Skills Rotation: Photography

Photography was the workshop that I was most excited to take part in by far. I had never had a proper photography lesson in my life, but I have had a passion of taking pictures for several years. I got a DSLR camera for my birthday last year (Nikon D3100), and I was eager to learn how to use it properly! 

We were given the theme of 'Street' and was told to focus on a subject relating to this. For the first two weeks we went on a self guided exploration in the town surrounding our college to take photos. On the first shoot I decided to focus on urban decay, and more specifically areas where posters / stickers had been put up then torn down:

I was moderately happy with my photos, I feel that I could've been more inventive with angles but I wasn't too fussed as the first shoot was only to get ideas going. On my way back to college I bumped into my friend, Dan, and he told me to take a picture of him walking. This made me think about fitting the theme of identity in with street, but in the end I didn't carry out this idea. 

The second time I went out I was photographing some more decayed posters near a park, and on the way back I came across a telephone pole that wires had fallen down onto a tree next to it. I thought this looked like the tree was wired up, and I could link the concept to my ideas in other lessons as I was looking at neo-futuristic imagery subjects and forests. Therefore I decided to create my street series around the tree on the street: 

In the third week we worked into prints of our favourite photos using art materials and techniques such as collage, paint and stitching.

The last week was probably my favourite part of the rotation, as we learnt how to make photograms. Our teacher showed us how to use an enlarger to expose objects onto photo paper by focussing the light and altering the aperture. For my photograms I decided to use the same barbie doll I used in the plaster moulds rotation (http://amberatlantis.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/skills-rotation-plaster-moulds.html) as well as some ivy and twigs.  

Once the objects had been exposed to the light on F-11 for 10 seconds, I put the paper in developer solution and then into a series of water baths to wash off the chemicals. This was done under red light in the dark room, I just took the photo to the right after everyone was done. Since I want to incorporate photography in my career (I photograph live gigs outside of college), the tutor showed me some more advanced techniques, such as painting onto the paper with a paintbrush dipped in developer solution, and creating handprints with the developer too!

Here are my final photograms presented in my portfolio (apologies for the terrible quaility and horrible lighting haha) :

Skills Rotation: Experimental Textiles

Experimental textiles is where you combine and alter fabrics with other art materials and techniques such as paint, and burning fabric to distress it. 

Our lessons on this subject linked in with our main project, 'A Tale of Two Words', where we were given two words and had to develop our outcomes based on them. For experimental textiles, the outcome aimed towards creating a wall mounted piece that was at least 1 metre squared in surface area.

I was given the words 'calm' and 'foxtrot'. When I think of the word calm I am instantly reminded of the ocean / water as I find it a very relaxing and feel somewhat connected to that type of environment (hence the username Amber Atlantis!), and Foxtrot is a ballroom dance, so I played around with the idea of combining ballroom dresses with [elements of] aquatic environments. After producing several experiments in my sketchbook of how I could merge these ideas and also manipulate materials, some under the influence of artists such as Ira Wood, Cyril Rolando and Michael Brennand Wood, I came up with the idea of creating a dress that metamorphosed into a waterfall at the bottom. 

I started by creating a small scale 'dress' by creating a torso shaped pillow to add dimension, and then sewed fabric around the waist line to create the lower section. I created samples from strips of the same fabric to find the best way of creating the waterfall. I tried using acrylic paint, spray enamel paint, plaster, and marbling nail polish onto the material. I decided to combine the acrylic and plaster as I thought it resembled the waterfall the most, and I liked the expressive quality it portrayed. 

To produce my final wall mounted piece, I made I bigger version of the 'dress' I previously made from the same material and technique. I cut separate strips, painted them with blue tones of acrylic and then applied plaster to the bottom. I attached a wire inside the dress at the waist line, and then used this as a base for hanging the other strips of fabric. Finally, I tied a ribbon around the waist and added and handmade bow around the waist for decoration / details, as well as adding some other strips of white fabric which I coloured with chalk and some other ribbons to the bottom. I'm quite happy with my final outcome because it has a dramatic sense of flow due to the resemblance of the waterfall, although I think it would be more effective as a hanging / suspended piece as opposed to wall mounted as it would heighten the hint of movement. Given more time, I would like to add more details, especially to the torso area as I left it plain to focus on the bottom. Here are some photos of my final design! :

Skills Rotation: 3D Towers

The 3D skills lessons involved constructing structures from DIY materials such as wood and metal. Our project was based of 'The Tower of Babel' - a myth about a Tower that people built to reach the Heavens, but failed because of the high altitude. 
To start, we created photomontages from our own pictures and materials as well as those from magazines and newspapers, and we then expanded these ideas into 3D paper sculptures. I based mine off of abstract fox shapes and a layered dress I found in a fashion magazine:

Next we experimented with combing materials as to how we could create our final tower:

I manly  played around with bamboo, binding tape, wire, plastic, twine and hot glue. I used my favourite combinations to create a fox like structure. I really enjoyed this project / rotation as i have always been inclined to include building materials into my work since my Dad is building an extension on his house so these materials have always been available for me to play around with. 

Cardboard City

Following our trip to London (http://amberatlantis.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/london-trip.html) we were given the task of creating a giant city out of cardboard in our collage’s theatre. In preparation of this, we individually produced small scale models – I decided to make Tower Bridge as I have memories of visiting it as a child, and I also wanted to focus on other aspects  of cities (e.g. bridges) as opposed to just buildings.

We then teamed up to create slightly larger models before attempting the final city. We were encouraged to steer away from our views of what a city does or should look like, and instead create organic shapes and forms. My group based our building around a triangular structure, like ‘The Shard’.

Making the final city was very tiring but great fun. Here’s a video of us in action: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gf_o3uEE7M4

During the first two days of construction, I worked with my group to make what we called ‘The Rocket’. Originally this was going to be pyramid shaped, but my friend had the idea of suspending it upside down from the ceiling, and then various elements were gradually added such as the cut out shapes, string fringing and pipework.

    

On the last 2 days of construction I took an individual approach to put my own spin on the city. I wanted to create a giant hamster ball that would also be suspended from the ceiling, but I had difficultly trying to maintain a spherical shape, so I simply ‘went with the flow’ and ended up creating a piece that resembled a clove of garlic.

  

Lastly, here’s some photos I took of the whole city and a few close-ups:

       

(for anyone wondering I use a Nikon D3100)

London Trip

Our first college project is titled ‘Transformations: Cities within Cities’ and so we went to London around the St Paul’s and the South Bank area. We stopped at several locations to draw buildings in various materials on mixed media backgrounds that we had previously prepared. Here are some pages from my sketchbook:

Drawing whilst standing up was definitely a challenge for me, as was drawing buildings since I’d never really done that before. However, I enjoyed the experience and I’m excited to see how the project will develop as we will be creating our own cities.

Whilst in London we visited the Tate Modern and Tate Britain. I was amazed by the featured Phyllida Barlow exhibition – I was visually drawn to the hanging boxes as they reminded me of the Silent Hill movies where the siren goes off and everything starts to ‘decay’. The wooden frame / support also reminded me of the scene with the mannequins in ‘Revelation’ (pictured below).