19th July 2017 - Co-Create

As a final touch to our project, me and Joma looked at different ways we could display our outcome in preparation for our Photoshoot tomorrow. 

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Wrapping it around a pillar proved interesting as that way, the sense of direction is brought out, maybe adding to the flow of time and the narratives of nostalgia within the images.

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Also looked at displaying them onto different textured backgrounds, but found that this one added too much and made the images on the acetate to messy. 

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Went to a light-box in the library learning zone to see how the images would look like displayed on top of one another. Though interesting in the way the threads and water overlapped, once again, it made the overall images too messy. Also, did not really add anything too different from the original display.

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13th July 2017 - Co-Create

My partner and I worked to further develop our concept that we came up with on Monday and Tuesday, and looked to start getting the practical work down. So today, we mainly did the photoshoots for the projects, looking into documenting the flower subjects first before going to capture the moments of people. 

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Some of the photos we took.

The reasoning behind the flowers as a subject for our concept is that the flowers can be a representation of time and its passing while the humans, taken in the moment in a street-photography like fashion (inspired by Tina Modotti), was to represent the instantaneous nature of passing time, hence showing how impermanent it all is. After the 'photoshoot', both me and my partner saw that we could composition our photographs to showing how we can experience nostalgia by ourselves, with our friends, or with our family/children. 

I then did some slight editing to each chosen photograph in order to achieve the atmosphere and mood I wanted. 

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Screenshots of edits

 

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Example of one Photograph after edit.

10th July 2017 - Co-Create

For this new 9-day Project, titled Co-Create, the requirement for everyone is to be paired up to a partner where, by the end of the project, the two of us would have worked together — combining both of our skills — and created a final outcome which would be displayed in a public exhibition in August. As a starting point, today, the pair of us were given both a paragraph of text and an object to analyse and respond to, constructing an initial concept from them.

When being briefed, the foremost emotion that I was certain I felt was anxiety. The person that I ended up partnering with was someone that I knew from my A-level collage, so while we both knew each other as acquaintances, I was afraid that we might not work well together, with me either not understanding her concepts or being totally useless to her and vice versa. I really, really did not want that to happen. It would be safe to say that I may have been overthinking on the worst-case scenarios.

However, when doing the library task, picking out a book that displayed our subject specialism and our interest, I found that we both liked what we each picked out, with her being genuinely interested in the photos of Nuboyoshi Araki; his concepts of Self, Life and Death; and me finding interest in the history of garment styles and cuts along with the changing perceptions and worldly influences on both the menswear and womenswear, which also somewhat influenced the perception of masculinity and femininity, thus settling a little ball of relief in my stomach.

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For our text task, the paragraph that was given to us was an introduction to Material Culture Theory and Method, hence explaining exactly what Material Culture was, how it differed to Art History and how it is important and informs us about culture, ideas, attitudes, art, science, technology and etc. from the past. What I found interesting from that was the use of the word ‘time’, as when studying material culture, we will always most likely be looking at objects or artefacts from the past, and thus in this sense, Time plays a very important role in the study. From this, we looked at how people can feel emotion and nostalgia towards time, as that personal experience of being in that past time evokes those sorts of emotion. I found that to be an interesting potential concept that we could delve into.

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For me and my partner, Joma, our next task was to interview each other about our discipline and our reasons for choosing the subject. I found this task quite useful as it helped me understand Joma a little more, with her attitude towards fashion and how she finds that personality in the discipline is very important, as that shapes our uniqueness, confidence and individuality. She also loves the concepts, meanings and thinking behind the garments of fashion, shown through the materials, textures and techniques used to construct it.

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When mapping out how our subjects were different from each other, both of us found it difficult to point out how they were different, as opposed to how they overlapped with each other, so I take that as a good sign for us to work well together, hopefully being good use to each other, teaching each other new methods and ways of working/creating an outcome and introducing each other to new artists.

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As the last task of the day, we went to the UAL museum where we were given a museum object to analyse and speculate, responding to it and finding how that object could lead to an interesting concept for us. Me and Joma got a pair of mesh gloves as our object. When deducting the object, what I found interesting was how when looking at it, the gloves reminded me of the mesh scrubs we would use to wash dishes or clean plates, due to the material. That, to me, implied the functionality of the object, especially since they were gloves; an object that is seen as functional due to the user being able to wear them to protect their palms and fingers, and from the word ‘protection’, this sparked another perception for the mesh-gloves, as the way they were woven together also resembled the chain-mail armour of the medieval knights, hence enforcing the idea of the gloves shielding you from harm.

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Therefore, what I find excitedly significant about these gloves are how they seem to take both their implied functionalities and render them completely useless. The reason being that no one human will have arms that long, therefore disparaging the idea of being worn, and even if it is worn, the scratchy material of the mesh would ironically hurt and discomfort the user rather than protect them. Hence, from this object, the concept of taking practical object and rendering them useless through a manipulation of the materials and size is what I had found fascinating.

6th July 2017 - Drawing

 Workshops:

Today, all of us did a drawing and pattern-cutting workshop with tutors Gary and Tamzin respectively. 

Drawing

For my group, the Drawing workshops ensued first, in the morning. During the workshop, we looked at the spaces within drawing a group of people acting out scenarios such as a heart transplant surgery, a family reunion gone wrong, a revolution, and etc. The main aim of the exercise was to let us become more confident in our drawing skills and to see human form and how we can translate the tension and atmosphere of the scene into our drawings.

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Some examples of my sketches.

The workshop exercise also looked to push us on our drawing, with Gary encouraging us to add more into the drawing, and not just draw what we saw. He wanted us to add to the people, drawing in the scenario they were in, using our imagination and some colours to bring out the atmosphere or excitement of the scene.

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For this image, I feel that it's one of my better positioned sketches as we can see the depth and interaction between the people. Though the two middle figures could be improved in terms of scale and the way their bodies overlap one another, I felt that the two figures on the right were better shaped and more proportionate. I also do think that I managed to capture the atmosphere of a disco/party in this scene, though maybe adding splashes of colour would have helped improve the overall image.

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Not the best in terms of accuracy – both for perspective and proportion – and the use of media is limited, but I like the way I drew the hand for the figure on the right, as we can somewhat see the three-dimensional element of that sketch, I feel.

While doing the exercises, I felt that my biggest problem was getting the proportions correct, as I found that as I drew, sometimes the person would be too big, or too much in the foreground than he/she is suppose to be. I also felt that, though I did get some nice human forms out of the exercise, my perspectives were all inaccurate. However, to say that all of them were bad would be a lie, as while my drawings were inaccurate, I felt that some of them did express the movement and weight of their form, such as the two drawings below. 

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The [top part of the] figure on the right I felt really showed the intensity of his stance, which helped express the tension of the situation. Also, with the reclining sizes of the overall figures, the depth of the sketch is addressed and somewhat clearly shown, I feel. 

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The figure on the left, though flat and two-dimensional, somewhat displays her shifting weight through her stance, which I liked. I feel that you can really see the way the figure is leaning the board on her hips.

On the Body - Pattern Cutting

After lunch, my group witched to the other side of the room where Tamzin introduced us to another method of pattern cutting, where instead of measuring the body and applying it to create the cuts on a flat, 2D surface, we would sculpt the area we want to create our garment on — using cling film and masking tape — and then from there, draw out our patterns and create our cuts. Though frustrated at first, as it was my first time experiencing this and I didn’t want to make any mistakes, once I stopped being so uptight, I started to enjoy it, especially when my sister was creating her piece on me. It was fun to see first-hand, the garment emerge and take form on our body.

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Tamzin taught us step by step how, from this 3D aspect, we were going to cut the pieces we drew and apply them onto the paper, hence creating the cuts. She reminded us on how to make sure we don’t mix up which pattern goes where and to always allow seam allowance so that our garment won’t b stretched so thin.

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They say to add at least a centimetre of seam allowance.

30th June 2017 - Collection

Critique Response

After our critique — which was very successful, with everyone getting feedback — we were asked to propose how we would develop it further if we had the time and money.

For me, if I had more time and money to take my outcome further, I would create a performance piece of me either acting out the video where I eat the vouchers, or have someone continuously tosses vouchers on top of my face as I lay on the ground, with the vouchers perhaps eventually covering my whole body to embody that sense of overwhelm. And since I would have “a lot of money”, perhaps I could hire other performance artists to collaborate with me and act out my performances while I video or record.

I would also attempt and create life-sized clay sculptures that would be struggling not to drown in a sea of vouchers that would resemble quicksand, showing the dangers of indulging in our excessive and consumerist ways. This would also show that hunger is metaphorically like quicksand, as there is no end to hunger, no “bottom”. That, or I could mix all the vouchers in clay/cement and make a giant grotesque pile of waste out of that to symbolise our excessiveness and hunger.

Eventually, with all these, I might make a whole gallery of those art pieces, having the title of the exhibition somewhere along the lines of “Hunger”, or “Waste & Hunger”, though the latter sounds a bit naff.

The gallery could have three rooms that would contain the photography/film section, the sculpture section, and performance section, and for my performances to be all in the space, I would either video my performances with me acting them out, or hire the performance artists so that they could act it out live for the viewers to see, hence make the message more tangible for them.

30th June 2017 - Collection

For the last day of this’Collection’ project, as we are looking at displaying our works, we are to present and curate our final outcomes into an ‘exhibition space’ in the room, therefore helping us see how we would be working after University. I quite enjoyed it, working with colleagues and the tutors to discuss how we could all display each others works and how that could enhance their messages and concepts.

For my display, I presented my images  and video in a very clean, minimalistic and simple arrangement, as that way my photograph would be able to stand out more, as it had bright colours, as well as my video. Also, I felt that by showing as little as possible, I could give the viewers more room to interpret the message of my photograph and video, giving them the enjoyment of imagining and filling in the blanks of the concept.

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Once finished with setting up the ‘exhibition’, we could walk around and view each others work, writing some feedback with the form provided. I retrospect, I would say that the exhibition was a success, as i found to be enjoyable, discussing the effectiveness of each display and what people thought on the feedback that was provided to them.

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For me, I agreed to what my feedback said on improving my display, as it suggested that perhaps for more visual impact, I could have added in some of the actual vouchers I used, putting them on the table. I can see that working, as since I was looking ay excess, perhaps my display could have shown that messiness of excess as well.

 

29th June 2017 - Collection

For today, in addition to focusing on finishing my sketchbook work, I did a screen print workshop with Ignasia in the morning, where I created a response to Martin Kippenberger’s Family Hunger sculptures, as I found his work relevant to my theme of hunger and human excessiveness and how it never ends. I found the experiments very successful, as the colours produced worked well together and were very attractive. Also, the simplicity of my stencil felt complimentary to the technique as well as to Kippenberger’s work as it doesn’t tell much, letting the viewers invest themselves into it and create their own perceptions of it.

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I tried adding some vouchers in it, ripping them up to make them more abstract so that I could try ad maintain the obscurity of the image, but I think it fails and doesn’t work, as it still says too much and makes it very obvious, hence destroying that sense to investment to the piece.

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For the afternoon, I booked a tutorial wth another tutor, Karen, as I still struggled to finalise my outcome. During the tutorial, I showed her some concept sketches for ideas that I had that was inspired was inspired from the 3D Trickeye art.

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She then introduced me to artists such as Erwin Wurm and Maurizio Cattelan, which helped a lot, as from them, I could see how to present my message in a very theatrical way, which would hold the three dimensional aspect while adding more possibilities than just painting on the wall. As responses to them, I did a photoshoot with the vouchers I collected and my sister modelling as well as recorded a video.

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From these responses, I could start to see them as final outcomes for the project, as some of the photographs to me represented the excess of humans and hunger via the many vouchers held and stuck to her face. However, what stuck out to me was the urgency that the images held, especially when the model is seen almost choking on them, and that to me showed my message as a warning to people to heighten their awareness of how we can choke on our desire to consume, which was what I was going for and therefore found successful.

For the video, I liked it and thought that it gave the photographs another aspect, where the viewers will be able to see and experience the message through moving images instead of stills. Also, as people have a tendency to watch and enjoy moving images, I felt that the video could be something that could draw the viewers to see my piece.

Hunger Video

27th June 2017 - Collection

Taking the collection we had obtained yesterday, we were to develop it further and experiment with ways to display our collected items. The tutor that day, Karen, showed us a power point presentation of all the methodologies that different artists used to display their artworks, and how that effected their work and further brought out and enhanced the concept, narrative or statement. Some of the methodologies shown were Fabrication, Duplication/ Repetition, standardisation/homogenisation, Compounding/ Removal of differences, and more. For me, since I had vouchers and wanted to show the concept of human desires and their excess through them, I thought that the methodology of duplication or repetition would suit it well. Therefore, it create more of the same vouchers, I went to the library to scan and print more of them.

When displaying my collection in the repetition format, I mainly used a grid-like arrangement, as I believe I was subtly influenced by the artists Bernd and Hiller Becher, as all of their photographic works were displayed as such. However, I did consciously try to maintain an almost circular shape to the structure, as I wanted to show how our hunger is cyclic, always getting hungry, then full, then hungry again, while leaving a space in the middle, hence implying how hunger will never be satisfied, as it cannot be ‘cured’.

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First arrangement test              Actual arrangement on A2 sheet 

Another I idea that I had with the vouchers was suggested by one of my colleagues, Lemie, as during the morning before we set out to do our individual tasks, the tutor place us in small groups to discuss and help each other in coming up with our projects. After looking at my vouchers, she recommended that I cut out the promotional prices and typographies and arranged them together, as it is the discounts and statements that entice us to buy their products. From there, I created a small booklet using the standardisation or homogenisation method that showed the promotional discounts and prices.

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I found this interesting, as when displayed in this way, the message became more of how we are manipulated by the fast-food business into buying their products instead of showing excessive human behaviour with food and consuming. This, to me, just showed the power of displaying and artwork and how our perception of the message can be changed through it. However, with this statement being made through the booklet, I feel that the artwork becomes more political, which was not my goal, and therefore, though this was a nice little discovery, I don’t think I would take it further for this project.

After having a group critique on the methods I used to display my collection, my peers and tutor suggested that since I was showing human excess, I should have a display that was not so grid-like and neat, an when one thinks of the word ‘excess’ abundance and a feeling of being overwhelmed would come to mind. The tutor suggested that perhaps if I displayed the vouchers covering an entire wall instead of just and A2 sized paper, I could convey the message of excess more effectively.

Taking her advice, I went into Photoshop to manipulate my grid to see how that would look. From the results, I didn’t find much spark or inspiration.

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The concept still didn’t feel effective enough, as it was still neat, grid-like and tidy. The feeling of overwhelm and abundance was, to me, what I needed to really push the project, and with this, I realised that I wanted my display to be three-dimensional, as I feel that by adding the solidity to it, my concept can become more cemented and impactful and that sense of overwhelm could be realised as a weight would be added. Thus, I felt that if this weight was present, the idea of excess would be more tangible and therefore more realistic.

23rd June 2017 - This Place

Since today was basically an all-day free time day for my group – with the choice to work on projects or go to degree shows during the morning and open access to the workshops that we were introduced to yesterday, in the afternoon – I made sure to make full use of my time during the class hours, and from what I have done today, I would say I succeeded. Yay me.

During my morning hours, while catching up on sketchbook work, I booked myself a tutorial with Naomi, which by the end of it, was a helpful one, pointing out what I lacked and what I cud take further and finalize. I also did a few experiments using my images and sewing threads into them, looking to trace out the patterns the water made and see what could come from them.

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Though I did have a few technical difficulties when sewing into the photographs, the end result I would still see as successful, as the mistakes in itself produced some interesting results.

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As I wanted to utilize and make full use of what I had learnt in the inductions, I also went to the 3D workshop to see if I could create a small model of what my final outcome (a cave-like structure) using the vac-form.

 

My experience there was really quite fun. The staff in that workshop were all really friendly and helpful, and I even got help from one of the ceramic 3rd year students! Where she gave me one of her mold that she did not want so that I could smash it, as I was looking for a natural organic relief. By the end of it, I managed to somewhat get the shape I wanted and from there, I made my mold.

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21st June 2017 - This Place

When grouping the images together, initially, I was slightly nervous with the people I was working with, as a part of me worried that we wouldn't agree on how we would group and categorize the images. However, everyone discussed and gave their two cents, seeing each other's point of view and the grouping was not as dramatic as I feared it would have been, so that was good.

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In the time that it came where we had to input our own reasons to why each of us grouped the four images together, I found that fun and familiar, as writing and analyzing is something I enjoy doing, so though the concept I had was slightly vague and a it too open, I found that I managed to narrow how I would go about the concept, and that was something I felt quite proud doing, having managed to create a clearer goal on how I would go about the project if I were to start it.

21st June 2017 - This Place

16th June 2017 - Self-Portrait

In this Self-Portrait project, I wanted to how the impermanence in our identities as to me, the environment we are in, the clothes we wear, the people we meet as we grow up and the way we present ourselves are all factors in shaping and molding our characters. Even something as uncontrollable as time help in this factor. 

As ancient greek philosopher Heraclitus (530 - 470) says: 'we both step and do not step in the same rivers, we are and we are not.' (B94a) meaning that the river, just like life, is a constant never-ending flow and therefore, always changing from moment to moment. Thus the water will always be different each time we step into it, and just like the river, we change as well; we age, grow and the particles that we consist of also die and grow, never staying the same.  

Reflection 1

For this first experiment, I wanted it to show the amount of inherent dependency that is required in order for us to perceive a 'self-portrait'. I wanted to show and question 'Is it our facial features that make up a full portrait? Do we need our whole face to achieve the title of 'Portrait'? If we take out our features, will it still be considered a self-portrait? 

Basically, in this experiment, I wanted to ask 'what is a portrait?' and 'What makes a "portrait" a "Portrait?'

Reflection 2

I further abstracted the portrait in this experiment, further questioning the conditions of a portrait. However, I feel that the sense of impermanence is lost, as with the first test, because of the facial features slowly disappearing, there was a sense of fading, and that was a concept that I found quite interesting, as we are all impermanent as well. 

Reflection 3

Here I merged two portraits of my face, taken at different times, to see what would come out if this and to show that in our everyday life, something as intangible and subtle as time can change us. 

By merging my two faces, I feel that I brought back the concept of time to highlight the sense of impermanence while still sustaining the abstraction of the self-portrait. I also like the differences and subtlety of it in each portrait, as  believe that the changes of time is a very subtle thing. 

20th July 2017 - Part 2 Final Evaluation

Since starting the FAD+ course at the start of the Summer, on the 12th of June, I have learnt many new skills and techniques, such as sewing and knitting along with learning how to use the equipment in the 3D workshops, fining new ways of integrating and applying those methods into my chosen discipline: photography. Other than that, I’ve learnt to collaborate and work with another colleague from a totally different discipline, realising the value in sharing and discussing ideas with someone else, communicating and negotiating in order to achieve the best potential or outcome for the project. 

With all the knowledge I have accumulated thus far, I feel that I can do so much more and come up with a lot more ideas than to what I could do at the start of the course, as I have developed my knowledge in art practitioners from both inside and outside my subject specialist, hence opening my eyes to more techniques and methods used to visualise or make tangible a concept or idea. One example being since my induction to the sewing and knitting machine, I am able to see more ways in which I can apply and integrate texture or tactile elements into my photography, making them more three dimensional. 

Since coming to FAD+, I would say that my approach to research and analysis has changed in the sense that I have widened my range of research, not just looking online, but also towards books, articles and exhibitions in order to get a wide-ranging arsenal of knowledge that could potentially become new inspiration, feeding into the development of my projects. In addition to that, I now have a clearer understanding of the differences between writing research and writing reflection, where research is analysing an outstanding source and finding how you can incorporate those inspirational methods into your own work, while reflection is looking back at the work you have done, finding how you have realised your projects potential and how you can further develop it.

For my approaches to my projects and how they have changed during the course, I feel that since this is a very accelerated course, there is a pressure to getting good ideas and developing the quickly, as we essentially only have about a week on each project. Therefore, I feel that for the time that I have been on this course, I have learnt to develop my ideas faster, as there is almost an urgency to get on with your work and make the most you can with the time you have, which is good, as in the industry, there could be similar instances that could happen.

I would say that every since I started my specialist area during my A-levels, i have continuously and consistently developed a deep appreciation to the discipline and medium, as I have experienced the many possibilities and potentials it can reach, applying different media onto it along with finding the perfect composition in order to convey the narrative within it. I believe that by continuing to delve further into my specialist subject as I am doing now, I will be able to be fully prepared for when I progress to my BA course. So yes, I do feel that I am preparing to go to my BA. 

From the 5th project, entitled ‘Co-Create’, I feel that I have learnt the importance of teamwork along with the value of communications and negotiations. Through teamwork that we managed to get so much work done within a week, delving into and exploring a sufficient amount of experimentations and developments to see the project to its completion, and through discussion and negotiation, we were always on the same page with the project, never not knowing what the other was doing and considering what the each of us could do to contribute equally to the project. 

As I have progressed on this course as an art practitioner, I feel that I am achieving my goals, especially with the last project, Co-Create as I managed to gather nicely compositional photographs and take them a step further, adding onto them or taking elements away in order to achieve the message or narrative I want to convey. I also feel that I am starting to achieve my goal of taking my photographs to more three-dimensional or sculptural aspects, sewing into them or starting to see or finalise them as 3D installations or objects. 

If I were to point out my strengths, it would be that I am able to think of was to expand my ideas and images into something more, preferably breaking away from the image being two-dimensional and in a static state to a three-dimensional object. Also, I am confident that I can speak well and deliver a speech. However, in order to do that well, i realise that i mostly rely on reading the script i wrote. Thus, I feel that this can improved, as i should build my confidence in actually presenting my speech instead of reading it, letting my way of delivering the speech become less structured and more casual. 

For the second half of the FAD+ course, I hope to make my photographs more exciting and dynamic, incorporating sculptural or 3D elements to the images in order to layer them and bring  them out, adding a weight to them so that the messages within can have more impact. besides that, i hope do explore more into analogue and film photography, seeing that as a method to hone my compositional skills and learning to have a better handle on my exposure balance, in addition to aiming to practice by the thinking through making ethos so that my projects can consistently develop and grow. 

18th July 2017 - Co-Create

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Original display idea, hanging images up with fishing wire.

– we hung up the display today, but underestimated the amount of time we had and realised that we had to rush to get the display up for the critique.

– Therefore, we didn’t have enough time to hang it up like we originally planned, suspending the images with fishing wire, and had to adapt the suspending process to pinning it on the wall.

– However, if there was one thing that I would say I’m proud of from this situation, it would be how we both worked to try and get the display up as fast we could, and when we realised that we did not have enough time, how we both managed to think up of a way to adept it to pinning on the wall while still managing to make the display have the same effect as the original idea.

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Adapted display, using pins.

 

Reflection, 18th July 2017 - Co-Create

Reflective Prompts:

How does your outcome relate to the museum object you were allocated? Is there a clear, but sophisticated narrative link?

For our outcome, we took inspiration from both the library text task as well as the museum object allocated, with the text — an introduction to material culture — being the inspiration for us to look into the concept of time, personal experience/memory and nostalgia, while the museum object, the mesh gloves, gave us the concept of taking practical materials and objects and rendering them useless.

Our outcome relates to the museum object in the sense that with the photography, we either sewed into it or washed it with water to convey our concept of how instant and impermanent a moment or memory is, hence somewhat deconstructing the image, and that to me, was rendering it useless as photographs are meant to store the memories within the images. For how it relates to the text, by capturing the precious and oftentimes overlooked moments of the everyday, as well as the decaying flowers, which we saw as a representation of passing time and the approaching of the end, I feel that we captured the essence of time and its instantaneous passing well, evoking subtly a sense of nostalgia.

 

What are the most successful aspects of your collaborations? Why?

The communication and trust we had for each other throughout the Co-Create project was what I found most successful, as both of us did contributed equally to the making of the outcomes and always created enough work from both our specialists to develop the images further and further. We discussed and negotiated on what subjects the images should have and why, looked at which images were the best to represent our concept and how to best display it.

The best part was that we did not agree on everything, there were a few times where I didn’t agree or understand her idea and vice versa, but we were always respectful of one another and made it a point to always try and best understand the meaning behind our thinking, hence we were able to move forward with our ideas without much friction, which was ideal to me.

 

Which aspects of your project could you improve? Why?

I think that if there was any aspect that we could improve, it would be how to take this project further, maybe even creating a garment as an outcome, as my partner’s subject discipline is fashion, for I find that this concept is very interesting and still has many potentials.

 

How successfully did you manage your collaboration? Why is teamwork important?

I feel that we both managed it quite well, with the reason being that our communication with each other was very good, and we even took each others numbers so that we could text each other over the weekends to update each other on the work we had done so that we knew where to start and what work to continue doing when we were back in the studio.

For me, teamwork is important as that way, one could get more done in a week than if one were doing it alone. I think that if I were alone and did this concept myself, I might not have been able to come up with as much ideas and as much variety of subjects that could relate to the theme, nor would I have done as much experimentations. Therefore, I believe that if I did this myself, my outcome would maybe only be half the ideas that it would have had, which is why I think having a partner for this co-create project really helped and made the outcome as best as it could have been.

 

What did your to disciplines have in common?

For me, what was common between me and Joma’s disciplines is that both our disciplines can be very evocative and provocative, looking into controversial subjects like sexism and poverty, as both subjects create outcomes that are both tangible and can be seen as an object in front of you. I feel that both can be very influential to the external world in that sense.

 

What lessons will you take from working with a practitioner from a different discipline?

For me, the best lesson would be teamwork and communication/discussion, because to me the reason why we both worked so well as because we were both very involved with the discussions and developments that went into the project, so though there may not be very much textiles or fashion elements in the final outcome, the concept, display and overall outcome are both ours.

 

Which other collaborations did you admire during the critique? What made them successful?

Two other collaborations which I admired were Alina’s and Yuhao’s project, as well as Lemie’s, Earn’s and Richard’s collaboration, as I liked that both outcomes looked to immerse the viewers into their art pieces.

 

Their scale and size I feel is what made both their pieces successful, as by fully immersing the viewers, I felt the they managed to get their concepts across. Alina and Yuhao delved into the aspects of our materialistic consumerism and how we are never satisfied, hence getting inevitably buried ad swallowed up by our consumerist ways, so by actually putting the viewers in a cage filled with the objects we buy and then throw away was something I felt showed their concept very effectively.

 

Also, with Lemie, Earn and Richards, as their piece looked to combine different materials and texture together, fully immersing the viewer into their created environment, I felt that their scale and size of their outcome was perfect, capturing and embodying an accurate and effective atmosphere through the lighting and spacing.

14th July 2017 - Co-Create

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Today:

   — Mainly experimented with edited images today —> Joma stitched into it and I did some with water, looking to damage the image a bit. Inspired by Araki and how he somewhat ‘decayed’ his film and also Peter Hoffman who burned his film.

   — I like it as gives interesting patterns and can be seen as time flowing by like water and the impermanence of a moment/memory.

   — discussed and both liked the idea where the human images are deformed slightly with water, as the photographs are ink based and not water resistant, while we sewed into the flower images, so that both images could convey the sense of paling time and fleeting moments, as by somewhat destroying a photograph; something that is meant to keep and store memories; we feel that the concept is represented the most effectively that way.

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11th July 2017 - Co-Create

 

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Today:

— Started discussing and developing an idea from the “10 Quick Ideas” list had was made the day before.

— From that, we started to piece together a concept of nostalgia, time and memory and how imagery and texture could compliment each other to help inform that thought.

— Had a tutorial with Mark, where we proposed our idea. Discussed ways to effectively convey ’nostalgia’ as everyone’s might differ from each other.

— Also touched on the best way to display our concept as a final outcome and also the size of it, as we will be displaying it in a window, and not a big gallery space.

— As a starting point, we went around asking colleagues what made them nostalgic, so that we could put our concept into perspective get some idea of the subjects and objects we would be working with that would be the most effective in terms of displaying and conveying the concept.

 

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Nostalgia Questionnaire. 

11th July 2017 - Co-Create

7th July 2017 - Drawing

Workshops:

Today, I had stitch illustration with Naomi — something which I was looking forward to — and spatial drawing with another tutor named Laura. 

Stitch Illustration

During the workshop, Naomi showed us the methods to two different types of embroidery, hand-stitch and with the machine. She also taught us bonding and showed us how to stick down fabric onto our base fabric/calico so that when we thread over them,  so that the material won’t ruffle up and go all over the place, making it easier. She also showed us this dissolvable plastic, showing how we can make our own kind of fabric with it for if we thread over the plastic and put it under running water, all that would be left behind is the threads. I found these tutorials very interesting and I was excited to try them all out. I wanted to get the most out of the workshops.

For what I was going to draw with these techniques since Gary said that I needed to develop take further one drawing I did the day before, I decided to kill two birds with one stone, sketching out one part of the drawing lightly onto the calico as a guide.

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A sketch of a drawing I did yesterday.

The stitching had a surprising amount of difficulty, which I did not expect. The treads kept getting tangled up and due to that, I ended up snapping a thread or two [Naomi mentioned that they were quite a horrible quality]. To add to my irritations, I found that hand-sewing was a lot more slower and harder. I felt really frustrated, especially for the first part of the workshop, as I felt that, when hand-stitching, the progress was annoyingly slow, which meant that I didn’t get as much as I wanted.

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Literally the only progress I made during the first-part of the stitch illustration workshop. I was hoping to at least finish outlining the whole sketch. 

For the second part of the stitch illustration workshop, things went slightly smoother, where I managed to do the bonding technique, by sticking down some fabric as the material for the clothes, and embroidered a little onto the calico.

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First, I took the glue paper that is what is used to bond the two pieces of fabric together. I drew the guidelines of the shape I wanted to cut and bond onto the glue side, and ironed the glue paper onto the fabric, hence melting the glue and bonding the two materials together. One other way I could have gone was to draw a mirrored image of what you wanted onto the non-glue side, as the upside to that was a clearer view of the guidelines when cutting. 

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Once the piece was cut, I peeled off the paper and once again used the iron to melt the glue and bond the fabric onto the calico. 

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I repeated the process, creating more shapes and filling up the drawing, somewhat like colouring it in using fabrics.

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As the final touch, I embroidered the fabrics down, filling up the spaces in the process to give the whole piece a more complete look. 

The embroidering was very fun and freeing, with me being able to take the fabric in any direction I could go and I enjoyed that. However, the one downside and danger to this was that if not careful, one could tangle up the threads, which is a little bit of a pain to untangle, as you would have to take out the bobbin and readjust everything again. Overall, though I did have fun with embroidering, I wanted to do more and therefore still feel like I haven’t done enough work, which is a little disappointing.

 

Spatial Drawing

The afternoon saw us working with Laura on technical drawings and learning terms such as the Extrude, where we basically make a 3D model of a drawing given to us as a first draft of the building w want to plan; Plan view, which is an accurate birds eye view drawing of the model; the Elevation view, looking at the model from the side; and the Section view, where we look at the model as if we cut a knife through it, like a cake, and therefore will be able to see the interior.

For the first part of the workshop, we looked at suprematism and constructivism and how those art forms took on a very architectural spect. Showed us works by Malevich and from there, we would choose one of his works and create a 3D model out of it. We worked in groups of three's. I had a fun time doing that workshop and I believe all of us, me, my sister and a colleague, Lemie, enjoyed constructing Malevich’s flat design into something three dimensional. We used pins to hold the model together.

Process:

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Finished Piece:

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The hard part came in drawing them to technically as plans, both from a bird’s eye view and side, elevated view. It was our first time, so we struggled on how to measure the distance from the edge of the base to the individual pieces stuck onto the floor, especially if they were floating. We asked Laura for assistance many times. Yet, despite the difficulty, the experience was a new and exciting one and if given the choice, I would go back and lear more on how to do those types of drawings, as it did have its own sense of enjoyment when creating it.

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First attempt at the plan and elevated view.

 

 

29th June 2017 - Collection

28th June 2017 - Collection

As once again, today was a day that gave us an opportunity to catch-up with sketchbook work and update our workflow, before having our contextual studies lesson at three in the afternoon, I mainly caught up with my annotations and reflections during the morning hours. However, fifteen minutes to lunch, I was in the group to go to Pod A in the learning zone for a study tutorial. There, we discussed the use of research and reflection and how they could help us in our work.

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Research and Reflection tasks.

As tasks, we practically did research and reflection exercises to show fully how both can benefit us in our projects and push our thinking, eventually applying our thought development into our work. For me, I found this tutorial and the exercises quite useful, as not only did I learn the benefits, but also the difference between writing research and writing reflection, with research being us looking at a source and thinking about how the source could influence and add to our project, while reflection looks more into our thinking towards the development of our project and the explanation behind our concept.

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Tips on Reflection.

This tutorial definitely helped me better understand  the importance of research and reflection and showing how both of them, though similar in terms of showing our thinking process, differ in their explanation and method of writing. 

26th June 2017 - Collection

Today was the start of the third project entitled Collection, where we are looking at the different ways of displaying a collection and how that can affect the concept an meaning. 

As an initial exercise to start the project, we did a collaborated group collection, and in my group, a colleague, Anderson, took a collection of what we felt were flaws of our bodies.

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After that we discussed how we could display the collection.

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Once the warm up practice was done, we then took on our own individual projects. For this project, I wanted to look into humans and food. I choose food as food is a necessity that sentient beings need to survive, however, if eaten to much, it can become something unhealthy and frowned upon. I wanted to show that our excess and desire could lead to a basic necessity into an indulgence that would be of no benefit to us in the long run. So I wanted to bring out that awareness. My reasoning behind this concept stems from one of the truths that Buddhism teaches us, which goes somewhere along the lines of how Hunger is a disease that cannot be cured, as no matter how much we eat, we will always be hungry. Hence, I wanted to try and create my response to this teaching.

Once I got my concept down, I went out to take images of people buying food and eating. I went around King’s Cross and the Waitrose outside. When doing that, the challenge for me was either to take a photo of them eating without them noticing, so that I won’t offend anyone, or going up to ask them so that I wouldn’t be rude. I ended up asking more than being a voyeur.

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A few of the images I collected.

After my collection I looked at my photos and realised that though it did show people and food, the greed or excessiveness of our nature was not suggested through the images very well, which my tutor, Ignacious, agreed to once we discussed. It was then that I mentioned how when going to lunch, Coke-Cola was promoting their coke zero, and gave me a voucher to spend.

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From that, we saw how the voucher could show — in a very subtle and indirect way — our greed and desire to a food product that is not necessarily needed, but wanted. Thus, we saw the potential of how the voucher can represent our indulgence. From there, I went to collect more vouchers and promotional cards or flyers around King’s Cross station.

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Voucher Collection.

Experiment: Tracing Water, 23rd June 2017 - This Place

For these images, I traced the string around the patterns that the water made sprouting from the fountains to see what would come out.

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  • The patterns that emerged potential and had an interesting quality and direction to it, with the way the flow of it was created through the water. However, the background is a distraction, as we can see the people, despite being blurred due to the shallow aperture. Because of this, we lose focus on the pattern.

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  • For this, since there is less going on in the background, the threads are brought out and we are there able to focus and appreciate the pattern more, which perhaps can be seen as the ups and downs one experiences when living, going through their highs and lows.

I then took the images from Regent's Canal and applied the same method.

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  • I felt a bit more excited doing these ones, as through the dark colours, the threads are brought out more and I feel that it also shows depth and therefore immerses the viewer further into the images. It's also more abstract and suggestive then the first two images, adding a sense of mystery to it. Also, due to the ripples of the water, the patterns and paths that emerged had an unpredictable quality to it, which I liked, as I find that this can be translated to how everything in life is uncertain and thus unpredictable.

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  • The patterns looked somewhat like how a navigational map would look, and that adds strength to the concept of unpredictability and life, as the images can then be seen as the map of our lives and how it is never straightforward or easy.

22nd June 2017 - This Place

As inductions go, I found the two that I went to today – 3D and textiles respectively – quite fun and enlightening. My group went to the 3D workshop induction first, leaving right after morning registration to the first floor where the room was. Granted, we didn't get the full tour and introduction, as we were still only Foundation students, the tools, such as Vacuum-former, Quick Release-Clamp, drop-down tables and etc. that were shown to us still held my awe, being exposed to it for the first time.

However, while it was exciting to learn the basics of how to handle and use them, the main highlight if he induction was the rules and safety measures we had to take if we were to work in that environment. The specialist technician, Rick, informed us of the do's and don't' of the room, (such as always wearing googles and a mask lest we inhale the dust and toxic fumes) while pointing out where the emergency stop buttons were in case one such emergency (such as if a colleagues hand, clothe, hair, etc. were to catch onto a machine) ever did occur.

The stitch induction workshop in the afternoon, when compared to the 3D workshop, felt a lot less hazardous. We mainly learnt how to use the sewing machine, with Jess (the knit specialist tutor) teaching us where the front thread and bobbin went in the machine and how to wind a bobbin, should the tread ever run out. A colleague and I had fun with sewing, giving each other ridiculous patterns on the calico to follow, while making sure that we didn't jam the machine. After we had a taster in sewing, Jess took us over to he knitting machines and taught us the basic methods on how to place the threads into the machine (surprisingly straight-forward) and how to knit.

 

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She even taught me how to add two different colours to one knit, which was again surprisingly quite easy and a little exciting, as once again, it was my first time. I found sewing and stitching rather fun, with the methods rather therapeutic. While I cannot really see how I could apply these new techniques and to my current project, I hope I can, as I did enjoy what I made and would like to try my hand at the 3D work gears.

19th June 2017 - This Place

For the start of this project, the group went around King’s Cross to sketch observations as an initial exercise to acquire some inspiration and primary research. Towards the end of that exercise, I took notice and realised that most of what I had drawn were either of water or relating to water in some way. I liked the fluidity of the form and how they could become organic, abstract shapes, and that reminded me of how our life is actually rather fluid and abstract as well, having no certainty and no way of stopping. From there, I wanted my concept to focus on water and how that cold be a representation and metaphor on the fluidity of our lives.

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16th June 2017 - Drawing

Today, we looked at the different methods of drawing, such as blind drawing with the instruction of others, feeling each others faces with our eyes closed, drawing with our non-dominant hand and drawing the negative spaces around the object and not the object itself.

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Blind Drawing with instructions ^

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Feeling each other's faces with eyes closed ^

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Drawing negative spaces ^

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Drawing with non-dominant hand ^

Though difficult, as drawing is not my strong my strongest quality, I found this exercise rather interesting as the shapes and patterns that were formed had a rather unpredictable and unknown aspect of chance embedded into them, and that was something I could appreciate and enjoy. The exercise also opened a wider sense of what makes a drawing, and those possibilities can be quite exciting.

Video - Self-portrait