- Develop your project proposal to plan a challenging and self directed program
Though my project proposal appears much more specific and articulated now than the original (and lost) proposal submitted with my application form I do not think the main aims and objectives have changed very much through the course of this MA (this is an early entry explaining what i want to do). I came to Camberwell to further develop my practise both practically and theoretically; by moving from digital print to moving image, and by developing and better understanding the context of my work. I have been worried for some time that my comfort with my work has stopped me from pushing it further, so i set my self a challenge i hoped would help the work along and also let me learn new software’s and techniques.
From the start I wanted to work with stop motion animation and time lapses, mixing them up with computer animation. After the mid point review I started looking at After Effects in hopes that it would let me combine all the different types of animation i have used. The context of the work has remained the same threw out, yet my understanding of it has increased.
I have made some changes to the project proposal though and most of them I spoke about at the mid point review where I went through the evaluation of the project proposal. The most uncertain part of my proposal has been the final outcome, and the presentation methods i want to use and the size of the screens or projectors i might use. The current proposal is not the final one and I think the work can be pushed further away from my comfort zone.
- Demonstrate a critical engagement with practice-based research reflecting on the critical skills and framework presentation
One of my key aims when starting this MA was to further understand the theoretical context behind my work, I was hoping that a stronger contextual understanding would make the work more effective. The research paper was perfect for this and I set out to research why and how we feel disgusted by something and also how something can be both beautiful and disgusting at the same time. This lead me to two main theories on why we feel disgust; one suggest it is instinctual, the other that it is taught to us as children. The paper focused both on the two types of disgust and how the developed threw the years and also on artists who’s work, I believe, can be experienced as both beautiful and disgusting at the same time. The main theorists I read for the paper was Kant and Darwin, but also Mary Doughlas, William Ian Miller and Mendelhaouse. The reading was very rewarding and I think my understanding of the subject has improved massively.
When reading Kant i came across a quote that would become part of my main focus, it suggested that nothing could be both beautiful and disgusting at the same time, this being the focus of my practical work I wanted to disprove it by finding other artist who’s work is both. I looked at artist who have influenced my work, such as Liz Wolfe and Damien Hirst, and new artists like Dieter Roth, Luke Jerram and artists that work with food.
In hopes of getting a stronger idea of what people found disgusting and beautiful i created a website to collect peoples words. The site lets people list, in two columns what they think are beautiful and disgusting. The site got more then 6000 visitors from over 75 countries, and the lists has proved very helpful in the creation in new work. The site had some problems, there were nothing to stop the spammers from messing with it. Once a word is entered more then once it slowly becomes bigger as more people ad the word, this meant that people were purposefully repeating words, making the list unreadable, but i just had to manually remove these entries, as well as remove peoples phone numbers of addresses that had been added. Despite all this it has been a very successfully experience, the list provides me with a better understanding of other peoples perspectives regarding disgusting or beautiful subjects, and also works as great inspiration for creation of new pieces.
Here are links to the videos I made in order to learn new software and see what works for me and the wo
-Stop motion animation -Stop Motion animation in Photoshop
squid 1 ———————————- panda 1
squid 2
-Time lapse (using Nikon D200 animated in Photoshop)
ice-cube test 1 ————–clouds test 1
ice-cube test 2————– cloud test 2
ice-cube test 3 ————–Flower 1
ice-cube test 4 ————–Flower 2
ice-cube test 6————– Flower 3
-Mirroring Time lapse
in Photoshop in iMovie in Final Cut Pro
-cloud 1 ————————-Panda 1 ————-Panda 2
-cloud 2
-cloud 3 (with photoshop stop motion animation)
-After effects
Flower tests
Animation Test
Mirror test
Kaleidoscope Test
- Articulate a clear understanding of methodology and context in your creative practice
Over the last few months i have gone through a number of animation forms and softwares to use, learning their basics and trying them out in ways that relate to my work has helped me narrow down what software i want to use and learn. I stared out using the animation function in Photoshop, making little videos there. I tried out different ways of mirroring, in both photoshop, imovie and final cut pro. I also used iStopMotion to create time lapses, and later the intervall shooting option in my camera joined with animation in photoshop, and option that has proved the most usefull and offers far betther quality then istopmotion. After the Mid point review i started learning after effects and is finding it the best by far, when combined with photoshop, lightroom and the interwall shooter on my camera. I did some minor stop motion animations but as of yet i do not have the patients to make them. I did a lot of tests in after effects to learn the software and find ways of using it in my work. I now have a very strong idea of what the final result should look like and how i want to make it.
Threw the MA i have kept up with my drawing as well. I find that when I am stuck on the computer going back to just drawing helps my brain move on and the drawings also become useful later on. I’m always on the lookout for new patterns and shapes to draw and I can later use them in my digital creations.
- Evaluate and present your project
My most important point of evaluation has been this blog, updating it often and having to reflect on everything i have produced have made my own creative process much clearer to me. I know my own shortcomings better because i have been forced to write them down, and looking through the blog has been helpful to understand what i do right and what i do wrong. I have been able to show how i work with a piece from start to finish and made me more open about those processes that are usually not seen by anyone but me.
In November last year i had a large exhibition in Norway, the process of getting everything ready and the making of a new print for it was all documented here. It was a very time consuming process and took a lot of the time away from my project in the first few months of this MA but it was something I had to do. The exhibition was at Haugar Art Museum, in Tønsberg, a town south of Oslo, the museum is a well know museum of art and being exhibited there was a great honour and spending any less time on it would be unimaginable. It was a learning experience in many ways, I had to curate a larger selection of my work then ever before and also work out the logistics and problems of exhibiting abroad, dealing with transportation of work and also having someone else print parts of my work without me seeing it.
In the mid point review I had to present my work so far to the class and I found it very tricky to present something that was not finished, and explaining how I want the final thing to look like. I wrote in my blog about the experience afterwards, and my feelings on the presentation were mixed.
After Effect Videos
These videos are not finished work but they are not tests in the same way at the videos listed above
Kaleidoscope 1
Kaleidoskope 2
Kaleidoscope 3
- Contribute actively to debate and discussion through Pathways and across the Course
Threw out the MA i have tried to be active and take part in as much as I can, thought I have been troubled by an uncommonly large amount of colds this year. I feel i took an active part in the Mid Point Review and other discussions over the last few months. I’m not known to be shy or to have any problems speaking my mind. I read up on my fellow students blogs, but I think I can be better at commenting on them.
- Be aware of your own personal and professional development
The biggest difference i notice in my self and my work now is not really the look of the work but my way of writing about it, as mentioned earlier keeping the blog has been very helpful, it has helped me overcome my issues surrounding talking about my work and writing. Having a less formal way of writing about the work has made it much easier to do the more formal bits of writing, like the project proposal or the research paper. I have always had problems with writing on a computer, a mental block that makes it difficult to write on anything other then my notebook. Writing the blog has loosened this block up, and i am now able to write, without writing everything out in a notebook first.
I have enjoyed learning new softwares, some more the others, and i have found a great new asset in After Effects. On the programing side of things I was first very willing to learn, but I found very soon that i had problems with it. I can play around with the codes in Arduino or Processing, but I do not understand what I am doing, and it frustrates me, eventually leading to me giving up. This is something i need to work harder on overcoming in the future.
I am worried that I am still to comfortable with my work, and that it stops me from letting it change. At the moment I am still happy with keeping the context the same, and changing only the physical look of the work. I find that I still stick to the same structured symmetry as I did with my prints, and in the future I am keen to look at developing with alternative techniques.
Ina Dorthea Thuresson 