-like ceiling. In this building I previously attempted this effect with a chair, angling the camera up at a much harsher angle in order to fit in the chair, the lights, and the industrial roofing structure. However, the chair would appear too distorted from what I wanted, and the composition was too open to create a clear focal point (these chair photos were unfortunately lost). To remedy this I would have had to take the photo from a flatter angle and further away from the chair, as well as focusing the camera on the light string in the background to create a dynamic composition with the blurry chair in the foreground.

Focusing more on external architecture. I really enjoy the middle photo, which has a fairly balanced composition to highlight the opposing designs of the neighbouring buildings. The deep rust combined with harsh, sharp lines of both the left building's pattern and external shape highly contradict the right building's smooth, sleek and curved design. Angling the photo from below near the base of the buildings creates an imposing composition and highlights the great height of the surrounding architecture. With the photo on the left I wanted to explore the rough texture of the external panelling and the rigid intricacies of the slanted brick pattern. The photo on the right did not have the compositional interest I expected, and so I would improve this by capturing a more dynamic angle (perhaps from above or at a flatter level), or experimenting with how light and shadow interacts with the waved surface design.

Experimenting with focus on foreground and background by using the wire fencing. My favourites form these are the second and third one.

Attempting to capture the 'DESIGN' sign. In the first photo I focused on the wire fence to create a narrative of restriction and industrial structures, and to have the unique architecture blend subtly into the background to create an emphasis on distance. The second and third photos shift the focus onto the buildings, however the fence is not composed in a way that adds to the environment, and in the second photo is so unfocused that it just appears as a smudge spot. I like the diagonal lean on the fourth photo, but struggled to photograph more of the architecture due to the close weaving of the chicken wire.

Photographing the basketball hoop and the surrounding industrial structure. As seen with the first two photos, the wire fencing made it difficult for the camera to focus where I wanted it to. The second photo is the desired effect of what the first one failed to be, however, I do prefer the lighting of the first one to the second one. I then played around with different angles of the hoop to explore different compositions. I am pleased with the final photo of the corner beams, especially with the near symmetry of the focal point.

Taking the Final Photos: Method

I wanted to explore the visual aesthetic of computer errors as well as physically damaged items, so I decided to use photography to distort and blur broken screens to explore their artistic potential. As I did not have access to a broken screen, I displayed videos and photos of glitch effects on my laptop, as well as utilising a "prank" website to make it appear as though the screen was cracked (pranx.com, 2022). The first image I used was of TV static made from different coloured squares (Avector, 2022). The second image was another TV error but of wavy bars and lines (TV, 2020). I utilised two videos of different types of screen glitches, one with a cracked screen with glitching colours, (ElectricTV, 2019) and another of a glitched LCD screen (Free Stock Footage Archive, 2019). All videos and images can be seen below.

The images used to achieve a glitch effect without having a broken TV on hand. Top left: (pranx.com, 2022). Bottom left: (TV, 2020). Right: (Avector, 2022)

Glitch video 1: (ElectricTV, 2019)

Glitch video 2: (Free Stock Footage Archive, 2019)

Glitch video 3: (Survival Stuff, 2019)

Displaying videos and images of colour glitches on my phone and laptop.

Developing My Idea Photographically

As previously mentioned, I ended up combining my ideas of examining the beauty of broken things and exploring digital computational errors; with my final photos exploring the visual aesthetics of digital colour glitches. While taking my photos, I was wary of not just taking the same photo as the original glitch images, and making sure that my photos were individually unique. In order make my photos more interesting and dynamic, I used different close up angles and screen reflections, as well as experimenting with different camera settings to let in more light, and altering the shutter speed and ISO. As I have not used a professional camera manually before, some photos were too dark and some too bright (as seen with the one photo that is just a white rectangle where I set the exposure way too high). I purposefully took out-of-focus shots in order to abstract the glitches, and experimented with how far I could push the lack of focus, as seen by the photos of the coloured squares getting progressively more blurry.

My photographic progression

Top 5 Photos

Final Outcome

My final outcome, entitled Spider's Web. The title is both a play on words with "website", as well as pointing out the abstract imagery brought about by the dynamic composition of the photo. By comparing the "broken" screen to a spider's web, the title encourages the viewer to observe the photo from a different perspective. The close-up angle combined with the light reflection, as well as the highlighted dust particles, creates a sense of depth to the flat screen. While it could have been better contextually to have had access to an actual broken screen, I think using fake damage adds to the theme of "error" in its own way - the damage itself is not real, so it itself is also an error. The flat surface of the unbroken screen also allows the "cracks" to appear flat in the photo, lending its lack of texture to its abstract composition.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Error

Avector (2022). TV pixel noise of analog channel grain screen seamless background. Vector glitch effect of video snow interference or abstract vaporwave background of color pixel mosaic distortion acid color glitch Stock Vector. [online] Adobe Stock. Available at: https://stock.adobe.com/uk/images/tv-pixel-noise-of-analog-channel-grain-screen-seamless-background-vector-glitch-effect-of-video-snow-interference-or-abstract-vaporwave-background-of-color-pixel-mosaic-distortion-acid-color-glitch/196831648 [Accessed 30 Sep. 2022].

ElectricTV (2019). Broken TV Screen cracked effect REAL motion & electric shorts. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1opFH5wcK_g [Accessed 30 Sep. 2022].

Free Stock Footage Archive (2019). Glitched LCD Monitor Screen Effect. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aqVCQps5yxM [Accessed 30 Sep. 2022].

Freitas, T. (2022). My Old New Series — tatianefreitas.com. [online] tatianefreitas.com. Available at: https://tatianefreitas.com/My-Old-New-Series [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].

Houghton, M. (2022). Landline. [online] www.itsmatthoughton.co.uk. Available at: https://www.itsmatthoughton.co.uk/portfolio/landline [Accessed 26 Sep. 2022].

iloobia (2018). Films To Break Projectors. [online] Vimeo. Available at: https://vimeo.com/254460171 [Accessed 26 Sep. 2022].

Irenebrination (2013). The Joys of a Digitally Printed Lab Coat (Glitches Included): Nukeme + Ucnv. [online] Irenebrination: Notes on Architecture, Art, Fashion, Fashion Law & Technology. Available at: https://irenebrination.typepad.com/irenebrination_notes_on_a/2013/09/nukeme-ucnv-coat.html [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].

Korolkovaite, I. (2017). 78 Architects Who Had One Job And Still Failed. [online] Bored Panda. Available at: https://www.boredpanda.com/funny-architecture-construction-fails/?utm_source=files.rave.aula&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=organic [Accessed 21 Sep. 2022].

PEJAC (2022). Outdoor. [online] PEJAC. Available at: https://www.pejac.es/outdoor [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].

Plummer-Fernandez, M. (2018). Token Homes. [online] www.plummerfernandez.com. Available at: https://www.plummerfernandez.com/works/token-homes/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].

pranx.com (2022). Cracked Screen Prank. [online] pranx.com. Available at: https://pranx.com/cracked-screen/ [Accessed 1 Oct. 2022].

Prendini, M. (n.d.). An Exit - video animation. [online] martinoprendini.com. Available at: https://martinoprendini.com/portfolio/an-exit [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].

Saatchi Gallery (2022). Yeesookyung - Artist - Saatchi Gallery. [online] www.saatchigallery.com. Available at: https://www.saatchigallery.com/artist/yeesookyung#_ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].

Scythe, A. (2021). Basara Yobitsugi. [online] www.avidgallery.com. Available at: https://www.avidgallery.com/exhibition/basara-yobitsugi [Accessed 28 Sep. 2022].

Selvedge (2020). Stitching ceramics. [online] Selvedge Magazine. Available at: https://www.selvedge.org/blogs/selvedge/stitching-ceramics [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].

Survival Stuff (2019). 24 Hour Prank Cracked Screen Background Video. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4BK84zBRWc [Accessed 30 Sep. 2022].

The Guardian (2018). Skip Day - high school friendship and everyday racism in Florida. [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=71nFbsBlkkY [Accessed 26 Sep. 2022].

TLmagazine and Castermans, S. (2014). GOOD VIBRATIONS - Ferruccio Laviani. [online] TLmagazine. Available at: https://tlmagazine.com/good-vibrations-ferruccio-laviani/ [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].

TV, T. the (2020). 6 Signs That Your TV Needs to be Repaired | Electronic World Blog. [online] Electronic World TV Blog |. Available at: https://www.electronicworldtv.co.uk/blog/6-signs-that-your-tv-needs-to-be-repaired#0 [Accessed 30 Sep. 2022].

Willhide, M. (2022). To Adrian Rodriguez, with Love. [online] Melanie Willhide. Available at: https://www.melaniewillhidestudio.com/projects/to-adrian-rodriguez-with-love [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].

Wright, B. (2022). 2012 Broken Mirror/Evening Sky. [online] Bing Wright. Available at: http://www.bingwright.com/broken-mirrorevening-sky/3s0sjb2tryoxh9qx7xom8eh5t1mu6f [Accessed 29 Sep. 2022].

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2: Cultural Studies

The Importance of Showing Diversity in Institutions

important to show diversity in institutions: they have the power to celebrate and represent people from all walks of life; they have the power to not choose ignorance and create opportunity equally to be celebrated and appreciated for all types of people, artists, artworks, thoughts, opinions, lifestyles, cultures
responsibility of telling the unbiased truth of the world around us, making sure everyone gets the praise and the recognition they deserve, spreading the message of hope, passion, achievement in an equal society
power/duty to normalise equality and diversity, celebrating rather than separating
opportunities to learn about others and other cultures, and find out more about our world and the people in it
institutions have the power to shape society

Gallery Visit to the Tate Modern

During my visit to the Tate, I was excited to see a wide variety of different cultures and countries' works being represented and celebrated, and it was especially interesting to see how different styles of artwork can be very similar visually. I found that I really enjoyed the more abstract and textured paintings, especially those with a more limited and visually pleasing colour palette, particularly Cathedral (1950) by Norman Lewis, Composition (1957-8) by Shafic Abboud, Cage paintings by Gerhard Richter, Untitled (Bacchus) (2008) paintings by Cy Twombly, IKB (1959) by Yves Klein and Mandora (1909) and Glass on a Table (1909-10) by Georges Braque. I also like the 8 wallpaper prints from Sammy Baloji's 802. That is where, as you heard, the elephant danced the malinga. The place where they now grow flowers (2016).

Artworks in the order mentioned above. These are my own photos, taken on a Google Pixel phone camera.

NORMAN LEWIS - Cathedral (1950)

Cathedral (1950) by Norman Lewis. My own photo.

This piece is titled 'Cathedral' [oil on linen canvas] by Norman Lewis, made in 1950 after the second world war. Norman Lewis is considered the sole black abstract artist who emerged in the first generation of abstract painters (Artnet.com, 2022). This links to the topic of displaying diversity in institutions as during his life, Lewis never reached the same fame or financial income as his white abstract peers. This was because while the post-war art world had started embracing abstract work, black artists were dismissed, whether making abstract work or not. It is crucially important for large institutions, such as the Tate, to display and acknowledge artwork from all backgrounds of artists as they have the power and social outreach to celebrate the diversity in the world. With their great potential influence, large institutions have the opportunity and responsibility to recognise and praise unsung, deserving artists from both the past and present art world.

250 Words Critical Question

Detailed photo of Cathedral (1950) by Norman Lewis. Photo from (Campbell, 2018).

To what extent has Norman Lewis used abstraction to create the impression of Gothic architecture, as the title of the piece suggests?

In his piece Cathedral (1950), Norman Lewis utilises a densely packed abstract composition to communicate high amounts of architectural detailing. This is particularly successful due to the larger and wider spread detailing at the bottom of the canvas, which becomes smaller as the height of the implied structure increases creating a sense of foreshortening. Lewis’ use of contrast between the deep reds and the small bright streaks of white implies functional and aesthetic lighting. The rectangular line structuring frames the coloured background, implying the presence of industrial architectural forms. The artist has reduced the detailing at the top of the canvas in order to create the implication of the night sky, providing the viewer with a sense of setting and temporal circumstance to the piece. With the added context of knowing this piece is about “New York City, where he lived and worked” (Campbell, 2018), we can see that while the piece does reflect architecture in the stated ways, it leans more towards the rectangular uniformity of high-rise skyscrapers rather than detailing a traditional Gothic cathedral. We can infer from this that Lewis saw New York as a personally sacred location, which had a great significance in his life at the time. In this way, Cathedral indeed uses abstraction to create the impression of great and long-standing architectural structures, however the piece reflects the more modern architectural characteristics of 1950s New York, with the title referring to Lewis’ relationship with the city rather than the exploration of literal cathedral architecture.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Cultural Studies

Artnet.com (2022). Norman Lewis | Artnet. [online] Artnet.com. Available at: http://www.artnet.com/artists/norman-lewis/4 [Accessed 3 Oct. 2022].

Barcio, P. (2019). Norman Lewis, a Neglected Gem of Abstract Expressionism. [online] IdeelArt.com. Available at: https://www.ideelart.com/magazine/norman-lewis-artist [Accessed 3 Oct. 2022].

Campbell, A. (2018). Cathedral 1950 by Norman Lewis. [online] Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/research/in-focus/cathedral [Accessed 29 Oct. 2022].

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3: Media production

FILM

ANDREI TARKOVSKY - Ivan's Childhood

Video from (criterioncollection, “Ivan’s Childhood - the Kiss”)

WONG KAR WAI - In the Mood for Love (2000)

Video from (criterioncollection, “In the Mood for Love - Corridor Glance”)

Notes on Ivan's Childhood and In the Mood for Love:

man moving with camera / camera moves with him, shows his power of the situation
pan from forced kiss to her face close up, him blurry in background switching from 3rd person to her perspective
camera run with sound; hand shot, 1st person, POV; running, panic
innocence of youth obliterated by destruction of war
beech forest - dynamic space, can get lost, move around, all blurs together; adds to narrative - beech tree forests found in eastern Europe
kiss shot - trench, forceful - kiss or drop, given little choice, power stance
close up at end - almost eye contact, asking for help but not possible

Notes for In the Mood for Love

music - waltz, like game/dance; string, romance
shows each character individually
music stops when see each other in corridor
every shot is slow, the movement is purposeful - tracking
no speech - emotional
dark with bright colours / moody/ambient lighting; curiosity, romantic, tension, loneliness

Loglines

A logline is a single sentence that captures the essence of your movie. A logline should include: a character or two; either the conflict or the goal (not both); what’s at stake; action that will move characters towards a successful conclusion or climax; setting (only if important); protagonist, goal, action.

My attempt at making a logline: A school girl uses a magical mask from a shady mask seller to transform into a cat, in order to spend time away from her stepmother and get closer to the boy she likes; she gets into trouble when the mask becomes stuck and she begins to lose herself. (Film: A Whisker Away)

Making our own film

We were tasked with scripting, story-boarding, filming, and editing our own film based on a logline. Our logline was based off the film Reservoir Dogs, however we weren't told this at the time, and none of us had seen the film so we had nothing to go off of except the logline. The logline told us that a heist had gone wrong, and the surviving criminals become suspicious of each other knowing one of them betrayed them. Knowing this, we planned to show an escape sequence, shady text or email messages to the police, an argument between the criminals accusing each other, and the boss leaving at the end to hint at them being the actual mole.

Planning

Our basic plot points written out; we discussed the cinematography and story line in person in detail. We ran out of time to draw out every shot, and we ended up experimenting with different angles anyway.

Sets and Props

Image from (Imgur.com), displayed on the criminal boss' laptop within the film.

We used rooms around the Ravensbourne building as our sets. We used desks and chairs we found in one of the corridors. We used one of my groupmate's books and stationary as props for the boss' office. We used my phone as the boss' phone which recieved the anonymous message.

Poster

A good poster: informs, entertains, connect with the public, capture the essence, clear defined message for audience. Below is the original photo I took that we used for the poster, as well as the final poster created by my groupmate.

Above is the original photograph used for the poster. I took this photo as our group mate ran past, the same way she did in when we were filming our video clips. We chose this location in order to have the door in the background, as well as using a location from the final film. When filming, we focused on the motif of the door to highlight the character's motives: the first criminal uses the door as a physical boundary of safety from the "police" chasing them. At the end, we planned to subtly hint to the criminals' boss as being the "backstabber" by having him leave sneakily through said door after instigating an argument.

My Edited Final Version

Unedited All Clips

All of our unedited clips, stitched together by my group mate.

Backstabber [Alice's Version]

As we ran out of time to edited our clips together as a group, we decided to edit the film individually. Above is my final version that I created on Adobe Premier Pro. To create tension during the running at the beginning, I rapidly cut between a POV running shot and a 3rd person shot. To subtly show the betrayal, I added in shots of texting the "police" flickering between the running shots, this was also to allude to the messages being the reason for the chase. In order to create confusion and convey the lack of chronology at the start, I reused the running shots we had and played sections of them in between others, as well as jumping to previous clips to have all the running scenes merge together. This was to highlight the panic of escaping through the intensity and speed of the alternating clips. I replaced audio with some shots with audio from different clips in order to have the continuous background noise and add extra dialogue. I focused on audio at the end of the film by removing the visuals, using audio of the text message ping, the door slamming and background dialog in order to subtly show the criminal boss leaving and getting a text message, reaffirming the viewer's suspicious of the boss being the betrayer who had contacted the police. A couple of times in the film, you can hear someone saying "where's the other guy?.... wait" within the background audio. This was not planned but turned out to be a good audio clip for conveying betrayal, and it can be heard in the original clip (with the text message being typed), when the criminal is being asked about what happened. Finally, I added the audio clip to the end, to emphasise the betrayal that has just been subtly revealed by the boss leaving in the middle of the criminals' argument.

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ANIMATION

From Disney Animation: The Illusion of Life: the 12 The 12 Principles of Animation:

Squash and stretch
Anticipation
Staging
Straight ahead/pose to pose (key frames)
Follow through and overlapping action
Slow in and out (weight)
Arc
Secondary actions
Timing
Exaggeration
Solid object
Appeal

Research on Animation: Examples of the 12 principles

Brother Bear (2003)

Brother Bear is a 2D animated film released by Walt Disney Studios on the 5th of December 2003. The film was directed by Aaron Blaise and Robert Walker, and was produced by Chuck Williams.

Video from (KonohagakureYondaime, 2016)

exaggeration - bear face very human like
appeal - cartoony/clear facial character design, smooth lines for clothing, simple block colours and textures to stand out against detailed landscape
follow through/overlapping action - hair/clothing weight moving individually 0:11
straight ahead: water, waves 0:18, 0:38, 0:40
anticipation, slight arm movement before lifting arm 0:28; 0:35 - moving body towards spear before lifting arm
staging - man moves into cave/rock framing 0:43
solid object - 3 dimensional human form moving through 3 dimensional space 1:01
secondary actions - hair, breathing 1:12
pose to pose: climbing 2:17

First Flipbook: Bouncing Ball

I used the 12 principles of animation to create a 48-frame flipbook of a bouncing ball. I started with the ball dropping from the top into the frame, then used squash and stretch techniques to have it rebound off of the "ground" and bounce towards the inside edge of the flipbook. After it rebounded again I introduced a second ball and had it knock into the original, both of them bouncing off each other before hitting the floor. I then decided to have the balls split into multiple as they bounced off each other again. This allowed me to play with [opposite of pose-by-pose] and have each of the smaller balls have their own individual actions and bounce into each other as their paths collided. I am pleased with this flipbook, however to improve I would keep the animation closer to the edge, as the first ball bounced out of view so the rebound could not be seen.

Character Design

Character Design: Personality

To the right is my initial plan for the personality of my character. While the personality is the same, I decided that my character would be a "pollen sprite", a tiny fluffy being that lives in flowers and plays in pollen, collecting it for bees to harvest. Once I had decided on collecting pollen as its job, I found myself imaging the fluff ball as a hard-working farmer, and this conflicted with the image of a curious, fluff ball spirit that I wanted. I decided to have the pollen sprite collecting pollen as side effect of the sprite's playing in the flower. In this way, rather than it having a conscious job, it served a purpose as a passive harvester of pollen for the bees to collect from.

Second Flipbook: Bouncing Character

This was a 32-frame flipbook of my character bouncing. I am pleased with how this turned out, as the character can clearly be seen bouncing and turning slightly as it does. To improve, I would make the character's flying entrance clearer, as while I did reduce the space the animation was in, the initial entrance can sometimes appear cut off due to difficulties with flipping the pages wide enough.

Story Board for my Character

Planning a full animation through written notes and visual story boarding.

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Photography

What is Street Photography?

“Candid” - the people don’t know that they’re being photographed, or find out as they are being photographed; taking real moments, people not knowing they are being photographed
Chance interactions
Closely linked to documentary photography, but that involves asking permission, staging sometimes
Done anytime, anywhere
Ethics in street photography
The sitter in the picture should be treated with respect - collaboration
Primary colours work very well in street photography, and contrasting colours work well as well
Kodachrome - stopped because bad for environment

Notable Street Photographers

BRUCE GILDEN

Photos by Bruce Gilden; 1984, 1978, 1979, 1982 (in order left to right). Photos from (Gilden, 2019)

Doesn’t like smiles, prefers photos taken without "sitter" knowing or being surprised
Has worked in black and white photography with flash
Photographs “characters” - people who make an impression

OLI KELLETT

Photos by Oli Kellett; 2017, 2019, 2016, 2017 (in order left to right). Photos from (Kellett, 2022).

Everything is very considered, very slow
Tries to create a story with urban environment
Uses vantage points for dynamic landscapes which give power to the viewer

ALEX WEBB

Photos by Alex Webb; 1980, 1981, 1986, 1980 (in order left to right). Photos from (Kim, 2012).

Uses layering and compositional techniques
Regular use of subframing
Great at making use of primary colours to highlight composition

My Street Photography

When we started doing street photography, it felt really uncomfortable to photograph strangers without their permission, especially if they noticed that they were being photographed. As time went on and I took photos more subtly, it felt more comfortable to take the photos, and felt more like people watching and observational photography than invading privacy. It was a lot easier to photograph people from above when we walked along the bridge and had a higher vantage point.

My Top 5 Photos

I upped the exposure on this photo on Pixlr.com, which is a free online editing software. I took this photo of my classmate as she was taking her photography without her knowing. I like the composition of the photo, particularly how the trees and the glass fence frame the buildings in the background. As well as this, the bench draws the viewer's focus towards the person, who would otherwise blend in a little with the bush behind her head. I like the narrative that is created with the sitter facing the highlighted buildings off in the distance; combining the bench's direction with this creates a nice flow for the viewers eye.

I took this photo with the intention of creating a central frame around the group of people. I chose this photo over the other one I took of this shot due to the more balanced composition and arrangement of the buildings. It also has more of a narrative quality with the three groups of people on the left and in the middle.

I took this photo from low angle in order to capture the striped pattern on the floor, the interesting fence and the sitters in order to to create a more dynamic composition. I really like how the shape of the bridge's architecture draws the viewer's eye from the left across to the right and finally onto the sitters, who are in the middle-background but are still the focal point. I think the industrial bridge being in the foreground effectively captures the uniqueness of the architecture, and focuses on the characterisation of the surroundings, with the people as merely decorations to the area's beauty.

I really enjoy the composition of this photo, with the triangle created by the three layers of people. There is movement created with how each person is facing a different direction; the diagonals created by the roof and the strip of light draw the viewer's eyes towards the right side of the screen, following the movement of the sitter in the foreground.

The diagonal shape of the bench draws the focus towards the sitter; this focus is also accentuated by the descending diagonal of the structural pole in the background. I enjoy the colour balance of the bright yellow against the dark greys and blues of the pavement and background. To improve I would want to sub-frame the sitter, but this would have been hard to do without staging the photo.

Street Photography: Focusing on Sub-Framing

The second time around we were tasked with finding sub frames and using them to elevate our photography. After having practised in the morning, I was a lot more comfortable with seeing people as living parts of the landscape to capture with my camera. It was a bit difficult when waiting for people to walk into frame as I would have to wait for a bit in the same spot, which was a bit weird when other people passed by, or when I spent a while in one place readjusting the camera and taking photos of the same singular person to try and get a better shot. I had already used sub-framing a couple of times in my previous shots, so I steered clear of places I had been before in order to try and capture a wider variety of subjects and frames.

All of my photography from my second try; all focusing on sub-framing through street photography.

[These are some architectural photographs I took during both the first and second practices, which don't particularly count as "street" photography due to the lack of people, but I am proud of them nonetheless.]

My Top 5:

Edited on Pixlr.com. Cropped to move the circle of the archway to the centre to highlight the sub-framing of the woman. Added more vibrance to make the yellow of the jacket pop and emphasise the red colouring in the floor brickwork, and lowered the temperature to highlight the contrast of the cool greys and the bright blue of the jeans.

I really enjoy the dynamics contrasts of the dark shadows against the pristine architecture of the building in the background, as well as the small section of colour with the blue sky. I really like the mysterious feel from the layering of the dark apartment building with the woman's silhouette hidden between the plant and the wall. I am especially pleased with the composition, especially how the tops of the two buildings line up perfectly creating compositional harmony.

When experimenting with making sub-frames, I took extremely close up photos from behind a metal fence of squares, careful to separate the sitters and subjects of the photo. This was my favourite and most eye-catching photo out of all the experiments with this fence. I like the narrative of exploration created with the fence separating the people walking away from the directions board. I also enjoy the contrast between the pitch black of the shadow of the fence against the smooth, bright curves of the floor patterns.

Sub-framing can be seen with ho the three people are standing within the archway of the entrance to the Design District Food Bar, as well as with how the text of the signs is framed by the lighting wire and the yellow framing of the building's architecture. The lighting wire also cuts the photo in half, separating the skyline from the ground. I really like how the composition emphasises the interesting buildings of the design district, and shows a narrative of curiosity with the profound stances of the sitters.

I really enjoy the industrial feel created by the concrete sub-frame, the street light and the high-vis jacket of the worker. I like how the alleyway is highlighted by the narrowness of the archway/door frame.

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Media Production

criterioncollection (2012a). In the Mood for Love - Corridor Glance. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ypY9OaKCfRU [Accessed 3 Oct. 2022].

criterioncollection (2012b). Ivan’s Childhood - The Kiss. YouTube. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1plWZqqVbr0 [Accessed 3 Oct. 2022].

Gilden, B. (2019). Lost and Found • Bruce Gilden • Magnum Photos. [online] Magnum Photos. Available at: https://www.magnumphotos.com/theory-and-practice/lost-found-bruce-gilden-new-york-book-black-white/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2022].

Imgur.com (2013). Bank Blueprint. [online] Imgur.com. Available at: https://imgur.com/kSqdY0L [Accessed 6 Oct. 2022].

Kellett, O. (2022). OLI KELLETT. [online] OLI KELLETT. Available at: https://www.olikellett.com/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2022].

Kim, E. (2012). 10 Things Alex Webb Can Teach You About Street Photography. [online] ERIC KIM. Available at: https://erickimphotography.com/blog/2012/04/15/10-things-alex-webb-can-teach-you-about-street-photography/ [Accessed 10 Oct. 2022].

KonohagakureYondaime (2016). [HD] Brother Bear - Transformation (Inupiaq Lyrics). [online] www.youtube.com. Available at: https://youtu.be/a58i4GP--gs [Accessed 6 Oct. 2022].

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4: Visual Communicative Design

Talking Type Project

Talking Type: “information that is merely recognised is read but does not communicate. This is achieved by aesthetic appearance and visual presentation.” This project explores how and why we use types to communicate.

What Aesthetic Means:

skeek/clean
Visual harmony
Complimentary
Thematic
Specific idea/vibe
Picturesque
Perfect
Psychology of design and colour

What Communication Means:

Body language and facial expressions
Listening and talking - verbal communication and message
Sharing information
Sharing stories
Languages and culture - cultural nuance; latin and non-latin
Transferring ideas
Understanding each other
Visually depicting ideas
Psychology of design and colour - colour connotation
Symbols - semiotics
FORMAT - ways in which visual communicators use language or visuals to communicate; advertising: posters, adverts, clothing/uniform, logos/jingles, social media, websites

Typography Keywords:

Type - letters and characters assembled in order to communicate for printing
Type case
Fonts
Characters
Script - a classification of fonts designed to mimic cursive handwriting
Bold
Italics
Font families - a collection of fonts that share similar features within the same typeface
Serif - decorative projections which protrude from letters
Sans serif - without serif
Roman
Lower case
Upper case

Type as Emotion

Introducing letter forms as characters that hold weight, importance and meaning. Things that impact a font include:

size/scale
Colour
Texture
Hierarchy
layout/placement
Image
Materials
Typography choices (eg bold, italics, serif, sans-serif etc)

This is a mind map that a classmate and I made exploring how we would describe the highlighted words. We included adjectives describing what impacts the font listed above, such as size, texture, and typographic choice. This was to help us visualise how each word made us feel, and to prepare to think visually for the upcoming planning of our final designs.

Planning for Final Outcome

My planning of 2 fonts for each word. For anger, I wanted to explore the contrast between loud, overwhelming anger and quieter, harsher anger. I did this by having the "loud" anger go over the boundaries of the frame, with the letters pushing each other, overlapping to show the unbridled anger. For the quiet anger I used small, capitalised lettering that was slightly spread out to highlight the control being exercised from the person, and made the lines pressured and rigidly uneven to show the growing rage. For joy, I wanted to focus on a care-free joy and excited joy, which I did in my designs through using smooth, cloud-like shaping and star covered bold shapes. For oppressed, I wanted to have the lettering extremely narrow and condensed to highlight the feeling of restriction. For fragile, I wanted to use inspiration from fragile objects, specifically glasses, in order to create the skinny shapes of the "fragile" letters. For the second fragile design, I wanted to use angled and again narrow shapes to convey the fragility of the letters, which I spaced how to depict the lack of structure and support. For chaos, in both designs I wanted to repeat the letters and have a mix of different fonts, sizes and colours to create a sense of confusion from the chaos. For the first silence design, I wanted to use the imagery of audio clips and sound waves to tie in to the idea of noise; by making the fonts of both the first and second design really small, I wanted to use negative space to amplify the "silence". Finally, for surprised, I explored two different routes, with the first design being a small, pleasant surprise shown by the bubbly lettering, and the second showing a more shocked surprise with the slanted, bold lettering in the shape of an exclamation mark.

Above are progress photos; I drew all of the designs first hand before completing 'surprised' on my iPad using ProCreate.

4 Final Outcomes from the Initial Plans:

OPPRESSED: I kept the word small and uniform to represent conformity. By having straight lines all the way down the page, I wanted to bring forth imagery of jail bars, as well as the idea of uniformity. I made the letters by adding small circles to the lines in order to show a lack of control, with the word peeking out from the uniformity of the lines. This was hand-drawn with a black ink pen.

JOY: I wanted to create a cloud-like texture, highlighting the carefree feeling of joy by having the letters "floating" out of frame, also highlighting that the feeling cannot be contained. This was hand-drawn with highlighters and coloured pencils.

SURPRISED: I used perspective to have the words move towards the viewer. I also layered pencil outline over the top multiple times in order to have the word jump out from the screen. Use of all capital, large sized, bold font lettering to create an impact on the viewer. The letters are solid black, with the 3-D parts in bright pinks to keep the lettering bold and able to be read clearly on their own. When turned vertically, the letters create an exclamation point to further emphasise the "surprise". I made the final outcome digitally with ProCreate.

I wanted to highlight the vast negative space of the page with the minuscule size of the lettering, to depict the emptiness that can come with silence. I added shadows and used pale blue to have the words sink into the background, while still giving a sense of space.

Moving Type: Making a GIF

I chose to animated the word "anger". At first I decided to go with my first design - bold, spiky lettering in deep pulsing red - before deciding to shift more towards my second "anger" design which would use a smaller, but still rigid, font as well as using the more innovative colour palette of cool blues and whites. I chose to stay away from the traditionally "angry" colours to push myself, as well as to link to blue/white fire, which is the hottest, most invisible, and most dangerous. In this way, I wanted to explore the more scary and quieter side of anger, how it feels when usually happier people become angry.

My first version of "anger", where I was going to have each letter flicker, however I decided the idea was too basic and did not have enough personality or moving expression.

These are my 16 stills which I compiled online into a GIF using Ezgif.com at [https://ezgif.com/maker]. I drew each frame individually on Adobe Illustrator. To improve I would move the "r" in the last two frames to the left a bit, as the GIF ended up looping quite nicely except for the "r" which ends up slightly to the right of where it started.

Final Outcome

I am really pleased with the final outcome - the looped version makes the text appear as if its living and breathing due to the smooth bursting motion up and deflating down. I wanted the "anger" to appear in short bursts, to return to being controlled and then to suddenly lose control, in order to depict the uncertainty and danger that comes with anger so strong that even the kindest, most quiet person cannot control it.

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Planning a Campaign Message

These are my initial ideas for a social campaign message.

Developing my Ideas

These are my notes and sketches developing four of my initial ideas. I was deciding between the message of being positive and reducing light pollution, but after further sketching I decided to go with reducing light pollution, as I could more easily play with visual aesthetics and I had many ideas for both the badges and the poster. I also think that encouraging people to turn their lights off had more depth than encouraging positive thinking, as light pollution has both social, environmental and economic impacts.

More in depth planning after confirming my final message choice of discouraging light pollution. I looked into the specifics of how I would visually portray my "catchphrase", and I wanted to focus on the contrast between bright blues/purples of the night sky and bold yellow for the stars.

Typographers To Inspire My Work

This is a digital mood board I created in order to draw inspiration from these three typographers. Photos of Alan Kitching's work from (Muraben, 2016) and (Walters, 2016). Photos of Adam Pendleton's work from (Pace Gallery, 2022a) and (Pace Gallery, 2022b). Photos of Dom Sylvester Houédard's work from (Poynor, 2012).

Designing my Badge

Firstly, I designed 16 variations of my initial designs. We used templates to have the designs be the right size to fit the badges. I drew my initial ideas to scale in the first few circles, focusing more on the type than the imagery. I started with the clearest idea I had, which can be seen in the first of the sixteen circles. I experimented with arrangement of the text and images. Throughout all of my designs I wanted to use the same imagery of stars, bubbly text, light switches, city buildings, and lampposts.

Creating My Final Outcome

I ended up using my first of the sixteen designs as my final outcome. I used Adobe Illustrator to create my badge design. Below are images of my progress while designing. I started by making a line drawing for the initial shapes, before later figuring out how to make rounded edges (this was my first time using the program, so I was learning as I went) and smoothing out the design. I played around with different shades, but ultimately decided on having the light fade from a darker orange to a paler one the further the light travelled, and having the background less vibrant shade of navy to still contrast but not overshadow the orange/yellow. I added stars to the background to make it less plain, but had them in a slightly lighter shade of navy and without an outline to not draw attention to them, and the link to the message of stars not being visible. I made the outside lining of the light pale in order to highlight and draw focus to the words, especially the word "stars" which was of a very similar shade, which I made slightly darker around "stars" to define the outline of the word.

My original final design before deciding to change the lamppost from grey to dark blue to blend into the surroundings and make more sense in terms of environmental lighting.

My two rejected other final designs after changing the lamppost colour. All (including the actual final design) use the same three original blues of the first sky and stars colours. I decide that the other arrangement of these colours (seen below) was the best one and chose that for the final design.

Final Digital Button Design

My final badge design, made on Adobe Illustrator, focusing on the topic of light pollution and encouraging people to turn off their lights. I used imagery of a city lamppost to highlight that light pollution is a problem mainly in industrial areas. I used a simple, bold, hand-drawn font with bright colours in order to catch the viewer's eye, and focused on visual aesthetics to link to losing the beauty of the stars in our polluted night skies. I wanted to focus on the contrast between dark and light, which is why I aimed for such a great contrast of colours to depict the night against the man-made lighting. The cool indigo of the background contrasts the bright orange-yellow of the street light in order to communicate how artificial lighting is the cause of the abundance of light pollution and the reason why we cannot see the stars in cities anymore. I thought it would be interesting to have the stars present in my design but not the focus to highlight to the viewer how nature and its beauty is being obscured by man-made industrial inventions. In the same way, the artificial lighting is the only illuminous thing in the badge, again emphasising the unhealthy power of artificial lighting over the stars.

Planning a Poster

These are my hand-drawn plans for a variety of poster designs. Some of them are very similar to my badge designs as I wanted to explore the same concepts through the same methods, using the same imagery and colour palette throughout both poster and badge. I added a lot more detail with the posters however, and also added more colours into the mix as I learnt how to add gradients on Adobe Illustrator. I decided to use the fourth design (second row to the right) as while it was more complex than some of the others, I felt the mirrored composition and addition of a person created a more bold visual effect to draw the viewer's attention, as well as effectively capture the poster's message.

Making My Poster

I made my poster on Adobe Illustrator. I firstly sketched out my design before going over with thicker, clean lines to get all of the shapes right. I outlined the lampposts, text and buildings first as they were the easiest to get right. I then started drawing the person who was sitting on the bench; I went through multiples tries to get the proportions correct, especially with the perspective of the girl's legs, which I ended up choosing from three different versions of them. I then started colouring; for the bushes I wanted a vibrant green, and experimented with using gradient and it turned out really well. I ended up getting rid of the outlines on the bushes so they would stand out less, and it highlights the soft blends of green in the foreground. I used similar purples and pinks for the buildings as the sky in order to have them fade into the background, linking with the message of industrial areas taking over or obscuring nature. The buildings were at first block colours, but towards at the end of my progress I added light-to-dark gradients on all of them in order to add some more perspective and darken the buildings to contrast the bright yellow of the street lights. I used almost the exact same method for the streetlights as I did for the lamppost on my badge, however I used brighter shades of yellow and orange, and now knew how to add a proper gradient to the background, rather than utilising block colours to make a manual gradient. I chose to highlight the words "lights off" and "stars" in order to emphasise what I wanted the viewers to do and gain from this poster. I made the words brighter and clearer to read by having them in a brighter colour from the rest of the words, and then layering very pale lettering over the top. This addition also adds to the depth of the words by adding shading. My initial colouring of the moon drew to much attention to the sky and was not consistent with my message, so after experimenting with making texture with gradients I changed the colour to match the stars and sky, and moved the moon to be partially behind a building to remove attention from it. I again wanted stars to appear subtly in the background, however this time I used a variety of fading colours of same-sized stars and spread them all across the sky. By having the stars just slightly different colours from the background, the viewer's attention is not drawn to them. This directly links to my campaign message of losing the beauty of the night sky due to light pollution - while the stars are indeed present, they are getting harder and harder to see due to the abundance of light pollution due to artificial lighting, especially in industrial city areas.

Final Poster

This is my finished outcome. I am pleased with how bright the colours are in comparison to my badge design

Synopsis: Badge and Poster

Design Successes and Fulfilling the Brief

My designs both answer the brief and are successful in both my badge and poster final outcomes. Both use related imagery to the topic of light pollution in order to communicate the loss of night sky views due to an overabundance of artificial lighting to the viewer. The use of deep purples and vibrant yellows successfully exhibits contrast and contextual links to night and lighting; the recurring imagery of lampposts uses semiotics to allude to cities, electricity, and industrialisation. While the imagery of a lamppost is simple, these semiotic links effectively encourage the viewer to link artificial lighting with the loss of stars, which itself is also communicated through the catchy text of "bring back stars", and the way that stars cannot be clearly seen from both the badge and the poster.

Overcoming Challenges

This was my first time using Adobe Illustrator, so that itself was a challenge as I had to learn a whole new program. When making my badge, I did not realise until partway through that I could make curved lines straight, and so went back and changed my lines by drawing over them and altering each corner. I also did not have a fill bucket tool as I work with the iPad version, so I improvised by drawing filled shapes onto a layer below my linework, then changing the colours of my linework to match. Whilst making the poster, I overcame multiple challenges, including getting perspective correct, adjusting anatomical proportions to appear more realistic, and getting the text to fit well into the border in a way where each letter was legible and important words were given more attention. I also overcame the challenge of colouring that I faced while making my badge design, as I worked out how to add gradients to individual shapes, and manipulate the gradient to achieve the effects I desired.

To Improve

In the future, to improve I would change a few things about both my final outcomes. For the badge, I would firstly use much brighter and more eye-catching shades of purple and yellow/orange, as seen in my poster. I would also use gradients to enhance the visual aesthetic design, as I did not know how to make colour gradients in Adobe Illustrator when I made the badge design. For the poster, I would use a smaller colour palette to enhance its visual harmony and create an even stronger contrast between the bright yellow artificial lights and the deep purples of the night sky to further communicate my campaign message. I would also add more texture to the overall aesthetic, and/or remove all of the outlines (except for the text/lighting to keep it bold and the focal point) for a more aesthetic outcome. As well as this, I would make the type more regular - I like the hand-drawn quality as I think it creates interest with the viewer, but it would be more effective if the sizing and spread of the letters were consistent. For example, "the" has only three letters so I made the letters short and wide for them to fit across the entire width of the street light, but it contrasts against the way the other words are compressed in between the sides of the light. To remedy this, I could have "the" be either more squished and the same size as the other words, or have the letters wider so that they also have to compress to match the others. Another thing I would improve would be the lighting - currently there is only a slight light reflection on the girl's hands and the bushes are brighter towards the lights, but it is not shown clearly or accurately as no light is reflected anywhere else. It can be seen in my progress photos that I originally attempted this, but I didn't like the way the orange blended in with the purple as it appeared more like the building was coloured more red further down, rather than light from the street lamp being reflected off it. I would attempt this again with increased texture, particularly by using a spray effect and removing all outlines from the poster to give it a more harmonious visual aesthetic; I believe texturing and colouring this way would make it easier to add more accurate lighting and shadows. Also relating to the colour palette, I would consider using a much darker purple (similar but warmer than the one used on my badge design) to have the stars and background almost completely disappear against the harsh whites, yellows, and oranges of the lamppost lights. Finally, I would alter the composition slightly - keeping the original symmetry, I would move the bushes further down or move the text up in order to not have it hidden behind the bushes. To make the composition much more dynamic, I would attempt to enhance the 3D perspective by having the buildings appear closer to the viewer, and angle the whole "shot" up more towards the sky, to focus on the streetlights in the way of the stars.

Contextual Reference

The series Somewhere in the World by Mue Studio relates to my work in terms of visual aesthetic - the artists use sub-framing and a limited colour palette, as well as imagery of the moon and sky to create stunning digital surrealist visuals. As stated on their website: "In the series of ‘Somewhere in the World’, [they] have been interested in creating a minimalistic yet vibrant surreal world. [Their] goal is to create dreamlike spaces that are architectural rendered, which invites viewers to [their] thoughtful illusion. Through [their] inspirational spaces and objects, [they] challenge everyone to blur the boundary between fantasy and reality" (Mue Studio, 2020).

Photos from (Mue Studio, 2020).

BIBLIOGRAPHY: Visual Communicative Design

Mue Studio (2020). MUE. — Somewhere in the World. [online] MUE. Available at: https://www.themuestudio.com/somewhere-in-the-world [Accessed 14 Oct. 2022].

Muraben, B. (2016). ‘I always try to have some logic to the job, to the work’: we interview letterpress legend Alan Kitching. [online] www.itsnicethat.com. Available at: https://www.itsnicethat.com/features/alan-kitching-life-in-letterpress-typography-300316 [Accessed 11 Oct. 2022].

Pace Gallery (2022a). Adam Pendleton at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts | Pace Gallery. [online] www.pacegallery.com. Available at: https://www.pacegallery.com/journal/adam-pendleton-montreal-museum-fine-arts/ [Accessed 12 Oct. 2022].

Pace Gallery (2022b). Pace Gallery | Adam Pendleton. [online] www.pacegallery.com. Available at: https://www.pacegallery.com/artists/adam-pendleton/ [Accessed 11 Oct. 2022].

Poynor, R. (2012). Dom Sylvester Houédard’s Cosmic Typewriter. [online] Design Observer. Available at: https://designobserver.com/feature/dom-sylvester-houedards-cosmic-typewriter/37577 [Accessed 12 Oct. 2022].

Walters, J.L. (2016). Alan Kitching: A Life In Letterpress. [online] Design Week. Available at: https://www.designweek.co.uk/issues/4-april-10-april/alan-kitching-a-life-in-letterpress/ [Accessed 11 Oct. 2022].

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5: 3D Studies

Artist Research

Sarah Sze

The artist appears to use a mix of media and colour in order to explore disruptions of space. The work has repeated motifs of mirrors, as well as both natural landscapes and industrial architecture. In my opinion, the artist's work explores the tangibility of spaces, using the two dimensional medium of paint splatters and collage in contrast with three dimensional forms, as well as focusing on light and reflections, and the effect it can have on our perception of our environment. This can be seen in the last two images, where the artist has composed a reflective earth sculpture onto a grassy hill. The contrast between the bright blue reflection and the vibrant, green tufts of grass creates an interesting dynamic between nature and the man-made. It also has an ethereal, other-worldly feel, which is seen particularly with the close-up photography of the piece. At first glance it can be perceived as something like a digital collage, or floating islands in the sky, due to the abstract quality that is gained by the close shot.

Photos from (Sze, 2022)

Tony Cragg

According to the artist, these pieces represent the "unlimited possibilities of sculptural form" (Cragg, 2019) and creating a sense of wonder by using movement (Cragg, 2019). From my own point of view, these sculptures remind me of water and its effect on our perception of objects, due to the rippled layering of the stone and the immense sense of movement exuded from the composition of each sculpture. This is contrasted against the warm, earthy tones of each sculpture's colour, yet each one still provides a sense of being manipulated by its environment. In this way, the artist could have been inspired by natural rock formations, especially with geological landscape features such as stacks, an example of which can be seen in the example of Dun Briste in Ireland in the photo below.

Photos from (Cragg, 2019)

Dun Briste, Ireland. Photo from (Geddel, 2018)

Olafur Eliasson

exploration of natural elements integrating into man made sculptural or architectural works
fascinating use of multi-colour glass panes, which refract coloured light to create dazzling spacial lighting effects
harmonious designs with both colour and composition, as well as pleasing aesthetic lighting and external effects on the piece's surroundings and viewers
curious perception and abstraction of natural elements such as the artist's reverse waterfall, seen below

Photos of various art projects from the artist from 1987 to 2022 (Eliasson, 2019).

Marc Newson

exploration of sculptural practices as a means of efficient storage and improving existing functioning objects
limited, muted colour palette to not be too bold, it is sculpture used as furniture so needs to merge with other elements in a room, keeping the colours muted and simple allows for interior decoration opportunities
different sized compartments means opportunity to customise to the shape desired - more easily fitted into different sized spaces
easy construction due to simple bolts, easy to assemble with a sturdy and durable outcome

Quobus shelving 2021. Photos from (Newson, 2022)

Heatherwick Studio

contrast of glass and plants - exploring natural elements of vegetation and light reflection
glass + smooth shapes makes modern feel, greenery makes it living and organic, not stiff and polished - creating a sense of balance
warm colours, mixing man made with nature to create visual and architectural harmony

Photos of a project for a client named Maggie, completed in 2012 in Leeds. The group leader was Mat Cash, the project leaders were Neil Hubbard, Rebeca Ramos, and Angel Tenorio (Heatherwick, 2022). Photos from (Heatherwick, 2022).

Making a Bridge

Planning

We were put into groups of five and were tasked with building a bridge from scratch, which needed to span across a gap between two tables and use a maximum of two stilts. It also had to fit a "boat" underneath the bridge, which added to the challenge as we had to make sure the bridge was elevated and supported itself. To start with, we all had a short discussion about how to start the foundations of the bridge, then did individual sketches of our ideas. Below is my initial sketch I did at the time, as well as a more detailed sketch drawn after, in order to better depict what I sketched.

Left: initial sketch. Right: Detailed version of initial sketch.

Process

We started by making the foundation for the bridge ends. We were allowed to use any part of the table, so we slotted thick bamboo sticks between the metal framing underneath the table top in order to create the start of an upward trajectory that would stay solid. We used a combination of elastic, masking tape, and duct tape in order to add more sticks to raise the bridge's frame to start to be high enough for the specifications. The main part of the challenge we found difficult was getting the bridge elevated enough for the "boat" table to pass through. In order to get around this our bridge was quite steep on the incline.

We then added two bamboo sticks from the table converging underneath the platform in order to add a central frame to add support to. I recognised that we needed to support the middle of the bridge, as while we had put framing around the edges, the middle sagged a bit under any added weight. In order to remedy this, we angled a central stick to hold up the middle of the bridge. We leant this on the triangular framing, and secured it with tape to create a strong point of support. We then attached the first part of the bridge and checked the angle against the "boat".

While my groupmates made the main body of the bridge, I added ramps to each end of the bridge so the car wouldn't get stuck when driving up to it. We also made sure that the foundations were supported by thoroughly taping the sticks down to the table.

After we bent and secured the built bridge body onto the foundations, we then all split into doing our own tasks. My groupmates worked on making walls around the bridge so the car wouldn't fall off, taping the body of the bridge so the car could glide smoothly over, and building archways at each end to contribute to the aesthetics of our bridge. I added to our supports to be able to hold up the middle of the central bridge, as it was susceptible to pressure. I utilised the strength created by triangles to make an almost fan-like shape to extend the single ground-touching support to the rest of the bridge. I taped each beam to the central underside of each weak section, before adding one horizontal beam to keep the sticks aligned and firmly attached to the supporting foundation. One of my groupmates copied my design onto the other side. We taped the bottom of the supports together to make sure they were firmly together and only one point of contact with the ground on either side.

With the majority of our bridge done, we all focused on the final touches, such as attaching all of the walls and securing them with duct tape, adding aesthetic elements to add to the form of our bridge, adding the final bits of tape, and checking the bridge still fits (it did).

With ten minutes to spare, my groupmates all decided to tape over the whole bridge, before adding road markings and cups to add to the look of the bridge.

Final Outcome

Testing the Bridge

Making a Sculpture

Planning

We had to create a sculpture using only a glue gun and spaghetti sticks. The success criteria involved the sculpture being able to stand on its own, support a minimum of three plastic balls above the ground (preferably not touching). To generate ideas, I sketched 10 sculpture ideas, using different shapes and ideas for manipulating the materials in in different ways. We were then encouraged to widen our thinking by being tasked to draw continuously with our eyes closed, as well as drawing the person opposite us with our non-dominant hand, sketchbook upside down, and without looking at the paper. This allowed us to remove our inhibitions and explore more abstract compositions. Photographed below are my sketches.

Initial Sketches

Process

Left: digital sketch (done on phone) of what I imagined when deciding on my composition. Right: photo of bindweed, the flower which I was inspired by. Photo from (Thompson's Plants, 2022).

In order to keep the spaghetti separate from the table, I used bamboo sticks to elevate the spaghetti when gluing. I started sticking multiple spaghetti sticks together in order to make reinforced, stronger lengths of material. While waiting for the glue to harden so I could glue the other side, I started making small triangle shapes in order to explore my pyramid idea. The small triangles were flimsy at first, with the new hot glue melting the hardened glue. After breaking and rebuilding the triangles, I attached them together at the peak to create the start of a pyramid. After making more reinforced lengths of spaghetti, I made one more pyramid. I glued the lengths of spaghetti together to make two 'V's, with smaller sticks glued across the width for added support. After a break I experimented with the composition of my components, as originally I was thinking of using the pyramids to support a larger bowl-like pyramid made from the reinforced spaghetti. After turning the larger pyramid upside-down I saw my components differently, and saw the opportunity to arrange my smaller pyramids along the larger one, referencing the way flowers grow up a trellis (I was thinking of bindweed when I had this idea, as seen above). I added smaller pieces of spaghetti in between the reinforced spaghetti V in order to add structure and another place to store the plastic balls. I then glued everything together, making sure that the balls could stay in place and the small pyramids were attatched enough to hold their own weight.

Photographing My Piece

I used a white backdrop in order to make my piece pop. I experimented with lighting in order to create interesting shadows and highlight the abstract nature of the piece. I used the colour balls, stationary, and a small figure in order to showcase the creative possibilities for both product design and architecture that could be inspired from this piece. I played around with the angle the photo was taken from, as well as wearing the sculpture to explore the piece in a fashion sense.

Final Outcome Part 1

Process Part 2

We were then tasked with reinforcing our structures to withstand pressure from above. I thought my frame was already quite sturdy as I had used multiple spaghetti sticks to make thicker ones, so I decided to use my limited paper (we were only allowed to use 1 A3 piece of card and 3 A4 pieces of paper, with only an arm's length of masking tape) to add cushioning to the pyramid structures that hung onto the main frame. This also linked back to my visual concept of bindweed flowers.

Photographing My Final Outcome

I used the same background as last time, and again played with dynamic shadows, as well as again using a small figurine to demonstrate size.

Final Outcome Part 2

Destruction

Exploring Concepts and Turning 2D Into 3D

Exploring Concept of Memories

We were tasked with listing all of our birthday presents that we could remember in a way that was visually interesting. My first attempt was not organised as I was focused on trying to remember all my birthday presents. My second list was more visually interesting; as I was almost always at school, my birthdays are filled with amazing memories with my friends and our birthday traditions - I showed this through the larger size of text.

Left: initial plan. Right: final list.

Visualisation of Concept

Finished drawings.

Turning 2D Into 3D

After cutting out my drawings into one banner, I arranged the paper into five different variations using pins and a board. It was interesting how the message changed through the composition being more open, closed, or hiding the drawings from the viewer's first glance. I then wore my banner to highlight the fashion element that could be explored. I found my banner worked well as a scarf or some sort of headdress trail. I think it would be interesting to combine this piece with fashion as it creates a visual and compositional link between the concept of memories and the personal aspect of clothing. Afterwards, I then hung my banner on different furniture in the nearby environment to explore the architectural and decorative possibilities.

Below are photos of my process of making my sculpture as well as photographing it. I folded masking tape over to make small pieces of double sided tape in order to stick the folded pieces together. When photographing, I explored the different angles and shapes made by the jumbled composition, as well as playing with the way the light lit up the sculpture from different angles.

Final Outcome

Destruction

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 3D

Cragg, T. (2019). Tony Cragg ‘Stacks’ in Lisson Gallery 20 November 2019 – 29 February 2020. [online] www.tony-cragg.com. Available at: https://www.tony-cragg.com/works/current/tony-cragg-stacks-lisson-gallery-20-november-2019-29-february-2020.html [Accessed 16 Oct. 2022].

Eliasson, O. (2019). Studio Olafur Eliasson. [online] Olafureliasson.net. Available at: https://olafureliasson.net/ [Accessed 20 Oct. 2022].

Geddel, L.G. (2018). That Sea Stack from Reddit Didn’t Take ‘Millions of Years’ to Form. [online] livescience.com. Available at: https://www.livescience.com/61769-dun-briste-sea-stack-reddit.html [Accessed 16 Oct. 2022].

Heatherwick (2022). Heatherwick Studio | Design & Architecture | Maggie’s Yorkshire. [online] Heatherwick Studio | Design & Architecture. Available at: https://www.heatherwick.com/projects/buildings/maggies/ [Accessed 20 Oct. 2022].

Newson, M. (2022). Quobus | Marc Newson. [online] marc-newson.com. Available at: https://marc-newson.com/quobus/ [Accessed 17 Oct. 2022].

Sze, S. (2022). Sarah Sze. [online] www.sarahsze.com. Available at: https://www.sarahsze.com/ [Accessed 16 Oct. 2022].

Thompson's Plants (2022). How To Get Rid Of Hedge Bindweed. [online] Thompsons Plants & Garden Centres - Garden Centres in Chislehurst, Newchurch, Petham and Welling. Available at: https://www.thompsons-plants.co.uk/news/950/how-to-get-rid-of-hedge-bindweed [Accessed 20 Oct. 2022].

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6: FASHION & TEXTILES

Field Research:

I visited multiple fashion and clothes shops in order to explore fashion promotion in real-world context. While I only planned to visit Cos and Dover Street Market, I ended up visiting a shop called Beyond Retro, Dover Street Market and two different Cos store locations.

COS #1

Beyond Retro

My photos of Cos #2

My photos from Dover Street Market

Further Exploring Error: REPAIR

Repair in Fashion

I have chosen to research further into the idea of “repair” from my error project. I particularly wanted to explore this topic through fashion as repairing used or damaged clothes is a big part of sustainability, and increasing the usage an individual garment can take. Repairing textiles symbolises the personal connection we have with our clothes. Our whole lives are lived in these clothes; not only are they capable of extreme function but also provide the opportunity for personal expression and unique individuality. Our clothes can impact us mentally with what we choose to wear in different situations: certain items of clothing can make us feel confident, while more formal uniforms can help us achieve a productive mindset. By taking the time to repair and mend our old clothes, it not only allows the garments to be worn again, but brings character and individuality to our wardrobe. As well as this, repairs such as patchwork and embroidery can enhance the beauty and aesthetic of our clothes, making them more personal, as well as communicating a narrative of being well-worn, being loved and cared for our most cherished clothing possessions. Repairs can also store memories and manifest life events, as garments are with us throughout our whole lives.

Repair as Function

As clothes go through a lot due to their almost constant usage, it is often that they will become damaged, worn, or faded over time. These damages can be seen as “errors” as they are unintentional and not included in either the purposeful design or function of the garment. Repairs can be fixed by the user of the clothing item or by professional clothing repair shops. Depending on the materials, clothes can be fixed in different ways. For example, soft fabrics can be fixed with a small stitch around the hole, particularly if the tear is on a seam, which can just be resewn over the top. [example of my blue trousers before and after sewn]. Other clothing items may be able to be quickly fixed with fabric glue.

First two images from (Cecilia, 2020). Third image from (Sarina, 2022)

Repair as Form

Mending can either be “visible” or “invisible”. Invisible mending can be described as: “a repair technique that is used when you don’t want the mended area to stand out – the less obvious, the better. The aim is for the garment to look as close to its original condition as possible. This often means choosing a thread [colour] that matches the garment, using small stitches and trying to hide the stitches behind already existing hems and seams.” (Hertantyo, 2022). On the other hand, visible mending is: “a repair technique that deliberately aims to make the mended area a statement in and of itself, using brightly colored threads or added patches. [...] There are many different ways of visibly mending and it adds a new layer of storytelling to the garment” (Hertantyo, 2022). Hertantyo also explains that “Mending is about embracing imperfection, making small repairs to clothing you already own, so that you can wear it for longer, rejecting the idea that newer is better, and adding a bit of character while you're at it” (Hertantyo, 2022). In this way, we can use the error of textile damage as a stepping stone to creatively and colourfully enhance our clothes.

Visual Research of Repair

1: (Eventbrite, 2022) 2: (South London Gallery, 2022) 3: (Sarina, 2022)

4: (Khimich, 2022) 5: (Carson, 2021) 6: (Whitted, 2021) 7: (Harbourfront Centre, 2022)

8: (Fine Art Restoration Co., n.d.) 9: (Sugru, 2018) 10: (Bestwick, 2022a) 11: (Bestwick, 2022c) 12: (Bestwick, 2022b) 13: (Caymia, 2022)

14: (Ciano Farmer, 2022) 15: (Carole, 2019) 16: (Darcy, 2019)

17: (Maria, 2018) 18: (Stewart, 2020) 19 & 20: my own photos

Artist Research - Repair and Fashion

Sebastien De Oliveira

use of bright, primary colours to utilise bright contrast and create bright street compositions
repairing the lack of colours in the original images
While monotone quality is not an error, by “mending” the image the artist enhances the beauty of the photo
Allows viewer to see what life was properly like back then - adds to the function of the piece

Images from (Hidrėlėy, 2022)

David Downton

Strong crisp black lines using minimalism to express the human form

Photos from (Vogue, 2011)

Jordi Labanda

Photos from (Labanda, 2022)

Mark Making

We were tasked with exploring the practice of mark making, linking to the topic of fashion illustration. We firstly spent a few minutes drawing as many patterns and shapes as we could. I started with regular triangles in the centre, before exploring with more flowing shapes, trying to fill the page with both sharp and smooth lines. By using different sizes of the same shapes I experimented with scale and dimension. To make the marks I used the traditional drawing media of a black ink pen. The final result can be seen below.

Next, we moved on to mark making with non-traditional objects. For the first experimentation I used embroidery thread, a ruler and a tissue in order to make many thin, scrapy lines. I used black ready-mix paint to make my marks. In order to transfer the paint from the thread onto the paper, I placed the ruler on top of the thread and applied pressure, while at the same time dragging the thread through underneath, or moving the ruler across the thread. The final outcome can be seen below. Next I created a tool using two non-traditional items using a piece of cardboard and a twix wrapper, glued together and later taped together for extra security (added after it broke). My first experiment was using only one side of my tool, where I used blue and black ready-mix paint and scraped it using the scrunched up wrapper end of the tool. I then used only the cardboard end, with yellow paint, in order to create an ordered pattern. I changed the size of the gaps between the grid in order to again explore scale and depth. For the last mark making outcome with the tool, I used all three paint colours and dripped paint over the wrapper end in order to get a more chaotic composition. I used high pressure strokes when painting. I painted in large strokes with the yellow, before using flowing lines for blue, then aggressively painting with the black paint. For each colour layer I brushed over the wet paint with a folded tissue in order to blur the lines and spread fainter colouring across the page. The final outcome for each experiment can be seen below, under the progress images.

Process for non-traditional objects outcome 1.

Process for non-traditional objects with a tool outcome 2.

Non traditional final outcome 1

Non traditional final outcome 2.

Final mark making outcome 3. Left: unedited, right: high contrast, white point, black point

Fashion Illustration

I made six fashion illustrations from references provided in class. The first five were all continuous line drawings done in only a few minutes each. The first and second were from the same reference image, however the second drawing was done without looking at the paper. The third drawing used two media; the fourth used multiple media, my non-traditional tool, and over-emphasised one part of the reference photo (the arms/torso). The fifth used all previous additional methods. The final illustration’s drawing style was inspired by the fashion illustrator David Downton and had to fit with the COS brand.

All final outcomes in order of completion.

Turning 2D into 3D

I cut out three lots of three different shapes from my mood board research. I used the silhouette of the patchwork rose, the ripped seam, and the template for the patchwork quilt. I then arranged the cut-outs on a mannequin, folding and manipulating the paper in order to create an interesting and dynamic composition. I arranged a full body front composition, a shoulder arrangement, and a decorative back piece. I then arranged clothing in different ways on the front, stuffed on the back, and a final full piece using both fabric and paper.

Process photos for draping paper and fabric to create new compositions.

Final Outcome Photos of Draping

Fashion Photography

Notes on the exposure triangle, explaining what each point of the triangle is and what it should be set to.

A drawing of the studio setup. We had light diffusers facing the centre of the backdrop.

Photography Progress

Photography progress (uploaded in reverse). I had the model wear my old Hollister jacket due to it being a bit tattered, with the logo being ripped and the sleeve cuffs having small holes in them, in order to my topic of textile repair. After taking a few photos, I increased the level on the light diffuser so that the jacket was more visible against the background. The previous pair had used a length of glitter fabric, so in some photos the floor is highlighted with small glittering reflections. We then went outside to take some photos in natural lighting. For the first half of my photos I hadn’t realised that I had the ISO still on 100, when it should have been on automatic (or higher than 100 at least), so the photos were letting in too much light. Once I realised, I changed the ISO to automatic and worked out how to use the adjusting dial. I then got the result I wanted.

Final Outcome Photos

Back to Contents Page

Bibliography: FASHION

Bestwick, L. (2022a). Colourful Torn Fabric Strips Cords Wool Stock Photo 1433015675. [online] Shutterstock. Available at: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/colourful-torn-fabric-strips-cords-wool-1433015675 [Accessed 24 Oct. 2022].

Bestwick, L. (2022b). Colourful Torn Fabric Strips Cords Wool Stock Photo 1433015690. [online] Shutterstock. Available at: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/colourful-torn-fabric-strips-cords-wool-1433015690 [Accessed 24 Oct. 2022].

Bestwick, L. (2022c). Colourful Torn Fabric Strips Cords Wool Stock Photo 1470896423. [online] Shutterstock. Available at: https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/colourful-torn-fabric-strips-cords-wool-1470896423 [Accessed 24 Oct. 2022].

Carole (2019). Quilt Repair by Hand. [online] From My Carolina Home. Available at: https://frommycarolinahome.com/2019/06/24/quilt-repair-by-hand/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2022].

Carson, M. (2021). Shelley Rhodes: The art of repair - TextileArtist.org. TextileArtist.org. [online] 5 Sep. Available at: https://www.textileartist.org/shelley-rhodes-the-art-of-repair/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2022].

Caymia (2022). Colourful torn fabric strips, cords and wool, sewn together in a striped pattern. Textile art textured background. Vertical. [online] 123RF. Available at: https://www.123rf.com/photo_125892586_colourful-torn-fabric-strips-cords-and-wool-sewn-together-in-a-striped-pattern-textile-art-textured-.html [Accessed 24 Oct. 2022].

Cecilia, M. (2020). Basic Clothing Repair Techniques | So Sew Easy. [online] So Sew Easy. Available at: https://so-sew-easy.com/basic-clothing-repair-techniques/ [Accessed 23 Oct. 2022].

Ciano Farmer (2022). DENIM Repair. PATCHWORK Darning! [online] CFDCo. Available at: https://www.cianofarmer.com/products/denim-repair-patchwork-darning [Accessed 24 Oct. 2022].

Darcy (2019). How to Repair a Damaged Quilt. [online] Darcy Quilts. Available at: http://darcyquilts.com/2019/03/04/how-to-repair-a-damaged-quilt/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2022].

Eventbrite (2022). Boro Workshop - Japanese textile repair. [online] Eventbrite. Available at: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/boro-workshop-japanese-textile-repair-tickets-393609054277 [Accessed 24 Oct. 2022].

Fine Art Restoration Co. (n.d.). Antique Textile Restoration | Upholstery. [online] Fine Art Restoration Company. Available at: https://fineart-restoration.co.uk/our-services/textile-restoration/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2022].

Harbourfront Centre (2022). Textile Repair Work. [online] Harbourfront Centre. Available at: https://harbourfrontcentre.com/event/textile-repair-work/ [Accessed 24 Oct. 2022].

Hertantyo, S. (2022). Why Mending Matters — Plus 10 Clothing Repair Accounts to Follow! [online] Conscious Fashion Collective. Available at: https://consciousfashion.co/guides/clothing-repair-mending#:~:text=There%20are%20two%20common%20types [Accessed 23 Oct. 2022].

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Credits:

Created with an image by Robert Knapp - "Crimson colored wall background with textures of different shades of crimson red"