Practical task 2 - Leeds City Museum

Identify unexpected/useful outcomes of (a) combining your drawings with other group members and (b) having a focused task to achieve in a short time

The museum group work allowed us to produce quite a large amount of work in a short amount of time due to focused task. We have also identified after gathering our drawings together and producing the collage from the trip, that there is a good mixture of drawing styles.

Comment on how task 2 led you to respond to the museum. If this was different to previous visits, how and why?

It was a lot more interactive because we had a task to fulfil. There was also an end product which motivated us to get stuff done and motivated each of us to do our part for the team. I think it was different to previous visits because we studied the pieces/objects more, looking at it more closely as we drew instead of just looking at it briefly and then walking away from it.

How could the practical aspect of CoP2 be extend to challenge your image-making further and enhance your essay line of enquiry?

• investigating my subject in a different/more in depth way
• Form my opinion more through drawing which will start to inform my essay
• Visit more places to broaden my research
• Continue to draw on location/from life
• Take photographs
• Watch documentaries/read books/articles into subject
• Artist research - look at illustrations dealing with similar issues/themes that I'm looking at
• Experiment with different medias, techniques and processes

Practical task 1 - Observation

Evaluate how the task has been approached in the time given

The task, being one that encourages you to go on location to find our subject matter was a new thing for me. It was good to go out, observe and draw from life. It made me notice and open my eyes more to my surroundings and what actually goes on around me. Because of the time limit, I have not really experimented with different medias. I kept with one drawing tool for this task to enable me to work quickly. I also took some photographs - although they are not the best and quite blurry - but the camera helped me to gather information more quickly and efficiently.

Study Task- 3 Close Reading & Analysis Task

Technology, Culture, History

In Walter Benjamin’s essay ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, he discusses the effects that mechanical reproduction has on works of art. The overall feeling of Benjamin’s essay is how the ability to reproduce art could lead to the democratisation of art; the idea that it can be within anyone’s reach, where every person has the right to engage in the arts. Benjamin (1986) did not fail to mention that art has always been reproducible, that “Manmade artefacts could always be imitated by men. Replicas were made by pupils in practice of their craft, by masters diffusing their works, and, finally by third parties in the pursuit of gain.” (Benjamin, 1986, p.218). However, the foremost significance of his essay was how mechanical reproduction presents us with something new, something that is less based on ‘ritual’ but based on another practice – politics.

Benjamin (1986) believed that the reproduction of art and thus making art accessible to everyone would “lead to a tremendous shattering of tradition” (Benjamin, 1986, p.221); this tradition being the idea that only the elite can view and enjoy art. The digital age, with the growing availability of technological devices such as cameras, computers and printers, enhances the access to artistic resource. Everyone now has the same opportunity to view, contemplate and create art – ‘shattering’ the barrier of conventional trends in which involvement in the arts was predominantly the domain of the higher social classes, implying that digital technologies can democratise the arts. This notion is reinforced in Benjamin’s essay when he identified that, “The technique of reproduction detaches the reproduced object from the domain of tradition.” (Benjamin, 1986, p.221).

Benjamin (1986) raises the issue of authorship and the uniqueness of a piece of art in his essay when he indicated, “that which withers in the age of the mechanical reproduction is the aura of the work of art.” (Benjamin, 1986, p.221). Benjamin discusses the concept of authenticity of a work of art as it applies to reproduction, implying that art that was not intended to be mechanically reproduced in printed form, immediately loses its transcendent significance or “its unique existence” (Benjamin, 1986, p.220) once it is removed from its physical and spatial context such as a cathedral, museum or gallery etc. Benjamin (1986) points out that, “The presence of the original is the prerequisite to the concept of authenticity.” (Benjamin, 1986, p.220). He implied that in the age of mechanical and digital reproduction, the ‘original’ art is lost beneath the endless reproductions of itself. In this effect, this statement has brought fourth, to some, the illusion that digital art – whose presence of a physical unique original, does not exist in the three dimensional sphere – is less authentic, valuable, or worthy than that of traditionally created art.

In Benjamin’s study of Baudelaire, written a few years after ‘The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction’, he touches back on the notions of aura and discusses in a subtle manner that which describes his extended opinion of the aura. He testified, “Experience of the aura thus rests on the transposition of a response common in human relationships to the relationship between the inanimate or natural object and man. The person we look at, or who feels he is being looked at, looks at us in return. To perceive an aura of an object we look at means to invest it with the ability to look at us in return.” (Benjamin, 1968, p.188). Although he does not make the point explicit as such, here we can identify the aura as a psychological state – the attitude or feeling that the viewer is subjected to when contemplating a work of art.

Andy Warhol was a major part of the Pop Art movement in the early 60’s and was using the technologies of silkscreen printing to replace the need for a paintbrush. One of his most iconic works of art is the ‘Marilyn Diptych’ (fig. 3.), silkscreen paintings of Marilyn Monroe who died from an overdose of sleeping pills. Warhol saw the glamour in celebrity life and recognised the impact that it had on American culture. He used the technology of mechanical reproduction to realise his idea of the star’s mortality. The alterations in the registration of the different colours and the amount of paint applied through the silkscreen, gave him the blurring and fading effect, which was understood to suggest the star's departure from life. The prints in colour beside the panel of prints printed in black, implies a contrast between Monroe’s life and death. The American public who was fascinated with celebrities, who adored Monroe, was impacted by Warhol's prints, reinforcing Benjamin’s (1986) statement that the importance of an artwork is on its “ability to look at us in return” (Benjamin, 1968, p.188) – the connection and the emotional impact it has on its audiences.

Study Task 2 - Critical Analysis

Research - Technology

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-565207/Modern-technology-changing-way-brains-work-says-neuroscientist.html

http://www.raisesmartkid.com/3-to-6-years-old/4-articles/34-the-good-and-bad-effects-of-video-games

http://www.carnegiecyberacademy.com/facultyPages/environment/issues.html

Study Task- 1 Library Research Task

2 illustrative images, which I feel have a relationship with my selected quotes and which I feel are both meaningful and visually interesting. From Bruce Mau's An incomplete manifesto for growth, 1998..

"20. Be careful to take risks. Time is genetic. Today is the child of yesterday and the parent of tomorrow. The work you produce today will create your future."

Risking for more - Yuko Shimizu, 2008

"33. Take field trips. The bandwidth of the world is greater than that of your TV set, or the Internet, or even a totally immersive, interactive, dynamically rendered, object-orientated, real-time, computer graphic-simulated environment."

Tourist - Valentin Tkach, 2010

Both of these quotes I also feel have a relationship with "1. Allow events to change you", "The prerequisites for growth: the openness to experience events and the willingness to be changed by them." and "12. Keep moving", "Allow failure and migration to be part of your practice."

Both illustrations found in Illustrations Unlimited: The Essence of Contemporary Illustration

OUIL 401 End of Module Evaluation

I think the main skill that I have developed through this module is my researching skill which I think the research is also the strength in my body of work. I have learnt how to find the appropriate sources for my essay and also how to Harvard reference. In studio brief 2, although I have tried to use the knowledge I’ve gained from my research to inform and develop my idea, I don’t think that my final outcome communicates the research very well; I am not quite sure if I have made it clear for the audience to understand what it is I am trying to communicate with my piece without being briefed on it first. This may or may not be a bad thing but I feel like I might have strayed just a bit from my chosen topic.

Using the sketchbook in studio brief 2 has allowed me to bring in more media play into my work, which is good as I have not really been experimental with other medias other than digital ones in the previous modules. However, I found filling out our sketchbooks at the beginning of the brief quite a struggle, as I am not used to just sketching without knowing what it is that I want to communicate first. I felt quite lost for this part of the brief - I am not sure if this is due to the subject that I decided to delve into or if I’ve just really lost momentum and not working as hard - but I think this has had a negative impact in my motivation and commitment to do other things later on in the process.

Things I would do differently if I were to do this again:

1. For the second brief, to pick a less broad subject - so to not leave me with too many choices that would confuse me
2. But if I were to do it on colour again, I think I would make the final outcome more informative, in a booklet format or a zine with a combination of text to add support and explanation of the subject as it is quite hard to explain with only pictures.
3. Try and put as much effort into my work in this module as I have done for the others.

Final Outcome

Process gif:

What kind of aesthetic do I want?

I love how these animations have very limited colours - I like how the colours are only used for the characters/subjects - the important bits. Because I am focusing on the colours and characters, I think this kind of look would be very effective for my piece.

The Best Toy from Gabriel Lin on Vimeo.

Float from McKenna Harris on Vimeo.

Refining drawings

A change in direction

In the feedback, my peers thought that the playing cards is a good way of showing contrast in the two different cultures. However, they also really liked the colour swapping and the bikers as it could be more engaging and playful. Adele suggested that maybe I could create a scene or scenes where the colours used were all 'wrong'. So I decided take a step back and try to do something with the bikers as people really liked it:

one of my earlier ideas was to make a comic about a character who gets transported into a parallel universe where the use of colour in products, road signs etc are not what he/she is used to. I decided to try make a comic about some biker dudes (above), but I couldn't get the composition to look right - never realised how hard comics are to make! Once my frustration kicked in, I decided to do some thumbnails of stand alone pieces instead, as I think I am better at this than I am with comics.

I also thought about maybe changing the font of the stop sign, like this:

I really liked my first thumbnail but I thought it needed something more make the story clearer. I decided to try adding a couple more panels to see how this would look:

 Then I decided to try changing the expression of the macho, manly, angry looking biker:

Peer feedback

I decided to do some more contextual research on playing cards as I really like the playing card idea:

Follow Aghnia Mardiyah's board Playing card designs on Pinterest.

But I seem to be really struggling to actually put ideas down on paper. I like the playing card idea but I also really like the colour swapping idea, like my stop and go signs and my bikers. I did try to put the colour swapping idea in the playing card format, but I thought people wouldn't really understand it as well as the straight forward comparisons of the colours used in two different cultures (like the one below)

Pecha Kucha feedback

Pecha Kucha presentation

1. My essay was on 'form follows function' - if the modernist principle of 'form follows function' is relevant to contemporary illustration. In my essay I basically said that I think it is because as Carroll (1999) stated, the function is the 'what' of the work and the form is the 'how' of the work.

2. So we usually think about the message, story, emotion etc. that we want to communicate first, and then things like composition, choice of colour would usually come second.

3. I decided to do my research into the meanings of different colours in different cultures because I think colour is such an important and powerful thing as it can say/convey a meaning on its own - and if we want to use it for a specific reason, I think it's important that we first understand what our intentions are - the purpose of our work, the function, what we want it to do and who our audience is because this has such a great influence into what symbolism is appropriate for us to use in our work.

4. I started off by drawing what I've found out about the different colours in a culture I looked at. This one is the colour yellow in China - and in China, yellow represents royalty as the emperors used to wear yellow and yellow can also be found decorating palaces.

5. I also looked into the colour red, and in China red represents joy, good luck, good fortune etc. and that is why red is everywhere during Chinese New Year, weddings and special occasions.

6. I wanted to find out why red is such a lucky colour, or how it became a lucky colour. And according to Chinese mythology, there was this beast who would come out of hiding once each Spring, on or around Chinese New Year~

7. ~to destroy a village and devour its inhabitants. but the villagers soon found out that the weaknesses of the beast was sensitivity to loud noises and the colour red

8. So around Chinese New Year, people would dress in red, decorate everything in red and make loud noises in hope that this would drive the beast away, and according to this myth, it did and so red became a lucky colour and also a symbol for joy - people continued to do this every year and with time this became a tradition

9. So one of my idea was to make a book out of this and illustrate the story, in the style of traditional Chinese ink and brush art style for two reasons - one, because it's related to China and two, because I haven't really done much traditional/analogue stuff and I thought this would be a good opportunity to get back into traditional image making.

10. Then I thought about maybe simplifying this idea and maybe condensing it into one image - like a movie poster that summarises the whole story, still incorporating the Chinese art style to it. but then I thought, this doesn't really say anything, except that it illustrates a story, a story that isn't even mine

11. So I went to look for something else - and this is a video that I found a while ago, about 2 people, doing the same thing but in split screen format. This gave me an idea of maybe illustrating an event, such as a wedding or funeral etc. in split screen format. So one side is set in a western environment and the other set in an eastern environment so direct comparisons can be made about the use of colour~

12. ~like this illustration by Vidya Nagaragan for the Boston Globe. This split screen illustration is about how during the summer Boston is empty and businesses don't do as well in contrast to the school year where the city really comes to life.

13. But I also like the idea of making a 3D product as a final outcome like the book brief we got. So I found this; similar concept but in book format. Then the front cover, the mirrored design sort of reminded me of the mirrored designs you get on playing cards

14. So I had a look at some playing card designs and I thought maybe I could do the split screen idea in this way as I thought it would look quite fun and attractive but still showing the direct comparisons between the use of colour.

15. I spoke to Kristyna when she visited and she suggested the idea of maybe swapping the colour of things - to show how if the 'wrong' forms such as colour are used, it could confuse the idea/message you're trying to communicate and therefore confusing the audience too.

16. I thought this was quite interesting so I played around with this idea and came up with this - so in India red symbolises purity whereas here, we would associate purity and innocence with the colour white. again, I found this quite intriguing so decided to experiment some more

17. this time combining a feminine colour to some macho, biker, rocker type men.

18.

19.

20. but I couldn't decide on which idea to do, as I wanted to know which one you guys would find more interesting.

Research

Found this video - not all relevant but I liked how they've split everything up - contrast/compare sort of thing.

Theory into practice - Map of understanding

Form Follows Function