Wednesday 28 January 2009

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=6bvu676UZCE&NR=1

I love the cutout style of this piece. It work really well with the linear black and white drawings. MAybe for my identities project I could design an animation/ film to my favourite song? 

Metropolis 1927


"The Heart Is The Meteor Between The Head And The Hands"

Personally, although I don't have much film knowledge for this era I think Metropolis is a master piece. I how the troubles of Germany were expressed through the over exaggerated emotion, the clothing, the text etc. For instance the clothing united the workers and separated the boss but most importantly it showed you who the heart of the film was- the son. Dresses in white and always sensitive to what was going on in his society he was what united all the classes. It symbolised the problem of the time, that Germanys  society had to unite to beat Hitler.

1) There can be no understanding between the hands, the heart and the head.
Every part of the film says there is an understanding. The son, acting as the heart reflected what the people needed, a saviour. The community needed to be strong against the powerful, rich forces that I think represent Hitler. Also The son represented their heart because of his vivid over expressions,and wiliness to give up everything to join them.
2) In some ways the film can be seen as a flash presentation.
Some parts of the film reflect this through the text acting as symbols for what is going to happen e.g. the text goes down the scene when its talking about the working class whereas it goes up the scene if its talking about the upper class. In one scene the text oozes blood when one of the characters is in trouble.
3) Technology is evil.
Technology is just a tool that could have been used for good or evil however without that technology Hitler would not have been able to cause as much damage to the world at that time. Also many people probably would've died making the technology of that time. On the other hand there a predictions of the future of what a city would be like and the people ruined it. 

The message is That if you use your brain and hands to filter it through your heart it will be good and wholesome.

In later years, way into the future this film was an influence for films like the matrix (as far as the technology theme goes)

Tuesday 27 January 2009

Curiosty cabinet presentation ideas

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=jlx2yEM_ikM&feature=related

This interactive book has given me the idea to maybe have a book opening and revealing the faces of my character?

Monday 26 January 2009

The real thing vs the imaginary

http://blog.futurelab.net/2008/04/your_avatar_can_how_go_partyin.html

I found this image on a website advertising marketing, innovation and design. I found this image VERY STARTLING. It gave me a new thought on how avatar really are a reincarnation of themselves. They can give some people hope like this little boy who is too ill to live his life the way he deserves to. People all over the world, in all shapes and form use this website application to burn their face onto an avatar. Its called 'Burn Alter Ego' who are said to give people the 'freedom to maximize your social life beyond reality.' Apparently it allows your to create your own account to work with face book, the burn alter ego (much like second life,) etc...

Personally, I think that in situations like that little boys it is one of the remedies that will give him hope. He's built his identity through the troubled experiences he's had by building a tough warrior outfit.

New York Times

New York Times

These are two photographic collages created for the NewYork times. they were created to reflect the changing of pop culture. How we can show the world how we'd like to look in our fantasies. It brings up the question what is our true identity? Is the person we see in the mirror who we really are? 

Sunday 25 January 2009

Character sheets

Mickey Mouses representation of Disney through a famous logo. When Disney isn't written on a film etc they use Warhols  famous pop art technique to represent their company through a symbol.



Every one around the world reconises the classic mickey/ minney mouse character. They were created 80years ago to star as a cheerful rodent in white gloves for fantasia. The white gloves and his friendly face became this trade mark. World wide Mickey was soon known as the ambassador of Disney representing the company all over the world. It is known that Mickey mouse is they character that reflects Walt Disney himself; they both started out mischeivous and cheeky bit with age they prefered to step out of the lime light to witness others work.

When people see Mickey mouse they see happiness in any place, in any culture.

http://www.awn.com/tooninstitute/lessonplan/model.htm
This is a good cartoon sheet to explore all of the dimension of cat woman and to look into detail of how you want to present her. The uniform is her identity. It sleek, it's sexy and it's stunning. All the traits (appearance wise) you want form a female supper hero.
Http://www.highend.com/3dsmax/

Also I like this character sheet purely for the different expressions therefore you would know how she would react in different situations. I would like to incorparate this type of character design into my work as you would feel like you are getting to know the character from all angles

Saturday 24 January 2009

Second life


I typed in Sherwood Forest to compare real life with second life and it came up with this 'kinky'/ castle area with woman advertised. Also under sherwood forest sex was the first thing it came up with. What are they trying to say about nottingham?! Again going back to identities they have almost completely changed the identity of sherwood forest to make it into some ones fantasy. it fits into the 2 ways you can go when you create your own world/avator. You can create something true to real life or something completely different.


I looked up ChinaTracy's land and it was nothing that it is advertised as. It wasn't coverd with fireworks etc and exciting as everyone made it out to be. There was sewage everywhere. I would've thought there would be nothing like that in second life to make it as desirable as possible. After all its meant to be an escape for people. Who wants to escape to a sewer.

Friday 23 January 2009

It's all about the lego...

My Lego Creation
By Gayr Stares
Photography By Sarah Trundle (flat mate)

I've had an idea in my head about creating a piece of work based using lego men for my ID project for a while. The idea first came about when one of my flat mates did a photoshot with them (see above.) 

The idea is about me making sacrifies when you loose friends through travel, different personalities etc and making peace with the idea that relationship in your life will always change. This happens throughout your life so I wanted to represent it through objects that everyone can relate to- lego men. They're simple and  everyones enjoyed them at some point. 

Photoshop characters

REFLECTIVE CHARACTER- this photo that I took of myself and altered in photoshop is a representation of the reflective side of my nature, where I go to when I am in deep thought. Images and sound spill out of my head making me who I am today.
 
PASSIONATE CHARACTER- This photo represents my feminity. It is also a factor that might make my work different in the male dominated world of multimedia. I tried to take a photo that would make my eyes the focus to show my thoughtful, passionate natures towards people in my life and my passions such as animation/illustration. 

HAPPY CHARACTER- what else can I say. 

Thursday 22 January 2009

Pixilation animation

http://ukyoutube.com/watch?v+R-7zko_HMIE

I liked the suttle humour of this piece. It made me laugh through the boys angry face at how he was getting beaten up by a puppet therefore becoming the puppet. I liked the illustrative animation style as it made it feel more personal and child friendly.


This animation inspired me to play around with drawing in my pixilation piece as the faces are full of character even though they are linear drawings. Also I like how well it goes with the music and it traditional character (through the drawing.)




Tuesday 20 January 2009

Second life- Vanity

I made my character fat to see what it looks like but the body just blew up and disappeared. Was that meant to happen? If it is, is it trying to send out some weird message to the world?
I thought about second life on a basic level today. What is its purpose? Why are people so attracted to it. Identity that's why. You can be who you want to be with out causing any disruption to your daily life. You can look how you want to look in a blink of an eye. That is the aspect I explored today. I wanted to change my appearance to suit how I really am but I messed around with being fat, thin, yellow, tall. I can see the attraction but I still think its setting people up for disappointment in real life- it definitely not that easy to change. 
 
On the other hand they had less individual application. Second life gave me a list of greetings. They're really cheesy and quite stereotypical. In my opinion it doesn't give your character much individuality. it's as if the conversation start with a cast that you have to fit into. 
The last few weeks at uni have really got me thinking about what I'm going to specialise in next year, especially with that essay coming up. My first thought was animation as it looks like the most creative course that I can use my drawing skills for and make everything from scratch. I make make it entirely mine. I also thought about AV design but I need to learn more about the topic. To help make my final choice I have started to look at a the second and final year blogs (so far Ed and Troys.) Also I am going to look at examples of animation, films, anything at all related to multimedia that takes my interest so that I can see what attracts me the most. 

Looking into the future a bit more I love the idea of working for an advertising company or creating adverts typical of E4 so I am going to look into production companies in the Nottingham area. I am going to see what work that they do, especially work that relates to my own work. Hopefully the research that I do into the companies will lead me to some summer work.

My First Animation Experience


This is my first animation experience. I really enjoyed it and it was a lot easier than I thought it'd be (at this stage but I'm sure it'll get much harder!) I'm looking forward to exploring the different application to make my aviator etc. I'm going to look at youtube and the tuitorials on 3Dmaxx to improve my skills. I'm going to start off small to get to grips with the program and gradually develop the complexity of the object. 

Sunday 18 January 2009

Scrambled Faces

http://uk.youtube.com/watchv=9dh2ghiwJWO

This is a link to an interactive piece that inspired my face scrambling idea. 'Reface' is a video match that is triggered by blinking. It builds up it's faces with each person that takes part, adding them to their data base. Evidently it is based on the exquiste corpse game (see previous post.) One of the best things about it is that the person doesn't have to align their face with the camera. It is triggered by blinking so it moves onto the next group portrait.

My favourite thing about this is how well the images blend in in together to make a new character. I want to use this technique for my idea to make different characters of my identity.

Friday 16 January 2009

Review

Today I had my review and Simon pointed out something that might help as I want to explore my idea about scrambling faces and getting new identities.


This is a children's book that is split into three segments to reveal different characters. There are 10 animals that can transform into 1000 beasts with new identities. Bright, bold colour are used to depict their characteristics. Each illustration has an educational paragraph to go with it. 

Personally I like it because the books identity becomes very diverse, leading the children through both the real world of animals and an imaginary one.


This is an interactive version of the corpse game. although it isn't as bright and colourful as the book I like the way the faces change expression in a bold way. All the cylinders can be rotated to make the different faces. Apart from its facial features my favourite part is the bold difference in colour of the background and facial features because it makes them stand out.

My identity ideas


I did a brainstorm to work out what identities means to me. I found that one of the things that intrigues me the most is the difference between brand identity and personal identity...

Each advert I looked out promoted a certain way you should be and if you are like that you will automatically have "Bags of self confidence." This collage helped me develop some ideas but I also did a more personal collage made up of different drawing and objects that are important to me.


I came up with 3 ideas-
1) A face (probably mine to represent myself as a brand/personal identity) sectioned off into the mouth, eyes, section of the head etc. Each would be in a box that the audience can interact with to get a different story, e.g. the mouth would have a filmed interview, the eye would have a pixilation inside (dark image- what am I? who am I?)....

I have an extended idea of this. Instead of being just one face there would be 4 and each one would represent a different personality. Also you could choose which face you want as they would scramble around until you stopped it. Again each facial feature would have a different story.

2) My second idea is a more literal translation of a cabinet. I would have a cabinet with a number of books, a passport, cards and a letter. Each one would be interactive and link to a part of my life. It would all start with an introduction,maybe a pixilation of my journey to cabinet.

3) Finally, my last idea at the moment is to have a curiosity cabinet represented by a room. There would be a number of objects that you can pick up and look at, as if you are sneaking around someones room. Certain objects would trigger music, others would trigger the film to go with it.


 
Idea one
Idea one extended.


Thursday 15 January 2009

Active day in second life

A safari going wrong... there was nothing there. I thought it would've been cool to see some animated creatures!
Mischa Foxclaw went on a rollacoaster and got a few tips about second life from this creepy looking creature. I think the fun fair was good but you had to pay for a lot of the stuff and lets face it I haven't got the money to waste in second life. The ride was good but would've been better if you could move faster and in more directions.
Aww how romantic...
I worked out how to do more than just walk about I could sit down. Yay!

Wednesday 14 January 2009

Second life

A day out in the forest- I climbed a mountain in less than 5 secs. 


Then I flew a helicopter. Something I've always wanted to do in real life but never had enough cash. It was quite good. i liked spinning round and round. Also it was good swapping the view to see the interior and exterior of the helicopter.



I explored second life a bit to see what uses it has within the world apart from games. Big companies use it for meetings as email has become unreliable in comparison. For this I think it is an ideal solution, bringing the world closer. The same system is used in education- modern learning or what?!

Tuesday 13 January 2009

My Mood Board

This is an important collage to me because it reflects emotions and qualities that are important to me. Also I think they can all be shown through the eye. To be cliche- the window to the soul.

Back To London


The Serpentine Gallery

My favourite exhibition so far has been Highway to India. I found it really inspirational. One of the mixed media installations that stood out to me is Ghost/ Transmemoir by Bose Knishnamachari. He explores the transitions period and impermanence that is part of Mumbai's culture today. Personally it stood out because each TV was an individual piece of art work but they were all united with one voice to me it symbolised the growing character, growth in technology and socially. It gave me the idea to use special objects joined together with one theme (in my curiosity cabinet.) The theme could represent a side I don't reveal in every day life.

Another piece I liked was a striking film called The lighting testimonies by Amar Kanwar. To me is shouted power and sexuality but surprising from an Indian female. He intertwines threads of society- politics, gender, philosophical and religious opinions. What stood out to me was the way he approached this through tribal chants from a women with the camera faced beneath her it gave her almost a natural look of God with the trees in the background. I also liked it because not any pieces of Indian art work I have seen have addressed woman so directly. It is a sign that their culture is developing.


We went to one last gallery called ArtproJX to see My Blood Self by Grace Ndiritu. It was one of the most disturbing yet intriguing exhibitions I have seen so far. At first I considered her work to be a bit sick because she paints in her own blood, some of it was still shining wet on the page but then I saw her film The Dolls Day. The music in the background made me tense and unsure. It was set in a phobic room the Mother dressed in pure white, Grace (the daughter and artist in grey.) She was clearly impure. There was sexual content and violence which confused left me wondering even more. What's going on with these people??? This was better than any horror film it actually sparked up some emotion in me, even if it wasn't good emotion. That said after watching it I had an idea to make the focus of my curiosity cabinets dark- really get into the depths of what isn't on the surface. It could involve objects that remind me of people that spark of different emotion. 

Second life-again

I thought I'd try something new else apart from walking around trying to work out second life. I started to get the equipment together for a skydive (definately doesn't compare to real life...) but the instructer was really helpful as it there was a bit more to it than I thought. I had to collect a chute that got sent to me in an email- random!

I thought I'd give her less of a pout and carry on messing around with her facial features.

My aviator mellowed out abit and went for a look at an art gallery. Nothings changed through I still couldn't afford the art. I liked the detail in the graphics of the painting. It could've been a real photo.

London Trips



I haven't been to London in over a year and in the last week I've been twice! Today's trip went a lot better (as far as looking at art goes,) I mean it's free so why not?! Anyway last week I paid a visit to an exhibition called Dispersion. It was a pointless trip. We got lost and when we got there there was only 3 rooms to look at, not forgetting the corridor. 

Dispersion was about bringing international artists together to present a show based on film, photography, video and performance. My favourite was the above photography work by Anne Collier because of her bold approach to gender and sexuality through facial/ body features. This emphases the way we look and see as she shows as what we are most drawn to as humans. Wat we crave when we look at another human being. I also like the fact that she photographs film posters as well as 'normal' people because it compares how we'd like to be seen (brand identity) and how we are see (personal identity.) 

On the other hand I hated the rest of the exhibition, in particular Hito Stererl's work. Stererl's work is based on an artist's search for a photo of herself as a bondage model. I thought this was pointless film of her looking through book, describing porn. The film didn't grab me and make me want to watch more I just got bored of her talking about what book she's going to look at next.
 

Friday 9 January 2009

Budapest, 2007.
This curiosity cabinet stood out to me not because I like it but because its brutally bold. no other cabinet I have seen is like this. It is a symbol of their brutal culture and society. Although I don't like it as art I think it is a startling way to show what your culture is like.


Every Little girl remembered the little mermaid and all her trinkets. I like this one because it reminds me of how I was as a kid. I used to have a little box of things that were important to me- a photo of my best friend that moved away, a plastic Disney ring, a few of my drawings of me and my family etc. 

This is one of my favourites because of its lay out. I like how it is all linked but through the composition of the bird yet it is separated. I could make the separated bits into links?

I've started to look at more curiosity cabinets. I really like the simple layouts as I can make them bolder and draw peoples attentions to certain aspects such as an animated logo. I have also come up with more ideas that I have started to put into a sketch book but I need to buy a scanner so these pics will have to wait! 

As well as an animated logo I though of making the eye a link to some personal work such as photography etc ( I'm still thinking of what I can link that to.) I was going to make the mouth a link, possible to a film of an interview of me to tell a more realistic story. Also I was thinking of making each side of the head a link so that one side could be an animation/ interactive narrative to do with my childhood. I think my childhood and my family background is an important part of what has shaped me today. (different ethnic influences- grandad= Nepalese, dad= NZ mixed in with living in England. 

I have also started to look at brand identity vs personal identity. I have found with brand identity, especially for women that we are represented with an image of beauty as our ideal (magazines.) By giving us that ideal in everyday life people are reminded of a brand such as Gucci or Dior by these beautifully presented women. It almost suggests that by buying that product you will turn into them. I have taken this on board when it comes to making my own curiosity cabinet as it will be like presenting a brand, an image that they will associate with you. I thought when I create an aviator I will design as I see my inner self that has a darker edge. It will show how different peoples perceptions of you can be.

Tuesday 6 January 2009



I have found an amazing photographer on the Internet. It has nothing to do with my work at the moment but I thought his use of colour makes a great impact. I love the contrasting colours that give the house an isolated feel against the vast sky. The photography is by Troy Paiva. The photography is always taken at night, which allows him to find these barren objects. He plays with the "painting with light technique." Troy uses techniques such as over exposure times, flash, natural light and coloured gelatin. So far these two photos are my favourite because of the use of light and dark with the colour. The light and dark tones create a feeling of space.

Friday 2 January 2009

Second life diary-day 1



After a bit of a Xmas break I've started looking at second life. To be honest second life isn't my kind of thing. Although I am passionate about multimedia and how it is changing the world my first thought on interactive games like second life is that they are a load of S***. I think the best way to live life is to experience with your own eyes to get a real appreciation for the world we live in. However I can see how it benefits some people that may not have the resources to travel to these places for the experiences second life offers. Also second life can be good for certain types of personalities.

Once I started playing second life my opinion has changed a bit because it's new to me and leaves me wondering how to navigate this new world that man kind have created. The first thing that I did was chat to an Argentinian guy who was also new to it. To me it felt kind of awkward but I guess I could say anything and it wouldn't really matter. Whose really going to know it's me. That is the beauty of second life. you can express through these human graphics who you'd like to be. I was more interested in creating a character than anything else. I wanted to choose a character that was so far away from what I was really like that I could change it into any part of my 'personality.' By doing this I was inspired by the graphics to create my own aviator. I want to find a middle ground where I can express more of my own personality as hopefully I can learn how to make it form scratch. I would change the hair, clothes, eyes etc to symbolise the style and personality of me as a person and brand. 

One other thing that stood out to me was that real world issues where brought to my attention, such as rubbish. One of the first things I came across was a recycling symbol so in a way treat second life as you'd treat you real life or learn from it.