MEDI 323: Critical Evaluation

Critical Evaluation:

The brief was very open on this project but stated that we had to explore and experiment with themes, ideas and different mediums of art. It was to be a self directed study culminating in an exhibition.

At the very beginning I wanted to focus on developing my ‘Dreamscapes’ project that I produced for the Experiment module in year 2. It was an enjoyable project that I felt had a lot of territory unexplored and a huge amount of scope. I started to research refining my ideas and the actual physicality of making the image, through practice it became smoother and more organic to actually produce the images. I wanted to try and paint a more complete image of thoughts and feelings and realised very quickly that a large portion of my life belonged to things that were not ‘real’ such as video games and cartoons or fantasy stories etc. this lead me to the notion of the term Unrealestate, a term which I have defined and made my own in a very concrete way throughout this project. The downside to the fact that my work has to incorporate the unreal is that more often than not the images are copyright. I am not sure whether or not my usage of the images falls under fair use or not and frankly in the interest of free speech in art I do not feel that I am obliged to care. I personally feel that copyright has gotten to be less about art integrity and more about fat cats turning a profit with artists that believe they are upper crust turning on artists that are ‘beneath’ them as evidenced in the case of Damien Hurst’s actions towards a graffiti artist known as Cartrain.

“Damien Hurst threatened to sue breach of copyright when a piece of his art was parodied. Walker comments ‘This legalistic response by a contemporary artist to an instance of plagiarism (or homage) was rather preposterous, given the number of times artists have borrowed imagery from the mass media without obtaining permission or paying for the privilege.” (Walker, 1999, p.185)

I therefore do not mind joining the rising tide of Appropriation Artists that are lashing back at copyright. That being said I do not feel that my art fits that definition rigidly since I am not trying to make a political comment but more of a social and psychological point with my images. I do however understand the need for copyright; people deserve to make money off of their ideas and their work and also to not have this stolen. I would want to have the royalties of my own art and have my ideas protected.

“Ursula Smart defines copyright as ‘ Copyright essentially prevents one person from benefiting from another’s skill and labour or directly copying or passing off another’s work.’” (Hill & Paris, 2001, p.295)

This I feel however has been warped, it has become much to stringent and I would argue that if something is changed in some way then it is no longer exactly the original. I think it is very hard to actually totally plagiarize something in terms of art, even a group of artists referring to themselves as the ‘new plagiarists’ altered the images and thus made comment on the original.

“In practice, pure plagiarism rarely took place because in most cases transformations of the originals occurred.” (Walker, 2001, p. 132)

I had a lot more ideas besides working on taking the Dreamscapes to a new level and blending Unrealestate into them. One of my main Ideas was to produce a series of mixed media collages that focused on copyright, censorship and consumerism as I have studied these topics extensively over the course of my degree and feel that they are very relevant and current issues that can always be addressed in an artistic manner. The main Idea that I started to refine and even did a trial image for was the mixed-media collage of consumerism that I wanted to produce on a huge board, I was going to collect things I had consumed, cut things out from magazines and newspapers but have it based solidly on what I personally consume, I was then going to add pictures of printed money both British and American with some of the printed notes burnt. To finish this image I was going to, in red paint, add in my finger and hand prints. This is an idea I still want to do as I feel that it can be impacting but due to time restraints because of my ill health and also because I feared the image would be viewed as childish I dropped the idea for this current piece of work. Likewise with the censorship image which I wanted a black canvas or board with the word ‘censored’ in the middle of in a white stamp effect. I wanted to do this because of my research and also even more because of the recent legal debates over censorship of the Internet such as SOPA and PIPA. I dislike the idea of censorship intently, I think free speech is a very good thing and even if I dislike someone’s viewpoint I will still defend his or her right to be able to voice it. That being said my latest point of contention does revolve around the Internet, something that I very much think of as mine, the Internet should always be free and open because that is what makes it the entity that it is. Again given more time and better health I would have liked to explore this to a much greater extent. I also had an idea to study the psychology of Child Art and see if I could make Dreamscapes from a child's perspective.

I was interested in Child Art because I have studied child psychology in the past and also I think that finger-painting is a very underrated medium, an opinion that has only amplified with research. It is very expressive and freeing and also I think intrinsic. It relates to our ancient ancestors that painted with their hands on cave walls, in the sand, on stones etc. because I feel that we all have an inherent need of and appreciation for art and also, high art critique aside, have the ability to produce art. I understand that at first glance this avenue of study may appear completely tangential on my part and in some ways this can be considered true. I was worried that focusing on just myself would make the project a little one-dimensional so I wanted to expand my scope by collaborating with a child. I do regret that this idea was only half complete, however due to time restraints caused by illness it would have been impossible to follow my tangent to its full conclusion. So this Idea may seem quite unrelated but I planned to make Dreamscapes using the Unrealestate accumulated by a child. I’d have liked to gone further with this but there would always have been the danger that it would not have been received well because of its evident childish nature.       

In the end I chose to stick with combining Dreamscapes and Unreal estate and taking both of my home-grown concepts to new artistic levels. I have drawn heavily on my own experiences, feelings, emotions and influences, as my reality is the one I know best. I understand that other people will have different perspectives to me and may interpret things in my images I had not originally thought of or intended but that I feel is a huge part of what art as a whole is about and if people add new layers of meaning then my images have new layers of meaning and I am happy to embrace that. I hope that some things will be obviously conveyed and that my reality is not so different from other peoples as to render the contexts void. I have opted to make a somewhat risky move and include my faith as a Pagan in this project. It is not always viewed correctly and often portrayed in a horrible light and I wanted to dispel that. I have played into certain widely held notions but I have done so respectfully and not compromised the integrity of what I believe. I have tried in my final series to include a wide range of topics that I feel my life revolves around and the elements feature heavily in this both in terms of faith and gaming, again a large part of my life, so elements have a triptych in their own right. I have also covered time, faith, a season, an actual dream and chosen my room and how I view it with my thoughts and feelings as the center because that is where most of my reality happens and where all the images were made.    

This project has naturally been hugely influenced by the things I do. Video games have played a huge role in my life so naturally they influence my idea of art and also my art in general. I have been gaming for as long as I can remember so most video games are like old friends to me. This odd relationship I have with video games was one of the starting points of my theories of Unrealestate.

This project has been fairly hard to achieve, as I have been limited massively with time due my ill health. I have had massive troubles with back pain and then as a result very strong medication which has made it hard to stay awake, let alone focus. It has limited the amount of what I could do both in terms of focus and mobility so a few ideas have had to be shelved. It has also made sticking to my schedule a nightmare owing to falling asleep because of the medication when I had work to be doing. There have been some bonuses to being on the medication however, not least of all the pain relief, but due to the fact that my back problems are so bad I am taking opiate based medication, which has been helpful in boosting creativity. I know that several of my inspirations, in terms of literature, in life were using opium at the time of writing their great works. I find this quite ironic really that I am unintentionally following in the footsteps of Poe all be it to a much lesser degree. I feel that re-working the images has been easier and a lot more fluid because of this, I have been able look at my images in a different way and in some ways see more clearly what needed to be altered in my images in order to achieve my desired effect. However the pain-killers have made writing anything extremely difficult as they tend to leave me drowsy and quite confused which seems to happen in waves, this means I have had very limited time where I have been completely lucid and focused.

Despite these massive setbacks I am happy with the direction the project went in and the actual end result, I feel I have worked very hard to ensure that the setbacks I faced didn't sway my project too much off course and that the end result still is in line with the goals I had in mind both at the start and as the project developed. In a funny way this has very passively altered the project because art comes from life thus life experience can only serve to enrich art.

To conclude, initially in this project I wanted to take a very psychological stand point to my art because of my previous interest in the subject of psychology. I feel that I have achieved this through extensive research into the fields of art psychology in terms of the project as a whole. I have paid particular attention to colour and its meanings and connotations so that I could have more control over how my images would be viewed and thus manipulating the psychological tonalities of my images. I wanted to explore children’s art from a psychological standpoint and although I ultimately did not opt to incorporate any of the child collaborated images into the final exhibition run of images it was a very valid practise as well as a very interesting experiment.

From the outset of developing this from the ideas formed in my second year I wanted the finished images to convey a sense of liminality, blurring the lines between the ‘real’ and ‘un-real’ to paint a more rounded picture of what I consider true reality. I feel that I have achieved this with the final direction I have taken the project in and the final exhibited images I have produced. I personally feel that I have taken my original concepts and pushed and refined them to the limits. I would have liked to play with more mediums and maybe have combined a lot more mediums but that is an avenue I can still explore in the future. I do feel that I experimented a lot with both concepts and mediums and through extensive research have produced something that I am very happy with.       

MEDI 322: Project Complete!

I couldn't leave the blog without wrapping everything up properly. So here is the critical ending of this project.

Project Overview Movie:

Critical Evaluation:

My project originally started off as collaboration with my friend Loren, owner of a bespoke / custom cake company called all kinds of cake. She wanted to expand the horizons of the company and establish a base with which she can work from and increase public awareness of her business in order to increase her revenue; helping to turn it from a hobby business into a more profitable, professional company and maybe eventually developing it into a shop.

In order to take her business forward we both decided a website was absolutely crucial, the amount of people online is ever increasing and having a medium with which to contact these people gives a huge advantage to a business. Creating a website was only the start of it however, Loren and I had decided that the website would need to be as professional as possible; in order to develop a really effective website we had to essentially set about developing the business as a brand, encompassing all aspects of business branding including things like a logo and graphics etc. As a collaboration this led to some really interesting and unique opportunities, both Loren and I have a keen eye for design and so developing a theme for the company as well as an eye catching logo (primarily for the website but with a view that it may eventually be used in a shop) proved to be really enjoyable and successful.

We both had very different ideas initially, due to our different interests and backgrounds. My initial approach to the project was drawing on a more surreal, anime style as I thought that it would be a completely unique approach, this was based on my own personal associations with cakes. Loren was firmly against this idea and wanted to use a theme based around the style of the 1950’s, this would evoke a more retro-diner feel, using soft, pastel colours and stylistic fonts. It didn’t take her long to convince me that this was the way to go and it made me look at the project with a different thought process. This led me to develop ideas that I probably would have not have even come up with had I gone on with the anime idea without Loren’s feed back in collaboration.

The decision-making was left mainly with me, everything creative like logos and themes were initially my development after we had agreed on a stylistic direction during our many meetings. I would then get extensive verbal feedback from Loren. Using this feedback I would go away, rethink and edit my ideas and get feedback again, repeating the process until we were both happy with a finely tuned, finished product. This was in no way an easy process, both Loren and I were having personal problems in our own lives and although the work was progressing, it was not at the rate that was necessary to stay on schedule. The development of an entire brand would be a full time job outside of the academic context and would probably need a specially assigned team to get everything done properly. The many unexpected obstacles and hurdles we both faced slowed us down in the development process. Eventually we did agree on a logo and a theme but it was much later in the project than I would have liked.

Because the project had hit a snag in terms of staying on track with the timetable, the process of developing a website with all of the features I had planned became a daunting task, particularly as I still had a lot of work to complete with the deadline looming closer and closer. In order to tackle this I brought in a website developer, another friend of mine, Paul. This expanded the collaboration further especially because I had to then relay messages between him and Loren’s Father Jim, who owns the domain names and server space intended to host the finished website.

Initially this was a very good move, Paul was very receptive of ideas and knowing the urgency at which I needed the website developed he began immediately. This enthusiasm did not last very long unfortunately and his progress became slow. I began to think that maybe he underestimated the level of work required and would not be able to complete the site to the agreed deadlines or to spec. He was very hard to reach at this point and I think it may have been down to embarrassment, owing to the fact that we are also friends and he had to let me down. I feel if he were a professional this would probably not have occurred. I personally did not have a problem that he would not be able to do it but it I would like to have been properly notified, so that I would have had a chance to correct the situation.  

I started to feel that I would need to try and create a contingency / back up plan, which involved me developing a website using an online website development tool called moonfruit. This was a challenge as I had not used the software before and had to learn it as I went because there simply was not enough time left. It proved however to be a very good tool as the website came together and there were easy features that gave me ideas of how to better improve the site. Loren liked the website I had developed as I was able to make a unique site which included most of the features I had originally planned as well as some extra ones, most notably the social widgets.

The project is going to be an on going one and now, just because the website is done and the branding has begun it does not mean that my role is finished. The project has been a huge learning curve; I initially thought that working with Loren, as a friend, would be a relaxed atmosphere and would go seamlessly. This was not the case and because of the friendship it was assumed that we would be more lenient on each other when unable to attend meetings due to personal issues, which set us back in our progress. If this was not an academic piece of work but an actual professional job (i.e. Loren had hired me or there was no prior relationship between us) I feel it would have gone smoother, Loren would have been more interested in deadlines as it would be her money being spent and it is likely she would have had a clearer agenda on the design side of things from the start.

Bringing in Paul was a decision I did not take lightly and although it appeared promising at the beginning it quickly went on to prove fruitless, I do not blame Paul for this, I was misinformed about what he could do and I dropped him in the deep end, he was just trying to help a friend as a favour and probably didn’t understand the scale of the work that needed to be done. Again, if this was a professional project I would have had to spend money bringing in somebody who I knew could get the job done by way of extensive research, in this project I lacked the resources to be able to do that.

I feel that although there were numerous snags and hiccups within all stages of the project the fact that Loren and I are both happy with the end result proves that it was a successful collaboration. In reality, whenever an agreement is made to work with other people, you are taking on board all of their problems and issues, in a professional setting a contract would be drawn up to ensure that these are minimalized when it comes to getting the work done. In this project the opposite happened and the problems were exacerbated, coming before the work because of our existing understanding and friendship.

MEDI 259: Critical Evaluation

I have called my piece ‘Dreamscapes’ because I perceived it to be a landscape of my idea of a dream. It is a montage of images, informed by my dreams and the cultural images of dreams and memories that have been fed to me since birth by the media as a whole. I wanted to use Plymouth for the first image because I have a stock of photos that I took of Plymouth and they are personal to me. I believe that photographs are important memories; they are the physical representation of a single point in time that meant or means something to the photographer. As such I felt it important to start in a place that held a lot of memories for me, as I wanted the final image to represent memories and dreams. However I intended the outcome to be something others would recognise as a dream.

Originally, I intended to make an image using much simpler techniques and project it into a space. This would effectively create a ‘pocket of reality’ by having not only a new space made in the image but also using the objects and terrain it would be projected on. The works of Doug Aitken and Christian Boltanski inspired me because they produce such stunning installations using projection. I was also initially going to include music in the installation to create a brand new immersive environment but due to time and space constraints the idea was changed. It did however turn out to be serendipitous as I think the painterly quality of the image actually conveys what I wanted more accurately.

In this experimental work I have drawn very heavily on cultural references that have shaped me both as a person and an artist. In particular the works of great authors such as Edgar Allen Poe and Lewis Carroll, since their fantastical and dream like stories have influenced my notion of dreams, reality and memories. I have naturally drawn heavily from my own personal daydreams and nighttime flights of fancy because this is a very personal project to me. A further layer of inspiration comes from both video games and comic books, which were hugely important to me as a child, and as such highly influential to the way I visualise the imaginary. Artistically I was most influenced by surrealism and in particular Dali, I wanted my image to spark the same curiosity that ‘The persistence of memory’ sparked in me. This I do feel I achieved because people were studying it in great detail.

I was greatly concerned with my image being received the way I wanted it to be. The psychological aspect of the image is a crucial element. However everyone has a different perspective on the image and all of them are true. Art evolves the more it is viewed and gains new layers of meaning.

The actual production of the Plymouth Dreamscape image was time consuming and exhausting.  Although I used a relatively simple process, it took a long time to get the image looking right and achieve the moods and feelings that I wanted to convey. This is due in part to my own perfectionist idea of my work. Also, it is challenging to place the fragments of stock images correctly and find the exact opacity for that fragment. This can become confusing when there are a lot of fragments. I have tried to make the process easier by having folders containing the relevant layers. On the second image, I expanded this further by naming some of the ‘fragments’. Each fragment needed to be on an individual layer for greater control over the image. I used Photoshop.

People that have viewed the Plymouth Dreamscape image have given me very positive feedback. It has been overwhelming to hear that people like it. The most common response is that it seems like a painting at first glance. This draws them in and makes them study the image in more detail.

Although no one has initially said they thought it was about dreams or memories, they have acknowledged that it has dream like qualities. People have picked up on the fact that both the sea and sky are almost cartoon like and these are the parts that most appeal to them. I intended them to be the major draw in the image as personally when I think of Plymouth I think most of the sky and sea. The fact that these are the biggest focus of the image give it a relaxing and calming feel for some people. A few people remarked that the image made them feel unsettled however. I am not sure why but I am very pleased with the fact that everyone has a very different experience when looking at the image.

I really enjoy this process of making images; it feels incredibly natural and comfortable to me allowing for it to be fun even though it is repetitive. I would like to keep making more images like this and expanding on this as I feel these images are very personal and fit in with my creative style. Many people remarked that they had not seen anything like the image that I exhibited.

I have subsequently produced another Dreamscape of a graveyard that has a much darker feel but can still be recognised as part of a set. They are both so radically different in tone that it is hard to compare them with each other. The graveyard is much more focused on the winter; I would hope that it affects an air of repose and quietude. I wanted it to be centered around the notion of transition and liminality. I personally feel that the place in itself could almost be a metaphor for the circularity of life and death because of the huge presence of nature in the graveyard.

In summation I feel that this project has a huge amount of scope and I intend to produce more images and develop the idea of dreamscape further. I have currently no dreamscapes featuring interior locations, which I intend to remedy. 

MEDI 264: Interactive Sound and Vision - Critical Evaluation For the Draft Project

The prototype for my project actually works extremely well, it functions as a tone matrix even if it can sometimes be a little erratic, however more often than not it is very tonal and the sounds it makes are of a pleasing yet raw quality, there are instances when it does sound fuzzy and the beeps are a bit off tone to what we humans think is melodic. I need to investigate this and further play around with it. Overall the project has huge potential for scope. I could take it in the direction of a ‘one on one’ sound mixer, which would be a neat little toy using different sounds for each point on the matrix that could be interfaced with via a computer, or I could take it down the road I really wanted to which is to link to some kind of motion sensitive mat and then have it as either a motion controlled tone matrix or have it doing something similar to the sound mixer but with the motion sensor that can then be part of an immersive environment or create a new layer within an environment. I have researched very extensively into motion capture, as it was my original intent to produce a project heavily involving that and I do draw a lot of my inspiration for the project from modern games and gadgets. I like the fun interactivity aspect and would ideally like to be able to create a space that children and adults could play in and have the sound controlled by where they were. With this idea in mind the bigger the space and the more people in the space would affect the overall sound being produced. This kind of thing as an installation would work better the more people that did interact with it.

I was intending to source the sounds from freesound.org and have only very short sound clips that looped. The sample size for sound would be huge so lots of different sounds could be selected either fitting a specific theme or having no cohesion at all. I would love to experiment with this as there is the potential to then have a tone matrix for every season, every mood, different locations etc. It really could literally be limitless. I could also experiment with sourcing my own sounds and then using a single sound with altered pitch for one matrix.

I worked very hard on the tone matrix, having very little knowledge of the software and basically having to teach myself as I went. It was a very challenging but incredibly rewarding experience. I have really learned what I am doing in Max5 now as far as the matrix is concerned and I like the software a lot. I do want to continue this project on since I really care a lot about it and it such a massive scope for expansion. I may in further versions put back in the tone control feature I removed but I would like it to have a much more intuitive interface than just a number box as although you can get some really cool sounds you can also get noises that are horrific and very hard on the ears. I would have to do further research into scales and have to work a lot more with Max5 so that I had the technical skills possible to achieve my aims. I also could do more research into this to see if my idea has ever been produced before and if so see how it was handled so that I had a solid grounding in the technical issues and details of the project.

I feel that although my tone matrix is not as good as the one that gave me the original idea it does exactly what it is supposed to. They also work on very different software so each may have flaws or high points that the other doesn’t. I am overall very happy with my tone matrix but would like to develop it further.

MEDI 236: Critical Evaluation

Documenting Destiny - The Tarot This project originated from my desire to document Paganism. However this proved to be more complicated then I had first thought due to; high costs and no budget, travel needed to get to willing models and in part a lack of time to cover the vast subject properly. I also suffered a lack of model interest and availability to further complicate things. Although it would be a very interesting project to attempt in the future when I have more time, more models and access to better funds. The project itself then evolved to focus on Tarot cards. It still fits within the theme of Paganism since a lot of Pagans use the cards as a divination tool or a method to seek guidance. I think the project benefited greatly from actually having something less vast to home in on. Although there is still a lot of scope within the remit of the cards I found it prudent to focus on one aspect, this being the art of 'reading' the cards. I have a friend who kindly agreed to share this experience with a camera and a Dictaphone. I was originally planning to have a transcription of the reading next to my images but I decided against this as it is a very personal thing for the client being read for and in terms of ethics I wanted to be ethically responsible towards my models like KayLynn Deveney, who's methods I personally agree with. I have researched artists that deal with ethics and although the images are stunning I can't personally agree with Paul Kransler's lack of ethics with regard to 'the Land of Milk and Honey' series, the images may be wonderfully shocking and eye-popping in their composition but I feel we are obliged to our models as responsible photographers. Consequently I had both the 'reader' and the client sign release forms even though in the final images only their hands appear, I also gave them control of the image selection process to a degree. Therefore I can confidently say that my images are ethically responsible. Lots of artists have influenced me and been inspirational but Sophie Calle is one of the main photographers I keep coming back to time and time again. Her images, I feel, really bring objects to life and tell the story of and give personality to objects. I would hope I have achieved this with my images at least to a degree. In terms of research I feel I have been quite thorough since not only have I researched artists and documentary makers but also I have researched my subject (Tarot) to a high level, enabling me to do my shoots with a very solid grounding in the subject. I feel this was very beneficial since it let me explore my subject in an observational style of documentary with some actual knowledge of the objects and the etiquette surrounding them. I chose to adopt an observational style of documentary since it is one of the styles that most grabs me personally, the factual way that they are often presented and also the sense of the person documenting being taken on a journey of discovery themselves, I personally find very effective. The other style that I find most impacting is the participatory style with things like 'Super Size Me' and one of the most jarring documentaries 'Bowling for Columbine' I however opted against participatory as I thought an observational style would do the subject more justice. For the images I used a Nikon D40 as I like the camera, I tried in a lot of my images to have one strong focus point with the rest of the image fading to a soft focus so that it emulated the 'shrouded' and 'mysterious' nature of the Occult. A lot of the images came out well however some, I do think, could use tweaking or re-shooting. I also wanted to give them a good depth of field to reflect on the nature of the cards, they are not just paper with pictures on to those that read them but they have hidden depth and a wealth of meaning. I also chose to have one very strong focus point to try and convey what happens in a reading, focus shifts and occasionally cards have been said to 'pop' and make themselves forefront. I wanted my images to be as true to life as I could get them so editing is very minimal the biggest change I made was to crop the images to give a greater focal point in each frame. In all I did a total of three shoots, each with a different card 'spread' I would have liked to do a lot more and would do many more shoots possibly with different readers if I could do it again. However the very personal nature of 'reading' means that willing models are very few and I am lucky to have found one. I would also if I were to re-do the project focus solely on one aspect as opposed to trying to give a broad view since I feel this would add to the overall cohesion of my images as a set. I was pleased with the over-all reception that the audience had towards my images, as I asked my course mates for feedback, most of them liked my images and had a few constructive points of feedback, in particular they seemed to like the depth of field of some of the images which is pleasing. Also both of my models were very happy with the images which I feel is important. I do feel I should have employed better time and resource management and know that in the future I need and intend to improve on this, I have learnt a lot from this module and will take forward a greater understanding of documentary practise. The overall project went well, although it is hard to negotiate around a lack of willing models but I feel with this in mind I did do my best to compensate. If I could do it over I would love to have a much wider selection of shoots to choose from. Also I may not focus on just one shoot and instead have the best images from every shoot, so that my chosen angle is clear and the images more cohesive. I am however satisfied with how the project turned out and believe there is lots more room for scope should I wish to re-create or carry on the theme.

MEDI 263: Critical Evaluation

For my final narrative I decided to focus on the story of me learning how to make sushi. My initial idea was originally focused around autumn in the city and the initial shoot for this had some good images but nothing that was very eye popping so I decided to go for the sushi idea. My first sushi shoot was full of fuzzy, ill focused pictures so I had to do a re-shoot. I think the blurriness of the photos may have been due to a few important yet un-obvious settings on the camera I was using. I have since developed a greater understanding of the more intricate settings on the camera being a Nikon D80. I have gained valuable knowledge into how important the very small details on the camera can be and how dramatic a hidden setting can affect a photos quality so much. I set the camera to a large image and on fine detail so that I could capture far more detail and thus have better images. Also on the off chance that the blur may have been due to camera shake I used a tripod for my reshoot thus minimising the risk of having images blurred. I wanted to show a step by step almost comic style story of me making sushi and then I wanted to show an Onigiri being eaten an have a kind of cartoon face on it at various stages of being eaten to show emotion. Both the comic strip theme and the cute personifications of the Onigiri (Rice Ball) reflect the Japanese culture and especially the ‘Manga’ or ‘Anime’ that inspired me to want to learn to make sushi and indeed started my love for the food. Id like to think that it is fairly light-hearted and fun also I do think food is a narrative all in its own. The final images I have taken very great care for them to be in focus and very clear and sharp. I have decided to exhibit them in a series with the comical three pictures in the centre at the bottom as an aside. I really like the warm colours and did not want to normalise the lighting level as yellow light makes people hungry and I feel that the images being food should achieve this. It’s a tactic used in supermarkets to make us buy things and it does also say something about consumerism and the two different cultures merging together.  

I had a lot of problems initially with my project and getting it off the ground, however I feel that I have developed a much stronger technical knowledge and also a much more critical eye in photography. Overall I feel myself that I have dramatically improved. I am overall fairly pleased with the images although I do feel they could be perfect if I did a few more shoots. I am very pleased that all of my final images are in focus as I made every effort to ensure this. I have in myself however made dramatic improvements in my skills.  

To sum it up I would like to think my project is well structured with clean crisp and nicely framed images I wanted to include a lot of influences in my images and I do think that they carry the narrative fairly well.

MEDI 117 (Critical Evaluation)

MEDI 117: Critical Evaluation.

Spores of Reality.

This project has been tough from the outset. The pressure and challenge has been very stressful yet rewarding; since although I had no idea where to go with this project at first and have had a lot of personal life conflicts that made the work more difficult, I have produced a piece that I am satisfied with.

The main thing I would have done differently is to have become more comfortable with macro work before using it but I do not think I would have gotten shots as good as this and as close if I had not made that leap of faith.  I chose to use macro since spores of mould are so small it would capture more detail as I wanted it to look bigger than real life so as to detach and abstract the images slightly to emphasise its alien qualities. This I feel in the long run did pay off even though my lack of prior experience may have hindered me slightly.

I opted to go with the images raw and unchanged. No camera effects and no Photoshop since I feel that would have negatively detracted from the nature of the mould and therefore hinder my argument that mould in its natural state is both beautiful and alien, both mirroring the bigger world around it in its intricacy yet at the same time seeming to be of an otherworldly nature. This is a decision I am glad I stuck to as I feel it’s very important that it’s known that is how the mould genuinely looked.

I have had several problems with the research side of things having such a broad brief can sometimes spoil me for choice and so I feel that even though I did do extensive research that may have not been necessary for the final project it has been an important learning curve and building block for the final piece. I have seemed to have stuck to an alien in a normal world theme throughout.

The actuality of how hard it was to professionally display and exhibit work never actually hit me until I had my images printed and mounted and it came to hanging them.  I not only had problems with how mathematical it is to get the distance and height just right but also had to overcome my irrational fear of heights to be able to hang them effectively and correctly. I do believe one of my pictures may be slightly off level and sloping but I’m not sure as to whether it is just an issue within my mind or whether it’s genuine as the spirit level does seem to be saying its fine.  I decided to arrange the images in a horizontal line and have them fairly low on the wall so that closer examination of them may take place. I’d like the viewer to be at first puzzled and then be able to deeply puzzle at all the bizarre wonders of the mould.

I picked the three shots displayed because they were the best quality and most interesting in my opinion, they also have cohesion and they flow nicely together tied with the green in all of them.  I have picked the pictures around key features within them such as a mould flower in the picture to the right of the arrangement, the strange orange shape in the middle and the dew droplets in the picture on the left.  The white and green mould is a common feature throughout and serves to give them a relational point so that they go well as a series.  I also picked the pictures for their abstract qualities, even in the one where you can see a part of the mould free potato it still looks alien.

It took me a while to find an order to the pictures I was happy with and I finally settled on the order it is now because my two favourite images are on the outside and tied together with the middle which I think makes them quite a strong set all in all. I was a bit sheepish about being hung in the lobby but am very pleased that I get to be able to set the tone for such a brilliant exhibition.

The feedback I have received about the images so far has all been very positive both from friends and course mates. The images have exactly the desired effect with most people thinking they are very beautiful and not at first quite realising its just mould.  One person told me that when he realised they were mould he felt a little sick but he still considered them pretty. I would hope they do illicit confusion in most people and am very pleased with all the feedback.  I will be further documenting the reactions and feedback in this blog for the sake of interest as I feel it is useful to better understand the further evolution of my work and in such ties it back to the main theme.  It may also be worth note that I intended to further photograph the mould as it evolved more but had to part with my specimen as the health and safety implications meant it needed to be disposed of.  I do however intend to work with mould in the future as I do truly find it fascinating.

I chose the name Spores of Reality for my piece because of the mould spores and the fact that I wanted the viewers’ perceptions of reality to be challenged.  Also interestingly the images reminded me to some extent of the first level of Spore the game. The images may also bear some relations to other artists that have worked with mould or decomposition such as Polona Tratnik and their work on Microorganisms and the many videos on YouTube of things rotting and moulding. I have once again done more extensive research in other blog posts into these areas of interest.

In short I think maybe I could have produced slightly better images having had more knowledge of macro and more time and knowledge to cultivate mould. But overall I am very happy with the project. The fact they are 12 by 12 and mounted makes them look very professional.


Note: I have decided to update this post with the picture I took of the images displayed on the wall in the actual exibition: -

MEDI 119 (Larping About: Critical Evaluation)

Larping About: Critical Evaluation.

I have very much enjoyed this project despite constant problems setbacks and technical failures and I feel that I have learned a lot from my mistakes. I have a far better understanding now of how to produce a movie and the time constraints of this. Although it’s been hard and at some points the technical faults have been near soul destroying I have learned and adapted and remained flexible.

I think that although it was a valuable lesson I will not be doing another casting call using a social networking site again and feel maybe I was being a bit to experimental with the so called new media phenomenon’s, perhaps they aren’t quite as useful as I originally thought they would be but I would like to maybe try more traditional methods next time. However I thought it would be best due to the nature of my original script considering I needed a cast of hundreds...

I am sad that I wasn’t able to stick to my original script although I feel it was extremely ambitious to begin with.  However there is some storyline left of the many fast rewrites and improvisations that were needed in order to actually have a finished piece. As I have said in my project report my original location was far too specific and the location that I found matching it would have needed a budget of more than nothing to transport everyone to and from location as it was remote and not even on any bus route.  Having said this I don’t think it is vastly deprived by the downscaling of locations.
The overall tone I originally wanted was an epic fantasy story that eventually you found out was all in some bodies head. Although I had to make it much more light hearted and fun I do feel I kept this element to some extent.  I am happy with how the tone of the piece turned out and think it’s very funny. It’s also a very nice representation and advert of my hobby and although not intended I am quite proud of this as it’s a hobby I care a great deal about.

I enjoyed the actual filming and I think that the footage that I got was fairly clean and crisp so I am pleased with this. It was a good day to film and we were blessed with the weather conditions. It was hard to co ordinate a cast and make up and sound and things but I feel I got the hang of things fairly quickly mainly because it was a lot of fun. I did enjoy filming the outtakes because they never differed from my plan and this pleased me.  All of the cast had a good time and were happy to be there and I think that shows.

The technical issues were mostly to do with the lack of working tape decks available, I had them eject the tape at random and turn themselves on and off for no reason among other things, this meant I had a hard time getting all the footage off. In the end I had to ask a friend that knew lots about fire wire to come and help me. Luckily most of the footage was saved thanks to the use of fire wire cables however it left no time for a reshoot.  If I could do things differently I would have definitely re shot at least the storyline parts. I feel it would have vastly benefitted from more footage since the storyline footage I shot that I was able to retrieve didn’t last as long as I thought it would in terms of time.

I feel pleased with the responses that I received at the screening and subsequently via YouTube and Face Book from strangers, course mates and friends alike and everyone agrees that it’s funny.  The fact that I have had such a positive response reassures me and although in the screening I have seen far better videos than mine I feel that I have also seen far worse and would place mine at least middling. I do feel that whilst it could be better both technically and in terms of better depth of storyline that it is at the very least entertaining and humours.
As I stated in the project report my main actor was going to do a voice over but due to a sports injury was not able to make it to a sound studio for me to record him. However the sound track I feel is right for it and I don’t think that given the option I would change it now.  I have made a lot of prototypes with different music but have ran into problems because of copyright mainly so I decided to go with some music that was under creative commons and therefore free to use for non commercial purposes, all of the tracks are the same band so it sounds more unified and works as a whole. I spent hours alone on making sure the music fit perfectly and faded in and out at just the right time. I am very pleased with how the music works with the film and feel that it is tied together with the sound from the location that I opted to keep making it feel more real, since I wanted to avoid the movie just being film set to music.

My group was very enjoyable to work with and I am pleased to have been part of it. I hope to be able to work again with its members in the future as they are very supportive, creative and flexible and I think all of our movies are good. We had lots of technical issues in the group and problems with actors and occasionally lack of equipment but we all worked together well and helped each other.

This experience has taught me to remain flexible with everything movie related as things never worked to quite to plan yet I am pleased with the results. Although it’s not what I would have originally wanted to do, I still feel that it has evolved quite well and although as I have stated there would be a lot I would do differently looking back I am still proud of how it turned out.

MEDI 126 (Critical Evaluation: The Envelope Project)

Critical Evaluation:

Perspective 

For our Envelope project we were given; a slide with a leaf in it, some charcoal, an audio file that everyone got as well, a link to a video called violin power and a text about war and technology. These I feel we worked into our film very well as they not only appeared or were referenced in the film but also flavoured the feel of the film.

Our initial ideas were to have a very post apocalyptical feel to it that was mainly inspired by the ‘rusty leaf’ in the slide and the text about war and technology. I feel we did keep some of the bleak post or near apocalyptical feel with the final film as we kept the main character very isolated. Also most of our initial ideas involved a single character that was faceless and therefore supposedly unimportant to the world. We kept with this very strongly as you don’t get to see the girls face. She is important only in her world which is a separate reality.

We wanted our film to really challenge people’s perceptions and get them thinking and have stuck fairly to close our script. Within our film there is an ongoing clash of nature and technology that we wanted to convey that I think was fairly successful. It is important to the materials that there was both a balance and a clash of these things. Or so we felt.

We used charcoal a lot as we liked the idea of the character drawing things in her world as drawing is very escapist and charcoal is both a natural thing and a metaphor for destruction given that it is burned wood. Also this meant that we could focus solely on the girl’s hands adding further to her anonymity.
We wanted the voice over to sound innocent and slightly melancholy in a wistful way, a bitter sweet blend of happy and sad to reflect her isolation but also her contentment with it. We thought also that her relative innocents is important because she could remain happy in a bleak and uncaring world.

I liked the technical side of this project but I did more filming really than anything else. I enjoy filming as it is akin to photography and all about the best angles and perspective to get the best shots which I feel for the most part was achieved. It was great using a tripod as it enabled us to get the best shots and hold them steady. I would love to have a bigger role in editing next time as I have yet to fully flex that side of things and tend to prefer being behind a camera rather than in a computer lab. However to widen my skill set this does need to be remedied.

I have really enjoyed working with my group as creatively it was a lot of fun and we generated a huge amount of ideas and bounced off each other very well. So much so that it was hard to narrow the ideas down! Also our group gets on well and has a fairly broad skill set. I think we achieved our aims with the film. The only few things I would do differently is have maybe a more permanent actor since I do notice the difference in hands, hopefully this doesn’t spoil the film however.

MEDI 127 (Sound and Image Project Critical Evaluation)

Our Film ‘A pebble love story’ is a tragedy about, well, pebbles. The basic Idea was to have a stop motion animation where we used googly eyes and marker pens on pebbles to effect emotion on the pebbles. My particular inspiration for this came from a picture where people had put faces on fruit and made a story out of them, the way this was done made it very emotive and I thought If we followed a similar tack we would be fairly successful in our aims.

However the actualities of filming were very different. We had very limited equipment as there were no tripods available in the hub and all the best cameras had been taken.  Also trying to hold a camera steady in the wind is a tricky thing to so it’s not quite stop motion. Also we couldn’t use markers to draw faces on as it would not have been logistically possible since for the most part it was raining....

The actual filming took place on location at a beach and it was freezing cold and also very windy. This made sound recording hard since the wind distorted the sounds and they are nowhere near as crisp as we would have liked. The pebbles ‘voices’ however were recorded later and sound much better. 

We had the idea of making little squeaky kind of noises to add to the comedic effect of the piece, as without the humour it is fairly sad.  The ‘voice’ noises worked in achieving a comedic effect I feel and in particular made the ‘pebble sex’ scene funnier. Originally we were toying with the idea of having sounds of pebbles hitting one another or making some form of cheesy 80’s porno sound track for it but I think what we went with was funnier.

It’s not as good as I would have hoped and next time I would like to have had better and more equipment. It would have been nicer with a warmer place to film but the location and the weather add so much to the film I feel as the grey and cold looking beach adds to the sombre tone that we wished to create.

MEDI 118 (Critical Evaluation)

Critical Evaluation:

My Film is an adventure film that explores fantasy and reality from the views of a role player.  It is light hearted and playful with the switch between character and person. It focuses centrally around one battle and in specific an interaction between two friends.

The storyboard is not as complete as I would have liked it to be because I couldn’t find photos to fit all the scenes. I used this method originally to compensate for the fact that I feel I am bad at drawing. However I think given the end result of this method I may try and improve my sketching for the next story board I work on. Also maybe I shall experiment with different techniques so that I have a wider range of story boarding options. Alternatively I would try and organise a photo shoot but since this is such a complex film storyboarding it for anyone without a considerable amount of sketching skill would be hard.

The Script I am quite happy with and although it had its teething problems it eventually worked out ok. I feel I have found a style that is comfortable for me and easy to understand. I feel that I have covered and conveyed the story successfully by this and that the story board only adds a feel for the colour of the film and not the description or action.

Considering I’m more practised with storyboards than scripts I am a little surprised at how this turned out. However I feel it was valuable to experiment with the technique I used for story boarding since it has let me explore new ways of approaching it.

My idea hasn’t been inspired by anything other than LARPing or Live Action Role Play itself, which I think is a plus point as this makes for a somewhat original movie. I am pleased with the overall idea of it however given more time I would have expanded on the ‘it wasn’t really real’ theme and maybe have polished or rounded it off a little better, perhaps even developing it further.

I have consistently developed my story up to a script level and the end result is I think a true reflection of the story but has been made a little more interesting.  Given more time I feel I would have fleshed out the plot perhaps a little better and also expanded upon the story taking it farther than one encounter.

I have included character descriptions in the script as I felt it would make the script as a whole easier to follow, having already been given a background on the characters, also I feel it helps set the scene and to the readers ability to picture the battle knowing what people are dressed like and armed with.

The actual use of pictures from the events in the storyboard I think helps as it is showing you what it looks like there and would help the costume and location be replicated. I would maybe next time for the models use actors and that way ensuring that I get the facial expressions I want.

I have enjoyed this project but would have liked more time to explore different techniques and methods.