Research Seminar Work

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The past few years for me have been spent doing A Levels, including Art and Product Design. Most of my creativity has gone towards doing well in these areas and has taken up the majority of my time in the process. At the same time I was creating work to put in my portfolio and did a short evening course alongside my A Levels, to develop my work and ideas. Even though this all seems I was being creative because I had to for my education and progress into university, I did all these for myself. Sometimes my teachers would give me advice and help which I would consider but there was never set work in my Art A Level so everything I created was from my own influences and ideas.

On top of these, I went to life drawing classes at a local art centre every week because I enjoyed going and learnt a lot from it. I have taken this up again here because I think it’s a great opportunity to develop my drawing skills. I have also been continually collecting things which interest me or look appealing like leaflets, magazine cuttings etc so that I can use these ideas when they become relevant.

As you can see most of my work has been drawing and little work on computers. I have chosen to do it this way myself because it’s how I feel most comfortable expressing my ideas. Teachers have influenced me slightly by giving me advice on how to improve and other similar methods which they think I may be good at/ enjoy. Quite a lot of my work has been experimenting with new media so that I can continue developing my skills and to help with my A Level results.

I’m not sure what creative career I want to have in the future but I do know that I want to enjoy it. I want to be able to mix various methods together to create something innovative and new. When I start working I want to be able to continue developing my skills and have the opportunity to learn new things. However, I don’t want my creativity to stop at my career and wish to be able to have the time to do my own things and create because I want to not because I have to.

I have been researching into which areas of work I can go into and I think the more I research then the more knowledge I will have of a wide range of options. Once I have decided what to choose for next year I don’t want my research to stop and think it would be more beneficial to be continuous even if I’m completely sure of what I want to do. I mostly start with brainstorming ideas and then investigating further the areas I feel most interested in and then most of the time they lead me onto another topic to look into. I probably follow the in/through method the most and rather than looking around the work I focus completely on the style and how the work has been made.

The method I probably use the least is behind as I don’t tend to think about the time it has been created and what’s happening around it. I feel maybe I should as there are many influences in the world around us and political events which alter how we see things.

 

Complimentary Colours

I feel this first image demonstrates complimentary and harmonising colours quite well. I have used harmonising shades and tones of purple to add depth to the tree trunk. By then using the complimentary yellow from the opposite side of the colour wheel I have created a distinct difference and enabled the edges of the tree trunk to stand out from the leafy background. I have used extremely unrealistic colours to demonstrate the types of colours in an obvious way and made it look like a completely different image to the original. Also, I have made the colour the most important aspect of the image by changing them so much from the objects original colours.

In this second image I have demonstrated complimentary and contrasting colours in a slightly more realistic way by simply emphasising the colours in the photo rather than changing them completely. The red and the green in the background are complimentary colours from opposite sides of the colour wheel and almost blend together. The blue which clashes with the green actually works quite well in this photo and makes the main piece in the middle stand out from the background. The fact that it is also against the red softens the clashing slightly and gives it some grounding.

Figuring Light, Colour and The Intangible Exhibition at Djanogly Art Gallery

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“Love More” by Rebecca Partridge

 

 

At first glance my eyes were immediately drawn to the plain white centre, moving past all the detail of colours and shapes. This intrigued me as the colours are so bright and vibrant yet that wasn’t first thing to catch my eye. The artist used subtractive colours and by starting with them being really faint around the outside it enabled her to layer and mix them together. This created a huge range of tones gradually getting closer to black and in the process becoming a lot brighter. I think the bright colours in this piece are used to create a huge contrast with the plain background. When you look at the white background around the outside of the shapes it looks quite dull, but when you look at the white in the centre it’s almost glowing and seems much brighter although it’s exactly the same. Rebecca Partridge has not used colour perception in the usual way to create emotions and feelings. Instead by using a huge range of colours, tones, shades and hues she has tricked our eyes so that they perceive colours and see them differently depending on the situation.

“When I was very young I had synaesthetic dreams. I dreamt of white spaces in which there were these simple, bright geometric forms moving round a centre point that dissolved into a dark chaos. I would then wake up as if I’d had a nightmare.” Quote Rebecca Partridge [http://www.rebeccapartridge.com/Writing]

I feel her synaesthetic dreams were the reason she paints in this way, as she wants to draw attention to the fear she felt of the ‘dark chaos’. By drawing our eyes immediately there, she’s confused us because we would expect to be looking at the bright colours first. Instead we’re locked staring at this thing she was always afraid of instead of colourful, simple shapes.

She said the shapes in her dreams were moving and I think she has accomplished this sense of movement in her painting. The use of smooth shapes has helped with this dramatically because if she used ones with corners or edges they would create a static feel, whereas the cylindrical shapes she has chosen curve round and don’t really have an end. Also the use of layering colours and blending them together where the shapes overlap make them seem more like one and they merge together. This way when you look at the painting your eyes keep moving round the shapes as the colours bleed into each other so much. This is quite a clever technique because obviously she couldn’t have the painting moving but has managed to keep our eyes moving around the range of colours instead.

Overall, colour is not the main aspect of this piece but it is the most important because if it wasn’t bright and colourful the piece would not have the same meaning at all. This is an interesting approach to using colour and when looking at the piece in more depth I realised it wasn’t how I first saw it but think that Rebecca Partridge has used her own experiences to create a really interesting painting.

The Rule of Thirds

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The Rules of thirds can be used to add structure and meaning to images and pieces of film work by organising all the elements so that the viewer’s attention is focussed to a certain part of the scene. The way it’s composed can affect how the film or image is perceived and cause people to start to view it in a particular way. It’s been proven that the human eye is drawn to the “hotspots” in this layout so the most important elements of the piece tend to be placed there or thereabouts. These “hotspots” are located at the interceptions of each line demonstrated below:

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I’ve decided to use a painting by Dali called The Persistence of Memory to demonstrate the rule of thirds. I’ve chosen this to show how it has been a theory used for a long time and isn’t just used in multimedia but also for other professions and areas of work also. I don’t know if Dali actually used this rule or if it’s just coincidence but many of the aspects of the rule of thirds apply to this painting. The painting has been divided into thirds horizontally and vertically to create the basic layout with the “hotspots” where the lines intercept. Usually when the rule of thirds is used, the horizon line is located along one of the lines in the basic layout, and in this case the top line isn’t where the horizon line is but is located where the tide is coming in and acts in the same way. I feel this draws attention to this part of the painting. To emphasise this even more one of the “hotpots” is right at the edge of the tide by the cliff, making this an important part of the painting. The way the edge of the box near the bottom left corner lines up with one of the lines from the rule of third, makes it all seem more organised and neater, emphasising that when this was painted Dali thought about all these carefully. The top left “hotspot” is right on top of one of the melting clocks, drawing attention to the bizarre yet realistic situation he has created. Lastly, the figure at the bottom supposed to be representing himself is near the last “hotspot” and laying along the bottom line making this the main subject of the piece with everything happening around it.

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Here is my own video demonstrating the rule of thirds.

The desk acts like a horizon line and is located along one of the lines of the rule of thirds layout. There is then a person along the left line with their head at the “hotspot” to draw attention to them as the main subject of the video. The wall on the right hand side lines up with the right line of the rule of thirds and makes it all seem organised and thought out so the viewer can find it easier to look at.

 

 

Understanding Design Methodologies

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Think about what goes on in your head when you buy something new, take a photo of your favourite designed object and answer the following questions:

Why is it that we want our belongings to do more for us than to function well?

Why are we willing, as soon as we can afford it, to pay extra for things with appealing forms?

 

I think people are willing to buy something that’s more expensive when there’s a cheaper product that functions the same because they want it exceed their expectations. People no longer want something that is satisfactory and functions how it is meant to, they want it to do more. More commonly among younger teenagers and children they want their product to be better than anyone else’s. Many brands and companies have picked up on this and are competing to win people over and take control of the market. When products are being advertised they’re always being shown as having something more than a competing brand, when sometimes the extra feature isn’t even very useful to the user.

My example of this is when I bought my phone, the Sony Ericsson S500i. When I was looking for a new phone I didn’t want it to be expensive, I didn’t need it to have a camera and I had no need for games. I simply wanted a cheap phone that functioned well. However, when I saw this phone I really liked the design, the style and the colour. Even though I could’ve got a cheaper phone which functioned, I paid a bit more so that I liked the phone and thought it looked nice.

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I feel many people do this and know at the time they should buy the cheaper option as their reasons for buying the other one aren’t really justified. This is just one reason why people want their belongings to do more than just function.

 

 

Mail Goggles

Google employee Jon Perlow developed a new programme for the Google email system called Mail Goggles.
[http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/tech_and_web/the_web/article4909703.ece]
This programme is primarily aimed at people who come home drunk after a long night out and feel the need to send out emails which they are sure to regret in the morning. The programme works by intercepting any emails sent after a certain time in the evening, which is individually set by each email user. Before Mail Goggles will let the email be sent it asks the user 5 mathematical questions, with the difficulty level also set by each individual. These maths questions have a 60 second time limit to be answered; otherwise the email won’t be sent and left up to the person to decide in the morning if it’s actually worth sending. It can be turned on and off reasonably easily at any point during the day but also preset to be enabled on the users chosen days and times.
The general response for this programme has been quite good and many users of Google Mail are happy with this addition to the email service. [http://techie-buzz.com/gmail/mail-goggles-stops-you-from-sending-mails-you-will-regret-later.html] People have started using the programme and have been saved from their drunken embarrassment by giving them a second chance to decide in the morning if it’s a good idea to send the email. It gives society the chance to write out numerous hateful and rude emails with the knowledge that they won’t be able to send them. By stopping the emails from being sent it’s not giving consequences to the people’s actions and saving them when maybe it shouldn’t. Google Mail users are able to joke about acting like children and when there’s so many adverts and campaigns to make society drink responsibly it’s almost contradicting that message by helping people when they have drunk too much in one night. It can also be seen as a great save if someone’s night ended up differently to what they expected and this one off event of being really drunk causes them to send an unwanted email and cause many repercussions for them.
[http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jZ2yEsLBntwWn57-rqisPJjV5N2wD93LQA7G0]
At the moment this feature is quite limited as it’s only available for users of Google’s email service but with technology developing as fast as it has been there’s a high possibility that if this is successful it could be adapted to be used on mobiles, Facebook or other email providers. If it continues to work it will save a lot of people from embarrassing themselves when drunk and sending unnecessary messages but could also stop them from sending necessary ones as well. Even though it’s quite simple to turn off, it may not be when people are drunk so if there’s an emergency and this programme is now active on mobiles, they may not be able to send out texts and could then be a hazard to them.