Studio Practice 2 - Final Project

As the title suggests this is the beginning of the end, for this BA degree anyway. So naturally I am nervous about my ideas for this project as they have been playing on my mind for well over a year now, as the deadline was looming from the get go.

Over time my ideas have changed, which was to be expected... as I tried my hand at different aspects of art and design to get to grips with my strongest areas. I've concluded, finally that photography is going to be a big part of my final project, along with my previous knowledge of floristry. As I have yet to see anyone do anything with flowers and such like as a final piece, I think it will be a refreshing insight into what is classed as 'art and design'.

So this week has been encouraging, as I have spent the week refining my Personal Learning Plan so it is of a high enough standard for the external examiners to get a good idea of my intentions for the next few months. I had been nerous that the idea I had had over the Christmas break was not going to be good enough, but that seems not to be the case - WOOHOO!

Before I talk anymore about what has been going on I will explain my idea... it draws on my interest in photography, whilst utulising what I learned when I worked in my aunties florist. The whole idea will be based on 'The Language of Flowers' as I attempt to give my audience a better understanding of the real meaning behind a particular flower. I want my project to highlight how little we think about flowers, especially when they are a gift.. basically would you know what to send someone who has just been diagnosed with cancer? probably not completely as there are a lot of misconceptions as to what a flower means, a yellow rose means friendship and a red means mad love... a stark contrast.

I hope this post has given a good insight into my plans for the next few months, I will keep up to date throughout, possibly even starting a vlog as a means of recording my progress.

xo

Finished

So there we have it Studio Practice 1 Part 2 is DONE. Thank goodness, that it's done and I am proud of myself.

My final piece consists of two aspects, the framed images with descriptors and then the mix and match hex that allows the audience to mix the emotions.

The reason I opted for the ability to mix and match emotions is so that the audience can create new ones. Also I included a neutral so that if mixed with one facial tick you witness what we see all to often in real life. This being that we attempt to conceal our true feelings but our faces give us away without us even knowing.

These facial ticks are subconscious and uncontrable because we are so busy trying to hide the rest of the emotions features - crows feet, wrinkled nose, forehead lines, mouth turned up/down at corners etc... We cannot conceal them all.

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.