Thursday, June 12, 2008

another pic...

Final Outcome






Well after much work and umming and aahing here is the finished book! Single signature binding using a hard cover with bookcloth. I'm really pleased with it. It took me a long time to work out the pagination, and I used a photocopier to print it. I decided to call it recollection because it is looking back at memories I have and things from the past. It is also a collection - of drawings, of objects, of thoughts.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Artists books

I had a session in the library looking at artists books - found some really nice books that inspired me - particularly Ed Ruscha's '26 Gas Stations'. I really like his work - I saw another couple in the V&A's Blood on Paper exhibition which inspired me. I loved how the books were such beautiful objects on their own, like Ian McDonnell's 'I Like Aerials' which consists of lovely drawings of aerials from all over the world (found this in the Design Museum shop). I really want to create a book which is a lovely object in itself.
I also went to the V&A China Design Now exhibition, and there were some lovely displays of books and exhibition catalogues with beautiful binding and stitching and paper.Inspired!

oooh old games consoles!




I discovered that one of my friends has an extensive collection of everything Nintendo. I was round his house straight away and took photos to draw from.

Coming together

So I'm more focussed now. The crits at uni have been very helpful - everyone is really enthusiatic about my ideas, and I've had lots of suggestions. One idea is to take apart the old telephones and radios I've found and look at the insides and how aesthetically pleasing they can be. But I'm too precious about the objects! Another idea is to create a technology timeline or family tree but it is now at the stage where that would take a lot of time which I don't have. I would like to in the future though - a family tree for each decade - and make them into massive posters.
So now I'm thinking I would like to collate my drawings somehow - and I'm mostly thinking I'd like to make a book because I had a bookbinding workshop with Billy Bragg from Le Gun and he taught us to perfect bind. I really loved it!

My drawings...



Evolution

I am interested in the idea of evolution, and the way trends change, and how fashion comes back around and everything gets recycled again and again. The fashion at the moment is to recycle anything from the past, any trend, and mix it with something else, the more mixing the better. And it seems the same way with music. Mixtapes are cool again, there is a record label called mixtape records who just release music on cassette. People are still buying vinyl too.
Old technology is not seen as rubbish, it is retro, and has cultural value.
This fascination with the past is what my project is focussing on - the notion of nostalgia is a major aspect of what I'm researching. Nostalgia is the feeling that lies behind all the objects I'm drawing.

Ideas


The history of print is a topic I considered - I really enjoy letterpress and screenprinting and I already have an old typewriter and the word processor. I've always been fascinated with the process involved and the imperfect outcomes you get.
I thought about how typewriters differ from computers today and the way they have evolved. Essentially computers are there to speed up process - and in doing so your work is editable and you are able to change things before you print. The main purpose of technology is speeding things up and improving and perfecting and standardising. I looked at Moore's law to research this further - his theory is that the speed, memory and capacity of computer technology doubles every two years, and the theory has not been proven wrong so far. I like the idea of speeding things up but keeping the quality you get from writing on paper, the individuality and making mistakes perhaps. So I thought I would design my own typeface based on my handwriting, using Fontlab. It didnt really work out well, so it was abandoned but I will come back to it at some point.

Research



I took a trip to the Science museum to find types of old technology and I spent hours looking at the displays down the right hand side of a huge hall. It was titled 'Everyday Objects' and I think it was roughly 1800-2000. There are so many categories of technology - domestic, telecommunications, music etc and this made me realise I have to narrow down my project. I thought of perhaps documenting music technology by drawing all the formats and types of radio, record players, up to modern day MP3 players. But still, the question is - what do I want to say about these things?
Seeing the old Apple Mac computer and the gameboys in the museum brought back memories!

Development of project

So... instead of pondering on my project for too long like I always do, I began drawing the old technology I own, and the things I'd bought from charity shops. Just simple pencil drawings, then went over them in black ink pen. I really enjoy doing this - so I decided to go in this direction instead of the other ideas I had: looking at the history of certain technology, eg the evolution of the telephone, or looking at how different types of technology have evolved into one object now - the iPhone or the Blackberry.
One main inspiration for me is 'The Lost Formats Preservation Society' created by Experimental Jetset. They have collated almost every type of format you can think of - music formats as well as video, computer etc. Have a look...

http://www.experimentaljetset.nl/lostformats/01.html

Friday, May 2, 2008

Old typewriters

Here are a couple more I found in the shop...

Thursday, May 1, 2008

charity shop



I went to the charity shop near college today and bought a word processor! It's amazing, and I love how it functions. The font is pretty good too - will have to find out what its called. Maybe do my project based on this? It could focus on printed type - the history of the keyboard, the evolution from the typewriter to the computer to the mobile phone to the blackberry.

Analogue to digital

I need to research this in more detail but I think a good topic to focus on for this project would be the switch from analogue to digital and how this effects us. I for one am really annoyed that this is going to happen, as i really enjoy TV as it is normally, and tuning in my old radio. why do we have to change?

Old technology


Getting into thinking about old forms of technology - the most interesting being recorded music formats and their players, eg the walkman. I've always had a fascination with cassette tapes and i still really enjoy playing them. I remember recording myself as a kid, playing around with my best friend and imagining we had our own radio programme!

Friday, April 25, 2008

Final Idea!

At last I have decided on a final idea. I want to do a project on old technology as it has always fascinated me. Typewriters, floppy discs, cassette tapes, etc. I would like to create a book or maybe a set of postcards or a poster? Perhaps even create illustrations and patterns to print on wallpaper, T-shirts and soft furnishings? I like the idea of nostalgia, looking back, and paying homage to old objects. Maybe find people to interview on their favourite piece of technology, if they still use it or not? Old people and what they remember using when they were young. I think this will give me a wide arena for exploration, and opportunities to go in different directions.

Inspiration...

Yesterday I went to the design museum and found a lovely book called 'i like aerials'. I'd love to create something like this so I was racking my brains to think what i could do...
So in the meantime my ideas have been:

Open a fortune cookie everyday for 30days and record in a diary what happens, or challenge what it says.

Take a photo of each student in the class, but just show their hands, maybe holding their favourite creative implement? Create a book from this.

Create a book of drawings of animals or birds. Perhaps showing extinct or endangered animals?

new project: self initiated brief

Exciting! However, since last Tuesday I have become increasingly distressed with the task of setting myself a brief. There are so many ideas i want to pursue!! Well to begin with i narrowed my choice down to creating an illustration project, as i really enjoy drawing and collage. "whats an illustration project?' said Luke. Right, got some thinking to do. I think i really just needed to have a theme and be more specific rather than just say i want to illustrate. The two ideas i had were to contact a band and create a set of graphics for them, or to create an illustration book of all my drawings, on a theme like sweets or buses or something.
Here are two illustrators i have fallen in love with - Nina Chakrabarti and Si Scott.

Another book



I found this book whilst researching the city for my film, but actually it has inspired me for some ideas for my next project. It is a collection of contributions from various creative people on the city and urban space. The chapter i like most is about found objects, and street museums. I love collections of things, whatever they are, and categorising and organising!

Update!


It has been way too long, I've built up a massive collection of things i need to put on here! but for a start, I've been getting into reading again lately, which i'm very glad about because i enjoy it so much. I took a philosophy elective at uni which i found very interesting and inspiring. I was recommended this book by a friend, and in turn i recommend it!

Thursday, February 21, 2008

Footage

These two clips below are experiments with film in the city. Ive had the idea of filming out the window of the tube because all the electric wires quickly going past creates an interesting effect, but of course there is the problem of the light reflecting back from the window, which ultimately makes this idea impossible.
My other idea to film looking up at the sky is somewhat more successful, though I would like to do a solid days footage to select from, with various locations, as just looking at the sky may be a bit monotonous. However, this is quite fitting, as I do find the city monotonous; concrete, roads, buses, cars, clouds, all grey and lifeless at times.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Monday, February 11, 2008

Research

In my research so far, Iain Sinclair has stood out as being an inspiring filmmaker. I watched his film about the M25 (the london orbital) a couple of years ago, and still remember it because of its unique narrative, the dull voice that spoke through the film, and the way it made me think about something that I had never considered before - the social impact of a motorway. It made me realise that humans have a relationship with the space around them; one that is very important, yet is not often recognised. I would like to explore a space that noone has thought about before.
I found a website callled www.urbansquares.com which was interesting in the way it recorded derives from around the world, exploring squares in different cities. This made me think of perhaps recording a derive/journey for my final piece.

Section of Sinclair's orbital documentary: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1ow5vTyHz9k

New Project: Psychogeography




This brief is very interesting, though it is moving image which I find more challenging than print, mainly because I am less familiar with the software.
The brief asks us to produce a piece of moving image about the 'notion of the city and it's many narratives.' I think this will be a really good topic to explore, as it involves immersing myself in the city and seeing what I find. So far I have taken some photos inspired by the beautiful sunlight on Friday 8th feb.

My pages

I was mainly inspired by the last line of the book, I loved how I had such a vivid image in my head of a white stag, and just had to create it on paper. I wanted to convey the feeling of a wintery surrounding, cold and icy, I imagined the book to be set in Canada, and I've still not read it so I have yet to find out. I decided I didn't want an influenced perception of the lines I was given, so as to have a fresh outlook, and an original idea for my pages.
The photograph was taken on a cold day in Hyde Park, and I like how you can see some urban landscape in the background, as I was unsure of the time the book was written.
In the final magazine all the information about the books(plus students emails) are written, so that everyone finds out the name and author of the book their lines came from.Watch this space for pics of the magazine in all it's glory....

First Last magazine



Well, we won the pitch and managed to create a magazine in two weeks, from briefing the group to delivering the final version to the printer. It was some task!
The concept behind the magazine is to provoke a variety of different responses by giving each student the first and last line of a book, and providing them with a double page spread in which to communicate these lines. The only restrictions being that the lines have to be in thin boxes, bleeding off the edge of the page (the left bleeding left, and the right bleeding right) in Adobe Caslon pro 8pt, and it must be in black and white. This enabled us to create a coherent and professional-looking magazine, yet retaining it's character and student's individual style.
The outcome is brilliant, we had a huge variety of work; illustration, photography, written work etc. We were also able to provide our own paper to the printer, so there are lots of different colours for extra individuality.
My book was The Lumber Room by H.H Munro (Saki) See my pages above.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

New project: Publications

A new year, a new project!
We are required to create a magazine as a class. To begin with, in groups of 6, we have to come up with a concept for the magazine - content, layout, typog etc - and then pitch our idea to the class. Whoever gets the most votes becomes the editorial team for the magazine.Going well so far, my group has a sound idea - we will find out the winner on friday.

In my research I have found some really interesting magazines, my favourite being Marmalade. I really love the collage used and the cut and paste feel to it.
check it out: www.myspace.com/marmalademag

Also, I have found a few other homemade publications on myspace, Fever zine and sketch stance. They are really basic, just black and white and photocopied. This has inspired me to create a zine of my own!watch this space....

www.myspace.com/feverzine