Whitworth Gallery Seminar Discussion

  

In this seminar we discussed the exhibitions at the Whitworth Gallery in Manchester. 

One piece of artwork we looked at was Nathan Coley's "Gathering of Strangers". 

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 After thinking about how the work could be interpreted (it could describe the condition of the gallery situation - how strangers gather at the gallery to look at the work) we looked at how the context changes the interpretation of the words, and the link to Christian congregations - the places where Nathan Coley's "Gathering of Strangers" sign becoming 'camouflage churches'. We also considered how the social context shifts the meaning. 

Another piece of work we looked at was "Myselves" by Do Ho Suh. This piece of work was made of thread 'drawings' embedded within the paper, which gave an interesting effect:

The next artworks we discussed was "Rainbow Girls" by Ghada Amer, which addresses issues around gender. Amer purposefully adopts embroidery as the medium for the creation of the work to subvert gender roles/stereotypes. There are links to Islamic culture in the work and also phrases borrowed from feminist text.

Another work that also borrows from feminist text was an installation piece of work by Mary Kelly, an illuminated greenhouse with walls inscribed with feminist messages. 

Analogue Communique Session 3

This type workshop was all about scaling up our letter designs even larger with a focus on creativity and the process of creation - what tools/materials would we use to create our ' I am ....' statement at a larger scale. Although this was the case you could stick with what you had done in the previous sessions but just on a bigger scale which I decided to do. 

At the start of the workshop I decided to recreate my previous design on A3 white card instead of black card which I had used for my last design as I wanted to try on both white and black. Part way through working on the white card I realised my letters worked better on a black background so I then took my original letters on Black A4 card, scanned them in and scaled them up to A3 size, which I then printed.

My scaled up letter designs seen here:

Although I am pleased with how the letters look on a larger scale I would like to try out some other ways of creating my type like using different materials and exploring more creative ways to see what kind of outcomes are produced.

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Following on from this session I found a book in the library called 'Handmade Type Workshop' by Charlotte Rivers which includes step by step instructions for different handmade techniques to use to create interesting type messages, as well as showing different typographers' work.

I found this book really interesting and it has given me ideas to try out as well as giving lots of hand-made type inspiration through its chapters, each of which focus on a different area of hand- made type, such as Illustrated or hand drawn type, 3D/Installation type, Found or photographed type, printed stitched or cut type and creating a font family. I intend to try out at least one technique and apply it to my 'I am...' phrase and also maybe apply it to another word or phrase.

Corporeal Text - Time, Aesthetics + Composition

In this lecture we started off by exploring the question 'How do we evaluate writing?'. 

Areas of study (gap analysis by Michael Biggs)

One response was: in more strongly 'fact' based discipline - experimental design - creativity - hypothesis -CS Pierce Abduction and Semiotics. 
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internal relational coherence

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relations with the world (through data acquisition)

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Another response we looked at was in the area of Cultural studies/humanities. 

- what is it to 'explore the intensities of the situation' (Deleuze)

Barbara Bolt and Elkins quotes - talk about the process of beginning to paint - comparable to the start of the writing process. An essay has context but also interpretation - interesting , pervasive, coherent, enlightening, constructs a way of seeing

Inter - relate
        - fere
        - pret
        - est

Cereal Packaging - Printing, Making and Photographing

This was the final session on our cereal packaging and the focus of the workshop was printing out our cereal box net and then photographing the box. My work that I brought to the session was ready to be printed, I just had to remove some red outline boxes I had used as guides. Below is the artwork file that was printed. 

To do this we had to save our Illustrator work as a High Quality Print PDF and then place it on an InDesign file in a layout set up for us. We then waited for our work to be printed out on card.

Once our nets were printed out we were instructed to cut out our work and score the edges of the box that would need to be bent, and then stick the right edge together to form the box shape. This bit was a bit tricky for me as the box would not stay stuck together even with glue and double-sided tape, but managed to hold together long enough for me to photograph.

Here is the finished box photographed:

Overall I am really pleased with the way the cereal box turned out and think the design and colours both work well and I think my work has translated well from screen to printed object.

Barrett & Bolt

Considered first in this lecture was an idea from last week which was ' stop thinking about epistemology - think about performativity and ontology instead'.

The performative act doesn't describe something but rather it does something in the world. This 'something' has the power to transform the world.

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 emphasis upon process, materiality and social/perpetual change (a kind of art-activism) blurs the epistemological and ontological.  - extreme/qualitative, participatory forms of research - does not separate subject and object.

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Bolt, following Brad Haseman has suggested that a focus upon tacit, embodied and material centric forms of knowledge might provide the grounds for the formulation of an alternative, discipline specific paradigm that might be positioned as the main concern of artistic research.

- Bolt and Barrett try to document a paradigm shift in ways of knowing.-> standard research proposal - reading, writing, arguing

-working with the world as opposed to trying to measure it.

Epistemology:

Tacit, rather than explicit

knowledge - knowing how rather than knowing 'that'

con: all very physical/ 'hands on apprenticeship' uni against.

Borgdoff and Actor Network Theory

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- i.e. as building a framework or institutions, organisations, pubications, conferences, government bodies, and funding agencies.

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' Actors in A.N.T can be human and non human. 

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  ' e.g. Laurie Gries uses A.N.T to chart the life of Shepard Fairey's Obama Hope image.