Etching workshop 2

Today I returned to the etching studio to continue my lithography project. I learnt about preparing lithography for printing and did a few prints. It was a lot of fun to use a whole different type of tool. It was nice to go from a tool that is constantly being updated (the computer) to a very old tool that would never change (the press). I really liked the way my lithography turned out. I also liked the way that the etchings of other group members turned out. We decided that for our project, traditional metal etching gave a nicer raw feel but I am still glad that I learnt how to do lithography as its important to understand other fields in art.

Lecture - Paul Minnot (Aesthetic of conspiracy)

Today Paul gave a lecture about the work he was later going to present. The lecture was about the assassination of John F Kennedy and all of the conspiracy surrounding it. I did not know very much about John F Kennedy before this lecture.
Paul explained the circumstances and showed some imagery from around the time. It was obvious that Paul had a personal interest in the subject. He showed lots of different evidence through different medium such a photograph, video and writings. It became apparent that the work he was going to present was going to use all of this information somehow. I was interested in seeing what he was going to do with the information, how he was going to present it, from what perspective he was going to present it and what message it was going to have.
When the work was finally revealed, I was a little disappointed. Paul had taken the imagery, lots of it and plastered it across some walls showing connections in a muddled way. This was based around some video in the center of the room. Paul had used all the confusing information...to show that the subject is confusing. I felt that it didn't have much of a message and considering there was a whole lecture preceding it, there wasn't very much to it.
In all, it was interesting to see somebody try to make an installation based on A LOT of information but I prefer to feel that I have taken something on board from an artwork...and in this way the work was unsuccessful.

Etching workshop 1

Today I had organised an etching workshop because it fit in with a project that I was doing. I wanted to learn a bit about what could be achieved and get a little advice on what my group needed for the project. Sally and Allister started to learn how to do traditional etching into metal. I thought it would be beneficial to both me and my group if I tried something a little different so I chose to try some lithography. I learnt all about the process of how to use porous stones and how to get the ink only where I wanted. It was really interesting. I created a piece of work using different medium to try out the different effects I could make. At the end of the lesson I had to leave it to dry. It was a useful session because apart from learning about a whole new art form, I got to watch Allister and Sally learn how to do traditional etching and learnt about that too.

Contest Entry

I decided to enter a small competition to design a website mascot. It was fun to do some research and see what other people had done and to present something of my own creativity. I am not expecting to win but am pleased with my entry which you can read about here.

Provoke Change Crit

This week we finished our Provoke Change work and presented it to the group for a crit. We used a website, blog, 3d images, 3d images and 3d videos to show our concept. It went very well.