#bculecture

[georginamccavanaviscomlectures]

All ready made

This is the second lecture within this series of lectures in this second project. This talk was about new artists and inventors forming their ideas from others works inspiring them to create such works that they are producing, influencing their style or taking ideas away. I am going to link this lecture to our previous lecture of appropriation and connectivity as they are very similar talking about inspiration and whether or not they are copying another artists work. A great example is of the “Chapman brothers” mock artwork of Goya’s studies adding clown faces to their copied pieces to add their mark in the art world and create controversy. Within my project  I have been greatly inspired by artists that have came in to visit us and give us inspiration such as, Debbie Smyth who inspired my textiles side to me out I haven't done textiles in years and her work inspired me to create pieces out of media that you would not normally think of. Her technique is very out of the box, who knew you could use nails and just thread to create amazing art pieces. It has opened my mind to the raw materials that can be used to create work. I am now creating my illustration pieces with thread and wire creating hand stitched illustrations and the use of wire drawing also which formed from Jo Newman’s tutorial of wire drawing. 

[bcumiapowell-blog]

Lecture - Victorian Visions

So today was our first Lecture in the old Imax cinema! The lecture was based on the ways in which Victorian’s would create visual based entertainment in the 19th century. One theme that stuck out to myself throughout this lecture was the way in which optical toys and tools were designed in the 19th century,  have been regurgitated throughout time and developed into the new technologies of today. I am an illustration student so I have had a passion for drawing since a young age. I remember having a pink plastic drawing toy, which I would be able to look through and draw an image at the same time. Not then did I know that this was really a development of the Camera Lucida. Which was designed in 1834 designed as a drawing tool for the middle class to buy. This is just one of many objects that have been developed through the years from the 19th century into the new technologies of today. 

Another link which was visible through this lecture was the way in which the Victorians were beginning to create a moving image. Using toys such as ‘The Thaumatrope’ which was a simple design that gave a visual illusion that combines two images to create a third image. This to me is a glimpse of the start of animation and moving image. As the Victorians were changing the form and state of one image/illustration through motion, which has been developed further today into animation and film. From this I would like to link my own illustrations into something tactical like the Thaumatrope and the Phenakistoscope, which both transform illustrations into a moving image from the motion of the beholder. Not only this but it transforms a single illustration into an object which is more tactical and interesting to the viewer. Also one of my ideas for my current project was to illustrate how the buildings are different within my chosen area of Birmingham, of rich and poor, cared for and neglected. I could do this by regurgitating the techniques which the Victorians have used by turning my illustrations into a moving image. So the beholder can watch a well kept building slowly decay and crumble as it becomes neglected.