8/12/11

I got the photograph I wanted to work in 3D with printed a few times because I was still undecided about how best to put it together in a box shape. Today was a day of trial and error with this.

At first, I tried Sellotape and it didn't hold up the object the way I wanted to. Then I tried using tabs of paper between the pieces of card to keep them together but able to bend, but then I realised the object changed position quite a lot when using this method of keeping it together, so I decided to put two wires between the photograph pieces and the block coloured paper pieces. This kept the object in the position I wanted it to be and I was able to view the object, cut up. But the 3D form was also able to look good in its own right.



I liked using the photograph with this object. There is something interesting to me about using a photograph in creating something new and different from reality/what was in the photograph.

I liked this trial and error because no matter if I am discarding something in the end, I am still learning something about construction somehow, even if subconsciously. I am enjoying the way this project is going so far but I know I need to go faster. After tomorrow (Friday) I will only have one week till the end of the project. I will need to go faster if I want to have enough objects by the final day.

I think I need to stop thinking about things so much and just do them; in the time I have spent thinking about how to make objects I could have made more than I have now. Trial and error is a good way of getting through this, because I know I will learn something and get faster at making things in the future when doing trial and error but not when just sitting deciding how to do something.

6/12/11

I took a particularly long time to produce something I like today. For the past three/four pieces of this project I have been seeing the same lines, random-looking angular shapes originally created from a black and white card shape (photo below), and I knew I had to stop the repetitiveness of it. I felt a bit like I was in a rut, unable to stop creating things that look slightly the same - if I carried on with this through the whole project I would have a lot of very similar looking drawings and objects in the end.



I was working from the photograph I showed yesterday, I wanted to cut up the lines somehow and create a new image from it so I could move on without repeating the same lines but I wanted to do it simply because I didn't want the new image to be too much (I knew the old lines were still going to be involved somehow and they are pretty detailed). I decided I wanted to do this by creating a box type object with three sides and the image of the lines on the inside and a block colour on the outside, so that when viewed from different angles, the block colour of the outside walls cut up the image and create a new one.

I spent too long mono printing the image on to card, putting it together with copydex and putting paper of a different, block colour on the back. I thought it would be ok to use copydex because I was going to put another layer of paper on the back and hopefully cover it all up, but this didn't really work very well and it looked generally ugly in the end. It wasn't sitting up the way I wanted it to, the copydex was visible in some areas and had warped some of the paper on the back.

I felt like this object had failed badly and stopped being able to move on with my work because I didn't like what I had been doing. After a while of not doing anything I went to my tutor with my ugly object and asked her for some guidance. She suggested actually working with a photographic print of and making this 3D, because photographic paper is good to work with in 3D.

This was the end of my day of work because I had to go and get the photos printed at boots to move on. I feel like I have had a lot of time just doing nothing lately because I can't move on without completing the thing I'm doing. I think normally, I leave things unfinished quite a lot and go back to them at the end of the project when I am rushing to get it all finished.

5/12/11

This isn't the first day of my work on the "49" project. I am one week in to it - I thought we were going to start the design process to go with this project in a notebook but they never arrived so that confused everything.

I have been working alternating from 2D to 3D and from the start I have been enjoying it and knowing what I want to do next but I think it has only been today that my project has started to form in aesthetics - I feel like I have had the thinking right since the start but now I think the look of my work is starting to come together.

Today I made one 3D object and one 2D image. This is a lot less than I should be making in one day. I worked out that in the time we have I should be making 7 pieces each studio day. I am always slower at getting work done than other people, I know this is a big weakness of mine but I haven't worked out why I am slower or how I should be quicker yet. I think when I am trying to work something out I sit and think about it a lot rather than trying things out, because with work like this I don't want to ruin what I am doing by experimenting with techniques I don't know will work. I don't like the thought of changing that but now that I have it in my mind I will try to be more relaxed about trying things out. I think the fear of ruining things is partly why I like working on a computer so much more than I like working on paper - if I do something I don't like, I can click undo and try something else.

The 3D object was made from card, acetate and wire and I got a lot of nice photographs from it. The photograph below is one I took of it and is also what I want to use as my 2D image for this. I have heard that it is preferred we don't use photographs as our 2D images in this project but I really like this photograph, I'm going to keep it as my 2D image until closer to the end of the project and hopefully I will be able to include it.

Although I only did two pieces today I was working most of the day and not being distracted. I think having a space of your own to work in is very important - since the boards have been up to separate the desks in the studio I have been a lot more involved with what I am doing and what I am thinking rather than what others are doing and saying. And I love having things to look at/inspire me on my eye level on the walls around my desk.

I need to hurry up with my work but I'm not going to compromise on anything I think is important. If I am rushing at the end to have it done and I have to stay at the studio all day and night I will be fine. I usually end up doing things like that anyway. I've not decided whether I want to change that or not.