Liverpool Trip

(28/10/08) Today we set off on a coach to Liverpool, with it being the Liverpool Biennal the tutors had seized this opportunity for us to see the variation of fascinating pieces of artwork that are currently present within the city of Liverpool! We were given the tak while here to

1. choose a piece of work from one of the exhibitions that you either love, hate or even something that baffles or intrigues you!

2. Observe the piece carefully and in your notebook document it in as many ways possible e.g: sketch, photograph, deescribe in words. You could even make a video or audio recording.

3. Next you should come up with 10 or more questions about the piece of work. At least 6 of these questions should start with HOW? or WHY?

4. Gather more information about the piece of work. Collect leaflets or handouts from the galley. Ask gallery staff some questions. Later on you can also use the internt and the library to get more information about the work and see if you can answer your own questions!!

5. Email tutor an image of the work and the name of the artist in preperation for thursdays session.

The piece of artwork that I choice in order to carry out this task was one that I saw within the John Moores Exhibition in the Walker Art Galllery. This painting was called 'Special Relativity' by Julain Brain, includes furniture present within a living room where there is also what looks like a painting above the fireplace that highlights the room in a slightly different way. The painting is so detailed and accurate that at first glane it looks like a photograph.

The questions that I set myself to seek the answers to are as follows:

1. What is the meaning of the title 'Special Relativity'-does it have any significance to the piece?

2. Why did he choose to focus on objects from a living room?

3. Why did he decide to paint objects in the foreground out of scale/proportion?

4. How did he create the sense that it is a photograph and the realism/intricate detail present?

5. How did he create the illusion of depth/perspective?

6. Why did he decide to put the objects that are meant to be on the mantle piece within the foreground and vice versa?

7. Why is the picture in the frame on the right side of the painting blank?

8. Is it a mirror or a painting above the fireplace?

9. Where did he get his idea from?

10. Is it based on a room that he is familiar with?

After coming up with the above questions I then aimed to seek the answers to as many of these questions as I could. This is what I came up with.

2. He chose to focus on objects from the living room as they represent each member of his family:

• The clock stands for his father.


• The china dogs represent his grandmother (his father's mother).


• The balls of wool/cotton reels and the crochet needle stand for his mother.


• The letter rack represents his grandparents (his mother's mother and father).


• The embroidery of the sailsbury cathedral on the wall above is sewn by his grandmother.

4. Julian Brain took his time to create the painting as he started it in 2000 and it was on going until 2007. He learnt how to create fine detail and include precision.

5. The use of shadow:

• Darker tones e.g. on the wall and cornice.


• The continuous pattern within the rug-the patterns get smaller within the distance.


• The objects are painted to look 3 dimensional-based on the lines that make up the object, use of shadow and the use of light and dark tones.
  

7. The empty picture frame represents Julian's unknown genetic family.

8. It's a painting within a painting rather than a mirror.

9. It was from Julian's biological father who was a sign writer and coach painter, that he inherited the dexterity to paint this picture.

10. It is set in the rearranged front room of his adoptive family home.

3. and 6. The painting within the painting shows the same room with everything back in the right place. This is an attempt to suggest the factured self awareness that haing differing bioloigical and sociological identities can create.

Blackpool Lights!

(22/10/08)

Blackpool (pleasure beach theme park/seaside town in Lancashire, England) is a place I often go to with my family during October time to see the lights that are on display!

When I think of Blackpool I think of:

• The on going number of lights/tabloids along the front!


• The piers/beach/sea
  
• Arcades-entertainment 'Michael Jackson-Thriller' dance perfomance in 'Coral Island'
  
• Fish and chip shop (one close to Coral Island -the best chips ever!!)-walking along the front while eating them
  
• Trams (one that looks like a boat-lit up at night during the times that the lights are on)
  
• Black pool tower
  
• Rides/ the big rollocaster (The Pepsi Max)
  
• The winter Gardens
  
• Sweets/rock /fudge (I love Blackpool on them)
  
• Fortune tellers
  
• Fancy dress/joke/souvenir shops
  
• Stalls selling flashing lights/headbands/pink cowboy hats
  
• Horse and carts along the fron


• Cars almost at a stand still as people drive slowly so they can see all the lights


• Children fascinated by all the bright lights/colours and how there is so much happening-lots to see!
  
• Cold weather-wrapped up warm-gloves, hats-the works!

Blackpool has such an atmosphere-it captures 'the spirit of the traditional British seaside resort' and even though each year that I have been it is always the same-the excitement is still there! :)

Whitworth Art Gallery talk-Simon Cutts-Equivalent Spaces

(21/10/08) During this talk Simon Cutts (poet, artist and editor) talked about forms of publication:

1. He touched upon how postcards are a public work of art. How postcards can be easily read by others aswell as the person it is intented for.
2. How there is such a huge variation in the form of publication-e.gs: Richard Wilson, 1980-assemble entire exhibition out of a box, Herman de vries rosa da masena 1984-rose pettles in a container, Richard Long-from around a lake-1969 ish-grass within a book-book defines a different dimention/direction, Andy Goldsworthy-Turf Roll + Snowball 1985. Books hold a bigger promise than just a publication!
3. He then talks of his own work: 'poppies'-text on the page realting to text that was outise on concrete blocks, Text engraved into glass panels-making a bridge-walk over-still in the format of pages in a book-dirt gets into the text as the panels are outside-interesting effect as the sun casts down on the glass. Text out of neon lights.

Thoughts that I had gained after the talk:

Simple ideas can change the way in whch perceptions are held!

Think outside of the box-many people whink of publication as just a book but it could be anyway of containing text-be creative!

Innovative ideas can be very appealing/interesting!

Media can have a huge opinion on artwork!

Galleries would have to change to accomodate certain pieces of artwork-such as huge installations, artwork at needs certain conditions (lighting, weather etc)!

First Project-Learning agreement.

(20/10/08) The learning agreement explains the initial ideas for my project, of which I have come up with the following:

• A piece of artwork which is interactive to its viewers (perhaps a final piece which is an installation).


• I am going to highlght and focus on some or all of the body's senses of: look, hear, touch, smell and taste.


• I am going to focus on the seaside-Llandudno in particular-hopefully creating a final piece that makes people feel like they are at that particular place.
  

The learning agreement states:

1. An outline to the project


2. Experimental research to be untertaken


3. Contextual research to be undertaken


4. Resources required.

Sweded Film!

During this week (13/10/08) within a group we were set a task to complete a sweded film based on are own choice of film. The group that I was in came up with the film

'Mary Poppins' 1960's British musical film.





After watching the film we split the film into scenes so that we could focus on a scene at a time and decide:

• what props needed to be made,
  
• what costumes were to be worn and would they be from clothing we already had or did they need to be made,


• songs that are present within each scene,


• the places were the scenes woul take place,


• who out of our group was going to act each part,


• the words that we would say.

We split the film into the following scenes:

• Introduction-opening credits-'prodiction of Mary Poppins-disney'


• Mary Poppins arriving, the letter written by the children cellotaped back together, Mr Banks looks surprised as the day before he had tore up the letter and had thrown it in to the fire.


• Her bag-pulls out lamp, etc - including the tape measure: children: Michael-stubborn + extremley suspicious. Jane-rather inclined to giggle-can't put things away. Mary Poppins-pratically perfect in every way. Tidying nursrey-Michael can't click his fingers-objects flying, wardrobe doors-opening and closing.


• Bert's drawings on the floor. Bert + Mary hold children's hands-think, wink, ouble blink-close eyes + jump.


• Animation-all of the farm animals: cows, horse, ducksx2, lambsx2, turtles crossing water.


• Penguins dancing with bert who is tap dancing.


• Uncle bert's house-laughing-floating in the air, jokes, tea party.
  
• Snow globe-children are in bed, Mary sings to them-looks into snow globe...


• ....old women sitting with the birds.


• Chimney sweepers on the roof-also dancing with bert-Mary watching. All dance in time.


• Mr and Mrs Banks with the children-happy-flying a kite, Mary Poppins's umbrella has a parrot on the end of it-talks to her-decide its a good time that she should leave-now that the family are happy.


• End-credits-names of our group.

There was only one other group who had based their film on Mary Poppins-however even though their film was based on the same one as our groups it had been looked at in a completely different perspective which was really intriguing to see. There film was 'Scary Poppins' rather than 'Mary Poppins' and was more sinsiter than light hearted.


There was a variety of other films that had been used as a basis of a sweded film-most of which were people acting and one was animated using plasticine. It was fascinating how the group who had produced an animation had done so much within the time period that we had been given-the plasticine charcters mouths moved to fit with the word that had been included which is really inspirational. The eyes also changed to suit the expressions that they wanted to portray!

Crazy Golf Course!

(07/10/08) This weeks challenge within groups was to produce a section of a crazy golf course that can be used by all the groups. Aswell as producing an individual, pratical golf club.
Each group was given a sentence that they had to base their section of the crazy golf course on.
The group that I was in was given ‘over the hills and far away.’
What we came up with:
Using: cardboard sheets + boxes, egg boxes, toilet roll tubes, paper mache, mod rock, paint-to produce minature:
· Hills
· Valleys
· Bridges
· Trees
· Mountains
· Cave

• The course would be based on a winding path that goes over and under bridges, passing trees, mountains and hills, finally ending at a cave.
  
• ‘Over the hills and far away’ makes me think of an enchanted place almost unreachable with it being ‘far away’- a place full of fantasies/myths-that people feel are special and are longed to be witnessed (fairies, unicorns). Along the way to the cave at the end of the course would be various obstacles-perhaps a troll (under the bridge) relating to fantasies/myths.

• When making the objects that make up the course I thought that it would not be ideal to produce fairies/trolls out of card or plasticine as they would easily be damaged when people have a go with the course using their golf clubs. Instead I just used glitter on the cave to make it appear as something special and to highlight the finishing point of the course.

Inventors, communicators and copiers!

(06/10/08) Within groups of 6 we were split into pairs: two were the inventors,
two were the communicators and two were the copiers.

• The two inventors had to make something using 6 straws and 4 pins.


• The communicators had to take instructions-step by step as to how to make the object from straws-to the copiers.


• The copiers had to make what the inventors were making using exactly the same materials.


• The copiers and the communicators couldn’t see what the inventors had made and the instructions could only be passed via word of mouth, it could not be drawn or written.

I was an inventor with Julia and we came up with making a person with two straws as the legs, two as the arms, one as the head and one as the shoulders.
Phoebe and Kirsty were the communicators-it was hard to try and explain each part-making sure that we highlighted were each pin went in relation to each straw.
Ffi and Sam were the copiers and what they made was almost identical to what Julia and I had invented-it was really amazing!!

Other groups had made more complicated shapes and they didn’t seem to turn out as well. When comparing what the inventors had made to what the copiers had made.

Themed project!

(30/09/08)

Introduction to group project with the 2nd Yr Interactive Arts students:
To produce decoration, costumes, food, drink + entertainment based on the theme given on a budget of £3 per group!
The group that I was in was given

THE 1980’S!

What we came up with:

• Room: Small dark room in corner of studio-ideal for projections onto the wall.
  
• Entertainment: download various 1980s songs-Michael Jackson –Thriller, Love Shack etc-have the music videos projected on the wall.
  
• Decoration: Make Pac man out of paper + paint and stick around the space that we had located. Hanging ghosts from Pac Man-a game that was introduced with the 1980’S.
  Make big Rubik’s cubes out of card + wood-painted relevant colours with black outlines-hung from ceiling and placed on the floor to put food on.
  
• Food + drink: Smash, Bisto gravy, ice gems, coke and lemonade. (smash particularly present within the 1980’S).


• Costumes: Girls: skirts, leggings, luminous leg warmers/light jeans-bright tops-bright eyeshadow-bold jewellery/headband.
  Boys: T-shirts-cartoons/games (space invaders)-light washed out jeans. Transformer costume worn and made by Jay out of cardboard, paint and braces-transformed into a vehicle on the ground!

Invent a skill!

Today (29/09/08) involved the performance of the skill we had invented over the summer holidays. My skill was ‘Tap dancing without shoes, just spoons!’ – at first I was nervous-wondering if my skill was easy enough to understand and to carry out. My group seemed really intrigued and were enthusiastic about having ago. It worked out a lot better than I had thought and it was really interesting and inspiring to see what the rest of my group had done.



It was fascinating to see how the class had designed such innovative skills and how different they were from one another, some examples are:

• Creating people out of carrots by just using a Stanley knife.
  
• Juggling and using a hula hoop-jugglooping!
  
• Spreading butter on to toast by just using magnets.


• Tying a piece of ribbon on to a cup to make a tie.


• Drawing flowers without taking your pen of the paper.
  
• Making sand castles/towers/shapes without a bucket just sand and water-squeezing the sand mixed with water through your hands.
  

Imagination is everything!

Imperial War Museum visit!

Imperial war museum North: designed by Daniel Libeskin-Architect 1997..........

We hopped on a tram (26/09/08) from St. Peter’s Square to Harbour City Station to the Imperial war museum where we had time to explore and discover three interesting facts within our group. We came
up with the following:

1. Braille Pocket watch-was used by the blind or partially sighted ex servicemen at St.Dustan’s 1919-in 1915 the 1st St.Dustan’s hostel opened in London in order to provide rehabilitation, retraining and work for the ex servicemen who had been blinded during the war.

2. During the war if you didn’t have a gas mask it was advised to urinate on a piece of cloth and cover you nose and mouth using this.

3. Soldiers often had to go weeks/months before they could have a wash meaning that body lace appeared within their clothes-they would take blood three times a day. A solider even claimed that after he took he socks off after weeks without a wash his socked actually moved.

• Later that day within Manchester we went and eplored the:
  1. Chinese Museum: Tsang Kin-Wah’s first solo exhibition in the UK-features two site-specific installations exploring hidden facts which are avoided in relationships.
  2. Craft centre which had one off shop-we saw artists, jewellers, craftsmen working and the work that they had for sale.
  

It was great to have a wonder round and find out more about Manchester as at this time I didn't know much about the city and what there is to see and do!!! I might as well make the most of living in a city and getting out and about-a great way to get inspiration!!!!

'A little knowledge can go a long way' Jenny Holzer

Our first week task (25/09/08) was to explore Manchester and seek the answers to the following tasks:
Find:
1. A specialist shop-note an item for sale:
1 Newton Street-EMPIRE EXCHANGE-looked like an antique/charity store- 1980 Air Fix magazine for modellers, priced as 50 pence when originally sold-now priced as £2.50 1979-beano comic-£2.50 1960s-beatle’s ring-£15.00-very fancy!!

2. A good place to eat-what’s on the menu:
Newton Street-Quality Sandwich bar selling all sorts: barms, sandwiches, all day breakfast, toast, jacket potatoes, snacks + drinks-made to order-friendly people-fresh, good quality food-yummy!!

3. A Manchester surprise:
Lads in a car surprised us as they shouted when they drove past.

4. A Museum or Art Gallery exhibit that amused, amazed or inspire you:

Manchester Art Gallery-The theatre of Life by Andy Hazel 2004-Wardrobes with printed tin plate scenes.
-Witty domestic scenes of everyday life-he makes ordinary life appear extraordinary.
-Includes various scenes including objects/decor that was fashionable in 1950/1960’s and previous e.g candle holders. It allows you to travel back in time to see the changing fashion and functions of objects.

I particularly liked this piece because:

• It was interesting and innovative.
• It was interactive as there was a sensor that made the installation move as someone walked past or was near by.
• It is informing by providing viewers with an insight to past decor/objects and an insight to everyday life.
• The activities carried out are just everyday pleasures/choices that are done with out much thought and here they are made more exciting and enjoyable.
• The moving scenes are within a set of drawers with a lamp and mirror on top- I wonder what made him think of this idea?-perhaps to illiterate/emphasise another object from the past time period that he was focusing on? This object is also used to carry out an everyday activity!!
• The lamp/mirror and clock on top of the set of drawers also highlight the previous decor/taste.