Catch-up

Long time no blog.


It has been a busy couple of weeks with project planning which is coming together well, I have settled on the idea of Facecrime. I have been spending time watching a related television series 'Lie To Me' which features microexpressions, lying and deceit which is exactly me reasoning behind my idea.

I want to capture the microexpressions used in everyday life that they talk about in 1984, as a means of betraying Big Brother. My final idea is to display four or five of the images of people displaying microexpressions with an accompanying book that explains what they are doing in the image..such as whether they are sad, happy, angry or expressing contempt. I will also enlighten the viewer as to what question I had asked or what image I had shown in order to provoke the reaction captured. I feel it would also be important to get a little writing from the model of what they were thinking about or how they were really feeling, or thought they were feeling.

Whilst doing this project I have also been working on the beginning of my 5000 word essay for Contextual Studies which I am focusing on Advertising, with regard to the opinion of the 'lad' and the modern day feminist. The essay is going well although I feel I am being far too descriptive and not analytical enough.. hand-in in nearing so I am working my ass off to make sure I submit something I am satisfied with.

Today was also the day I handed in my PDP folder, which is always a relief having been finished all the work the week before. I only have to update my blog - hence the post just now..and publish my website AHHH.

Have a look at my mock business cards, pretty decent for a first attempt...

x

Studio Practice 1 - Part 2.

Long time no blogging.

I have been quite busy the past few weeks which unfortunately meant that there has been a severe dip in the blog posts. I have my 21st birthday coming up so I have been spending alot of time organising it. At the same time there has also been a new brief issued, that compromises of three different options to choose from.

1. Punctuation Mark
2. The Internal Ephemeral 
3. Newspeak 

These new briefs have involved a lot of thinking and very little doing, which is frustrating as there has been little if no progress in the first few weeks which panics me.

Thankfully after a few days just thinking and not even looking at my sketchbook I thought of a few ideas for each of the options for the brief. I also spent a lot of time reading some books that helped my get a 'theme' or more an 'idealology' for each of the options.


Along with all of this research for the practical part of the course, I have also spent a lot of time refining what I am doing my independent contextual research project on. For that element I have decided to focus on taste and tastelessness in advertising with references to 'lad culture' and feminism. I thought this would be interesting as it is something that we talk about a lot with adverts going viral for all the wrong reasons.

Moving back to the current brief in question, I have finally decided (AFTER THREE WEEKS) that I will be doing the Newspeak option as I read Nineteen Eighty-Four which was a very interesting book full of themes, topics and ideas. I will begin by focusing on the Big Brother is watching you aspect of the book as in our current climate it is apparent that we are being watched involuntarily... or is it completely voluntary?
But this isn't the only question this book has conjured, I also wonder about the aspect of Newspeak in terms of today's languages, with text talk abbreviations and emoji. And then finally the book has encouraged me to think about the meaning of the Newspeak terms that are used such as 'facecrime' which involves your face involuntarily making same movements that could see you arrested for 'thoughtcrime'.

'Mystery Mugshots' 2011

On another note, as part of Pauls PDP class we have been encouraged to look into self publication. I have been focusing on creating a brand logo as you can see on the left. I feel my current design is quite elegant but I will work on it some more as to define a final brand image.

DONE AND DUSTED.

So as you can gather from the title of this particular blog post I have finished my second project for third year. It was a streneous project that tested my patience, skills and confidence but overall I am happy with my outcome (well it is too bloody late to not be happy).

 final piece of work on wall.

 Artist Statement accompanying wall display.

Unseen

Rebecca Young

Photography Installation

As the title suggests my finished work relates to what the human eye does not normally see especially when it comes to a non-place. I began with research into the general idea of a non-place then I looked into my personal understanding of a non-place. I think of a non-place as the opportunity to catch someone’s attention, to make them smile and ultimately make their transition to a ‘place’ more interesting.

I developed the idea of a Facebook Page, ‘The Smile Project’ in which I logged pictures and captions of what I was doing in order to inform people and amass interest. I generated interaction as people liked and shared my posts and you can have a look at the page using the QR code on the right.

Ultimately from the onset, this project was going to test my confidence as I was determined to do a publicly interactive piece of work. I finalised the idea of making areas of the street we don’t normally see into huge photographic pieces of work. I displayed the work in the street I had taken the photos on to see people’s immediate reactions as well as online reaction through my Facebook page, hoping I had made their day somewhat more interesting.

  

Statistics accompanying wall display.

 

So, as you can see I scrapped the idea of display my work the way it was displayed outside although the prints are damaged from their time outside which I wanted to keep therefore I didnt attempt to re-order prints.

I am so pleased with what I have achieve and I believe big is definately better and hope my future projects are even BIGGER.


CHIN CHIN,

Bex

Homing in on completion

BONJOUR.

So I finally feel like I am completely on top of things and therefore I am actually pretty relaxed about this hand-in as I am not rushing about like a loony trying to finish things off here and there.

That being said I have a few bits and bobs to do to be completely finished but nothing a quick hour working away wont fix. I am happy with what I have produced and hope, pray and beg that it is enough to justify a reasonable grade for this unit. I have fought a personal battle throughout with myself and my lack of confidence and bad attitude. Thankfully with a little perseverance I have got there in the end.

Below I had added some images from my street installation 'Pop up Gallery' that involved combining the huge macro images of areas of the street with the original images of the street. If that makes sense...although I didn't get much interest, in fact at least 4 people crossed the road to avoid I actually really enjoyed set-up and seeing it all together in the street. I personally don't know of anyone else crazy enough to set up a pop up gallery in a street in the ever wet Scotland.

www.facebook.com/thesmiileproject

 So the deadline is the week of November 2nd so not long to go, THANK GOODNESS. Once this is all handed in I am going to look more into my essay research and also make a start on my UCAS application for Honours Year.

Also pleased to report that I have DONE and DUSTED my graduation plan ready for hand in (I actually completed this a WEEK before - I must be sick). Throughout all the research into my future goals, I realised I need to get my arse in gear as time is running away from under me and UCAS deadlines are Christmas! 

Hopefully by the next blog post I will have completed UCAS...finger crossed but don't hold your breath.

bubye.

 

POSTIVIE PROGRESS

Hello,

Happy to report that I have a must more postive attitude on my project now. I took it back to the drawing board and decided to use the lack of interaction and reactions to form a linking project idea.

Using the fact that what I placed in the non-place was irrelevant and not noticed I decided to focus on some previous photos I had got. These photos were taken using a macro lens therefore it was of areas not visible to the human eye. I have decided I will incorporate my Smile Project idea to this new idea by blowing up the images to A1 size and then placing them on top or next to the original.

 ^ this is a mini mind map of what I'm trying to achieve!

Thankfully this idea is very much related to what I have done already as I really loved my idea at the start, it (maybe I) had lost the motivation and stamina needed!

Maybe it was my weekend away, where I could just chill with no internet or phone signal that calmed me down.

near giving up.

this time i attempted to make my door mat a lot more notiacble with balloons. unfortunately there were not many people passing and those who did barely even looked, except one couple..who paused for a time and laughed.

suppose one reaction out of a possible 6 (most people seemed to avoid the area all together) is not too bad.

an attempt.

This was a early morning attempt at my 'May your Bus be on time.'

However, from this little clip you can see that the door mat is not well seen. So, back to the drawing board.

the struggle is really really real.

Evening,

Needed to do something to calm me down, so ranting on about how much I am struggling seems like an approriate course of action.

Basically this project is becoming the bane of my life, never have I ever felt so depressed, deflated and exhusted over a bloody 8 week project. It is mentally draining as the subject matter is so philosopical and I really did not enjoy philosophy at school.

EVERYPLACE IS BOTH A PLACE AND A NON PLACE. WHAT. This is why I am still struggling, I just cant work out an idea that would please my lecturers.

I liked my idea at the beginning but when it come around to doing the very public pieces I have to do, I freeze then want to cry and spew in sync. I think I am driving my mother and my boyfriend mad with my pussy attitude as they see the potential in my idea but I cannot.

Im really disapointed in myself for letting a project get me so upset, I cant sleep, eat or function properly as I am concious of the fact that if I eat I'm wasting time, if I sleep I'm wasting time and obviously working my arse off at actual work is not getting any project work done.

Ive got such a negative attitude and I doubt that will change any time soon, Ive prepared for failure..although I dont know how I would cope remediating this bloody project as I would quite like to put it to bed.


I'll let you know how I get on, as I think I've had my rant for tonight.

Off for a voddy.



x

Plodding on..

So this week as been quite productive, due to the fact I have finally plucked up the courage to do a part of my project that involves public non places and possible reactions from strangers. WOW. As detailed below in my sketchbook entry, it was a pleasurable and positive experience that boosted my confidence.

 

Here are some of the images I got from the day.

On another positive note, I finally launched 'The Smile Project' which quickly gained 28 likes within 24hours. I encouraged my Facebook friends to share it so I got 3/4 strangers liking the page too! Hopefully now I am beginning to document my project and also leave small indications of who is responsible (for example: I attached a balloon to a bus stop to hopefully make someone smile and like my page). 

Overall it's been productive so far so long  may it last. 

Toodles.

Project Number Two

So I think I had quite a sucessful hand in for the first mini project, I got mostly good feedback just a few bits and pieces that I would change had I had to do/display it again.

Moving onto the second brief of the new year I am STUCK. I dont really like it at the moment and we are already two weeks in so I'm sturggling. I cant concentrate on anything in particular as all I've come up with has been boring as.

So I am in panic mode and want to cry whever I think about this brief, almost making me ill..so formulating an idea sometime soon would be super helpful as I have only FIVE WEEKS LEFT.


Anyway, everything else is going smoothly so I can relax in my other classes.

Thats all I can face to type this week.

Bubye x

First third year hand in FINITO.

SO these past two weeks have stressed me out to the max. Been working my ass off for this brief and also working my ass off at actual work. So there has been little rest for the wicked.

Basically in Pauls class we have been talking about our 'self constructed' brief and our futures such as careers or university paths! We had a small presentation to do, which I emphasised my desire to do some sort of advert of an already existing product or an improved product. Basically this class is just making it more apparent that I dont have long to make up my mind about almost everything my future relies on.

Moving onto more exciting things - FREEDOM from the first brief. I am really impressed with my final piece and the sketchbook that goes with it as I have produced (what I feel is) a good standard of work and development.

ALSO, I have three photos in a little local exhibition is anyone reading is interesting in attending.

Thanks

x

Year Three

Bonjour

So today marked the beginning of the end of my time on the BA Art and Design course. Exciting but scary, as Paul reminded us it's roughly 38 weeks until THEE END.

So it began with the handing out of the brief - about a pencil - you're understanding or interrprtation of a pencil. I screamed in dire pain inside as my head went into overdrive thinking stupid things, deep things and plain boring things to do with pencils. After I stared at the blank wall I decided to start with the meaning of a pencil, and decided it was... a mark making object.

 I began with a parody article 'Ten reasons to ban pencils' by Katie Stansberry mindshift.com who took the idea of unnecessarily banning things in schools and ran with it. Although a joke, she made some good points (excuse the pun) about pencils - such as:

pencils are distracting

pencils are dangerous

pencils can be used to bully through the creation of notes

pencils cause bitter and scary jealousy

A few more google searches and internal sobs I came across an articale on theatlantic.com by Steven Poole about the pencil (the mechanical one moreso) being polite, provisional and earsable compared to a pen. This got me thinking about how a pencil relates to life.

This idea of a pencil relating to life made me realise just how much us humans have in common with pencils. 

We can be broken and worn down but sharpened back up.

We can be useful in many ways.

We need guidance in life, we perform best with it.

These are only some of my ideas which then led me onto 'Cogito ergo sum' - I think, therefore I am, as this idea relates to my pencil philosophy. A more modern take on this latin phrase is Barbara Kruger's 'I shop therefore I am' 1987. I love this idea and it has strongly influence my development part of my brief.

My pathway is hopefully going to take me down a route into creative advertising which means that I shall do all I can to build knowlodge and skills in this field of work therefore my inital idea for my final piece of work (albiet I havent figured the design) would be a series of posters called 'I am a pencil'.

love from one stressed-out student.

x

Deadline Dawning.

Oh my goodness gracious gosh.

It's deadline week and what a busy week it's going to be finishing all my work off! 

Thankfully not much left to do but oh gosh I am panicking about grades already. 

On a positive note, here's a snippet of my final piece for Protest! I have decided to create a 'protest pack' for use in school and for campaigners in order to get the message across. I thought this would be more suited to what I plan to do in my future - art for marketing and promotion. 

So that was a much needed break from my mountain of tasks left to do tonight so off i pop.

👌

1/4 deadlines done and dusted.

So, happy news - I have finished my PDP folder and submitted it for assessment and I am feeling confident.

Other great news is that I have order my photobook and another little book of images and expect them to arrive Monday morning. Completely surprised at how much cheaper they were than I thought as I had put aside £100 just for the one. Yet I got two for just under £40.

One of my favourite images as I modified it to emphasise

 body deformity due to overusing your phone.

I just have to work on my sketchbook for that project now, however I am a bit behind with the protest brief as I am struggling to think of a final idea! I am not feeling as stressed though so I hope I can just blitz the protest brief over the weekend to get me to a more comfortable stage in the development.

An idea for my final Protest poster 

on respecting authorities.

Essay writing is boggling my brain as I just cannot farm out what I have to add and where so I can't wait for our tutorials tomorrow for some clarity.




Toodles, away to actual work..then to come home and boggle my brain some more.

Cyanotype

Evening,

As part of my Where What Where project I was given the opportunity by Natasha in the print room to experiment with Cyanotype prints for an idea for my final piece of work, as along with my book I would like some images to introduce you to the concept and book contents.


A couple of weeks ago I used some of the old Cyanotype prepared paper that was already in the drawers to just experiment with to understand the process and how the images would turn out which was very beneficial.

Today I got to coat my own paper and make better quality images as possible final pieces.

I really enjoyed this process and loved experimenting with the ipod earphones to create more dimension to my images, something that would have taken time and patience to do on photoshop!

I left them to dry overnight so I cannot wait to get back into college and see the results. My plan is to work into some of the smaller images with pens, wires, thread etc to add even more detail and give these 'prints' a more unique and creative feel.

Overall I am so very grateful that this opportunity was given to me and I am so exciting that my passion for photography and creative imagery is finally being carried out to its potential; I am finally gaining that confidence.

Its reassuring knowing that my lectures are understanding that this is what I was to do and they seem really enthusiastic about it and although I have lots more to do before finishing second year I am super excited for third year!!!!!

Adiós xoxoxoxo

One Month til Deadline Day.

Afternoon!


These past couple days have been really quite promising for my Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going? Project as my images have been edited and I have taken lots more that are still to be edited. I have been panicking all week about my personal deadline, which takes into account a three week wait for my book but I have realised that I can pay extra for guaranteed next working day delivery which means I do not need to panic quite as much about it getting here in time even if I leave it just over a week til deadline (BUT I REALLY WANNA BE DONE BY MAY 7TH)....

This image above represent the distraction social media causes. Walking out in front of cars etc. because what is happening online is much more important of course.

These three unusual looking images are a representation of the physical effect of likes and shares.... I like to this of a share as a way of showing off your look and therefore getting bigheaded.. and likes the pressure of looking just as fabulous/skinny/sexy in your next images.

Progress update

Afternoon,

Was getting bored of practical work for college so thought blogging would make me feel better.

I go back to college tomorrow and fortunately ive quite a bit of work to show my lecturers and get some advice etcc... Ideas for photoshoots for my main project based on the influence of social media have been coming at a great pace but it's just working out how, when and who I will get the shoot done!!!!

Many of these ideas have started off tiny, and been worked into something quite complicated yet fabulous with the help from my oh so encouraging bf. This is my current situation: lots of pics in strips to represent an Instagram feed.

Credit to Ewan for showing me an article that inspired this idea.

Xo

Easter Holiday PRODUCTIVITY.

HOLLA



Fortunately I have been rather productive over the Easter Holidays getting a lot done although I still have a lot more to do in terms of photoshoots and planning my final piece for the Integrated project.

Protest has been slow and I am only managing to complete small experiments and losing interest and focus very quickly but I have done some work so it hasnt been a complete flop.

PRAISE MOTHER OF BABY JESUS though that I have completely finished my essay and ALLL the work for Pauls class so that is two things of my extremely long TO-DO list.


Some of the images I gave been working on for my integrated project have worked out really well. I am not going to give everything away so here are two of the images from two of the shoots I done over the holidays.

In The Eyes.

Selfie Process

I am on track but I have alot more that I want to do. I think I've just set myself a big challenge so it is taking more time than I thought it would to plan shoots, source models and edit (TAKES DAYS TO EDIT). I just hope it all works out in the end.

BYE xo

Two Months till D-Day.

Last week I spent a lot of time doing photoshoots and editing so I have barely anything to write about as I cant think of much to say about that process.

I am still in the mist of shooting and editing photos but I plan on doing most, if not all of my shoots during the Easter Holidays depending on whether or not the models are free. I am detailed plans of what I will attempt to do in each shoot and then how I intend to edit them in order to get a defined image empathising the hold and obsession we have with social media.

I hope to even include some self-portraits or the like in order to expose myself as a self confessed social media and 'selfie' addict.

I am feeling confident about this project and hope to have enough images to create a book which will also include some results from my survey. This book making process will take some time so my plan is to have ALL my photoshoot's done by the end of April! AHHH.

For the protest project I haven't done much because I have focused a lot more on the Where, What, Where project but I am also feeling confident about my ideas for this too.

Fingers crossed I get a lot of work done during the holidays as I have at least four FULL days off from work and college!

panic mode

Considering how well I thought I was doing last week, this week I cannot stop panicking about how I am running out of time thick and fast.

Paul's class is going well, as is David's and I suppose that I have got alot of work done for Catherine's Protest project as well. I have a few ideas developed for the protest project but they are still quite early on.

For the integrated project I cant seem to fit models into the time I have free and whenever I have tried to squeeze them in the photos haven't turned out how I had planned so now I have to spend yet more time re-shooting.
DRAMA DRAMA.

So this blog is brief because I literally have so much to do and cannot get my thinking cap straight because of a current personal situation.

hope and pray that my project gets a right kick up the arse xo

Quick Protest Project Update

Today I spent most of the day in bed then suddenly I had a surge of imagination and decided to put pen to paper and work on the concept development for my Protest Brief. As I have decided to Protest against the lack of respect for local authorities I thought the following image was simple yet effective.

I created this with a fine pen and stencil. I then colour the retrospective letters

in order to make the word RESPECT from Police, Nurses and Teachers.

And then added the caption (in pencil, should I change it) ' With a title should come respect'.

Although minimal I think this carries my message well.

 I would like to incorporate some photography so I have taken pictures of this idea so I can add it to the computer and alter, edit and add things to it.

Over and out.

On Track.

HOORAY.

I am totally on track for both of my projects which is leaving me so stress-free, which is a first and I am loving this feeling.

PROTEST Brief

So for this project I have been looking into artists such as Banksy, Chris Parks and Peter Kramar who have created pieces of work that relate to the police. This research is helping me decide on how I would like my piece of work to come across, as right now I am thinking about a reverse psychology style piece.
I am going to continue to develop my work as this is what I am lacking, I have extensive research but little, if any sort of development ideas. However as this project is a mini one I do not feel too stressed and stick to the 2 hours in class and 2 hours out of class working on it.

INTEGRATED Project

Feeling so good about my progress in this project so far as I have already done one photo-shoot which has given me even more ideas for my next few. I have also got three more models lined up for other shoots, but sadly these are dependent on research material that I am trying to obtain! This is holding me back but as soon as I get the material I need I will be ready to go.
Below are my sketchbook pages from one shoot I did last weekend. The idea of this shoot was to empathise the reliability and dependence we have developed towards social media. I tried my best to make a mobile phone look as though it was part of the body, replacing organs such as the heart and the eyes as well as being embedded into the hand. This technique however, is taking a while to master on photoshop so I opted to try some stitches into the paper. Basically I printed the pictures and stitched into it to make it look as though the phone was stitched into the skin. I love the results and think this could be something I could develop further.

The image below is of a sketchbook page that I have planned for a photo-shoot that I will take in a very busy town in order to capture the lack of communication or observation in our society nowadays.

Overall I am still buzzing about both my project ideas and cannot wait to see them come together. I can already tell my skills will develop with this project as will my professional level as I use more techniques and models throughout. I find it quite hypocritical that I myself am a socail media, selfie, tweeting addict but that makes it all the more interesting as I can have a really personal input.

love bugs and hugs xoxoxo

PRODUCTIVE. Finally.

This week has been rather productive as I have moved on a lot with my integrate project thanks to being able to speak to all three of my lecturers who offered three different twists on my original idea which in turn led me to a finalised theme! HOORAY!

I have decided I will look into the obsession society nowadays has with social media whether it be self obsession, reliability etc. 

I enlisted the help of my Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram friends in a survey I prepared in order to determine just how much we use social media and just how many of these friends confess to why they posted the infamous 'selfie'.

As I would like my project to have a professional feel to it I have create my own photo-shoot plan template in which I will detail where, when, who and what I am taking a photography of. I added the little touch of having a photo of the model and the inspiration for the shoot in order to help those looking at my sketch book as well as myself to keep on track.

PROFESSIONAL, I know.

As another element of professionalism I have decided to request the permission of a local music artist to use one of their songs in a possible video I hope I have the time to make. 

Overall this week has been rather productive for my Integrated project and I am so pleased and have so many ideas for my photoshoots. Hopefully by next week I can say the same for the Protest brief as although I have plenty research the development side of the project is snail paced.

love and hugs

xo