Natasha Murray - Travles

Math and art 

Statement of intent 

I am wanting to take a mathematic / generative approach to this assignment because I feel that if i go with the random idea I will end up not enjoying the end product. I want to explore the means of working with some kind of circular 3d sculpture. I want to explore the dynamics between space, lines and shadows. I like the edea of one artwork being able to be viewed from different angles and look like a completely different work.

  The process

This project includes a hoola hoop with a circumference of 229.33cm and a diameter of 73cm and LOTS OF WOOL!

As I was going for the generative approach to this project i though a good start would be to find the diameter of the hoola hoop and mark it by hot glue gunning a piece of wool to make a line showing the diameter. from the left side of the hoola hoop where the diameter was marked i dotted 1cm out. I drew 100 dots each 1cm. I used these dots to mark where I was going to attach one end of a 73cm long piece of wool. The other end of the wool would be attached to the other end of the hoola hoop but rather than being 1cm out it was right next to the piece of wool that I had marked the diameter with. I did this for all pieces of wool.

As Yin and Yang was my major influence while creative this artwork I did the same process but on the top half of the hoola hoop. It was a long process but I was happy with the outcome. 

Reflective statement

I only made 100 marks on my hoola hoop to attach the wool so that there would be a gap the gap represents the circle in yin and yang. rather than being a whole circle it is part of a circle. 

If I were to do this project again I would have used black wool as well as white so that the yin and yang influence could be more readable. This was a very long process as I was trying to get all the measurements for the 100 dots marked evenly apart. 

I liked the idea of working with a hoola hoop it was second best as I could not find a suitable material to use to make a 3D sculpture. 

I like the size of my outcome I did not want to create something tiny, I enjoy it when works are big it adds significance to the final product. 

The Philosophy of Yin and Yang, including the four main aspects, theory and history, as well as Yin and Yang in Chinese Medicine and pathology. Covers TCM concepts such as excess yin, deficient yin, excess yang, deficient yang, and inter-transformation.

Yin and Yang has always fascinated me but over my years of creating I have never thought to create an artwork influenced by Yin and Yang, until now. I have researched the meaning of yin and yang and found that the symbol depicts a relationship where one cannon live without the other and "One can change into the other, but it is not a random event, happening only when the time is right. For example: Spring only comes when winter is finished." - retrieved 31st October 2013 from the link above. 

Reflective Statement

Looking back on this group project I am pleased with the amount and quality of work I produced throughout creating this production. I leant a range of skills and how to work with after effects and premiere pro, programs that I am not familiar with.

Producing a stop-motion film, plus having to extend the production through 3 different streams of trans media, seemed like a truck load of work. But from the start of the project I kept my making, blogging and work productivity consistent. As learnt from previous projects time management and consistently producing work results in a better outcome and less stress towards the due date.

As the video editor I learnt how to use Premiere Pro and After Effects by watching tutorials online, reading tips and tricks blogs and asking for help from people who have experience in these programs. We split the stop motion photos into four parts to split the work load evenly, after we had all done our parts I put all the parts together and edited colours and transitions. After Effects and Premiere Pro feel much more familiar to me and I would like to extend my knowledge of these programs.

As producer / team leader I learnt not to take anything too seriously while we were filming, if shots when wrong or lighting was not right I think we all learnt to just laugh it off and continue making. Rather than stopping and taking time to get upset. 

Our group decision to use an actor and drawings rather than Claymation had it’s pros and cons. We did not have to worry about looking after clay figures and we chose to film in a room with no natural light. Worrying about light consistency was gave us more time to focus on the quality and angle of the shots we were taking. Having our actor in the morph suit and standing still while we were filming was testing for our actor as the morph suit is had to breath in.

Over all this project for myself was the most enjoyable and I feel like I contributed as much as a could, putting my social life aside for a few weeks really paid of. We stuck fairly well to our production schedule which gave us an advantage of having some spare time to perfect our videos and comic book. I think that the group chemistry really helped with individual and group productivity, we were able to have fun but at the same time produce a substantial amount of work. 

Trans-media 

comic book - CLICK HERE 

chalk street drawings - CLICK HERE 

social media - facebook CLICKHERE

website - CLICK HERE 

 tumblr CLICK HERE

We have all of the footage needed for the final presentation it's just a matter of putting it altogether now. Last week we decided that our final presentation will be in one video, I have been working on putting it together using premiere pro and after effects. the order will be as follows...

Trailer

comic strip

STOP-MOTION 

wedsite, facebook, tumblr, youtube

chalk drawings 

It feels like we still have so much work to do but we really don't, we've stuck fairly well to our production schedule and produced as much work as we can, some parts of our footage feels like it could have been recorded with more attention to light and camera steadiness but everyone seems to be happy with what we have so we're going to keep it as it is. 

A tale of crowdsourced DIY bioengineering

Street lights replaced by trees?

"possibilities of using living organisms to produce energy, fuel, plastics, and fertilizers. Evans was inspired by Amirav-Drory’s suggestion that armchair tinkerers, utilizing sophisticated but easy-to-use software and a “biological app store,” might one day assemble the genetic material for producing a “renewable, self-assembled, solar-powered, sustainable street-lamp”—in other words, a bioluminescent oak tree."

http://reason.com/archives/2013/09/24/replacing-street-lights-with-glowing-tre - retrieved 16th October 2013. 

"Andrew Thomas Huang is a filmmaker and artist living in Los Angeles"

retrieved Tuesday 8th October 2013 - http://www.andrewthomashuang.com/about.htm (CLICK HERE)

Karen introduced us to this artist / director last week, she showed us one of his videos called Solipsist. Since then I have researched further into Andrew Thomas' works. I found this video, I like the limited colour pallet as it draws attention to movements and texture rather than the actual subject matter. The parts with colour remind me of...

"'Chameleon Scarf' Changes Colors to Coordinate With Your Clothes" (CLICK HERE FOR LINK) - retrieved 8th October 2013

I like the use of shadow like forms and silhouettes, the lack of colour and vibrancy is made up through the contrast between the monotone aspects and splashes of apple green. 

In our stop motion film we are looking to use white, silver, grey and red. This video is a major influence. 

Since the beginning of this project we have been posting a daily 'question of the day' for our facebook fans to answer (CLICK HERE FOR EXAMPLE). Candidates will go in the draw to win GTA5 if they answer every 'question of the day'. Our agenda is to attract people through this materialistic want. Facebookians have been answering the questions thinking that they are going into the draw to win GTA5 when in actual fact it ain't gonna happen. We don't have any intentions of giving away GTA5, we are simply presenting the idea of how easy it is to make fiction fact through the internet. People are using technology to blur fact and fiction, in some cases it's good but in others it's not so good.