‘Your’ Project: Day 2 – Your Data

Chiharu Shiota

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Suzumi Noda

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‘Your’ Project: Day 1 – Your surroundings

MASHALLAH DESIGN AND LINDA KASTOWSKI 

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NERI OXMAN

 

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I love the contrast in colour and how deep the colour ones are

it reminds me of my experience with tie and dye when I visited the die pits in kano city in Nigeria. 

USE IT

 PRIMARY RESEARCH

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Giancarlo Piretti

Plia Chair, 1967

 

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I decided to do some research on this type of chair simply because I think it is a very uncomfortable but very practical and essential piece of furniture. It reminds me of the stackable chairs in school as well as in other types of institutions such as malls and even hospitals. 

  

Fabien Cappello

Christmas Tree Furniture, 2009

  

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Fabien Cappello carved this chair out of christmas tree wood. By looking at it, it is not the most aesthetically pleasing piece of furniture i've ever seen yet the concept behind this piece of work really intrigues me. It asks one to think about the certain times during the year that we as humanity waste materials. The UK has up to 6 million Christmas trees each year. Most of which are discarded or shredded after the christmas period. The fact that Fabien Cappello ended up using this to create a chair suggests that the christmas tree can stay in one's living room for a new purpose. Almost as if the tree has been given a new life

Here is an extract from a conversation between Santa Claus and Fabien Cappello (January 2009):

Fabien Cappello : "I started this project back in mid-December 2007 when a Christmas tree stall popped out around the corner, where I was living in London. I saw the piles of trees arriving and I said to myself that it was quite a lot of wood. I think at this point, I actually noticed the fact that Christmas tree were also wood, I don’t think it came to my mind before… I waited for the beginning of January and I saw all the trees popping up in the street again, but this time the party was over. They were on the bin. [...]  I decided to collect them, and that was not difficult to get thousand of them."

Click here for the full article.

Through the powerpoint presentation shown to us in school, i've released that sometimes design is not about being functional but about asking questions. I feel that this piece of work shows sustainability with thin design. The fact that Cappello re-uses the wood from the christmas tree shows that materials can last long and can be used for different purposes. 

LOST LETTERS

Letters are signs for sounds, Eric Gill

Having taken some time to examine the project brief, I am aware that "illustration is the visualisation and interpretation of ideas, concepts and information that also works as a means of expression". However, I was pleasantly surprised to find out that illustration can not only take diverse forms and but can also exist through printmaking and digital to 3D. 

The phrase "Illustration exists in the world and is for the world" really stuck out to me because it reminded me of the work of 

 

FONTS - SITE SPECIFIC TEXT

For this project, I decided to do some research focusing on the different types of fonts. I came across a Font Website called Font Space, which gave me various options that could serve as inspiration for my own text. 

  • VTKS Rude Metal Font created in 2009 by VTKS Design
  • Serial Publication Font Created in 2011 by KC Fonts. However, I have decided that this Font is a little too sinister for my liking. My chosen phrase 'roll with me' has a much more playful tone.
  • NewRocker Font created in 2012 by Pablo Lupallare.
  • Bootle Font by Created in 2001 by Northern Fonts Ltd.

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BOOTLE: 

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 I really like this Font due to it's bold nature. I am also happy with it's connection to music seeing as it is the Beatle's font. My chosen phrase is 'Roll With Me'. This phrase was inspired by a number of songs I had listened to in my childhood. However, I feel that the well known bootle font is rather safe and I am aiming for an edgier or rougher font seeing as my location is filled with abandoned tyres. 

 

NEWROCKER

The NewRocker font was created in 2012 by Pablo Impallari. 

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POETIC CARDBOARDS

VIOLATION OF THE SOCIAL NORM

 

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By looking at the project brief, I know that photography, moving image and sound are vital components of contemporary Graphic communication design. For this project I would like to further explore photography and see the different ways I can communicate a certain message to the public just with a photograph. I have also always been interested in moving image and recently, I watch a short film on youtube called "The Innocents" by Taryn Simmons. Although the film itself was not created through a design context, its message really resonated with me and made me think about issues such as race, identity and social conformity. Anyone outside of the social norm is seen as either an intruder or someone to be cautious around. I would like to explore these ideas in this project.

We were put into teams of two and were each given a word to create a message with. My word/ theme was Psychological, while my teammate's was Found Objects. I want to explore the non-physical things that relate to the word physiological. I was thinking about hypnosis and trying to discover whether or not it is actually real or if it is a trick being played on our psyche. I thought of unusual patterns of behaviour as well as what it would be like being in a constant state of insanity. This led me to do some further investigation by going on a website called simply psychology.

  

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"Psychologists advocate that our actions are determined by our experiences in life". Perhaps for this project I could look into society and the influence it has on individuals. Our behaviour is closely linked to our upbringing. This, along with Taryn Simmons' The Innocents made me think about how easy it is for people to judge others based on their social status. It is true that many behaviourists believe that our actions are determined our experiences in life, however, others might disagree and claim that we behave the way we do simply because of our pathology. 

The Innocents (2002) tells the stories of people who were wrongfully accused of crimes and even served time in prison due to these false accusations. By creating this piece, I feel that Simmons has showcased "photography’s function as a credible eyewitness and arbiter of justice". What really made me empathise with the individuals in the photograph is that before I knew the whole story, I was very quick to judge and come to the conclusion that they were indeed criminals. This thought process was inspired by the mug-shot style of the photographs as well as the people's race. Most of the people in the pictures are people of colour and for some reason my judgment was clouded by that. I find this sad fact to be tragic. Simmons work made me realise that every culture has a standard of behaviour that is considered 'acceptable' and if one is not part of the norm, he or she is concurred different. This 'otherness' is the sole issue of why people are quick to judge. It is simply due to our natural human ear of the unknown. 

CAMPBELL ADDY - POETIC CARDBOARD

CAMPBELL ADDY

 

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COLLECTION (Fine Art Project)

THE WELLCOME COLLECTION

 

I decided to start off my research by visiting the Wellcome collection. I wanted to take a look at Medicine Man. However, when I went to the museum I realised that there was another exhibition called the 'Museum Of Modern Nature'. The Wellcome asked the public to bring in any object that narrate a story about their connection with nature. There are all sorts of objects ranging from trail trainers and musical instruments to model cars and oxygen cylinders. It is said that these objects "provide a portrait of our relationship with the natural world in the 21st century". 

What stood out to me the most was that these objects were all connected in the fact that they meant a lot to the owner. Even though they are meant to relate to our relationship with the natural world, these objects have a very personal quality to them. At first I was a bit worried of how to collect information for my collection project but then realised that the gallery itself is a collection of work. The whole collection comprised of these personal objects. 

 

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The 'Museum Of Modern Nature' exhibition was so different to 'Medicine Man' which was a more historical and cultural collection of objects. I did many sketches of the objects I found intriguing and I hope to somehow implement them in my work. One of my favourite part of the 'Medicine  Man' was the range of masks, some of which had hair. I enjoyed sketching the different textures. John Isaac's 'I can't help the way I feel' also stood out to me due to the way in which the human body was expanded and distorted. It made me think of how the human body itself is a collection of DNA, cells and tissue. 

 

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 GEOLOGY IN RELATION TO MY WORK

 

I decided to take a look at my personal collection  of wooden cutlery because I felt that in terms of idea development, I could do a lot with this collection. The wood had grains that reminded me of fingerprints as well as diagrams I saw of the earth's crust. It is said that one can tell how old a tree is just by studying these grains and rings. The lines within the wood created many intricate patterns. I wanted to explore this further so I looked up geological images or the earth's crust:

 

   Welcome - Geological Engineering & Science Resource Guide ... Library Guides - University of Nevada, Reno600 × 391Search by image The Geologic Column

 

Geology itself is the study of the earth, the rocks within it, the way in which they are composed and the gradual processes by which these rocks change over time. This brings to mind fossils which stay underneath the ground for centuries upon centuries being compressed and then gradually turned tiny oil. Same with coal and many other precious stones. There is a relationship between my cutlery set and the fossils because not only do both come from nature, they are both changed and modified into things that can be used by the rest of humanity. The structure of the earth beneath the surface is just as important as what is above it. The earth itself is a huge collection. Beneath us is a collection of rocks that define the geological history of the earth. These rocks demonstrate the age of the earth just as how the grains of the wooden cutlery can help demonstrate the age of the wood itself.  

 I took a look at a fossil collection website

 

IDEAS FACTORY

For this project, we were given 3 words:

  • Theme: Animalism
  • Material: Light
  • Process: Draw

Animalism can be described as behaviour that is characteristic of animals, particularly in being physical and instinctive. Upon doing further research, I realise that animalism also has religious connotations. It is the belief that humans are animals and many have believed this centuries. Moreover, animalism is a theory about what it means to be a person. Due to the fact that we were encouraged to think broadly and ambitiously I wanted to  experiment with a range of different ideas that connect with animalism. some of what came to mind were:

  • Personhood 
  • Identity

  •  Physicality

  • Nature and Nurture

  •  Culture and Religion

  • Individuality

Animalism reminds me of a type of early stage of development. I feel that it also links in with philosophy as the idea also has aristotelian roots. The term brings to mind our basic and primal nature. Most of all, Animalism reminds me of Charles Darwin's theory of evolution and the idea of apes developing into humans.

I loved George B. Bridgman's drawings, and seeing as my process for this project is drawing, I felt that it connects to what I'm trying to achieve. I also had a look at Mitchell Beazley's book called 'Face Parts'. This book had a different approach to drawing. While George B. Bridgman's drawings were crude with useful information, produced using tools similar to a big sticks and using as few lines as he possibly could, the drawings and paintings in Mitchell Beazley's book had more of a modernised feel. 

 

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Drawing The Sun

Having done a substantial amount of research on animalism, the group decided that we needed to connect this all to light, our material. We brainstormed different ideas ranging from energy, natural light, solar panels, sunlight, and the colour spectrum. I feel that light and animalism have a connection in terms of both having links with nature. In the library we came across a book called 'Drawing The Sun' by Bruno Munari. I felt that this would be a good way to begin retreating light as a material because the book contained numerous vibrating drawings and images of the sun, our natural source of light. This was a good way of combining the two aspects of our projects and it gave us an example of how to go about planning our final outcome. The most intriguing images and drawing from Munari's book were:

 

A drawing from 'Drawing The Sun' 

 A drawing from 'Drawing The Sun' 2 A drawing from 'Drawing The Sun' 

 A drawing from 'Drawing The Sun'

My Take On Bruno Munari - Ideas Factory

My Sketch 3

 I did a few of my own sketches to try and see whether I should use Munari's style. I really like the expressive style of the drawings. I feel that I could incorporate that to my final ideas regarding this project.

 

Tactile Structures

Primary Research:

+ Brutalist Architecture

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+ The Barbican Centre

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Public Art

Primary Research:

 

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‘Your’ Project: Day 3 – Your Interpretation

Benjamin Shine

'I hope to inspire a moment of self-reflection’ - Shine

 

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Upon seeing his work for the first time when scrolling through a list of interesting and unusual designers, I was mesmerised by the way in which the materials seemed to be floating about while still maintaining their shape. It confused me and irked me a bit as I struggled to understand how he managed to create such intricate pieces of work using seemingly flimsy material. I am so used to seeing solid materials and sturdy strong shapes when it comes to garment construction that seeing Shine's work took me aback. I could not seem to understand whether it was an installation, a work of fine art or something that should be on a fashion runway. 

Key things that I like from Benjamin Shines' work:

  • The material - I have never worked with tulle but I am highly fascinated by the way in which Shine manipulates the material to suit his mannequins and models. Each design is different and he uses a single piece of material to create numerous outcomes. 
  • The fragility - Because of the tulle, his work seems like it requires a substantial amount of patience as well as a certain degree of understanding the way in which the material works. He positions each fold in such a way that each turn and corner contribute to creating a specific function/feature of the human face. The material looks rather fragile to me, as though if one was to touch it, it would fall apart. Yet most of the photographs of his work show the tulle figures to almost be floating midair and still intact. 
  • The ethereal nature of the pieces - I have always been a fan of work that evokes a sense of emotion from the viewer. Looking at Shine's pieces make me feel a sense of peace due to the fluid nature of the tulle. 

One of my favourite pieces produced by Benjamin shine are the five piece installations in the windows of New York's elegant bergdorf goodman department store. He uses his signature martial - tulle, to form hauntingly beautiful female portraits. His exhibition at this apartment store is called 'seeing through material' which to me, is a perfect title to encompass the lovely tulle portraits and their ethereal nature. I am really fond of the way his work plays around with the theme of visibility and invisibility and well as solidity, fluidity, flux and impermanence to highlight the relationship between the 'superficial and the supernatural'

 

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Each of the Shine's pieces are created by manipulating and playing around by one single length of lightweight, fine netted material to carefully create faces and figures. He uses a variety of deep and cool tones within his colour palette, colours ranging from deep blues to bright purples in order to match what the mannequin is wearing. 

An extract from an interview with Benjamin Shine:

‘I’m thrilled to be exhibiting this series at bergdorf goodman in new york, a collection of my hand-made tulle flows that represent a world beyond physical nature – one of energy, thoughts and emotions,’ said shine‘I’m increasingly interested in how we cultivate and maintain a sense of the true self in an age of materialism and mass distraction, and through this exhibition at bergdorf goodman, I hope to inspire a moment of self-reflection.’

I sincerely hope to take away some of the things I have learned from Shine's work (including using a single material to create numerous outcomes) when doing my Day 3 project. I feel that his work is deferent from all the other artist and designer's work I have researched so far and I am looking forward to incorporating new ideas and techniques to my own work.

WEAR IT Suspend, Support, Surround

Key Themes/Ideas From The JFFA Presentation:

  • JFFA starts with the appreciation of materials.
  • It can be a means of identification.
  • It can signify a way of showing a connection.
  • It has the ability to communicate status. For example, the queen wears a crown and the mayor has a collar/chain of office. Jewellery can also be used to showcase one's relationship status e.g. the wedding ring. Some men in tribes within the eastern parts of Africa wear certain types of earrings to let the ladies know that they're single. 
  • Taking a political stance and  showing your political viewpoint through your choice of jewellery.
  • Jewellery can represent one's faith. For example a cross or a rosary. 
  • It can also represent one's culture.
  • It can show tradition - Family heirlooms. Today however, jewellery has a shorter lifespan. Some pics of jewellery can be worn for a season and then discarded. 

SUSPEND

  • Tension
  • Bridges
  • Hanging
  • Balance
  • Performances
  • Delicate

HOLLAND HOUDEK

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SUPPORT - WEAR IT

SUPPORT:

  • Strength
  • Carry
  • Bandages
  • Rigid
  • Casting
  • Skeleton
  • Soft - In terms of cushions and pillows and how people often use these objects to support their backs if they have backaches. 
  • Construction
  • Care and Concern
  • Posture - The body is not a static object, it is always in motion. This needs to be kept in mind when researching the materials I could use for my jewellery-making. 

 

NOA RAVIV 

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SURROUND - WEAR IT

SURROUND:

  • Secluded 
  • Shield
  • Hug
  • Atmosphere
  • Restrain
  • Protection
  • Wrap
  • Suffocation
  • Trap
  • Skin
  • Folds
  • Crowd
  • Hair
  • enclos
  • Noise

 

Maiko Takeda

 

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SITE SPECIFFIC TYPE

Primary Research 

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The environment was a huge part of this project. I needed to look for places and interesting locations where to display my text and this chosen location had to have some kind of a connection to my text. By going outside I was able to find a few locations that could possibly be used in my image.

 

The influence of Tumblr 

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I went on Tumblr in order to find inspiration for my text and found numerous heartfelt quotes. Although I enjoyed the wisdom behind the quotes, I wanted to focus on the environment first. The image of the typewriter above shows how one can use the objects around them in order to tell a message. I love the vintage feel of the photograph. Perhaps for my own photo along with the setting I could consider the theme. 

 

Rupi Kaur

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Rupi Kaur is a Canadian poet, writer, illustrator and performer who self-published a poetry book called Milk and Honey in the year 2014. It was later picked up by Andrews McMeel Publishing in 2015. As of 2017, it is estimated that the book Milk and Honey has sold over a million copies.

Rui Kaur's book deals with themes of violence, love, loss, abuse and feminism. It resonates with a lot of women as these issues are of a common nature. I simply adore her use of illustrations to inform her writing. The simple images accompanying the words makes the reader associate the words with the image, something I aim to do with my project. I hope to use this presentation style to inform my own words.

 

PRESENTATION - COLLECTION PROJECT

METHODOLOGY AND PRESENTATION

I wanted to explore the different ways in which I could display my own collection. Here are a number or methods i've discovered:

  • Standardisation
  • Formal Presentation 
  • Homogenisation
  • Fabrication
  • Narratives/Time
  • Archiving
  • Taxonomy
  • Classification
  • Referencing
  • Space
  • Compounding
  • Duplication/Repetition
  • Removal Of difference
  • Re-contextualisation
  • Metaphor
  • Non Visual Presentation
  • Performative/Events

Formal presentation (archeological and anthropological) 

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Bernd Becher & Hitler Becher Image 1

 

GIUSEPPE PENONE - COLLECTION PROJECT

GIUSEPPE PENONE

Upon doing some research on teleology and the way in which nature relates to manmade objects as well as how people like to collect and modify various elements of nature, I decided to do some more focused research  on trees seeing as wood is the main object of my collection. I came across the work of Giuseppe Penone. What drew me to his work is the fact that he incorporates nature into his many installations. My favourite of his work is the fingerprint piece which resembles Dendrochronology. I really like this pice beast of the detail. Each line/ring is visible and the organic shape they create looks very flexible and soft, a contrast to what it is suppose to reflect; a tree. His sculptures, installations as well as his drawings have always been identified by his rather unconventional use of materials and choice of techniques that are an important part of his work.  

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Penone has always been in tune with nature. In 1968, he wrote; ‘I feel the forest breathing, and hear the slow, inexorable growth of the wood...I match my breathing to that of the green world around me, I feel the flow of the tree around my hand placed against the trunk.’ The tree is a central element in Penone's work. I feel that the tree actually somewhat resembles  the human figure in terms of the silhouette. Perhaps this is what Penone was exploring when he created the pieces above; the relationship between humans and trees. I would love to explore this particular idea in my collection project. 

 

DENDROCHRONOLOGY:

Giuseppe Penone's wooden fingerprint influenced me to do some research into geology as well as nature. I had a look at trees and the way we are able to tell their age just by taking a look at their growth ring. Trees make one growth ring each year, with the newest adjacent to the bark. Hence, for the entire period of a tree's life, a year-by-year record or ring pattern is formed that reflects the age of the tree and the climatic conditions in which the tree grew. 

 

TARA DONOVAN (TOOTHPICKS)

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George B. Bridgman - Ideas Factory

The Book Of A Thousand Hands

In the Library, I came across a book by George B. Bridgman called 'The Book Of A Hundred Hands'. This book really interested me because of its focus on the skeletal structure of the hand. Seeing as animalism is the belief that human are animals and that we have the basic primal animalistic nature of needing to eat and reproduce, I thought this book was perfect as a way of showcasing our link to the animal world. I felt that by studying the human hand, it would be as though one was gong back in time or comparing the human hand to that of an Ape's.  

One of George. B. Bridgman's sketches George. B. Bridgman's Sketches

 

Helvetius maintains that the difference between a man and an animal is a result of the difference in their external form. I found this section of the book description really fascinating : 

"Instead of ending in hands with flexible fingers had ended like a horse's hoof, man would have remained a wonderer on the face of the earth among the animals, ignorant of every art and entirely defenceless".   

This reminds me of philosopher John Stewart Mill's famous saying; "Better to be a human being dissatisfied than a pig satisfied". Although humans sometimes try to disassociate themselves from animals, it can be argued that the hand is the main cause of our superiority. I decided to try doing some rough sketches to try and determine how to turn my ideas into something physical.

 

My Sketch 1 My Sketch 2