ED Graphics Contextuals

Connor Parsons Year 2 Contextuals PCoA

[artspectre]

Historical Practitioners - Andrew Wyeth, Chuck Close

 These two artists, who I compared in the group project (see the very first post on this blog) can, I feel, be linked to the contemporary artists mentioned in the last 3 posts because, while their style's aren't exactly the same, all 5 of them used high, photo-realistic techniques which can be compared, as they all make us able to see in infinite detail what the artists' mind eyes were seeing.

 Also, Close's work on lone portraits is quite comparable to Hemingway's photography of a lone figure, as both are images with deep secondary meanings, with Close painting to try desperately to retain his memories of his friends and families, and Hemingway doing his art in an attempt to rediscover his lost memories.

[artspectre]

 This is Michael Whelan, who is an illustrator who has created the covers for numerous books over the years, including the very popular series The Incarnations of Immortality, which I personally adored. His art is different to the previous two in that he has no links to motorcycles, but his photo-realistic style of art can be compared to them.

 Michael's work shows a tremendous imagination and ability to take someone else's vision, be they author or song-writer, and build upon that, to take this to the next level and give it his own twist, so I feel he can be a great inspiration to us all.

[artspectre]

I feel that this artist, Alan Jones, shares a lot of qualities with Ian Hemingway, who I mentioned previously, as both do very high quality paintings of motorcyclists, and both use their work as a way to deal with very traumatic accidents which stopped them riding; for Alan it was a crash that left him with breaks in almost every bone and severe burns due to a fire from the split petrol-tank.

 Also like Ian, Alan uses a wide range of mediums, from acrylic on board, to canvas, airbrush and even watercolour pencils, so this, combined with the emotional similarities, could mean that these two artists could be shown together in a joint exhibition or display, as the people who will like one will most likely like the other, and I think they would play to each other's strengths.

[artspectre]

 This is an artist I found recently on Tumblr, who paints and photographs motorcycles and motorcyclists in supreme quality, and much of his work would be perfect to display if I had a gallery section in my museum. Ian's work is fantastic just as art pieces, but it is also heart-wrenchingly sad when you know his story, because he lost his memory and his complete identity in a motorcycle crash over a decade ago, so his work shows his pain and sadness of what he lost, and his search to rediscover himself and to overcome the accident and the brain-damage. This adds a deeper level to his art that is hard to find in other artists

[artspectre]

More Details: Vespa Room

Much like the Indian room, this room has a large metal sign showing the logo which catches your eye straight away, regardless of which doorway you enter through. The main area of the room is taken up by 4 vespas of various ages, positioned as if they've been parked together Paris-style, and indeed the wall behind them will have a Parisian style mural to add to this illusion. The other wall will have a similar timeline to the Indian room, albeit on a more condensed scale to fit onto one wall, and any spare space on any of the walls will be filled with Vespa adverts and products.

[artspectre]

More Details: Indian Room

Indian Room: The large metal Indian sign is immediately visible upon entry to the room, so as to make sure you know what you're viewing as soon as you enter the room. The other two walls in that room consist of a large timeline, just like the one I posted earlier, with photos to accompany it, and other misc. items, such as a badge from an old bike, old advertisements or signs, or even Indian branded clothing or merchandise. The wooden display stand in the middle of the room is double sided; one side will feature a biography and images of a famous person to be linked to Indian, such as the racer mentioned in my earlier research, and possibly some items personal to him, such as his helmet or leathers, and the other side will contain more research of Indians, maps or a 3D model of their massive plant mentioned earlier, or maybe more vintage signs and advertising, depending on what is deemed to go well with the rest of the exhibit. The two bikes will be of different ages, and positioned under the area of the timeline they are from. They will have metal engraved plaques beneath them stating their manufacturing date and model, and if they've been restored they could have photos showing different stages of the restoration, along with backstory of where they've been found etc.

[artspectre]

Here is another shot of the first floor, now labelled to make it easier to understand, although each room also has a very easy to read and clear billboard, both for labelling here, and for the guests to the museum to understand. Please see my other posts for a more detailed analysis of this floorplan

[artspectre]

500 Word Interpretation Text

 My museum is quite unconventional in being solely based on motorcycles, but this isn’t unheard of, like the Sammy Miller museum I mention in an earlier post, and I feel that this genre is one that hasn’t been tapped to its full potential yet, as traditional museums don’t tend to appeal to the younger audience. My museum, on the other hand, appeals to a very wide audience, and everyone from young children to old men likes motorcycles, little kids like motorcycles because they’re cool, teenagers will like the rebel factor, as well as being interested in motorcycles in general, adults will like the artistic styling, and finding out about the speed and power of the bikes, and the elderly will like to reminisce about past bikes they’ve owned, seeing how bikes have progressed, and reading about the history of Indian or similar exhibitions, as they will remember much of that history. Another idea I had was to feature a gallery section with motorcycle-themed art, such as paintings, photography and sculpture. This principle was proven to work when TopGear took over a small museum for one of their infamous challenges, and featured only automotive based art or vehicles, and while they used their normal irritating and blundering style, their brief exhibition was the highest grossing exhibition shown at that museum all year.

 The model I made of my museum is of quite a high quality, and accurately shows off my theme and ideas. However, I was annoyed at the multiple setbacks I had with this model, such as difficult shapes and my laptop’s lack of rendering power, meaning no shadows or different art or display styles.

 I wasn’t as pleased with my video; the strange camera-changing problem mentioned in an earlier post, and the way the camera transitions in SketchUp meant a less professional look than I’d been planning, the strange jumps I’ve had to put in to jump between the good shots have made the middle of the video quite juddery, and I don’t like the way the camera clips through the walls and floors. Saying that, considering the small range of programs I had to use, and the very limited time scale due to the three deadlines we had for the main course, this isn’t a bad result. 

[artspectre]

A video walkthrough of my motorcycle museum- model made in SketchUp, video in Windows Movie Maker.

[artspectre]

More Problems: My second video clip is fine when I view it normally, but when viewed in windows movie maker the camera angles have changed in several of the shots, making the shots now unusable because they are looking at walls etc. This is both perplexing and irritating.

[artspectre]

I have also now had to lower the quality considerably to try to shorten the rendering times, so now the videos are 800x600, and only 12dpi, which is considerably lower quality than I'd hoped, but I don't have the time to wait over an hour to render 1009 frames.

[artspectre]

One problem I've encountered in making the video is that my laptop doesn't have the processing power to render the textures and the shadows, so I've had to go without shadows, which doesn't have the same impact as I'd hoped, but there's nothing I can do about that.

[artspectre]

This is one of the youtube tutorials I used to learn about the video section of my project, posted by SketchUpVideo, so thanks to them.

[artspectre]

Museum: complete

[artspectre]

First floor: complete. Just to summarise again, this floor consists of a entry corridor, which is accessed by both the stairs and the lift. From there you enter the Indian room, pass through into the Vespa room, then the general bikes room, before finally the Isle of Man TT room and the trike room. This then leads you onto the workshop balcony, before exiting. Not only does this layout allow you to see all of the rooms without going back on yourself, it also gives possibility to having an audio walkthrough guide, which many museums have for sale at the entry desk. I feel this loop makes more sense then the layout at Plymouth Museum, where you do have some small loops, but you do have to double back to the main corridor to get to new areas, which seems a bit disjointed to me, although to be fair that building is very old, and they have to work with what they have, whereas I have the luxury of designing the building to suit my plan.

[artspectre]

The Indian themed room, featuring a large vintage sign, two motorcycles and a display board. The sign will be a genuine vintage Indian sign, and the other 3 walls and the display table will feature photographs of early bikes, along with information from them, so providing a timeline spanning the two walls, plus extra information and bikes in the display area, such as a profile on famous riders. The information for this can be found in my earlier post(s), such as the complete timeline of Indian from founding to current day, in which I mention a possible candidate for this individual profile

[artspectre]

I decided, despite the timescale, to make my own bikes, or impressions of bikes. I will make 3 or 4 models, to cover different genres of bikes, so this is a chopper, and I will also have a scooter, tourer and racer, plus a trike. These impressions will serve to show what sort of bike will be where, and the size of the bikes in comparison to the rooms