BA2b

The last week has been mainly focussing on getting my research report proposal completed after my presentation. I’ve found the week difficult to focus on trying to perfect my proposal. There are so many things I could talk about for my dissertation, it is hard trying to find a focus, which I suppose at this stage doesn’t matter too much. I am annoyed that I have not had the time to finish some of the paintings I started this term, but I can finish them now I have finished writing my proposal. There are also photographs I would of like to of taken too. However I am glad that I have focussed on research this week as I would not of been able to have completed my proposal. It has made me think about compiling research for the report already, and I aim to maintain this attitude towards my essay. Overall, this term has been a bit hectic but I am glad with what I have achieved. There are lots of things to think about now in improving and developing ideas surrounding collaboration and my work for the future.

These are the slides for my presentation, I completed on Monday. I was really stressing out about the presentation, I think I always get worked up for presentations when they are not really much different to a group crit. When compiling my presentation, I initially wanted to include everything into it, yet when I started and practised, it lasted for 18 minutes. Editing and prioritising what I wanted to say was a massive process in insuring I just covered the aspect of collaboration. With this in mind, I was really happy with my presentation in the end. The length was appropriate and all of my content as relevant - I was pleased with what I had finally chosen. I would say I could of practised reciting it more, because it wasn’t as polished as it could be. I made a last minute decision to put my words on flash cards rather than reading from A4 paper. This made it easier to read and hold, I felt like I could make more eye contact with people when presenting and I didn’t feel so restricted to reading straight off the page. I hand wrote what I wanted to say, which meant that the points I had chosen to talk about were embedded in my head - I didn’t find myself going off topic too much, even if I wasn’t following the sentences exactly. I don’t feel like the presentation went perfectly and a couple of times I lost my words, but it has gone much better than past presentations. I am glad I simplified the subject matter, so I could talk about my planning, process of making and the outcome for each part I wanted to talk about. In past presentations, I have tried to overcomplicate what I wanted to say and lost my point entirely, so I am glad that I learnt from my mistakes last time with this one. 

This week has been the main week to focus on within the whole unit, because of Firstsite being completed and having the last tutorial before the end of term. It has given me a lot to think about in terms of collaboration; the different ways people can collaborate and how interacting with other people and their work can offer a different perception on how your work can be read. The day of Pop-up at Firstsite was so full of different possibilities that it has made me think about the broad amount of potential that my emoji pieces have in different contexts. It was a shame that the opportunity at Firstsite came so late in the term because it was such a good process to realise the potential of the work,  as it forced everyone to think about working as a group, rather than the individual intentions we had all originally set out to do. 

These image were all taken with the idea of reflecting myself back onto a different surface within the photo. Whether this be through the action of looking down my body, showing the perspective that I was sat at, or using glass surfaces to show reflections of silhouettes within the space featuring my own work. This is an idea that can be carried on through painting, much like the perspex filters have created compositions for painting; or they can just stand alone as their own photographs (although they are more of a digital form rather than a manual form of a digital idea). I think as photographs, they are some of the most effective pieces of work from Pop-Up that I have created because I’ve tied many aspects I am currently exploring together: Layers in composition, the relationship between digital and manual, the importance of context and the idea of the selfie and the abstract selfie.

After the tutorial I had on Monday, Craig suggested I take this piece to Firstsite to see how it looks out of the studio. I’m really glad I took it with me, because having it out of the studio in a white space (close to a gallery environment) was something that I wouldn’t of otherwise had access to. I decided to place it on the floor; at shoe level, and by the door because that is a place that where feet are some of the most active. The height and size of the painting is something that I wanted to have the potential of being overlooked, because often in a crowd individuals are overlooked - in the grand scheme of the public as an individual, I will never stand out from a crowd but blur into the rest of the ‘public’. So I didn’t want my piece to necessarily be obvious because as a person, I am not that type of individual, and this represents me and the decisions I have made to create a ‘selfie’ crediting decisions in appearance rather that I can change, rather than those appearances I cannot. I have been interested in the past at looking at details that have the potential to be ignored, and I think the placing of this is something that confirms that interest. The broken pieces of board next to the shoes, is something that shows the decisions I have made and part of the destructive process, without being explicit in revealing everything. The idea that you can tell a person’s wealth by their shoes is something that popped into my head whilst documenting this piece. I am constantly interested in placing myself back with my work, and in the photograph of my shoes in front of their painted version, the hole in my left shoe is something that made me think about the expression. These shoes are old and over worn - almost represented in the multiple representation within the painting of my feet, but the actual shoe itself confirms that they are that well worn, it shows their age and part of my personality: Why did I choose to wear them on this occasion if I was photographing them? Mainly because they are comfortable and reliable, and I was running around and making work - these are shoes that I love wearing but they show that, and I don’t care so much if I damage them because they already are. They are my shoes for making art in, primarily, and they could represent the portrayal of me when I create work. This sparked the idea of me concentrating on taking photographs during the day that placed me in the area I was in, like an abstract selfie.

These images show the different stages and decisions in this piece. For the last collaboration, Drew and Louise teamed up with Amy and Chloe, and I got involved too. The lights and perspex created a neon effect in reaction with Drew and Louise’s boards, drawing attention to the colours created amongst the work. I think the premise of their works link together well, reacting to spaces and activating them with shapes and pieces. However mine brought in another dimension to their work, enhancing the idea of technology within the installation. On reflection, this work could look like an explosion of different components within a technological item - the lights could represent the LED in screens, changing colours and the shapes represent the way visuals are used in technology (less than words). The process of decision making as a group of five was something I have never done before, and after the activity we all commented on how we should think about collaboration more within all of our practices. The main decisions were about composition within the space, however. The decisions about height across the room, where things worked together and where they did not. I feel like my work links more closely to Drew and Louise’s pieces more than Amy and Chloe’s - the materiality of the pieces are closer to the painted aspects with Louise’s practice more than anything. I think my pieces in this installation look the most ‘literal’ than anything else - the works are about form whereas mine is not. However I think in this environment they look less like they are personified and more like they take on objects in comparison to the rest of the piece. Overall, this piece was possibly one of the most successful works within the day, but I think this was because of the spontaneity of the collaboration within the space we had access to. 

Louise helped me think of another idea to use the emojis but interact them with other people. As the emojis I had chosen were the outcome of a survey, she chose her favourite and most used emoji and reacted with it for the photo. I really like these outcomes, because it brings the concept of the chosen emojis back to a final work. Unfortunately I didn’t get a chance to ask everyone on the day at Firstsite, but I think this is a great idea to start a series of photographs with this idea. It brings more of a human personality and a context to who uses them in everyday digital life - but the use of the props physically reinforces the idea of them being manual and integrated into everyday life.

I went back to the space where Louise and Drew were and they had changed the composition of their tables in the space. However they were one side of the room and I decided to mirror what they had done with the tables, especially as the emojis are the same shape and can re enact the tables. So opposite their piece I copied their composition. This made me realise that the emojis didn’t have to stand up constantly and propping them up at different angles invites the viewer to look down on them. Again this is a type of collaboration that was a reaction to another piece - Louise and Drew had created the composition and I had copied this with my work.

In the auditorium, I also photographed them individually a bit like head shots. I have not done this properly since I as painting them to show the process. I think each of the emotions work well on their own in this environment - apart from the winking faces as they come across as quite flirty, which would be more of a reaction to each other more than it would be from watching a performance or film.

The auditorium was a space where I think the emojis worked the best in a non-gallery style environment. They remind me of being in a pantomime or confirm the idea of theatre - in this setting they have an affinity to puppets or theatre masks, which have static expressions. They don’t seem to look entirely out of place. Also in the theatre or cinema, you are not allowed your phones as they are a distraction, so having this underlying issue questions if the emojis should be there are not. I’ve found it interesting through the day, how the emojis can either look digital of become more figurative - and I think in this instance they become personified once they are placed in a chair like a human might sit. I played around with the lighting in the auditorium, and I did film the lights changing, only it didn’t look as dramatic as I had hoped so I didn’t keep it. The spacing and choosing which side of the emojis to show were two things I was constantly thinking about when rearranging them. Should they react to one another or should they react individually to whatever they might be watching? Composition-wise, I think when they sat nearer each other the photographs are stronger, they might need some cropping and editing though to make them the focal point. 

I wanted to experiment with using the emojis in the kitchen, however they didn’t have a lot of relevance near the sinks. However the interior of the kitchen is so red and shiny - much like the surface and finish of the enamel paints - it was important for me to test out to see how the surface and colour would interact with the pieces. I think the most striking thing is the way the colour makes the pieces stand out. Maybe experimenting with surface and colour as a background is something that I could think about in the future, or Photoshop the backgrounds to see how they react with flat digital spaces again, rather than physical ones. 

This is the first collaboration I did during the day, with Louise and Drew. I think it was important for my work to gain new contexts and interact with other pieces of work. They are both used to collaborating and as a pair they are starting to react to spaces and bring in aspects of technology. I think our work fitted together well - because of the similar materials used and the shapes in their installation. When they created this composition (without the introduction of my pieces) they decided to incorporate the large round tables that were left in the room. This then gave me more of relation to their installation because in terms of the shapes being made, the circular aspects tie in visually. With the painterly aspects of Louise’s boards, the surfaces of mine and her works also relate visually, identifying mark making as an important aspect within our works. The colours within the works also form visual relationships, especially with the lines of coloured tape and painted wooden sticks in yellow and red. I kind of invaded their space more than them having much of an input in the decisions I made, and without much of their input and moving any of their work, I think that the emojis sit well in this environment. When documenting, I tried to home in on the relationships between the works, creating angles where the round tables look of a similar size to the emoji boards and lining up the blush of one of the emojis with the pink light bulb. I thin this piece works well, because unknowingly our work can cooperate well in the same space. Louise mentioned how she was surprised they worked so well against each other, but on reflection she said that maybe emojis look less weird in spaces because we are so used to seeing them everywhere. They interact with our lives and communication digitally, so why can’t they physically?

The emoji photograph with Warhol’s name in the background was something I didn’t know if I could do. The space was public and not sectioned off for us to specifically work in. However I found it appropriate that the artists currently showing work at Firstsite (more about them in my research folder) are pop artists. The emojis are very pop, although the process and the idea behind making them painterly is important, the look of them are very mainstream and recognisable. I chose the heart-eyed emoji in appreciation of Warhol - he is almost like their ‘divine creator’, being so influential to the pop art movement. Louise, Drew and I were talking about how Warhol will always remain current; with the idea of the factory, method of creating work and the multiple, but also the range of medium used. Both recognisable in the art world for starting so many new ideas but also for the public - there are multiple layers of understanding surrounding his work. I used the other emoji, with the teeth baring because I wasn’t sure if I was allowed to be where I was. With a bit of editing maybe, to brighten the emojis in the foreground, I think this image is a spontaneous and applicable use of the emoji pieces - something I had unanticipated.

Whilst I didn’t like the outcome of the emojis interacting with the professional space, these two photographs are my favourite outcomes from this experimentation. I began to think about every detail within the room, when organising the composition of the space. Something that amused me was the idea of refreshments on the table - as the emojis became personified as soon as they started to activate a physical ‘human’ space. Also there are emojis representing food and drink, so the idea that emojis can interact with objects is one that can be represented through the food emojis (amongst other objects). Using lighting and the reflection within the jug of water create an interesting perspective on the space; an outcome that maybe doesn’t entirely work but the composition and features within the images might make for interesting paintings or further development.

The meeting room was a space I could play around with well, only I am not sure if the space works as well as I would of hoped. It seems a bit more gimmicky than I anticipated - I don’t think the emotions chosen (although most used) are necessarily suitable for a boardroom environment. Usually the room is used for professional purposes, so a comment about such a place or using a phone in this way is unlikely to happen. I feel like the documentation for this room looks like the emojis are personified and snuck into the room to take over and muck around. With this, I decided to use the whiteboard to make a pun about the board room juxtaposed with the emojis and the emotions they portray, with a hash tag to reinforce the internet connotations of the symbols origin. I theory, this may of worked, but I think the outcomes are not something I would think about again. It represents an example of how work and play maybe shouldn’t mix - because the serious setting makes the emojis look even more pop and playful than they are. 

This was the first placement of my work in one of the rooms we had access to. With the pieces, I feel like they are half props - being physical versions of digital pictures, specifically self explanatory objects, the context of where they are put is half of how they are read as objects. The first room is the plain white room where people had specific sections, and I wanted my work in a white space first of all. I think the pieces do not need a context always and in a white space, it relates to where they are digitally comfortable. This was the outcome I intended to complete - where a white area can represent a screen but in 3 dimensional space. However as this was achieved pretty quickly because they are so easy to move around, I decided to take advantage of the variety of spaces available throughout the day.

This is the documentation of me chopping up the piece I completed last term. Whilst the idea was solid, I knew that the painting as a whole didn't work completely, but I was drawn to the feet on the piece. When painting, I was drawn to the shoes more than the rest of my because they were the easiest parts to focus on, as I could keep my feet still whereas the rest of my body I couldn't. I documented the process of destroying the board, as this then became another action adding to the painting - adding to the idea of time and contemplation, as well as showing a type of self destruction. Similarly, shoes have become an important part of my practice, especially through documentation, in order to place myself within the image. As a kind of selfie, but with more of a recognition in placing myself in my artwork entirely - and not just creating a piece of work as a action of self, but as having my own presence in it. I did not realise when documenting (I didn’t have enough hands to hold the board and the saw and take the photograph) I took an accidental selfie. I think it’s important to have these photography accidents shown because it ties in with the issues involving the disposable camera. It also shows a kind of honesty in the process of deconstructing a piece. The process was horrible. I bought a really cheap hack saw and I couldn’t get the saw completely through the board because the top of it is obviously wider than the blade. I should of bought a normal hand saw, where the blade is the only width. I think the deconstructing of the painting should of been filmed, it was much more of a battle than I ever intended it to be - which could be representative of the way some people can be self destructive or in different self battles with appearance and mentality. Personally, I don’t have much of a problem with myself as a person, but the process made me really frustrated with myself for making such a mistake that I paid for. I think that aspect is easily relatable to people watching it. Unfortunately, I did not do that, but I think that has made me realise that documentation can lead to more work especially video as a form of documentation - a medium I am not entirely comfortable with but something that can capture the self, often in truthful ways.