Found Drawings Project

(I have neglected to blog about my design process recently. After having feedback about the blog I have decided I would benefit from carrying on using it.)

This project is looking quite nature orientated at the moment. I'm not sure if I'm keen on nature orientated work I've done in the past, it has the potential to be very unsuccessful. I'm not Andy Goldworthy. I had a tutorial today but I think I should have done more work before I received feed back.

Went to Fairly to take the 'found drawing' photos. Fairly is an inspiration place because it's beautiful but a little derelict.

I've been looking for an excuse to do some mould graffiti for a long time.

But everyone in my tutorial said I should continue looking at fungi.

I've been doing some descriptive writing and I want to carry on with that. I also want to try some drawing machine ideas out.

Design Process Object Context (17th Jan)

I finally think I understand the whole semiotics/colour/context thing! Feel like I've had an epiphany! Today I went to the hairdressers for ages instead of going to uni, I felt guilty about it. But it ended up being a good thing, because I took some books and read about colour while I was getting my hair dyed. (this is relevent)

Talking to the hair dresser about colour gave me a completely different insight, because she really cared which shade of colour the hair ended up, whereas to me it all looked the same. Then she started talking to me about the ph balance in colour care shampoo, and I realised what the book meant about colours meaning different things to different people. And the same colour meaning a different thing in context.

Also, before I went the hair dressers I tried out this 'Blank is a colour' thing on a white piece of paper using a stencil, but instead of using talc, I used flour. My thought was that it wouldn't look any different but I realised in the photographs I took that talc is bright white and flour is cream. They have a different texture as well. These two instances made me realise it's the subtle differences in colour that make a difference.

This is the flour one

Completely different to the talc one.

My mum is always painting things white in her house, she will never use 'brilliant white' only 'antique white'. 'Brilliant white' is a agressively bright looking, 'antique white' is homely, I'd never notice! But when I was at school we had to wear white shirts with a little logo on them. I'd get my mum to wash them and they'd always come out off white, or grey or slightly pink, she'd never notice.

I got the result from my essay today, I did so badly I have to re-do it. I just regret working so hard on it, I don't think I missed a single lecture last term. I read extra books, and went to the library to start researching that essay weeks in advance. I didn't leave to the last minute and I got two friends who do English to help with it. And it was still a badly written essay! I don't think essay writing is my true calling so I'm not going to get too worked up about it.

I tried a little experiment last night where I sprinkled talc all over the kitchen floor to see how foot prints looked in it. My flat mates waited until I'd left the room and drew fake foot prints in the talc. I pretended to find it funny but I'm secretly annoyed my experiment was ruined. When I do an experiment and it fails I don't mind, like when I mixed talc powder with various different substances and nothing happened. But when an experiment is tampered with it is annoying because you never know what the result would have been.

Still, it means I have a proper reason to go into the studio, I'm going to re-try the experiment there and then clean up the kitchen here. Maybe I'll actually get some work done in the studio now!

Design Process Object Context (16th Jan)

The only problem with this

Is that it really reminds me of the lurpak advert! I do like this lurpak advert, but it really wasn't what I was going for!

Design Process Object Context (16th Jan)

Had my tutorial, the general gist of it seemed to be 'carry on' which I was happy about, but did make me feel like I could kick back and watch tv instead of doing work. I think sometime a little panic helps me work quicker!

I thought the tutorial might shed some light on the whole 'semiotics' thing, but I think that's just a question of reading more of the books on the list. I spoke to other people about it, I felt reassured because they seemed to feel the same way I did.

I suddenly had a rush of new ideas, so I have about 5 little experiments to try out which I'm happy about. I was just pondering after I left the studio and I suddenly thought of new ideas.

I think using my other blog helps me too think clearly about new ideas.

I did this earlier:

I enjoyed making it. I did it by hand, which was more time consuming than if i'd done it on the computer. But I've been on the computer all day and I don't actually know how to do it on the computer! I guess I could have done it on paint. But doing it by hand sometimes has a nice affect

And I had letters left over to do this:

I also went in a completely different direction and made this circle of talc on the floor to symbolise safety and comfort.

I'm aware that it probably wont have anything to do with my final piece, but I do just love contact sheets at the moment. Contact sheets make me feel satisfied!

I feel like I should be thinking about the concept behind the final piece, and about what I'm specifically trying to say about the talc powder. I keep thinking the concept will just fall into place, but I really think the visual should fall into place and the concept should be deliberate and well thought out. I'm thinking about colour of talc, the fact that it can wash over other colours, it's softness + safety and the 'blank is colourful' / 'colourful white' / 'blank is colourful' thing.

Design Process Object Context (15th Jan)

The thing that made me less 'melt down' was a video I saw on FormFiftyFive - that website is very motivating.

Design Process Object Context (15th Jan)

After that little min melt down things started to pick up a bit. The photos I took of my friend covered in talc powder came out better than I thought they would! I'm really happy with them, haven't really decided how to present them yet.

Before when I was having my melt-down I think I was over-thinking everything, but if I don't over-think my work then it just turns out a bit... pointless. I guess I'll do some thinking later.

There's that rule that says 'don't analyse as you go along, analysing and creating are separate' maybe there's some truth in it.

Also made a couple of videos today, one of them is not finished and is going to be good when I get a hang of imovie, the other one is finished and is average.

I think I work better in the evening. Not that working in the day is a complete write off.

Design Process Object Context (15th Jan)

I looked at the reading list and found the least intimidating sounding book 'This means this, this means that'. After reading it I have come to the conclusion that semiotics is interesting, and baffling. I feel like it's too big a thing for me to tackle, the book seems accessible but has all these really smart concepts and pictures as examples to what they're talking about. Semiotics is too smart! I want to find some way of focusing on a tiny area of semiotics.

Design Process Object Context (15th Jan)

I'm so confused and frustrated. I don't actually understand the brief at all, I spoke to someone else in the class because I thought they'd be able to shed some light on the subject but they were confused too. I just don't know if the work I'm doing is useless or not.

Tomorrow we have to show our work to tutors and have a review, I have plenty of work to show but I don't know if it's at all related to semiotics. I keep re -reading the brief but that seems to make me more confused. It's not even like talking to a tutor will help, because it's not like I have a specific question, my question would be something like this: 'Is my work right? What is semiotics? What should the research or supporting work be?

I may as well just carry making the work that I'm enjoying until then I suppose. I guess the worst that can happen is that I'll get a bad grade.

Design Process Object Context (14th Jan)

The other little thing I experimented with was the flamability of talc, as the softest least reactive mineral I thought it wouldn't be flamable. But it is! I looked it up on google first and it said it wasn't. So when I lit a candle and then added talc I thought I'd be safe but it kind of went 'POOF POOF'. Still need to record it and maybe see what happens when I add a lot of talc.

Design Process Object Context (14th Jan)

Over the last few days I've been making a few little books. I was thinking about the lack of colour in the talc so I took photos of piles of talc and then inverted the colour.

Then I took the negative and positive photos of talc and made them into a little consatina book, I like it because I didn't put any writing on it, to anybody looking at the photos it wouldn't be obvious that they were photos of talc, they would only see the  COLOUR.

negative talc photo side of book.

positive talc photos on other side of consatina book.

front cover

The problem i'm having is that I don't know if my ideas fit the brief, I don't really know what semiotics are properly. I need to get ahold of the books on the reading list but I don't think the library has them. I guess someone will have them.

I've still got a whole nine days to learn about semiotics anyway. And I'm really looking forward to tomorrow because I have this idea of photographing someone's face loosing all it's colour as the talc washes over them and my friend said she'll model for me.

She has a really colourful face so I'm thinking a lot about how the powder will look in photographs. EXCITED!

Also, i went to the artist talk at uni yesterday, and one the artist was really motivating because she'd done some teaching in the past, and her advice seemed to be do something rather than doing nothing. If I hadn't heard that advice I'd be thinking 'Ah maybe there's no point doing the colourless photos of my friend, maybe they wouldn't have any point to them' but I feel like I may as well try them out. Because I want to have lots of the colour gradually changing and to show the texture of the talc.

And this was pretty inspiring too:

That's one of the things I was told to look up at my tutorial ^^

Design Process Object Context (12th Jan)

Today got lots done, had a good tutorial. Looking at the colour of the talc itself a lot. Also, been talking to lot's of people about the project, and they keep telling me different things to look up, and as a result of that my research has been diverse.

Design Process Object Context (11th Jan)

I think just buy eating more food and buying a printer I have become a bit more productive. Because then I'm more energetic! Taken some pictures and got onto doing a few little science experiments which has been really fun. Mixing talc with water, coke, and oil. I thought they'd be some crazy reaction but nothing happened. Although it was still fun.

I think I'm going to interview at least one person about their talc usage. I spoke to my Dad about the project, he seemed to think talc powder didn't even count as an everyday object because what on Earth is it used for?

Design Process Object Context (11 Jan)

I've been procrastinating recently. I think it's partly because we have a little bit longer for this project and partly because I had other projects I wanted to finish before I got down to this one. I did this collage and added some writing to it for an old project, and stuff like that slowed me down a lot.

My new years resolution was to not start old project until I'd finished new ones, because I didn't want to be in a position where I had loads to do before my assessment. But I've decided that resolution is completely impractical.

Also, today I used the dark room for the first time which was really fun. I couldn't believe it when the pictures actually came out. I've signed up to do a ceramics workshop which I'm kind of regretting because I was just started to get going with the talc project.

I chose talc because I think it's got lots of interesting qualities. I'm using A3 sheets to work on instead of A2, so that I can then bind them into a sketchbook. I think I was happier on A2 really, but A3 looks better.

Design Process Object Context (9th Jan)

I'm so annoyed because I started making an animation with the talc powder, everything was set up and I'd taken a bunch of photos, so that the talc powder was gradually spelling out words, AND THEN THE FIRE ALARM WENT OFF. So I had to leave everything as it was but I knew when I came back to it the lighting and the zoom would be different, therefore the animation would be ruined. So I came back to carry on with it but it was all wrong.

But now I'm thinking the animation was a bit pointless anyway. I was trying something out for the sake of it.

I thought I'd choose talc powder for the object that I'll take out of context because I started drawing and researching a few objects at first, because I didn't want to choose one straight away in case I got bored of it later. But I think talc powder is really interesting, it's THE SOFTEST MINERAL IN THE MOHS TABLE which I find interesting.

Still need to do some more with it tonight...

Design Theory Object Context - New Brief - (9th Jan)

I usually feel really excited when I get a new brief, but this one I feel a bit baffled. We're choosing an object and changing it's concept. We watched a video in french which meant I had no idea how it related to the project or what it was on about.

When it was the Christmas holiday I went to an exhibition called 'Hidden Heroes' at the Science Museum. It was really badly currated and presented it didn't really give a full history of the objects, but I'm glad I went now because this project seems to be about exploring objects in a different way.

We've been told choose an object with not too much character, so that we can add character to it. I guess this means I can't use my new shoes as my object because they already have character. I need to leave the studio (again!) to choose my object, I want to look around my flat to find something to work with and then go to the library. I'm planning on doing some photography and animation (woo animation!!) for this project.

Hopefully if i produce some tangible ideas tonight then when I go into the studio tomorrow I'll have stuff to do.

'I built this city' (6th Jan)

I went into the studio today and got some encouraging feedback. I added finishing touches to my pieces and thought about other stuff I could do. I am happy with my final pieces (I made two). Everyone else was drawing and the brief aims are drawing so I tried to give that a go. I actually hate drawing, I find I  have to be in the right mood to produce anything that looks good. I guess that's why I don't enjoy it.

Also, there's all this stuff recently in exhibitions and lectures about focusing on 'craft'. But I think the concept and research behind the piece is more important than the craft. Although most of the time being skilled in the medium your using helps to communicate the concept so the two go hand in hand.

Either way, I prefer collaging and making to drawing. Just waiting for the crit now and feeling slightly nervous.

'I built this city...' (5th Jan)

It's later now and I've been working on the project all day and still haven't started the final piece! Literally only stopped for food yet seem to have produced nothing! I think I got a bit carried away with research and A2 sheets, but I do like that bit of the design process the best. Lots of the information I found out wasn't relevent to the final outcome but was really interesting. I got some nice books out of the library on graphs because I thought I was going in that direction with the project.

Now will start the final piece. The lack of time thing is quite fun really! Have stopped socialising!

'I built this city' (5th jan)

I'm now thinking of looking at what I consider to be problems with living in a city. Brain storming first then going to the library.

Also, because I just came back to from London I've been thinking a lot about the differences between Glasgow and London so i'm going to make a little collage about it. It's funny really becuase I think all the cliques about Glasgow are true! People really do drink IRN BRU all the time here!

London problems :(

London looking glamourous :)

New Brief 'I built this city' (5th Jan)

I was excited to get a new brief today, 'I built this city...' started thinking about how I was going to make my mini city in my desk space. I was thinking I'd like to use collage or make something little and intricate. It's exciting getting back to making after being away for a while. 

The only problem is that we only have till tomorrow 3.00 pm to make it. I would have liked to research quite a lot more and refine the ideas until I had come up with a proper concept. I feel like with that short amount of time it's more important what the piece looks like than what it's about. But I guess short projects have more energy I will still be able to think about the concept and the ideas. 

I have started with an initial ideas sheet which is always fun. I want to look at why my favourite city's are my favourite city's, and do some mono prints of them. Although I think I already know I want my final piece to be a sustainable city. I want to make it a bit more thought out than just a few windmills on my desk though, the sustainable city thing could be really boring.

I've already researched vertical farming and I think that would make a good city.

The brief says there's a focus on taking photos but I don't really have time which is frustrating. I have some city pictures on my film camera that need developing but they wont be ready till next week so I guess I'll have to not do that bit and concentrate on the making/drawing bit. 

Joy Project Crit (16th Dec)

The crit was fun! It was really good to hear what everyone else had been upto. All of the work we'd been doing for the project wasn't studio based, because we always needed to buy stuff in town or beg free alcohol from the CCA (they said no!) so we'd missed seeing the other groups. And it was the last day of term

Joy Project - the event (15th of Dec)

Lots of people came to the event which was really really nice! We practiced timing the poses and everything but we had to improvise a lot.

Things I would now do differently:

-Buy less alchohol. Because it was a life drawing event we didn't really need free wine to entice people, we spent a lot of money on it and it didn't all get drank.

-More chairs

-Better lighting

Apart from that I think it all went really well. People seemed to enjoy it and they clapped at the end. It's good that the SU are so easy going with letting us put events on.