Assignment - Fear

Task 1 - Research Installation Art

In our brief we are asked to create an Art Installation based around the theme of Fear. Installation Art is art that is three dimensional but is there to create an atmosphere or to change the way that you are feeling. There are many different types of Installation Art from objects to videos. There is often sound to match the art which creates even more of an atmosphere and really draws you into the piece.

The Installation Artist that I have chosen to speak about is named Yayoi Kusama who is a Japanese writer and wrist. She works with a wide range of different art types which include; paintings, sculptures and environmental installations. She was big in the art movement of "pop art" and influenced many big artists too such as Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg. Her work includes very in-your-face psychedelic colours and is known for repeating the pattern of polka dots on her art. I read somewhere that she has experienced a lot of hallucinations since childhood which influences a lot of her crazy artwork, especially the polka dots. Her work portrays minimalism and surrealism and was often known for including feminism as a context for her work.

I chose a few of her Installation Art pieces which interested me in particular, the first is called Repetitive Vision which is one of the installations that she created which includes polka dots. Which is a room with walls of mirrors which has 3 female mannequins painted white but then covered in bright red polka dots from head to toe. These are all reflected on the walls and ceiling of the room. I like this piece because its in a small room and is very abstract which would probably make you feel quite weird and confused which Yayoi probably wanted.

The other Installation Art that she did which I found really interesting was named The Obliteration Room which was part of her Look Now, See Forever exhibition that ran early this year. The Obliteration Room was originally a room that was painted completely white, as well as everything inside it. Then it was open and everyone who entered the installation was given a sheet of coloured stickers to place wherever they liked in the room. I really like this idea because not only is she using her trade mark polka dots, she has made something that is interactive and fun for other people.

Task 2 - Produce a proposal for your project

The aspect of fear that I have chosen for my project is: Atelophobia which is the fear of not being good enough or the fear of imperfection. The reason I chose this aspect of fear and the concept of my project is that rather than choosing a fear of something physical such as spiders, I wanted to choose something that was more mental and just on your head. There's no such thing as perfect but I think that everyone has a slight fear of imperfection as everyone as something that they dislike or even hate about themselves.

What I am actually going to produce for my project is a series of images of peoples imperfections. I will photograph 30 images altogether, mostly of people that I know and possibly of some strangers. Within this I will include text of the peoples names which will be on the photographs and text saying "Atelophobia." I will also create an eerie sound track to create an atmosphere for the people viewing my work.

I will produce my work by taking the photographs on my camera then editing them and adding text on photoshop. I will then have them printed at a shop, 2 of each photograph so that I can stick them together and they will be double-sided. By making them double-sided they will still be seen even if they turn around. I will present my images by attaching wire to the photographs and then hanging them from the ceiling, all at different lengths, the text will also be hung from the ceiling.

Schedule for my work:

Friday - Take photographs
Saturday - Take photographs
Sunday - Take photographs
Monday - Take photographs
Tuesday - Edit and add text to the photographs
Wednesday - Get the photographs printed, stuck together and attach wire
Thursday - Set up my installation
Friday - Exhibit work

Resources I will need:

60 printed photographs
Spraymount
Fishing wire
Paperclips

36 photos

SEQUENCE

-insert photos from tony's lesson here-

PORTRAITS

-insert photos from tom's lesson here-

ADJECTIVES

Here I have taken photos to show adjectives in a picture. So for example if I had taken a picture of a tall building the adjective would be tall and I would have made that obvious in the photograph that I have taken. I decided to choose a theme for my photographs and the theme was within the adjectives that I used, at first I picked words that were used to describe quite bad things but then decided to use half bad and half good to have a bit more variation. I found this task quite hard because once I chose the words I wasn't sure wether I could produce an image to match it. I still ended up with 6 photos but I think I should've considered them a bit more.

Bright

Dirty

Dull

Clean

Shiny 

Dark

Summer Project - Photographing the Leeds Owl Trail

1. Conduct research for your project - collect at least 10 pieces of information.

The purpose of the Leeds Owl Trail is to inform and inspire people about Leeds' rich heritage and also to create new owls for future generations to enjoy.

"The Leeds Owl Trail is a unique concept that's brilliant for Leeds. It enables both visitors and residents from all backgrounds to explore and experience our beautiful city." - Tom Riordon - Chief Executive Leeds City Council

The first owls were spotted in Millennium Square in 2000. In 2002, Antonia Stowe who is a visual artist started to look around to see if there were any other owls around Leeds.

The original map of the Leeds Owl Trail had 10 Owl locations and in 2010 the map extended to 25 Owl locations.

The whole reason the Owls are used on architecture of the city is because they appear on the Leeds Coat of Arms.

The Leeds Coat of Arms was developed over a period of time and contains 3 owls. These owls came from the coat-of-arms belonging to Sir John Saville the first Alderman of Leeds.

The Owls on the coat-of-arms are said to look like European Eagle Owls but there is no evidence to support the fact that European Eagle Owls lived in this country around that time. So when Sir John Saville designed his coat-of-arms he might just have liked owls and that breed.

Some of the Owls on the trail are not in the most obvious places so you have to look carefully.

The earliest Owls to be created on buildings have been there since the 1700's.

Some of the owls on the architecture are harder to spot than you think.

2. Write about the research in your own words.

What I have decided to do for my Summer Project is photograph all of the owls on the Leeds Owl Trail. I was unaware that the owls were all over the city of Leeds until a couple of weeks ago when a friend told me about the trail and handed me the leaflet with all the locations on. I decided to choose this for my project as there are photographs that have been taken of the owls but none that are particularly special or do the owl statues/engravings any justice.
I have done a bit of research reading up on the trail as they have their own website, I didn't find a whole lot of information on there but there are quite a lot of facts about each owl on the map of the whole trail. I found out that some of the first owls have been on the city's architecture since the 1700's, I think that the Leeds Owl Trail is a good and interesting way to find out about some of the history behind the architecture around the city of Leeds.
I found a quote from the Chief Executive of Leeds City Council - Tom Riordon who said "The Leeds Owl Trail is a unique concept that's brilliant for Leeds. It enables both visitors and residents from all backgrounds to explore and experience our beautiful city."
The first owls that were noticed in Leeds are the golden owls in the Millennium Square which were discovered in 2000, but in 2002 a visual artist named Antonia Stowe wanted to know if there were any other owls around Leeds so she created a team of people to discover the rest. The original map for the Leeds Owl Trail had 10 owls on it but in 2010 was recreated and now has 25 owls on the trail.
I also read on the Leeds Owl Trail website that the reason for all the owls all over Leeds is because the first Alderman of Leeds who was named Sir John Saville designed the coat-of-arms for Leeds and although the owls on the coat-of-arms look like European Eagle Owls there is no proof of them ever living in our country around that time, so peoples guess is that he just liked owls and that breed too.
I looked at some of the webpages to buy tickets to go on an offical tour for the Leeds Owl Trail and it was written that some of the owls on the trail are in quite secretive places so you have to keep your eyes peeled and look carefully as you are on the trail. I am very excited to start my trail of the owls and photographing them too, hopefully I will be able to capture them in a good and different way.

3. Plan your project

Word association -

Leeds
Place
Countryside
Landscape
Sunrise
Sunset
Skyline
City
Architecture
Landmarks
Tourism
Money
Shopping
People

Mind Map - 

Sketches - 

4. Produce your product

5. Evaluate your project

I think generally I really liked the way that my photographs turned out. I wasn't sure when I first loaded them onto my computer but after I had edited them all and picked out the best, I was really happy with the outcome. I think what I like most about my images is in how some of them the owls really stand out and are easy to notice, but in a few you have to search and look carefully to actually notice the owls on the building. I originally wanted to edit my photographs into black and white but ended up really liking the colours on the majority of the photographs. When I edited them I just enhanced the highlights and shadow aspects of the images to give them a sharper effect which I think worked really well as it makes the images look stronger and sharper.
Some of the things I don't like about the images are that when I actually went out shooting with my camera the weather was quite bad and the sky was very grey so that when I edited the pictures to brighten them up, the sky ended up looking a bit orange. Another thing that I don't like is that on some of the shots I used flash and it has reflected on the building which ruins the image slightly.
If I could do this project again and improve it, I think I would choose something different to what I chose to shoot because when I went to go take my photographs I found it quite hard to spot the owls on the buildings. Although I had a map, some of the owls were high up on the buildings and not very visible to the public, so that restricted me to how many different pictures I could take. My original idea was to shoot every owl on the owl trail but I could only catch a few which is why I chose to have a few shots of the same ones, but I would have liked to have more of a variety.

Core Project

Task 1 - Proposal
The theme I have chosen to do for my core project is Northern Landscape and choosing that I have decided to take pictures of the urban landscapes of derelict buildings, from that I decided to photograph the remains of a castle in Leeds which has the forest and trees etc grown around it, which I think makes a nice mix of urban and rural surroundings. I would like to do my images on black and white film as I think this will look the best and suit my theme very well.

The concept of my project is going to be that I want to show a mix of urban and rural surroundings in my photographs rather than taking some urban images and some rural. My images will be quite dark and gloomy, that is why I chose black and white film as that will portray my images as I would like them to be.

The choice of format I have chosen for my project is Exhibition and I also want to create a poster of my work, I will do this by scanning in the negatives and blowing up the photo and printing it on large paper for a poster.

I am going to make references to several other photographers work, Philip Pankov is going to be one of them as he photographs in black and white film and he also did a project that was shot in Dublin. He took photographs of Dublin at night time so I want to try that out for my project also, his images are quite dark but include a lot of lights as it is night time and the lights really stand out and look interesting.
I will also use references to Fay Godwin as she used black and white film photography doing landscapes and as I have noticed her images are very dark which is also how I would like mine to be.

Fay Godwin

Philip Paknov

My schedule for completing this project is that I am going to carry on planning my shoots this week and then start shooting this weekend, then this and next weekend I will go to the castle and photograph it to get as many photos as I can then have a more variety to chose from for my final photographs. After I have used all the film I have I will develop the film and photographs at college on my days off and also scan the negatives onto the computer so that I can create my poster.

The resources I will need include:
Film camera
Black and white film
Tripod
Developing chemicals
Photographic paper
Access to the dark room

Task 2 - Generating Ideas

Mind Map 

Mood Board

Word Association

Landscapes

Rural

Fields

Trees

Rivers

Rocks

Ruins

Buildings

Architecture

Daytime

Nighttime

Sunrise

Sunset

Sun

Moon

Sky

Clouds

Rain

Mud

Grass

Task 3 - Research how artists/photographers develop ideas etc


Francis Bacon


When Bacon's studio was completely removed and placed into an art gallery a couple of years ago people discovered where he developed his ideas from a lot of his art work. Hundreds of photographs taken by John Deacon were found scattered around his studio which had been folded, ripped and ruined. He used them as inspiration for art work that he did of people that were sketchy and had a lot of movement in them and were quite surreal.

His whole studio was also said to be inspiration for his artwork as there was markings all over the walls and the place was just a mess filled with different art materials and paintings. A quote that someone said from a video clip that I watched about his studio - "it was like actually being in the artists head" describing his studio.

What he also did when he created artwork on canvas, he would cut out part of the canvas with a painting already on and add it to another piece of artwork that he created to create something completely new.

David Hockney

Recently he had an exhibition on paintings that he did around Yorkshire, he wanted to show Yorkshire how he saw it. He used a lot of different techniques for creating his artwork for this exhibition, but the main one that he used was a drawing app on an iPad. He wanted to show how he saw Yorkshire after being in LA for so long, his drawings were very colorful and bright. 

JR

JR photographs peoples portraits and blows them up onto a large scale and puts them on urban areas outside such as buildings and trains. His project from a couple of years ago came about by photographing people in the Suburbs of Paris in 2004 and blew them up to large images and put them up around that area. Riots formed 2 years later in that same place and his photograph was spotted on the footage of a burning car. He returned there the next year and other places and photographed people as their own caricature and did the same by posting them on the side of buildings and houses. I watched a video about this project and he said that the reason he did it is because he wanted everywhere to be its own museum/gallery including the streets and surroundings of everyone, he also wanted to show that there are heroes everywhere you go and all around you.

Task 4 - Describe how visual language communicates ideas & meaning

 In this photograph of Beyonce which is used commercially for advertising perfume. She is made to look good because they want the product to look good and people to think that they will look as sexy as this if they use the product, which will make them more money. This photograph is more than likely photoshopped to make her look even better and hide all her imperfections.

Where as in these photographs which were taken by paparazzi are purposefully shot to make Beyonce look bad, taken from bad angles. This particular image was taken at a certain point to show something bad going on on her face and that has been highlighted with a circle around it to make you notice it.  Paparazzi take these kind of images to make celebrities look bad and to make people realize that they don't always look as good as you think.

This photo here was taken with bright lighting and has also used a lot of editing on photoshop to create an image that looks almost perfect with no blemishes or wrinkles or anything. A photo like this will also be used commercially to sell an album or perfume etc.

Darkroom Practice

Research


Alin Ciortea


This was the first photographer I chose as my inspiration because for my project I would like to do street photography and I think this photographer captures "the streets" very well. What I like about these images is that they are simple but interesting at the same time. What I have chose to do is to carry my film camera around with me for a few days and try and capture images like these just around the streets of Leeds.

Paul Politis


This is the second photographer that I chose, and as I wanted to take photos around Leeds I thought that these images would be appropriate for my research as this photographer photographed New York. I love these images because I think the black and white makes it look quite moody and dull but the detail and height of the buildings makes them a set of really interesting and powerful photographs.

Philip Pankov


The final photographer that I chose for my inspiration. This photographer photographed Dublin at night time which I think looks really good as the water and sky in the images look really dark but then the bright lights stand out a lot which gives the images a sort of gloomy and creepy look. I especially like how the photographer included the reflections in the water in these photographs.

Scannography

To create these images I used a scanner and scanned whatever I thought looked good, then opened them on Photoshop and changed them all differently. I mostly changed the colors and curves.