Working with Words

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Pop Art Journal.

 These three photos I believe represent a part of contemporary pop culture. The first photo is a copy of the poster I have in my room of the iconic Frank Zappa. The art of this picture is very similar to that of pop art and people still look up to him in recent times.

The next photo is of a busker in the inner city of Melbourne. I really like this photo, as I believe these people is what makes the city authentic and realistic. Buskers are all throughout the world and their art I find is so unique. Finally I have a photo of a train station which represents the main transport for fellow ‘Melbournians’ and I find the whole public transport art in itself. 

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OuLiPo Exercise Week 7

Week 

Exercise 1

 Japan zaps ken with all their zen. Ken likes a spank. His Zip broke on his pink Jeans. Ken skips to Japan with his pink peak hat.

This is all I could come up with without using anymore normal words. I wanted it to make some sense instead of chucking random words together.

Exercise 2

Japan Ken Zips
 


Japan Zen Skip

Jean Spank Zip

Jean Zaps Pink


Peak Zaps Jinn

Speak Zap Jinn


Spake Zap Jinn

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Edward Hopper Paintings Imaginative Writing

Exercise 1

As the gloomy night was coming to a close, we stubbled across a lit up diner perfect for an end to our date. This particular diner was the only thing open within 7 blocks of the theatre, which baffled us. The neon lights lit up the surrounding darkness of the usually lively city however on this particular night the streets seemed surprisingly quiet. As the doorbell rang when we walked through the door it seemed as if the place was deserted, however my eyes caught the top of another mans hat sitting in the corner by his lonesome. Although physically he was alone I felt as if the man was off in his own world oblivious to his surroundings, he was just drifting away with his thoughts. Our entrance at such an obscure time and place did not make the man flinch one bit, as he was preoccupied with himself.

  We found a seat close to the bar waiting for our service, when an older man came out in the classical white uniform to greet us with a welcoming yet eager smile (I think the man has been waiting for some company).  My date and I made our order and were unseeingly having a great conversation with the owner of the diner. His aged jokes and interesting tales kept the night going, (thankfully my date wasn’t getting bored). Even with our loud laughter and the clutter of our cutlery, the man in the hat remained silent and unmoved. 

  Exercise 2

I never thought my life would end up like this. When I was younger I always thought my life had some perfect script and everything was going to go my way. I knew exactly who I wanted to be and what I wanted to do with my life, yet nothing ever seems to go to plans does it? I am stuck in this life-draining job as a no body without any purpose whatsoever. I am heading in no direction without any idea of what my next move will be. I need to find a way out. I work all day just to come back to this empty apartment that doesn’t even make me look forward to coming home. I don’t think I can even call it a home, a home is somewhere that is safe, fun, relaxing, and somewhere you belong. I don’t belong here in the city, well at least not in the rundown neighbourhoods. My life was meant for stardom, I am meant to be living the dream by now living in mansions, going out with friends all the time, to be somebody. My life needs to change drastically and quick otherwise I don’t know how much longer I can take living a life filled with emptiness and what ifs’. 

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Helvetica - Reflection.

Being a teenage in the 21st century we take so much for granted, included in this is font. Even though we use it in our everyday life for the wrong things such as texting instead of writing our essay I personally have no idea font had so much meaning and a story behind it. Helvetica really opened up a whole different understanding and interest in this particular font. The time and effort put into making this particular font perfect is extraordinary. People don’t realise that years are spent shaping the letters a certain way in order to create a sense of aesthetic. Gary Hustwit has done an outstanding job in making what seems to be a boring and basic topic into an interesting feature length film showcasing the depth of font.

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Exit Through the Gift Shop - Reflection.

The debut film of the infamous street artist, Banksy, is a tremendous documentary about a thrift shop owners (Thierry Guetta) compulsion to videotape his life which lead him to the artist and eventually videoing some of his work. The work that was filmed by Guetta was different to any work that has been recorded before because the artwork was illegal.  This film really grabbed my attention as it was completely new to me and I had no idea of these famous people (shocking I know). The artwork was amazing but the thing that engaged me most was the way it was all documented and the time put into this project for it to be produced into a short documentary. I would of loved to see the footage that was not a part of the final film.

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Week 8 Exercise Credit Sequences

Ed Wood – The opening credit scene of this film clearly delivers the mood and overall feeling for the movie by being dark and mysterious. The sharp loud lightning combined with the drastic, quickening music engages the audience as it works to build an uncomfortable feeling while your heart beat starts mimicking the beat of the unusual music. Further along the scene the sound continues to play a major role in setting the mood, as there is an unusual whistle like sound playing in the background of the soundtrack causing the audience to question that something is out of the norm.

The girl with the dragon tattoo - This opening sequence is very unique and artistic in the way it uses liquid to form shapes and flow over different objects to give meaning. The quick edits between different obscure shots creates confusion for me personally which engaged me as I became very interested in trying to understand what is going on. I believe that this is done for that exact reason; the director is trying to get the audiences attention but not give too much away. The opening is very abnormal and strange leaving the audience with no clear idea of what the film is about yet we do know there will be confusion and mysteriousness behind the plot.

Se7en - The opening credit sequence to this film is enhanced by being after a short intro scene in which the audience is introduced to the main characters and a brief understanding of their occupation which is a great way to give the audience narrative possibilities. With this film the narrative possibilities are endless as they are detectives. This scene ties in with the credit sequence through the different shots of what ‘could be’ the antagonist making clues, plans and other mysterious information. The credits themselves are nicely fitted within the same category by them looking more like hand written names instead of done by the computer. Although this is a small detail it gives the sequence that more authentic feel. In comparison to the other credit sequences it too has that unease feeling with quick edits and build up in pace/tone of the soundtrack causing the same effect of making the audience expectation that there will be drama and ‘edge of their seat’ moments.

007 Goldfinger – The James Bond credit sequence is perfectly linked to the character of 007 with the seductiveness of the bond girls at the beginning right to the shooting of his pistol in the shadow of the girls. The visual design is connected to the film as it often shows parts of the film in the reflection. The music relates directly to the film and is made just for the movie, the lyrics for this film is describing the villain “Mr Goldfinger”. Furthermore the visual aspect along with the text is very crisp and clean just like Mr Bond so we can see the connection between the two. This credit sequence fits the franchise so well it has been kept over the many decades and now audiences have a clear understanding of what the films basic concept is.

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This image of inner city Melbourne graffiti is a great representation of street art I believe it isn't vandalism but is street art. The graffiti along these once dull, boring and disgusting walls has given this alleyway some life. Instead of this alleyway looking like a dangerous dark place, it now looks inviting and interesting, separating itself from its surroundings. I would much rather see this liberating area then the average plain walls that are wrecking our environment.  

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Week 3 Exercise.

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Week 2: The Exquisite Corpse Exercise 2

For this exercise we worked in groups of 3 to construct a sentence using the certain formula in order to make the sentence flow. The formula consisted of a Noun, verb, definite or indefinite article and an adjective. Done in the write order Grammatical consistency should be evident.

Our 3 sentences were - 

The elegant zombie will suck an old pear

The raw dolphin cuts a fresh watermelon

The dazzling vegetable will climb the tallest mountain

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Week 2: Exercise 1 - Automatic Writing

My Starting letter was T when I couldn't continue to automatically write.

The air is all around us as we pass through our everyday life like nothing 

Trees are blowing in the wind while we walk to our classes on the new sunrise early awoken by the alarms of our phones. This early screech is what we dread every sunday night starting as soon as we finish our last class on a friday night. Nothing can compare to the daunting thought of our next class nor is anything comparable to the ecstatic feeling we get when class is finally done. Thoughts of our weekend are all can think about during, before and after class..

the next..

Tremble we do as each thought goes through

Tables are our new home and the hard surfaces bruising our forearms, wrists and elbows until we become so use to it our bones have naturally developed and formed around these surfaces causing arthritis by the time we finish university. I can not believe the agony i feel in my elbow joint as i write but i must continue in order to pass. i look....

Tennis is a favourite pass time but the agony of watching on TV is just as boring as the retro video game 'pong' I wish i could of played that game so i didn't have to be fit or leave my house on a hot summer day..

Tim tams are delicious and are always a snack in my kitchen..

Finish.

I found this exercise extremely interesting because at first i thought it was simple but when i had to begin i found it so hard to actually continually write without trying to think about my next word. However some sentences have potential of becoming more interesting pieces of work which was what the exercise was meant to teach us. 

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Working with Words.