Ellen O'Sullivan (LSAD YR1 Semester 2)

"I am exploring the theme of fear in my story, through animation and a mix of what is real and myth."

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RESEARCH

The use of sound in media (film/games/TV) to create uneasiness or fear

According to science, there are certain frequencies or patterns in music and sound that can create fear in the listener. I was fascinated by this concept so I went and listened to popular "creepy" music and found a couple I really liked.

Another favourite was the idea of what a T Rex actually sounds like. Most people assume a T Rex roars, especially like the iconic scene in Jurassic Park. However, research into a full T Rex skeleton found, suggest you didn't hear a T Rex, you FELT it. This goes back to the frequency idea above, it made a rumble, that you could feel miles away. Not a massive roar. The use of this frequency is more effective in creating media!

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Storyboard: Fear

Deciding between two endings, so for now it is open, but I have enjoyed the planning so far. It's quite a messy storyboard but I know what each scene should look like.

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When I think of story I often first look at what makes a story a story. What does it need? For me, some of the most fascinating stories are about fear. It's such a complex emotion that I decided to base my story around this theme.

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Project Statement

I was fascinated by how people with disabilities or restricted movement could create art or use every day items. The use of prosthetics was a main focus of my work because I found the robotic nature fun and was interested in how they must feel to use because they're often very mechanical and there isn't enough research to make them move through natural means. I had hoped to investigate how to create works that reflected this restricted movement and people's opinion on these disabilities and movement in general.

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Research: Rebecca Horn (Sculpture Artist)

In my opinion it seems like a lot of her sculptures are quite restrictive, and also enhance movement at the same time. I thought that fit well with my project and made a very basic mask that held a pencil or brush in order to work.

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Typography and Print Layout

I liked the idea of working with code or more electronic themes because of the rise in technology and the possibility however unlikely that human limbs may be replaced with robotics in the future. Articles about these kind of innovations always catch my eye so I decided to try making my own.

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Ideas development: "Movement by extension", in this case through mechanical means. Work in progress.

4 finished and 2 quick sketches of patterns inspired by the Graphic Design pattern workshop.

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Home Studio

Materials seen in this photo include:

Drawing materials, inks and paint.

Scrap paper and thread.

Collected cardboard in the box.

Wire, wood and adhesives.

Lino.

Obligatory tea.

I found having many different kinds of materials helpful because they can be used across the board in my electives but also result in a lot of fun experimentation. Other times I remove all but one or two and it can force you to think outside the box.

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Movement, Brainstorm

Initial ideas: Sketches of simple moving machine parts.

Mechanical moodboard

The worn browns and metallics are quite atmospheric in my opinion, a colour scheme I will keep in mind for future work.

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Project Statement

I wanted to find the beauty in the 'ugly' side of nature, in the fingerprints left behind that people often take little notice of. I wanted to highlight the patterns that you find in these. From this I wanted to make new designs and patterns, preserving the initial beauty while also showing what can become of something as mundane as the traces we all find in our homes. I transitioned to looking at these traces themselves, and further into natural resources, such as geodes and ores.

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Research Book Update

Sculptor Robert Adams

https://youtu.be/BZKC8DYLyTQ

I also enjoyed this short video from a British museum that discusses briefly Robert Adams work as well as a few other sculptors. It gives a good overview of what his pieces where like.

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Adobe Workshop: Premiere Pro and Photoshop

I was quite glad to take this workshop as I think basic image and video editing skills are essential (across all areas of art and design). I found the video editing quite easy, but working with both programmes together (such as exporting images to work in Photoshop from Premiere) a little difficult. I also played around with inkscape while waiting, as I've been learning this myself at home.

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Gaining Digital Skills: A struggle

I've began fiddling around with Inkscape, a free program similar to adobe illustrator. I am not particularly good with computers in general, especially large programs like this, so I found it quite difficult to start with. I watched some tutorials and began looking at the basic colour and shape tools. In this gif, I was making a safety poster. The little image at the top is meant to be a hard hat, that also looks like an underground light. I haven't added text yet as I don't know those tools well so far.

I also layered lots of shapes to create geode and ore like icons which I found pretty cool!

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To add to my research on geodes and ores I began looking at how they are actually extracted and mined. While I've heard it many times before, it still fascinates me they used canaries to help know when gas had leaked! As someone who hates dark tight spaces, I commend the men and boys who used to mine in the sweltering heat for some coal or metal ores! Some mining accidents have even been shown on present day TV shows such as "The Crown".

I got inspired by the images of the long dreary dark days underground, with dim lighting, chipping away at stone. I made a basic model using some paper and painting the inside, and used some pieces of coal for decoration also.

Here is a quick gif I tried to make, crushing the paper as if the mine was collapsing.

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Ideas Development: Making Geodes

I tried to pour some paint so that it would emulate the layers and uneven nature of geodes, and I really like the result! Although, it does look a little bit more like an ocean. I ended up adding gold flecks because you often see little shiny pieces of other materials in them, such as in pyrite, or "fools gold".

Here are some close ups of the different areas.

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In my research into ores and geodes, I began looking at artists and factories who worked with ores and metals in their most pure, basic forms. One of these I found was "Oxydfactory" a company that works with metals and uses chemical reactions to make artworks and furniture. For those who didn't do HL Chemistry, this is done by oxidation, hence their name. Oxidation is the loss of electrons.

A classic example, which oxydfactory also takes advantage of to make their art, is the formation of rust.

Iron combines with oxygen to form iron oxide (2 Fe + O2 → Fe2O3). Oxydfactory manipulates this to create lovely bubbled, wavy patterns in their tables especially.

They also work with other metal pieces, like the hoods of old cars or trucks.

I think the blend of science and art is really fun here and those with basic knowledge of chemistry could create these kinds of works which I like a lot, art should be accessible to as many as possible!

While one of the areas I've fallen down in is a wide and creative use of materials I like that they're using simple things like old rusted to create their pieces, similar to how I've used a lot of old scrap paper and cardboard to make mine.

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Today, I attended the Newsprint workshop, which I thoroughly enjoyed. We were given articles to pick from and read, and had to choose words we like or that were expressive and use the word itself to convey something, make an image out of it in a way. As this had been something I'd experimented with using chalk, it wasn't too hard to come up with some ideas. My article was about the vaccine, especially the problems and timeframe associated with it.

I like this one especially, it is meant to look like the barrell of a gun. Because we only have one shot, or bullet, to get this done right and roll out the vaccine.

This is meant to emulate the rolling out of vaccines.

I chose caged as a word that came to mind as I felt reading the article everyone is stuck or caged in their decisions. There isn't really any room for error.

I also used the word covid as a graph, because a lot of emphasis is put on the numbers and how they're rising or falling.

Next I experimented with some words for my project, I used plastic mesh as a way of trying to portray a wool texture, as wool fibres and hair is often a trace I leave behind, and scrap paper is nearly always present in all corners of the kitchen when I work, because I crop or collage quite often. I am planning on tearing the scrap print when it is dry.