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.