Photography week 1

Our first lesson of photography was very interesting as we started by learning about our tutors work and careers and how they have developed style. It was a learning experiences as it made me realise just how many exciting opportunities there are to travel and photograph beautiful parts of the world, and how its beneficial to self publish books. Alyss' projects involved working for travel companies, photographing holiday destination to appeal to would be holiday makers, i learned from this as it made me consider how photography is a business, how i should try to photograph something that is marketable and can be made to profit. While working in the states she worked on her project of photographing the many different people she met walking the huge length of Broadway, New York. i find portrait photography very interested especially when done on the street like this, i feel its good to give the viewer a sense of sonder; making them realise that everyones life is just as relevant as their own, and that everyone has a story.

Othellos work contrasted this, his work examined male masculinity, by confronting body image standards and mans own expectations of himself in the work place. I felt his work using nude imagery in places such as coal mines and trading floors symbolised how men put up walls to cover themselves and hide who they really are, and the pictures exposed this as a sham, and that men are all the same underneath a hard exterior thrust on them by society.

We also studied specific photographers, two that i feel have influenced me and my interest in portrait photography are Vivian Maiers and William Eggleston. What struck me most about their work was that it went against much of my preconceptions and worries about photography; while i saw photography as an extremely disciplined science, they approached their work extremely casually, the subjects often totally unaware pictures were being taken, Eggleston claimed that he worked "semi automatically" and did not allow himself to labour over pictures, as i worried i would have to when working. This informal, non perfectionist approach is how i hope to work when i head into Southend to photograph Adventure Island, as i believe i will be able to work better and more creatively when not overthinking my craft.

We then looked at the different types of lighting but i feel i will work more outdoors rather than focusing on studio lighting. i will however focus on experimentation with different shutter speeds and how that effects my images.

Week 3-4: Sound Design

I decided, for my sound project, to do a piece that represented the evolution of education. i found this project challenging for several reasons but also learned a lot.
the first challenge was that i had never used audition before, its an extremely complex piece of software and so had to use many tutorials to understand how to use it to its full potential, it turned out to be worth it as i feel i greatly improved my mixing and mastering abilities. Mixing is the process of adding several different sound recordings and raising and lowering the volume of each sound so that balances appropriately for what you want the audience to hear. an example of this is that with my project i decided to do was set inside a class room and featured the sound of a pencil writing on paper, i mixed the sound so the background noise of students talking was quieter and less pronounced then the sound of the pencil writing, helping them understand what as happening better. i thought my mixing through out was good.
 I felt my project was not so good because i struggled to come up with sound ideas that represented the change from modern to post modern education. i felt despite 4 sounds to play over the background, more could have been added to develop my sound track and make it more complex, many good ideas came to me on the final day but by then it was too late as my truck had to be mastered and exported. and this was clear in the feedback given to me.
 to improve this in the future i will try to experiment more practically to inspire more ideas rather than simply trying to think of them without any creative inspiration.
despite its faults, i feel my soundtrack was a good first attempt with audition and sound recorders.

Week 2- Sound and symbolic thinking

I found the process of  symbolic thinking harder than I first assumed. It is difficult to think of a symbol that isn't cliché or recognisable from other work, as often my ideas are inspired or influenced by other sources I have seen in the past, and therefore it is difficult to find something that is completely of my own creation.
Overall I feel it will have a positive effect on my work through the year as it will help me open my mind more to use original ideas and achieve more as an artist, finding my own personal style rather than taking from somewhere else. However it is also key to reference and give the audience enough to understand the message of my work, rather than confusing them and creating too much of a challenge to understand and enjoy.

Equity and care for the environment in utopia

Talking in class yesterday presented a problem with utopia, being the fact that one person's heaven is boring or unfair to someone else, therefore utopia would have to give equity, each individual getting what they want and need from Utopian society. In this sense maybe Utopia should be sectioned into many different parts so people can move and travel to different parts and experience new things and challenges.

I also read up on environmentally friendly housing, and found ideas for large apartments with roof top gardens, which reduce the amount of Co2 released into the atmosphere, especially in dense cities. I feel designs ideas like this, as well as solar panelled homes and personal wind turbines would be a major and important feature in utopia .

I decided for my Utopia object I would combine my two major changes for modern society to create a Utopia; education reform and Eco-friendliness. To achieve this, I'm going to design an eco friendly school, complete with hydroelectric dam, wind turbines and a biomass farm.

Utopia Project- Day 1

Today was the beginning of my research project into ideas and theories of Utopia, a futuristic "perfect" society, void of conflict, poverty and inequality.
The day started in Hyde Park, viewing a current display of prototyped summer house designs, all sustainable and eco friendly. I found this extremely inspiring for and in touch with my ideas, making me consider a future where all systems of transport, living, and industry are far more sustainable and less damaging to the environment. The summer houses were also extremely spacious and certain features allowed them to be changed and reshaped easily without being fully disassembled. By this logic, houses could be redesigned, easily expanded or scaled down depending on the needs of the occupier. It reminded me of a recent trip to Germany, over three days an apartment building being built accross the road from my hostel came together extremely quickly as the walls, doors and windows seemed to clip together with ease, rather than needing to be built on site.
Overall I feel the exibition was extremely helpful in helping me find inspiration for utopian society.

Authors own, 5/9/16
After this we went to the nearby V&A Museum, full of historic works of art as well as modern master pieces from all around the globe. it was helpful that much of the art was in chronological order, and very well represented the progression of technology and culture through time. By seeing this, I believe it makes the changes of the future clearer in terms of how we can improve society. I feel in the most modern section, photography 1900-2000, showed major signs of growing social consciousness as a feminism and the civil rights movement were regular themes of the gallery. In a Utopian society these struggles will be completed, and all can feel safe, equal, and unoppressed

Authors own, 5/9/16

The glass art section was extremely inspiring in terms of my visual ideas of Utopia. the sleek, colourful designs stood out uniquely from all other art in the museum and had an extremely futuristic appearance. Glass art is very modern and uncommon, this lacking familiarity from the viewer gives the idea that the art is new.












Authors own 5/09/16