email i sent to Dionne (tutor) which sums up questions in last few weeks

Leona – Thanks. I think it should help you keep clarity to your vision.

‘Innovative plastic products that aim to device and confuse’

Dionne Swift
Textile Artist 12 November 2009 16:18

Creating a plastic product which has used innovative techniques that evoke deception and confusion through the material and the use of semiotics in an urban environment.

Hi Dionne

I've noted down a start of the ideas for the direction I want to go in and that statement we talked about.

I thought it would be more useful for me to e-mail it to you now to see what you think.



I like the idea of a product- design

This is the result of experimented techniques, through the manipulation of plastic (burning, melting, and stretching)

It's what my samples look like/reflect, and the strongest direction to take.

The surface

I've always been influenced by urban scenes; the linear horizontal and vertical lines reflect my graphic style of drawings. I also like layering different images to get exciting compositions. - This is where the idea of using plastic came from.



The idea behind

Signs, signals and semiotics

Signs shape our urban environment. They influence and power peoples thoughts and decisions. And every person has a different perception of a sign, or a piece of art and interprets it in a different way. - (this is the main focus of my monograph) the confusing, element that signs could have links in with the deception of the material.

They are an extension of a shop (advertising) - going back to the product, I could see my work displayed in shop windows or outside, streets, urban environment



The manipulation of plastic

The techniques I was experimenting with have shown the start of making my own signs through pushing the plastic into shapes that could be perceived as signs.

26.10.09

Books found in the libray- semiotics, the psychology behind my studio practice.

MARSHALL MCLUHAN- THE MEDIUM IS THE MESSAGE
PAUL COBLEY- INTRODUCING SEMIOTICS
ROLAND BARTHES- IMAGE MUSIC TEXT
INTERPRETIVE INTERACTIONISM - NORMAN K.DENZIN

23.10.09 MONOGRAPH TUTORIAL WITH NICOLA

I had my tutorial with Nicola after submitting my synopsis for my monograph.
She gave me some really good feedback. I realised that I need to think about what the meaning is behind the art, behind the design. Researching indepth what signs and signals mean to me? what am I trying to say, what message am I trying to get across to the viewer?

What influences me?

• A past project?
• memories
• controlling
• influencing
• urban scenes
• what drives me to make my art?
• making my own signs?
• controlling the city?
• observing the city?

Look at different artists.
what drives them to include semiotics? it may not look like my work or even be in the same context but the drive behind the work could be the same. I have emails for some of the artists I have looked at so Im going to email them and see if they wouldnt mind answering some questions on what influences them. It would be interesting to see if we have same topics in common.

Compare and contrast
I have some artists I've found whose work is similar to mine VISUALLY- the mark makings, the colours, the use of text. But I can compare and contrast the meanings behind the work to my own.

Making new signs
Nicola pointed out that I've started making my own signs, but what does i sign need to control people? a certain shape? colour? size? material? how does it communicate and make people do something they wouldnt do without the aid of that particular sign, what would happen if they didnt?

20.10.09 GROUP TUTORIAL WITH DIONNE

STUDIO PRACTICE DISCUSSION

This was done in groups of three. We all gave out feed back on each others work, I was with two other printers (Naomi and Lizzy)

I started off by saying Id bought three big sheets of plastic that I plan to print onto. Also I had found out how much it would cost to print photographs, images, photoshops onto paper - and how big this could potentionally be.

I got a lot of very positive feed back that gave me that push to move on from the research stage to actually printing ideas and technique.
We all decided the best option was to cut one piece of plastic sheet into smaller pieces to sample on, try out and push this new material in many different ways.
This could be done by:

• wax onto the plastic, then screen print
• laser cut
• scratch into the plastic
• heat gun, soldering iron
• screen print then morph the plastic in product design
• print onto both sides the morph, then scratch
• paint with acrylics
• spray paint
• frosting
• opaque paint.block out
• bendy masking tape
• glass paint, glass pen
• thinner plastic, acetate?

All these techniques can be changed by changing the order in which they are put down to create layers.

19.10.09 MONOGRAPH NOTES

ROBERT CLARKE (WEEK 4)

psychogeography- is a semi-occult art and a way to learn more about the world you live in.
Robert brought this up in the lecture and gave us many websites to look at, quite a few of the printers are also looking into this topic of the city, urban environment and its quite interesting to see how they approach this topic differently to me.

http://www.enjoy-surveillance.org/
Observing and being Observed.
It fits into my subject area, im observing the city, taking photos drawing, printing and looking at how signs in the city can influence people.

• Social semiotics - George Orwell. Signs and signals
• shaping and changing the city
• posters stimulated by what we see
• imaginarymuseum/archieve.org
• language and film
• guide books, maps, imaginary city

About writing the monograph
short sentences
memories - pick out, remember moments in studio practice that stand out
feelings create and recreate them through art
bringing meanings toegther
images against a process - material and technique
what and how? the aim?
whats the point of technique? - desire to be different? stand out? develop a style? whats the point in style? people remember? put a style to a name?fame?
experience, looking, reading, learning...
prolog- talking about yourself
writing down what your doing/thinking analytically

14.10.09 SYNOPSIS WITH ROBERT CLARKE

I had a tutorial with Robert about my synopsis I had written up for my monograph.
He looked through what I had noted down and looked at my work up in the studio. He said I had enough themes, questions and topics to talk about but I need to think about

• other artists that use signs and signals
• how technology has an influence on my work, how it changes a drawing,a design, looks different when it comes out of a computer
• why urban scenes?
• illustration artists, graphic artists? look at jornals in library
• album covers - Radio head Don Wood
• languages
• public space- different to a gallery
• scale and perception
• computer - zoom in zoom out macro + micro
• Jasper Johns - iconic image
• Rauschenberg
• layering, techniques, different stages of my practice- Print
• limitations using the computer? using text? - lost communication with the viewer are they seeing the same thing Im trying to say?
• Hay wayne? posters?

This gave me a lot to think about, its just a basic list of topics Im going to look into for my monograph, but the tutorial really helped me select and refine themes within my studio work.

Tutorial with Dionne

Printing onto plastic

It was suggested that I wasn't going to be printing onto fabric for this exhibition. I was going to print most of it onto paper and maybe consider plastic.
However it was pushed forward and decided by both me and Dionne that I was going to screen print, stencil and paint my designs onto plastic.
I can print onto both sides, so it becomes a blurred image?
block bits out with collage
use vinyl lettering
glass frosting
layering plastic over photographs of urban scenes.

Im really excited about this project and the possibilites it has.