Fields and Frames Evaluation

Although I have worked with projects alone, I feel like this was a very different process in terms of research and development. Mainly my previous projects have been focused around what medium I want to use, rather than concept, so it was a great opportunity to explore and develop a project mainly focusing on a concept and deeper meaning.

Research was core to my project. I researched an array of subjects, from bio art to itself, to articles on evolution, the development of GMO's. I even stemmed out to body manipulations, made by artists, as well as looking at the significance of radical body manipulations within different cultures. It was important I had a strong research ground in order to support what I am trying to say within my piece.

I hit a lot of dead ends within my experiments, ones where I could not quite anchor a concept or certain meaning to what I wanted to show and ones where I just did not have the technical capabilities to create something 'good looking'. However, after experimentation I managed to find a style I was comfortable with, could stretch my abilities, while being fun at the same time. My brightly coloured, cartoon-like, fantasy style graphics have definitely been influenced by the interests such as animation films and previous projects including the reflections photography project. I used photographs that I professionally took in the studio in order to get a clear image of the face and shadows. Using shapes in photoshop I cut each part of the face, similar to cutting different colours of card to create layers, and different features. Not only did this challenge my technical skills, it also challenged my artistic skills, which have really been explored through innovation and interference this year.

Another technical skill I practiced was animation. I had never done animation before, and this was really eye opening when it came to looking at body movement, and how many frames I'd have to use to create a smooth animation. I feel I pulled of the blinking successfully, as it is smooth and subtle. The middle screen, I could of made the morph smoother. I did experiment with the morph quite at lot, firstly starting in after effects where I played with its morph add-ons but then moving on to frame by frame animation. I felt like the after effects did not look as good, and was not as smooth as I wanted. However when I did the animation frame by frame I felt it looked at lot more effective, and it allowed me to have more control of each frame and where I wanted the morph to go.

In terms of concept I had a pretty strong research ground to back up my work, however I was struggling with how to connect my sculpture to the screens, and also the deeper meaning behind this. This project was a good test for this, as I feel my previous works, although did have a concept, they lacked a deeper meaning. After decisions with several people, my meaning developed. I came to the conclusion that my work not only represents our ideas of fantasy and how in reality our fantasies may not always be achieved, but as an artist we have ideas and after experimentation we don't always get the output we want. This meaning actually really reflected the process of my project itself because I went through a lot of failure to get the output I wanted.  

My sculpture, although painful to make at times, was very interesting to make. Tape and clingfilm were great materials to use, as they were very flexible as well as cost efficient. I used about 2 rolls of clingfilm, and 8 rolls of tape to create a mould of my body. It was a good experience looking at each part of my body, as I was stretching clingfilm around it. It strangely made me very self aware of my body and its shape. 

My sculpture was originally made to stand up on its hands and knees, however when I put my sculpture in the room with the screens, I felt it looked better laying down, looking up at the screens, making it look more part of the piece. When I was setting up the installation I decided to put the light cord going through her belly button to look like she was connected to the screens, and almost being powered by them. 

The skills that I had learned in planning a gallery very much transferred to this project. I have become more aware of space and presentation, and do enjoy organising things, and making sure they look as good as possible. I was very pleased when I managed to book out room G03 as it was such a good space to experiment in, and meant I could wall mount my screens. 

With some moving about, we managed to create an exhibition space to display our works in. I do really enjoy creating installations, as it creates so many levels to the project, which could change at any stage. Although I had ideas in my head on how I wanted my installation to look like, it always changes slightly once you have all your components in the room. 

The Final Outcome!

Overall I am really happy with my outcome. I have learnt a lot during the whole unit in terms of my artistic skills, technical skills, time management and organisation skills. I like how my brain project almost connects with this one. It has given me a chance to really experiment with physical art, as well as digital art. I have learned a lot with what works for me as an artist and what does not, and although thing do not always go to plan, I've learnt to not give up. 

Fields and Frames Presentation

http://juliacowell.blogspot.co.uk/2015/02/tutorial-with-kathleen.html

http://juliacowell.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/glofish-and-gm-animals-supporting.html

http://juliacowell.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/project-development-experimentation-fail.html

http://juliacowell.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/new-style-idea-experimentation-and-peer.html

http://juliacowell.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/animating-screens.html

http://juliacowell.blogspot.co.uk/2015/04/my-sculpture.html

My Sculpture

This is version 1 of my sculpture, which is part of my installation. I hope to secure it further, and add any touch ups once it is in place with my 3 screens in G03. To achieve this I moulded my body parts using clingfilm and clear packing tape. This allowed me to really shape the contours of my body, as well as allowing it to be transparent so lights can be placed inside. 

Applying the clingfilm and tape to my body was really strange, not only did it feel odd, but it made me notice every part of my body, and its different shapes. Even though this is not the main concept, the body can greatly be explored by applying different materials to it. 

The main concept of the sculpture is to show that even though we have these fantasies and ideas, when we experiment, we do not always achieve it. This is shown through my sculptures pose, and slightly weirdly shaped body. By using tape it also allows the sculpture not to be 'perfect' , however I really like the textures it creates.

Animating the Screens

Stills from my 3 screen piece

Animation is still fairly new to me, although I know the basic methods, this still was a challenge for me, especially under standing how different body parts move and change shape. 

With my eye blinking animations I did 6 frames. I have looped the animation so that the hybrid blinks around every 15 seconds as this is the average blink rate for a person. All my screens will be looped however their actions will be at different times, as although each screen is related to each other, I still want them to be separate and unique. 

When it came to doing the third screen, this was a lot harder. I needed to think about how to morph it effectively. My first attempt of morphing was done in after effects using a online tutorial, however it did not look very good, and causes the edges of the animation to look slightly pixelated. Due to this is decided to do the morph frame by frame. Although it takes longer, and can be more frustrating,  drawing frame by frame allows you to have more control over what is happening, which was extremely beneficial to this particular project. 

Over all I am fairly pleased with my animation. I think this is something I will practice in the future, as not only is it very relaxing but in the end its extremely rewarding!

Tutorials with Vicky, Rosie and Owen

Vicky

My tutorial with Vicky really helped me decide what I am trying to achieve from my piece not just visually, but in terms of concept and personal meaning. Because I feel drawn to neither side of the argument of 'Is genetic manipulation good or bad?', and see both pros and cons in this, it has been hard to anchor a certain mood or emotion to my work. It does not glamourise the subject, nor does it represent something horrifying, but has a fantasy like feel.

Originally my piece was to create discussion rather than force opinion on the viewer, and I think I still want to hold this idea. Vicky suggested that I make the third middle screen of a full body shot, to connect/relate it to the full body sculpture I am doing. She also suggested I make the person appear in shock or 'freaked out'. After thinking about this I felt this will suggest to the viewer that GM is bad.

I then had a tutorial with Rosie & Owen to help make my concept more solid and develop and stronger meaning.


Rosie & Owen

I was having difficulties connecting my sculpture to my screen. After a discussion with Rosie and Owen, I finally come to conclusion of what the deeper meaning of my project would be.

My screens are very much fantasy based, and reflect the ideas we have.
However the sculpture will reflect reality, where not everything goes to plan, or turns out how we fantasise it. This can be reflective on not only scientific experiments, but our own work in general. Suggests the process of trying to engineer and catch up with evolution - not going to work

I was reccommended to look into Orlan. She surgically maniplulates her face for art. Within many cultures and life style choices, there are people who choose to manipulate their bodies permenantely.

New style idea, Experimentation and Peer Feedback

I got a lot of useful feedback from my peers including how I could improve the images itself. I mainly asked for feedback on my human rabbit hybrid, where the experimentation of the image developed slightly.

1st Image Output
-Did not really make much of an impact
-Height different makes the image seem a bit off
-Like the style

2nd Output
-Prefer the hybrid style
-Ear could be moved slightly to the right
-Try swapping the eyes around
-Get rid of the hair on the right
-On the right make face slightly bulged like a rabbits face

3rd Output
-I like the alternative style
-However I think I prefer the 2nd Output

4th Output

Project Development - Experimentation Fail

Sometimes I have ambitious ideas, although sound good, I come to realise that I do not have the technical skills to be able to do so.

My original idea was to take a series of photographs I had taken of the human body, and manipulate body parts to create a human-animal hybrid. Whilst doing research I noticed that there were a lot of photo morphs of humans and animals, and if I were to carry out this photography, it would not have essence of individuality nor would it make impact on the spectator. After further research  I decided how I wanted to create hybrids using an XRAY image style. Although there were tutorials on how to create an 'xray effect' on photography, I felt that it did not create the realism that I wanted. After experimenting I felt my work was not very successful, and was hard to create a successful effect.

Although this created negativity and panic, I became to realise that this is part of Fields and Frames, and what the unit itself signifies. I am constantly going through an experimentation process, whether I am successful with some experiments or not.

So taking the same concept I decided to try a style, which I feel it reflects something I enjoy doing, whilst being realistic of my technological skills. I used photoshop to create different coloured and shaped layers to make a portrait, whilst using photography that I took as a reference.

I firstly created the human version, and then animal version, with each feature in a different layer, so then I could merge them together.

My next step is to get feedback from several people. I do want to subtly animate my images so they can be put onto 3 portrait screens.