Check in
Last studio class we wrote a final draft of the project proposal. We had to think about what are the things that relieve our stress. First I have to clarify, that there is a different between things that make me happy, and those that help me overcome my anxiety \ depression. While I love being with my friends, partying, physical connection, weed — these are not stress relievers for me. Ironically, they can increase my anxiety and sense of claustrophobia.
When I feel anxious what I mostly need, is to escape. I need to stop thinking, worrying or caring and just disconnect from reality. This is why my stress relievers are usually plain physical, or involving some kind of artistic entertainment. Art, music, reading, watching movies – The more these things are further away from my life, the better. So in this sense, reading a historical fiction, watching a French movie from the 30’s, listening to some African tribe music or cooking Indian food will be a sure way to calm myself down.
This week I took notes of all the little things that helped me cope with my anxiety. Following, I considered the different ways in which I could visualise these experiences, without making them too literal. I thought that focusing on the nuances will be the most interesting to try and depict.
I came to the conclusion, that I would like to make some multi-media abstract piece. This piece should communicate one or two of my stress relievers, but not more. I would like to design something that others will find comforting as well. I believe that my work should make the audience take an active part in it.
Because I have never made an interactive artworks before, I had to do a research. I tried to recall relevant exhibitions that I have been to in the past. One that stood up to me, was Charles Long and Stereolab’s collaboration. I liked their use of space and how they integrated the sound in it.
Also, I remember the work of musician Sean O’Hagan and artist Jean Pierre Muller, which deeply impressed me. Their work, “The Musical Paintings,” had interactive paintings, that by touching them, the visitor could listen to different sound pieces.
At last, recently I’ve visited the sound exhibition in The Rubin Museum, “The World is Sound.” It combined sounds, new and ancient, with buddhist art. It encouraged visitors to sit in certain places, go between rooms and explore the various spaces. I liked how this exhibition was both informative and emotive.
My goal for the upcoming week is to translate my concepts into something in the gist of the previous examples. After establishing a solid idea, I would like to start and explore materials. I already know, that I’m interested in working with ready-made objects, and with manipulating photography. I would consider to incorporate other friends from class, and perhaps, make a collaboration with someone. Finally, I would like to start structuring my individual timeline of work.
Works of David Hockney and Richard Hamilton. I love the aesthetics and their manipulations of readymade Items:
Week three update
http://www.gomoodboard.com/boards/9rzfyhhN/share
Hand illustration inspiration and research:
Drawing hands is a a narrow topic, but I may as well seize the most I can from it. I was interested to investigate the history, physiology of hands in culture and art.
What the image of hands symbolises in different cultures? or in different historical times? How do various contemporary artists depict hands?
I wanted to develop a style that is my own, but communicates our concepts and the aesthetics of Dan’s animation.
According to Aristotle, the hand is the “tool of tools.” In general it is strength, power and protection. However, it can just as easily mean generosity, hospitality and stability; “lend a hand”
Here are some examples for hands’ drawing that I decided to use as my inspiration:
Research:
Draft 1:
CHARACTER DESIGN
after discussing our project with Carolina, I’ve decided that create a token for Dan’s character could be an interesting way to brand the project. Inspired by our Mood-board I’ve designed a couple of drafts.
I thought that Dan’s octopus could be the anchor of which I start designing the brand. My goal was to create an image that will be used as an icon. By manipulating Dan’s octopus, I was trying to make some iconic figure:
Branding
For our exhibition we would like to design an aesthetic language that will bring together all of the pieces into a cohesive work. We all share the same general concept of mental health, but not the same visual style. Branding would create uniformity that will turn this mosaic into a whole.
- In order to brand our class project we need to collect aesthetic concepts from all of the teams.
Color Scheme:
In class we dchose a colour palette that will be applied into all the different design elements of our work.
The colours we chose were based upon the work of Alex’s group, Dan’s group and zine group. I used a found image of the Brooklyn based artist Tianhua Maoan, to sample the colours from:
Our palette:
Lastly, I wanted to start and develop something of my own. A while ago, due to personal issues, I was having a bad day and by the evening I started feeling pretty depressed. I lost my appetite, hyperventilated and was shaky.
I wanted to use this mental breakdown to explore myself, and illustrate my anxiety in free drawing:
I encouraged myself to draw intuitively, and do the least thinking and planning as possible. I wanted to express the most immediate feelings of mine visually. It was as if entering a safe space. Walking out of the space, I notice patterns and repetitive elements that I found interesting for further investigation:
– a fear from intimacy, feel of lack of communication with myself and others… (to be continued)
I have two main goals for next class:
- Start animating hands, or find a way to make this assignment more interesting or personal.
- Work on branding – figure out the token and graphics (with Carolina)
- Come with my own personal project.
This week we started collecting ideas for our branding project. We agreed on a font, logo, colors and now have a pretty solid idea of how the class project is going to be branded.
I designed and printed stickers to hand out as tokens at the entrance (or exit?) of our exhibition. I also started working on a sound piece that perhaps can go with the animation video, or as background music for the space around. I’ve researched about sounds and how they effect our emotions and brain and tried to apply what I’ve learned into the piece.
These are some references for my research online:
Psycho-Acoustic Medicine: How Sound Affects the Brain and Body
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/03/170330132354.htm
I’ve learned there is a lot of math involved in the process of listening and feeling. I decided to research further, and read through a couple of (really complicated) chapters in “Gödel, Escher, Bach,” that analyses and presents the analogies between math (Gödel), music (Bach) and art (Escher).
Putting the mathematical calculations aside, what I knew I would defiantly apply to the sound piece would be sounds that resemble natural sounds– Water, birds, wind, etc.
For next class I would like to have a raw full version of the sound piece and discuss with my group members how can we use it in the most effective way.
I would also like to develop more ideas of how to integrate the branding into all of the necessary aspects of our class project.
