C.V.

Bibliography

Artists:

Saul Bass
Sol LeWitt
Charles Sheeler

Bruno Munari
Marcel Kaczmarek

Alexander Rodchenko

Andy Gilmore

Arjan Janseen

Books:

Ways of Looking- John Berger

Design as Art- Bruno Munari

Man who Mistook his Wife for a Hat- Oliver Sacks

Sites:

http://www.booooooom.com/

http://butdoesitfloat.com/

http://bookcoverarchive.com/

http://grainedit.com/2011/12/09/anton-pearson/

Endings

So this is my final entry onto the blog. The images are soon to be printed and put out into the show, some more variations shall be created but this will be after the blog hand in date and thus they won't be written about. I feel I have come to a solid resolution in my work and have really managed to tackle the issues of content within my pieces.

Phantoms

A new day a new image. With this I was focusing on a selection of cases of phantoms limbs, I wanted to show the staccato relationship of body, mind and limbs and in the design I believe I have achieved this. Discontinuation in style and substance.

I like the base.

Void Hands

The case of 'Hands' in which a lady with cerebral palsy has no functionality in her hands and as she describes them 'they are lumps of clay' and this lack mobility I decided to highlight with the red circles and using this image of the lady in which her hands are behind her back it highlights their lack of use, and again the reverse of the lettering suggests a sort of 'error'. The red line represents her blindness and the grey void is an attempt to encapsulate the distancing feeling from living in a world with no use of hands or vision.

Generic comment.

Not so Sure

I moved on to the case of 'The man who fell out of bed' it was the story of a man who experienced a variation of phantom limb in which he was convinced his left left was not his own, so in this sense he had a false identity to his own limb. I tried to represent this with the alteration of the leg within the image but also the '(L)' represenitng this too. The manipulation of the eyes is a nod toward his lack of visual recognition of his own limb.

Im still undecided on these.

The Disembodied Lady

This image was based on the case 'The Disembodied Lady' where the patient failed to control her limbs, her legs and arms would flail uncontrollably and she would move almost like a rag doll, however mentally she was completely unaffected and in this sense she was trapped in this vessel of her body that could not function. The symptoms were also seen in patients who would take an excessive amount of Vitamin B6 in their diets.

The final image and an earlier example.

Car Boot Sale

To address the issue of using page in my work I visited a car boot sale in hope of induing some older image that related to my project, I then knew i could scan and adapt these images to fit into my work. I had used this technique before, and by scanning then re printing and cutting out individuals it created a satisfying texture and edge to the photographs.

Examples of photographs that have been scanned, cut then re-scanned.

Re-Take

I went back to the original case of the man who mistook his wife for a hat. I had found an image of a man playing the flute and believed it would tie in very nicely, seeing as he was a professor of music. I also figured that using the lines of musical notes would not only portray this but also it represent the geometric shapes he would visualise. I liked the slight facial disfigurement, this was a concept that I had talked to Ceri about during a recent tutorial and I feel it focuses again on the detachment from society but also the break from reality in the mind.

This is a photo from 1066 of William the Conquerer at the battle of Hastings. Oh no it's obviously the aforementioned image, just checking you are reading this.

The Lost Mariner

For the case of the Lost Mariner; taken from Oliver Sack's book, 'The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat.' The Lost Mariner is an elder man, who's mind is trapped in his youth as a submariner. He is an older gentleman in 1975 but inside his mind he believes himself to still be his former 19 year old self in 1945 where he worked as submariner. I was interested in the concept of the submarine and how it half is exposed whilst half is submerged and this gave connotation of the human subconscious and i decided to include this some how in my image. The line acts as some sort of surface, of time or sea and separates the two dates and thus his states of mind and body.

The final image for the Lost Mariner

Other avenues of the image, created before i settled on the former.

Breakthrough

Auspicious adj. Marked by success; prosperous. Suggesting a positive and successful future. “An auspicious time to purchase the stock.”


A fitting word for a fitting time.


I feel I have finally broken into something successful. I was looking at the case of the man who mistook his wife for a hat, an individual who see patterns and shapes instead of the objects and what they are, when he is handed a flower he describes its visual, geometric qualities but fails to reach the conclusion that it is a flower.

In this image i was focusing on what it is to be a patent of medical condition, you are isolated, judged for your characteristics and impairment, you are not seen as an equal and in this same sense the medication often prescribed acts as a barrier between the patent and him/herself, further complicating their functioning as a valued and equal member of society.

This image was a displaying part of the patients symptoms of only recognising shapes and pattern. The font used again is considered (as before). I was carrying out some reattach when I discovered a section about the font 'Albertus' one which was used in the 60's tv show 'The Prisoner' which is a favourite of mine. I decided the font would be a very good choice to be within my images, not only acting as a binding of sorts but also because in carried the mysterious elements seen in the prisoner, the illusion of identity, the experiments to change characteristics, I felt the show had strong connection with what was seen in the case studies in Sacks' book.

Textures

Today I wanted to find more texture to use for my project, I have previously been using textures taken from mono printing onto paper with a roller and then scanning these in, but i wanted to expand from these and I took my camera outside. I found textures such as scratched metal and tarmac were quite interesting and so I took these images for use in my work.

Some examples of textures used in my work- a red filter has been applied to all.

States of Mind

Dogmatic adj. 1. Expressing rigid opinions; Prone to expressing strongly held beliefs and opinions. “A dogmatic speech.” 2. Asserting opinions in a doctrinaire or arrogant manner; opinionated.

Im definitely very dogmatic, and probably too much of the time.

I began exploring ideas with the ideas of the mind within my images, I took to an early photograph i had found of a patient in bed and began playing with what I could to do the image.

I enjoy the suggestions of these images but again there is not enough meaning, I need to really include the stories of the patients.

Mental

Austere adj. 1. Markedly simple without adornment or ornamentation. “An austere office;” “An austere writing style.” 2. Strict or stern in appearance or manner. “He was an austere movie critic.”

I guess sometimes I can be too austere.

My project is coming to its conclusion and finally I feel I'm coming to a resolution. I've spoken with Jonny and Pete these past few weeks and have been discussing my ideas and images, I'm very happy with them and feel they've really progressed visually more so than in terms of what they say, design wise I'm very content with but I'm not sure if I was putting a strong enough message across and was worried about this. Pete said for me to be considering how I'm telling something, I'm telling a story and I thought about how I could do that in a subjective sense and stray away from an objective sense because of the nature of my abstract drawings, subjectivity is much more successful for me and the issues of the body were not translating. I discussed the idea of dementia and forgetting and this sparked ideas for further work. I felt something was brewing.

An example of the place my work was at.

I was also speaking to Jonny and we again had a conversation about mental health issues and how this alternative perception of reality could chime with the work I was creating. It was during this talk I realized that at the very beginning of the project ( possibly before) ,I bought a book by professor Oliver Sacks called the man who mistook his wife for a hat,  which is a series of psychological studies on patients; delusions and breaks from reality. It was interesting that my whole visual and mental journey this project, had come round to one complete circle, starting where I finished. I decided to venture down this avenue of case studies from the book.

Beryl

I was visiting my grand mother and I took some photos while i was there, she suffers form osteoporosis and struggles to walk and I wanted to document her feelings of frustration when she is unable to interact and move around like the rest of the family.

The photos are double exposure with a cooler filter to emphasise her sombreness. 

Some images I created using the previous photos.

I later used the these images to create some new designs, I was very pleased with the outcome but I did again feel that there was less meaning and that the pieces were far too self indulgent, where they really telling a story? I spoke to Merielle, Pete and Ceri, and they all agreed that they were far too focused towards personal interests. I still needed that window to allow the views in, I need broader context. 

Isolation

Prodigious (pro·di·gious) adj. Remarkably or impressively great in extent, size, or degree. “Her prodigious sales performance resulted in a promotion.”

On my gravestone it would say, ‘Prodigious Individual.’

I have continued down my avenue of focussing on patients and their health conditions. I was thinking that maybe my inclusion of images of individuals creates more of a personal tone to my artwork, by seeing the individual does it inject some sort of emotion, does it reel in the viewer?

I decided to experiment more with the images that I had, I took images of patents and tried to see what I could create just adjusting the photos slightly , whether that be with, contrast adjustments, repeats and overlays, I wanted to represent the mindset and sorrow of patients in distress. 

In sickness. 

In isolation.

The aforementioned images.

Hospital Doors

Insipid adj.  Lacking flavor or zest; not tasty. Lacking qualities that excite, stimulate, or interest; dull. “The insipid play caused many to walk out of the theater.”

I have felt that some if my images have been a little insipid recently.

After my visit to the hospital to collect pamphlets for research, Immediately started working on images of the elderly and tried to construct an image of a heart condition, of patients of medication. When I had visited the hospital I noticed the vast number of elderly patients wandering around the building. It made me think about what happened as we get old, and our bodily structures begin to fail us. I know this is a somewhat stereotypical view to have of the elderly but there is a sense of loneliness and sadness that I felt on that visit.

These are a collection of images I found that represented what I felt and envisioned on my visit to the hospital, I cropped and then merged them together to create a montage of hospital experience. 

I was also looking at the way that you can combine different images in a montage to create a sort of shutter speed of a scenario. As I had earlier seen in my first prints, something as simple as applying a similar tone to various images can unite them into a complete piece. I like that this image reads like changing shots in a film sequence, there is a sort of movement in a very static piece. It’s just a simple idea but its quite interesting to see how pictures can work with each other, through composure and relation.

More progression:


I then subsequently moved on to develop the images, partnering them with my drawings from my sketchbooks, as well as ideas of font choice:

These are some variants of my designs.

In these new images I wanted to contain this idea of the patient, that sense of personalizing what I was representing in the collages.

To ask the viewer to look at the man in the piece hopefully asks them to associate, to empathize and perhaps build a scenario of his suffering or condition or maybe he is happy? The image is almost open, but the ideas point to a sadder affair, The red the locates the illness in his heart, the pills, the washed out portrait and the Number, the counting of his heart beat, the seconds slipping away with his life.

Further progression, this time i was focussing the images towards coronary heart disease, hence 'CHD'

Heart Patterns

This was an idea that came from just a bit of experimentation, I don't think it will necessarily have a place in the project but it was a considered image in terms of placing of layers, again the meaning is not in the foreground but the colour and layout is something thought out. The black shape is an abstract drawing of a heart.

To the Doctors

Rapacious (ra·pa·cious) Adj Aggressively greedy or ravenous; plundering: “A rapacious salesman.”

I am rapacious for high marks. 

Today I went to the Hospital to find some leaflets/booklets, on different health conditions, ideally about the heart, I managed to find quite a few and am now going through them to find more details and information to help form more narrative/storytelling with in my work, and also to build new images.

This is the pile of information I took from the hospital. I laid it all   on my scanner bed, as I thought it was would a more interesting way of documenting my finds.

I enjoy how this images looks even if it is just a way of documentation. I like how you see a layering on shapes and colours and how as the piles continues the images fade into the back ground.

It makes me wonder what would happen if I was to scan some of my research drawings, maybe I will find something interesting, perhaps the foundations to a new image.

Nothing particularly exciting occurred but it was nice to what happened regardless

It nice to see things layered over but I don't feel this offers anything for me right now, ah well maybe something to consider again with some latter images.

Hexagons

Today I also was thinking about shapes and patterns to accompany images. I researched about the shape of the Hexagon as I remember watching a documentary where it discussed how the hexagon was ‘nature’s shape’. Maybe the hexagon could be shown or used somehow in my project? Investigating the Hexagon I also stumbled across this, interesting yet bizarrely terrifying video, celebrating the Hexagon in nature; It did make me chuckle, but I quite enjoyed it:

CLICK ME

Heart Book

Vociferous (vo·cif·er·ous) adj Characterized by vehemence, clamour, or noisiness: “A vociferous crowd.”

Im sure my work, when displayed in London, shall create a vociferous crowd!

This week I really began work on the heart book I had spoke of making. I had researched and discovered 36 facts about the human heart and decided to illustrate these, I looked at what each fact was saying and tried to represent these with a strong and bold visual style. I wanted to display what the facts were saying in a way the still contained the text but perhaps used the text as well to interact with the imagery.

I am quite happy with the images (this is not all of them by the way) and feel they have succeeded in creating the strong style i was looking for, I chose the red colour scheme to represent the colour of our blood and the heart itself, and also intended to screen print these images in hope that something exciting may be produced. 

However, after speaking with Pete Lloyd he suggested that although the images were well designed and contained careful layout, he commented how they were not really telling a story, or revealing on a deeper level. They were almost too graphic design driven, I was succeeding as a Designer but needed to focus on carrying this out as an illustrator. He asked me to look at pamphlets or of informative guides aimed at the public to educate about the body and the heart. This got me thinking about information about cancer and disease, things that attack an destroy the body. earlier I had constructed these images of the brain or the heart facing the threat of an ‘alien’ form and I think the use of pixilation in the previous images was strong, I shall venture forward with these ideas and carry out further research.

This is another take from my sketchbook, the design was focusing on the use of cells but also this idea of pixelation affecting the cells. The pixelation in this case has been created with pen, giving a slightly rawer feel, losing the artificialness of the computer halftone pixelation, although I still like both approaches.

Medical Journals

Capricious adj.  Characterized by or subject to whim; impulsive and unpredictable. “He’s such a capricious boss I never know how he’ll react.”

Good word. 

Today I looked at some old medical journals my mother had, I was fascinated by the covers and liked their graphical compositions,  I also had looked at these books because I wanted to see which particular fonts were used and then I would be able to incorporate into the designs in my work. Doing this would create a more complete tone to the work; everything for a reason and a reason for everything.

These are some examples of the journals I looked at.

Here is an example of the page fonts used. I realised it was a variation of 'Courier New' and I decided to use this in my work, to carry the idea of medical research