WEEK#4 3D Spacial Design - Modular Forms

After creating our installation, photographing and drawing it, we continued to explore 3D spaces by drawing spaces in association with words that we were given - boundary, edge, line, contour, junction, joint, etc... With these words as a guidance, we explored drawing as a means of documenting, measuring, recording and observing.  

On the second week, we each brought in a range of materials such as newspaper, cocktail sticks, disposable objects, electrical tape etc. Using only 3 of these materials, we had to place these materials together to create a 3D object. I found this exercise quite enjoyable as this gave us the opportunity to experiment with different ways to put together these materials, thinking of ideas which spontaneously lead to the next, in some ways like a jigsaw puzzle. With my materials, I first created 3 objects - one made using a coke can, a safety pin and a clip, the second made using a spoon, paper and electrical tape, and finally the last one made using a plastic cup, a toothpick and string...

 ... Then another two in association with our drawings and photographs.

After creating these models, we each selected one of our collection of models, of which we duplicated 10 times to create modular forms. We explored 3D ideas through these models exploring repetitive forms building up to a final idea. The final 3 outcomes must be a structure to... walk through but not a building, support a human body but not a chair, and to contain a small object but not a box. Working with our models, this project really encourages us to use our creativity to design a unique structure by trying out many different possibilities and documenting these ideas.

However, with my initial model it was quite hard for me to find different ways of representing these three structures. Therefore, I decided to use another one of my models, which is simplified so that it is constructed only out of toothpicks, grey card and newspaper. I thought this was a good model to create modular forms as it has a lot of vertical and horizontal repetitions within the structure itself. When placing multiples of this model together, I was able to create bridges, walkways, supports as my structure to walk through, contain an object, and support a human body. 

These are my final images... The scale is represented by placing an object or a person in the image, their size in relation to the structure.

We were told to work with our sketchbooks and not in it. Therefore I chose to represent my sketchbook as an unfolding strip of drawings and photos, which unfolds in all four directions, expanding upwards to reach the ceiling, downwards to meet the floor and outwards to cover the studio walls, covering a large amount of surface area of the room.

WEEK#3 Seminar

Gregory Crewdson's Photo Alchemy

Crewdson has reinvented the idea of photography by using film techniques to stage pictures. Instead of just photographing a scene, he creates and stages the scene. I find Crewdson's photography extremely alluring as there is always a sense of mystery, darkness and ghostliness to them. These scenes often occur in ordinary settings but there is always something unsettling or out of place depicted. 

This photo depicts a woman floating in a flooded living room. It appears to be a small house with contemporary furniture and a staircase leading upstairs - what seems to be an ordinary interior setting, except that it is flooded with water. The woman floating lifelessly on the water gives the painting a haunted feeling, forcing the viewer to question what had happened before and after this scene. It was this moment that hovers between before and after that interests Crewdson. Each photo is polished and technically perfect but still somewhat undone, and this gap is filled by the viewer's imagination. The ultimate meaning still remains a mystery as each person has a different interpretation to the same image.

There is very little that is actually happening in these pictures. There is a very small narrative as photography has a much smaller narrative capacity than that from other literary forms. It depicts an isolated frozen moment, which limits him to choose only one moment to convey a narrative arc. What makes the picture powerful is that that moment is transformed by light and colour. The lighting is theatrical, colours are vivid and unreal, contributing to the drama and mystery of the painting.

Ways of Seeing Chapter #1 by John Berger

When we take a snapshot, we are detaching an appearance from its place and time and preserving it. I found it interesting how the author spoke of how each image embodies a way of seeing. The composition of a photograph describes and reflects the angle in which the photographer was standing while this photo was taken, and what he/she has chosen to capture within the frame of the image, selecting that sight from an infinity of possibilities. Images were first used to capture and preserve a moment, later it showed how something or someone had once looked. Eventually, an image became a record or a reflection of how the image maker saw the subject as the interest in Humanism and the importance of the individual began to rise. 

Images are powerful communicators, stronger than literature as there are things we cannot describe that images can illustrate. The power that these images have also mystifies viewers rather than to clarify. It is impossible for us to know exactly the history behind a painting, the artist is really the only one who knows exactly what was happening at the time the painting was made. The way other people look at it is never the same, as they are affected by learnt assumptions about art and make their own conclusions as supposed to the truth. 

The invention of the camera was an enormous breakthrough and has manipulated the way we see art today. It destroyed the idea that images were timeless. We are now able to reproduce art and almost anyone is able to view it, not solely for the eyes of the elite as it was in the past. The invention of the camera has allowed art to be brought into the homes of the viewer through printing and reproduction, thus modifying its entire meaning. Reproduction has also destroyed the idea of uniqueness and authenticity. Instead of the viewer having to travel to see a piece of art, the image travels to the viewer via technology, images that are printed on postcards, t-shirts and posters. Because of reproduction, arts value has been placed aesthetically on a different level than before. For the first time, art has become available, valueless and free. They have entered the mainstream of life and no longer have power in themselves.

Because of reproduction, we no longer look at art for its unique meaning, but for what it uniquely is.. The market value and popularity of an art piece change the way we see it. As a result, we fail to look at it innocently as well as to make our own judgements as we are made to conform to how the public sees it because of its fame.  Its market price is said to be a reflection of its spiritual value, and it becomes an object for which its value depends on its rarity, not its symbolism.

WEEK#3 3D Spacial Design & Rachel Whiteread exhibition

On the first day, we were put into groups of six and together we made a 3D map of the countries we each came from in relation to each other. We used string and were encouraged to make use of the environment around us such as the studio space and the protruding and recessing forms of the room. Our group included two people from Belgium, one from England, one from Scotland, one from Turkey and I, from Hong Kong. 

We decided to put together a cluster of chairs, held together by masking tape, as the landmark of Chelsea - representing the creative and artistic, at the same time messy and busy environment. We used different coloured string to represent means of transport such as by flight or train and measured the distance of each country from Chelsea and in relation to each other. For example, the distance from HK to London is 5995 miles, whereas from Turkey to London it is 1764 miles, therefore the string we used to represent the distance from HK to London is 5 times longer than the string used to represent the distance between Turkey and London. At the end of each string we attached an object we brought in that represents our country.

I really enjoyed working on this installation as it involves actually having to move around the studio, thinking about ideas and ways of representation as a group and making use of objects and spaces in the area. 

We then had to draw the installation we created onto an A1 piece of paper, which was folded 8 times. In each square is a drawing of the same installation but from different perspectives, scale and distance, although each of these squares have to link with the next one. 

I thought this was a really good way of drawing because it encourages studying different aspects of the installation instead of focusing on one viewpoint, in result the drawing looks quite 3 dimensional itself.

Rachel Whiteread at Tate Britain

Rachel Whiteread is known for her sculptural casts of the spaces in or around familiar domestic objects. This exhibition presents her equally important work that lead up to these sculptural casts - her initial drawings and sketches of ideas. By looking at these drawings, we are more able to understand the thoughts and experimentation of an artist, at the same time explore many of the themes that are shared: notions of absence and loss, void and precense, and the subtle observation of human traces in everyday life. 

These drawings also contribute to what we are studying at the moment as we can study the use of perspective, space, composition and architectural features. These are some of the drawings presented at the exhibition that I found quite interesting.

WEEK#2 Tate Modern - EXPOSED exhibition

This exhibition examines the invasive act of photography and challenges common ideas of privacy and propriety. It 'explores how our definitions of respect, vulnerability and security have shifted over time, altering our understanding of what it means to look and be looked at'.

"The Unseen Photographer"

This first section shows us how photography can reveal a person's unawareness of being watched or looked at when they have their guard down.

Walker Evans's "Subway Passengers" were taken on NYC underground trains to record the natural, unaware faces of the people around him. 

Some of the 20th century's most important photographers exploit the camera's ability to create images without the knowledge of some of their subjects. Artists such as Henri Cartier-Bresson photographed people from above which produces great visual effects, while others such as Lee Friedlander and Harry Calahan take photographs from behind the unaware subject.

Hyeres, France 1932 - Henri Cartier-Bresson

NYC 1966 - Lee Friedlander

Celebrity and the Public Gaze

Portable cameras and faster shutter speeds created opportunities for capturing the subjects off-guard. Photographers are more able to capture famous subjects in their embarrassing and private moments.

Ron Galella - one of the most notorious paparazzi, devoted to the image taking of celebrities for publication in the press.

Voyeurism & Desire

Sexual or erotic images have been made throughout the history of photography. Many of these images consist of subjects depicting illicit and intimate acts. These images seem to position the viewer in the role of an intruder. These photographs encourage the viewer to question who was looking and why and whether we should collude with, or reject this point of view. 

"Self Portrait with Wife June and Model" by Helmut Newton

In contrast to Newton's polished images, the images of Mirozlav Tichy have a grainy, blurry quality (similar to a charcoal drawing) which gives a home-made feel, preserving the frisson of their production. He stalked the streets and swimming baths of his home town with a home-made camera.

Witnessing Violence

The photographs in this section show witness and documentation of violent events and deaths by unnatural causes, shocking the viewer by allowing us to witness the suffering of the victim.

Weegee's photographs of curious bystanders in NYC depict their morbid fascination with death by unnatural causes. These photographs raise questions about the ethics of depicting the moment of death.

"Dead Man Lying on a Garage Ramp" by Letizia Battaglia

This image was particularly striking and makes the viewer question who this man is and what had happened to him. The quality of his body has a grim fascination, his limbs still and lifeless and blood pooling around his head. He is lying face down on the ground, which further encourages the viewer to question his identity. 

Surveillance

The surveillance camera has been used for security purposes. Techniques of surveillance are closely linked to the developments in photographic technology, from surveillance cameras at street corners and shops to wed-based tools such as satellite technology.

"Isolation Room CBP" 2005 - Richard Ross

WEEK#2 Project 3 AUDIENCE & Eadweard Muybridge exhibition

Tate Britain.
Muybridge captured progressive movements within fractions of a second and organized them to make moving pictures. The 3D movement of the figure is constantly photographed within many frames, which can give us the sequential effect of multi-viewpoints of the same figure. This can help us understand motion as every change in movement of the figure is captured in a flat picture.

Muybridge made his ground breaking images of race horses seemingly flying through mid-air in mid-pace and proved that the horse is still in motion while all four of its hooves are off the ground, which otherwise cannot be spotted with the naked eye.

What I found most fascinating at this exhibition were the photographs that Muybridge took from two slightly different angles, so that when you look at them with the equipment provided, these two images merge together to form a single 3-dimensional image.

These two images are seemingly the same, but they are taken from slightly different angles.


PROJECT #3 AUDIENCE


For this project, we had to attempt to convey a message visually to an intended receiver. We had a week for this project, and on the first two days I brainstormed different ideas and in the end decided to send a message to my brother, who is the receiver, commenting on his obsession with gaming. Filling a sketchbook, I explored ways in which this idea could be conveyed visually, with a range of ideas. I started experimenting with discs and tried snapping them and burning them. 
My final piece is a sequence of melting discs until the final one has a message scratched on it. Although it was a good idea at the time, I thought after the group assessment that I should have done something closer to the subject matter, for example using a technical piece to send a clearer message and providing more visual evidence of the receiver. 

WEEK#1 Project 2 IMAGES

Using 13 found images we created a visual sequence to tell a story. I worked by clashing and contradicting my images, trying different mediums, tracing, drawing and experimenting, which as a result began to tell a story on its own. Mine told a story of the merging and clashing of the different cultures and societies that created a new world. 

Research:
Paul Davis, Mark Todd, Chris Dent, Paula Scher, Ed Fella, Michael Bierut, Jeff Scher, Run Wrake, Ari Folman.


"RABBIT" by Run Wrake was created when Wrake experimented with some 1950's stickers that he came across in a junk shop and made a short film with these characters. He was heavily influenced by sampling, Dada and Pop Art.
Link to "RABBIT" by Run Wrake


Jeff Scher is an underground filmmaker who created experimental short films using lights, abstractions and visual effects all paired with music. His films are described as animated still life as they are made from various drawings. He uses his collages by overlapping colors and textures to convey 3D and movement. His films such as "Reasons to be Glad" are highly irrational in their juxtapositions and make no sense, as if in a dream like state. 
"REASONS TO BE GLAD" by Jeff Scher

WEEK#1 Project 1 IDEAS

WATER. 

Immediately I put down the first things that come to mind in association with this word - water sports, oceans, rivers, bath, taps, etc. I quite enjoyed having to work so quickly, gathering all our thoughts and ideas, and jotting them down in our sketchbooks. Having to combine my word with my partner's (CUP) encouraged teamwork and combination of our ideas. The first ideas that came to mind were quite literal, and it was quite difficult to think of anything outside the box in a more abstract sense. Eventually I moved from working in a sketchbook to actually making/ creating. I put plastic cups in a bath of water and photographed them. These are my final ideas.