Final Pieces

Final film displayed on a analogue television so it can be played in a loop.

Interactive flip book.

Development : Flipbook progress and Assessment space

Nearing the last few days before Assessment I went to the library to bind my images into the flip book. The library staff were very kind and helpful in showing me how to bind a book. Sadly the lady who apparently knew the most about book binding was on holiday but other members of staff stood in to give me a hand. They were concerned about my prints and that they might be damaged by accident and hesitant to do it. Their was an issue that they it might not be able to cut through the card or cut the holes in the right places. I took the plunge and did it myself and learnt how to use the binding machine which wasn't to difficult.

Was so pleased of my little book and having it finally bound and found it really interesting just picking it up and playing around with all the different image combinations. I wanted it to be an interactive piece for the viewer and think it's worked quite successfully.

At the same time I began to set up my assessment space I didn't have access to a television or a DVD player. I ended up looking for them at Tayside recycling centre where I got a DVD player and in shops in town. Eventually I managed to get a small compact television as well to be able to display my piece on a loop. Made a copy of the piece onto a DVD and then a copy for the show reel, I tried out the DVD at home and it worked great was really exciting to see it working.

I painted my area to look a lot cleaner and set up my table.

I also put a lot of my extra prints that weren't used for the flip book and were also portrait instead of landscape.

Wrote out my Artist statement including listing the collaborative work done this semester with fellow classmates. Instructions also to work the television and DVD player just in case. I had did quite a lot of media experiments over the course of the project and a lot of my research was material based. So I've added them for development and display purposes in the space. 

The branches under the table legs are supposed to represent roots and I would like to possibly take the media experiments further for another project. All I need to do now is add my sketchbooks to the space and that will be it completed for assessment. I will post my final pieces on here shortly as well as  links to collaborative projects I worked on.

Research : Other artists and film examples to consider

After discussing and showing my project's process's to my tutor and also receiving my recorded tutorial form it made me feel a lot more positive about the project's progression. My tutor also has recommended me some other artists and films to look at that could influence my work since I have been shooting short video footage.

The artist and experimental film maker Maya Deren was mentioned to me especially her short film "A Study in Choreography For Camera 1945" Which is a panning short film of a dancer interacting with the forest and inside a house.

 I found it very useful as a way of thinking about the body's movement and how it becomes part of an environment as well as how a way film and editing can make shots more successful of this. It's let me consider these factors if I pursue with my film clips as final pieces.

Dancing is actually something I enjoy a lot and find much freedom in but I usually only express myself this way alone or in places were dancing is common. But I've never considered it as a way of being a performance artist myself since it's a practice I've not became familiar with since Art school. But it is something I would like to try out in the next shoot in the studio.

Another type of film that was mentioned for me to look at was 'Pina' 2011 which is a documentary film about contemporary dance choreographer Pina Bausch. She died unexpectedly during the making of the film and it was nearly canceled by the films Director Wim Wenders. But the dancers of the Tanztheater Wuppertal convinced him to continue the production.

Such  beautiful film I've not watched a film before where every story and emotion was portrayed through dance it was so beautifully stunning and inspired me so much.

I was also recommended to look up the production company Goat who specialising in multidisciplinery film projects. They are well known for their many projects including video dance and filming these elements skill fully. As a strange coincidence we also had an Editing tutorial class with Hugo and he showed us a film this production company had created. It was called 'The time it takes' and it was filmed in a landscape setting with dancers and told a story and/ their emotions through dance and clever editing.

The tutorial was quite helpful in seeing different styles of editing and how it can tell stories and convey many different moods and shots. Their site is here that said's more about their work and other projects.

My open tutorial with Graham Fegen had led us to discuss the artist Robert Gober who is a sculpture artist and Graham mentioned my project reminded me a lot of his type of work. He's an artist who uses a lot of domestic objects such as sinks, doors and body parts such as legs. He is also known for his drawings, prints and photography. We discussed the exhibit above about transforming a room into a forest paradise with his well known sinks running water as audio. It let us talk about the importance of 'place' and how as artists we can transform places to express our ideas and let the viewer enter a type of temporary place that's personal.

I've seen some of Gober's work as well during the summer at the Scottish national gallery it was quite interesting and I'm finding more coincidence's of seeing artists work to then be told by them in class or finding them by accidents for projects.

Carol Hummel is a contemporary artist best known for her large-scale site specific installations and global projects.

Carol Hummel studied graphic design and photography at the University of Cincinnati in the early 1970s. She later returned to school and got a BS in photojournalism and then an MFA in sculpture (graduating summa cum laude from Kent State for both degrees). She finished her MFA in 2004 and has been very prolific in her work since that time, exhibiting in multiple shows each year, earning various awards, giving various art talks and serving as artist-in-residence and visiting artist in many places. She does sculptural work, which is where you will find most of her crochet, but she also does photography, video, and writing. 

Carol Hummel’s Artist Statement

Usually an artist statement is a really long and involved piece of writing that tries in vain to summarize what the artist tries to show in her work. In contrast, Hummel has succinctly summed up her statement so nicely in the portfolio on her website that I felt like it was worth sharing in full so that my readers can better understand her work

.“In my art practice, I’m interested in connections made and the trace I leave as I move through space, time and place.” 

My work is ontological in intention and traverses the socially constructed constraints of difference by exploring the ties that bind human beings to each other through culture, kinship, history, social interaction and friendship.What emerges in her work is commentary on femininity, identity, relationships and environmental issues.

Down Under(s) is a series of work that personifies trees highlighting human intrusion on natural objects. Instead of protection and care, this intrusion has the human element burying its head in the sand in denial of its impact. It raises questions about where human intrusion is appropriate when inflicted on our environment. In 2012, a global Down Under(s) initiative was launched in Drangedal, Norway, to spread the Down Under(s) message worldwide.