MARTIN CREED: WHAT’S THE POINT OF IT?

Over the historical two and a half decades British artist Martin Creed has pursued an extraordinary path by confounding the traditional categories of art.

As I entered the exhibition I had to go through a doorway that was part blocked by a second-hand sofa. After, I was greeted by a huge neon sign rotation on an iron beam that spells ‘MOTHERS’. It stands a 6ft inches and swirls frighteningly close to your head. I believe this is supposed to be a metaphor for mother figures.

I could feel the huge sign sweep over my head as I walked around – I almost wanted to run away as it could easily knock off anyone’s head off.

 This show is one of the best solo exhibitions at the Hayward. Creed did a good job with presenting his works as he lives everything open and empty which allows everyone to enjoy and walk around freely.

 There are paintings made with his eyes closed, and a portrait that was hung so high and he had to jump every time he wanted make a mark. The variety of Creed’s work makes it hard to talk about touch, manner or voice. But they are all the same, I personally believe.

The only thing anyone could feel or touch is Infant Delight – a space filled with large, walled, white balloons. I entered the space as I blundered in, negotiating my way past a slightly reeking old sofa I slid through the slithering spheres.

I felt like a bubble amongst the white large balloons, which was a pure experience. The air was filled of static, delighted squeals and unexpected bangs. It also most felt like I was swimming through the sea of clouds. Infant Delight was one of the most enjoyable work by Creed and I highly recommended visiting before it ends on 5^th May.

Martin Creed’s, Work No. 88: A sheet of paper crumpled into a ball, 1995 also caught my attention due the way it was presented. What caught my attention was the use of lighting, which created a simple paper appear to be dramatic.

Overall, my visit to Martin Creed’s exhibition was enjoyable and I was pleased to be given the opportunity to witness his works.

Reflective Summary

This is my second year at the University of Bedfordshire as I was already a student last year studying Interior Design. I decided that I wanted to change course and pursue Art and Design instead as I believe I’ll be able to explore different range of Art practices and open my opportunities in different path in the future. I was told I was not allowed to do or retake the whole Unit as I already passed 3 similar units last year when I studied Interior Design. Therefore, I was told I could only do 1 unit which is ART004-1 Visual Art Practice.This unit I believe is the main focus in the course as it trials us students to demonstration our artistic skills in different range of media.

Visual Art Practice introduced me to essential practical and critical skills involved in visual art practice. It engaged me with visual art media and allowed me to distribute my own ideas and skills.I became more familiar with traditional media such as drawing, painting, print making and with new media such as lens-based, still moving images and digital media.

The first project in this unit was based on editing images and expanding our skills and knowledge in using Photoshop. When I first received and read the brief I knew I would enjoy this project as I find editing images extremely enjoyable and as a girl I have used Photoshop and other editing software to edit images. I am very much familiar with Photoshop so I only needed to learn a few more techniques with the help of YouTube tutorials and a book that was recommended by my tutor – How to cheat in Photoshop by Steve Caplin. The book shows tutorials in images form and explains step by step on how to use the editing tools on Photoshop. I found the book extremely helpful and also enjoyable to read through. The project came with 4 different tasks, which are producing and editing an A3 untouched/unedited portrait of Reese Witherspoon, retouching my own self-portrait, producing a genre montage and finally a photomontage.

I honestly enjoyed doing all as it helped me demonstrate my artistic and creativity skills. I found that it was easy and simple to use Photoshop and edit my images. If I had to preference which task I enjoyed most it would have to be working on Reese Witherpoon’s portrait and putting my ideas together in order to produce a Genre Collage. After scheming through the book Mesmerization by Gee Thomson, I gathered my ideas and images and worked with my genre. The book helped me understand what ‘spell’ actually mean in genre forms.

The next task following Images was Transform, which confused me, as the title did not seem familiar or very art like. The brief is to produce 2 final pieces – one 2d and one 3d. Demonstrating use of the laser cutter and expanding and developing my ideas that will later be turned into models. I am not proud and satisfied with this project, as I did not spend much time exploring and working on it – honestly speaking.

I started the project with drawing real life objects and working with different media such as paint, water colors etc. Although I managed to do this and demonstrate my ability to produce drawings of real life objects I still failed to demonstrate my ability to produce my models and use the laser cutter. I did however attend the workshop and witnessed how to use the machine properly. I also have previously experienced using the machine when I was in high school and last year for Interior Design workshops. I came out with my 2D and 3d designs but I was not able to use the machine to print them. Due to having problems outside the University I can say that I have failed to complete this project and show my ability to produce my models. To improve, I will make sure to get everything done in time and to organize my schedule in order to get the chance to use the machines provided at the University. Not being able to complete this project has wakened me to be more responsible and aware or the time I am wasting.

The final and most fiddly project for me is Psychogeography, which is a time-based media that explores the effects of the physical environment on people’s feelings and behaviour. At first I found it difficult to fully understand and gather my ideas about the brief but with the help and explanation of my tutor Hanna Birkett I got the idea and managed to understand the work properly.

I had to produce an artwork in a time based media and development work in response to the given thee of Psychogeography. To gather collection of visual research and explore my surrounding and environment allowing myself to gain understanding of Psychogeography and what it truly means. After doing my research and gathering ideas from the Internet I came up with 2 ideas in which I both made a time-based media showing what I learned.

This project has truly taught me about the environment and my surrounding – how people affect it and change it. This project was also a trail for me as I have not done a time-based media for a project and it was something new to me. Although editing my videos were enjoyable, it was still tricky learning about how to put everything together to make everything look well combined and to also show a story that demonstrate my own response to the theme Psychogeography.

My only concern about this project is that I believe the software that we needed to work with was Premier Pro, which I did not have downloaded. For this reason I decided to work with iMovie which was a lot easier for me and manageable. I showed my editing skills and all the process of my editing in my sketchbook and explained how I used iMovie.

Visual Art Practice and all the projects I have done and completed has taught be new things – they knowledge me with information and skills I did not know before. Some were tricky and some were enjoyable but I found that this Unit has helped me organise my time and made me aware that I should not be wasting any time when it comes to research, ideas, developing ideas and producing final pieces.

The only downfall I have this year is that I did not attend my classes and workshops as much as I was expected to. Due to issue outside the University I was not able to be present at every Critic class. I failed to receive comments and feedbacks from my fellow students. In order to improve this I will make sure to attend my classes and get help as much as I can in the year following.

Overall, my 1^st year completing Art and Design and the unit ART004-1 Visual Art Practice has been tricky but satisfying. I am very pleased with myself as compared to last year; I produced more work this time and gained more understanding and skills. Each project I completed has taught me and expanded my skills to another level in which I will use in the future.

 

 

03/03 About Time

Psychogeography by Merlin Coverley

Research & Ideas

Here I found some images I found on the internet when I was researching. I believe the goal for this project is to photograph everyday – capturing the same view from the same spot/angle. The photographer also stated on his website that they will caption each images  with BBC’s main news headline for each day.

http://psychogeographicreview.com

    

I believe the purpose for this is to explore continuity and change. Although the photographer will not be able to capture from exactly the same spot and view each day – the images are still subject to change in the environment such as the weather or the time rises. I also believe that the ‘change’ could be affected by the photographer’s mood and feelings during the time – the way the photographer holds the camera could change depending on their mood.

Although the images does not quiet explain or portray what ‘Psychogeography’ or ‘Dérive’ means I still believe it is a good idea to show change in environment and surroundings. I still believe it shows ‘no motive’ in a way that the photographer is not necessarily photographing a certain look – he is not planning what they is looking and capturing. The photographer states that they will photograph the same view everyday at 8AM giving them no choice but to photograph what he gets and captures at that time.

Time-Lapse Photography

Time Lapse Photography is a technique whereby the frequency at which film frames are captured is much lower than that used to view sequence.

IDEAS:

• Weather: I will make sure to capture the weather and the change of lighting.
• Sunset/Sunrise: The will define the change of day in my time-lapse clip and appear to be the starting point of a new day and night.
• Surrounding: The surrounding is very important as it will show how people are more active at certain times. It will show how the surrounding changes as day goes by.
• Environment: How it changes. How people affect the environment with what they do.
• Time: I will photography the same view every single dat at different times to show changes.
• Mood: The way I will photography my images will depend on my mood and this is something I will explain and talk about in each images.

  

The images above show some time-lapse images I have found on the internet. You can see tat they have been photographed to show changes, the weather, time, surrounding and mood.

I will be using this idea to photograph my own images and to capture changes and put it in a video form.

14th March – 14th April 2014

Above are all the images I have capture between 14th March – 14th April.

I photographed every single day at different hour to capture how the weather, environment, surrounding and mood change. In each images you can see the change of lighting due to the change of time/weather. These images will simple show how the environment changes unintentionally – without planning the day, time, angel and lighting of photographing these images.

I believe in Psychogeography – artists such as Guy Debord defines a Dérive as an unplanned journey. Although my idea is not a journey around London or a certain place – I will try and show how I encounter and define the change in environment by putting together my images into a time-lapse video.

The times these images were photographed depended on my mood, depended on when and what time i wanted to step outside and photograph. I did not plan a certain time everyday to do this. I believe these images also show my mood, my feelings and how it affected the view and angle of each images.

Editing Screenshots

Above are screenshots of the process of editing my time-lapse Psychogeography video. I used iMovie to edit my video instead of Premier Pro as I found it easier to use and I do not own a Premier Pro.

Firstly, I started by creating a new movie and naming it properly so it is easier to find. I also did not use any theme for my video as I wanted it to be simple and I only wanted to work with what I already had. I then imported all my images into the library and picked an instrumental song to go with it. I dragged all my images so I could work with them – giving them all 0.1 seconds duration each. I then made sure to edit each picture’s ‘FIT’ to the screen to make sure they don’t zoom in and out of the screen.

I wanted to just show a short video showing how the environment changes from one view everyday. I managed to produce a short clip that shows how the environment, weather, mood, surrounding and I believe I managed to capture all this in my images.

To improve, I believe next time I should probably take more images during the day and show more daylight as I was editing I noticed I did not have enough images during daytime and this is why my video is so short and simple.

 

Psychogeography Time Lapse

Above is my final Time Lapse idea that I managed to turn into a short clip. I wanted this idea to clearly show changes in the environment by just looking at my images. I took 81 pictures from 14th March – 14th April everyday at different times. My main goal for this project is to portray how the surrounding and environment changes as time pass by. Although I did not exactly manage to capture from the same spot and angle – I still managed to show what happens and what changes during the day. I managed to show different weather, different lighting, different surrounding and most importantly show how I was feeling that time. All the images I captured depended on my mood – when I wanted to step outside, when I wanted to take a picture and how I held my camera.

This idea was inspired by a website I came across when I was researching about the topic. I noticed the photographer wanted to show exactly the same thing. I then started photographing and putting my images together in a short video clip to produce a Time-Lapse video.

Evaluation

1st Idea Evaluation: 

My first idea was inspired by a website I came across with when I was researching about the topic. The photographer had the same idea and project in mind so I did my research and expanded my ideas using his images as my inspiration. The photographer states that he will photograph the same view every single day at 8AM for a whole year – captioning each images with BBC news main headline for each day. He states that although he will not be able to capture exactly the same view every single day the photos are still bound to change due to the weather, environment and how the sun rises.

 One Year is a project through which I intend to construct a daily photographic record of a single view: the view from my study window at around 8.00a.m. each day when I sit down to work.  One Year will annotate each picture with a note of the weather for that morning and the morning’s main news headline from the BBC News site.  In addition, there will be a note taking a key sentence or two from my daily journal.

http://psychogeographicreview.com

I expanded my ideas by also researching about Time-Lapse photography and I looked at some examples. Time lapse photography are mostly videos – photographers usually film a certain view to show the change in environment and surrounding. I wanted to do it differently and work with images instead as it is not too time consuming and it’s a lot easier to work with. I then decided to start photographing my images on 14th March till 14th April. For a whole month I managed to capture 81 images that were taken every single day at different times. The purpose of my images taken at different times is to show what changes during the day and to show how the weather, environment and surrounding change.

Using iMovie I worked on my images and managed to produce a very short clip that shows my 81 images. I decided to add an instrumental song to add a effect on my clip and make it seem calm and flawy. Although I know I should have taken more images, I believe I did quiet a good job for my first time doing it.

To improve I will probably take more pictures during the day so I can show how the day passes by longer. I noticed my clip is only 40 seconds long which is probably why I need more images.

Ingrid Calame

Ingrid Calame is one of the artists I studied for inspiration and Ideas.

Throughout her career she has generated her ideas for her paintings from a close examination of the world around her. She focuses her gaze on the left over and often overlooked  stains on sidewalks, graffiti on a river back, marks on the roadway etc. After tracing the shape of these discarded marks, Calame uses this representational and yet not necesarily recognisable information to generate abstractions.

Since the 90’s, Calame has been tracing and she goes to different locations to do this.

Ideas & Research

After reading and having a look at Ingrid Calame’s work pieces I decided to take a walk and pay attention to where I am going and the surroundings. Below are just some of the images I took during my walk and I mainly focus on the pavements.

Like Ingrid Calame, her art work were based around tracing left over gum, stains, cracks etc. I wanted to see and focus on the pavement and its shape and different texture. I noticed that during my work I found a lot of left over gum stuck on the pavement which is one of Igrid Calame’s main focus on when doing work.
I also noticed a lot of litter around the area where I walked – this is probably caused by children from the primary school around the corner from my house.

The walk gave me an idea of what I want my final piece would be and I decided to explore on this idea and see what I can come up with.

2nd Project Proposal/Idea

Location: London Euston

What will I focus on?

• Environment – weather, people, mood, atmosphere
• Surrounding – pavements, walls, location
• I will focus on pavements – cracks, shapes, texture, stains, left over gum
• I will focus on walls – graffiti, cracks, stains, shapes, texture

 How will I put this into a time based media work?

• I will film my journey with my camera (NIKON D3200) and focus on what I encounter and the surrounding.
• I will select the most important clips and create a short movie of my journey showing how London is.

 

London Euston

 

I first decided to explore around London Euston (where I live) to film around the area and find out what I’d encounter. I started my journey from home and walked to the station around shortcuts and different roads that are away from the main road.

As I walked around I noticed that the area was quiet and there was no one out – so I focused on the surroundings, the pavements, walls, stains, left over chewing gum, cracks and litter. I focused on how the environment changes due to people and what they leave behind.

I carried on walking toward the station and the main road where I encountered loads of road works and litter. I noticed that it was starting to get crowded and busy – this is probably due to bus diversions and road closures. As I got to the main road I noticed a lot of people in a rush and I also noticed the traffic.

Above are some screenshots of images from my video clips that I filmed during my journey from home to London Euston.

London Waterloo/Southbank

London Waterloo/South bank was my 2nd chosen place to explore. I decided to pursue a journey and focus on what I’d find and encounter in such a busy, tourist spot area. Before I got there I made sure to focus on my surrounding, the environment and people around me. With my camera, I filmed my journey – walking around with no Map or actual path to follow. During my journey I noticed that the area was more packed and crowded than London Euston and I know this is because the area is a tourist spot.

I noticed around the area that there was more litter and stains on the pavements. I noticed a lot of rubbish bins around and tons of people just hanging around the area with no motives.

As I walked around, I also noticed the different shapes and texture of pavements – graffiti on the walls and left over chewing gum on the ground. Due to being a tourist spot because of the London Eye and Big Beg, I believe this causes the area to be crowded, dirty, stained, and used by many individuals.

Above are some images from my video clips that I screened shot. These are images of different pavement shapes and textures and the view by Waterloo Bridge.

2nd Idea Editing Screenshots

Above are the screenshots of me editing my ‘London Psychogeography’ video on iMovie. I showed the process of my work and how I edited and put it all together. Firstly, I created a new movie and making sure I named it properly so it is easier to find. I also chose not to use any theme as I wanted to work with what I already have. I used iMovie to put together short clips from my videos from my journey around London Euston to London Waterloo. 

I edited each clips to fit in all together – I made sure the duration of each clips are short and quick. I also added an instrumental to add some sort of effect which I think works well with the video as the music has some sort of ‘journey’ into it. I added some effects on some of the clips – slow motion and fast motion to blend in with the flow of the music.

More so, I made sure to show a journey and not just a normal video of my chosen place.