-Asma-

Haven't been on this for a while but thought, hey why not? lol 

When working with wire for my final piece, there are several health and safety issues involved.

Wear goggles at all times

Wear gloves

Always wear protective wear

When cutting the wire, keep your hands away as far as possible

When cutting the wire, face it downwards so it falls on the fall instead of it falling or poking someone in the eye.

The brief was:

    “The V&A has commissioned your group to design a web page from an interactive ‘visitor guide’, which communicates how and why a material and making processes are used to make particular objects on display.

The web page must consist of -

- A group area about your designated material (i.e. ‘ceramic’).

- An illustration/model of your chosen object.

- An animation representing an aspect of the making process (one for each object)

- Contextual information about the object.

  In this assignment you will learn about working for a client, within constraints, and as a member of a team.  It is a test of your ability to draw, imagine, analyse, organise, plan, experiment and to present to a professional standard (Unit 10 Professional Practice).

  You will also learn about presenting your work and ideas to a client, planning this presentation as a group. (Unit 8 (personal & Portfolio Presentation).

  Outcomes

Web page and animation

  1.         Your group will choose from a range of provided objects in a particular material, and devise a group page, and three individual sub-pages, each concerned with a different making process and object. (Unit 14 Multimedia).

  - Your site must conform to V&A style rules.

  - All pages in the site must have a coherent linking aesthetic.

  - Your site must communicate visually about making processes.

All aspects of the site must be designed to contribute to a clear understanding of the material and it’s processes, without the need for text (users may be very young or visiting tourists without English).

  - Health & safety should form part of the information you provide the viewer. (Unit 10)

    1.    An individual pathway outcome following your chosen discipline developed with your assessor. (Unit 12 Design, or 13 Fine Art).

  2.    A substantial contextual study (1000 words min.)

  The historical and social context of the object –

The historical period in which it was made – important events/developments in the culture it was made.

Geographical location of it’s creation.

The stylistic period, culture in which it was made – how can we tell from looking at it?

2.         A full sketchbook and blog record of development for use in the final presentation.

3.         A completed planner.

4.         A full evaluation of the project. “

    I got put into the ‘WOOD’ group and had to work with my colleges Ruby and Freya. I started this project by doing research into the V&A museum itself. We then got given a wide range of images on wood and had to choose one each. I chose the long char (short version) by Marcel Breuer. I looked into him and the chair and looked at the history of the chair and what materials it was made from. We then got briefed by the people at the V&A and what our animations had to consist and what guidelines we had to meet. I then did an observational drawing of my chair but due to the place where my chair was placed, it was very difficult to get a full 360 degrees view of it.

   After returning from the museum, we started on the group page. We had a few group meetings where we came up with initial ideas for our home page. We initially came up with a kaleidoscope idea, which will be interactive and so when you click on each piece, our image would pop with the information. But when we spoke to our teacher about this idea, he said it would be very hard to do and especially coding this for the website is very difficult too. And so we had to change the idea slightly but stuck to the kaleidoscope idea initially and made one big animation with all of our objects on the page. I started my initial ideas on my storyboard. I needed to recreate a part of the chair being made for the ‘Process’ video but did not know how to recreate a certain piece of wood. I then tried to use thin pieces of wood but it was not as flexible as I wanted it to be. I then used cardboard pieces and layered them up and did the exact process that it took for the chair to get made. Surprisingly that idea worked. I then made the animation on adobe flash just like all the other animations were made on. The software is simple to use but that is when you have got the hang of it, otherwise it takes a bit of time I felt.  I then started my initial planning on my ‘About’ video. I recreated my chair on google sketch up and made a movie so you can see the chair in all aspects (360 degrees view). I then included that into my animation so I had the chair rotating in 360 degrees as my animation was playing and showing more images and information about the artist and his work.  We also had to create a splash page for all of our work and so I used the original image of my chair as one of the splash pages and used the same image but distorted it instead for the other video. For the group splash page, we used a simple wood background and sliced each of our objects and overlaid them on top of each other.

    Working in a group was stressful as one of the colleagues was not in most of the time or did not join in the group meetings and so we were always missing a member. When doing the presentation in front of the V&A people, it was actually a good presentation. The feedback we got as a group was good. This was a really good experience as it gave us the experience to work as a group and present the final outcomes to the designers of the actual museum.  We made boards for the presentation where we screenshot our animations and the stages we took to come to that final idea.

  The brief was:

“What is this project about?

  We experience and remember locations using all of our senses. As very young children the memory is more tactile than visual, developing as we get older into a more ‘multi-layered’ experience through awareness of light, time, emotion, colour, space, form, sound, taste, texture etc. This project asks you to consider what this ‘sense of place’ means, and to explore the many different ways there are to analyse, capture and express this visually.

  You will be given a specific location/space in or around the college buildings to examine, explore, measure, describe and otherwise capture and interpret. This will be your ‘subject for the duration of the project. Part of the challenge will be to make detailed studies of it. For example you could record patterns of light, texture, movement around or through the space, detailed dimensions or study subtle changes in colouration.

  Once you have thoroughly explored the potential of the space in a wide range of work, you will produce a finished 2D piece using your findings and contextual research.

Brief – Explore, analyse and respond to a specific location using observation and recording. Create a large-scale 2D final outcome.

  Coverage -

1.   How to use an extensive range of drawing and recording techniques.

2.   How to use various ‘strategies’ to explore and record a subject, learned from the work of other artists and designers.

3.   How to develop complex outcomes from simple sources using experiments with drawing in 2 and 3D.

4.   A wide range of 2D and 3D media and techniques.

5.   How to develop effective ways of presenting and communicating your ideas via a portfolio.

6.   Contextual references”

  The area I got given was behind the canteen where it had this black metal staircase going downstairs. I did a simple line drawing of my location (the black metal staircase) and also had to measure the location specifically. I then did mini observational drawings from the staircase and used different materials and techniques, trying to replicate the texture and surface of the location. I also overlaid different materials such as string, newspapers over images that I took of my location and made it to suit my own design in my own way. My aim for that was to see how it would look and to see what affect it would give the original image underneath. I tried another image, A4 size and placed tracing paper on top of the image and worked into the picture with oil pastels. I looked into an artist called Kandinsky and miniature studies of his work, as his work is very tricky as its geometrical and very colourful. I then printed out my location (staircase) on to acetate and changed that into a Kandinsky style image. I did that by using watercolours and replicating some of the geometrical shapes and mark making he does over my own image.  I also looked into three artist called Kurt Schwitters, Pablo Picasso and Sir Eduardo Paolozzi. What all three artists had in common is their use of collage in their work. Taking that on board, I created an A1 piece of my location, and did a collage behind the location. This was my response to the brief and the artists. I used colours such as green, black, browns and newspapers to create the collage background for my image. 

  Evaluation-The Cube

  The brief was:

“Using your ‘Place in Question’ work directly as the initial source, create a 250mm cube which expresses and develops the visual language you created in the previous work.

Project work outcomes:

Full record of developmental work.

Notes and samples of materials and processes experiments, with explanatory annotation.

Contextual investigations with thorough annotations explaining your thoughts and ideas.

Photographs of final outcomes

Evaluation.

Presentation  - Mounted photos of your final outcome”

  Carrying on the research I did from the ‘Place in question’ project, I started my initial designs for the cube. I had a few ideas, which varied from having metal rods to floating glass stairs. I also took Kandinsky’s research I did and placed that into another idea, which I then chose to do as my final piece. I used acrylic sheets and using sharpies, I recreated some of Kandinsky’s work on each piece of clear acrylic. I then painted a little sheet of acetate in white and recreated my location by making the stairs and making it look like it is floating.

  The brief was:

  “London: Mapping the Makers is about the reasons and meanings behind appearances; the ideas and events that influence the appearance of architecture, design and art.  Your creative work will grow out of research into –

1. The ideas and influences on the work of two individuals within the same geographical area.

2. The history of that area.

3. The visual character of the area (observational drawing and photography).

  Contextual study

Below is a list of people and places, from the creative past and the present covering art  illustration, architecture, 3D design, fashion& textiles, photography and graphic design.

Find the location

1.     Briefly look into each one and choose one individual as you main focus.

2.     Where did/do s/he work/live? Use the Blue Plaque website initially look for the addresses of ‘old’ individuals. Find the location on an A-Z atlas page and scan this for future use.

Writing the Contextual Study (1000 words +)

1.    Your study should explore –

(i) The important ideas and trends for the type of art or design, at the time.

(ii) The important social and historical events in London, movements, developments at the time – changing technologies, politics, wars, cultural developments, religion, philosophical ideas  etc.

(iii) Detailed information from more than one source about at least two examples of the individual’s work.

(iv) A detailed analysis of these two examples – How were they made? How is visual language used formal elements and how they are used). Where were they made? Why were they made? What do they mean/ represent/communicate? What role do materials, techniques and processes play in the character of these pieces.  Compare and contrast the two works.

(v) How do they relate to the art, architecture and design of the age?

(vi)  How did London play a part in these works?

  Use images where possible and write about these directly.  Include a list of your sources. “

  I decided to choose the design path, as I want to do Interior designing for my degree. When looking at the list of artists and designers, I came across Thomas Heatherwick. He was the guy who designed the new route masters for London and is a fairly known designer. I started looking into his location and his work as well as writing up my contextual study. The more I wrote about him, the more I found out about him. He also designed the ‘spun chairs’   at the V&A. They are really fun and have been designed to rotate a full 360 degrees. By visiting the area where he is located (St.Pancras) and visiting the Renaissance hotel, I decided to design and produce lighting for the bar or the foyer of the hotel. I looked into urban lighting, which was really interesting to research into, as there are several different types of lighting, all designed in their different ways. I then started designing my lighting and had some initial ideas. They varied from the normal bottle idea to a Thomas Heatherwick inspired lamp in the shape of one of his pieces of work he produced. I also started playing around with colour from the Renaissance hotel and looked into the finer detail into the hotel, such as the windows and tiles. By taking the tiles, I developed my idea by making cubes and having the same colour palettes throughout the cube. Or having three bottles, all different sizes on a metal structure and having the light shine through.

   After my feedback from the interim review, I looked into another artist called Stuart Haygarth. He is a light designer and has done several jobs and projects that revolve around his designs. He uses recycled materials in his work and by doing this; he conveys a message through his work and awareness. It gives his work an overlook on the objects and a new meaning. When looking into his work, he uses metal structures as his base and so I had a few wiring ideas of my own. I also looked into recycling materials and experimented with them by placing them over a light to see how well the light penetrates through. I then went back to look at Haygarth’s work again and found a lamp design he produced out of party poppers. I found this really interesting and went and had a look at party goodies available that is also recyclable. I found slinkies, which I found really interesting as the way they stretched, and how colourful they were. I started my initial ideas for my lamp again and started with wiring ideas. I tried simple ideas to maybe thinking of different ways to balance the wires on top of each other. Also placing slinkies in different parts of the wire structure and seeing how it would look. From my initial ideas, by developing my idea I came up with a tree like figure made out of wire and having the slinkies balance and stuck to the base and different parts of the structure. I chose a tree like figure because how my artist always has a message behind his work; I wanted to do the same. I wanted to show awareness for recycling and shortage of materials.

   When producing my final piece, the wiring part was the difficult. Trying to get the wire to bend and shape around the lamp and having the branches come out to the way you want it, it was really hard as one of the wires was stiff and was not that easy to manage. With the slinkies, I had to use a hot glue gun to get the slinkies to stick on the wires and the metal wire branches, as they would not stay by themselves. Once I completed the amp, I took photos and mounted few and placed a few in my book. The end result was that I created a lamp for the bar in the Renaissance hotel. The reason why I chose the bar is because you can be creative with your designs and use of colours.

My brief for the London project was to design and produce a lighting for the Renaissance Hotel in London, St. Pancras. It was either for the foyer or bar in the hotel. My artist that I chose to look at was Thomas Heatherwick and his studio was based near Euston road, not far from St. Pancras station.

Thomas Heatherwick is an English designer who established his studio in 1994. His innovative designs and ideas have given him the name ‘Ideas engine’.

He studied at the Royal College of Art and this is where he met 

Presenting at the V&A- When presenting at the V&A, it was a really good experience as we got to talk and share our ideas as well as show them our final pieces that we created. When presenting, we had to make boards in which we had screenshots of our animation on and the process in which we took to get to our final animation.

On the day, the feedback we got from the people at the V&A was positive as it was our first time doing a project like this, It gave me an insight to animation and how serious web designing is. You have to meet certain guidelines and specifications such as not using the colour black when associating with the V&A logo and so had to avoid using that colour when designing.