rumadelffmp-blog

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Over the last 12 Weeks I have learnt so many new skills and new knowledge.I have also learnt a lot about myself during this project . I have improved a lot over the past two years i am very grateful what i have learnt and the knowledge i have gained it has been an interesting experiences with many ups and downs. I now understand how important and vital planning is to my work. This will also help me in future jobs and situations.

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Exhibition Preparation

As it was coming up to the final exhibition I had to think about what I actually wanted to show and how I wanted to present it. This task turned out to be a lot harder than I anticipated. I knew that I wanted to present my prints that I have worked into as they reflect my research the most, I also think that they convey my message of lost memories the most.I just didn’t know how to present my work.  

We all had a choice if we wanted our wall that we had been allocated to be in colour or not. I thought it was well suited that I had my wall in colour considering I had looked at colour how  it effects the way people see images. I really wanted my wall to be bright and something that will actually effect the visuals of my work. Looking through the colours I decided orange would be the best suited for me and my work. Orange represents Joy,warmth and heat, this contrast with the visual look of my images.Before i actually printed with them they look oversold almost faded, this created a dulltcold feel towards the images. I though adding a lot of colour to the images and the wall will change the way people see them completely. 

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Creating Larger Screen

Once I had created my smaller screens i realised that I wanted to go bigger. I wanted the people to be clear.and have enough room to experiment with paint stitch and overlay of colour

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Narrative Theory 

This is a theory that is all about narrative I originally looked into this near the start of my project but never documented it on here. 

Vladimir Propp

was a Russian critic and literary theorist that analysed thousands of fairytales in the 1920’s He later proposed that it was actually possible to classify the characters and their traits into clearly defined functions and roles Characters: 

Hero-the main character that restores equilibrium 

 Villain-the opposition that blocks any attempts to restore equilibrium 

Donor-gives the hero something to help complete the equilibrium

 Dispatcher-sends the hero on their way to their mission 

 False hero-acts good but later betrays the hero 

The helper-helps the hero on their quest 

 The princess- the reward for the hero 

Her father-ensures that the hero is rewarded

Tzvetan Todorov

Tzvetan Todorov was a bulgarian literary theorist. Todorov theory is all about equilibrium. He beloved all narratives follow the same sort of rule- 

Equilibrium >Disequilibrium>New Equilibrium 

His theory suggests that out narratives start with a state of equilibrium in which life is ‘normal’ and protagonist is happy. later on this state of normality is disrupted by an outside force, which then has been fought against in order to return to a state of equilibrium

Claude Levis Strauss 

Claude Levis Strauss was a social anthropologist who study many myths and tribal cultures. He examined how stories unconsciously reflect the values, believes and myths of a culture. He revealed that these are usually expressed in the form of a binary oppositions. Over the years he research has been adapted by media theorists to reveal underlying themes and symbolic oppositions in media text. 

These theories have been a key thing and a problem that I am trying to solve. I wanted to work out if it is actually necessary for these elements to actually make a story. throughout my project I have realised this is a big part of research that I am reflecting on.These are actually a lot of things that people think about without even realising. Another inquiry I have been interest in is, if audiences actually visualise images in the same way, and try to create their own narrative within the photos to make sense of them. 

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Carrie Mae Weems

The Blue Notes Series 2014-2015

“. . . Weems positions herself as history’s ghost….”- Nancy Princethal, Art In America

Carrie Mae Weems is considered one of the most influential artist. Weems’s  work is mostly photography but she combines materials and gets to convey messages mostly on politics and history. A lot of weems work is also based on race, cultural identity and how people see the world. ‘Weems wants “people of colour to stand for the human multitudes” and for her art to resonate with audiences of all races.’

Weems’s work has really inspired me with her work on ‘The Blue Notes Series’ these are a series of blurred primary images with and overlay of colour with basic block shapes. I think the images are really inspiring to my work as the images in the background are unclear. No one can really make them out for detail, all we know is that they are people. We just don't know who. This links to my work on characters and trying to work out who people are individually in photos. What is their background? How do these people connect? Who are they?

Weems’s use of the block colour overlaying the black and white image is really obscure at first, as all want to do is actually see the people, but when you actually understand the purpose of them and that they are actually there to stop you from seeing the people clearly is really interesting and beautiful. Even though blocks are solid and basic the simplicity of it makes the context more clear.

What can I do from this?

As this links so well to my project I have to be careful I do not copy it, I just want to take inspiration from it. As the images are blurred I think this will look really nice if I photo transferred my images as they do not always turn out so clear. I could then apply blocks of colour to the images and see how this changes my work. 

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East End and Essex Old town photos

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Location

Creating my work, I have realised that location is a big part of my project, all of my photos are old family photos. Most of my family origanlly came from the east end or Essex. I feel like these people in the photo graphs represent the history and the atmosphere of the locations. Photos are a frozen part of history a snippet of someones life. These photos not only represent the people but represent the place. I feel like this is an important part of my project that I have missed. Only now I understand that locations of photos create more of a story than the people may have. 

Both of these locations are well known for trading making them a prime location for people to live. these location were also effected like dos other places by the war. The East End was hit terribly throughout both wars whereas essex was a place people would go to to move away from London to get to safety. Even though the war had a huge impact of both of the paces the lives and spirits of the place lives on the memory and personality stayed. 

Now I understand the importance of location throughout my photos I think this adds to my audience as i am now aiming my outcome at a location. I am trying to capture the ear changing landscapes in history and show people the past. I want my work to do the location justice show them the lives that made their community what it is today. 

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Editing Screen Prints

Once I created my screen prints I wanted to do something else to them, i felt like they were missing something and were incomplete.It was visual plain and not exciting . I decided to take both inspiration from Rosie James and John Baldassari . 

I decided to cut out my faces and sticking blue underneath them this was both inspiration from John Baldassari and from my sketches. This is inspiration from the illustrator John Baldassari. I decided to pick the colour blue as i feel it complements the pink but also changes the message, I have used both warm and hot colours this then actually neutralises the outcome of the images and keeps it interesting. Both joyful but also adds a hint of melancholy to the visual. I also decided to add embroidery stitch and out line parts of the people ‘characters’ in my prints. This technique I have used before as it is a response to the artist Rosie James. To me the technique creates the effect of someone piecing together a picture trying to work things out who the actually are. 

Overall I really liked the out come of these prints as they combine most of my key research and follows my context my project. The one thing that I would do from this is make bigger prints this means my prints could have more detail and have a clearer outcome once I've printed with them. Also add the same techniques over the top. I will experiment with the use of different colours and get peer feedback on what this actually does to my images. 

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Who is my Audience?

Now  feel comfortable and have a rough idea on how my final pice may come together and look. I now understand what audience I want my work to appeal to. 

Most of my work is based on old family photos, but I still wasn't it to appeal to other people. I feel my work is mostly aimed at 20- and above. I believe the colour and design of my work overall looks quite youthful. Meaning my work can appeal to qiute a young age. Whereas the context behind my work appeals to much older. All of the photos I have looked at are old school and are classic memories. Making the audience have a wide age range. 

My work Is based on narrative ,created from old family photos meaning older generations will still be pleased, as hopefully it will bring back some long lost memories they have themselves. Like someone reminiscing. 

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John Baldessari

John Balderassri is an artist and illustrator. 

I am very interested in the way john baldessari will block out parts of his image. his work has a clear link to colour theory this is because when he does take parts of the image out he uses vivd colour to fill its plan. When he does this it adds a whole knew meaning. This will be really interesting for me to experiment with over the top of my screen prints. 

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Response to Diem Chau

This was my experimental response to the artist Diem Chau. I decided to go and experiment in the ceramics workshop and use the potters wheel. 

I really wanted to experiment with clay as an artist that really inspired me layered stitches of people over ceramic plates and mugs. I thought it would be something interesting and different if I created my own plates or mugs in a response to Diem Chau. My original intentions was to create a couple of pots that I could potentially poke holes into when they were wet and stitch into the clay. But what i didn't really understand how hard it was to use the potters wheel. the first few stages making the its was okay but when it came to the ‘pinch and lift’ technique I really struggled. The ‘pinch and lift’ is when you have to make the pots sides came up, but whenever i tried this my pot would crack. 

After ages in the ceramics room I finally made three pots I was happy with one of them colapsed but I thought this made a really pretty and organic outcome. Unfortunately I left my pots to long meaning i didn't give myself enough time to poke holes in them. But i think It could be a good outcome if i used my simplistic mark made characters that were orginally inspired by John Tenniel. I am yet to do this but I want to try as i this could produce a really effect outcome. 

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Working out Colour

When I created my origninal screen prints I only used the colour pink. This is when I realised the my choice of colour had a major impact on how the audience visualise my images. It changed the narrative completely. 

I decided to explore deeper into colour theory and see how it will effect my work. 

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Joseph Albers

Joseph Albers was originally born in Germany but later moved to america where he became an artist and educator.His work has played a major role into the ideas and concepts of colour theory.  Albers most iconic work are the colour squares which he began in 1950. 

To Joseph Albers colour is everything it is not just a science but in fact a way of life. All of Albers work backs up his love and research of colour. It is all about how people percieve colour.  For many years colour was seen as magic and then became science, and the colour wheel was invented. This became the easiest way to understand colour by ordering it. I believe this an link to both similarity in Gestalt theory and Narrative theory. People need to create some sort of order to make sense of it. This is what Joseph Albers wanted to question. 

Albers work is all about perception of colour and how overlaying two completely different colours can actually manipulate them and change how the audience sees them. The colour purple 

'Color is fooling us all the time. All the time, like women do, you see, life is interesting' - Josef Albers. I think this quote is very interesting no one really knows what colours looks like. Its unique to every person. Some people may find certain colours beautiful, whereas some people may find them hideous. 

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Colour and Emotions 

For my project I working with images to recreate a narrative. So far i have been doing this with old black and white images , but recently i have wanted to experiment with colour and see how this cold effect and potentially change the way the audience sees the narrative. 

Colour is very powerful to design. It can set a mood, attract attention, or can make a statement. Colour can be used to energise or cool down. A strong red has been shown to raise blood pressure, whereas blues have shown a calming affect. The first colour wheel was created by Sir Isaac Newton in 1666. The purpose of the colour wheel was to work out what colours harmonise together, this is known as ‘colour harmonies’. In visual experiences, harmony is something that is pleasing to the eye. It engages the viewer and it creates an inner sense of order, a balance in the visual experience. The colour together can either be to boring or chaotic. when the colour blend is boring the brain won’t really link them will not engage with the colours. However when the blend of colours are ‘chat’ the brain won’t be able to process the swell and will not try and link them. the viewer can’t stand to look at it. The human brain will reject what it cannot organise. so this colour wheel delivers a sense of harmony and order to viewers. 

How do I apply this to my work?

Because I’m looking at sequencing i would like to use diffrent colours in different images. I would like to see if i could get the audience to question the narrative and emotion of each part of the sequence. I can do this by using opposite colours of the spectrum. Going forward from this, also gives me the chance to research into artist who they have themselves looked into the ‘theory of colour’. Two people i am really interested in are Joseph Albers and Wassily Kandinsky. I think looking into these to artists could really benefit my research and my project. 

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/bbc-four-programme-colour-the-spectrum-of-science-looks-at-light-and-optical-illusions-a6728701.html

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Exposing a Screen 

As I had been looking into the artist Rosie James I was inspired to create my own screen prints I used photos from my family collection. I wanted images with different people and backgrounds so that none of them connected. 

considering the ways that the audience will look at my work i wanted to make the mages cognac to each other even though they didn't. I used my research on Gestalt theory, and wanted the sequence and colour of the screen prints to give the impression of proximity and similarity. 

When I created my screen i wanted the images to have as much detail as they possible could. The only way i could do this is if i scanned my images into the computer and bitmapped them. This meant i kept all they detail and shadows in the photos, but this meant that the image was only created by dots. I felt this affected actually added to the visual aesthetic of my prints and made them seem even older than they actually were. It was like an old newspaper print. When i first created these prints i didn't really think about the colours i picked the colour pink only because i find it a pleasing colour. But once i had created the prints i felt like the colour had  a much bigger impact than i anticipated, It changes the and the way audiences see it. changing the meaning completely. 

What I Can do Next

From this I felt like i learned the value of colour. From this I have decided to look further into the colour theory. And how applying colour to my work can change the narrative. 

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Image Transfer (Cellulose Thinners)

This workshop was all about transferring photo copied images by using 'cellulose thinners'

I really liked the idea of stitching into photos and creating new narratives by doing this. The only problem I found is that I didn't want to stitch into the original photo as it may ruin it and I may want to use it again or keep it for family memories. so I decided to stitch or paint over the top of photo copies. This still has an interesting outcome but it wasn't something knew, It didn't really challenge me or and any aesthetic look to the copy. I wanted to see if there was a different way to copy and photo. I was then introduced to the process of image transfer. 

This process involves using a small amount thinner and applying it to the back of a photocopy that is already laying face down on top of a sheet of paper. Applying pressure to the back of the copy will the realise the image onto the paper. 

The visual outcome of my transfers was very interesting I think it worked in my favour as it created more of a rustic look and feel to the images ,exaggerated the element of ‘old fashioned’. The effects of my transfer rough copied images with ‘dull faded’ colours. The drawbacks of this process were that if you didn't apply enough pressure or thinner to the photo it may not transfer properly. creating just a ghost like images not bing able to make any being or thing out of it. 

This process was something i really enjoyed and I plan to use this again in my project. to take this further i could link my Rosie James research and stitch into these photos. Because i am also looking into the way colour effects narrative and photos i would like to add colour to the transfer to see what outcome this has. 

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Repeat Pattern Workshop

In this workshop we looked at how to create a repeat pattern . I ave always been interested in repeat pattern and have always wanted to make one myself. Repeat patterns have been found for many years,