Embeded videos just incase

end of module evaluation

 Throughout this project I have been continually wrestling with the topic I was most interested in. I think that the way I approach research led briefs like this is self destructive and idiotic, i was too indecisive for too long and this lead me to feeling like the project was just getting rolling with only a few weeks before the deadline. I did not formally agree with myself what the essay would be about until it was too late to really get stuck in with making the perfect practical responses. I found myself interested in so many different elements of the topics that I was researching that I quickly became ‘distracted’ from the specific line of enquiry required to write a focused essay. I have found it very difficult to stop myself from being interested in related but not relevant topics throughout my research. I would not say that there is clearly much evidence of synthesis between the work and the essay i am worried that essay feels like a jumbled mess of facts and i don't think i wrote about the most pertinent case studies after changing/evolving my essay title so many times. I feel let down by my lack of structured self imposed time management, I don't feel like I am done with this project and I will continue to explore making and performing within masks in the future. In particular i would have loved to explore more 3d materials to make masks from namely wood carving, latex moulds and more ceramic explorations. There is so much more I would love to try and so many more different avenues of this topic that this project could have taken. I would have liked to have explored. I feel like I would happily start the entire project again. Despite feeling slightly deflated and disappointed I have undoubtedly learnt a lot of new things. In particular i feel like my knowledge of Adobe after effects has come on leaps and bounds and i would now say that i am a confident user of the program. I feel like my interests within art and illustration has been shaped dramatically by this project. I am especially proud of the video work created in this project and a handful of the prints although i feel like i should have spent more development time planning specific aims and intentions for my work this year, the context is lacking so i feel like my work is potentially less interesting than it could have been had successfully emulated a real life ritual dance for example. I feel like i have not been organised enough to clearly display the extent of my journey throughout this project and i have a feeling of shame to do with my lack of focus and time management. I have had glimpses of success feeling like i am getting somewhere but then i lose focus and my worry overrides any positive feelings. I am very glad this topic is over and i am looking forward to starting a fresh in the new year.

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Feedback from the mega crit

Feedback from this crit was supportive and mostly positive, it was slightly too close to the end to be able to make any changes to my project. I regret not bringing in the physical costumes to display alongside my 2d work. However i feel like the work was fairly self explanatory. Once again it was a fairly un-insightful crit in terms of knowing how to improve my work. Our peer group are all very kind and never seem to be brutally critical which i feel is what some of us would prefer/need. I appreciate that some people would not want harsh critical feedback and i imagine the tutors has been told to stay fairly impartial but i do not feel like this leads to the most effective useful outcomes after crits. It nice to have a clearly understanding of your shortcomings and where you need to shift your focus, rather than being told well done and keep going for example.

post after practical peer review 1

At this stage now my cop project has evolved and developed into an investigation into the mask and its relationship between music and art? Or the role and function of dancing masks within society? In my mind it seemed like a logical progression to go from dance to masks as i have always been drawing faces and i thought to make these characters come alive through performing within them would add a wonderful excitement to the faces i have drawn all my life. I am worried tho that i am not actually that interested in the historical accounts of all the different cultures masks, where they are beautiful i can't help but think of colonial collections and rich white people fetishising ‘primitive’ civilisation’s sacred artifacts. I have learnt about the black market of african artifacts and the unfair trades that take place, i dont want my project to become purely focused on masks. I don't look at a mask and think WOW.. what does really excite me is the animation of the mask through human performance and the awe inspiring visual spectacle that manifests in ceremonial ritual events. I am getting more lost the more i read. My initial desires in my practical work has been lost. I have made some masks but im not sure i am that proud of them, i liked the exhibit photos of them and i am excited by the footage i have taken of the masks being animated. I need to start to messing around with these films and manipulating them until i have some exciting bizzarre music videos or back projections?

At this stage my practical work is becoming further and further from the things that i am now researching. I am trying to look at comparative mythology and masquerades from around the world but there is such a vast amount of different masquerades out there it is seemingly impossible to draw many true cross evaluations. I think that human civilisations throughout history have been doing these complex formal rituals with masks costumes dance routines and rhythms. I want to find out why humans have done this, from an evolutionary perspective what is the point in all this extravagant aesthetic behaviours. It seems so theatrical and bizzarre i would like to understand the need for ritualized ceremonies in human survival. I want to try and learn a common theme amongst all these different but similar in essence ceremonies from across the world.  

My feedback from the practical peer review has been very supportive of my drawings of dancers and recommend animating those; they suggest that my subject is too broad, which i agree with. The more i research the more i realise i am researching anthrolopology sociology evolutionary biology  masquerades ancient history costume design tribal cultures religion and mythology music and dance etcetcetc its TOO MUCH ! I HAVE DONE IT AGAIN! I NEED TO NARROW IT DOWN!?!? I dont want to narrow into something that then removes the excitement of discovery, i feel like the project as a whole could easily be made boring if i those one small component to research in depth… BUT I NEED TO! Grrrrrrrrrr I dont like reading academic texts, its not something i gain any pleasure from. At all.

1st blog post after group crit and ideas pitch

Over summer i re-realised my mains interests are music and performance. i felt like i wasn't actively researching enough but i realise now it was just that it didn't take the traditional formal approach of reading journals essays and books but manifested in a more holistic absorbing of information through allowing my interests to drive deep searches online without worrying about going off on tangents. I respond a lot better to listening and watching information rather than trying to extract it from an angry word heavy text document. Podcasts and documentary's about humanity history science and creativity are what seemed to be exciting me when its kind of talking about everything through the lens of mini investigations.

I really enjoyed letting myself relax into small voyages of discovery ; looking back i cant really put my finger on the exact turn around eureka moment but i think it was discovering Weirdcore. Through a ted talk from a pixelated man that turned out to be the visual artist under the alias of weirdcore i learnt about music concert back projection mapping and saw how amazingly it added to the normal music concert experience. I had been going to a lot of live music shows over summer and was left thinking they were good but i noticed they lacked any exciting visual accompaniment to the auditory experience.

Wierdcore was aphex twins tour artist every show they put on they had a different setup of multiple large screens all working together and lots and lots of lasers. His work is terrifying but beautiful and tailor made to the specific city in which they were performing.  I wanted to expand on my knowledge of after effects gained in level 5 and create moving image sequences that could be projected onto performers and enhance the viewing experience.
Also I was asked to create some moving image animated music videos by a friend of a friend for some hip hop tracks that he had been sitting on. I have been collecting footage for a number of years now on a little digital camcorder and that allowed me to have an arsenal of interesting videos to start messing around with and manipulating. The process of layer layer layering up different arty bits of footage was very exciting watching new shapes and colours emerge from combining the pieces of video. I loved the freedom of it really looking into doing whatever i possibly could to these videos to make them further and further away from recognisable footage.
I learnt a lot about after effects but i also started worrying that i was spending to long with the screen so for my traditional hand drawn illustration practice i decided to explore drawing pictures that capture a lot of movement; maybe with a view to potentially scanning and manipulating into moving on after effects. I wanted to do my COP project on the connection between music and art therefore in my head the purest connection between those two it DANCE. I proceeded to draw dancers in different medium and styles all focusing on expressing the speed of movement or the multiple utterances of an arm speeding through space. I want to extend these drawings into different print process maybe layering up the same image through screenprint to imply quick movement; i want to be very experimental and loose really make the most of this final year to explore and create. Insofar as a question after the project proposal and first group discussion i think i am investigating the relationship between music and visual art how they connect, the social impact of dance? How illustration can most effectively accompany music?
I am very worried about this question being too massive and the potential avenues too vast because then I will have a repeat of last year where I ended up getting lost and bogged down then ended up writing a poor essay about not much at all but a little bit of everything at the same time.