Panicking!

There is only 6 weeks left of this year, of these projects, of my second year and I am PANICKING! I'm so worried about the fact I haven't got my ideas nailed down yet for either of my projects and only one of them has the final piece even started and that's cause there is 3 of them...

Protest

I am still to decide between which design to choose and whether to actually make it a picket sign or even just a poster or design and mention that if it was for a real protest, a real campaign, that I could use it on multiple things like tshirts and banners, etc. And do I use photoshop with it or do I go for a more rugged look by using my own handwriting and drawings? Well, I had wanted it to be more personal so drawing a self portrait and using the ginger insults in some way would be best but do I add those insults in photoshop? Do I use spray paint at all? I also feel like I need more research but I cannot think of anymore. I'm stressing that I don't have enough work in my sketchbook, and then go blank when trying to think of things to fill it with. 

Where, What, Where

And its nearly the exact same for this one! Except there are 3 final pieces to panic over. The 2 where pieces are easier so far, but now I am stuck on what to draw on top of my runes such as  do I draw my family and friends, do I draw me at varying ages, do I involve objects that depict events and if so what? TOO MANY IDEAS AND QUESTIONS!! And then we have the what piece were it is meant to be a photo of me with labels that describe myself on it, that is the decided outcome. But I cant get real labels so what do I use? Do I use photoshop? Do I just get the photo printed and then hand-write over it? What photo do I choose? Should it be a selfie to emphasise these are my views of what I am? About the only thing I have decided for that piece is that it will be printed in Asda. Thats about it. Oh, and the other pieces, are to be framed... But they where hand cut, they are not a specific size so how do I find a frame to fit my unique sized pieces??? 

At least slowly but surely I am doing little things to pad out sketchbooks relevantly and getting closer to a decision hopefully so we shall see how well I fair over the next 6 weeks... 

SO LITTLE TIME! 

Where What Where

After buying the card for 2 of the 3 pieces for Where What Where I recently started filling out the background with the rune "diary" entries. Really I wrote out what I was thinking about my past and my future and explaining things that have happened to me and my hopes for what is to come.

Past

 

Future

My next step is to draw the people and the objects that represent events in my life. I am faltering between whether to have drawings of others in the past piece as they have been important in my life but also what if I drew myself at different intervals in my life... Only 5 weeks left... Less actually... And I'm still not completely decided on the final piece. And "What" is just the same having still not decided between photoshop, real labels, or just writing on the photograph. I think its going to  turn into writing on the photograph just for the sheer fact I will end up leaving it so long due to indecisiveness. Although I have researched getting personalised labels made but all were rather expensive and to get different personalisations they had to be bought in bulk which was an unnecessary expense. I tried using different sorts of tapes and things but they either didn't stick or didn't write on well... This project better pull together soon or I will have a melt down. 

I was wondering whether to bother with writing up either a decoder or a a word for word blurb of what is written in the rune at the side of the pieces but I like the idea of the mystery. It ties into the future piece better as the future is a mystery. 

My thoughts about this project are all a jumble but I am slowly sifting through the garbage to find the gems. 

Please turn out well.... 

Prezi Protest

PDP lately has been getting us to work on different ways to express your Statement for Assessment and after having completed the poster and the kiosk we have moved onto the use of Prezi. Now prezi being an online site made it so much easier for me because at home, I don't have the use of things like microsoft word or powerpoint so doing the poster and the kiosk could only be done in college. But prezi I was able to work on at home, at my leisure. Now after setting up the kind of template I wanted there was only a few confuddling moments on how to get it to move to certain circles and having to download the images I wanted so that they could be uploaded but otherwise they were pretty good. It is definitely more flexible than a ordinary powerpoint and it swooshes around so its more interesting in general to watch too. 

Anyway, mine is still focusing on the multiples project of last term so here is a link to check that out since you couldn't see my kiosk or poster. 

https://prezi.com/h9zsudagavem/multiples-amy-downs/

Now for this week I just did some work on researching my projects and got farther with Protest than Where What Where. I looked into different signs protesters have made and tried to find what sort of style or designs they used or even the font. It has given me ideas like spray painting some of the words  onto the sign, probably just the bottom bit because I doubt it would work well all over, I'm not brave enough to try that. Some people have some funny signs and sayings that are also somewhat topical, and the ones with designs seem more illustrative or grafiti-esque than fine art so that might be a style to try. 

I also researched the "Ginger Pride" march that happened in Edinburgh a couple of years ago and found more events like it all over the world. There was also a shopping centre in Aberdeen that gave a discount to gingers or people who dyed their hair ginger or indeed just wore a wig. This one was more of a publicity stunt I believe but the march was just people trying to get equal respect. Now, I dont even attempt to compare it to more important equality issues but I do still see it as an issue, especially in Britain where we have the largest population of gingers. I have found two incidents in particular that are quite atrocious to hear about in these times over something so trivial as a hair colour. Apparently, a girl was denied the ability to go to classes about the time of her exams due to her hair colour, teachers literally stopped her coming to class for being ginger! And another was a family forced to move home twice due to being bullied for being ginger, having things thrown at them and their house vandalised.  In this day and age, in the first world and over something as small as a hair colour these people were tormented and it isn't right. So that is why I have raised the issue for my Protest project. 

KIOSKS and update on Where What Where

During PDP we have been looking into other ways to convey our Statement for Assessment through posters kiosks and prezis. So far I have done the poster and the kiosk and even though the kiosk is just a fancy power-point it was kind of difficult working out what to say or what images to use to convey parts of the SFA. Since it was based on the multiples brief which was our old project I tried to depict certain parts of the research and different developmental ideas in particular. I mentioned travelling to Edinburgh, the research of the plague and its symptoms and different experiments on which methods to use for the final piece such as all the 3D work we did in the studios. It was easier than a real SFA because there was less detail to go into about the work and you feel better about using images which I guess gave me confidence to maybe use images of my work, sketchbook and final piece into the SFA for the new projects of Where What Where and protest. Although a downfall of the kiosk is the feeling of being informal and too little information to convey the hard work you put in.

On the other hand, where what where is progressing nicely, I have found a thick card for which to do the two where pieces where the background will be covered in rune writings of either real diary entries from my past or current thought on my life and future.

                                 

 

I wanted to depict different times of my life through certain events and try to draw images to convey these events. Right now I am thinking it might end up focusing on self portraits of different points of my life and maybe portraits of friends and family who have been important in my life. It helps that I feel I have a strength in drawing people more than still life. To show more of a connection I might put this into the second Where piece, focusing on people who I want to stay a major influence in my life. This is helpful since I cannot know for certain what will happen in my future so how can I draw what I don't know. So that piece will mostly be about my hopes for the future not anything definite. 

Both will show a timeline of around 20 years to make it even, the first one depicting all the things I have done in my 20 years of life so far, the other to show things I wish to accomplish in the next 20 years. Scary thought to look that far into my own future to try to work out what I will do but in the interests of art, I guess it was necessary. 

Survey Results Are In!!

So after a few weeks, I made it to 58 submissions for my survey and people seemed to agree with my point of view and gave some really good comments.

One of my questions was that "What are the common preconceptions you think society has about gingers?" and the most common answer was that stupid "myth" that gingers have no souls. I don't know where it originated from, but South Park have expanded it to ridiculous measures where you can rarely go a day without someone claiming you don't have a soul. Many people also mentioned their short tempers and pale skin. However what I was most interested in was the insults people had heard being said to gingers and some of them  where rather disturbing. To say such things to people just because of a hair colour. So my objective is to show these insults in my piece to emphasise how the issue isn't as small as others seem to think it is.

My own probably biased opinion is that gingerism is overlooked, not seen as as big an issue as it maybe should. After hearing everything the people who took my survey had to say on the issue I looked into how to portray how gingers get treated and I decided on using typography within the piece using the phrases and insults used against gingers. At first I believed using it to make up the face of a sad ginger person, or as a background where the page is white and the words are orange to reflect the ginger hair and pale skin. However after a discussion and brainstorming with my classmates I've decided to create the typography in the hair and that it will basically be a self portrait and the quote "It's not all in my head". It will still be a picket sign but it could also double as a poster if I was to double the idea as more of a real campaign than just a protest.

Essay Change-ups

My essay was originally about the folklore in "Spirited Away" and Ghibli movies as a whole. I was trying to show the kinds of japanese folklore that was used within their movies and explain the certain spirits and the effect they have on the movie. But there was no real argument behind the essay, no point of view, it was all explanations.

SO! My essay is changing to a comparative essay between 2 Ghibli movies, "Spirited Away" and "Princess Mononoke". It is also a focus on how environmental issues are brought up in these specific movies and further afield in other Ghibli movies.

Before I had only touched on the environmental issues in a simple paragraph but now I need 3000 words on them so I am thinking of making a point of looking into more movies, maybe even generalising it to how the western society show the environment in their animated movies and whether they touch on the issues we experience in the past few years.

Now I do not have a strength in my essay writing but I am even worse when it is public speaking... So doing a Pecha-Kucha version of this essay is made even harder... I have a real difficulty narrowing down the words enough to convey my point well without rushing, and not breathing.

Trying to change the background of my essay to a partially different topic will be bad enough but putting it into the pecha-kucha without packing it too full again...

Oh well, its for a pass in that part of the course so gotta give it my best shot.

Where do we come from? What are we? Where are we going?

Our new integrated project brief, "where do we come from? what are we? where are we going?".

Firstly I thought about finding an angle of which to approach this project whether it be from a general evolutionary point of view, events in history that have led us to this point, such as war, famine, etc. But I came to realise my best angle would be to base it off my personal life so as I would have more of a connection to the work. I thought of looking into each question individually, answering them separately either in one large piece or 3 smaller pieces adding up to the one piece either by joining like a puzzle revealing a larger picture or just by being displayed together.

I plan to answer these questions personally with my own past experiences and goals for my own life. This way it is individual to me and no-one will have the exact same thing as me.

Where do we come from?
I have started to look into events in my life that have shaped me into who I am, parts of my past adding up to the "what am I?" section. I began by reading old diary entries from the beginning of my teen years (cringing all the way) and also looking into old family photo albums so. I want to look into photos from and of old friend groups I once had. I have looked into the idea of a time line of my life, marking out important events to me to show where I have grown from.

What are we?
I plan to use either a photo or drawing of myself covered in labels, things that I would define myself as but all added together make up me. Things like student, shop assistant, sister, daughter, weird, creative, artist, etc. This was the first and best way I could think of to describe what I am.

Where are we going?
This is the trickiest question for me as I do not have a plan for my future, what career I want to take, what specifically I want to do or have completed by a certain time. But I am looking deep within myself to find out where my life is heading. I want to place out goals that I hope to achieve, maybe look into a career using this project for motivation. I wanted to maybe continue the timeline on the other side of the "what are we" piece going maybe 10 years into the future and mark out goals onto it. But I also want to keep an element of the unknown in this piece because of how undecided my future is but I don't know how to create that yet...