Today's excellent principle lecture by Spencer Roberts provided guidance and introduction to the field of Semiotics (also referred to as 'semiology' in Europe (under the origin of Saussure or 'Semiotics' is a result of one of it's foundations in the USA - CS Pearce).
The lecture was perfectly timely for our own Project 6, Reading and Responding, as it provided the key contemporary views to help read, and therefore gain 'a view' or an opinion, of the meaning of a image or text. (As discussed previously, an image of an object (s) is in itself able to be a text... It can have the direct meaning, or an implied meaning and so can be read equally as a sign therefore).
I have already had some exposure to the concepts of Semiotics, through access to the book, "Visible Signs; An Introduction to Semiotics" by David Crow, April 2007 | ISBN-10: 2940373213 | ISBN-13: 978-2940373215 - Although I am aware that there may now be a later edition, which I would thoroughly recommend.
This is a great reference book that I began to read and take some interest in during our initial project on Identities. Having had some time to reflect on my earlier readings of this publication, it is clear that there is a huge field of study related to Semiotics, and equally, a huge number of theories, hypothesis, antithesis and synthesis of these thories. The subject is truly vast and plays an extremely significant part of our complex daily lives. Reading, and responding, takes place in all manner of moments, from a simple day-dream like gaze out of a bus window and onto a panoramic view or scene; or to looking at a person's shoes before commencing a conversation perhaps, or in a more modern context, in reading and responding to advertising images, both intentional, and unintentional.
Spencer delivered a thoroughly engaging lecture. It was essential to concentrate on the subject matter that Spencer was delivering, I sensed perhaps that quite a few peers and fellow students may have been somewhat lost, which is, in itself, a Reading and Responding interpretation from my view of events.
Thursday, 6 March 2014
Tuesday, 4 March 2014
Project 6 - Reading & Responding (to text), Part II - Creative time
I spent most of my afternoon today thinking up new ideas on how to approach and hence respond to my chosen text for this project. My initial work yesterday in the university studio was still fresh in my mind, however I am concious that currently the 30 or so thumbnail ideas I have are still too literal.
Meanwhile, taking a little diversion from the new Text & Responding project, (and in some ways wrapping up my thoughts for the time being on the De-constructing the Grand Master project), I also took on board Christian's suggestion to review Robinson in Space by Patrick Keiller and another video by Bella Tarr : The Turin Horse. Both videos are a useful adjunct to the short film I had put together on the deconstruction of Benjamin Williams Leader's Autumn in Switzerland. The former, being a direct style comparison of a narrated journey of exploration (using a mythical representation of a person only known as Robinson), and the latter work, by Bella Tarr, being a direct reference to the Nietzsche and a rather sad parody of his few days of insanity when he had his full break down in Turin after coming to the rescue of a horse... Neitzsche lived for a further ten years in the care of his mother and then later his sister. Bela Tarr's film is kind of dark satyre as to what happened to the horse, nothing was ever heard of it again - an old nag, made to keep plodding along in anonimity... That is, until Tarr told it's story in a short film
.
Both videos can be found on You-Tube, as follows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY2O16FmHxs
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6FGNWK-zWM
This afternoon I was trying hard to comply with Christian's suggestion to look both outside the text (by doing my usual process of researching, drilling, researching, drilling again and so on), but also taking on the spark of the idea ignited by Dr. Ian M., who suggested two additional artists for me to look at.
Meanwhile, taking a little diversion from the new Text & Responding project, (and in some ways wrapping up my thoughts for the time being on the De-constructing the Grand Master project), I also took on board Christian's suggestion to review Robinson in Space by Patrick Keiller and another video by Bella Tarr : The Turin Horse. Both videos are a useful adjunct to the short film I had put together on the deconstruction of Benjamin Williams Leader's Autumn in Switzerland. The former, being a direct style comparison of a narrated journey of exploration (using a mythical representation of a person only known as Robinson), and the latter work, by Bella Tarr, being a direct reference to the Nietzsche and a rather sad parody of his few days of insanity when he had his full break down in Turin after coming to the rescue of a horse... Neitzsche lived for a further ten years in the care of his mother and then later his sister. Bela Tarr's film is kind of dark satyre as to what happened to the horse, nothing was ever heard of it again - an old nag, made to keep plodding along in anonimity... That is, until Tarr told it's story in a short film
.
Both videos can be found on You-Tube, as follows:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XY2O16FmHxs
and
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6FGNWK-zWM
This afternoon I was trying hard to comply with Christian's suggestion to look both outside the text (by doing my usual process of researching, drilling, researching, drilling again and so on), but also taking on the spark of the idea ignited by Dr. Ian M., who suggested two additional artists for me to look at.
Drawing Transformations - Creativity & Reflections on Watercolour
Today was a self study day, on which I chose to review a number of U-Tube and Vimeo vignettes that had earlier been recommended to me. It's so easy to use the technology of the internet to see how others develop their fluency and artistic creativity...
One video that thoroughly en-captured me was an older sequence recorded in 1991, by John Cleese, of Monty Python fame.
The video was taken during a speech he gave in the Netherlands, regarding "Creativity & the 5 elements needed for success"... Whilst John is almost always associated with a somewhat left field or even asinine humour, this lecture he gave was without doubt in my mind, one of the most poignant and educational that I have yet seen. Nothing short of brilliant, perhaps (To use his own parliance maybe!)... So, as it's in the public domain, here it is!... - Together with the notes I made at the time..
You need the following five conditions to get into an open mode;
And finally.... (which spookily John Cleese used as a regular phrase for a different programme);
...Keep your mind gently back to the problem... in a freindly and persistant way to ponder. You will be rewarded out of the blue! - Precisely perhaps, when you least expect it!...
Make, (play with) random connections. Afterall, new ideas are just simply the connection of two previous ones. Make "Indeterminable (or Impossible) Interconnections", as Edward De-Bono once coined. These inbetweeners (Remember Jaques Derrida, and his undecideables?) are usually connections to something else, - the stepping stones to new and better ideas, - so don't discount them as being silly or of no use. They are useful, if only for you to get to the next stage; That being A NEW IDEA!...
------------------------------------------------ Humerous, creative mode on... ------------------------------------
...
... ... ...
--------------------------------Clear space, and some time later... Creative mode off -------------------------
Another very short, but inspiring vignette was that of Sonia Yekinni, a young British artist who provides an eloquent rendering of why Watercolours are so important to use for sketching.
One particular method that she uses, which I had not considered before seeing this, was to simply use a narrow tipped "fine-writer" (a fibre tipped pen) at the same time as her use of water-colour washes. Literally, creating a "wet (ink) in wet (watercolour)" sketchbook painted capture of a scene. Hugely evocative and effective way of drawing and mark making. I will definitely be adjusting my sketches accordingly as I love the wash quality of the combined mediums, - they are both simple, but also elegant.
And finally, I just loved this inspirational poster, it's something everyone could have on the inside of their front door!... I wish I had seen this maybe 10 years ago!
The original is courtesy from http://holstee.com/collections/staff-picks/products/holstee-manifesto-poster.
One video that thoroughly en-captured me was an older sequence recorded in 1991, by John Cleese, of Monty Python fame.
The video was taken during a speech he gave in the Netherlands, regarding "Creativity & the 5 elements needed for success"... Whilst John is almost always associated with a somewhat left field or even asinine humour, this lecture he gave was without doubt in my mind, one of the most poignant and educational that I have yet seen. Nothing short of brilliant, perhaps (To use his own parliance maybe!)... So, as it's in the public domain, here it is!... - Together with the notes I made at the time..
You need the following five conditions to get into an open mode;
- Space - Get away from the distractions of life, that keep you in a closed mode. Seal yourself off. An oasis of quiet. Space enough to play! NO DISTRACTIONS!
- Time. Create a specific slot / a moment to seal yourself off. JC believes this is at least 1 & 1/2 hours. After an an hour and a half take a break... Don't try to do it continually - it won't work. Restart it some time in the future, after a few days of latent pondering perhaps.
- Time. Time to reflect on your ideas created previously. You should defer decisions until they actually NEED to be made, not when you have just come up with an idea. Give yourself time to ponder. Re-consider. Don't necessariliy go with your first solution. Think about it, stick with the idea, but consider how it can be adapted. Play with the problem and solution to make it better. The anxiety in trying to resolve something makes us uncomfortable, but stick with this anxiety!.. Ponder longer... Your solution will be more creative. (Avoid strangling creativity with false deadlines, defer the decision as long as possible). IF will your pondering, someone else demands a decision, tell them that you will not come out of your discomfort of anxiety, as that is easy!
- Confidence. The fear of failure is the greatest of all. PLAY!... Whatever happens, it is OK. The fear of failure will stop you playing. Take risks!... While being creative, NOTHING is wrong!
- Humour. This gets one from the closed mode to the open mode quicker than anything else!.. Without humour, even with serious problems, creativity will be stifled. Solemnity is an invention of the Victorian era. "It serves pomposity and self-important egotists, humour is a threat to those types!... Humour is an essential part of spontinaety and playfulness. Never be with people who crush free thinking, if you can help it... Anything goes, there are no bad ideas!... and giggle all you want"
And finally.... (which spookily John Cleese used as a regular phrase for a different programme);
...Keep your mind gently back to the problem... in a freindly and persistant way to ponder. You will be rewarded out of the blue! - Precisely perhaps, when you least expect it!...
Make, (play with) random connections. Afterall, new ideas are just simply the connection of two previous ones. Make "Indeterminable (or Impossible) Interconnections", as Edward De-Bono once coined. These inbetweeners (Remember Jaques Derrida, and his undecideables?) are usually connections to something else, - the stepping stones to new and better ideas, - so don't discount them as being silly or of no use. They are useful, if only for you to get to the next stage; That being A NEW IDEA!...
------------------------------------------------ Humerous, creative mode on... ------------------------------------
...
... ... ...
--------------------------------Clear space, and some time later... Creative mode off -------------------------
Another very short, but inspiring vignette was that of Sonia Yekinni, a young British artist who provides an eloquent rendering of why Watercolours are so important to use for sketching.
One particular method that she uses, which I had not considered before seeing this, was to simply use a narrow tipped "fine-writer" (a fibre tipped pen) at the same time as her use of water-colour washes. Literally, creating a "wet (ink) in wet (watercolour)" sketchbook painted capture of a scene. Hugely evocative and effective way of drawing and mark making. I will definitely be adjusting my sketches accordingly as I love the wash quality of the combined mediums, - they are both simple, but also elegant.
And finally, I just loved this inspirational poster, it's something everyone could have on the inside of their front door!... I wish I had seen this maybe 10 years ago!
The original is courtesy from http://holstee.com/collections/staff-picks/products/holstee-manifesto-poster.Monday, 3 March 2014
Drawing Transformations - Life Drawing Classes - No. 1 & 2
So today heralded my first experience and attempt to draw the female form. It was a nervous experience, not only because of my natural inhibitions, but also because I would be drawing a subject that I was generally not confident to do. This would have also the additional demand of being critiqued in real time whilst I was in the process of drawing the model, by my tutor Jill.
we started with a quick succession of 5 minute poses, to get our eyes synchronised and our arms and hands in to the mode of rapid freestyle drawing.
Here are my first attempts, there's nothing for me to be proud of here I'm afraid;
And again the following week...
we started with a quick succession of 5 minute poses, to get our eyes synchronised and our arms and hands in to the mode of rapid freestyle drawing.
Here are my first attempts, there's nothing for me to be proud of here I'm afraid;
And again the following week...
Sunday, 2 March 2014
Drawing Transformations - Part V. - Marking, Thinking, seeing and transforming; - about Portraiture.
I endeavoured to try something new, - to experiment today. It was a rainy Sunday afternoon, nothing to do, couldn't go outside (Too cold, too wet), and my lovely wife was out working a weekend shift. So I took heed of the information I'd read in the morning; from the book by Betty Edwards, "Drawing on the right side of the Brain" 2013, 4th Edition, Souvenir Press, London, and I got myself a large A3 pad and a photograph of myself.
I then placed the photograph UPSIDE-DOWN, so my features were no longer completely familiar to me. The exercise is designed to make one's left brain hemisphere (the side that controls language, structure, order, time, (and I suspect, anxiety), literacy and numeracy, recognition, and which in western cultures tends to be the more dominant side), to give up the task of recognising components it already knows and will encourage us to replicate (based on our memory of an object or component), and hand control, (by simply relinquishing it as too difficult), over to the right side. The right brain hemisphere is responsible for spacial awareness, perceptions of light and shade, outlines, music and creativity, apparently...
So a good work out of the right brain hemisphere, without the dominant left one coming in and taking over ( often - as a caution in the book would remind, by hearing our own conciousness & voices (i.e. from the left hemisphere) and trying to interfere with proceedings, by saying "what about the washing; have you called your mum today; that thing needs fixing; you need to pay that bill" etc., etc.), was a great way to spend an hour or so, and then complete the exercise by writing up this blog!
So, this is what happened; this was my own process, it may be different for you as a reader if you try, but the important thing is to devote some uninterrupted time to the task, once a suitable upside down photograph is found of course.
The process;
I started by drawing the negative space, (upside down of course), first, and then carefully working on the proportions and positions of my facial features as quickly as I could, I then moved on to trying to get the shapes of shadows and values of colour and shadow delineated.
I worked quite fluidly, holding a graphite stick between all four fingers and thumb, so as to keep it's shallow / a near flat position as low as I could, effectively keeping the graphite stick in the same position of about 20 degrees, - as one would when picking it up by the whole length as it lay on a table.
This made for a much more expressive arm movement. I was not controlling it with my hand alone, but with proportionately more-so, with my arm. My wrist was almost still as its' responsibility was to keep the graphite stick at a shallow angle, and to feel and gauge the pressure of the tip as it made its' mark on the paper. My hand's job was not to move the stick, but to simply hold the stick between all four fingers and thumb...
The outcome, which only took about 15 minutes of actual drawing, is shown below, correctly rotated of course!
It was almost an epiphenomenal! (...easy for you to say)...
It was comparatively easy to transfer my mental state from one which is usually ruled by my concious voice scrutinising and subconsciously judging "right & wrong" to one of just looking at shapes, drawing those shapes and ignoring any inner desire to correct a laid line or curve.
Interestingly, you will notice that my left brain hemisphere still managed to interfere and get in the way!... This can be seen as the tilt of my head has been "mirrored", and my right and left shirt collars have been transposed in the drawing. This is because the left brain is continually trying to straighten what it perceives as right and left with reality and perception in tension.
What a wonderfully simple but fascinating exercise. I was able to draw my face upside down in a much more fluid way than trying to use my conventional, controlling left brain hemisphere. This meant that I was drawing what I saw, not what I believed I was seeing (in other words, not letting the left hemisphere of my brain coming in to control and automatically putting it's own pre-recorded image through my right hand and it's usual movements).
I then placed the photograph UPSIDE-DOWN, so my features were no longer completely familiar to me. The exercise is designed to make one's left brain hemisphere (the side that controls language, structure, order, time, (and I suspect, anxiety), literacy and numeracy, recognition, and which in western cultures tends to be the more dominant side), to give up the task of recognising components it already knows and will encourage us to replicate (based on our memory of an object or component), and hand control, (by simply relinquishing it as too difficult), over to the right side. The right brain hemisphere is responsible for spacial awareness, perceptions of light and shade, outlines, music and creativity, apparently...
So a good work out of the right brain hemisphere, without the dominant left one coming in and taking over ( often - as a caution in the book would remind, by hearing our own conciousness & voices (i.e. from the left hemisphere) and trying to interfere with proceedings, by saying "what about the washing; have you called your mum today; that thing needs fixing; you need to pay that bill" etc., etc.), was a great way to spend an hour or so, and then complete the exercise by writing up this blog!
So, this is what happened; this was my own process, it may be different for you as a reader if you try, but the important thing is to devote some uninterrupted time to the task, once a suitable upside down photograph is found of course.
The process;
I started by drawing the negative space, (upside down of course), first, and then carefully working on the proportions and positions of my facial features as quickly as I could, I then moved on to trying to get the shapes of shadows and values of colour and shadow delineated.
I worked quite fluidly, holding a graphite stick between all four fingers and thumb, so as to keep it's shallow / a near flat position as low as I could, effectively keeping the graphite stick in the same position of about 20 degrees, - as one would when picking it up by the whole length as it lay on a table.
This made for a much more expressive arm movement. I was not controlling it with my hand alone, but with proportionately more-so, with my arm. My wrist was almost still as its' responsibility was to keep the graphite stick at a shallow angle, and to feel and gauge the pressure of the tip as it made its' mark on the paper. My hand's job was not to move the stick, but to simply hold the stick between all four fingers and thumb...
The outcome, which only took about 15 minutes of actual drawing, is shown below, correctly rotated of course!
It was almost an epiphenomenal! (...easy for you to say)...It was comparatively easy to transfer my mental state from one which is usually ruled by my concious voice scrutinising and subconsciously judging "right & wrong" to one of just looking at shapes, drawing those shapes and ignoring any inner desire to correct a laid line or curve.
Interestingly, you will notice that my left brain hemisphere still managed to interfere and get in the way!... This can be seen as the tilt of my head has been "mirrored", and my right and left shirt collars have been transposed in the drawing. This is because the left brain is continually trying to straighten what it perceives as right and left with reality and perception in tension.
What a wonderfully simple but fascinating exercise. I was able to draw my face upside down in a much more fluid way than trying to use my conventional, controlling left brain hemisphere. This meant that I was drawing what I saw, not what I believed I was seeing (in other words, not letting the left hemisphere of my brain coming in to control and automatically putting it's own pre-recorded image through my right hand and it's usual movements).
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