negotiatedpractice-blog

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

Bibliography

Red Riding Hood Film - chillmax (2011) ‘Little red riding hood’ - Julie Walters & Danny Devito - twisted Fairytale! Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BA74F2gKNM (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

Rohl Darl story - Make em Laugh (no date) Little red riding hood and the wolf... Roald Dahl. Available at: http://www.monologues.co.uk/Childrens_Favourites/Red_Riding_Hood.htm (Accessed: 6 May 2016).

Eugenio Recuenco - Vogue Photoshoot ‘11 - Dark Fairytales

rapunzelsretreat (2012) Vogue gothic Fairytale fashion shoot. Available at: https://rapunzelsretreat.wordpress.com/2012/03/22/vogue-gothic-fairytale-fashion-shoot/ (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

Su Blackwell - Blackwell, S. (no date) Portfolio book-cut sculpture. Available at: http://www.sublackwell.co.uk/portfolio-book-cut-sculpture/ (Accessed: 1 May 2016)

Jazmina Cininas - 2008, M.G. (2008) Jazmina Cininas. Available at: http://www.metropolisgallery.com.au/artists/jazmina_cininas/cininas_elseofmeersburg.htm (Accessed: 6 May 2016).

Corinna Sargood

Maslen, R. (2016) Angela Carter, the magic Toyshop. Available at: http://fantasy.glasgow.ac.uk/angela-carter-the-magic-toyshop/ (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

The Song of the Wayfaring Tree Fairy - Mary Barker, C. (1997) A Flower Fairies Treasury. Edited by Frederick Warne. 2nd edn. Harmondsworth, Middlesex, England: Penguin Books.

 Rabbits Reading- Carolyn (2014) Digital Stamp Design. Available at: http://digitalstampdesign.blogspot.co.uk/2014/04/free-easter-digital-stamp-mother-rabbit.html (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

Animal Masks - Etsy (no date) Rabbit masks. Available at: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/307300374544033613/ (Accessed: 1 May 2016).https://www.pinterest.com/pin/126945283221816739/

Winn, D. (no date) Girl in Bunny Mask [Photography]. Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/511862313870442908/ (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

Banwell, T. (2010) ‘Black Rabbit Mask in Vogue, Paris’, Tom Banwell Leather Masks: Fashion, Plague Doctor & Steampunk, 2 October. Available at: http://tombanwell.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/black-rabbit-mask-in-vogue-paris.html (Accessed: 1 May 2016).http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/realistic-cat-mask

carolineoncrack (2016) Latex cat mask. Available at: http://www.thisnext.com/item/C103E52F/Latex-Cat-Mask (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

Architecture_University of Technology of Vienna (no date) ‘Art Students in Japan Made a Giant Cat Head’, ArchitektT: World of ARCHITECTURE, Available at: http://architektt.com/art-students-in-japan-made-a-giant-cat-head/ (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

DeviantArt and mewgoesthecat (2016) Cat mask. Available at: http://mewgoesthecat.deviantart.com/art/Cat-mask-44386871 (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

Viviane Westwood clothing - TV, W. (2010) Vivienne Westwood, wedding dress. Available at: http://www.weddingtv.com/ideas-and-planning/wedding-dress/preview-of-vivienne-westwood-collection-from-the-luxury-wedding-show.html (Accessed: 6 May 2016).

Vogue (2016) Available at: http://www.vogue.co.uk/brand/vivienne-westwood (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

Harvey - Harvey (1950) Directed by Henry Koster [Film].  Available at: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0042546/ (Accessed: 1 May 2016)

Paperblog (no date) Jimmy Stewart’s Harvey. Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/534802524472305070/ (Accessed: 1 May 2016)

Donnie Darko - Ebert, R. (2001) ‘Donnie Darko movie review & film summary (2001)’. Review of by.  Available at: http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/donnie-darko-2001 (Accessed: 1 May 2016)

The Pooka Rabbit - eoghankerrigan (no date) ‘Black Phooka’, Available at: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/423408802442424444/ (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

Thompson, S. (2015) Celtic and Irish mythology - A Haiku deck by Shannon Thompson. Available at: https://www.haikudeck.com/celtic-and-irish-mythology-education-presentation-n3OUdQJUIn (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

Fairy costumes - BuyCostumes (2016) Fall Fairy Child costume. Available at: http://www.buycostumes.com/p/62136/fall-fairy-child-costume (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

Photobucket (no date) Flower fairy child costume. Available at: http://s783.photobucket.com/user/bestofhalloween/media/Flower-fairy-child-costume.jpg.html (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

Sugar plum fairy costume (no date) Available at: http://www.everything-fairies.com/sugar-plum-fairy-costume.html (Accessed: 1 May 2016)

No Go the Bogeyman book - Warner, M. (1998) ‘No go the bogeyman’: Scaring, lulling, and making mock. Edited by Chatto and Windus. London, Great Britain: Random House.

The Birthday Massicre video - Perfil (2006) Blue - the birthday massacre. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp1FRKc24Zk (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

The Birthday Massicre images - Elizabeth (2010) ‘We ❤ it’, 17 September. Available at: http://weheartit.com/entry/3932707 (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

Shrum (2014) ‘Album review: The birthday massacre – “Superstition”’, New Noise Magazine (November), Available at: http://newnoisemagazine.com/album-review-birthday-massacre-superstition/# (Accessed: 1 May 2016)

Tales of the Pooka - Ireland of Welcomes (2013) Tales of Pooka. Available at: http://irelandofthewelcomes.com/tales-of-the-pooka/ (Accessed: 1 May 2016).

#bibliography

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

Pan’s labyrinth is an incredible film, not only for its beautiful music and dark fantasy but how it’s structured.  I love how it’s almost like two films merged into one.  Neither need each other but both work in unison.  Its open so much to interpretation as if, in the film, if this ‘fantasy side’ is real or if it is just the young girls way of coping with the woes of her life living during the civil war and her tragedies.  I love how dark the imagery is but still holds this magical feel.  It’s so well directed and created and it’s something that I feel has influenced my style of work.  

#visualresearch

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

Final Evaluation

Final Video: 4.30 minutes long.  Looped.

My final piece is a four-and-a-half-minute video on a loop, consisting of several edited images and one blank edited image to separate them out.  The images started as simple tableaux photographs, posed and acted out as desired.  Then I created a story and selected the best images for this.  It starts with you entering ‘alternative reality’ of Story Island and you’re slowly watching as this creature ‘the Pooka’ notices your presence and slowly creeps into your focus.  The video ends and goes back to the start and carries on looping.  

The editing was done on Photoshop at first, I removed all colour and started as black and white, added a red tint and started to layer the images with dark reds, blacks, added scratches and blotches.  I manipulated shadow and highlight until I got to my desired appearance.

The first idea was to create a GIF that was the same group of images but trying to create a ‘jump scare’ effect.  As it would be displayed all day, it would have lost that feeling.  So I started to look at how to make it as interesting as possible without adding or taking away from the story.  This is where the idea of ‘transition’ came in.

I really liked the idea of things appearing in my peripheral and disappearing again.  I wanted to incorporate that into my work.  Supernatural things just out of sight, illusion, the more you stare the more your mind creates figures out of unfamiliar shapes and shadows and then they would evade you.  

I wanted to view my work like a play with a dark twist, dark fairy tales such as the likes of The Brothers Grimm and merging play and macabre fairytale together to show my interest in both of these types of things.  I feel they worked incredibly well together within my art work.

         The Pooka seems to have crept into all my work, from my 4D sensory installation last year to my Night Walk this year in Digital Practices and now in my Art in Context.  I like how it just happened and then became the focal point of my entire body of work, displayed at mischievous, unsettling and haunting without going into cliché horror.

I played around with sound too.  At first I wanted to add white noise during the blank transition and have birds and a gentle breeze when each image came into frame.  I used a similar technique like this last year with my installation and the subtle sound really helped narrate the feeling I wanted to try and manipulate.

         However, when I did a test run on screen it was too much noise, it was confusing and took away a lot of what I wanted to achieve, absence.  The feeling of something missing, when things are quiet and unfamiliar it grabs your attention if it catches someone’s ear.  

I decided to remove the birds etc. and just use the white noise but I added a quiet scratching over the top of it.  A dummy run of this allowed me again to look at how it would be viewed by the public and the white noise just wasn’t working.  However, the scratching did so I kept it.  

         The creation of the ‘scratching’ noise was actually made by me dragging something (my e-cigarette) across my computer desk, scraping and tapping, then adding a reverb and selecting and clipping it to get small audio sounds which I then stitched together and created something I was really happy with.  

         When finding a suitable place to display my work I came across not only visual issues but audio.  The one screen was too big and it was too in your face, it would have sound but it would lose the effect I wanted.  My desired space was in the children’s area, on the promethium screen, but as is the way of working with a public space, it has its routine and they used the TV for ‘story time’ for the children so I had to move.  It was disappointing as it linked my work with stories and it was right next to Story Island so it looked like a ‘window’ into an alternative reality of that area

I had to compromise and look elsewhere to put my work. I did like the idea of the ‘catalogue’ computer as it was small, a little out of the way and easily missed. However, I would have to take into consideration how the display around it would affect my work.  We then looked at the screen on the wall by the entrance.

         This turned out to be the best place for my work, it was small and the colour display was perfect, emphasising the depth of my work.  It also had sound. It was in your face but could easily be missed.  I loved the idea that as people are walking past it could appear at any point.  This is why the timing was so important.    

         Not only did I have to make sure the video was long enough to keep people interested but I had to make sure it was short enough for the same reason.  It had to work in sync as the public themselves became part of the work. Their interaction with it and the area is what makes the work successful.  

The Strengths of this work, I feel is the delicate consideration of colour and pose.  Also the movement.  It had to have a length in the transition of images and well as a shortness of the video as a whole.  I feel that a six-hour film was way too long and a two minute was too short.  A four-minute video with longer transitions really worked and that meant that people would never see the same images and passers-by may never see the video at all.  It gave the work strength in what it was aiming for.    

         Another strength would be where it was placed and the quality of the screen it was displayed on.  A vibrant, smaller screen not only brought out the colours but also the distortion in pixels.  It complimented the appearance, more so than a larger screen would and that gave my work power.

The screen placement held more, the fact that it had sound.  During the dummy runs and even the exhibition.  The sound added a ‘surround sound’ feel.  Not knowing where it was coming from if you weren’t aware of my work.  It felt like a piece on its own and it gave a synthetic kind of movement to my still images. This was also emphasized with the use of ‘noise’ effect which looked like static which played over my entire film.

Within the strengths were also the weaknesses.  If I didn’t have a screen with sound that would take something away from my work, meaning I would have to think of something to add to my work, it would have been difficult towards the end as I’d already edited and grouped the images together.  This was a bad choice on my end, I should have considered all possibilities when I first became and thought about the visual pros on display and how to get people’s attention even if it was subtly.  This is something I can think about in future work when working within a public space.  I could have added a ‘double vision’ ‘slow motion’ effect that gave it the illusion of movement.  I could have added a ‘flicker’ effect sort of like a glitch, I’d done this in other works and it worked well.  Flickering between images would have added another level of interest to compensate for no audio.  Something I will look into in future art work.

         Even though it was, in my mind, a great idea to use my little sister as the Pooka character, it was also a disadvantage due to her patience and that the weather was very cold and she was becoming restless. I could have taken more image and had a larger video with more a bigger story or at least thought about a few groups of images that had their own short stories.  I wasn’t very organised at the beginning of my work and it took my awhile to come up with an idea which left me less time to really concentrate on it and there could have been so much more.  However, on the contrary, sometimes less it more and finding success in my work has given me an insight to how work performs within a space out of my control and how I work it around the public place.  

The exhibition was a whole new experience.  From planning, working as a group, organizing an event for invites, getting the event spread around and also the catering.  I feel I worked well within the group, helping set up.  I had to keep count of how many people were coming to cater for.  Also how much people would need to pay to make it happen, such as the food/drink cost.  I kept tabs on who had paid, this also involved the tour book created by another student.  I had to make sure when we went to the printing place in Malvern that we knew exactly who had paid and needed to also consider additional copies for the Hive/Garage etc.  I had to consider the food that would be at the exhibition too without spending more than I already had.  I decided to do something small but quirky.  Then I had to organise how to transfer the drinks and food.  I was lucky that a student who drove was willing to drive them to the Hive, but I had to carry the food myself to the Hive.  Being a caterer for this, such as pouring out the drinks and setting up the food, meant I wasn’t present to discuss my own work, which was disappointing but I think maybe my work didn’t need explaining as it’s supposed to be ‘accidentally’ noticed.

         The work in display worked great.  Everyone’s spaces for their work added a new element to each one, the digital work was a little trickier at first but during the exhibition they all fell into place, with Robyn’s live performance on display first. Then Tash’s beautiful foil performance to finish it off.

         In regards to my work, listening to everyone’s opinion it was apparent that I did need sound just to draw people, not so much to focus on my work but to notice something subtle.  Some people said it made them itch, some said they didn’t even find my work until I told them where it was.  There’s advantage and disadvantage in that statement but I really liked the idea that it wasn’t seen by everyone because of the concept the work is.  

         Future improvements stem from what I know now, I know that sound holds an important place with my work even if it’s subtle and if I cannot have sound I need to look into creating another dimension with my work whether it be false movement, more visual story or effects like I mentioned previous.  I need to think outside the box when it comes to displaying in a public space, having backup plans such as additional TV’s, screens of some sort etc. in case my work cannot be displayed on specific screens or screens that really don’t work with my art.  Organisation, planning an event in good time and making sure everyone is contributing and are working effectively, also my own confidence in creating an event, becoming more professional and presenting myself better.

#finalpiece #evaluation

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

The Hive Exhibition

My first experience of an exhibition created by our group, the set up, the preparation and the dress code.

First Floor Plan

Because food is very important 

I wish I’d taken more pictures during the exhibition to add to my blog.  However, I was catering and when I could finally look around, I just wanted to enjoy everyone’s work and experience being involved in a public exhibition.

Making the Food

#visualresearch

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

My Plaque Description

This is what I had printed and displayed to explain my work in brief.  I tried to be concise and interesting.

Looped video with visual narrative.

A short film consisting of edited images taken from Story Island at the Hive library and displayed as a looped four minute video of static transitions and scratching sounds.  My work is influenced by folklore and literature within fairy tales. Dark in contrast and atmospheric absence.  Like looking through a window to an alternative dimension, where reality is warped. Creating that ‘corner of your eye’ effect within the work thus why there are only brief moments of imagery.  It’s the idea of using colourful raw images and editing them into a macabre, rustic environment and playing around with how people interpret these images.  

====================QUICK EVALUATION========================

After re-reading it a few times, I feel it sounds too formal and I think I need to look into appearance as if I’m displaying it as a professional.

#writtentasks #finalpiece

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

Speech about my work at the Hive

A guideline to my new project name, the type of the piece and an introduction to what I wanted to create: 

Name: Peek'a'boo Four Minute Looped Video with Visual Narrative It is about macabre fairytales, the stalker in the corner of your eye which creeps into reality through an open window of your imagination. The contrast of reality and surrealism within colour, distortion and absence. I gained influence from literacy within the library and how it's digitally obtained, using my own personal interest in fairy tales and the dark side of them.

#finalpiece

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

Reblogged from my Negotiated Practices/Art in Context blog

ORIGINAL IDEAS:

This is a collaboration of the series of images with sounds I was going to use with the static transitions of blank images and then I would add the scratching over the top of the entire video as well as the ‘noise’ effect that gives a static white noise look.  I decided against this as it was too similar to my piece last year regarding my installation and I want to experiment with slight sound and absence.  

STILL IMAGES USE:

I took notice of when the figures ‘feet’ were mentioned.  How they were too human so i decided to hide them behind a smoke like effect.  It looks silly in the still but it worked well in the final video

I started off with High Definition images, starting editing and playing around with them.  The more I turned them into films the more pixelated and distorted they became which, you’d assume, would effect the quality of the work but no.  The distortion in the faces, the emphasised darkness improved the feel of the images and the added ‘noise’ effect on the visuals impacted even more.  I was happy with how the negative deterioration of the images became a positive.

#negotiatedpractices

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

Walsall Art Gallery

Laura Lancaster

“Laura Lancaster’s paintings find sources in anonymous snapshots, slides, and films the artist finds in flea markets and junk shops.” - Biography

What first grabbed my attention with her work was her use of colours.  They’re almost absent of any warm or ‘life’ they’re ghostly.  Then upon closely inspection I noticed the facial distortion.  The lack of identity.  They’re incredibly haunting.  Makes me feel like the flash of the camera has torn away the flesh from the figures.  Reminding me of the superstition of ‘a photo captures your soul’

This piece wasn't in the collection at the Walsall Gallery but through my interest in her technique and style I wanted to research a little more and I found, the rabbit.  Her own mischievous Pooka.  A flat yet haunting humanoid figure.  Staring at you.  The lack of detailed background and surroundings brings the figure to life in an unsettling fashion.  Childlike.  The separation of colours slices the head and the body in half, making you focus purely on the face.

#exhibitions

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

I really wanted to gather insight into the Pooka and how it manifested into mythology and folklore.  An interesting read and something I’ll definitely refer to in the future if I’m to carry on with the Pooka and how it appears in my work.

#visualresearch

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

I shortened my 20 minute video to just over 2 minutes as the length wouldn't work well with keeping people interested.  Though the time of transition is important it just wouldn't work as well.  However, after finding out that the display I was finally going to use can’t loop a video I would have to create a 10 hour looped video myself and 2 minutes just wasn't practical.

Final Video; Hide and Seek - 4.15 seconds long.

My final video, I believe, is a decent length video of just over 4 minutes it’ll keep people interested and the looping would work better.  I also removed the white noise and just kept the scratching as I felt the white noise took an element of absence away from my work.  I like how the volume on the new display is loud but the noise from the hive compliments it as it’ll be drowned out enough to make you hear it slightly and grab your attention.

#finalpiece #beginnings

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

I really wanted to use this screen as it was  small enough and Story Island is in view.  However, it’s too in your face and loses its atmosphere of display.  It also has no sound.  I had to look elsewhere.

My second choice was the flat screen by the cafe.  I didn't like how it was displayed as you have to look down at it and it can easily be dismissed, it was also too quiet and the noise of the cafe drowned it out.  

I really wanted to use this computer screen as it was something you’d spot in the corner of your eye which would be perfect for my work with the transitions and how the images appear and disappear quickly.  However it was dismissed by my peers because it had the ‘catalogue’ text at the top of it and it ruined the display of my work.  

#finalpiece

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

ORIGINAL IDEAS:

This is a collaboration of the series of images with sounds I was going to use with the static transitions of blank images and then I would add the scratching over the top of the entire video as well as the ‘noise’ effect that gives a static white noise look.  I decided against this as it was too similar to my piece last year regarding my installation and I want to experiment with slight sound and absence.  

STILL IMAGES USE:

I took notice of when the figures ‘feet’ were mentioned.  How they were too human so i decided to hide them behind a smoke like effect.  It looks silly in the still but it worked well in the final video

I started off with High Definition images, starting editing and playing around with them.  The more I turned them into films the more pixelated and distorted they became which, you’d assume, would effect the quality of the work but no.  The distortion in the faces, the emphasised darkness improved the feel of the images and the added ‘noise’ effect on the visuals impacted even more.  I was happy with how the negative deterioration of the images became a positive.

#finalpiece

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

Academic Referencing

“In relation for my artwork But what is a fairy tale? Where do they come from and what do they mean? What do they tell us about morality, sexuality, and society? Fairy tales stretch across long distances and times; they mingle with folklore and myth, and have inspired ideas about nature and the supernatural, imagination and fantasy, psychoanalysis, and feminism. Marina Warner explores fairy tales through the ages, and their appearance on page, stage and screen. From the Grimm’s Cinderella to modern films such as Pan’s Labyrinth, Warner investigates the best of the genre, and demonstrates how fairy tales affect human understanding and culture.” -  Marina Warner – Voices in the Dark: Fairy tales in our time, The Story Museum.

I wanted to read all of this book but I just never had the chance to in reference to my module.  However, I will be reading it during the summer to possibly help expand further with future work.  So I mainly focused on the certain images selected for the illustration of this book such as Goya and a piece of Sheet Music.  I was interested in the link between grotesque and child’s play and how I could use it to find a connection within my work.

#visualresearch

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

Experimenting

Some experimental pieces that I wasn’t too happy with

A selection of images I wanted to turn into a GIF, I wanted to concentrate on movement, removing the colour and working with creating fake movement.

The idea that the image at the end holds a longer pose is to try and experiment with a unsettling feeling of the creatures sudden appearance.  In the GIF version it will be much quicker movement and a sudden up close appearance.

I decided to have a play around with a few images that I felt worked well together.  I wanted to look at them as a GIF, as well as play around with textures and other manipulation tools.

Here are a few stills that form the GIF;

(The GIF is small because the original was too large a file size and couldn’t work on Tumblr)

Ignoring the watermark from an online site, I used the site as a quick GIF creator rather than trying to install the software and then try and learn how to use it when I just want to experiment.  I think the images do work quite well.  I feel I've created my own kind of ‘stuffer/glitch’ and I feel that possibly the images should have some kind of movement to them.  But I’ll consider that once all the images I want to edit have been then I can consider the outcomes

#negotiatedpractices #ideas

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

reblogged from my Visual Research blog

Video/Music inspiration

I use to listen to this band when I was in my early teens and even now I still love their artistic, dark videos and music.  Reliving my youth I rewatched their video called ‘Blue’ the sickly cute turned into macabre dolls and dull and decaying scenery.  It’s relation to my work is the contrast in atmosphere.  When you think of a little girls room you instantly think of pink, pretty and comforting but in my work it’s completely the opposite.  It’s the contrast that changes how you feel about an image.  

#visualresearch #negotiatedpractices

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

Images of my ‘Pooka’ character, modeled by my little sister.

Trying to create something bright and peaceful as well as experiment with composition and how it would effect the final manipulated images.

I could have taken more photos but it was very cold and it wasn't fair on my little sister to model for me in a thin small dress and no shoes for too long.

I think I’ll play around with GIFs, making two images act like a looped short video.  I think I’ll use my first edited images for my exhibition simply because I feel that it would work well rather than all the images having a character in it, it’s that idea of absence and it’s impact as well as the appearance of a creature.  I think it will work well.

#ideas #negotiatedpractices

[negotiatedpractice-blog]

Negotiated Practices Evaluation

Working with the Hive is a great experience, it challenges and helps you to compromise and pay attention to the area of exhibition.

I found it very hard first to really think of something to connect the Hive with my style of work and link it to the brief given.  I looked at sound, at what sounds I would use and how effective and possible it would be. I wanted to put sounds in the stairway that traveled to the sensor speakers on the second floor bridge. Like a game or guided tour that followed you around.  

It wasn't as very strong idea and it fell flat when trying to make it original.  I wanted to create a game that the public could interact with that would connect with my style of work which is surreal, mythical/mystical and dark.  I liked the idea of creating atmosphere that turns the space into something else.  

I struggled for weeks to come up with a final idea, it was a lot of brainstorming and ideas that didn't manifest into anything.  I then looked at Story Island which is connected to the Hive by a bridge leading outside onto a place to sit with trees.  It caught my attention as it was simple and could be easily manipulated.

I thought about creating a fairytale theme with sounds and small little lights to go on the trees of a bubbles to resemble fairies.  I thought it would be a great interaction for children and adults.  Again it was another idea that fell very flat.  It wasn't until my tutor told me to go back to basics and consider my work from last year and how successful it was received by everyone.  The only issue was to not completely copy what I did last year and to link it with the brief given.

         Thinking of a good stage was the first issue, considering the times I was allowed to be in the Hive and working on Story Island. Because my work needs to be dark it was difficult to do this as Story Island was usually locked and inaccessible during the night.  I also needed to consider how I was going to create my characters, how I was going to link them with the Hive.  I thought about someone reading to children, adding masks to all of them or just one or the other.  The issue was getting family members down to help with this, their availability and reliability.  I needed to look into health and safety too.

         I really struggled to work with the area as it’s not a dark room that I could change perfectly into how I wanted it.  It challenged me to really take into consideration of factors I couldn’t change such as people walking around freely and possibly be using the area I wanted at the same time and how I could work around it without losing time.

I also needed to think about if I was going to use props and how I would place them into the area. The car park is very visible on the one side and on the other is the train bridge, below it is the walkway to the Hive where people regularly walk through so they would be captured in the shot, I needed to try and work around it for my photography.  I had to think about how I was going to either work it into the image or try and cut it away without losing the quality of the image itself.

         My brief research question I finally chose was; ‘A focal point for the Atrium in the Hive’ This was the only one that really had any connection with my own work. Story Island, though outside is still part of the Hive and the focal point would be a large screen that will display my final manipulated image.  I want to use the screen like a window into an altered reality of Story Island, because it will be right next to the entrance to the Island I thought it would really give a good atmospheric effect and grab the interest of the public. Because Story Island is outside it’s locked during bad weather as well as when there is no one to supervise the children as it’s right next to their section of the library so I wanted to bring focus to it and give it another dimension.  

         I wanted to change the atmosphere of the area itself and give it interest with a twist.  I feel after crits and my proposal demo with my tutor that the image was a really strong concept and would really be effective.  I feel that I really need to create several images as well as experiment with staged characters to find the perfect balance for my final piece.

#ideas