23rd September Friday (LBM)

Here we learnt about animation which got me really involved as I enjoy animation (due to anime and 2d animation from Disney) It was fun learning more about animation. 

We learnt about the language of animation which was quite confusing with all the meanings. We were shown some animation videos and then was tasked with making our own animation in pairs which was fairly easy to do as we made a ball bounce and turn into a box. It didn't come out amazing and to improve upon I would have don't something a lot more challenging as the ball box idea was easy but lacked much creativity to it. I wanted to make a ball bounce and turn into a bird but found that too confusing to do for the bird part sadly. 

Afterword we then had to make a video of where we brought animation to real life. our idea was zooming into someones nostrils, one would be a Utopia, the other a Dystopia land. we had to make the actual two lands which was interesting to make. i like the overall idea as it's different and quit bizarre but it works.

22nd September Thursday (LBM)

On this day we went on a trip to Tate modern. This was so that we could research specific artists and choose the two artists or themes we wanted to talk about and compare for our essay. 
I came across many artists work, some were very bizarre like Louise Bourgeios work however it was still intriguing to look at due to how bizarre her work is. The legs are meant to represent her family which seems very weird but you start to get the picture of her work once you understand (although it's still crazy). 
I was definently drawn into the three headed piece called 'Cell XIV'. the three headed state is one of confusion,ambivalence and hysteria being torn into different directions. I would have never guessed this without knowing the information behind the piece but its nice to analysing the different pieces and coming up with my own thoughts about that its meant to represent. Overall I saw many great pieces at Tate modern and it really helped me come up with ideas and the artists I would use for my essay

20th September Tuesday (LBM)

During this day we had to make short clips that were based on narrative. We were shown different clips to help us gain an understanding on this and briefly expanded upon how a film is layed out where there is a problem, a turning point and then a solution. We had to get into groups and i was in a group of 3 with Maureen and Josh. We ended up having to create two videos, one was a vine video, the other was a longer video exploring on the film layout our tutor spoke to us about. I enjoyed how the task went as it was very enjoyable and engaging because we got to come up with our own ideas of what to make which allowed us to be very creative. The only stressful part was the filming stage as I can remember how for the vine video, we kept making mistakes while filming (which causes us to laugh alot which added on to the problem) however it was still very enjoyable. For the second video, although it was longer it was much easier to do as we had to do it all in one shot, no edits like the first video. We did have some bloopers but managed to get it done and I found the video very funny and interesting to watch.

19th September Monday (Lens Based Media)

For our first day for Lens Based Media, our tutor spoke about photography,photographers and the five formal qualities(pattern, symmetry, texture, lines and composition). We were asked to take interesting pictures inside and outside the building, relating to some of the formal qualities which were pattern and texture. What i liked about this was how interesting it was to realise all these patterns that I may not have noticed before. i'm not a photographer and I am not that interested in photography but taking these interesting shots fascinated me with photography and made me value and appreciate photography as it is a very powerful thing in society.

Afterwords we were assigned to groups to do some photography where we uses different techniques and methods of taking photos of people. We used these LED lightings, lightbox, reflectors which were quite interesting to use as it could really change how a photo looks just with lighting (as photography is drawing with light). It was fun using these equipments and experimenting them with my group as I was intrigued with how lighting at different angles affected the shots and the task was very enjoyable and opened my eyes even more with photography.

16th September Friday (3DD)

On our final day for the week we had to create 5 small bridges that had to go across a lake and then we had to get into groups and create a large bridge from one table to another with a set of rules to follow.

When creating the 5 small bridges, i wanted some of them to be structured and the others look more dynamic so for example for the structured bridges I made the zig zag bridge and more the dynamic bridges, I folded the paper in different angles. i like how they came out as they look interesting and could work for actual bridges as some are possible for people to walk on and drive on. For improvements, i could have improved on the dynamic bridges a lot more as they look the same.

Afterwords we got into groups and we had to create a large bridge from one table to another. Our bridge had to be able to allow a boat (they used a table to represent the boat) to go under and only 2 points were allowed to touch the floor for support. 

During the making, we used one members idea to make our bridge, and we first tried to come up with the base. our base went well to make and one member had a smart idea of adding a square cardboard with holes near each corner to hold the bamboo sticks for extra support. However we were struggling with support on the table as it wasnt holding well, even with all the tape so we had to wrap table around the table which helped alot.

Our bridge was coming out extremely well, I was definitely surprised with the outcome as i thought it wouldn't be able to hold and thought the 'boat' wouldn't be able to go under the bridge but it did fit luckily. When it came to testing, our tutor uses an RC Toy car to see if the bridge worked. It worked first time which was very surprising as he had to make a small turn near the beginning but the car goes very fast so I thought it'll end up driving off but after

 adding in the extra support around the bridge, it diffidently helped keep the car on track. I really enjoyed this task as it was very intriguing and challenging when making the bridge which made it more fun.

13th September Tuesday (3DD)

During this day, we had the task to create 3D sculptures that had to hold 3 balls and the balls had to be removable, not touch the ground and not touch each other. It was much easier said than done but first we sketched out ideas and had to do some quick drawing tasks to help us come up with interesting ideas. After we began creating our structure using spaghettis and a glue gun to stick it together. However we first used blue tac to get the rough idea of how structure would look like which helped but it was extremely frustrating as I kept breaking the spaghetti whenever i tried to connect the pieces together which make me realise how challenging this task was going to be from the beginning. 

Next I began constructing my structure together by using multiple spaghettis for easier support and gluing them together with the glue gun. I found this very easy and extremely helpful. Also some people complained that the hot glue melted their spaghetti but I didn't have this issue as i wasn't spamming the spaghettis with hot glue. i was liking how my structure was coming together however i ended up on an error due to my laziness as when I tested it to see if the balls will stay in place, one of the balls kept touching another as the space was compact so I needed to find a solution to my problem. luckily since I'm such a genius I decided to add an extra support to the outer area which allowed me to be able to place all the balls without them touching each other.


Afterwords, we all placed our structures on the table and spoke about the ones we liked. Seeing all the other structures made me realise how boring mine was as it was very small and was simple to make so to improve upon this I would have made my structure taller and more creative by making it look more bizarre.

Our final task was to add support to our structure as it was going to be demolished( with a basketball being smashed upon our structures) and we needed to find a way to prevent that from happening to our structure so I came up with this support as since mine was short, the higher my support, the tougher it'll be to damage my structure as the acceleration would decrease on impact and may not even reach my structure. Luckily during the actual test it survived more or less due to my amazing idea. 
Overall, i enjoyed the task as it was very engaging and fun to do, however i didn't like how we had to use spaghettis as it was very weak but I managed somehow. I also didn't like the glue guns as I got burned a couple of times.

12th September Monday (3DD)

We first off had to think way back to the past for what presents we got on our birthdays each year which was incredibly hard to use as I couldn't even remember what I did a couple of years ago however I did try my best to remember and got some information. Our tutor spoke to us about how by exercising with our mind we can make triggers to help us remember something like a speech but it's only possible through practice. This was rather useful as my long term memory is quite bad so this may help out alot in the future for me if i ever decide to actual do it.

  Afterwords we had to write down the presents we got, and wish we had (which helped fill the page).We used A2 paper and I found this task kinda challenging with trying to recall all the present I got but still engaging as I could write big and in the way i wanted to lay it out. I began remembering some of the presents I got like how I got a psp, money, clothes, games etc. 
I wanted to have a structured design but make it still look creative which I think I did hopefully.However I realised i was making my life alot harder by blocking the text with colour so I later just used the chisel tip on my pro markers to make the thick texts. 

 Afterwords I had to cut around the text to remove the white unwanted areas so that I could hand it up. Most of the stuff on the lists were stuffs I wanted but never got as I couldn't think of alot for what i got on my birthday but overall the task went well. What I didn't like was the fact that i could't think of much for what i got which annoyed me and made the task abit tougher than I thought it would be, it made me realise how precious memories are and how easy it is for memories to be lost.
We then had to draw out one of the presents we received and cut it out as a silhouette. I decided to make a psp silhouette (can be seen near the bottom left corner). My silhouette was lacking depth to it so to improve upon I would chosen a different present that wasn't a device as devices are often in a rectangular plain shape which wouldn't look good as a silhouette. 

Utopia Final

During this day we began creating our Utopia. After coming up with ideas in my notepad I started to create my utopia based upon time. To represent this I decided to create the infinity sign which symbolise how time will never end and then added stairs to grow the growth of humanity as they'll age until they become a young adult and then they'll stay like that for eternity, leaving in youth and having unlimited time to do whatever they life, which may lead to a Utopia (or even a Dystopia) land for future generations. I used Cardboard and paper to create my representation of Utopia. It wasn't an actual land but a representation as it would help show my final idea in a symbolical way and it'll get the audience thinking of what it's meant to tell.

What I liked about the final outcome is the staircases. At first i was just going to make normal staircases but after gaining some inspiration from a tutor about staircase illusions I ended up changing the flow of the staircases which could represent how time could be altered. I also liked the colours as they help make my Final piece look more appealing as without it it'll look too plain and boring. 

What I didn't like though was how lacking it was because i had more ideas to add to it, like adding the progress of humans ageing until they reach the top of the staircase. So if i was wanted to do something different to improve upon my Utopia, I would add more staircases and expand more on the staircase illusions to make it more interesting and definitely add people to help represent my idea of Utopia. 

Lead up to Utopia Final Piece

During the day we had to do a set of drawings tasks, drawing our personal objects that we brought in relating to Utopia. During the drawing tasks, with had to do some quick drawings, drawings that were for 1 - 3 minutes and there were many twists to them as for some we had to some drawings where we couldn't look at the objects and/or the paper.

                                               

                                                

    

  For this drawing, I had 3 minutes to draw my cinema glasses (glasses linked with my Utopia of where people could explore different dimensions like the 4th dimension etc) . Looking back at 

I can see how frustrating but useful the technique was. Usually when i draw i like to take my time and draw at my own pace but I couldn't when I had this task so of course I didn't enjoy it but It was useful as i was able to come out of my comfort zone and try out different ways of drawing which would help me in the long run if i continued doing so (which I probably won't but who knows)

I had 2 minutes for this drawing, where i drew a birthday candle I brought in ( linked with my Utopia where the candle represents time and how time would be irrelevant so people can live forever) I also didn't enjoy this (didn't enjoy the whole activity overall) because i wasn't really interested in drawing stuffs that i knew would come out bad as I'm sort of a perfectionDuring the day we had to do a set of drawings tasks, drawing our personal objects that we brought in relating to Utopia. During the drawing tasks, with had to do some quick drawings, drawings that were for 1 - 3 minutes and there were many twists to them as for some we had to some drawings where we couldn't look at the objects and/or the paper.

                                                

Afterwards I had to make one of my objects out of paper. I decided to go with my candle as it wasn't too hard to make and I didn't have any scissors so I had to make something that was simple to do. I never quite finished it though as I needed to finish the bottom part. However I liked how was it coming out, even if it doesn't look perfect. I found this task easy and calm to do, alot more easier than the previous task as I didn't have to go out of my comfort zone to do the task. 

 I will say the activity was still useful as it allowed me to draw very loosely and let go when i drew during the activity. I also had to draw this without looking at the paper so that was a new and fun experience to do as i would never actually do that when i draw. Overall while I may have not enjoyed the activity to the fullest, I still got the message behind it which was to come out of my comfort zone as that's the only way to improve on something.

exhibition experience

During this week I had visited four exhibitions, which were the V and A, The Photographers Gallery, the British Library and The museum of London to help develop my idea of Utopia and for research which will go towards my Utopian outcome. The first place I went to was the V and A which was nice to explore around and analyse the different artefacts. I didn’t have a full understanding of Utopia and so I knew that by exploring the exhibitions, it’d create ideas for me to start of with. While I was there I came up with ideas about Religion and Culture as I looked at and took photos of Buddha artefacts. This gave me the idea of a society living in a world where there is only one or no religion, which may lead to peace. I also visited the exhibition within the museum called ‘ engineering the World: Ove Arup and the Philosophy of Total Design. This helped a lot as it showed Oves’ view of his own Utopia with the buildings and architecture which allowed me to start getting a better understanding of Utopia as it was something very personal to you.I later visited the serpentine pavilion and took some photos and also did some drawings of the architecture. By doing some drawings of the architecture I came up with an idea of Utopia where we lived in a structured balanced society where everyone is equal. I later visited other exhibitions  which helped me with the theme of Utopia.

Exhibition review

When I went to the Museum of London, I saw a great collection of artefacts that really intrigued me as it would really help me find ideas for my Utopia. For example I stumbled upon artefacts of coins and weapons, which gave me the idea of a Utopia where we lived in a society without war, violence and money as it would be peaceful and people won't be corrupted as there is no money . I also saw an artefact of a huge clock, which made me think of living in a society without time, or living in a futurist city where things like time travel was a reality. The museum was a great experience as it allowed me to open up my mind and come up with more interesting ideas.