Little Clay Dudes.

This week I've mostly been continuing working with these clay critters. Making videos and photos and such. This was the intention to, create a stop motion in the physical space. And I personally think I achieved it.

These critters inspired me to create a 2D piece with the same character in the same kind of idea. That he'd a ppear several times on the sheet each representing a new movement. I also combined the other project I was following in the navigation through space with this and added arrows to show his movement. I really enjoyed making this and thought his facial expressions just using eyes and eyebrows gave it a nice character. It turned out a little like a story board, an unfinished piece. But just making it was pretty therapeutic for me. 

Again, I'm returning to the navigation through space. I'm going to follow the paths of people in the college more accurately using a frame I had made in the store room and some acetate. By mounting the acetate on the frame I can look through and follow exactly where the people walk. Instead of just a rough idea like the last ones were. Unfortunately any sheet of A3 acetate seems to have disappeared off the face of the planet. So it may take some time.

A Block....

This week I hit a bit of a block. Found it difficult to motivate myself to do much that I was actually excited about. Until the last day or 2 where I've been keeping myself occupied with a lot more sculpture than usual. And more depictions of movement.

Another chat with a tutor lead me to begin looking at the afterimage thing again. But this time slightly differently. To examine the different kinds of way to show movement through space. Which would involve the afterimage but not necessarily be confined to it. So the first bout of inspiration came from the earlier project of people watching. I decided to hide myself away in the balcony and record the paths people walked in the foyer below me. I planned to return at a later stage with some ink and bamboo so I could use a fast medium for a fast subject matter. But unfortunately the door into the balcony was locked. So instead I just copied the original with Indian ink. Not as great an effect as the original  It needs more lines. But I would want to stay true to what I see rather than cheat. Arrows are a simple, yet effective way of depicting direction, and the curve of the line shows the movement and navigation through the space itself.

This is the paths of people walking in the Chapel during the open day. I was in the balcony studio in pretty plain sight.

Today I thoroughly enjoyed myself making 12 small models for a kind of real life stop motion piece. Each piece has a slightly varied gesture and when lined up one can see the exaggerated movements of the piece that I based off myself walking erratically down the hall. The original inspiration came from a cartoon called Avatar: The Last Airbender. In one episode there's a kind of instructional statue sequence that the characters must follow. This:
The point is that the viewer would experience the animation in a tactile object, but of course I can make a video version as well to accompany it.

These are arranged as a crowd instead of in a line

This week I also continued working with conkers. This time it was suggested that I scale up the conker and take a closer look at the shells they come in. It was pretty simple to make a replica of a conker. Some specifically placed bumps and lumps and a few defining characteristics like the bean shaped section and the small hole underneath. Once it dries I'm going to make a shell that fits that large conker. Then once I have both I'll (supposedly) be able to make a full cast of both and be able to make the replicas in anything I like, wax/ plaster/ latex/ others... But the empty space left behind in the shell might be a better subject than the conker itself for this specific project.

Conkers are awesome-sauce!

My goal for the next while is to move onto something completely different to what I've been doing so far. And I've sort of done that.

I found these conkers in Ennis one day. And I picked up and found them to be quite appealing to just rub in my hand. There's nothing,that I know of, like them in nature. A great source of inspiration! And they have brought me 3 new(ish) ideas. The first of which was to run with they're tactileness and hang hundreds of conkers from the ceiling and encourage people to walk through them. I sensation that would be very satisfying. To me at least. I think I would ask people to smash them off each other as well. Make that part of the piece.
Another continues with the afterimage thing from the juggling, but this time in 3D. I want to make latex models of a conker and stack them one on top of the other which would be the afterimage of the conker falling to the ground. That then lead me onto depicting the conkers in the way I used them for as a child. Like depicted above. 2 real conkers at either end then latex models meeting in the middle and I'd like to smoosh 2 together and have bits of latex dripping down.
Just for an experiment, I made half casts of the conkers from coloured wax. Which I quite liked working with! But the results were so so. It sort of resembles a conker. But just as an experiment I'm happy with it! I made several of these and plan to arrange them in much the same way as the latex ones. Including melting the wax where they meet in the middle.

Another idea came to me from using the SCAMPER technique. I thought it would be cool to look at simple objects and what they would become when put into a certain situation or how we associate one object/thing with another object/thing. Firstly sheep and cotton wool came to mind. Then people and pipe cleaners. Personally, I like it and want to investigate more to see what else simple objects can be made into.

My final idea for this last week is another birth child of the conker. Looking at the space it left behind within it's shell! Which brought me onto looking at a banana skin and random rubbish thrown about the place in the car park. It was also pointed out to me that the rain also leaves behind a mark in the form of puddles. So does the wind in leaves on the ground.

This is I did by slowing the shutter speed on my camera and waving my phone about the place. It's not really relevant. I just like it!

And Moving on.....

Well, hopefully moving on. Here's what I've been doing!

 Firstly I made an attempt at creating my own perspective shape in a corner. A simple square. Not terribly interesting but just wanted to give it a shot. It was an awful lot more difficult than I had anticipated. I started out with these 3 surface being blank and then went back and drew a grid on them to give myself a better reference. Then I drew a simple square straight onto the photo. This would be what I referenced back to to draw onto the 3D piece.  The results were alright, I guess. The photo does it better jutice than actually seeing it in person. For now I'm going to leave this idea, just for a little while. But when I come back to it I want to focus on just 2 surfaces and see where that gets me.

Again, i jumped back an idea and started looking at the juggling balls again (i think I mentioned that  in the last blog). But this time, I made an attempt at a 3D piece. With results that I was quite proud of. Even if it is a little crude looking. But sure, can't hurt to have a go. Obviously, I need to differentiate between the different colours of the ball and that was easily achieved with the thin, malleable and dull wire.

One day then, when I was away from college, I got my new favorite idea! I passed the Ennis Court House where I saw a grossly overwight lawyer type guy. And I thought to myself "All you think about is cake all day isn't it?" And I imagined a cartoon thought bubble appearing above his head. #then scrambling for any piece of paper I could find I wrote my new idea down!
Clearly, I judge people very fast.. And it's even been pointed out to me that I do so. So I figured I could run with that. I decided I'd go out into O'Connel street in Limerick (a short walk from the college) and take a picture of a crowd and just write above them in Sharpie what I thought of the people present. Or what they might be thinking. The idea is, that these people are present in my space and these are my perceptions of these people. It could be an interesting study of people and of me as well. This, of course, brings up privacy issues. But I'll worry about that later. Soon I remembered a music video from a few years ago from All Time Low. While they aren't very good, the video for Weightless really does reflect what I want to do.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TpG3BxRctQ4

It was then suggested to me that I try something like this. In a video of a crowd, with signs and thought bubbles shadowing the people. EXCITED!!

Progressing Through Space

Well, for the first period of college I've been thrown right in the deep end with studying space. In the beginning I was focusing on one idea. The path juggling balls follow and the shape inbetween, that the paths create. Which lead me onto movement in space and the different ways movement could be depicted in a still image. My favourite being the memory of the ball. Like the blue ball will leave a blue path behind it. Like a comet.

But then after a talk with a tutor, I was told to broaden my horizons. Throwing down EVERY idea I had. Good bad and the ugly. Then I began to enjoy the whole experience an awful lot more!
I noticed a lot of my ideas were sculptures or installations. Two thing that I've never really gone near before. Some fairly linear things and then abstract stuff about 'imaginary space' which I thought would be really cool! Such as, a metal circle on a spinning axis. Then when spun at a high speed it would seemingly create a bubble when actually it's just a 2D shape at many different angles.  But one thing about it was annoying me. That the pieces weren't involving the viewer enough. It is 'To Sense My Space' and that should involve the viewer as well.

One of my favourite ideas was a pink, pretty, girly castle. A large box of a thing in a gallery. The point was that the viewer would have an idea built up in their own mind of what the space inside would be like. A pink, prety room full of niceness and kindness. But instead it would be something  completely unappealing and unexpected! The first thing that came to mind was a lone clown in a harshly lit room. Then I thought of gigantic versions of tiny things e.g. spider/ rat. But again a tutor talked sense to me saying "It would be a one trick pony" like a fair ground haunted house. Fun for a second then the effect wears off and it wouldn't really be remembered. Quickly push THAT idea aside.


Finally, what I'm working on now.I was reminded me of this form of street art where the viewer must stand in one specific spot to see the proper image. Otherwise the image seems stretched and distorted. But when viewed correctly it will almost seem to be floating in space. I'm really excited about this because it uses the space of the gallery floor instead of involving space in the work too much while also involving the viewer. My original aim. Now to take his original idea and make it completely my own!!