Emily Rocks P&E and VL Combined Evaluation
Both modules Process and Enquiry and Visual Language have essentially opened my skillset, learning, working and understanding of the conceptual process of my making. I chose to follow the Stranger brief which was given through the Visual Language module, which I took into Process and Enquiry. With the help of different workshops such as: Print Making, Sculpture, Projection and Folds, I was able to produce a full body of work.
Firstly, during and after the workshops, I focused on sculpture, especially with clay. I started off for Process and Enquiry with creating a sculpture made out of features: eyes, noses, ears and mouths. I started to think of taking this sculpture further, but I changed that idea and instead developed it into another version of a collection of features. These are cube sections, which can be stacked, creating totems, I thought this would relate from my digital videos of how I create the face blobs, which is sections of different features.
For Visual Language I focused on paper folds. As a task I created paper forms in relation to our chosen brief. Using the features I created, I combined forms that gave structure and a 3D element. I then researched historical totems, as I really loved the design and structure elements of them. I collected cans, tins and bottles and as well my paper forms and cast them. Through that process my paper forms weren’t so stable, plaster leaked, the paper fell onto itself and the folds got lost. But because of this they came out with either own uniqueness. I then cast cans, I bent the can into its self, creating a form. After the plaster was set, I took away the metal and was left with the form. I did the same process with the bottles, and from that I started to combine them. Using PVA glue, I stacked them on top of each other. Because I cast a lot, if combined together the height would be too unstable, so I made separate totems.
I took this further with the paper forms for Visual Language and took photographs and created collages, developed with adding my feature digital images on top. From this I was able to develop my ideas and see what future work could become. Focusing on taking these into different processes and how I communicate my concept. It became evident that every material and process has its own identity.
Thirdly, I looked at text, video and sound. I started off simply by taking the words “ THE STRANGER” from the Visual Language brief. For Process and Enquiry taking the word “UNCANNY” which is a word from Uncanny Vally, which I think relates with the works I’ve been doing. I played around with text and recording myself glitching, layering and other techniques the text. The text I found was part of my stronger works and some I even developed into my screen printing and projection work. I then as part of my time-based, collected sounds from everyone and layered it on top of the process video of the head blobs.
Screen Printing was another focus, I played around with colours, imagery and different techniques. For Process and Enquiry I first used the head blob image, which took a few times to get onto a screen, but with played with the tones, scraping into the acetate and even just had an outline of the image, it came out well. I also took the digital text, I took the word “UNCANNY”, for Process and Enquiry, I transferred it into print-making and having either the text be a piece or an underly. I had the text printed twice, normal and backwards, I printed it in a way it layers on top of each other, creating a trippy effect. For Visual Language, because of the success of the text, I printed “STRANGER” from my digital text, the word simply comes from the brief, I did this with the same technique but just by itself, but I tried having it backwards, upside down and side by side which also worked well.
In developing my concept for the future, I’d like to experiment more with the things that came out successfully and that i enjoyed. Especially the text, it was something I had never gone into depth with and had to learn different formats and processes.
Overall, both of these modules have definitely developed not just my skill-set, but also my conceptual processes of working and thinking. Through different workshops, I was able to invest into having a better relationship with different processes and materials that contributed to the overall concepts.
