Tate Britain: Sensorium Exhibition

4 October 2015

During my visit to the Tate Britain gallery, I entered the sensorium which was a small exhibition within the Tate Britain gallery. The sensorium consists of looking at a painting whilst tasting or hearing something else which affects the way we view the piece of art. One of the sensorium painting was a figure in the landscape by Francis Bacon which I looked at whilst eating a piece of dark chocolate. This experience really changed the way I viewed art as the dark chocolate made me dislike the painting, whereas if I didn't have the dark chocolate I wouldn't dislike it as much as I did.

Another of these paintings was Richard Hamilton's interior 2 which was accompanied with a smell of women's perfume. The perfume on this experienced made me like the painting more which really enhanced the experience as one. I enjoyed my experience at the sensorium and I will definitely use it in my own work in the future. I look forward in combining illustrations with smells or sounds to make my viewer dislike a pieces more, enjoy it, or to understand it clearer.

Pedro Dias

Fashion Research

 

 

The Ravensbourne building is my chosen reference to start my fashion project, as we had to choose between a piece of architecture or typography as the starting point for our garments. I have chosen the Ravensbourne building as my piece of architecture because of the interesting aluminium shapes tiled on the outside of the building which also make part of the University's brand.

The interior of the building is open plan which allows students to get around freely and also makes it easier for people to socialise.The architecture was designed by Foreign Architects and the façade has exactly 28,000 aluminium tiles in three different triangular shapes. These triangular shapes make an interesting pattern when put together which could make a interesting print or triangular cone shapes on a garment. After making the triangular cone shapes as experiment, it has definitely been successful and It is something I will use in my final garment.

 

Issey Miyake is also someone who has had a major influence on my work. After researching some of his work, this one in particular caught my eye. For experimenting, I have cut some of the triangles in this image and glued them together making collage of dresses with  triangular shapes. One of the reasons I chose these triangular shapes for my garment is the fact that they create interesting sharp edges which will give a very distinctive pattern on my garment. They also look like broken glass or small shards scattered around and when placed together as Issey Miyake has in this photograph it almost looks like there is movement in the piece.

 

Pedro Dias

Rotation four: 3D design

After doing all research and experimenting on Revit and on 2 point perspective drawings of what I wanted inside, it was time to start constructing the model. The tools used for this model are scale ruler,pencil,scalpel knife, cutting mat, foam board and super glue.

This is my first attemt on creating my model, this attempt was unsuccessful for many reasons. One of these reasons is that it was very rough around the edges and it is evident that i was rushing and using the knife inappropriate when cutting the foam board.

Some of the walls where also not very straight and it was quite easy to see that it is not straight. The scoring of the opening doors are also bent and not cut through properly hence why some of the doors do not open.

my second attempt is much more successful and appealing to the eye due to the finer cuts and straight walls. On this second attempt I had learned how to cut the foam appropriately which is clearly evident on the model itself which stands upright to to the right angle sharp cuts.

The design of the interior also enhances this model in many different ways. I went for the black and white contrast I had researched from Kelly Hoppens interiors and it also worked well with the primary colours from Charles and Ray Eames modern building. In conclusion I am very pleased with my final outcome and the only thing i would change about it is to make it in a larger scale size.

Pedro dias

Rotation Four: 3D design

For our new project, Rotation four 3D design, we had to take measurements from on of the rooms at the Ravensbourne buildings, draw it to scale and redesign the space to something we think Ravensbourne is missing. In my case, I have decided to redesign the room in level to into a exhibition gallery which will show the work of the students.

 The research aspect of this project has been challenging for me, this is because at first i started researching architects who did not particularly inspire me to design the interior of an exhibition. So now I have started to look at different gallery interiors such as the Saatchi gallery who place their sculptures on small platforms so that it is easier to view them.

I also looked at Kelly Hoppens work for inspiration and I found her work very interesting in terms of the simplicity and maturity in her design.

 Kelly Hoppens uses a lot of contrast in her work and the main colours present are black and white. I really like how she use only two colors but she combines them differently in each of her furniture, for example on this image she has use white chairs with a black table when they are commonly the same colours.

This is a beautiful example of Kelly Hoppens simple but effective style using contrast. The black and white staircase is very visible due to the contrasting black and white and the zebra print carpet enhances the whole design by illustrating a sense of connection throughout the whole room.

Pedro Dias

Rotation three, Fashion Final piece

After going through a journey of design development and trying different experiments, I finally  managed to bring the ideas in my sketch book to reality. Using the spike idea I gained from researching professionals such as Issey Miyake and Louis Vuitton, I managed to create a spiky Dress which is very eye-catching, but most importantly it has come out the way I had imagined it before I pinned the first piece paper of cone. 

Although my final piece is fairly successful, there are aspects which could be improved if I was to do it again. One of these is the volume of the garment, the number of paper cones used could be increased to give the garment more depth and make it stand out more than it already does. Introducing a different tone of white could also improve the appearance of the garment, for example using two or three different colour cones to give it more personality.

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Authors own

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Rotation three: Fashion

Our new Rotation for the next two weeks, will focus on Fashion. For the start of the project, we chose between a piece of architecture or typography as our starting point, in my case I chose the Ravensbourne building as my starting point. As a student with an interest in architecture, it is my plan to use features of architecture from the Ravnebourne building in a fashion garment.

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In our first lesson, we done drawings that related from our chosen image using different styles of drawings such as crosshatching and contentious drawings.

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 We also done some experiments with paper, testing different textures and patterns by ripping the paper and layering them together to create volume.

Authors own

Authors own

From our chosen images, we also created patterns on Photoshop using the skills we learned in lesson. After the pattern was printed, we cut it in long strips and weaved them together to create some interesting patterns. 

Out of all the workshops, the pattern making on Photoshop was the most successful. This is because it would work well on a garment and it is clear to see that I have extracted the idea from my chosen image.

Pedro Dias 

Lens Based Media Individual: Six images

As part of my lens based media projects, one of our briefs was to come up with six images which evidence a common stereotype being subverted. As you can imagine, this was a very tricky but I managed to produce my images after a reasonable amount of research both of artists and a visit to the Photographers gallery. 

 This photograph was inspired by Pete Marovich, which is a photograph of a subverted stereotype. The stereotype of this image is the fact that a homeless man has made oxford street his home which is a subverted stereotype because most people would imagine oxford street as a rich area not to house people who are homeless.

This image was also selected as one of my final six stereotypical images for my individual project, this is because the stereotype of an old man is that he is weak and fragile. On the other hand, this image shows a subvert of this stereotype because this old man was walking at a fast pace when i took the photograph and he was full of energy.

This image does not show a subverted stereotype as much as the other photographs, but i have selected it because it is mainly a common stereotype that london is a very old city. Therefore it contains many old masonry buildings. I believe this photograph is successful because of the shades and texture of the building which is very similar to Ansel adams landscape style of photography.

In this photograph, is a asian male with a beard who is reading his news paper minding his own business. The people around him also are minding their own business which suggests they are not stereotyping him based on his images that he could be a potential terrorist, this makes this images successful in subverting the stereotype.

The young man in this photograph represents the stereotype of young black men being portrayed as a danger to society due to the reason that crime rates are higher in mostly black populated areas. This stereotype is subverted in this photograph because this young man looks as he is on his way to work which could suggests that he is not into criminal activity. 

In conclusion, This photograph was chosen because of the way it subverts the stereotype of london due to it being an old city, it only contains old masonry building. This stereotype is subverted by the fact that the cheese grater which is a glass skyscraper, is in the background of this greek style masonry building. I believe this challenges the stereotype because it shows a clear contrast os both old and modern architecture.

Lens based media: New Design project

Lens based media is a a new two week project that we have started, which consists of using the lens on the camera to capture exiting images. As part of our brief, we are to capture six images which challenges a stereotype by subverting the meaning of that stereotype. Our first workshop was to experiment playing with lighting in a photograph which could both enhance the image or downgrade the image based on what the photographer is aiming for.

My thoughts of this image is that it has  not worked, this is due to a number of reasons. One of these reasons is the fact that the subject is too close to the background which has made the light focus mostly on the background rather than the subject. The colour of the background is also too bright which has clashed with the colour of the light and made it less visible.

This images is more successful than the image above, this is because I believe the two shadows behind the subject has brought some life to the image and has a mysterious atmosphere to it. Although this subjects is also very close to the background, in this image the light has been more visible than the previous images which in a way makes it unique.

Out of all three images this is definitely the most successful, and it is not because it is a image of myself. There are many positive aspects that myself, Eiva and Taylor have managed to capture in this image. the first thing is the fact that we have accomplished our brief given by Gareth which was to capture both street and moon lighting in the image which is visible on my face. We also did not make the same mistakes as on the previous images, which was not to stand too close to the background which has improved our image due to the fact both lights are focused on me and not on the background. This has engaged all the focus of the lens on my face which is both at the centre of the image and the most visible in the image.

Pedro Dias

Rotation one graphic design: the design process

During this project, there has been a variety of both research and experiment, which where the main focus of the project. A design process, is a process that every designer has to go through. This is because it gives the designer a chance to way up his different ideas and make a solid decision on which one to develop further based on research and experiments. Within a design precess there are different stages, for example research, experiment and final outcome. Through these steps, this is the designs process I have produced.....

 Firstly, my process started through research and the artist where my inspiration came from was Wolfgang Schmidt. What caught my attention about this piece, was the way the letters where scattered made me follow them to come to find out if they formed a word. This is very interesting because it took me through a journey while looking at his work and I wanted my piece to create a similar reaction.

 Secondly, as a response to my research, I experimented my chosen idea in a colour after doing some research on artists who use colour very effectively such as Alan Fletcher. Although the piece was fairly successful in colour, it did not work for me because it did not relate as much to the poem as it should do.

 After the colour experiment outcome not being successful enough to represent my poem, I did some further research in artist that use materials to create typography. The materials used in this experiment lifted my piece and made it more successful, this is because the materials included texture and also they related to each word that they where used to create.

In conclusion, this is my final piece but there are both positive and negative aspects of it. The positive things about this outcome is the fact that the materials used are clearly evidenced in my sketch book which shows the design process I went through to come to this final piece. The negative side of the piece is that it doest look fully resolved, which suggests it doesn't look finished.

Rotation one: Graphic Design

 Rotation one graphic design, is our new project which focuses on one of many fields graphic design covers which is Typography.In this project we have been asked to select a poem and to use typography to change,improve or even modify the poem. Although this is my first time doing typography, it has been easy to pick up and through research on major typography artists, it has made it able for me to follow in the correct footsteps and improved my understanding of the purpose of typography. It could be suggested that there are many different purposes for typography, but to me it is the art of enhancing text with colours, shapes and other creative skills so that text can be both informative and entertaining simultaneously.  

 After Reading the brief and brainstorming all that we knew about typography and analyzing which problems we may face with it and coming up with those solutions, we eventually selected some words to start practicing some creative typography on.

 In this experiment, the word used was LOST. On one hand i believe that i could have used the chalk more effectively to make the image darker than it is as it looks unfinished. On the other hand, the way the words are spread out helps to define the meaning of the word due to some of the letters being lost in the dark. As a whole, the experiment works because the theme of the piece describes the meaning of the work clearly.

 This was the second experiment I did with the word LOUD. The colour red was chosen because I believe red is the loudest colour due to what its mainly used for such as STOP signs which makes it a powerful/demanding colour and its high visibility.The background was also left white so that the color red can dominate the whole page. I believe this experiment worked because of good feedback from my class mates and the effective use of the whole page.

 This is one of the artists I am currently looking at Peter Megert, I selected this work because the words are  blurred which makes it a challenge attempting to read what it says.

Another artists work that I found very interesting was Alan Fletcher's, this piece is interesting because its very significant. This suggests that with the human shape he did with the words, it has made it very easy for myself to remember the work and it also makes it stand out from the other artists I looked at.

Tate Britain visit

Last week, myself and my access class visited the Tate Britain for some insight on other artists work which could be both inspirational and a trigger for a very creative idea. There was a range of exhibitions on the day, but one particular exhibition was the most memorable for me after we left which was the Sensorium exhibition. The Sensorium exhibition contains of viewers looking at the work, while using one of their five senses to assist them in analysing what it is they thought or felt about the work. For example, the dark chocolate is the taste sense for one of the paintings and for me it unleashed a negative emotion towards the Francis bacons figure in a landscape.

 Francis Bacon: Figure in a landscape, accompanied with dark chocolate, Taste.
This piece was very effective due to the use of dark chocolate, This is because my dislike towards the chocolate effected the way I felt about the painting which could have been different if I hadn't had the chocolate.

 Richard Hamilton: Interior 2, with female perfume, Smell.
The female perfume really brought this painting to life, this is because the fragrance goes well with the attractive female on the painting and it made me feel very comfortably, relaxed also happy.

David Bomberg: In the hold circa, With shattering noises, Hearing.
David Bombergs in the hold circa was quite simple to understand, and it did not require lots of thought to make a judge meant on how I felt about the painting. This made this piece very unexciting because I figured it out quickly which did not give me time to generate a strong emotion towards it.

This exhibition has opened my ideas to include more materials with my work, for example Including a video of the making process of my Future work so that viewers can see the final piece and the making process. This could change the way the viewers see my work and trigger some ideas for them as the Sensorium exhibition has done for me.

Six objects

This week I looked at six personal objects which are dear to me, and said something about my personality or interests. Out of my six selected objects, I selected three to do some further experiments on. 

Firstly, I selected the match stick model because Architecture has become a major part of my life and it is the career I want to pursue. With this object I have played with the background colours to see which was more affective. I believe the photograph with the brown background is more effective comparing to the photograph with a white background. this is because the brown background gives the photograph a more realistic setting, and compliments the colour of the matchsticks.

Secondly, my headphones where also selected as my top three, this is because music allows me to be more creative due to the fact it calms me down which enhances my creative side. I chose to do a video of this object rather than a photograph, because the purpose of this object is to provide sound which is what I want to demonstrate in this experiment. I played with the volume of the music in this clip, because different volumes of music give me different reactions, for example loud is to dance and low is to relax.

Lastly, I have chosen my Driving licence, this is because it is the object I use very often to prove my Identity. A short clip of this object was also preferred to a photograph, this is because a clip gives this object  movement. The way the clip was shot, makes it difficult to state what was actually in motion, the driving licence card or the camera. I think the clip can be improved by being longer and moving at a faster pace.  

Pedro Dias

British Museum visit

The visit to the British museum was a very interesting experience, this is because it contained classic art work that supplied me with many creative ideas. My favourite piece of the day was the 5th century BC Greek style Temple, it contains the ancient Ionic columns which enhance's the building for structure and aesthetic purposes. The human sculptures give it a very detailed effect and makes the viewer feel like they are in live motion. I have gained more interest in Greek style architecture after this visit and look to research other architecture from different ancient cities.

Pedro

the passport project

As this is my first ever blog and my first project on this course, it is all very new to me. On the other hand, i have experience in identity projects which i gained in my art lessons in school. I believe identity projects should illustrate characteristics of a persons personality, and show things that are close to that person or distant. For example Frida Kahlo's family tree painting, a painting of her, her parents and grand parents who are people that are part of her identity. My six objects will be very different from each other and hopefully it will show parts of my personality and things that are dear to me.

I'm looking forward to the museum visit and to the group re-uniting and presenting our six objects.

Pedro Dias 

Design and media student