LOCATIONS

My own brief

Within this project I want to create a range of samples which can be used within installation and or interiors. These samples will be focusing more on how every day materials can be used within design. My inspiration will be taken from my own drawings and painting using a range of neon colours and looking more in to the lines and structures that the designs create. To create the lines and structure I will be using paint and water and the idea of a dripping motion. To capture these movements and motions I will use photography. The colour pallet I will be working with is neons however I want to refine my pallet by mixing them with whites and creams to make the neon range more distinctive. With materials I will be exploring more of wider variety of every day materials and manipulating them to create affecting pieces. With this project I want to gain and explore more variation of materials and techniques and apply them to designs for installations and interiors.

 

My live brief

Birley Fields Commission- For this live brief I were set a task to create a site specific artwork for either an interior or exterior space in the new building/ surrounding courtyard area if the Birley field campus in Hulme. I chose to do this brief because it had an open opportunity for me to express my ideas. I take a lot of interest in installations and sculptures so by choosing this live brief I thought I could look further into these types of different artworks.
Within the brief it gave me an opportunity to understand the commission process which involves presenting your ideas to the client and working with budgets also working to scale of site specific places.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

Evaluation

In this project I have learnt many different ways, processes and techniques. When I fisted started this project I didn’t have much in mind of what I wanted to create or try. All I knew is that I want to try unusual and different processes and extent on my materials aspects. I did a whole sketch book over the summer of what I liked and what influenced me the most. What had shown up a lot was the use of materials and colours. In the intentions workshop my peers also pointed out my strengths which were the use of colour and materials because of the thing I had chosen to look at. I normal do use a lot of neon colours and unusual materials because I want to take risks. Over this project I have been taking a lot of risking in what materials I have been using such as wood, wall paper, and foil, plastic, elastic and tinsel.

 I had a good starting point in this project because I had chosen to look more in to the urban influence brief. I have always been interested in the city and my surrounds and by having the chance to develop my knowledge about the city. What inspired me the most about the city is its bright lights and colours the city has at night. However with this project I wanted to expend on how I looked at the city so I started looking and taking photographs on different levels to get different views. Also this linked to my summer project because of the use of colours I was finding within the city. I knew that I had to look more in to what influenced me the most by finalising the photos and I found that I take influence from reflections in the water.

One of the down falls that I had in this project was that I didn’t use enough processes as I wanted, such as developing my samples as much as they could. This is because of the fact I liked them the way they were. What I did by developing my samples were trying the processes on different materials and trying them at different scales. Scale is a major influence in my work because of the artists that I look at. Most of the artists that I have been looking at and taking influences from are installation and sculpture based. What I liked about these artist were that they all use unusual materials and the use of colours. When I look at these artist I befit from understand the use of materials they have because it’s not what they do with them it more about what they used. I tried to show this in my samples. I created many different samples using many different materials because I wanted to find out what worked the best and befitted me in what I wanted to create.

My strengths within this project were that I wasn’t frighten to take risks and that use of materials and colours didn’t scare me. Many artists and designers don’t like working at the scale that I do because they feel like it’s too much for them however I have found that working at a bigger scale for me makes it more comfortable to work and easier for me to develop my work because I can see what I can change and manipulate. When was working at a small scales my samples look terrible and some of the materials I had to choose to work with weren’t working as well as I thought because of the way I was manipulating them. So I had to develop them more and see what other materials could work better and create more of an impact.

What I found out in this project is what I could create and were I see myself in the art and design world. I found that I really enjoy creating spaces with materials and changing a whole look about something by manipulating my materials to an arear or environments such as a window and wall. Also I had found that I really like the idea of creating samples for fashion because with one of my sample I placed it on fabric to see how I could change the way I look its and shown. I created a skirt and it looked like it should have been in a carnival and I never would of thought of this because I had been creating more exhibition pieces. Another question that was asked was where do you see your work and after creating all these pieces and try different ways of seeing them out I began to enjoy the idea of seeing them in shop window displays use as Harrods. They have these amazing installations and sculptures in the windows of the store.

What I would change in the further is to be more decisive of what materials I use because I have used so many different ones this time I know what works and befit the processes that I use. I have so many different ideas and influences around I need to be analytical about what I use and how use them.  

Couching Skirt

Monday 21 November

After talking to my peers and tutor about my work I know what I want to investigate more. I want to almost take over an area with my samples which creates this dramatic feel. I will have to develop more in to mass of taking over and scale. Scale in my samples and development is very important to me because of the fact I find that the more dramatic the scale is, the more of an impact it has on the audience. My samples are very much attached to the wall and I need to develop this more because I want to have a bigger impact on the audience. I also started developing more ideas into my wall piece by weaving lights in them to see how this effects the sample. The only reason why I like working with lights is mostly I find that they give a whole different look about my sample because it just doesn’t have to be the set colour I have used the lights give it more of an unusual look about it.
My peers made different links to different ideas in my work such as one peer said the sample had a lot of movement within it and that’s what I was trying to create but she made the link to 1920’s dresses and how they had all these tassels on them and moved and changed every time the person changed their movement so I want to look more into seeing if I could change this into a piece of fabric and seeing how it changes.

I developed my samples in the ways that’s were suggested to me and I also add my own influence to them. I knew that scale was important so I carry on adding to my tinsel piece by adding and couching a lot more on to the wall however when I adding to the piece it at looked like it was going to take over the studio because it started to develop on to the floor. This piece was what I want to create because it got to the scale of what I wanted however in the further I would want to carry on with technique and material. With this idea of couching with tinsel I started couching on to PVC plastic to create a skirt from it. This I found really work with my sample because it had that feel of the 1920s that was mentioned in my tutorials and also had a feel that it from part of a carnival. Another sample that I created on a bigger scale was the seams of cut paper and then I started playing with the idea of having things on the floor so I carried on developing and manipulating them all to do such thing. With all these process I want to see how big of a scale I could get them with taking over the studio however they did have this feel about them.

Monday 10 November

With all this in mind my peers and tutor thought that I was working in the same space and the fact I was doing this might have been effecting my way of working. I thought this could have been one the reasons I felt so negative about my work. I need to try and create and new space for my work.
This week I have been more set on using different process rather than using sticking to the unthreaded elastic I wanted to take more risks with how I was manipulating my materials. I started using seams and how I could change the way people see them. I seamed paper, netting and uv fabric. The one I thought stood out the most to me was the seamed paper because I started cutting the paper into thin strips and this created a whole different look about it and when I pinned it upon the wall it has the effect on people were you used wanted to go up and touch it. Also another sample that I thought really worked was the netting but the process that I used was couching but instead of couching with fabric and a needle I used the wall and pink duct tape and I created the illusion of couching into the wall. This process was unusual because I didn’t use this technique in the traditional way. Also the colour I used in this sample really stood out to me because of the holes in the yellow netting against the shimmer of the bright pink duct tape. Another sample I develop was that I used a running stitch to attach streamers together in different colours. I used to work with streamers because of the fact they have their own line which I wanted to manipulate and create my own stamp on them. With the idea of couching into the wall I started doing it to this sample but instead of using thread I used foil tape which I got from a diy store. When I stared this sample it really relates to my visual research and highlighted out the aspects of reflections within my work. So with this idea of reflection in my mind I wanted to investigate more in to this so I want to this cannel in Manchester and started taking photos of the reflections in the water and how I could change the view and way of looking at them by changing the shutter speed on my camera to see if I could capture them in different ways.

Monday 3 November

When I was showing off my installation to my tutor and peers I wanted their advice of how I could improve it and develop my sample more. With looking carefully at my work I wasn’t that sure if I want to create an organic shapes because in my visual research the idea of lines and creating reputation within lines.  Due to the fact that I was just pinning the elastic up I wasn’t manipulation to its strengths because elastic is stretchy and I need to manipulated of this idea. So I started working on using different tensions and stretching the elastic in different ways such as I was spearing the elastic from the colour thread to see how this would change the environment. After I had finished pinning and taping all the elastic to the window I stood back from the installation and I thought that something was missing. I felt that it didn’t have that interaction with the audience of what I wanted it to have. The installation that I created was terrible and I felt that it was rubbish so I had to think back to my visual and artist research to think of more ideas. What kept showing through my research was this use of line and how I could manipulate it with different materials. Also the artist that stood out the most to me was Vancouver with the use of neon colours and lines, Olafur Eliasson and her use of kaleidoscopic lights however with this artist what I really thought I could take influence from is her use of mirrored materials and how she has change them. Another artist that I looked into was Crystal Wagner because of the fact that she uses a lot of paper and cheap dollar store objects and I could related so much to this because the majority of work has this aspects in them and I wanted to see if I could bring these aspects more into my work.

Monday 27 October

With all these samples I knew that I had to be chose carefully what I wanted to take forward because I had created that many different ones with various materials. I had to choose the best or which ones I thought had the most potential within them. With my tutor looking over my work she was right in saying that I had only used one technique. I know because I stuck to using the cording foot on the machine and just putting different elastic and fabric through them, however when I had finished showing them to her I explained about the situation I had with the wide elastic. My tutor and peers said that it was very unusal to look at because they had never seen elastic like that before. The elastic showed something unique about it because everyone knows elastic for being tight and stretchy and seeing it all unthreaded and loose made it more interesting to look at. I wanted to carry this elastic method forward. Then I went out and bought the elastic in different neon colours.  When I was unthreading all the elastic the threads that stood out the most to me were the pink and the white this wasn’t because of the colour of them but because of what the unthread line looked like. The thread from the elastic of these colours were all furry and this created a totally different sample to the others. I started hanging and pinning up the unthreaded elastic in a window but I was just letting the elastic hang so it formed more organic shapes. This created an installation which I thought related back to my artist research which was creating an environment for the audience to interact with.

Tuesday 21 October

After showing all my different types of drawings to my tutor I found out what techniques and processes I should work on more. The machine samples were the best ones I had created however I knew that I should extend more on the process and by using different colours and shapes I could develop them much more. Using the pleating and folding of the paper seemed to work quite well. However with some of the sample there were some problems, such as the paint was pealing off them and they looked horrible, so I had to find a solution to fix this and keep the colour on the samples. With all these different samples in mind I tried to keep the machine also in mind. Then expand on that by using different types of materials and different colours to see what worked best and what effect each materials gave.

I found so many different types of materials I just kept looking for unusual ones which I could develop and processes more. With all these ideas I also started testing out different types of elastic for example: different thickness and different colours. I found some elastic works better with other fabrics. I just kept making all these different samples and developing them more and more however I did something by mistake I bought some wide elastic to see if I could stretch it and it wasn’t really working for me and then I started pulling one of the threads from it and the elastic came apart beautifully. I had never seen elastic like this before and it gave the elastic a totally different look about it. I used this on different lengths of elastic to see how it would effect it at different sizes. This sample was so simple yet so effective because when I was unthreading the elastic it was just one thread I was pulling on so there was this big bundle of thread which was just one line. It didn’t look like it though because when the elastic was made the thread has some creases in it which made it look like it was more than one thread. However there were some samples that didn’t work .Like the foam, tape and some stretch fabric. I did like the colours of these materials but they just didn’t work with the elastic in the machine.

Monday 13 October

I showed my peers and tutor what I had done in the past in my work then explained why I chose the colours and the materials that I had drawn with. I explained that the materials were important to me because I didn’t want to create flat drawings. My peers know that I like using a lot of different plastics in these drawings, so I used them in an abstract way creating unusual drawings. My tutor explained that I should develop them more by using different processes. Not to become too attached to what I am doing because sometimes trying different processes create more ideas. After this discussion I needed more inspiration to develop my drawing so I went away and did more artist research and this helped me to think about a variety of other processes thus generating more ideas. Softlab for Melissa shoes- we are flowers, Unbilical cord by Richmond and kaleidoscope light installations.

 

With all these ideas I starting using a lot more processes to develop my drawings. With some of the wall paper I manipulated and folded creating new drawings within the old ones. Some of the drawings were horrible and didn’t work because the fabric and plastics will only manipulate in certain directions. Some of them were harder than others such as the plastic kept breaking. Also I had other ideas like keep some on background and creating different shades within them because my photographs had elements of this. I had to keep a link between them all, however some of the drawings became quite restricted because of the limited manipulation of the materials. I create many different drawings with in these and tried various materials such as stretch and lycra materials, tights, leather and wood boards. All these various materials had a different effect on each drawings. Also I used some of the techniques I learnt from the machines, afterwards started creating more long drawings with this. I found that using the cording foot on the machine gives my drawings more a 3D look because these drawings seem to have more movement about them. I think it is because I didn’t restrict them to a specific shape, I just let them fall where they wanted which was interesting. The elastic helped me create more tension and style within these samples.

 

Tuesday 7 October

This was my first discussion with my peers of what I had done up to now with the project I took in all my photographs then saying what I want to take further and why I has chosen the photographs I did. My peers could tell that I really enjoy bright neon colour and this was shown within my photographs. What I should have done was expand more on the development of my photographs. My peers said that I should start drawing a lot more then choosing carefully the elements that I thought stood out the most to influence my drawings next time. I listened to their advice and information, then I thought of drawing in such a broad term. Instead of doing small pencil drawings I created these big drawing using wall paper, mirrors, metaled plastics, metallic paper, jelly and bin bags. I chose to paint on materials which I thought would give the drawing more texture and unusual elements to my pictures. However with seeing my peers work, they did a lot of drawings on the move. So I wanted to try and see how this technique would work for me. Then I went out in Manchester and started drawing using neon pens and tracing paper. I chose the tracing paper because I was doing quick drawings and layering them on top of one another because this created other drawings bringing another prospective to my work, thus making it more an interesting way for me to work.

Tuesday 29 September

Urban influences is the subject I chose to look at in more detail because being amazed by what the city has to offer us. Thinking about this project I had loads of different ideas buzzing around in my head. However all this changed when my tutor escorted us outside to experience something different. My tutor then proceeded to direct us to the top of a car park to experience the city at different levels so receiving a different overview of how we look at the various environments that make up this city. This totally inspired me to look at the city from different angles to what others maybe could.
After this idea came to my mind, I decided to visit this high peek just outside of Manchester. Here you could see the whole of Manchester. I went at night because I prefer the city at night when you can see all the different coloured lights and the reflections. Some people don’t like the city at night because of the dark, even though you can see what is happening more closely, but I find it almost peaceful because the lights make everything brighter, warmer and there is reflections everywhere in the environments. I changed the shutter speed on my camera to capture movement within my photographs and to capture the light more. I know that my photographs have more of an abstract feel to them but that was part of what I found interesting because you can’t really tell what the image is but you can see all the elements of what it’s meant to be.
With all these images of Manchester at night I wanted to have more of a variety of images so I went on a visit to Birmingham traveling in a car. Taking various photographs of objects that caught my eye along the mot way. I did know that they would have a different element to them compared to the night images but they didn’t have that brightness compared to the images I took at night. They mostly just represented urban landscapes which didn’t have that wow factor that interests me. After this problem I still wanted more of a variety of images, so I went out in Manchester to a club. Taking photographs of what caught my eye that night. There seemed to have more movement in them of what I thought was in a club because when you are there you don’t notice these things, but looking round there is many elements that make the clubs interesting like the lights and mirrors. Also I used some old photographs I took in Newcastle of the reflection of the water and the millennium bridge. 

INSPIRATIONS WORKSHOP

Within this workshop we had to show and discus our work with others, then see what evidence we produced, after showing everything that I created and the idea’s to my peers. The ideas that I thought had to most potential and when they asked me what I was specialising in they were shocked, that I said embroidery because of the use of materials I was using and liked. The materials were hair gel, jelly, shot glasses and paint balloons. I wasn’t that surprised when they said that it was crazy with what materials I was using but I thought of this as a challenge to show them that you can use different and odd things within mine and their art work.

Tuesday 23rd September

Over the summer I created a sketch book which was overflowing with ideas and materials. In the summer every time I experienced something different I linked it to materials, which I thought I could use in my future art work. The materials that stood out to me the most was my use of shot glasses to represent a club I went to, another is hair gel that I used for the water and oceans I saw. Also within my work I am inspired by neon colour. So when I went on holiday with friends we went to a neon paint party and to show this within my sketch book I used a lot of uv paint plus I created uv water balloons. These materials stood out to me because I like working with a lot of bright colours and different textures.

However with these materials I knew that I wanted to carry them onwards with in my new project for example instead of balloons and making the uv was fascinating. Within my sketch book I also used jelly to represent cocktails and drinks. I know that I want to take some of these materials and techniques further in to my work.