still in the 3D spatial rotation. some research on modular design reminded me of the above video. a few classmates and i visited jean nouvel's impressive pavillion at the serpentine. unfortunately for us, we visited it on a rainy day so we couldn't experience the pavillion to its fullest (sheltered from the rain instead of playing ping pong on the grass!)
after being asked to cram a clear plastic bag with the following list of materials ... 9 cm of electrical tape, 9 clips/paper/hair, 9 fragment from map installation, 9 pins (dress making), 9 cocktail sticks, 9 pieces of paper, 9 photos of gap/edges etc, 9x9cm sqaured of newspaper, 9 disposals, 9 elastoplasts, 9 cm sq of gray card, and 9 rubbber bands, we had to look back at our repetitive shapes and forms identified in our drawings, and translate them into 3D forms using the materials listed.
this then lead to our final brief. using the photographs/drawing/3D structures as a starting point, we had to produce a series of multiples of this shape and form depending on the complexity of the structure. we had to design outcomes and produce sketch models to create a ... structure to walk through (not a building), structure to support the human body (not a chair), and a structure to contain a small object (not a box).
we've now moved on from vis com and have started to do 3D spatial design. my first impressions of it is that its actually quite fine arty as we have done so much drawing in the past 3 days already. unlike vis coms fast pace, we have been giving a 2 week long project, creating a 3D object from the information we've recorded whilst studying structures and objects that make up our environment.
on our first day we were asked to bring in a bunch of materials (mostly string) and were divided into groups of 6. we had to make an installation, representing where we've come from and how we got to chelsea. in our group we had people coming from belgium, turkey, scotland, and china so our string were directed all over the place. we decided to make chelsea into the messily, stacked/taped chairs to represent the busy, and creative place that we are all experiencing now, and that at these beginning stages, chelsea ways of working can be very confusing and somewhat scary. the different coloured string also represented different means of transport (flight, eurostar) and we also measured the exact distances of each country to chelsea.
we were then asked to fold up a huge a1 sheet of paper into 8 and draw sections of our map installation. when we unfolded it, we had to make sure that all of our drawings linked up together, creating a giant image comprised of different objects of different scales. a section of my drawing:
following on from that, we continued to explore 3D spaces with drawing, looking at words we were given. these included boundary, edge, line, junction.
a visit to newspeak: british art now at the saatchi gallery introduced me to the work of richard wilson. his mirror like installation entitled 20:50 took up the entire lower ground floor. this piece is the only permanent installation the gallery has continuously shown in each of the gallerys values since 1991. made up of used sump oil and steel, this creates the illusion that the ground is a polished floor, as you can see the reflection of the ceiling in it. however, the room is simply flooded in oil. i was extremely impressed by this piece, and it was exciting to draw from too.
for our final week in the vis com rotation period, we were given the project "audience". our brief was to create an original and clever way of sending an unspoken message. when we were told this, my mind immediately jogged back to a site i once stumbled upon called "post secret". post secret is an online community, encouraging people from all over the world to mail in their secrets anonymously on a post card. every sunday, several are selected and then published on their internet page.
we were asked to think about who our sender is and who are receiver is, and to consider that the message must be gradual, starting with a hint and ending in absolute clarity. my first ideas ranged from an irritated pimple begging its skin to be washed, toilet paper begging not to be used!, a mosquito who hates the person blood its sucking, and trees that are annoyed with the people and dogs who pee on it! i decided to stick with the last idea, and explored how exactly i would convey this message. i started immediately with a more hands on approach by taking some leaves off trees and cutting messages into them.
for my final presentation on fridays crit i chose to display all of my leaves (over 20) that i had hand cut and to hang them from the ceiling using invisible string. i really liked the way that they fell down and twisted, so that people could look at them from both sides, however looking back... i realised that it wouldve been better if i had cut the words the other way around!
this week i also visited the eadweard muybridge exhibition at tate britain, and exposed: voyeurism, sureveillance and the camera at tate modern.
eadweard muybridge was a photographer who captured movements within fractions of a section and lined them up to make moving pictures. he is most famous for his commissioned experiment where he captured images of race horses proving that horse is still in motion whilst its legs are off the ground. this can not be seen with the naked eye. even though these series of animals and humans moving were well done, i was more interesting in his photographs which were taken from slightly different angles, and placed next to one another. only with the special glasses that the tate provided could you see a 3D image form from the two almost identical images.
exposed examined photography as an invasive act, and aimed to challenge common ideas of privacy and propriety. this voyeurism within all of the photographs reminded me of how a photographer seems to "stalk" their chosen subject before they take the picture, which is similar to the ways that we've been getting to know our receiver for our bottled message project. the exhibition was divided into 5 categories: the unseen photographer, celebrity and the public gaze (embarassing and private moments), voyeurism and desire (sexual or erotic/ the role of the intruder), witnessing violence, and surveillance. some of these photos were quite grim and shocking at times (couples making love, stalking people at swimming baths, drug dealers, death by unnatural causes) but it was extremely engaging and made the viewer really think and question who these people truely were. harry calahan's atlanta (1984) was my favourite photograph from the exhibition.
after our crit we were given a new project to work on for assessment. we were encouraged to go and see the muybridge exhibition (which i did) and to take 5 of our own photographs (in his style, different stages of movement) providing a short, simple narrative phase with either an object or figure. then, by using 3 different methods of reproducing our photographs, we were asked to do 15 drawings from the 5 photos, based on the films by max fleischer and jeff scher who used rotoscoping as a method of reproduction. we could then make a 1-2 second animation:
i am a chelsea girl! after a busy and bumpy first 2 days of college, having already started 2 projects ... we were given the opportunity to cool off a little and go on a blind date with a stranger! my date was kaly and it turned out we share the same birthday.
i am currently doing a 2 week rotation of vis com (visual communications). our first project was entitled "ideas, ideas, ideas". we were given a sketchbook, a word and a partner and we were asked to work as quickly as possible, exploring the word that we were given, and then combining the two together. my word was 'cake', and my partners was mountain! i struggled with this and was worried that my drawings weren't going to be up to a high standard, but during our crit session, i realised that everyone was doing similar things to me. i finally grasped the concept of what vis com is about, the course doesn't necessarily expect you to produce fine pieces of work, but its your ideas that you generate that count.
for our second project, "images, images, images" we were asked to bring in 13 found images, ranging from old postcards to old slides and were asked to select a title from a large list. my chosen title was "celebrate old victories". we had to create a visual sequence/narrative but not needing to have an explicit story. here are some pieces from my sketchbook.
