Project 1: Working with the Found Object

 

Experimentation with the concept of littering and pollution. I began exploring this idea by using some empty Dorito packets. I created the mini bag by sewing the pieces of plastic together, and I tried to incorporate different features you would find in a typical mini bag.

The idea of reusing materials is very relevant at the moment, and the intention behind the piece was to reuse something which you could typically find strewn on the street, and turn it into something practical. The transformation portrays how littering can be avoided by putting in effort to be as innovative and thoughtful with the waste as possible.

 

Artist research that links in with my chosen theme of litter and pollution. Felix Gonzalez-Torres’s ‘Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA)’ uses candies in colourful wrappers to create a simplistic and aesthetically pleasing sculpture.

 

Sketches and Final Outcomes

Initial ideas I came up with, represented by some pencil sketches. By wrapping the structure around a natural form, or even having it overflow from someone’s mouth, I feel like it would be a clear representation of excessive litter, and the disturbing idea of someone throwing up the litter would create an impact.

My friend to posing with the sculpture, and I intended for it to look like it was protruding from her mouth in an overflowing way. I then decided to try and incorporate it within nature, and the contrast between the natural and man-made materials created a stark look.

Inspired by Aideen Barry’s stop-motion video in the digital contemporary visual and digital art project ‘Changing Tracks’, I decided to create my own stop-motion video, trying to send a disturbing and solemn message about pollution.

https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/s2197141_drawn-from-the-city-2021-2022sem1/wp-content/uploads/sites/5462/2021/11/IMG_6791.mov

 

 

Project 2: Making and Breaking Narrative

Witchcraft Research: There were many historical artworks portraying witches, and a popular method was making pamphlets through woodcutting and printing onto paper. There was a hunger for tales of scandal and sex, and witches were used to fulfil this desire. All of the images I have used are from a pamphlet called ‘Newes from Scotland’ in 1591. King Jams VI believed witches tried to sabotage him with a storm when he was travelling to Denmark, therefore he tortured around 70 to 200 women in the North Berwick town alone.

Here is my first attempt at a response inspired by the historical prints of witches. I etched the image of a witch into a piece of cardboard, inspired by the method of printing through woodcutting. The first attempt wasn’t successful, so I changed my method.

Continuing with the same method, I added more figures to create a scene similar to the ones in the original pamphlets, however I wanted to reverse the roles to put the witches in power, in order to portray how irrational and deluded the men in power were.

Final Outcome

Here is the final outcome I created, utilising the same layout in the piece above, however I wanted to include more detail so I used a fine marker pen to add the line shading that was often used in the pamphlets. Overall, I am very pleased with the results, and I feel they represent how unjustified and misogynistic the men’s actions were at that time, and could even reflect how some men feel threatened or emasculated by powerful women today.

 

Project 3: Mapping the Soundscape

 

I researched a few soundscape artists, but above is Kate Mclean’s ‘Flower Explosion’, which portrays spring smells of the city in Amsterdam through a scent map, using rippling lines and colour to represent the varying scents.

 

Here is the outcome of my first Soundscape Walk through the Meadows. When I heard a sound, I started to draw a symbol which represented it, and I made a mental note of how long I could hear the sound for, and noticed how the sound changed the further away it got.

Here I planned my route and drew a brief sketch of the journey I would take. I felt the variety of areas would provide different types of sounds, and also things such as class and gender. When I made my way from my accommodation to the library, the majority of sounds I heard was transport related, for example a bike or car, however when I got into the student area I began to overhear conversations, the type of language that was used and the topics that were being discussed represented the idea that you can hear class.

 

 

Here are some initial ideas to base a resolved piece of work on, relating to sounds I have collected over this project. I recorded each of these sounds using the voice memo app, and sketched the sound waves that these noises created.

 

 

To the left are a couple of ideas for the drawing I produced, with the concept of combining the visual source of a sound and the actual sound wave. The combination for me portrays the importance of sound in art.

This is an outcome I produced using biro, including some sound waves of my own recordings I took in the city. I tried to incorporate both the physical and sound, by sketching what I imagine the source of the sound looked like.

 

Final Outcome

IMG_6863

https://kapwi.ng/c/m4fUcoJ0u9

The first stop-motion video is made with charcoal, and is supposed to replicate the flowing of sound through the air. I felt by adding this to the drawing would create a sense of a journey and the sound moving around the viewer. The sounds incorporated with the piece represent each feature of the drawing. The quality isn’t as high as I would like it, however if presented in a gallery, I would project the video onto a wall and have the sound clip playing in the background.

Dec 7, 2021