James Hannon

K00294664 Conveying the Movement of the River Boyne through Animation, Printmaking and Sculpture 20 - LSAD - First Year Art & Design B.Ed

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Movement 13-01-24

After brainstorming the word Movement, I've settled on the Yellow River as the foundation for my project. It is a stream, a tributary of the River Boyne, that flows through our farm back in Offaly. The River Boyne is one of Ireland's most mythologically significant rivers with interesting tales and legends associated with its origin.

Throughout the project, I tried my best to tie each of the electives together. I used my printmaking material in both my stop motion animation and plastic sculptural work. I also projected my animation across the prints and sculptures towards the end of the project.

While I won't be picking a discipline as a B.Ed student, I will integrate the different skills I learned in these electives into my teaching practice going forward. I hope to bring what I learned with this project into the classroom and get students passionate about animation, printmaking and sculpture, all of which are lacking in today's second level art education.

I hope to convey the movement of this stream throughout the project while also delving into the lore and myths about the river that have survived the passage of time.

The River Boyne is linked to the Irish goddess Boann. She is said to have meddled with Connla's Well by walking counter-clockwise around it. This led to the waters of the well rushing up and catching Boann in a flood. She lost an eye, arm and leg in the waters which later became the River Boyne. I find the imagery of this mythology so surreal and captivating and I intend to implement it into my exploration of movement.

Another aspect of the Boyne's history I find interesting is its name. The word Boyne comes from the Irish "bó fhionn" which translates to "white cow". This ties my idea closer to home as we have one Charolais Limousin cross cow that has a pale coat. She will be a part of my primary research going forward. Above is the start of my exploration of ideas in my sketchbook.

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Movement 27-02-24

I continued projecting my animation across my printmaking material, playing with light and shadow within a 3D shape (print roll). I was interested in how the light and colours from the projection danced around the curve of the roll. This was influenced by the land art of Nancy Holt and her use of light within cylindrical structures.

In this shot, I was surprised by how the silhouette of the character stretched along the roll. It's quite dramatic and cinematic, its almost as if she is looking down the well with her shadow being cast across its walls.

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Movement 27-02-24

I projected my animation across the plastic sculpture print. the movement of light across the crinkles along with the fluid colour is really effective. The three photos below highlight the difference in colour and light.

For the photos below, my camera went out of focus. This added a blurred quality to the photos that were accidental but resulted in a fairly ethereal image.

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Movement 27-02-24

I discussed with my tutors the treatment of water in terms of its volume and the shape it takes in space. This pushed me to think more about water’s ability to match the shape of the space it occupies. I attempted to attach the plastic print around the acetate structure but that could not stand by itself. The weight of the plastic pulled the structure down no matter how I tried to balance it.

The heap of material after the structure collapsed had very distinct light refractions and reflections throughout which was very fun to photograph.

I decided then to place the plastic prints inside the lopsided cylinder, compressing it as tightly as possible and letting it fill out the space within the structure as it stretched itself out.

I photographed the structure+print in the photography studio with a very simple set up. Boosting the contrast of the images almost makes the outer structure disappear with only hints of its edges catching the light.

The contrast between the clinical, glassy, smooth texture of the structure and the crumpled nature of the plastic print really stood out to me. While they are made up of similar, translucent material, the way that light bounces and reflects off them is totally different.

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Movement Research 26-02-23

Above is research about sculptors that are influencing my sculpure elective at the moment along with drawings for possible structures and sculputres.

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Movement 26-02-24

I began constructing circular frames out of acetate with the intention of creating a cylindrical, well-type shape. Using a stapler, I connected the acetate together and built littles struts to stack the circles on top of each other. The circles aren’t perfectly aligned, each one balancing out the other which I wanted to embrace after researching Tatlin's Tower. Above, I found it interesting the way the light bounced and reflected off of the circles and plastic material, almost creating ghostly pillars of light.

Light played a massive part in defining the structure in space. The sunlight fell at just the right angle, resulting in the glow of the acetate.

I took the structure to the photography studio to shoot it against the black. We used a variety of lights and played with shadows as well as highlights.

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Movement 23-02-24

(Turn Volume UP)

I added a variety of sounds to the animation, ranging from my own recordings of water to recordings of wildlife online (Irish wildlife sounds). I layered them in Premiere Pro, building up a soundscape that suited the visuals. Doing this has created an atmosphere for the animation that makes it more immersive and cohesive.

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Movement 20-02-24

I recorded close-ups of the plastic sculpture with sweeping pans to add another layer of movement. This was purely just me messing with the camera and editing tools to evoke a sense movement from the stationary sculpture.

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Movement 20-02-24

I recorded two clips following the flow of the plastic sculpture, one forward and the other backward. I layered them in Premiere Pro which resulted in this trippy combination of movements.

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Movement 20-02-24

I experimented with different forms of joining my material today. I thought about whether I wanted the bonding to be obvious or discrete. Whether I should use distinct areas of connection like brightly coloured thread or clear, invisible pieces of acetate strips.

I played around with the glue gun to bind smaller pieces together. The plastic reacts well to heat but it can bore holes in it when exposed for too long. As a result, I avoided using the heat gun to bind the plastic pieces together.

The plastic began to take a meandering, winding shape which is very river like. The actual creases and translucency of the plastic reminded me of the river ripples which inspired this project in the first place.

Taking inspiration from Aurora Robson, I hung the plastic with fishing wire from every nook and cranny I could find in the ceiling. It was interesting to take this 2D meandering concept and to see it flow through a 3D space.

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Movement Research 20-02-24

Aurora Robson is a sculptor that creates installations using scrap translucent plastic. Her work is expansive, taking up lots of space while appearing to hover in mid air. She manipultes and binds the plastic into forms that appear to reach out and move independantly. Her installation 'Plant Perception' takes a winding, root like shape that is stunning in its scale and sense of movement. I hope to implement this ambition of scale in my own sculpture work while also working with similar material.

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Sculpture Workshop 19-02-24

We began this workshop by writing down as many action words as possible. This was to get our brains into gear in terms of what we could do to material through various actions. We selected our 5 preferred words and got to work on material.

Using my plastic prints from my time in the printmaking elective, I applied heat to the plastic to see if i could distort it (one of my chosen actions). It did distort the material but also made it more rigid and stable. This may be useful for construction later on.

Above: Before and After Heat Gun.

I hung the plastic up go get a sense of its scale and to understand how it acted under tension. They also began swaying due to a draft in the window, adding an element of movement.

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Movement 07-02-24

Further progress on my printmaking/ sculpture based animation. I hope to add sound effects next.

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Movement 06-02-24

I began constructing the set for my animation. I used a scrap styrofoam board as a base and built up the diorama using my prints from screen-printing for colour and texture.

I incorporated sculpture into the set through the use of a ramen noodle package which I turned into a well with my prints.

This was quite enjoyable to construct and was easy to animate on afterwards. The animating required patience and a delicate touch but it came together eventually. I used skewers to hold Boann in place for each shot and could easily move her for the every action. 5 seconds of the animation took about 3-4 hours to shoot.

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Movement 06-02-24

Progress so far on the stop-frame animation.

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Movement 05-02-24

More animation tests, edited in Premiere Pro

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Movement 02-02-24

Animation test with prints.