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.