Thursday 22 November 2012
CREATIVE's BLOK: Official Warning Signs
CREATIVE's BLOK: Official Warning Signs: Photography research on the streets by D . See more here . ...
Wednesday 21 November 2012
Kate and Eilidh do science...
Project number 5, 7 steps to enlightenment, 2 partners, 10 days, 1 question...
How does a Sat Nav work??
Not quite.
It's actually rather clever, and interesting! In order to find out how Sat Nav works, we need to find out, not only how a Satellite Navigation Receiver works, but also how GPS (Global Positioning System) works, and therefore, how GPS satellites work! It's all very sciency and techy, and luckily, I am a wannabe science geek, so find it all fascinating. This project has allowed me to indulge my love of art (we must illustrate our findings in 7 easy steps) and science! Cool beanz!
And here's the science bit! The answer involves 'Ephemeris data', 'Almanac data' and 'Pseudo Random Code.' In the most basic terms, the receiver is activated when it picks up the signal from 4 satellites (of which there are 24 orbiting the Earth, each emitting a continual signal, unique to each satellite.) The Satellites 'triangulate' or to use the correct terminology, 'trilaterate' the receiver's location, taking into account latitudal and longitudal co-ordinates, and attain accuracy due to their on-board, synchronised atomic clocks. On activation, the receiver selects the relevant map from it's software, and the hardware utilises previously installed settings to communicate the information to you, the driver, via a computer screen and audio instructions!!! And voila! Fanny's your Aunt and Robert's your Mother's Brother!!
Capiche?
Sunday 18 November 2012
Street Tart
Street Art-Contemporary Prints from the V & A
This street tart went to see some street art yesterday. Except it wasn't on the street. And therein lies the problem. This was artwork by street art and graffiti artists from around the world, presented out of context, not in it's gritty home in the favelas of Brazil or the arrondisements of Paris, but displayed very nicely and orderly on the clean, white, clinical walls of an art gallery in Carlisle. I felt that with the absence of a cultural setting something was lost. Instead of being 'street art' this was just 'art.' Don't get me wrong. Some of it was very nice art. The very nature of street art is that it 'lifts' iconic images and juxtaposes them to create meaning, perhaps I am jaded but I just felt that I'd seen it all before. It felt somehow, lazy. Perhaps I am missing the point. Perhaps this exhibition was about bringing 'classic' street art images to Carlisle, I suppose when these images were new, they were groundbreaking and set the stall for other aspiring artists from disadvantaged areas. But when the images are painted on canvas instead of brick, and screen printed on silk instead of stencilled on a wall, they become just another magazine spread or funky shoe box, instead of a comment on social and political injustice or an endeavor to elevate an existence or make a mark on the world.
Wednesday 14 November 2012
Tuesday 13 November 2012
Goodbye to the 90's!
Aaaaand relax! That was the month that was, and what a bloody month! What started off as a seemingly inocuous task to create and design a character from a given decade turned into a foray into the world of games design, an experience I do not wish to repeat!!
Oh yes, it was all so lovely and fluffy in the beginning! A trip down memory lane. A visit to my old stomping ground. I couldn't believe my luck when of all the decades I could have been given (namely the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's 60's or 70's, not the 80's, the 80's were different, the 80's were special, no-one got the 80's!) I got the 90's! I mean, how hard could it be to find out stuff about the 90's, I was there! It was my time!
I was at secondary school from 1990 to 1995. So my early teens, my formative years were in the first part of the 90's. In the second part of the 90's, 1996 to 2000 I was 16 to 21. It really was a decade of two halves for me. The culture and world events that took place in the 90's were really real for me. The music and the fashion that we were researching was my music and my fashion. I loved Oasis. I wore 'grunge.' I wanted to be Gwen Stefani. They were good times, although you never really realise it at the time! All we had to worry about was school, seeing our friends and occasionally, homework. And we had a laugh. Looking back it seems like all we did was laugh! And there was lots to laugh at, our teachers were like caricatures of teachers, the science teacher with the comb over, the French teacher with sweaty 'pits, the very odd sports teachers of dubious gender!
And we used to ridicule them mercilessly, not to their faces of course, we weren't the 'bad' kids.
But we did discover drink, (and boys!) in about year 9, aged about 14. We had friends with 'decks' and there wasn't a week went by when someone wasn't having a house party and we'd get dropped off by our 'unsuspecting' parents for 'sleepovers' at some other 'liberal' parent's house with ruck sacks and coat sleeves clinking and bulging with drink! However, somehow we left school with good grades at the end of it.
There was a long hot summer the year we left school, and I'm not looking back through rose-tinted specs, it really was the best summer ever! We sunbathed all day with the tunes blasting out on the radio. The parties continued and we gave some consideration to what we were going to do next. Not too much of course!!
Aged 17 I started working in my Uncle's pub, 'The Whitehouse.' It was the place to be at the time, one of the busiest pubs in town, my best friend worked there as well and we were right in the thick of it. At that age it was a fun place to be, we used to get to jump the queue to get into Buskers and get in for free, of course, living that lifestyle was not conducive to operating in a normal fashion and it was all consuming. Further education went out the window and sixth form got shelved. It's only taken me 16 years to get back on track, but I don't regret a second of it; learning to drive, leaving home, moving in with my first proper boyfriend and working in Majorca with my best mates for a year all followed before the 90's were out.
As for the games design bit, remember that before I started remeniscing? I get it. I get why it was useful, I think we worked well as a team, and credit is due to each and every team member for their individual input, I let the team down as Project Leader with my poor time management and wish we could have executed our concept better, perhaps the team was handicapped due to the 2 old people (sorry Alex!) with their inability to grasp basic Photoshop, but I still think our concept was a good one if not a moralistic one! Who are any of us to judge!!? I know myself, what I have learnt and what I would do differently were I to do it again. But I can honestly say, it is not games design that gets my juices flowing! So just as this project is put to bed, it is time to put the 90's to bed. I look back on it fondly, it made me who I am, but it's time to look the future and all it has to offer. Bring it on!!!
Oh yes, it was all so lovely and fluffy in the beginning! A trip down memory lane. A visit to my old stomping ground. I couldn't believe my luck when of all the decades I could have been given (namely the 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's 60's or 70's, not the 80's, the 80's were different, the 80's were special, no-one got the 80's!) I got the 90's! I mean, how hard could it be to find out stuff about the 90's, I was there! It was my time!
I was at secondary school from 1990 to 1995. So my early teens, my formative years were in the first part of the 90's. In the second part of the 90's, 1996 to 2000 I was 16 to 21. It really was a decade of two halves for me. The culture and world events that took place in the 90's were really real for me. The music and the fashion that we were researching was my music and my fashion. I loved Oasis. I wore 'grunge.' I wanted to be Gwen Stefani. They were good times, although you never really realise it at the time! All we had to worry about was school, seeing our friends and occasionally, homework. And we had a laugh. Looking back it seems like all we did was laugh! And there was lots to laugh at, our teachers were like caricatures of teachers, the science teacher with the comb over, the French teacher with sweaty 'pits, the very odd sports teachers of dubious gender!
And we used to ridicule them mercilessly, not to their faces of course, we weren't the 'bad' kids.
But we did discover drink, (and boys!) in about year 9, aged about 14. We had friends with 'decks' and there wasn't a week went by when someone wasn't having a house party and we'd get dropped off by our 'unsuspecting' parents for 'sleepovers' at some other 'liberal' parent's house with ruck sacks and coat sleeves clinking and bulging with drink! However, somehow we left school with good grades at the end of it.
There was a long hot summer the year we left school, and I'm not looking back through rose-tinted specs, it really was the best summer ever! We sunbathed all day with the tunes blasting out on the radio. The parties continued and we gave some consideration to what we were going to do next. Not too much of course!!
Aged 17 I started working in my Uncle's pub, 'The Whitehouse.' It was the place to be at the time, one of the busiest pubs in town, my best friend worked there as well and we were right in the thick of it. At that age it was a fun place to be, we used to get to jump the queue to get into Buskers and get in for free, of course, living that lifestyle was not conducive to operating in a normal fashion and it was all consuming. Further education went out the window and sixth form got shelved. It's only taken me 16 years to get back on track, but I don't regret a second of it; learning to drive, leaving home, moving in with my first proper boyfriend and working in Majorca with my best mates for a year all followed before the 90's were out.
As for the games design bit, remember that before I started remeniscing? I get it. I get why it was useful, I think we worked well as a team, and credit is due to each and every team member for their individual input, I let the team down as Project Leader with my poor time management and wish we could have executed our concept better, perhaps the team was handicapped due to the 2 old people (sorry Alex!) with their inability to grasp basic Photoshop, but I still think our concept was a good one if not a moralistic one! Who are any of us to judge!!? I know myself, what I have learnt and what I would do differently were I to do it again. But I can honestly say, it is not games design that gets my juices flowing! So just as this project is put to bed, it is time to put the 90's to bed. I look back on it fondly, it made me who I am, but it's time to look the future and all it has to offer. Bring it on!!!
Wednesday 7 November 2012
I'm no celebrity, but get me out of here!!!
To say I am struggling with Photoshop would be an understatement. It's just taken me 5 and a half hours to put a cut out of a paper plane on a cream background. I am losing the will to live. And I picked this week to go on a no beer diet. I'm no celebrity, but get me the fuck out of here!!!
Tuesday 6 November 2012
The battle against shit war film movie posters!
In my quest for knowledge and inspiration as to what makes a good war film movie poster I came across these.
These do not make good war film movie posters, and yet, seem to be a formula that Hollywood sticks to.
I see a pattern; horizon/battlefield/silhouette + moody sky and/or big faces = pile of garbage
Monday 5 November 2012
They are big on posters in Amsterdam-yesh!
So here we are, project 4. Design a poster to promote your 'movie' from project 3. I know these aren't movie posters, but they are posters that I have seen with my eyes and documented with my camera on a trip to Amsterdam. I love Amsterdam, and I love posters. As we were told in our lecture today, some of the greatest graphic artwork has been in the form of posters...I will keep you posted with more posts about posters...
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| Club night posters |
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| Photographic Budweiser Beer poster...I think! |
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| These posters adorned the wall of a cafe, you often see this in Amsterdam, a constantly changing wallpaper, like a living, breathing entity! |
Thursday 1 November 2012
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