Introduction to Animation

1.1 Week 1

Lecture 1: The portion of this lecture that resonated with me the most was the quote “take the negligible and make it considerable”. I felt inspired to create works in the duration of this course that are not considered ‘perfect’ but alternatively experimental and provoking, expanding beyond my own boundaries of comfort. I am definitely looking forward to inquiring and applying various art styles in hopes of becoming a whole rounded animator. Additionally, after being introduced to a stop motion animator ‘Jan Svankmajer’ I was really intrigued by how he imbedded a sense of underlying humour to a more serious overarching theme of ‘miscommunication’, depicting the extent to which it can be detrimental to an individuals internal state. To expand on this, I may consider applying this technique to my future projects.

1.2 Assignment: 20 Photographs

Before starting this assignment I decided to conduct a mind-map to narrow down my ideas. I initially thought of taking pictures of things that simply caught my eye but decided against that as it was too broad to tell a narrative. Alternatively, I thought of places I could go to take pictures and thus settled on Camden Market as it holds a multitude of versatile and dynamic objects ranging from a vintage to a modern background. At Camden, I started taking pictures randomly and deciphered the similarity between them in hopes of finding a narrative. I looked at the photos from a different perspective and noticed the dissimilarity between them, recognising how some are futuristic whilst others were more historic, hence I wanted to explore the evolution of time as my narrative. I arranged my photos in a collage that visualises this idea and amplified the polarity between them. Overall, I was very pleased with the outcome in which the photos hold a great level of vibrancy as well as connotations I could derive even more ideas from, fundamentally leading to the progression of my project.

1.3 Week 2

Lecture 2: This particular lecture was very mind opening. By inquiring into the way these various artists reconfigured and manipulated conventional objects new forms, it expanded my perspective on how I view everyday objects. It prompted me to ask myself how I could redefine the environment around, how I may integrate this into my work and how may I conjure new connotations from these objects. I was specifically allured by the work of ‘Paul Bush’ titled ‘Furniture Poetry’ due to the way he used a playful tone to amplify the dissimilarity between objects. He encourages the audience to surrender to this illusion of life he’s instilled within the objects. In regards to this, I ultimately hope to mimic the way his work is thought provoking. From this lecture, I further noticed that a lot of the artists use a raw and experimental approach, with minimal planning. As a challenge to myself I want to try to improvise and become relatively care free in my work to limit the boundaries I set on my imagination.

1.4 Week 3

Experimentation:

After lecture 3 (Refer to figure 1.4), I decided to experiment with the idea of nostalgia in which I blurred three of my favourite photos out of the twenty. With that said, I love the distortion the overlayed blurred effect has in which the objects are still legible to an extent yet disconnected from the viewer. I feel like if you stare at the images too long it begins to mess with the viewers mind, mimicking the way you may reminisce about a memory and struggle to clarify the small details. As a byproduct, I feel this is very effective and triggers a more intense emotive response, resonating with the viewer for a prolonged period of time.

1.5 Group Project: Trip to Tate Modern

Observational Drawings:

In preparation for the week 4/5 project, my group and I visited The Tate Modern to select an artist to base our presentation on. We initially inquired into Jimmie Durham and Marisa Merz as they both rely on unconventional objects to create their work. While we were intrigued by the politically oriented message of Durham’s work and the way he interconnects and reforms objects to create weaponry found in war, Evelyne Axell applied objects in a more subdued and undertoned manner. While Axell does not apply the objects as an extreme focal point they it infuses an interactive element to her work. This is particularly the case for her piece ‘Valentine’, where the helmet is partially intended to prompt the viewer to stand below it. I loved the way she further imbeds the traditional principles of pop art with ordinary objects, rendering an unconventional piece. Her purpose also appealed to me and personally empowered me to feel strong yet simultaneously feminine which is not a common combination for some. I further experimented with this idea of thermal imagery in my own sketch to mimic her externalisation of the female body. I feel her work is also very flat and still hence with this gradient of colour I was attempting to create this illusion of depth and movement. I chose to derive inspiration from thermal imagery to also subtly align with this underlying scientific context of the piece. Overall, I was very pleased with my interpretation and I feel I was able to retain her core message while putting an unconventional spin to pop art.

1.6 Artists Presentation & Week 4 Lecture

Presentation Review: I feel the presentation could have gone better in which we were cut off early and unable to actually finish the slides. I felt based on this response perhaps we could have inquired into more oof a niche artists as the other groups shared the same artist. On the other hand, I feel our presentation was authentic and engaging as we experimented with different media to create sketches that resembled our personal interpretation of the artist. Overall, I feel my group collaborated very well with each other, I took the lead in terms of dispersing and delegating the work and I feel the final outcome was an ultimate success.

This lecture broadened my mind to the extent of how unrestricted art is in which a simple map or form of cartography can encompass a whole ordeal of messages. On the other hand, art does not need to necessary communicate a message but may have a narrative or simply encompass a time and place. With that said, we got the chance to explore psychogeography, I was enthralled by how engrossed the artist can get in this process through fieldwork and first hand exploration. I was particularly intrigued by Mitch Millers work as he explores the cultural feel of a place and integrates dialogue in the imagery like a graphic novelist whilst still using a psychogeography approach. When experimenting with this approach myself, I decided to stand in front of my building and draw as far as my eye could see. I created this map that has this sense of dimension and distance to it by varying the size of key places on the map. While I’m not to fond of mapping as an art style, I feel I could use this fieldwork approach when building worlds and environments for future projects. It would allow me to be more immersed in my work and in turn create works that are more expressive.

1.7 Week 5 Lecture

This lecture dominantly explored storytelling and narratives. I was captivated by the polarity between convergent an divergent thinking and their conflicting outcomes when applied to projects. I felt inspired to think less pragmatically and alternatively consider the multiplicity of my environment and simple objects. I discovered there’s no singular way of thinking but rather one subject can be infinitely reinterpreted in order to derive a beautiful narrative. I applied this way of thinking to a kaleidoscope (refer to the image above) to tell a story of grief. I was intrigued by the way a message can be communicated in an indirect manner in which it creates this underlying ambiguity to your work and allures the reader/viewer. Within this lecture we also explored new artists who use narratives as their core frame/ structure to their projects. In regards to this, I found Viaje a Japō’s work ‘Trip to Japan’ very endearing in terms of its childlike illustrative style and playful colours, adding this sense of nostalgia to the work. I was fond of the way his animation didn’t tell a fluid story but rather contradicted this idea of having a solid framework, alternatively capturing segments of the trip. I hope to apply this approach to my future projects, taking the viewer on a more thrilling experience/ journey.

1.8 Week 6 Lecture

I feel I did not take full advantage of the project brief. While the concept of an ‘artists book’ is very intriguing and encourages immense creative freedom, I felt it may have been to unconstricted to the point that we didn’t know where to start. We initially explored the idea of creating a rubics cube and using images on the sides of it to communicate the origin story. Not only would this have integrated a sense of ambiguity to the narrative it would further imbed this interactive element to the work. However, we wanted to up the scale of the piece to make it an eye-catching object in a room. Hence we used a large hollow framed Woden box as the core structure. We explored using the box in various ways including as a shadow box to instigate an immersive experience but we decided to go on a mixed media path by applying photography, digital, wood, paper and clay to create the piece. Our ultimate narrative was to have an elephant steal various objects from people in order to secretly build his own kingdom at the top of the box which amounted to ‘Elephant and Castle’. We made a stop motion using the box as the subject, which ended up making the project feel more lively and stimulated this illusion of movement. Overall, I was partially satisfied with the outcome but I felt the appearance of the project could have been more visually appealing and less ‘crafty’, by choosing a more cohesive colour palette (eg black and white images) or restricting our materials to avoid elements from appearing less harmonious.