One69A

SO me and a few people on my course were given this opportunity with this company One69A in Salford at Islington Mill. Jermyn who actually came in one tuesday at uni to talk about the stuff he did was really interesting, and kinda got me game to go and help out a little bit every week. They are a screen printing based company.. I've never done screen printing or actually known what the process involves, but I really wanted to have a go. We got a group of us together who met up with Jermyn one Thursday to discuss projects we could do for him. As for a start there were various different products he wanted us to research which were- caps, stickers, labelling, packaging etc. Me and Emma chose to research into caps and what different caps we could screen print onto, how expensive each cap would be, what materials could be used, and the processes into it. We had a look at other screen printing companies to see what prices or what else they offered. I thought it was quite handy getting first hand research done for a company, and seeing the science behind each process. After the initial presention of our work, we then went in a few times to the mill and helped out a bit by cleaning the screens with this special chemical which smelt quite nice but also irritated my legs which left rashes and a burn (which we were warned about, but I didn't really think about it) the chemical was really hard to get off your hands as it was kinda like a waxy substance (even though I was wearing gloves.) Anyway what the chemical did was take all that nasty stuff off the screen which doesn't come off with a normal power spray. You leave it on for about 10 minutes then power spray it all down. They always had people popping in and out all the time and I got talking to a few of the guys who worked there. Everyone is really friendly and helpful which makes the working environment totally relaxed, especially in aid with the odd beer every now and again. I eventually went on to do my own screen print which was of Captain Spaulding from House of a Thousand Corpses. It was Sam's idea to print it onto T-shirts but it's better to use the ink as much as possible as not to waste it, so I had a go and did my own T-shirt which I then gave to my boyfriend for Christmas. I had designed an illustration of a robot destroying a city which I was going to give him, but I eventually ran out of time.

Me doing my first ever screen print.

Shelter

When we were intially gave this project back in October, I was quite unsure about the whole concept. BUT I drew a mind map and then i got a few ideas that way- definately a way to approach a new project in the future. I thought about maybe basing it on homeless people, feral children or escapism- for example like the abuse of drugs & alchohol. However i came up with the theme of 'fear' and how that links into shelter just like opposites do; like for example how for some people a place may be where they take shelter, but for others it may be somewhere that they fear or connects with them to fear in some way. I thought about maybe doing a documentary of people walking outside, and inside unawares to show the difference in emotion between open spaces and closed off spaces, and the contrast between fear and safety, which definately varies from person to person.

However, after much thought, i decided to go for this idea of sheltering yourself from society, and how beauty is such a forced image down our throats and how we are supposed to look a certain way to be accepted. I looked into how we cover ourselves up; from the extremities of covering yourself head to toe in tattoos to making yourself unidentifiable from your past self, say from plastic surgery or sex changes. I eventually went with this idea of masks which led on from this idea of hiding ourselves from our true selves. I liked how masks vary from making a person look beautiful, if maybe haunting- for example venetian masks and then to ugly masks such as the ones we use on halloween. I went on to create my own versions of these contrasts. One beautfiul mask and one ugly mask. I did this by decorating typically pretty accesories on one mask and fake blood and tissue on the other. My results are the photos above. It was a lot easier to make the ugly mask scary by the light and the setting, rather than the beautiful mask was just worn on my face, and i couldn't really think of a way to edit it so it looked even more stunning. However I did layer the image up and made it look more refined, whereas the scary mask is blurred and dark. I'm quite pleased with the results afterall as it gave people the affect I was looking for.
I then went onto swapping the two by taking a photo of a model (who most would deem beautiful) and putting burn marks and blood over her using photoshop, and using a photo of a burns victim and putting the beautiful mask over her disfigured face. I wanted to see how they both worked for each other, and even though my photoshop skills on the photos aren't that great, you basically get the jist of what I was trying to do. I then did the same thing with my face, but instead got 2 of the same photos of myself and made each mask look a part of my face. I think the horror mask worked the best on my face as the colours blended better to my skin, whereas the pretty mask looked a bit overexposed.
I then created four photos of me wearing the masks but in different outfits. For example two were done of me wearing 2 different dresses wearing the 2 different masks, and then I wore 2 different scruffy hoodies and 2 of the masks again. I wanted to see how stupid and what looked good with each. My 2 favourites are of me wearing the pretty mask with the dress and the ugly mask in the hoody as it stands out as quite a powerful image as they both look quite suited to each outfit. The photos are pictured below.

Liverpool Biennial

 
When the interactive arts crew and i headed to Liverpool for the Biennial, FACT was the first exhibtion we visited as a group, where i came across a room full of photographs of this japanese man- of which had been taken every second for- if i remember- for every second over a year. it was quite fascinating to look at- there was also an accompanied video.




We then hit the exhibition at 54 Renshaw street, which personally was a little confusing to me at first. When I first went into the basement, I came across these 3 videos by Ryan Trecartin called 'Trill-ogy Comp: P.opular S.ky 2009.' I have come across Ryan Trecartin before as my tutor for my art foundation course told me to check him out. I however didn't like him mush when I checked his videos on youtube. His filming style is brilliant, but what was creepy was the way these tranvestite men were talking to each other being really over the top americans. It was a little bit too much for me, so I decided to head upstairs. My favorite exhibition i came across nearly got avoided by me as I didn't realise there was an upstairs to visit too. But this photo to the right is NS Harsha's 'Sky Gazers.' The reason this was my favourite was because it really let you interact with it and was a lot of fun to play with. It involved this huge room with a mirror for its ceiling and for the floor it was a load of illustrations for different types of people looking directly up so when you look at the mirrored ceiling you get the impression they are looking at you. I really liked how this messsed with reality. The photo I took of myself taking a photograph of the ceiling was my favourite as there is a ninja character right behind me, and it looks like he's about to creep onto me and assassinate me. as pictured above.

However, the next exhibition at City States art gallery was just as enjoyable, mainly because it involved lots of video/animations. The artists were mainly of asian orgin, so it was cool to see videos and animations from the other side of the world. The one I enjoyed the most was of this simple animation of an outline of a man doing horrible things to himself like exploding himself up or cutting his penis off etc. I thought the simplicity in the animation found it enjoyable to watch as the cartoon was simply very effective. I liked how outside the gallery there was a mini skate park where there were a few skaters practising. I tried to get the perfect shot of them in the air, but proved it was quite difficult! Was quite fun to watch them skate nevertheless.

Finally we had the Bloomberg Contempories exhibition which I personally didn't pay as much attention to in the end as I was extremely tired and just wanted to visit the beach, which I should point out was very windy and cold! It was fun to visit the Anthony Gormley sculptures nevertheless. I liked how rusted and weathered they were; all convered in seaweed. It showed that it had lived a life. I like how the further out to sea they are, the more worn and torn they look. In this particular picture, it was actually quite hard to get across to as there was a load of water in the sand of which I thought would be easy to walk across with my big doc boots on, but it was just sinking central! It was quite fun to try and wade across though!

Then on the walk back from the beach to the coach for the journey home, I got Rhys to take photos of me jumping simultaeously in the air and I then edited it in an action series in one photo as shown above. :) All in all it was an adventure this trip. Seeing new sights and experiencing some new art pieces; even if I didn't like all of them. But that's what art is about right? Having many opinions!

Super K Sonic Booooum!

 As it was the Science festival for the past two weeks, I helped out with an exhibition that ran in a dis-used lab in the John Dalton building opposite the BBC on Oxford Road. The installation consists of a 22 meter long ‘river’ of water running through a tunnel lined with thousands of gold balloons (photomultiplier tubes). Members of the public embark on a boat, pulled through the tunnel on a submerged track using a pulley system, with sound and lighting effects, and with an expert particle physicist navigator as a guide. On the journey they learn of neutrinos, their role in the Universe and how scientists detect them. This installation is designed to deliver physically thrilling experiences; emerging the audience on a journey through the physics of the Universe.

The idea was delivered by Nelly Ben Hayoun who was a lovely French woman who always checked to see how her volunteers were doing even though she was crazily busy herself. For the setting up of the exhibition I helped with painting a door, and some stairs black, as well as flyering and putting up posters to advertise the exhibition. When everything had been set up by her amazing team, and everything was completed it was on to facing the public. All the volunteers went on to help with different jobs, so we all got swapped round so we could experience every little bit. I helped with talking to a couple of members of the public to explain what it was all about upstairs in the video room, which had a confusing explanation all to do with science and stuff. I then went onto the pulling of the boat on either sides, and acting alongside Nelly to get the members of the public on the boat to go onto their ride of a lifetime. We all donned very attractive Tyvek suits & hard hats, but the people going on the boat also had to wear wellies. After the last day i volunteered, I was feeling exhausted, not because I had been working for about 6 hours, but because I had been working in such a dark place for so long, my body just wanted to go to sleep!

Many of the hundreds of balloons from the inside of the installtion.

...And from the outside.

Me in my white suit in a large neutrino model illuminated by ultra violet light.

Nelly in front of her installion.

Overall I thought it was quite a memorable experience, and seeing people's faces who have never experienced such a hands on exhibtion before was also quite interesting to watch, as i guess they didn't know how to act when Nelly was shining torches into their eyes! I would definately like to work on something as interesting as this again!

Recorders Exhibition

The first gallery we visited this term on our course together was the 'Recorders' exhibiton at the Manchester Art Gallery which was created by Rafael Lozano-Hemmer. When I first walked in I had just walked up the stairs and there was a piece of work where you had to put your finger in this hole and it would take your pulse. There was also a screen of which it had images of your finger-prints. Of course my pulse was a lot faster than normal, as I had just walked up the stairs, but i found it really interesting to see how fast it was going! There were pieces of work that ranged from a conveyor belt scanner which scanned your belongings digitally, microphones that recorded your voice and played other peoples previously recorded voices randomly, lightbulbs that flickered at the feel of your pulse, (using handles to hold onto to record it), and big white screens which had tiny cameras implanted in them that videoed you walking round the room, close vs far, and also in shadows.
Throughout the exhibition, I really enjoyed most of the pieces of work in the way that the audience could interact with the pieces of work to hear, feel, & see the actions of people around them. I really like exhibitions that let you interact with them; it feels a lot more personal. This very much reminded me of the 'Decode' exhibtion around the same time last year in London. I would definately like to visit this exhibition again before it closes, and I should have time as it is on my doorstep!

These too just are incredible...
WORDS from Everynone on Vimeo.


Winters of My Life from Jonathan Burhop on Vimeo.


Das Sehr Angry Caterpillar from LICHTFAKTOR on Vimeo.



Monstrous Wildlife from Frank Robnik on Vimeo.



BIG BANG BIG BOOM - the new wall-painted animation by BLU from blu on Vimeo.


Fear/Love from Rob Chiu on Vimeo.


These kind of videos are making me want to get into film & animation more than ever. :)
Also, I think I should get out of my head; out of vimeo & into the real world... for now. . .

 I thought this was rather special, seen some pretty awesome videos today on vimeo that really get you thinking artistically, especially this one... 

 The Day Almost Flew By from David Blue Garcia on Vimeo.

Reassessment

So, in the end I decided to go with the postcard idea. Martin went on his own adventure this time, but not through time or space, but to places around the world. He visited London, Paris, Moscow, Tokyo, Agra (Taj Mahal), Sydney, Cape Town, Gaza (Pyramids), New York City, Rion De Janeiro, & finally Antartica. I photoshopped him in each photograph so it looked like he had been there, and wrote the postcards to myself; so it seemed that Martin was writing to me, and I was his lover...Silly as it sounds, I thought it would be fun to write love letters anyway. He travels for a year and then decides to stay as he is feeling more and more forgotten as I don't reply. So the other person is anonymous. I got the general travelling idea including Martin from Amelie where she steals her father's gnome and takes photos of it in certain places around the world and then sends the photos to her father in the hope that he'd follow in his gnome's footsteps. I liked the idea of the movie Amelie in that she tryed to help the lives of the people around her in a kooky kinda way. Especially when she found a man's childhood treasures and then returns it back to him.

I decided to progress with this idea of memory, love letters and travelling so I compilled tons of photographs that I had taken around the world starting from the age of 8 in Italy, then the most recent ones from South Africa 2 years ago.  On the back of them a couple of my friends and I wrote as anonymous lovers sending love letters to their partner. I really liked this idea as love letters today are genuinely forgotten about, or something that is dug up from the past. The photos I used were also dug up from my past, so I quite liked the forgotten memories link between the two. The photos I used made me remember moments that I had forgotten about & moments that I could relive. When I asked a few people to describe memory in one word, MIST is the word that was frequent; and I can totally see why. Memory is odd in the way it stores certain memories and how others are locked away, and how certain senses can trigger a memory, smell being the strongest.

I wanted to run along with this theme of forgotten memories and so proceeded to dig up old photos of myself when I was younger. How does memory diffuse fact?We don't tend to take photographs of the bad times so when we look at photographs they are usually happy ones. In some ways photographs can lie to you to how a certain memory was, being remembered through a photograph, rather than through your mind. This is especially true for photographs of when we were kids as we don't remember much. In some ways this confuses us of our real identities. I wanted to explore this further hence why I added photos of me looking into a reflection and it being blurry; passport style photographs which had been burnt; a polaroid of me holding up a sign saying, "I am just a memory." Because that, in true aspect is what we are in photographs; just a memory. I then took photographs of me as a baby and stuck them down in my sketchbook to remind me of how I was. I then took one photo and put  question marks on mine and my sister's faces just to question what memory the photograph holds. I took photographs from my most recent past and edited them in similar ways by adding words to them such as "Who are we now",  "Could this be real"  & "Memory is just an internal rumour". I liked the fact that some of these moments would be forgotten and no longer remembered unless there was a photograph to prove it existed. 

So, I decided to move onto forgotten places, because just like these memories of ourselves, they can disintegrate. I stumbled upon a wire factory in Ambergate; Derby and an old house that someone used to live in back in the 1800s which was now desolate. I love derelict buildings and this one was the most interesting I had come across. The ceiling had caved years ago and there was glass, wood, &metal everywhere. As i was taking photographs of this broken down house I came across a bath. which I thought was quite interesting in that it was the only household item that was distinguisable. I decided to edit the photographs in a way that shows that the subjects had been forgotten about. I think the grain effect really helped bring this out in the photos. I liked the idea of taking photos of discarded items too that no-one bothered to notice. On many walks I go on, I walk past things I never notice that have been forgotten to the world. I decided to take notice this time though and take photographs of these objects. I came across some pretty interesting things such as a mangled bike, a bucket full of what looked like mud, a gate, cans, coins, toys, and even a little blue clay teddy bear which is now in my room. I edited these in the same way as I had with the other photographs, and also decided to add in a couple of other photographs that I had taken of inanimate objects at a different time such as a buffalo skull I came across in South Africa. With some of the little objects I had collected I decided to use with some light sensitive paper to show off their shape, which was a new thing for me to try out. I also tried some new polaroid film from a project called "Impossible," as they are developing chemicals for new polaroid film. The one I bought was called PX-70 colour shade first flush. This didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped. It is a pretty new film but to be honest I prefer the expired film a lot more as this new one was very faint and had a green wash to it, and you can't see the objects very well. I guess also this may have had to do with the fact I didn't use it with an SX-70 type camera. It said it was compatible with all 600 types but the photos would come out slightly overexposed. I did enjoy experimenting with it though, don't get me wrong. Was also a bit odd having to shield the photo from light as soon as you took a picture as it was light sensitive. I'm not totally sure where to go from here now though, I was thinking of maybe taking my own memories & manipulate them in a way that they are no longer mine. Or even taking an object and putting my own memories in it in some way so that it is remembered instead of ignored. 

Things that once were or have been through objects, places and people.

I think this quote is very true: 
"There are lots of people who mistake their imagination for their memory."- Josh Billings. 
This is what I want to explore. The borderline between memories & our imagination.

Dorothy Bohm

...is actually one of my new favourite photographers. FACT. I saw her work at the Manchester Art Gallery, and all I can say is that all of it was incredible. You can tell that each shot was thought with precision and creativity. The exhibition that was put on spans her work for 70 years which is a hell of a long time to be practicing photography. This is why I loved her photographs; because you could see the change in cameras & photographs through the ages and developing and colour etc. .. But all along her work stays impeccable. It started from typical black and white vintage 1940s portraits then onto landcapes and then onto poloroids which almost looked fairytale like in the colours. Finally she moved onto Colour, with some of her last photographs being in Manchester in the new millenium. You got to see how she developed her photographs in a demonstration room. I've developed my own photographs before, so it was quite good in already knowing how it was done. However looking at hers made me realise how precise she was. I'd love to go back to developing my own photos once more; she has got me very enthuistic about it all again. I love taking photographs all over the world whenever i go away, so it was quite interesting to see where and what she took photos of abroad; always with an artistic twist. I know most of my work is photography, but I guess it's cause i enjoy it so much and i know i'm decent at it. I think I got my first camera at the age of 8. Disposable, yes but it was when we went on a tour of Italy when I was 8. I still think the photos look pretty good. :) However I really want to explore more with it, as there is so much more I need to learn. I want to be inspired to be influenced by her work and explore as much as possible. I think it would be a good idea for my current project including Martin and his adventures. He is turning into an Amelie character when in the movie she took her father's gnome and took him to certain places round the world and mailed poroloids to her father. I love the idea of taking an inanimate object and making it seem real. I'm thinking of taking my project down the route of postcards.. So Martin can travel the world just like Amelie's gnome. I need to buy more film for my poloroid and for a while now I've been desperate to get a Diana camera.. so I'm hoping for the best... :)

Scale

So scale is the project name we got given. In Manchester. So of course we went round Manchester and took loads of photos..the hidden areas are the places I like the best..seeing Man-chest-hair from a different side. The project name 'Scale' is pretty versatile.. instantly i thought of scale as in the size of things.. as did most people. I thought of using this little model man that we used for the sweded 'mission impossible' movie project at the beginning of the year. I decided to use him compared to Manchester; he is tiny and obviously a city is huge. I also decided to call him Martin. So Martin embarked on an adventure around Manchester.. he went sightseeing...burger eating...coffee sipping...magazine reading...i even found a builder's site for him! I guess this idea was influenced from Slinkichu, the guy who had little model people and created tiny scenarios for them involving everyday objects we use, kinda like i was doing. I saw his stuff in the art bookshop 'Magma' ages ago, and really loved it. So after Martin had his LITTLE adventure, I made sure he went on to have his BIG adventure and basically made him grow in size so that he would become like godzilla and storm the city. I photoshopped him as a big character, as of course I couldn't make him grow in size literally as i didn't have any magic potion. However I did make a comic strip, collages, acetated layered drawings & also made photo/painted miniature cardboard models of this in real life to give people more of an idea. So in this way, small scale has comparison to large scale. I thought of doing animations, making a full scale model doll version of Martin, paintings and more collages. These are all ideas and for the presentation deadline back in June, I ran out of time.. i however think my development needs to go elsewhere. I have read the definition on scale, and there are about 9 different variations on the meaning, so I'm thinking about exploring this a little further. I also thought about taking Martin elsewhere.. out of Manchester... 'Wish you were here' on postcards in front of the pyramids or maybe in front of the Eiffel Tower. I want to experiment with photoshop a bit more and photographs. I could also take the postcard idea and create some of my own.. with Martin as a tiny feature.. or without him at all. Maybe he could time travel, go back to the past or the future.. not sure where that would go though, as they are all ideas at the moment. This week i will be developing my ideas as much as i can, and see where that takes me. . . .