The gutter Idea that finally went in the "gutter"

A few weeks ago we were given the 7 day brief to create a simple version of the book we were intending to create, and we were given specific guidelines. although we were given these boundaries, I was still confident in creating this "into the gutter" approach which I later, after many trial and error testing, found was a difficult concept for someone who wasn't particularly confident on illustrator. Here are some of the images from the book in which was the information I collected from the christmas holiday, literally written in the gutter of the book. As the date of the hand in of the book drew closer i began to think how relevant this idea was actually was compared to all my research. Although it was a sensible option, it didn't really liek the gutter idea with students not recycling.














From this I had a quick look at similar graphic designers who use their work along the centre fold of the work. This image is from the 1000 type treatments.

ALL my attempts of book making

So through the last few weeks I have made many attempts of book making and book binding. The first of these was the book binding session we did a couple of weeks after we got the project given to us.










Although I did play full attention in the work shop and tried this new type of crafting, It can safely be said that this did not turn out how I wanted and we very unsuccessful. The most obvious and critical error I made was that the books edges were completely visible and to be honest it just looked a bit shoddy.

So I decided to do something about the fact that this clearly wasn't me fort-ay, and gave it an other go one miserable Saturday night:




















I would be the first in saying this was possibly a lot more horrific than the first attempt. The sizing was all wrong for the outside and uneven. The glue was used a little too much and may be a main factor to why it went all wrong. Although I was obviously hopeless in this area, I didn't let it dishearten me. I carried on with my research and contents of the book and decided that I would just have to cross the bookmaking bridge when I came to it.

Heres one of the first books I made, when we were put in a group and asked to develop a book over that day with other people. WE used a combination of our research and attempted the folding from an a3 sheet to get this small book.







Similar to that I used the paper from a recycling and environmental magazine to create a book.... just seeing how effective the paper would be.




I wanted to have a quick look in how I could potentially create a book that was a little different but still on the same line. My thought process then went on from book making to book making inside other books. I began to strip the centre section out of this environmental book to look at an ironic perspective in that it would literally look like a student had cut up or "ruined"the environment, which more ironically, I had.......



Heres some of the other books i had bought... but before I begane cutting them all out, I changed my mind. He He.




An other of my ideas was to litrally create and make my own gutter, so me being me, went to buy a huge brown silinder tube and then reolised that as origional this idea would be, there was literally no way I would be able to bind the thing!

Final research to book of 100

So with only a few days left I wanted to create a strong set of images like I had done over the christmas holidays, In that I documented peoples rubbish just simply using post-et notes. I then decided to take all the research I had got written on the face book wall when I asked a bunch of students to make tell me their excuses into why they don't recycle. I wanted the images to be mainly ironic.. So give an exuce for not recycling, and then have something contridicting in the background, that would be typical of a student.






I then found a relevant book one of my flat mates had called I lick my cheese, which was effectively witty and blunt notes people had given each other. Some of my favorites were "I pay the rent, what do you do?" and Ehatever you do NEVER let the bailiffs in". Just being written on scraps of paper, they all looked genuine and effective.... In a scence i wanted to steal some of these original straight thinking quotes.

Visual language, statement of intent

For this project I hope to basically and effectively intend to create various videos which all have the theme of what's a line. Hopefully this whole module will develop my skills in stop- motion which I have recently found to be enjoyable to create...... so why not start an obsession.

For the time over reading week I intend to research many ways and more importantly many scales when creating the shots. My feedback in a recent crit told me that as an on going theme through my work, scale would be nice to experiment with..... So on those lines I intend to tell a story. Unlike the first few pieces that I made, this time I would like to thoroughly plan out and story board my intended sequence.

As I have the theme of scale, I had a quick look around my room and decided to look for all objects which were slightly unusual and odd. As a result a lot of the toys from this years christmas came to hand, So I began to collect them and think about developing them as story lines. A small toy water gun was the most effective of these. With a song in mind already It was only a case of figuring out how to combine all these ideas. Over reading week I will play with scale of these objects with a normal sized surrounding, maybe playing with the photoshop way of stop motion that I have already tried.

An other Idea I had that Im already trying out back in my flat was attaching a camera to the back to a skateboard. I intend to get images of just feet walking around and objects passing, using the perspective of a low steady angle as it slowly moves along the pavement. But this is just an idea and I just wanted to find new ways of getting very different kinds of shots which would potentially work effectively with music.

At home I am also looking forward to trying to re-create my little version f Ardmin animations. When I was 16 I stayed in Bristol for a week and was able to help and work on the set of "Sean the sheep" and the "Wallace and Grommit" movie. From when I went to their studios in Bristol, I will dig through the rubbish in my room in order to find out were my little "Morph" figure is. On the last day there, a very kind member of staff took me to the workshop were I created using a big clamp and show clay (much more work was involved), a Morph figure. As I still have this, and as long as copy right will allow me, I will try and see how movement works with figures which will help me in the research to my video.

video resurch- why do u recycle?

So after doing my face book questionnaire I found that students in general aren't only lazy at recycling, but in fact they are still lazy enough to not even fill in a simple one question survey on one of the biggest public networking site. The survey was literally called "help Im an art student...... one question thats all", So I thought my apparently lazy friends would help me a bit more. 86 members joined the group and I got 52 answers on the wall. So effectively I did get quite a bit result, but still it had more potential. So I then began to think of other effective ways of getting some sort of answer out of my colleges and friends, then I came up with the video documentation. The video was quite effective and being there I was able to yell at people if they gave me a un helpful answer without explaining themselves.... .SCORE! ...... new effective way of documenting and researching.

By the way... everyone check out jonny's well explained answer around the middle of the clip!

The Juno video that COPIED ME

So my new aim for visual language was to create some sort of stop motion based work using scale as a theme. Because I was a beginner testing out all the elements of creating a video like this, I thought It would be wise to have a little look at other artists. Juno came to mind as the beginning sequence of the film reminded me of the resent photographic stop-motion work I had done. The indie off beat opening made me think I could now also begin looking at combining photography stop motion with my new found love of photoshop doodling on top.




on that note too, I had a brief look at an old Sony advert which I was told had the scale theme like I had in its concept.




Photography workshop:














Focus and exposure experimentation:

The start of my obsession.......

After a group crit on Tuesday where I was able to show my line project videos, I started to investigate how I could further my new obbsesion with animated videos and stop motion. Why not???? So I herd through they grapevine that I could apparently make stop- motion simply by using photoshop and saveing each still frame as I went along.. So I played around for a long long time.... and this is some of the randum stuff I produced. They were loosly connected to whats a line but mainly I wanted to work out how to use the program....

This one i like to call EATING A LINE:




And this one is called BURP:

The day it snowed..

Second time there has been snow for Kate Emma Fenton in leeds.... so why not use a camera from uni and take some beutiful pictures........ well.... slipping is one negative... but i managed to stay on my wobbely legs long enough to take a few snaps.
Enjoy.........

My first proper attempt of stop-motion.

With my new found skills I then developed the idea, and found out how to add music into the sequence. A good camera and better lighting also helped....... I showed this to a few friends..... all of which said it reminded them of a advert for something.





Here are some stills from the video, just incase you thought this could have not possibly been Kate Fenton who made this.......
OH I can assure you it was........








Because I was unfamilliar with editing the stock frames, and to be honest it was a risk to do edit all 300 frames that I had taken, I tried my best to keep backgrounds and contrasts as simple as I could. I bought black card and kept to contrasting and effective objects.... The small bits of white tack ironiclly looked a bit like small balls of snow. It has snowed all day on Monday .

What is a line..... continued

So I had some images which were in a sequence that I decided to use for the purpose of a stop- motion animation which I had taken a while back in resurch towards the whats I line project. I took the images in lines and sequences which I gradually wanted to get to a more effective and fluid piece, using stop- motion.... Although its slightly poor quality and not very smooth, I felt the process was a good insight into how I developed my skills in stop motion. The last video of the tea bags I felt was the most effective... This then enticed me into the pattern with stop-motion field. Stage one of the obsession......

















I also took pictures in our flat of some decorations that had been left for the 4 birthdays in our flat and from christmas,
which reminded me of a line.... they are pretty too....

Development of Rubbish

So after recognising that I needed to choose a more appropriate and understandable project theme which would be realatable to the format of my book. Although I new it would be tricky, I still was very keen to include the Rubbish in the gutter theme, as it was origional and lets face it, quite whitty for me!

I then began to re think how I would go about the book in terms of being direct with the intended audience and still appropriate to the brief. 

Although we were realistacly meant to do all our reaserch for this project in the christmas holidays, I still wanted to improve it and also make it more specific, so In doing so I began to identify rubbish issues in leeds specificly.

Heres a little from leeds city council:

Our aim is to collect as much recyclable waste as possible. The materials collected from the green recycling bins are passed onto a contractor. The contractor separates all the materials using mechanical and manual sorting. The materials can then be sold on to be used to make new products. Here is a virtual tour of the materials recycling facility (MRF). The council has implemented various schemes to help reduce and reuse your waste.
We collect any excess recyclable waste at the same time as your green wheeled bin as long as it is loose in transparent bags. Please make sure any excess recyclable waste is placed in a plastic bag, do not use a black bag because this will not be collected.
All drinks cans, plastic bottles and food cans must be washed out before placing in green bins/bags to avoid contamination. Squashing them will give you additional space in your bin.


I also then created a way of finding out and collection information from my target audience of the book which was students in the area. In specifying this I thought it would be wise to create a facebook group in which I could potensially get a collection of answers. The outcome was actualy quite helpful, and most were quite humerous. Heres a few answers:



- seems pretty insignificant compared to other problems we should be thinking about, so i just dont bother. ANDY JONES

- I do put them in the right coloured bins! Just that sometime we get them muddled up when taking them down and forget which ones were in which bins! TIM WAN

- main reason being the recycling bins given especially in certain areas are not collected on a regular basis or sometimes not at all. other than that we don't have enough information on where and how to recycle. MARTYN WOOLLEY

- I'm lazy :) CHARLOTTE MINDEL

I then began to just do a little resurch into the general bid to improve the environment. The news was obviously an important one:

After a crit where I decided to reconcider the idea of helping students to almost have a handbook to litter correctly, I began looking at other age groups I could aim at. Children became my first option as they are easily influenced and persuadable. A lot of imagery came off the internet into getting the idea into a childs head about recycling. But do I want to really go down this route? Why not tackle students?

So I began to scan the net for a more appropriate age group.

Influence from youtube

After a lot of thinking and brief explosion of ideas of what to create for my final book for this project, I then decided it was time to take a step back.....

Although I liked a lot of the ideas I had such as making the small books inside an already made big hardback book, it was just not practical to what I effectively wanted to achieve. So I took a step back..... again...... the stress of having to have a final thought to the project and create a mock up was getting to me a bit and I decided to begin searching for effective book making skills that would interest me instead.

I then came across this you tube oragami technique that looked fun and a little more me. It helped me to strat thinking outside the box once again......

Rubbish in the gutter of just rubbish idea??

After a good think when getting the brief of 100 and our new task to develop a book, I began to think harder how I could approche it in also being creative.



On these lines I began testing ideas using the theme of creating an actual rubbish bin out of books and still combining this thought with my origional imagery of "rubbish in the gutter". Heres some of the results....

Book of 100... statement of intent

My title will be called ....... "Rubbish in the gutter"


It came from the work I was investigating about peoples rubbish and my own responce of how people generally find it easier to recycal when you are organised and effitiant . In that sence I began to think of the concept of throughing rubbish away and not caring about where it was going. Leaving rubbish in places where they arent supposed to be was my later train of thought..........

During our Monday lecture about the anatomy of a book, I picked up on the section of the book called the GUTTER. Still playing compelete attension to the talk, I then had a train of thought about what I could do with a gutter concept... In terms of leaving the rubbish out on the streets in the gutter....

Over the next few days i will start playing around with the way a book can be made and develop work which shows my origional 100 pictures coming out the centre fold. I will follow the book style we developed on Monday in Which I will make on a1 paper and then fold up into the 16 leaves and 32 pages that we are asked to in the brief.

I have my book making workshop on friday so I can try to experiment as much as I can then and work out how my book can be binded and properly and appropriately made and developed.

video elective

Over the course of the first few weeks of my video elective we had to create a short film to show that we could basicly use the equipment that was shown to us. Unfortunatly there were very very minimal people who actually turned up to the elective in those weeks so I had no partner to work with. Me...... being left alone with a camera and the opertunity to be a nutter, bagan to create a small dance sequence with just my feet in the shot.

After quite a bit of tricky editing and experimentation with Final Cut, I had a short music video which answered the brief which was to show how to do or make something.

Mine was "How to choose a pair of shoes, and look awsome in them!" I may have potensially been the only person to have thought that was funny. But definetly origional.


Heres the final product, remember I filmed by myself with limited time......







Footloose is a good example of the work and specifically feet based dance that I was trying to create......... but obviously a little more modern day. No effence Kevin Bacon!

100 things

Given the project of 100 things......... and what came to the top of my thought pile... Rubbish................. LITERALLY
So many things to choose from and i pick the smellyest most mundane topic I could....

Well I got over the stupid decision I made and actually started to do something about it..... I wanted to document something oppose to take pictures of 100 bins....

I then had the idea of slightly splitting my resurch up into using maybe 10 people or places and 10 bins around that persons enviroment... I used postet notes to write and document some points about that persons rubbish. More than anything I actually used it to help me to remember what It looks like so I then could begin to try catogoriseing certain things.

To create the desired effect I had to go around in the holidays to many of my friends houses to document back home in London. The thing that I learnt was that people, especially familys that for example may be fairly conserned about where my project was actually going, were a little questionable to what my intensions were. From more than two houses I had very awkward conversations with adults that live in the house whilst sitting next to their bins with a camera and pen. I shall not be returning back to London for a while!

Heres some of the glamerous resalts:









This one above was definetly the funnyest and most orgional of the 100 pictures. It was defiently a pickal to take as not to be rude, but bloody stunk..........

The work ended up forfilling my wish to document what I wanted but I found one of the main downfalls and problems that surrounded all the photography was that although I had my hands on good camera at the time, I still couldn't get a sucessfull view of the writing on the postet and also include the contents of the top of the bin. Not the kind of sentence you hear every day! As a result some are sucessful in that the postet is very readable and visable whilst the background could simplay be anything. On the other hand some look distorted but show a good image of the surroundings and the bin in general.

This project reminded me of previous work I have done when I created writing on an old tyre, questioning the impact of cars on the environment. The irony was infact that the bin men refused to take away the tyre...... as it was not the right kind of rubbish and it had to be taken elsewere to help the environment. Three weeks later my dad drove to the rubbish tip a mile away to get rid of it.
IF THAT ISN'T IRONY I DONT NO WHAT IS!

What is a book.........

For me a book is an excuse to go into the mad world that is MY HEAD. As unlikely as it sounds, in judgement of my awful spelling and poor use of the English language, I do actually really enjoy ready, when I have time to get round to it. I feel the words on a page seem to tell a story that people can interpret how exactly they want.

For example.......... My favorate nursery rhyme was one I found written in a childrens book at a young age....... It was insy weensy spider. Last year in foundation I did a project that made me think about this poem alot, as it was based on fears and phobias. I searched the house and eventually found my old book to use as inspiration for my project as a lot of my arrasional fears of the animals, I felt had come from that book.



Incy Wincy spider climbing up the spout
Down came the rain and washed the spider out
Out came the sun and dried up all the rain
Now Incy Wincy spider went up the spout again!


Heres my images from last year:






Although Its not quite along the lines of spiders, Tim Burtons Vincent came to mind when I thought of things that scare me. I pretty much feel terrified whenever I see his work now. Any of it!!!!

Early line project images

Being given basicly any direction to go with for our project for Visual Language I decided to use the oppertunity to create a project from an angle of art that really interests me, which is perspective. I began taking pictures of whatever I could using angles which in itself was quite fun, but then I wanted to add a theme.








From this I thought......... How do I see the world...... to make it a little more personal to me........ sure enough I found my answer.... before I new it I was next door asking my neighbours with their 2 year old toddler, If I would use his toys for my project. So I guess a simple childlike look on the world is what apparently descibes my personality. How embarasing for myself.



I created some lines of animals, like a safari type theme and effectivly photographed them once I had also stolen a friends Canon EOS 300D Digital SLR Camera just to make the image look a bit more sharp. i found the results quite contradictory because the expressions on the animals are humerous but It does genuinlly look like animals from a safari... Good bit of irony.





This then led onto my experimenting with other techniques and ideas with differnent kinds of childish toys..... heres some of th e results....