This project is about the problem of communicating the complexity and interesting methods behind creating a beautifully made object to a wider audience who do not know about it. This project is also about working along with a client, and team work collaboration to develop an original outcome which meets the required professional standards within constraints including time and cost. We would explore animation and interactivity as a design problem – using multimedia as a means of visual expression of our chosen object and communicating the factual information. In this brief, the V&A museum will have commissioned our group to design an open-access, interactive website about a material, through the processes used to make specific objects from the collection. The material I was given the task of presenting was stone, along with two other team members.
My initial source of inspiration was Sampson and the Philistines by Vincenzo Foggini at the V&A museum. This remained the focus point of presenting the material throughout this project. I aimed to express this beauty and complexity of the techniques of carving my chosen stone sculpture. I initially created studies of it when I first saw it at the V&A museum of which one of them was developed into my first animation.
My other additional sources of information included the V&A website that gave me a background information as to when and where the sculpture was made and who it was made by. I also used a website called http://www.stoneshaper.com/how.html that explained how to use traditional carving techniques to shape marble sculpture. I also used biblical websites to get the story being depicting in the sculpture such as https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/Judges in which I found in Judges 15 from the Old Testament.
In terms of understanding the process learnt about a range of stone-carving techniques in which stone is extracted from a quarry, broken up, carved, sanded and then polished into it’s final form. But, in terms of my own work I had to learn how to use my studies and apply them within animation timelines, both in moviemaker and in Photoshop. I also learnt how to use stop motion animation in order to show the carving of the original sculpture out of clay as well as using Edge animate animation software and Photoshop in order to present our slides and group work.
The resources required included a sketchbook and camera to take notes from the V&A museum, the internet for further contextual information, as well as a range of computer software such as Edge animate, Photoshop and moviemaker in order to both animate and present our individual and group work.
In my own work I managed to complete my own personal work within the time frame required. However as group, throughout the assignment we were generally ok on time management, however one of our team members did not save his slides in the correct format before they were being coded by one of tutors, which delayed that part of the process on his part – since he had to fix this on the day of the deadline. Despite this, everything did get eventually submitted on the deadline so that our work could be presented on the website at the V&A.
One of the problems we faced as a team was a lack of communication. This became an increasing problem throughout the group work of the project since more animation responsibilities were placed on of our group members than the others, which lead to an unfair distribution of work. In future as a group we could worked to a better standard in terms of time constraints if there was more communication in the team.
However we did manage to create a good standard work in our group work and individual work. As a a group we all got excellent feedback from the V&A clients during the presentation. I remember getting very good feedback during my part of the presentation to our V&A client’s, due to the success of my stop motion animation and presenting the magnificent nature of the carving process highlighting the sculptural techniques undergone in the making of Sampson and the Philistines. They understood what I was trying to convey from my animation and slides and did not receive any criticism whatsoever.
I used drawing as my primary research tool during the start of the project, using 4B and 6B tonal pencils to capture the range of tones and forms of the figures within the sculpture. Understanding how to represent the sculpture through drawing allowed me to later develop it when I used multimedia to create my first animation. It was also used as a primary resource when were using a planning sheet as a group to draw out the text for our opening introduction to our website exploring multimedia ideas.
The aspects of my research that I found most useful was looking into was looking into stone itself. Once I understood the basic qualities of stone and how it was carved I was able to develop my claymation in representing the carving process – which was one of the most successful parts of my project.
My main source of information was the Sampson and the Philistines sculpture at the V&A museum and the V&A website as to giving me information to when and where the sculpture was made and who it was made by. I also used a website called http://www.stoneshaper.com/how.html that explained how to use traditional carving techniques to shape marble sculpture. I also used a biblical websites https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/Judges in which I found in Judges 15 from the Old Testament describing the story of Sampson and the Philistines as Vincenzo portrayed it.
Our ideas as a group were well developed, we collectively knew we wanted to present marble stone and marble stone sculpture, which is how we based the texture for our web page as well as the tonal drawing links on our website (these can be seen when scrolling over the stones). We also developed a mood board of stone textures and Kuler swatches as well as using a marble texture as a consistent pattern throughout our individual slides. The development of the website was also excellent in portraying our individual stone works.
For my animation I used clay to represent the sculpture because I felt it was an effective medium to show the complex nature and beauty of stone carving processes. Since clay is malleable, it could be carved from a block form – so I used it to represent stone.
The main contextual influences was using the biblical reference as the way Sampson is portrayed with such might and valour I tried to reflect this in the context of the slides and in the way I carved the sculpture. His muscular appearance and stern face reflect his prowess that I felt the original sculptor was trying to portray as he fought of the Philistines.
I started originally from drawings, studying the formal qualities of the sculpture and later used the concept behind the carving of the sculpture as a means of animation. The portrayal of the complexities of the sculpting process was reflected heavily within my animation establishing the change of static rock form into a grand depiction of a biblical scene. This was a fantastic transition to show.
The final piece of my work includes the interactive presentation of the stone material and stone sculptures of our group. When the website is opened a vast array of stone shards emerge the word stone onto a marble texture and a range of stone links showing tonal drawings of our stone sculptures are exhibited by scrolling over the stones. Clicking onto my individual title from the homepage link leads to four slides I produced in which contextual references into the historical, biblical, traditional tools and techniques and qualities of the marble sculpture of Sampson and the philistines is explored. Finally a stop motion animation of individual photos collectively sped up and accompanied with classical music depict me carving a representation of the original sculpture – made in tribute to the original as mentioned in the title. After this the credits can be found providing the museum information for the viewer to acknowledge when they visit the V&A museum.
These were relevant to the original brief in that they provided to an audience who don’t know about the material stone – the beauty of it’s application in stone sculpture, the complex processes that are involved and the fascinating procedure in doing so. That has been successfully conveyed in both the group and my individual work especially since the V&A clients gave positive feedback as the interactive website and my stop motion demonstrated stone, interestingly portrayed it’s qualities and relation to sculpture, inviting those who had seen to come see it at the V&A itself.
If I had given the chance to repeat the project I think I would change my efforts in communicating as a team. Although we collaborated successfully in producing our work, we did not equally distribute the workload which was unfair to one of our team members. This would have more fairly helped that team member as well possibly sped up the process during the time constraints we have, and it wasn’t particularly fair on that team member’s part.
I’ve learnt from this project that communication is key to promoting success in any group work situation, I’ve also learnt the possibilities of interactive design in promoting a piece of art and how it can invite an audience through interactive features. This taught me that interactive multimedia that open to a range of accessible sources – such as a computer or Ipad, can easily allow users to take an interest in what is being displayed. This helps promote ideas and messages which is what I effectively felt we achieved through this project.
