Final Sketchbook Pieces

I decided that for the final work in my book I didn't just want to continue with the same digital artwork but I wanted to develop it a step further. I think the idea of 'putting' my work into a gallery space looks really good visually and I think its an interesting conceptual development. Putting the work into the white wall gallery setting instantly makes it seem more professional, more expensive when in reality its student work that will never be noticed by the artistic elite (trust me I don't have a problem with this). I thought it would be interesting to place my work into a certain setting and see how it changes the feel of said work for the viewer.

I like this one the most I feel like the set up looks more modern and professional and expensive than the image below, but I think both work well. 

This work could be improved with more seamless editing skills and making the work on the wall more realistic but I think it acheives the ideas I want it  to. The most exciting thing to do with my work would have been if I had known people in a gallery and been able to pull some strings and gotten the work shown then I would have listened all day as an onlooker and observed wether the value of the work had increased, a bit like a social experiement. However I'm aware something are well beyond my capability to acheive at this moment in time.

Developments in the sketchbook - adobe illustrator

Original paintings; Francis bacon - Lucian Freud, 

adjusted price in millions $146.4

My interpretations:

I think overall these are my favourite pieces for the COP journal, aesthetically I really enjoy the contracts of flat block colour and precise lines. I used the original paintings and took from them what jumped out to me visually. I wanted to create a modern piece that relied just on visuals and design no meaning to get the viewer to start questioning the true meanings of certain paintings and what makes them sell for such ridiculous amounts of money. I think using digital has been really great for my ideas, not only do I think it works really well visually I think using a modern media gives the pieces interesting connotations as many prestigious fine artists or art institutes don't count digital art as a high form of fine art - it often has a stigma attached. with these pieces I'm asking why does one image cost over 100 million  dollars and why is one unlikely to ever be worth anything to an art collector.

one of the other pieces I focused on was Mr and Mrs Andrews, however I don't think its as relevant to the themes I'm exploring in the journal as its in a private collection and hasn't been sold unlike some of the other paintings I've reinterpreted such as the one above which has a specific monetary value I can comment on

I picked elements here that stood out to me such as Mr Andrews hat shoes and gun, notice poor Mrs Andrews doesn't even end up featuring here... I'd say I'm most happy with the aesthetics of the blue page on the left. The shape of the journal made it difficult to re interpret landscape images but I'm still happy with how things have turned out. As I said earlier however contextually I don't think these pieces work as well as some of the others

Lecture programme summary

Lecture programme summary Important points Our job is to communicate We need to be able to effectively communicate ideas concepts and content to different audiences in a range of contexts Audience context function Visual literacy - the ability to construct meaning from visual images and type, the ability to interpret negotiate and make meaning from information presented in an image Visual literacy is based on the idea that pictures can be read The conventions of visual communication are a combination of universal and cultural symbols What do you want to achieve with your work Creative practice doesn't just straighter and clarify the world it reflects the world as we venture beyond problems solving into process experiment and discovery - Martin venesky Research is the process of finding facts. These facts will lead to knowledge. Research is done by using what is already known Cop 2: More discipline specific content Develop individual areas of interest Formulate research questions Develop practical and contextual research skills Writing research project proposals Research informed practice and academic writing

action plan!

an action plan of what I need to do in the next 5 weeks before submission

• experiment with digital art work using existing imagery in my COP book focus on mr and mrs andrews?
• think about creating new abstract art work using existing tropes (royal blue, lanscape certain shapes) presented in an almost meaningless manner (link to queen mr A and saachi)
• finish the cop book
• refine triangulation essay based on feedback
• rewrite image analysis essay with more relevant images (queen)
• blog COP sketchbook more 
• complete study task 8:
  - write a 250 word MAX project proposal for year 2
  - create a 10 slide issu presentation about this proposal
  - write a 1000 word piece analysing two images you have created and link them with one of your analysed images
• fill in the end of module evaluation (printed out and last blog post)

study task 3 - Queen by Annie Leibovitz

( let it be said here despite what it may seem I do actually like the queen!!)

http://www.vanityfair.com/style/2016/05/annie-leibovitz-portraits-queen-elizabeth-royal-family

Semiotics lecture

semiotic theory 

• semiotic is the 'science' of studying signs 
• code - a system of symbols or signs
• sign - signifier + signified, the relation between them is arbitrary signs are organised into code
• signifier - uttered by the sender
• signified - what the signifier creates in the head of the receiver
• arbitrary
• denotation - literal meaning
• connotation - cultural associations
• myth
• how the process of persuasion and affect works
• nothing innate about language, socially conditioned
• red signifies stop in a British traffic light system it doesn't innately make us stop
• 1917 Ferdinand de saussure - how does language as a system work, trying to understand the rules of language 
• now what things mean (symbolism) but how things obtain the meaning that they do
• structuralism - everything in the world has at its core underlying logic or order 
• post modernism obliterated structuralism
• bathes - signs signify in two different levels, the conscious level - the obvious meaning of something and the unconscious - the layers of meaning you forget about 
• we can unravel meaning in language by understanding the written and spoken material
• we can unravel meaning in cultural practises if we understand culture as operating like
• our whole existence is about socialising us into codes, they are found in all forms of ccultural prctice
• it has to operate on a pre conscious level or our brains would explode 
• signs are organised into codes in two ways paradigms and syntagms
• paradigm - a set of signs from which one is to be chose
• syntagm - the message into which the chosen signs are to be combined
• a code is an overarching cultural system
• a classic paradigm is the alphabet, we select leters to create words which only have meaning in our shared culture 
• examples of paradigm
  - changing shot in TV
  - typefaces
  - colour of front door
• where there is choice there is meaning and the meaning of what was chosen is determined by the meaning of what was not
• syntagmatic analysis - seeks to establish the 'surface structure' of a text an the relationship between its parts, reveals the rules underlying the production and interpretation of texts
• when we percieve all of these messages we can choose to accept them (dominant reading) reject them (negotiated reading) or draw our own meaning from them 

study task 3 - discussion with Pete about image analysis

discussion with Pete about image analysis

I know I needed to change some of my images in the second essay and do a more modern piece to compare with Mr and Mrs Andrews, but I was struggling to find something relevant that focused on the same themes of

• ownership
• land
• power
• art as a display of culture
• art as a display of wealth

I discussed ideas I had with Pete in a 1 to 1 session and I now have a few good options of images I could use that I have been briefly exploring before deciding which one to use in my final essay

Hockneys logo for the sun


- not a focus on hockney but on the sun in the same way a lot of the focus in the essay is in mr and mrs andrews not gainsborough himself.
- a big company employing an artist to appear a certain way (parallels with mr and mrs andrews)
- using a well known artist to appear cultured

lloyds of london building


- interesting to compare architecture and discuss similarities
- art still being used to put forward a message or an image
- design being used to showcase wealth
- cultural power and wealth, forward thinking
- imposing, modern, expensive
- architecture being used to display a message of power


queen by Annie Leibovitz


- the most visually similar
- similar tones in the sky and expanse of land in the back
- royal birthright symbol of power
- traditional values
- sumptuous luxury clothing and settings

- some intriguing differences = a woman portrayed as strong and powerful, the artist is also a female
- new media of photography, how have visuals changed and what similarities exist between the mediums 

developments in the sketchbook - print

I had to pick certain imagery from my book that I knew would work successfully with stencil monoprinting - so pieces which included bigger and less intricate shapes and no line work. This limited me quite a lot in my choice and cut me off from creating prints based of paintings in my book that could have been more contextually relevant but I still think Son of man, a well known piece of imagery and Les Femmes d'Alger (sold for adjusted price of $181.2 million) are good pieces to work from.

I'm really happy with the diversity within m prints and I think this adds a new dimension to the work and makes it very visually intriguing. I tried out lots of different placements and techniques mixing colours and shapes to get this range of results and I'm happy with the outcomes.

My favourite print is the 3rd one down, the yellow and blue print based on Les Femmes d'Alger by Picasso. I just think it has a really nice clear and striking quality to it and I like the combination of blue and yellow with bold colours

Post modernism lecture

Post modernism lecture

• The opposite of modernism (form follows function) a blind obedience to this principle looses something
• Stripping back everything to its essences strips away something of the human, of life
• We as people are irrational emotional flawed
• Modernism almost bleaches away human imperfections
• Postmodernism - why do we have to be constantly trying to progress the world
• Modernism is so Eutoptian it's quite austere
• Postmodernism is characterised by

- pluralism
-pessimism
-disillusionment with the idea of absolute knowledge
- space for new voices
- multiplicity of styles and approaches
- only rule is there are no rules

• Modernism expresses modernity postmodernism is a reaction to it
• Postmodernism has an attitude of questioning conventions
• Homage to New York 1960 - Gesture of the fallibility of technology and a criticism of the modern New York

1960 - beginnings 
1970 - established as a term (jencks)
1980 - recognisable style
80/90s - dominant theoretical discourse
Today - tired and simmering

• Contra modernism 
• Equivalent to late capitalism 
• Charles jencks 15th July 1972 3:32pm modernism dies and is replaced by post modernism with the demolition of the Pruitt igoe development St. Louis - put all the poor, underclasses, 'undesirables' 
• Instead of collectively bringing everyone forward they all brought each other down - it failed 
• The patriarchal machismo of modernism 
• Celebrates what might otherwise be termed as kitsch 
• Park hill flats Sheffield 1960 - turned into an undesirable place to live, now they're flats for the upwardly mobile the young professionals. The update of the park hill flats are a reaction to the flaws of modernism and trying to do something better
• 
• Frank Gehry - Bilbao 1997 crazy postmodern building totally random and human and fun (totally regenerated the area) 
• 
• Neue staatsgalerie germany - a huge mix of media, modern synthetic colours, neo classical statutes and marble, post modern jokes and 'imperfections'
• The Leeds look postmodernism 80s Leeds magistrates court (trust us to pick the worst architectural style)
• Quinlan terry - hates everything modern and builds in a classical style the maitland Robinson library 
• 
• J F Lyotard - 'attitude of incredulity towards metanarratives' 
• Metanarratives = totalising belief systems, we don't believe in these things anymore instead we have our own micro narratives through our own subcultures 
• Bricolage 
• Re using images parody and irony, chaos 
• Las Vegas - postmodern city? Driven by sensuality, life, greed? The essence of the post modernism its about hybridity 
• The ultimate figure of post modernity is Andy Warhol - he was self professed to not have any talent, fame is just a construction 
• Not about creativity but about producing things, they'd all get high and do screen prints. A project of art as anti art, he didn't even do anything himself. Marylin monroe - A portrait of the mechanical production of fame.You can't get passionate about a Warhol because there's no deeper meaning to it 
• David shrigley - art lovers
  
• Your only way of understanding art and culture is through its price tag 
• Piero Manzoni - canned his own shit sold at 5 figure sums to people as conceptual art?!
• You need an artists signature to turn it isn't art 
• It's about playing games with those who declare to be cultural authorities 
• Memphis group founded 1981 
• Nathalie pasquier 
• David Carson ray gun

design and modernism lecture

design and modernism

• modernism is a subjecive response to the modern
• anti historicism - it doesn't look backward its about being progressive and inventing new things its about pushing things forward 
• 'ornament is crime' - adolf loos (1908)
• truth to materials - looking to new ways of making visual communication and celebrating them, embrace the new world and all of its traping iincluding new materials to work with
• form follows function - you solve a problem with your design and if you solve that problem perfectly the thing you create will have beauty, you dont design something to be beautiful first
• technology - a product of and a celebration of new technologies 
• internationalism - modernist practices aim to create a neutral but universal visual language of culture available to all, one style of making one style of creating, utopian social project
• in stripping down an object t its bare design essentials you create a thing which doeesnt belong to any culture or time
• if you design to capture a style at a paticular moment then a few years down the line it will look outdated
• concrete was a thing of beauty at this time it was a modernist material a new material
• illustration - not copying old styles and trying to create a new style 
• lies van der riche - seagram building 1958, not nationalistic, no historical connotations

• 
• quasi communist, equal utopia, clean shiny and new, equal spaces and plots of land 
• Bauhaus - interdisciplinary art school reinvented the way art and design was taught, you had an interdisciplinary programme photographers taught typography everyone working together 
• a diffusion of high art into everyday life
• the Bauhaus design didn't become available to all, there was lots of naf versions of modernism reproduced 
• internationalism - a language of design that could be recognised and understood on an international basis
• Herbert Bayer - sans serif typeface, argued for all text to be lower case they don't aid the process of reading 
• constructivists - no distinction between being a graphic designer being a film maker being a photographer - they were all creatives working on projects together
• modernism is a beautiful example of the utopian dream the the time, its egalitarian nature and reduction as artificial boundaries between people
• its life becoming art
• female practitioners emerging, women were constructivists as much as men 
• the visual language of modernist constructivism get diffused into wall paper and textiles
• soviet working mens club?!
  
  
• russian bauhaus, hard to find any books on it, we dont like to think of russia as being as culturally developed as us
• western fasion is desgned to sexually objectify women, this moderist design for workers suits aimed to do the opposite, same clothes for both genders 
• letatlinn, sky-bike (flying machine) sadly never worked like his tower 
• dehumanising and standardising?
• nazis shut down the bauhaus - scared about the dream of a fair and international collabarative world 

feedback on essay

audio feedback notes:

• interesting research
• structurally needs work
• triangulation = large quotes this needs paraphrasing
• still dealing with too many historical perspectives
• argument isn't up too date
• make comparisons, don't just analyse, compare to modern
• Hirst = good theme should be used throughout
• how purposeful is the David analysis
• think about your images the other 2 are a bit 'iffy'

what to do next after a discussion with Pete:

• rejig quotes and some content in first essay
• find a modern example of Mr and Mr's Andrews to compare with in second essay two comparison images can count as one image analysis 
• do the same with Michelangelo (angel of the north?) or pick this instead of Michelangelo

shorten quotes modernise arguments