AIM AND PURPOSE
The aim of this unit is for learners to explore the features of their chosen specialist field in art, craft and design by investigating the associated materials, techniques and processes.
INTRODUCTION
This project is about developing core skills of researching and responding. The field trip to London or Amsterdam is the main event around which your investigation will revolve. The aims and objectives are to generate personal work, from your own experience, to end up with a series of images or moving image that evidences a narrative.
Practitioners in the fields associated with Lens-Based Media have generated work that is distinctive and personal by constantly reflecting and evaluating their methods and ways of making still image or moving image and trying to use media in inventive and experimental ways in response to that reflection. The confidence a successful Photographer has in the use of a personal language lies in the creative development of personal themes and ideas aligned with an experimental attitude. The area of Lens Based encourages an open-ended exploration of ideas to move toward a personal identity, alongside the realisation that you may have to, sometimes, work with the challenge of a set brief. In this (nearly) 5 week project you have the opportunity to develop your own ideas, themes, identity within the framework of a set brief. The themes in this brief are meant to build on the ‘I am Here’ and ‘Environment’ projects and require you to scrutinise your surroundings to uncover or unpick what you are seeing and experiencing.
It is a project about seeing in an holistic sense. Getting a bigger picture of what is happening around us. It requires research; contextual, so you know who the influential practitioners are, in your area of specialism; historical, so you understand why something is the way it is, visual; so you have a lot of visual ideas to reference, discuss and experiment with in the studio.
SUMMARY OF LEARNING OUTCOMES
On completion of this unit a learner should:
1 Understand the characteristics of the specialist field
2 Be able to investigate specialist materials and techniques
3 Be able to record investigations about the properties of specialist materials and techniques.
UNIT CONTENT
NARRATIVE
Many artists and designers make work that engages a viewer by telling a story.
Narrative is a word used to describe a way of communicating ideas in a sequence or it can be in a single image or in the context of an image. Narrative can be evidenced in many different ways. But It is absolutely vital to realise that;
your story (or narrative), your life, your experiences are essential for making art.
Weeks 1 and 2 of the project are about finding strategies for recording your surroundings, understanding the value of what is happening around you and how it can work for you in the production of art.
Week 3 is the Field Trip, where those strategies are put into practice.
Weeks 4 and 5 are an opportunity to develop this raw material (your research) to produce a substantial outcome communicating exciting, experimental and thoughtful narratives.
Your outcome can combine any media(s), be any format, any scale!
AIMS & OBJECTIVES
To extend contextual research skills
To extend and develop core skills for recording and responding to an environment
To demonstrate the ability to experiment with ideas, concepts and media
To show complexity in composition, sequence and story-telling
To produce a complex, sophisticated final presentation (outcome)
ASSIGNMENTS
Modern life (P1, M1, M2)
Take a little time to think about the title of the project. Your response– what you produce in the allotted time– has to be;
a combination of what Modern life means to you (your interpretation/research of that concept and ideas around it) and what you experience, what you gather, in terms of information, here and on the field trip. The location of the field trips, huge, busy important global/international cities, is going to profoundly influence what you make.
Think of the following ideas and concepts in relation to your visits to Amsterdam or London.
What is important in Modern Life?
Social Networks?
The City and the Banks?
Communications and the Media?
The way we interact?
What we produce?
What we consume?
The way we move around the city?
How important is the way we dress?
What can we say about what we eat?
The way we express our individuality?
What is the importance of work?
What is the importance of family?
What is our relation to the past?
And how important is our past?
What is our relation to God or anything spiritual?
Are you worried about modern morals and manners?
What is interesting or important about the spaces we live in?
How happy are we?
Research and context on Amsterdam and London (P1, M1, M2)
Despite the prominent part Amsterdam and the Netherlands play in the global economy, Amsterdam is a city that has accommodated the individual voice in surprising ways.
Edward Soja says that Amsterdam has ‘repressive tolerance’ and ‘flexible inflexibility.’
The Dutch make the most of the little spaces. He says Amsterdam consists of ‘highly regulated urban anarchism.’ What does he mean by that? Research this by reading the article posted on myUCA
The Dutch make the most of the little spaces. He says Amsterdam consists of ‘highly regulated urban anarchism.’ What does he mean by that? Research this by reading the article posted on myUCA
Earlier I talked about narrative. To understand your environment and what interests you within that you need to know a little about it. Amsterdam is an odd place. It is very subtle, it looks ‘nice’. The Centrum is pretty. You feel like you know it– you will have seen images of it before (in Modern Life we know a lot about things we have not experienced). Once you get there, how do you see past the obvious (think ‘coffee’ shops, canals, tall houses, clogs, tulips and so on).
Narrative is a series of links that make a sequence. That sequence can be clear and ordered to make a film like ‘In Bruges’ for instance, or loose and more atmospheric;
like Gareth McConnells images of flowers in public spaces, shot at night. These images tell a story about everyday space seen at night. He gets you to notice things that may not be noticed in the day-to-day run of things. This tells you an interesting story about what is around you.
like Gareth McConnells images of flowers in public spaces, shot at night. These images tell a story about everyday space seen at night. He gets you to notice things that may not be noticed in the day-to-day run of things. This tells you an interesting story about what is around you.
What do you notice about your modern experience?
To begin to understand the spaces you pass through in Amsterdam get to know a little of its history, how it developed its particularly tolerant vibe and attitude. Find out how Amsterdam came into being and about the Golden Age.
One of the most important things to know about Amsterdam is its recent history. There have been the most amazing and powerful political movements, like the Provos, the Kabouters and the Kraken, that have influenced the way the city looks now. There is a rich history of grass roots initiatives that run counter to Government and Corporate Business plans for the city. Research the websites below and see the sheet given out at assessment.
What is your story? (P1, P2)
I want you to:
1. Find something that interests you (within the parameters of the brief)
2. Solve the problem of how you communicate your ideas about 1.
This involves a number of questions: How do I know what interests me? How do I go about recording my surroundings? How do I communicate my ideas? How do I know when I have a good idea?
The answers are in how you are prepared to play, by being adventurous, by not doing what you do normally, by producing a lot of images and thinking about what you have produced.
Karel Reisz, a famous documentary maker, once said ‘It’s about wanting what you get’.
You can look at what you have responded to, what you have produced, in any situation, and think, OK, so, what IS my idea. Critically review what you have, i.e. what are the good points? what is not so good? Discuss it with peers and staff. Go with the stuff that is working. And if nothing is working, go out and record again, but somewhere where you felt some kind of emotional response.
Much of the work in the studio is designed to help generate ideas. We want to introduce you to media you may not have used, show you artists that can reinforce what you are thinking about, talk to you about strategies for finding problems to solve.
You can;
Talk to People. Chat to people whenever you get the chance. Find out about them, make notes.
Watch People. Record how people interact, on the street, in bars, at clubs, in cafes, markets, museums. Record without prejudice (all the time). Build a resource of information (images, sounds, drawing, video etc) that also contains what you would not normally record.
Look at space. What spaces excite you or affect you most? Are you attracted to big, bright or busy spaces or or slick and safe spaces or derelict and edgy spaces? What is it about them that draws you in. This can give you an opportunity to focus on something specific.
How are you affected by atmosphere? Can you convey a particular mood?
What do you do in the evenings? How can you record the social interaction?
Researching and responding (P1, P2, M1, M2)
We expect you to consider these recording options at all times:
Photography: A digital camera, any kind will do, you need to be able to record an image.
Buy a simple snappy compact film camera from a charity shop for £5. Have the option of film and digital when you get back to the studio.
Buy a simple snappy compact film camera from a charity shop for £5. Have the option of film and digital when you get back to the studio.
Drawing: Draw whenever the chance arises. It is a different way of looking and thinking to using a camera and helps with selection and editing in the process of identifying what is important to you.
Video: Take video footage on your digital SLR or digital compact or take a video camera or a Flip or use a mobile. This gives you the dimension of time based media with atmospheric sound and actual action recorded.
Sound: Record sound on your mobile or take a sound recorder or use the video recorder with the lens cap on. Sound provides you with mental images that facilitate imaginative leaps.
Annotate: Write down the conversations you hear.
Rubbings: record textures by taking rubbings.
Contextual research for modern life (P1, M1)
Martin Parr’s book ‘Luxury’ looks at the different ways people display their wealth. He went to places that the rich are comfortable showing off their wealth, like Art Fairs, Horse Racing, Motor Shows etc. He creates collections of images that provide a fascinating story about the people in high life, how the other half live in other words. You can create a collection of images that communicate what you think of Modern Life.
Marjetica Potrc is an architect who creates solutions (physical living spaces) for communities that have suffered an ecological disaster or are affected by deep poverty. Her buildings and drawings often look to help build or re-build a community based on self-help and using whatever technology is available. This is in the hope they become self-sufficient.
Is your story about a particular community?
Paul Davis, in ‘Us and Them’ interviewed hundreds of people to get their opinion on the US and UK respectively. The text and the drawings he made, (on the spot, from video and photographic images) together create a powerful collection. www.copyrightdavis.com
How can you make contrasts apparent in your narrative?
The Atelier Van Lieshout is a dutch architectural practice that looks at solutions for the problems encountered in modern living, http://www.ateliervanlieshout.com/
What problems are there in Modern Living? What is not so good about Modern Life?
Jurgen Grosse systematically collected a range of images of Urban Art across Berlin. His idea of Urban Art includes improvised changes to city space; this can mean temporary sculpture, wall painting as well as graffiti and stencilling. http://urban-art.info/englisch/publications/uap/
You may find connections in your work between the UK and the Netherlands that you wish to exploit.
Artist John Smith makes films that centre around his wry view of the world. Look at his Worst Case Scenario at http://www.johnsmithfilms.com/texts/sf12.html# a film made about what he can see from a window.
HOW TO TELL YOUR STORY – SOME MINI-PROJECTS THAT CAN BE USEFUL
Street shoots (P1, P2, P3, M1)
Be direct. A simple way of responding to the brief of Modern Life is to photograph each other in the different spaces you pass through. Make portraits of each other, find interesting spaces, direct each other, ask each other to pose for you. It’s fascinating to see how the space changes/affects the subject. See Fashion Photographer Felix Larher.
Ask people on the street if you can document the way they are dressed, like the Sartorialist thesartorialist.blogspot.com/.
Collections (P1, P2, P3, M1)
Collect as much material as you can. This can mean, picking up things you find on the street, keeping waste material from your everyday life, objects from flea markets, organic material. Bring envelopes with you to store what you find.
Collections can also be collections of images of the same kind of thing (called a Typology), things like; textures, peeling paint, cracks in the pavements, roadworks, barriers, signs, menus, walls, bicycles, shop windows, fashionable people, transport, churches, urban art, etc.
Sophie Calle will often make collections of images of people that she is secretly documenting.
Aaron Siskind made atmospheric images of New York city in the Mid 60’s
Surveillance (P1, P2, P3, M1)
You are encouraged to observe and watch the passing of daily life. This can be done secretly, without the subjects knowledge.
Merry Alpern in her project Dirty Windows, documented the window of a brothel across a courtyard from a friends flat.
Weeks 1 and 2 (P1, P2, P3, M1, M2)
Initial personal Research ideas
You are encouraged to work with what you are drawn to, within the context of Modern Life. Make a list about or Brainstorm the issues raised in the studio.
It is important to recognise how useful it is to identify a number of strategies to use or places to visit or situations or events to attend or people you know or don’t know to interact with.
The project kicks of with a discussion and screening around ideas about Modern Life.
Drawing as selection process
You are asked to engage in drawing sessions on a regular basis. This is about editing the flow of information around you. What you choose to draw, in any given situation, indicates your own way of looking and tells you a little about the kind of things you are drawn to. It gives you valuable thinking time and enables you to make a more coherent image (because drawing before you photograph helps narrow your focus).
Mini-Field trips visual research
A dry run for what is expected in the field trip week.
Story of a street
Systematically document a street space you identify (near you or somewhere you find interesting. Make a collection of images. This is good discipline for making sure you notice what can get overlooked.
Print images out!
Sequence and Flow
To make a narrative idea work, you develop greater understanding of how images affect each other or how one image relates to another. This is done by looking and evaluating. You look at images together on contact sheets or on large sheets. You make comparisons. You think about how one image contrasts with another, adds or detracts from another.
Make A5 collages that experiment with combining images from your initial test shoots and drawings. Mount your test images on sheets and indicate what story is present. What are you communicating? What are you focussing on? Why have you looked at a particular subject? What drew you to it?
Generating ideas is about being open to as many potential directions at the outset of a project. This gives you different ways of tackling an issue or options and alternatives if you get stuck. You begin to understand your own strengths. Questions arise like; How do you play? How do I best communicate? How do I want to be understood? What works best for me? What works together?
What you are looking for is the unexpected, something that is original and new. This can only be found in combining, and exposing yourself to, techniques and processes that are unconventional.
You have to engage an audience. To do this you have to surprise and intrigue them.
The studio time is structured around what you have collected in relation to modern life and how we develop that into coherent narratives, i.e how they are sequenced and how they flow together.
Workshops
In making your own sketchbooks, Library research, Photoshop basics, InDesign, the Darkroom, Photography and other techniques and processes that are aimed at getting the most out of the Field Trip.
Week 3 field trip (P1, P2, M1, M2, D1)
DON’T LET THE MOMENT PASS!
Day 1: Document the journey
The journey may be the work.
It’s easy to get distracted as we set off for our destinations, but we want you to pay attention to the activities and the changes that happen around you as soon as you get into the car park.
Draw and photograph the English countryside, the coach, each other, the driver, the Eurotunnel terminal, the Eurotunnel train, Calais, what you can see from the motorway in France, Belgium and Holland, what you see inside the coach and the service stations we stop at, document the first evening of the field trip.
Record what people say in your sketchbook and on your mobile.
Day 2: Monday we will buy a Dagkaart, bit like an Oyster card. For €7.50 you get transport on all Public transport in Amsterdam. We will travel around as much of the city as we can and document different spaces. This will give you an idea of the city beyond the Centrum so you can see what an amazingly dynamic space it is. You will get a sense of the different neighbourhoods, industrial zones, business districts, waterways and other transport networks, urban and suburban areas. You get to study Amsterdammers close up on the metro and trams. Study what they wear, how they behave, how they interact.
Back at the Hostel we will have a review of what you have made (6pm) and you can get some feedback. Document your evening activities too. Record where you go and what you do.
Day 3: will see us visit the museums and galleries. We will further investigate the City. Again, record the evening’s activities. Make sure you are making sound recordings, taking photographs, making notes about artists, making rubbings, drawing and writing what you hear or your impressions of the city. Crit in the evening back at the Hostel 6pm.
Day 4: is the visit to the Kroller-Muller Museum. Research what this museum has to offer and decide what you are to do once there. The locations there are amazing, set up shoots or document what you can find in that space.
Day 5: is an independent day. Hire bikes if you want. Explore areas that caught your eye and you want to explore more. Keep documenting. Meet at the Hostel at 6pm for crit.
Day 6: Try and record the journey back.
Weeks 4 and 5 developing ideas and producing outcomes (P1, P2, P3, M1, M2, M3, D1, D2)
Display your work
in the studio, organising everything you have recorded. Cover your studio space, create a dynamic visual environment in which to work.
When your research is around you are aware of what you have made and it really helps you to see the strengths and weaknesses in where you are going.
Develop films
On the first Monday.
Take stock – ‘wanting what you get’
Take some time to think about and get feedback on what you have brought back. Ask yourself the following questions; what is your idea? What did you find? What interested you most? Make lists or brainstorm or in some way evidence your thinking and feedback on what you have.
Play around with your ideas
Combine different visual ideas and information from your research, use techniques and methods you have already encountered. This section of the project is all about taking risks with your ideas, trying things out and not being precious about the outcome. If you are experimental and keep combining ideas and making comparisons and contrasts with your material the outcomes will look after themselves
Try sequencing your ideas. Organise them so they have a pattern of some kind. Is your project about movement, texture, light or is it about shape and colour or is it a narrative of the experiences you had or is it about new versus old or the people you met or the way Amsterdammers change city space or is it about an event you encountered? How can you organise it?
In Paris•New York•Shanghai Hans Eijkelboom used 3 different cities to highlight cultural choices and differences between disparate groups of people. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0h4EM7qGuFg
What is the outcome?
Still image/Moving Image?: You can decide between still or moving image (you can always combine the two!).
Do you want a sequence of images? How will they flow? How will you present them? Print on a wall? Printed what scale? Cut-out images? Are they in a book? Large-scale drawings?
Is it an animation? A video? An installation? A performance?
What Issues have emerged?
You may feel there are strong connections with similar subjects across different spaces.
You may need to go and shoot/record more information to support and expand on your idea.
Final Presentation (P3, M3, D1, D2)
Can be the accumulation of the experiments and be open-ended or tell a clear story.
Remember it can be any media, any format, any scale
PLUS an Artists book (P3, M3, D2)
An Artist’s Book is a portable portfolio of work in one sense, an opportunity to make a powerful impact with a sequence of images. It promotes you, your ideas and your work. You can explore ideas of sequence, story-telling, colour relationships, abstract form, whatever your concerns are,
in the book.
in the book.
Push the format as far as possible.
WORK REQUIRED FOR ASSESSMENT
• At least 2 x A1 Field trip Evidence/Organising sheets, at least one from before the trip, one after
• At least A5 collages
• Hand-made sketchbook from the field trip, full of primary research from the field trip
• At least one A1 contextual reference sheet
• 2 x A1 Brainstorm/List sheets one from before the trip, one after
• At least 2 x A1 sheet developmental experimentation ie, Comparison/Contrast sheets, Drawing as selection, Storyboard, contacts sheets, animation tests, photographs, stills from video, drawings, paintings
• A finished Artists Book
• Final presentation on A1 sheets
• or finished films/animations (stills presented on A1 evidence sheets)
• sketchbook and journal, containing various task work, lecture and workshop evidence
REFERENCES
Project bibliography
Postmodern Geographies: The Reassertion of Space in Critical Social Theory. London: Verso Press, 1989.
The Unknown City: Contesting Architecture and Social Space: Iain Borden
Vitamin Ph: New Perspectives in Photography: Phaidon
William Raban DVD: BFI: 2004
Emily Richardson: 6 Films: Lux: 2008
Michaelangelo Antonioni: Red Desert:1964
How we are: Susan Bright/Val Williams: Tate
Lee Friedlander: Like a One-Eyed Cat: Abrams
Garry Winogrand: Public Relations: MOMA
Philip Lorca Di-Corcia: A Storybook Life: Twin Palms
William Eggleston: Los Alamos: Scalo
Hans Eijkelboom: Paris•New York•Shanghai: Aperture
Mitch Epstein: The City: Powerhouse Books
Mitch Epstein: Recreation: Steidl
Artists to reference
Joel Sternfeld Stephen Shore William Eggleston
Garry Winogrand William Henry Fox Talbot Jonathon Hodgson
Martin Parr Chris Kilip David Hurn
Boris Mikhailov Martha Rosler William Raban
Martin Kobe Emily Richardson Anna Fox
Candida Hofer Eugene Atget Uta Barth
Beat Streuli Paul Davis Oyvind Fahlstrom
David Schnell Jessica Craig-Martin Jef Geys
Marjetica Potrc Michaelangelo Antonioni John Smith
Websites
www.ubuweb.com – follow link to Film and Video. Archive of artist Film, Video and Animation
www.showstudio.com – Nick Knights forum website. Excellent fashion photography debates.
http://www.animateprojects.org/films – excellent film archive on animation.
http://www.carlfreedmangallery.com/content/view/83/9/1/2/ - Gareth McConnell’s work
http://www.thedrawbridge.org.uk/issue_10/luxury/ - Martin Parr’s new book Luxury
Websites about squatting in Amsterdam;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoE9edjEDCI - ‘In Bruges’ Trailer
http://www.iniva.org/dare/themes/space/calle.html - Sophie Calle link
HEALTH & SAFETY:
This project involves using a variety of tools and materials so at all times you must use tools sensible and with caution. You must be aware that it is your responsibility to ensure that your working environment is kept clean, tidy and safe. You must not use flammable fluids or materials at any time during this project. You must not use naked flames in this project within the studio or use heat sources to melt substances. At all times all fire exits must be kept clear and free of clutter so that the exits are clear in case of an emergency. Each day you will be expected to tidy the studio in order to maintain a safe working environment. All students will be expected to fill in a risk assessment for their structure to ensure your safety, its safety (the structure) and the safety of the studio. Do not block fire routes, leave tool and materials on floors or tables when not in use or trail electrical leads. Follow the manufacturer’s and studio instructions on the use of any potentially harmful products such as adhesives, etc. Do not use fixative inside the building. Use knives and scalpels with a safety ruler and cutting board. Do not drink water from the taps in the studios. Drinking water taps are clearly marked.
Grading
The tasks outlined in this assignment must all be completed in order to achieve a pass (refer to individual tasks for pass criteria e.g. P1, P2 etc). To achieve merit and distinction grades you must show that you have exceeded all pass criteria. Work graded as Merit and Distinction must include substantial evidence of independent and creative use of research and ideas development. It is likely that this will involve work made outside class hours. For grading criteria for Merit and Distinction see grading profile.
Each unit will be graded as a Pass, Merit or Distinction. A Pass is awarded for the achievement of all the required outcomes against specified criteria defined in the assessment criteria section for each unit. Merit and Distinction grades are awarded for higher-level achievement, as shown in the table below.
| To achieve a pass grade the evidence must show that the learner is able to: | To achieve a merit grade the evidence must show that, in addition to the pass criteria, the learner is able to: | To achieve a distinction grade the evidence must show that, in addition to the pass and merit criteria, the learner is able to: |
| P1 investigate the features and requirements of the chosen specialist field | M1 purposefully select suitable ideas and subjects from diverse initial personal research | D1 show a perceptive approach, producing fluent and well-informed conclusion from research |
| P2 investigate the potential of specialist materials and techniques | M2 use critical and visual analysis effectively, identifying development potential | D2 show independence in applying knowledge gained in research to produce creative and imaginative responses. |
| P3 present ideas appropriate to a theme. | M3 produce an effective, creative response to the theme or brief. | |
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