Research Tasks

Since the beginning of the course we have had a new task set weekly, to be submitted to the VLE. Each of these tasks are unique, interesting and very open assignments that leave a lot of creative interpretation to us students. The very first assignment we were given, was part of a trip we took in the first week, this trip was to the beaches and seaside towns of North Norfolk. On this trip we were each given a 12 inch piece of string, and with this string we were instructed to create and photograph at-least 4 interventions. Following this we were told to consult 4 other students on the trip to decide which of the interventions was their favourite, we then had to submit one of the interventions along with the names of the people you asked about your photos. 

From the photos I captured, the most popular one was the photo of the hangman's noose in-front of the ocean. I feel as though this photo has an immediate sense of deep emotion which is plain to see for anyone looking at it, and this is assisted by the shallow depth of field and the focus on the noose. While the photography could have been better had I used a camera better than my phone, I feel as though it still serves its purpose of evoking emotion and deep thought upon viewers.

This task was to think of 5 threshold concepts we think are important to overcome within our respective disciplines. While there is some overlap between pathways, I tried to focus on concepts that applied to Film especially. The first 3 concepts I chose all address the fact that working in film means working with others, and this is an important factor to get used to because your individual idea for what you want the outcome to be is simply improbable due to the necessity of multiple people working on one production, each of which will have their own ideas they want to input. The general implication of these concepts is that your initial idea is going to adapt and change and develop, however, you have to give up on the sentimentality of your own initial ideas and reflect objectively on the quality of the work, whether its yours or anyone else's involved in the project you're working on.

The next assignment we were given followed a workshop on drawing and illustration. While this isn't especially applicable to my pathway, I feel as though I learned a lot from analyzing other people's artwork and establishing an artist's stylistic choices that make their art unique and personal. 

The task set was to find an artist's work that we may not like or find especially interesting, Harvard reference it and then try to make our own drawings in the style of the chosen artist.

The artist I chose was Noel Fielding, I chose him because he was the artist I could think of that relates closest to my pathway and has a very unique style. I chose a couple images from an episode of 'The Mighty Boosh' and referenced them accordingly. analyzed these illustrations and identified his use of basic shapes and personified cartoon animals.

Once I had identified these aspects of his work I then set to work on interpreting them into some ideas of my own. While my drawing skills are far from Noel Fielding's standard, I feel I captured the essentials of his style in what I created.

This task demanded that we take something from our regular everyday life and alter in a way that makes it unfamiliar to us. While this task should hypothetically leave us with lots of creative freedom and possibilities, I was limited to what I could identify as something I encounter everyday that I see possibilities to manipulate. I chose my computer, as it was literally what I was staring at as I tried thinking of ideas, and while these seems like a mundane choice, my computer is something I use everyday for numerous reasons. Once I had chosen my computer, I had to think about what I could do that would make it unfamiliar, and while static also seems like mundane choice, the fact that I don't use satellite television means I haven't encountered static in years, which makes this a very outdated, forgotten occurrence which is why I chose to use it.

In the workshop, we learnt about how applying words to seemingly unrelated images can change your perception of the image or the word. We were given a heap of different magazines and were told to cut and mix and stick different images with different words and see what we could come up with. This was an interesting task as it made me think about how we visualize things differently depending on their context. Overall it was a fun experience and I am quite fond of the work that came out of the workshop. 

The assignment was word an image, and it specified that we take any object and we apply a word to it that changes the way we perceive the object.  I chose a croissant as my item because the shape of resembles a crescent moon, and I felt as though if you apply the word lunar to a croissant you don't think of it as a pastry anymore, all you can see is the crescent moon shape.

For this next task we were instructed to document a process we undergo which is something we do regularly, however we needed to make it unfamiliar and different to what we're comfortable with. At first I was unsure what to do for this task, however, as I got home from this workshop and went up to my room with my usual bowl of cereal and cup of tea, it occurred to me that this is a common process I go through that I can alter to make it more interesting. I used Karl's idea of 'skipping every fourth step on your journey to college' in my work, however I decide to instead miss every other step on the stairs, but I felt this wasn't different as that is how I climb stairs most of the time anyway, to which I decided to do it backwards as well. This process was a challenge to do, however it was interesting to go through a process I go through so often in such a unique, challenging way. In the workshop for this topic, we talked about how documenting a process can be a form of art, rather than the product of the process. We were shown Michael Landy RA and his art exhibition of him destroying all of his personal belongings, Harrison and Wood's exhibitions, and some other things. We were given an A2 piece of paper and were told to document a process involving our feet, while using as few instructions as possible. I chose to document how to do an ollie on a skateboard, which was an interesting concept as you had to think about how you show the different steps between each foot. As a writer, this required thinking a bit outside the box for me because we needed to use solely visuals to show the process.

The final task we were given followed a workshop on colour, in which we experimented with the colour wheel and various combinations of colours. It was interesting to see how different colours can affect other colours just by being next to eachother. The task was to take any image of colour, and alter it on some way to make it different. My first thought was to go with anything that is very colourful and make it black and white, however this seemed like an obvious and mundane option, so I instead decided to look at popular logos and see how changing the colours in it can change what the logo looks like and how the viewer sees it. This alteration of the KFC logo, using the colours of the McDonald's logo, while maintaining the bright attractive colours often used to sell fast food, I feel as though it gives the viewer a more welcoming impression of the establishment, compared to just red, black and white.