Friday, 19 September 2014

Day 13


6 squares.
Creating six squares that represented myself was a challenging task to some extent. I liked the process of creating many squares in my sketchbook because I could experiment with different ideas, whereas when I started to make the squares the series didn’t tie well together. The main issue was having a strong meaning or concept behind my squares, which I did not have. I preferred to present my squares in a way that allowed the viewer to contemplate why I chose to use the particular materials or the specific process. 
Time management was another issue, since I ended up only producing three squares. I had many ideas in my sketchbook, but when I came down to making them, the process became very slow.
From the feedback I received, I learnt that I should have combined text with image, as well as to keep a similar theme throughout all six images in order for it to be more engaging and memorable.
                                       
                                          




Thursday, 18 September 2014

Day 12 - Software Workshop










Likes and Dislikes


I have much admiration for the many patterns that clouds form in the sky and the way they are presented through the changing colours of the sky. I also like spontaneous trips because I have found then when nothing is exactly planned, there are great outcomes. Another like of mine is watching strange weather for example lightning, storms, and bizarre sunsets and sunrises.  I like architectural models because of its complex forms and its versatility to transform into many structures. Additionally, I would love to go travelling and visit: the whole of Scandinavia, the Seychelles, South Africa, Australia, South America, Eastern Europe, Singapore and the rest of the world. I would also love to live in abroad for a few years, but I still have to decide on where to go. I would also like to be able to try many adventurous activities such as hiking, bungee jumping, snowboarding, being in the presence of a tiger and many more things. I have a great interest in tennis because I love the intensity of the sport. Lastly, I really like getting to know what events, activities, talks etc. are happening around me, so I try not to miss out on opportunities that might occur at these occasions.  Also, caramel lattes are a great invention.
I strongly dislike southern railway trains because they’re service is horrific, in terms of punctuality and the excuses they use. I hate insects very much, especially all the bugs that fly, ants, moths and spiders (spider webs).  Peas and sweet potatoes are the worst type of vegetables in the world. Also, I dislike people who constantly contradict themselves.  Jasmine tea tastes like poison. 


Day 11 - Energy


Energy.

Our journey started from science eventually being integrated with how energy is sparked within tense situations e.g. Russia and Eastern Ukraine conflict. 
My initial idea was the human body being divided into parts of how energy is given off. 
I found it quite challenging to narrow down ideas for the final outcome because of the title being so broad, and having to connect many concepts together.
I thought our final outcome was simple but effective. We used bold colours and writing and a simple strong logo that the audience could understand. 
We chose to do posters because it's a symbol that is used universally and is very engaging.





Wednesday, 17 September 2014

Day 10



Wellcome Collection - Bridging science and art. 

As soon as I walked in and saw maps of the world, the UK and greater London dotted with many stickers, I knew it would enjoy this exhibition, because I assumed that it would reference many cultures. 
Interactivity was at the heart of the Idiosyncratic A - Z human condition exhibit. I believe that this is hard to find in exhibitions within greater London, however I feel that exhibitions are increasingly including an interactive aspect in their exhibits e.g. Sensing Spaces (Royal Academy), Digital Revolution (Barbican), and Michael Landy: Saints Alive (National Gallery). 
On one side of the exhibit from letters A-X brought people involved to share how they felt about topics through polls, drawings, social media, lighting candles and even eating fortune cookies! However this was only half the exhibition, the other half consisted of examples of qualities and beliefs of what makes us human. The main aspects that stood out to me were grief and acts of faith. At the grief section one could light a candle for someone who has passed away. At the acts of faith block, there were paintings displayed such as ‘A man praying to the Virgin as he is ran over by a horse’, ‘Woman thanking Madonna del Parto for a cure of insanity’. I was especially intrigued by these images in comparison to the traditional Italian religious pieces of art.

Lastly I found the near death experiences area quite moving, because the way they were illustrated by the artist added a more animated dimension to people's stories. This might have been done so the stories didn't completely scare people away. 


Another aspect of the exhibition that I found captivating was how far society has moved away from pseudoscience, which made me question why do some people hold onto this aspect in their life?

Tuesday, 16 September 2014

Day 9

Graphics rotation.
Surprisingly I enjoyed it very much. I thought from the moment I started 3DD I would want peruse that rotation, however I think graphics has changed my mind. 

The day began with a talk on what graphics is perceived as in the world. Following this, we carried out drawing tasks that I thoroughly enjoyed because we used different techniques and medias. E.g left hand, eyes closed, and mouth. 






We also drew an enlarged ear...

The second part of the day consisted of using our faces and other peoples faces to create a collage of another face and to use typography in a way that portrays identity or a persuasive message or an explanation. My table used the aspect of identity and created a ‘brand' for ourselves by creating a series of portraits that all had a cluster of the same four letter words: rage, vibe and lust. 


From this collage I picked a part of it and drew it up four times larger. In this way we all created completely new identities. 
I preferred the first part of the day because the outcomes were very unexpected pieces with strong graphics.








Day 8


Coding was definitely one of the workshops I had most looked forward to because I had attempted to teach myself the basics beforehand and I really liked the challenge of it all, however it became quite forgettable. 
Restarting the basics today reminded me of the previous codes I had learned, which made the task slightly easier. 
At the end of making the first drafted animation, I was quite overwhelmed with the amount of code used for a HTML that was very basic. This made me appreciate this subject much more.  

When the time came in order for us to make our own web comic, the main theme we aimed for was ‘adventure'.
we found a few animations of an abandoned building, a forest and a house on fire and added them to the comic. We wanted to make the overall web comic interactive, so we added in hover functions, where you could hover over an area and text would appear. 

https://leahroberts.makes.org/thimble/MTA5NjM1MjAwMA==/web-comic-game-fri-sep-12-2014-111-pm

Day 7

Spaghetti structures has been my favourite task of the 3DD rotation so far. The aim was to be able to hold three plastic balls without them touching the ground or each other. It was a great task because I was able to focus on details, which was quite irrelevant as a whole but I felt that I needed to make the structure intricate to some extent. After a frustrating start with snapping spaghetti, I eventually gained patience, which definitely helped the structure and myself. 

Dramatic transformation from model to final outcome.

My final outcome was an amalgamation of some of my quick sketches and building on issues that occurred along the way of constructing the the structure, e.g broken spaghetti. 
Halfway through construction, I decided to carry on extending the piece to further angles because it was really good to see the structure grow. Afterwards, a mistake became something very interesting. As I over bonded two spaghetti sticks together, there was slightly too much glue, so I started weaving the sticks together because the sticks were drooping and curving. I had now found away to present the sticks in a curved form. Eventually, I thought I could make this curved piece into a handle for the structure, but this last minute 'handle' became a sort of decor that supported a shelf? Although, this initial last minute addition was supposed to be a mobile swing. This idea emerged from seeing another student making a mistake whilst making their structure. Overall all the small errors made my piece into a very odd structure. I preferred the simple aesthetic from my previous idea, however I thought it didn't include more complex elements. 






The last task was creating a shield for our architectural pieces. This turned into something quite unpleasant. 
I ended up using trial and error of making tubes, crushed paper and strangely folded pieces of paper that covered the structure.








Day 6

Getting to know the 3D printers! 
I would say this has been the most exciting part of the week so far because I now know that I will be able to use all the prototyping equipment, in addition I learnt that UV printers existed! I was especially pleased to get an insight of how the machines worked because I had visited a 3D printing exhibit at the science museum, which left me very intrigued. 
After having a whistle stop tour, I couldn't wait to get to start using all the laser cutting machines!