Ideas Generation: Creative Media/Digital Arts - Chapbook - Story of Honey

 This term I will create a small chapbook which will be the the other half of a story I wrote last year.  Last year I created 'The Story of Milk'  this year I would like to create 'The Story of Honey'.  This will use text and image and I will use a mixture of my own images/stock images (some of the this story is based in America) I will use all original text so I will writing drafts and redrafting while taking and sourcing images.

I attempted this previously but did not manage to complete this so I really would like to explore this story again.  At the heart of the story is St Jude who is the Saint of Hope in that he deals in the impossible or difficult cases.

St Jude

The Story of Honey is about a young man who is studying St Jude and needs to connect with subjects who are using St Jude as an intercessor to their cause through a Novena (nine days of prayer).  Honey starts his journey working in a bar in America and he is embark on a Journey to England where he eventually may meet 'Milk' from my first story.

I will write this in a fairly easy style with short chapters - I will look at writer such as Mil Millington and Malcolm Bradbury

Mil Millington (2003) Things My Girlfriend and I Have Argued About

Mil Millington writes humourous books which show the human condition, as I have enjoyed his ouvre and have all his books at home this will be useful to look at style and language and consider my target audience.

Malcom Bradbury worked and wrote about working in an East Midlands University in the 1970s (times have definitely changed) his now classic books have a more in-depth style but also are humourous an light-hearted 

Malcolm Bradbury in 1981. Photograph: Alan Howard

Bradbury dies in 2000 but was a 'Prolific novelist and critic renowned for his wry observations of academia and his support for new talent through creative writing courses' (Harvey Wood, 2000)  I enjoy Bradbury as perhaps like Barbara Pym he writes of an England that no longer exists, an academia that has changed beyond recognition (even to when I studies at University) it was not much different from Bradbury as I also was at an East Midlands university that used be a polytechnic.

Again here I will study the style, language and audience as I write my own narrative.

References

Harvey Wood, H. (2000) Obituary: Sir Malcolm Bradbury, The Guardian. Guardian News and Media. Available at: https://www.theguardian.com/news/2000/nov/28/guardianobituaries.education (Accessed: January 24, 2023). 

The Exchange: Interior Architecture

 For my own self-study shoot, I chose to do the Interior Architecture of my own building.  I live in The Exchange Building in Leicester which used to be the old post office exchange. The building has an interesting history and was at the heart of communication systems in Leicester.  Also, it was the first Drive-In Post Office; 'On 11 December 1959, the United Kingdom’s first drive-in post office opened. It was situated at the new Wharf Street Branch Post Office under the centre archway of the Wharf Street Telephone Exchange building in Leicester, which had a private road running through it.' (Todd, 2013).  The reason I chose to shoot this though was not the building's history as such but personal history, My father bought my flat for me in 2015 and although he hated it and wanted me to have a nice house somewhere, this is the place I love the most, my flat is my place of safety and comfort and for all its flaws I really love this place.  

The Exchange, 4th Floor Stairway

F3.5, 1/640, ISO 100. 0Step, 14mm

I wanted to shoot the interior architecture as I have spent much time photographing the Leicester streets and I thought this would be a little different.  I used My Olympus OMD Mark II. I shot in Black and White, high quality and in RAW and jpeg. These are my contacts from the shoot.

F3.5, 1/100. ISO 100, 0 Step, 14mm

I like this shot as you can see the street below and the leading line through the stairs and the road, takes you on a journey through the shot.

F3.5, 1/60, ISO 100. 0 Step, 14mm

Really enjoy the curves and shapes on this top-down shot of the stairway, the repeated pattern really makes this work 

F3.8, 1/50, ISO 100, 17mm

This shot I enjoyed the way the light hit the cracks on the floor and the eye drew you to the window.

 

F5.6, 3/5, ISO 500, 14mm

I struggled with the light in the basement however I got some good shots of the peeling painting, the concrete walls, and the lines.

Really liked many of the images I took on this shoot, and will be looking more closely at these for portfolio.  I think that interior/exterior shots will work well together for this.

References

Todd, L. (2013) The first drive-in post office in the United Kingdom, The British Postal Museum & Archive blog. Available at: https://postalheritage.wordpress.com/2013/02/04/the-first-drive-in-post-office-in-the-united-kingdom (Accessed: January 23, 2023). 

Urban Landscape: Cultural Quarter Trip

 We visited the cultural quarter in Leicester to explore urban landscape photography. As we were looking at Micheal Wolff and Thomas Struth, I was considering Leading lines (like Struth) in my images I wanted to show some architectural close-ups but I do like the city and Wolff's Architecture of Density which I also tried to exemplify in some of my own work. Leicester, of course, has its own character and identity and this I wanted to explore and show through looking through the lens at Leicester!

Thomas Struth, Bernhardstrasse 2, Leipzig, 1991

I used a Canon 700D for the shoot, beginning with settings around ISO 200, Aperture priority. These are the contacts from teh shoot

For this shoot I used both color and black and white and I think there are some shots that really work well, we were blessed with a cold but very sunny day which really enhanced these. 

F5.6, 1/1000, 55mm, ISO 200

This was looking at architectural density I liked this image from the Phoenix

F5.6, 1/4000. ISO 200, 55mm

and this image from the BT Tower - I can see this from my windows at home

F4, 1/40, ISO 200, 24mm

I liked this shot, the dirt of the pipe the dirty water glistening in the sun, the pavement below...

I will looking further at these shots next week for portfolio but this gives an idea of the shots I will be working with

Traces: Ana Mendieta

 Ana Mendieta (November 18, 1948 – September 8, 1985) was a performance artist who used photography, mixed media, film, and painting in her work.  Mendieta created challenging work such as 'Rape Scene' (1973) that challenged the viewer to experience uncomfortable truths the piece; 'was created in response to a brutal and highly publicised rape and murder of a nursing student, Sara Ann Otten, by another student in March 1973. The following month Mendieta invited her fellow students to her apartment where, through a door left purposefully ajar, they found her in the position recorded in this photograph, which recreated the scene as reported in the press. Some time later, Mendieta recalled that her audience ‘all sat down, and started talking about it. I didn’t move. I stayed in position for about an hour. It really jolted them.’ (Tate: 2023)  Here, in the image there are broken items on the floor, a suggestion of domestic violence, the woman is leaned over the table she is dehumanised by not having an identity, she becomes just a body as the rapist might see her.  It looks like blood on the womans bottom and thighs again suggesting abuse.  The evidence around the scene and the woman's body are traces of the abuse of a man.  In my own work on 'traces' I used the doll in this same position, abused, dehumanised, highlighting that outcomes for rape are now worse than ever and women's rights are going backward not forward, we are in a time of crisis.

Rape Scene (1973) Ana Mendieta

Ana Mendieta's Silueta series Mendieta uses nature and becomes part of the earth. Mendieta clearly felt a depp connection to the earth with and through her body and this series exemplifies her feeling '[Mendieta's] Silueta (Silhouette) series (begun in 1973) used a typology of abstracted feminine forms, through which she hoped to access an “omnipresent female force.”'(Guggenheim; 2023) In the first image, Mendieta becomes the earth, the tree appears to be growing from her and her body is entwined within the branches and leaves.  Her face is obscured as in this she is all woman, with a spiritual connection to the earth.

Silueta Series, Untitled  (1973-79) Ana Mendieta

Silueta Works in Iowa (1976-78) Ana Mendieta

In the second image, Mendieta camouflages herself against the tree, it is almost animalist and in nature, they are also about identity and place in the world, Brough states that; 'Mendieta’s earthworks occupy a liminal space between presence and absence'  (Brough:2020).  In my own work, I play with presence and absence, and as a woman often we can feel invisible and 'absent' from life as if we have been eliminated.  Mendieta resonates with women as they understand what it is to disappear, to not be seen or to be seen but in the wrong way, an identity thrust upon us by man, society.  Mendieta's work should be meditated upon and considered deeply her presence/absence in these images highlights womans' existence.

References

Tate (1973) 'untitled (rape scene)', Ana Mendieta, 1973, Tate. Available at: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artworks/mendieta-untitled-rape-scene-t13355 (Accessed: January 22, 2023). 

Brough, J. (2020) This artwork changed my life: Ana Mendieta's "silueta" series, Artsy. Available at: https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-artwork-changed-life-ana-mendietas-silueta-series (Accessed: January 22, 2023). 

Untitled: Silueta Series (no date) The Guggenheim Museums and Foundation. Available at: https://www.guggenheim.org/artwork/5221 (Accessed: January 22, 2023). 

Advert Practice Piece: Pixlr

 

On Pixlr, I opened the software online and the created a new canvas for my advert A3 portrait with a white background.  I did this by just clicking on 'Create New' then I chose 'Print' A3 in the presets and then I added a name and background of white

I downloaded one image from Unsplash to practice my advert this is the image

Next I added my image to my canvas I did this by clicking on select and then select all, then copy and then I clicked back into the canvas and clicked on edit and then paste.  Then as my canvas was larger than my image I cropped my canvas by clicking on the crop tool, adjusting to create a small border and then I hit return and my canvas and image are ready.

I used Tailor Brands to create a logo.  My company is called 'Donkey Delight' as it is a Donkey Sanctuary.  This is the final outcome

I snipped the logo from Tailor Brands and I uploaded this by opening it on Pixlr and then I used the move tool to put it in the left hand corner.  I also lowered the opacity by clicking on the layer and then the three dots on the right hand layers box and then lowered the opacity using the slider

I created a text layer by clicking on the text tool in the right hand menu and then added a text layer, I used the text tools in the top menu to change the font to Gustavo 135pts and I changed the colour to white and made it bold to stand out on my advert.

This my final advert 

Reflection - this is a good practice however in the real advert I will improve on the text on image so that it is clearer to read and create a better tagline for my product. 

Formable Traces: Final Piece

 To finalise my piece I put together my images on Photoshop, I used a black canvas andjust slightly adjusted teh curves to ensure the image had a little pop. 

I played with this final pice on the Deep Dream AI generator and I asked for this in the style of Nan Goldin.  The generator created this from my images...

Reflection

I enjoyed taking these images, I think last term I worked with the doll and continuing this through these images was interesting as a continuation of the experiences of woman.  I like the black and white and the message.  I would obviously reshoot these to maybe improve them if I was to use this again for anything however for this short exercise I actaully as very pleased with the result.  I have also been experimenting with the AI images and I enjoyed very much the image the AI generated from my final images here - an interesting result - a couple in a caravan resulted from the domestically abused doll!  I I do enjoy the strangeness of the creation!

I evolved the image further and this is what was created...

My disembodied dolls become whole..

Creative Media Production: Photography Flash Task

 To begin the two-week photography project we looked at camera settings and functions and completed a 'flash task' in session to practice using the camera before going out on Friday to create Urban Landscape images.  

In this session, we looked at other artists who had used the idea of Traces of themselves or others in images, with the idea that e we would do this to create a piece showing photographic trace in the world or of someone else.  Ana Mendieta's work is a good example of this and I will be exploring her work through research in my next post.

Ana Mendieta, Imágen de Yágul, 1973/2018. Color photograph. © The Estate of Ana Mendieta Collection, LLC. Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.

After considering the work of Annika Von Hauswolff, I based my image ideas for this short class task on this, I liked the idea of the balloons and used this to experiment with.

Annika Elisabeth von Hausswolff, Attempting to Deal with Time and Space, 1997/2001

I used the Canon 700D for these images and initially set the camera to ISO 400, F4, 1/200.  I also shot these, for the most part in black and white.  Below are my contact sheets, I ended up with around 139 images.

Following on from last term the doll images here actually turned out to be most successful, so after experiments with my body parts, I tried the doll as I was working alone this worked well and I had an idea of how I would put these together.  Below are some of the images: 

ISO 400, F5, 1/20, -1 exposure compensation, FL 20mm

I quite liked this image with my big balloon-obscured face and the boots in the background, this fitted the brief and it did show me without showing me...

The following images were ISO 400, F5.6 exposure time ranging from 1/10 to around 1/30 and exposure compensation ranging from -0.3 to -1 

The doll in these images looks as if she is being abused in some way, certainly used incorrectly, positioned awkwardly, and exposed to the world.

I like this with shoe just falling off the foot, the slight blur with the movement 

The legs and skirt here work well and the hand, all with no face showing, objectifying the doll and making her more vulnerable in the images

I think this is my favourite image with the hand as it does leave the viewer guessing as to what is happening here, where is the hand reaching to or is she falling...

I will put these together for a final piece and see if I can create the story through these 'trace' images