First Week Back

The third year has started and it seems like it will be a snowball tumbling down a mountain. This year is going to come and go quickly.
Currently I am preparing to display my work at the Ruby Lounge in Manchester as part of an event named "Munkispanner: Xpose Yourself (XY Event)'s 1st Birthday".
I will be displaying four canvas's as part of their multimedia event night. Whilst there I intend to talk to the art curator about hosting an event at the Antwerp Mansion for the CT: Creative Transit group where I already have various other issues to sort out such as music. This however, is all work in progress.
Whilst doing this I am researching for my dissertation based on Russian art in the 1920-1940's focusing on propaganda through posters, animation and motion picture.
At some point very soon I will be editing a new reel of photographs in a similar style to the work I created for the CT event, Chinese Whispers a month prior to this. My aim to develop new images through new material and move the work onto a new level, with some initial ideas already forming.

2nd Year

After discussing ideas based on the key word SHELTER myself and my group created a video piece. Whilst were generating ideas and creating the video, I myself began upon a solo project.

Group Project (Masks):

Myself and my group designed a video piece based upon how human beings hide their true feelings behind fake facial expressions. We represented this in the form of a masked character on a stereotypical day to day routine and how his facial expressions (represented by a mask) were the opposite of his physical actions expressed by the movement of the body.

Review of "Mask" video:

The original idea and first few minutes of the video represented what the group aim and themes were for. However I felt that in the rest of the video, the storyboard was slightly dismissed resulting in both the mask and physical movements complimenting each other, rather than contrasting each other, thereby negating the point of the film

Solo Project (Sleep):

My personal project looked in to the opposite of shelter with a theme of vulnerability. I began to take photographs of a sleeping subject to present my theme of vulnerability. The sleeping subject when shown through photographs is no longer safe and secure in their solitary environment but at the mercy of whom ever views the images. I presented these images onto a bed sheet draped over a bed frame.

Review of "Sleep" project:
After displaying my ideas for the sleep project, I met some criticism, though it was constructive and helped me to think a little bit more about how i display work rather than just the work itself. Issues I met were based on the consistency of the project. I had not used the same bed sheets or bed as seen in the images to the display, this was commented on for having lack of consistency which i noted and agreed with. The difference in the display and the images raised questions as to if there were specific meanings behind this inconsistency, which there were not. So as to avoid these question and issues I noted to make sure I think further about the display.

Solo Project (Site):

The I-Arts group were briefed with developing a piece of worked based upon a site chosen by us. The work had to relate to the site were displaying it on. I chose a damaged looking patch of earth behind foliage outside the main entrance to the building of my I-Arts group. I developed a piece using mainly found materials to create a "dog basket" like piece intended for the homeless. The thought ands ideas came from my observations of the public to those that were homeless. I focused on how they were ignored and how little people would give or do to help them and based my piece around this. The location was chosen upon how i was allowed to display my piece due it being considered a project rather than something of actual use for those that were without shelter. The found and cheap materials were based upon the idea of how little people are willing to give. The form of the piece was meant to represent a human like dog basket, a representation of how much love and money someone would give to a dog, but not to that of a human being.

Review of "Site" project:

Overall i think when discussed the project delivered the purpose and intentions I had, though i think the idea could have been developed and is an idea i remain thinking about, though I currently am not working with these ideas. Given more time i believe i could have developed the piece in terms of themes and ideas and its visual aspects, however the brief was given with a limited time constraint.

Group Project (Masks):

The group came up with a second idea of a narrative using the masked character from the first video to created another video based on human emotion and shelter. This video consisted of two masked characters interacting in a conversation, using masks and sound effects, as opposed to physical actions to contrast each other, there by emphasising the contrast between the emotions one shows and hides.

Review of "Mask" video:

On this second attempt at a video piece based on shelter, i felt the themes of the video were a lot more abstract for the audience who would watch the video. However I do not believe it detracted away from the point and intentions of the group aim. Though more abstract than our previous video, the piece was a lot more consistent and I felt there were less anomalies in the narrative and the visual aspects of the work.

Solo Project (Sleep):

After displaying photographs of a sleeping subject I moved on to creating a film of my sleeping subject. This is currently one of the ideas i am working on and with. Besides this I am currently attempting to develop new ideas whilst experimenting with skills in video editing. after reviewing my film of my sleeping subject i became interested in experimenting and working with the idea of "things being out of my control". I had no control of the movements of the sleeping subject and so attempted to document and work with other things that would react with out my control such as light and water. I began to focus on how to manipulate this substances and still gain a result not completely formulated by me and how I can use that to my advantage in further developing my ideas and work. Currently, besides working with materials and subject matter that I have little or no real control over, I have experimenting with video editing. With the abilities and skills growing in video editing, I find myself regain control of my original experiments. I am continuing to experiment in this way, both utilizing substance and my sleeping subject.

Starting Back

So I was given the theme of Shelter as my next project and with some confusion about how this should be handled, is it a group project or a solo project but working with other people for ideas? Naturally myself and fellow Shelter Group thinkers have gone for both, why not? Two projects are better than one (unless there both quite poor... Oh well).
the first, my group project:

Working with the idea of "shelter" we are creating a video piece (by we, I mean myself, Pete and Andrea, 2 year students) that will follow around the "everyday man/ woman" on there general journey from home to work/ uni/ the soul sucking corporations that demands there lives in exchange for £ or a degree (I'm not complaining, evil makes the world go round... I mean money, money, that's right) and this "protagonist" picking up and placing masks upon there face in the various situations they come into as an expression of shelter, the mask being the shelter hiding the true feelings of the individual, something we all do in order to get along with each other in life. The mask idea comes from hiding the true feeling one may have about a person or situation that they encounter, such as the fake laugh at a terrible joke, or the cracked smile to someone you don't particularly like or hiding back lust and awe through a terrible joke and back to the fake laugh and so on. Currently, we have been taking location shots, developing our "Story Board" and creating the mask, filming starts soon.....

My self project is going to combine an idea I did for my re-sit which was the position of people sleeping with shelter, the shelter of ones room protects them from the hardship out side and there vulnerability, though I believe humans are always vulnerable and hide themselves in their clothes to protect there "modesty" and to avoid feeling vulnerable (working with themes from the mask/ video project there) also, sleep shelters the conscious mind and stops the subconscious taking over when over tired and thus helps the mind to work out complicated issues of daily life, so science and psychology leads us to believe, I'm still working on this idea, but I am hoping to find a define link soon and will shortly begin taking photographs and playing with these images in order to see where these ideas go.

New Uni Year

So after a not so fantastic resist project, I was still given a second chance that I intend not to screw up. So kudos to me for surviving that.
1st project was over the summer and was based on an item of clothing one can wear that represented the difference between my own life and another cultures (assuming I'd been on holiday, which I had) although I think myself and many other students kind of ignored the "comparing the differences" part of the task but it was interesting to see what everyone had come up with anyway. Myself had made a masquerade mask out of an artifact I had bought while in a quaint little artisan town, wall to wall privately owned art shops and unusual cafes, beautiful place, "something something du poppe". The mask, as I said before was based on a masquerade mask which there is some dispute over the origins of this style, some say it was Italian then developed by French and other say the opposite, either way it has some heritage in French history so I worked with what I had, I simply painted the conjoined-face mask in the standard English and French flag colours with a mix between the two designs and used a red flower/ fire looking motif around the edges to represent how I almost set the mask and the room I was in on fire by stupidly leaving it on a lamp to support a clock radio in obtaining a better frequency. The project went well, as far as I could tell.

August

So I'm working on the ideas of structure and sleep, using artists such as Picasso and Matisse for inspiration due there use of the colour blue which I myself relate to depression, poor sleep/ insomnia (so enhanced movement) and dreams which I believe effect the position of the person dreaming and the positions they pull whilst sleeping. I am going to show the unusual positions pulled by sleeping peoples, but not as if they were lying down, but as if they were stood up, as i believe (from experience) that most people are probably standing upright in their dreams. but of course the movements and positions they form are when lying down. I have further developed this idea, or the visual aspect of the idea at least, into a more abstract form, making the images less pictorial, based on the ideas of cubism and Matisse's blue period.
On the side I have a summer project of a piece of clothing that depicts differences between my own culture and another, I have a few ideas but nothing set in stone just yet.

End and Re-start

As I thought, a not so great end to my first year. Struggling through a few things and the main one being my mental block of ideas and the ability to construct and generate anything specific or decent from them. So I am having to try again once more in a shorter amount of time in order to push on to the next year and am hoping that this time i shall pull it off, as a few things have come out of the crisis point that is my, currently, very possible failure. But as I said, hopefully this wont be the case if I can get my act in gear properly and stay focused.
One project given to me was scale and although it was limited time and I think i could have produced a better sculpture (personally I think a much better sculpture) it got a cross the point of the project. I'm now moving on to looking at the physical positions created whilst one sleeps and recreating these unusual poses in a small sculptural form. Not to go into to much detail about that yet until I've got myself completely fixed on the point and purpose which I feel, as long as I don't over complicate, should come out quite effectively.

Back To The Drawing Board

So, once again, my presentation (along with my work) did'nt really cut it, it's been a hectic year or rather a hectic end to the year so I'm having to start again. Which is good I guess, because I would like to move on to the next year, so.... What to do now?
Well we've had to start a month-long project with support tutor Nick, who has been quite helpfull to me already and this is going to be one of the two projects I must re-submit to carry on to next year.
So the first is about scale, we had to take photographs of things that interested us (us in the grand term of, my class) in and about Manchester. I was interested in the not so beautiful and flashy back-alley's as opposed to the "beautiful" displays in the shop windows of the popular kids-choice of corporate monsters- not that I'm that a hippy, I just grow weary of hearing about how excellent Primark is. These dark back-alley's have a sort of quiet-melancholy but also calming and peaceful aura about it, I found it calming. An industrial paradise, a haven, away from the busy bustling streets of the arrogant people that feel that the path they are walking down should not be stepped into or followed?
My other ideas are related to the mass of pigeons that were being chased by small children in Piccadilly Gardens, I thought to myself how these children would feel if they were being chased by the scale equivalent of large human sized pigeons. This I think would work better as the project is set around the theme of Scale.
And finally... Second project, Sleep, Dreams & Movement, more on that as the idea develops.