To Sophie

Some updates on my recording project. I've just finished building it, and will post some more photos up shortly to show the final result. Not sure if I'm totally happy with it, but overall the project was interesting and really brought out peoples creative side. On Friday we went for our site presentation from South Bermondsey to London Bridge. It was awful weather, so was really hard to get involved in everyone’s work. Some of the students had some incredible pieces. My favourite by far was created and designed by my friend Miss Sophie Dunnage, who made an incredible seed machine. She put blood sweat and tears into the piece, turning up at 8am to queue to get into the wood workshop. Sophie, I would just like to say, I would be lost without you, and you’ve made my life being at Chelsea!

Synecdoche

We are all hurtling towards death

Yet here we are for the moment alive

Each of us knowing we are going to die

Each of us equally believing we wont.

Chavs

Was on the bus going to Canning Town area yesterday, and this little boy looked at me in his grey tracksuit and sucked his lips and said 'yeah what you looking at i'm gonna stamp on your face innit'. I swear he was about 8 years old. Society nowadays.

Visible Signs

Some photos I loved out of Visible Signs by David Crow.

It's true. Where there is dirt there is a system.

Roof Sex

PES. Possibly the most incredible stop motion videos ever created. I remember watching this video in my 2nd week of Chelsea. I was young. and slightly scared. Check out more of their work on Youtube

House Rules

Obviously none of which we abide

Erno Goldfinger

Part of our History and Theory work was to do a presentation on an Architect who has built his/her own house. To be honest I found it quite difficult at first because I really enjoy writing essays, and would have been quite happy to just to do it in an essay format BUT the task was for it to be a presentation without actually presenting it. My chosen Architect was Erno Goldfinger. He's one of my favourite Architects in the Modernist movement of the mid 20th century. I went to visit his house at 1-3 Willow Road in Hampstead a while back. Its incredibly advanced for the time it was built, every angle every wall is built for a purpose.

Starry Eyed

So we burst into colours, colours and carousels,

Fall head first like paper planes in playground games.

When in Bruges Jessica

The Art of Science

Last thursday our class had a lecture with one of the tutors, we were told to if possible visit the Science museum at South Kensington. The last time i went there must have been when i was about 9 years old, so a lot has changed. I have been finding it really hard to get inspired about this current project 'The Recorder', I have loads of ideas, I just am finding it difficult to approach and express these ideas through a way that will work practically and functionally. The Science museum believe it or not was incredibly helpful. The machinery mechanisms were very similar to my current idea's for my recording device, so I was able to go back and research some of the engineers that built these intricate and stunning models. Some were life size and some were scale models, and there are also some interesting vintage collectables that I liked! The first two photos is a model of a machine workshop built between 1850 and 1880, and is shows how different types of machines would receive power from line-shafts. The fifth photo down is Artwork by Enki Balil, 1986-1992, in a serious of illustrated books in France. Set in the future he shows through his drawings how technology would be in the future. i really liked his style of drawing so thought i would throw it in there! The bottom photo is a Teasing Mill, c. 1800-c. 1820, which was the machine that was used in one of the final processes in making woollen cloth-raising the pile of cloth by brushing it with the 'teazle' heads. This is a 1:8 scale model that was operated by hand. I liked this model because of way the manual operation of the mechanisms was interesting and at that time fairly advanced, until of course engineers started to move onto more advanced technology such as engine powered machines.

Heath Robinson

After having a really productive one-to-one tutorial, I was able to be pushed in the right direction. An illustrator/wacky scientist Heath Robinson has been someone that has inspired me loads in this project. I got a few books out on his work, and every page was fascinating. His designs were so crazy and humorous, it made them almost believable. Obviously none of his designs went into manufacturing, but his aim of almost taking the mick out of technological advances that were so clearly changing and adapting the world he lived in, he succeeds in this! The mechanisms that he uses I want to incorporate in my own designs, however making them functional and operational, as well as looking insane and beautiful.

Skatchy

Some very VERY rough sketchbook work. (And yes I did feel like I was 5 years old when i did the rubbings on the wall...but it had to be done).

Recording the Recorder

Today I went with Phoebe to our site again. We walked from London Bridge to South Bermondsey in the freezing cold. I have decided to do my 'Recording Device' on textures of surfaces, focusing on mostly walls rather than the ground. The only downside to my idea so far is the fact that when recording the subject it will have to be done over a long period of time, i.e. show how the growth of excrements on the walls has progressed from year to year (which is what at the moment I want my device to be able to do. I’ve done a few sketches of some machinery that would highlight this so I’ll put them up in my next entry.

What I found fascinating was the surface that was created from the weather change. It was so cold that a lot of the walls under the tunnels were completely iced over, creating an almost protective layer over the top.

The photos above don’t really look that interesting to be honest (well to me they do), but hopefully it will all make sense in time.

Knock Knock

When I was much younger our family used to go on walks round the farmland near our house, and there was this one tree that I was fascinated by. Obviously young and naive, I used to believe that it was a place where the fairy’s used to live, knocking on the door and shouting for it to open up. The keyhole that has been there for years and years has become the central point of the tree. Something so tiny and insignificant changes the way we look at something which we normally take for granted. I love it.

Stills

A few weeks ago I was recommended to watch the film ‘Hunger’, directed by Steve McQueen. Set during the 1981 IRA hunger strikes, it portrays life within prisons during these times. This film study captures the sickening environment in which prisoners were forced to live in. Steve McQueen uses very little music within the film, using the human gestures and body movements to portray the story, emphasising the simplest of noises. The lack of dialogue throughout the first half of the film is effective, allowing the audience to understand what’s happening through other ways. At one point there is continuous dialogue for just over 15minutes, with no cuts or edits, simple furniture and lighting, allowing the audience to focus solely on the dialogue (which is what McQueen clearly wanted). The use of space is reflected really well through the different camera angles; for example when the camera lunges in and out of the characters body in time with his breathing and body movements, it made me feel like I was struggling to breath like he was in the scene. Above are some stills from the film. It’s awesome and I definitely advise watching it.

A weekend in Camber Sands

Some photos from my brief and cold trip to Camber Sands. I loved the textures and surfaces that have been made over time. It interested me because it's similar to the Recorder project im starting now.