‘Interpretations’ has been an ongoing project since January. The project was originally a 10 week project however this was changed to 8 weeks due to a slight interference with the FMP. For the project ‘Interpretations’ I was given two words – surroundings and distortion – which gave me endless opportunities to explore these words and interperate them in my own way.
My first impressions when given these two words were that I thought they linked well together nicely, I imagined that almost anything in my surroundings can be distorted. With experience of having to work with the word ‘deconstruction’ I was pleased to have already had a similar experience. My main questions I were asking myself at the start of the project were if I wanted to distort images physically using photography/ Photoshop/ collage alongside a range of mediums or if I wanted to find things or locations which were already naturally distorted such as abandoned buildings. Before I began thinking too much into where I should take my project I found the best way to carry out my project was to conduct thorough research first.
In terms of my research I began looking into topics which I were interested in which was the forest fires in Australia. I gathered information of articles from the news where I began to look at statistics of deaths of animals and destroyed landscapes. I thought that If I were to focus on a subject which I had a strong interest in, this would help me engage with my project more. However, I soon realised this would be difficult especially in terms of gathering primary research sources as this topic would have been based on Australia, which isn’t in my daily surroundings. I found this topic would work better if I had more events to work with which were in my surroundings. Whilst on a day out in Leeds I was observing my surroundings hoping for any inspiration which is when I began to notice the architectural designs and structures of buildings. When looking close at the buildings, I noticed that each building was made up of a repeated pattern. I took multiple photographs for my primary research to get my started. This lead me to look at architectural photography where I found one of my main influences for my project – Nikola Olic.
Looking at Nikola Olic’s photography I noticed she had focused on fascinating building designs. Her work stood out to me as her buildings were similar to the ones I photographed in Leeds. My thoughts were that the buildings appeared distorted by the complicated designs – the buildings didn’t appear flat and in a whole form such as regular houses. This was the main starting point for when I started to involve practical work in response to Nikola Olic. My research as a whole I feel was quite limited. I think I easily made the mistake of finding a couple of artists who inspired me the most and then neglected the idea of finding more artists. I feel if I were to keep ongoing with my research and using more of a range of research techniques this would have pushed my practical work even further. In my opinion I find it hard to push my work even further when I have already settled with a few artists, however with experience in this project I have realised I need to conduct as much research as possible and never stop looking at new artists as this will ensure I never run out of ideas. For my next project to run more smoothly I will learn from this mistake. The resources used for this project focused on articles and general knowledge from the internet I do feel this limited me. For the fmp I have realised I need to be much more wider with my research such as using books, newspapers. Gallery visits is something which I missed for this project, although I took my own photographs I think I needed to be looking at a larger range of artists to make sure I was gaining the most inspiration as possible.
When creating my practical work I found a new interest for digital artwork. I have never created a digital art piece however being interested in graphic design I thought this would be a good opportunity to try and evolve my digital skills. Photoshop is a software which I have little experience with therefore I decided to push my skills and experiment with it. At first I did think it was fairly hard to use however I realised it just takes time and effort to explore the software. After a few attempts I could confidently link images together, change colours and use tools such as adding shapes into my work. This gave me the chance to manipulate my own primary photographs and begin to create digital outcomes. The outcomes could still have had more time spent developing them however for my first attempt at digital pieces I was pleased. I do think again I let myself down with my practical work as I wasn’t continuously pushing it further, I could have looked at more artists and involved this in my work even further. For this project I still wanted to explore with a range of mediums therefore I created a series of screen prints, lino prints alongside. For me, I think linking my work all together to create a final piece is difficult. For an 8 week project I don’t feel as though I explored with my materials as much as I should. MY work was no larger then A4 and I feel I should have played around with scale more as this could have enhanced my work further. My screen prints worked well with the collage work I produced, to further develop this I should have tried to link my photographs with the prints. Even though I should have definitely pushed myself further with my practical work, I am pleased that I tried new techniques and had an open mind when using different mediums.
While carrying out my practical work I have to be strict with myself such as following a strict health and safety. This means that when I use certain equipment I have to agree to put things back in a safe place, this goes for when I am using a craft knife I have to ensure the blade is down to dis-guard any danger. I have followed all health and safety rules and have not come into counter with any dangers during this project, I will continue this when carrying out my FMP and any future work.
Time management has been a big factor during this project. I have had to sit strict deadlines for myself with it being an 8 week project. To ensure I kept up to my schedule I created a weekly reflective journal which helped me reflect on the week and see what progression is being made. I did find this a helpful technique as it benefited me to be able to have a conversation with myself and figure out my next stages. My tutor did organise weekly peer review sessions however I didn’t take full advantage of this time. I have realised this could have changed my project completely and helped me generate more ideas when I felt lost. This is something I will be more strict with in my FMP and will follow the weekly peer review session. It is important to have discussions with a variety of individuals as everyone has different opinions. I do feel I let myself down on this project and found myself lacking in motivation. The main cause for this I feel was I didn’t chose a strong enough topic. I looked at the distortion of buildings however I didn’t zoom in onto a certain subject which made me lose interest for the project. The research which I had conducted weren’t enough to give me further ideas for my art work, which I should have researched more. With this being my first independent project I have realised how important it is to not fall out of interest and find a way to develop more ideas and keep going, this is something I will take onto the FMP and will not myself fall down the same route again.
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