Fine Art Identity Moving Words 11th December

Moving Words  11th December

With only this morning to sort out the rest of my installation, I had to work quickly to ensure everything was finished before my presentation this afternoon. The book was painted and inked, all the letters cut out, and my paragraphs were ready to be edited. All I had left to do was finish my projection and move my book over to the Fine Art room.

The projection seemed straightforward. What I had to do was take a photo of the book so I could get the scale and shape of the text I needed for the projection. Then I had to load both the photo and the paragraphs I wanted onto Photoshop. I edited the size and saved the file as a jpeg, then opened up Illustrator so I could load two images of the same text. With a little bit of readjusting of the settings, I was able to make the text 'move', become blurry, and appear three dimensional. I was surprised how easy it was to create what I wanted in so little time. Once the timing was sorted out, and I'd copied and pasted some of the points to make the film a loop, I could refine the film and save it to my memory stick.

It was now time to move my book from 3D all the way to the art room. Some of the tutors helped to move it. We managed to get it through the hall and up some small stairs. After placing it in the room, we could then set up the projector. Once the pictures were clear and the sizing had been sorted, I could then start on my letters. After spraying them outside and letting them dry, I could stick them to the other side of my book. I placed the letters as if they were on the page, then made them peel off, distorting them so they were more difficult to recognise as letters. I had very little time to do this. I found it hard to fix the letters on using fishing wire. What I needed was a stronger line that would hold the letters in place without having to tie them to anything.

Even though the book wasn't finished as much as I would of liked, I'd managed to get a lot done in the last three days. As for myself, I was glad I came in to work, despite not being well. If I hadn't been ill, I know it would have been finished.

When it was my turn to present my work I was calmer than I thought I'd be. Talking about dyslexia was fine. In fact, I could have talked for longer. I explained my ideas, why I chose this topic, how I made it, as well as all the research I'd done.

All the comments were helpful. Some suggested building it into an installation. If I were to develop this idea further, one area I found interesting was the use of images and dyslexia. For most dyslexics, images are better learning tools than text. Perhaps I could have a clear image in with the projection? If I was to take this project further, I would do more on the film side, and make the letters on the right side of the book look more dramatic by distorting and having them flying out the page.

This project allowed me to research my dyslexia which was good as it's a part of me I didn't know a lot about. My dyslexia was something I hadn't really wanted to acknowledge, but with more knowledge I now understand myself a little better. I don't think this will be my last project on this subject. The ideas I have may end up as a personal project I do outside college, or after I finish my foundation course. I would like to help people who have dyslexia so they can develop the confidence to achieve their goals.

fine art identity washing out the words 10th December

Washing Out The Words 10th December

Once again I had to spend the morning at the doctor's, but like yesterday I wanted to go into college to finish my work. I have loved Fine Art. It has given me so many options and ways to present my ideas. I know now that going down the 3D route is the right choice for me. I enjoy working with my hands and creating something that is three dimensional. I like watching my thoughts develop and grow from an initial idea to a finished piece.

Having only an hour or two, I got myself down to 3D so I could finish my painting, leaving tomorrow to work on my projection. The main thing I had to do was to get some yellow ink and wash over the top right hand page of the book then slowly fading it out to white at the bottom. This took longer than I thought it would, as I had to build some layers of ink up to create a gradual fade to white.

I applied the lighter ink layers with a sponge. When it came to adding the darker ink, I took a spray bottle and filled it with a darker mix of ink and water. I carefully sprayed over the top of the page making sure not to soak too much of the book so it didn't run down over the edges.

Once again it was time to finish up for the day. I had to sort out what I'd be doing tomorrow at home. Most of the things I needed to finish were final bits, but the part that might take a longer time was the projection. However, with the couple of paragraphs sorted, all I had to do was make them move and blur.

art history Bauhaus “Form follows function” and “Less is more.”

Bauhaus  “Form follows function”  and  “Less is more.”

 

The Bauhaus was an art school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts and was famous for the approach to design that it publicised and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933.

The Bauhaus was founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar with the idea of creating a "total" work of art in which all arts, including architecture, would eventually be brought together. The Bauhaus had a profound influence upon subsequent developments in art, architecture, graphic design, interior design, industrial design, and typography. 

The school existed in three German cities: Weimar from 1919 to 1925, Dessau from 1925 to 1932 and Berlin from 1932 to 1933, under three different architect-directors: Walter Gropius from 1919 to 1928, Hannes Meyer from 1928 to 1930 and Ludwig Mies van der Rohe from 1930 until 1933, when the school was closed by its own leadership under pressure from the Nazi regime. The Nazi government claimed that it was a centre of communist intellectualism. The changes of venue and leadership resulted in a constant shifting of focus, technique, instructors, and politics. Though the school was closed, the staff continued to spread its idealistic precepts as they left Germany and emigrated all over the world.

 

 Walter Gropius wanted to create a new architectural style to reflect this new era. His style in architecture and consumer goods was to be functional, cheap and consistent with mass production. To these ends, Gropius wanted to reunite art and craft to arrive at high-end functional products with artistic merit. Gropius believed that in order to export innovative and high quality goods, a new types of designers were needed and so was a new type of art education. The school's philosophy stated that the artist should be trained to work with the industry. Gropius explained his vision for a union of art and design in the Proclamation of the Bauhaus (1919), which described a utopian craft guild combining architecture, sculpture, and painting into a single creative expression. Gropius developed a craft-based curriculum that would turn out artisans and designers capable of creating useful and beautiful objects appropriate to this new system of living.

The Bauhaus combined elements of both fine arts and design education. The curriculum commenced with a preliminary course that immersed the students, who came from a diverse range of social and educational backgrounds, in the study of materials, colour theory, and formal relationships in preparation for more specialized studies. This preliminary course was often taught by visual artists, including Paul Klee, Vasily Kandinsky, and Josef Albers, among others.

 

Following their immersion in Bauhaus theory, students entered specialised workshops, which included metalworking, cabinetmaking, weaving, pottery, typography, and wall painting. Although Gropius' initial aim was a unification of the arts through craft, aspects of this approach proved financially impractical. While maintaining the emphasis on craft, he repositioned the goals of the Bauhaus in 1923, stressing the importance of designing for mass production. It was at this time that the school adopted the slogan "Art into Industry."

Along with Gropius, and many other artists and teachers, both Laszlo Moholy-Nagy and Herbert Bayer made significant contributions to the development of graphic design. Among its many contributions to the development of design, the Bauhaus taught typography as part of its curriculum and was instrumental in the development of sans-serif typography, which they favoured for its simplified geometric forms and as an alternative to the heavily ornate German standard of blackletter typography.

Teachers and students at the Bauhaus talked and argued about many topics: The place of art in an increasingly technological society; Were the arts a matter of individual expression? Would a new, more egalitarian society require a new, and perhaps more impersonal art? Could new forms of expression be reconciled with capitalist methods of production?

 To these questions they offered many answers, most often in the form of actual objects and works of art, nearly all of them beautiful, some masterworks, which now fill the galleries on the sixth floor of the Museum of Modern Art, some impractical and today seen as unrealistic. The truth was that there could never be any definitive answer. Today we question how the revolutionary dreams of the Bauhaus became our everyday realities, and in some cases our everyday banalities. Critics today look at the work of the Bauhaus and try and figure out what went wrong. They ask how the glorious promise of the Bauhaus became so terribly tarnished, and in so many respects misunderstood.

With a more rational and balanced view, critics today now believe the Bauhaus means something very different. There is questioning and doubt. Not everything was practical and perfect. The way the Bauhaus represented the unifying power of geometry is something no longer generally shared. Some believe that the school may indeed still be relevant, but only the Expressionist early period, which is very different to what is normally associated with the term "Bauhaus."

With a more rational and balanced view, critics today now believe the Bauhaus means something very different. There is questioning and doubt. Not everything was practical and perfect. The way the Bauhaus represented the unifying power of geometry is something no longer generally shared. Some believe that the school may indeed still be relevant, but only the Expressionist early period, which is very different to what is normally associated with the term "Bauhaus." 

The Bauhaus idea always represented a compromise between conflicting tendencies; a fanciful, utopian spirit was balanced against a more practical-minded, forward-looking character.

In regards to women and the Bauhaus, there were constraints imposed on the school’s supposedly liberated female faculty and students. The Bauhaus at first was intended to be gender-blind. However, Gropius became alarmed by what he saw as the disproportionate number of women in a student body that never numbered more than 150 matriculates at any given moment, which prompted him to steer women away from the supposedly “masculine” architecture curriculum and toward the traditionally “feminine” crafts workshops.

 One of the most interesting parts of the Bauhaus was Kandinsky and the Yellow-Triangle, Blue-Circle, and Red-Square. It was Kandinsky's idea that there are certain fundamental associations between colours and shapes  he proposed Yellow-Triangle, Blue-Circle, and Red-Square. These associations were formulated introspectively, however, he did conduct his own survey at the Bauhaus in 1923 by distributing questionnaires to his professorial colleagues and students, and found that many of his colleagues agreed with his associations; notable exceptions were his contemporaries, Klee and Schlemmer, who favoured different form-colour combinations. In fact, Kandinsky had already embarked upon a similar attempt to identify colour form associations while still in Russia with the aim to provide the scientific underpinning for his own intuitions.

Kandinsky's Yellow-Triangle, Blue-Circle, and Red-Square equation inspired several projects at the Bauhaus in the early 1920s. The most interesting is an amazing baby cradle by Peter Keler. This unusual, and rather dangerous looking design, illustrates the association between shapes and colours, and shows that Kandinky's ideas have mainly only historical significance and that forms and colours do not have universal meaning or correspondence.

THE principles of the Bauhaus are in many ways no longer a valid model for modern design. The emphasis on hard, uncompromising surfaces characteristic of the Bauhaus can be alienating and remote. Something more comfortable is needed for everyday use. The Bauhaus was responsible for many designs for ordinary objects that look modern and that appear to do a particular task with a minimum of fuss. This simplicity can be deceptive. Often, in order to attain the purified line, essential elements have been left out.

The avant-garde pushes the boundaries of what is accepted as the norm. The Bauhaus confronted tradition and developed new ways of doing things, but struggled to legitimise their new ideas. The rhetoric created by change can be more powerful than the changes themselves. If the rhetoric is really good, with lots of catch-phrases and easy concepts such as 'form follows function', and 'less is more', it can take on a life of its own. The Bauhaus had, if nothing else, terrific rhetoric.

fine art identity working with visual words 9th December

Working With Visual Words   9th December

After having the morning off to go to the doctor's, I got into college with much of the day already gone. I had to do my best to get as much done as I could before this Thursday's deadline. This project was important to me. Having dyslexia myself, and growing up surrounded by people that didn't understand what I was going through, meant I wanted to finish my installation for my own personal reasons and not just because it was a set project.

I made a start on the big book in 3D in the afternoon. With some help I managed to lift the book onto the table. My first task was to take off all the staples that were attached to the book and clean the surface before I started painting. Although I wanted to only have one page, I needed to paint all of the book as it seemed to be a lot dirtier than I first realised. After finishing the painting, the college was closing up so I had to go home to do a bit more research and rest.

On the way home I thought how normally I don't talk about my dyslexia to many people. It's a personal subject. Who I want to share it with is very much my choice. It will be interesting how I work through the group talk about my work.

Art History Form Follows Function

Art History Form Follows Function

"Form follows function" is a phrase commonly heard in art. It has an especially important meaning in design. A product is useless if it doesn't function properly, no matter how beautiful its design.

One way of looking at form and function is to consider the belief that good design is 98% common sense, and 2% aesthetics. If this is true, and function is the most important aspect in design, then why bother with form at all? The reason is that as consumers, we also buy with our eyes. If we dislike the look of something, be it a lamp, chair or table, we are unlikely to buy it no matter how well it performs. It's the 2% that makes us part with our cash, therefore making it vitally important. This relationship between form and function then leads us to ask why are there products that don't follow the 98% to 2 % theory? Why do people buy something that has had little or no consideration for aesthetics?

In the 19th century, the economist and sociologist Thorstein Veblen introduced the term "conspicuous consumption", a theory about buying things purely as a status symbol. Acquiring and displaying luxury items showed others how much you could afford to spend on well known expensive products to show your superior socio-economic status. Buying things for the sake of conspicuous consumption means that it doesn't matter very much about the functionality of the object, it's the fact that you can afford to buy it.

Modern design as we know it dates back to the industrial revolution, a phrase the French writers came up with as they could see it would be just as profound as their political revolution. Before the industrial revolution everything was hand made. This means it was a lot more expensive, and the very expensive objects were more decorative and more often than not had more than one function; the normal function, and the underlying symbolic function. This symbolic function depended on the object in question, but mostly it was about extravagance, power, importance and wealth.

If you were to look back to the first well known, or famous designers of the industrial revolution, they are referred to as 'manufacturers' instead of designers. This was because they made their name more as business men than designers. One famous businessmen was Thomas Chippendale. He is well known for his furniture and in 1754 he published a book of his designs titled, "The Gentleman and Cabinet Maker's Director." This was like a modern day catalogue allowing you to select different designs and order them to be made. It was not only convenient for the buyer, but served as a source of information for the manufacturer. It allowed them to know which designs were selling better and so waste and cost were cut considerably.

With the industrial revolution came technological innovation such as the Iron Bridge in 1781. It was designed by Abraham Darby Pritchard and crossed the River Severn in Shropshire. The bridge was greatly celebrated after construction as it was the first arch bridge in the world to be made of cast iron. At the beginning of the 18th century, Abraham Darby pioneered the process of using coke made from local coal to smelt iron ore. This proved to be one of the most important technological breakthrough's ever discovered. The industrial expansion was stunted by the lack of a bridge over the Severn, which had to allow for barge traffic. This is why the Iron Bridge was so important for the industrial revolution.

Fine Art Identitiy Words Without Meaning 4th of December

Words Without Meaning   4th December

I researched some artists who use text in their art and developed some good ideas. I considered having a book where the words are falling out; or perhaps making a film of letters moving? The idea of having letters move or vibrate is something important as 20% of dyslexics have some form of visual-perceptual disorder where the words appear to move on the page. The words can also appear three dimensional, have different colours, and become blurred, making it even harder for dyslexics to read. I want to be able to show people the difficulties so they can begin to understand what some people with dyslexia go through.

I talked over my ideas with the tutor and was able to finalise my plans for a installation. I decided to go with the book idea; having an open book with letters on one page starting out normal and then slowly peeling off and becoming twisted. On the other page I will project a paragraph and have it vibrating to mimic the visual-perceptual disorder.

With only three days to complete it, I had to make sure I'll be ready for next Thursday. I started with the letters. I found some templates, then spent time finding the right thickness of paper so I could bend it, but it would still hold its shape. I cut out the letters then gathered some white paint and ink and painted my book so I'd have a clean surface to project the words on. Once that was done, I went back to cutting out more letters.

By the end of the lesson, I'd made a good start, but there was still a lot to do, and little time to do it. I hope I get everything finished.

fine art identity font for dyslexia

Font for Dyslexia

For someone suffering from dyslexia, reading is already a difficult task, but the font of the text can make things a lot harder for the person. That is why the Dutch designer Christian Boer created a dyslexic friendly font. As someone living with dyslexia, Christian Boer wanted to create an readable typeface called Dyslexie that was specifically designed to help others like himself with dyslexia.

Christian Boer is a graphic designer. He first developed the Dyslexie typeface at Utrecht Art Academy when he was writing his final thesis project. A dyslexic himself, Christian set out to create a font that would make reading a less strenuous task. After completion, the revolutionary font immediately became noticed among the dyslexic community and in the international media.

When talking about more traditional typefaces that aren't designed for dyslexia, Christian Boer said, “Traditional fonts are designed solely from an aesthetic point of view, which means they often have characteristics that make characters difficult to recognise for people with dyslexia. Oftentimes, the letters of a word are confused, turned around or jumbled up because they look too similar.”

Dyslexie is designed to make reading clearer and more enjoyable for people with dyslexia. Although it looks like a traditional typeface, Dyslexie uses heavy base lines, alternates larger openings, stick and tail lengths, and semicursive slants to make sure that each character has a unique and more easily recognisable form.

The main problem with the western alphabet is the similarity within the letters. What people with dyslexia tend to do is rotate the letters. For example; tuning n into a u or rotate a p into a d. Another common mistake is reverted or flipping letters round. Common examples are b and d, or p and q. With such similarities in the traditional alphabet, it is easy to see how someone with dyslexia could find it difficult to read plain text. Taking the normal letters from the alphabet, Boer changes them in such a way that they can't be rotated or flipped, with each one being different and unique.

Boer says that independent studies from the University of Twente and the University of Amsterdam back up his claims that Dyslexie helps both children and adults with dyslexia to read faster and with fewer errors, though the results from Twente were mixed, or statistically insignificant. He has said since making the font available for free to individual users last June, 12,000 people have downloaded it. Dyslexie is also being used, “within companies such as Shell, KLM, Citibank, Pixar, Nintendo, Talpa, as well as various government agencies, many universities and other educational institutions.” The Dyslexie website includes a list of books and e-books available in the font, giving people with dyslexia the chance to enjoy reading.

Fine Art Identity Finding the Words 3rd December

Finding the Words 3rd December

Today is a big research day. I had to sort out once and for all what I'll do for my identity fine art project. I couldn't afford to spend any more time thinking about it. I had to get the research done on my topic and then start the making process.

I thought about what makes up my identity. My family is important to me and very close to my heart. My love for art is a big part of who I am as it allows me to express myself as well as being a visual way to understand the world. Music is something I wouldn't won't to live without as it has been a part of me since I was very young. My mother was a music teacher and we always had classical music playing throughout the house. Another part of who I am is my Welsh heritage. I consider myself Welsh and learning about Welsh history and culture has been something I've enjoyed the past few months.

One part of my identity I'd like to, and need to explore further, is my dyslexia. It has always been a part of me and I know without it, I would not be the same person and may not have even applied for this foundation course. Apart from being one of the many things that make up who I am, I would like to do some research into dyslexia. I've always wondered what other people think about it, what are their views, and how much they understand.

I have spent today searching for artists that express how they feel about their dyslexia through their art, but haven't found many. I wondered if it was because there aren't many artists that have dyslexia? I doubted that because people who are dyslexic tend to be more creative. It could be that as artists they don't feel that their dyslexia is part of them? Perhaps I'm not looking hard enough. Whatever the reason, I'm hoping to find some artists that have used text in different ways to give me some ideas on how I can depict dyslexia.

I do have a couple of ideas. I'm thinking about a book full of words you cant read, or words falling out a book? My ideas still need more work, but with some research and all night to think about it, I'm sure I'll come up with an interesting idea.

Photography Identity From black and white to colour 3rd December

From Black and White to Colour   3rd December

With only one more lesson left in photography, today we experimented with different ways to layer images; placing one negative on top of another so that both are imprinted onto the paper, then when development is completed and the photo is still wet, we got the chance to dye our images.

To start I had difficulty developing my film. No matter what I did, I kept getting just white pieces of paper. After testing things out by myself, I eventually got the tutor to help me fix the problem. I had to expose the paper for a longer time and change how much light was being let through the machine. With things sorted, I could now produce some photos. I layered an old photo of a lake in a park I use to go to, and then placed one of my items over the top. The effect didn't turn out how I wanted, so I did a couple more hoping I'd be able to colour them and make them look a bit more interesting.

By the end of the lesson I managed to get one or two photos that were alright. While they were still wet, I went down to 3D to dye them. This was an easy process that involved placing the photo in blue or yellow dye, leaving it, then sitting it in some water for a while. I tried different ways of getting the dye onto the photo to see what effects I could get. By far the most unusual was the odd haze look to the blue dye I got by leaving the photo in for a short time, then quickly washing it off.

I thought about what I would do for my final piece. What I'd done so far today was terrible and I wouldn't like to have them in my portfolio. The photos of my little pot on the other hand look a little better. If I could have a photo of that and paint on the developer so the edges of the photo are blurred, then dye the photo a very light yellow colour, and have some faint writing over it, it might look a bit better.

Fine art Identity powerpoint 2nd December

Identity  2nd December

The lesson started with a PowerPoint where we looked at the subject of identity. We saw how some artists interpreted their own identity and created works based on that theme. There were many different methods and materials. As well as a wide range of materials, the ideas behind the artworks about identity varied from cultural to a more personal approach. It was good to keep that in mind when deciding what we would do with our own project.

After the PowerPoint, it was time to think of what we would like to do for our identity fine art piece. This was a difficult task for me. Having already done my Welsh heritage, I was unsure of what to do next. I am a very shy person, which is something in itself I could explore, but my personal identity is something I don't share with many people. With that in mind I had to think of something. My family is a part of me that is very important. Without my family, I know I would be a very different person. Families mould us. Parents, siblings and children change who we are by giving advice, support and of course, never ending drama. This is one area that I could look into.

I have some artists to start researching. I'm not sure where this will take me, but like my other projects, I'm eager to find out.