'Record' Project: Using Cut Outs / JP King

I talked before about starting to use negative space in my collage work. I first saw JP King's work when we started the course and were being introduced to the Visual Communication group. His use of cut outs is very slight and careful and not over the top. It often is the main focus or helps to compliment an image. I think it's very clever the difference these small differences can make.

My first try, I like the mix of materials, however I think I'm overcrowding the page. The negative space isn't as significant because there is so much going on around it. 

Another progression, thread is actually red but it didn't show up. I think this works quite well but the negative space still isn't clear enough! I think I overused the dress pattern instructions and all the words is a little too much.

Another one but this time I cut the words from a book, I wanted to try another way of showing conversation. The words are from a conversation in my journal. I wish I'd extended the cut out a little more to the right and not had it almost completely filled by the brown paper, other than this I quite like it.

using the negative space and making it work is much harder than you'd imagine! I want to keep incorporating this technique, as well as the collage into my work. I think its a more experimental way of exploring different elements of my theme, that and I'm really enjoying it.

'Record' Project: Artist Research, Hollie Chastain.

I was looking at collage artists and remembered seeing Hollie Chastain's work earlier on in the course. I love her imagery, and think it's quite similar to what I've been doing at the minute. Although her pieces aren't necessarily about communication or conversation, I love her technique and style. The use of colour and material in the work is lovely, and there is a great mix of flat images, drawing and textures.

'Record' Project: Conversation Collage.

I'd been wanting to experiment with collage for a while, and so I thought I'd try to convey the idea of conversation and communication through found imagery. I was using figures I cut out from some old dress patterns, I thought they were perfect as they were quite cartoon like but still aged. I'd drawn up some ideas beforehand and then started working with thread.

My first image using a thinner thread, this works really well. I think the black/white and colour combination is very complimentry. I want to try something busier though and see if I can build it up.

Built up with more characters and thread, I was thinking about old and new conversations. I now wanted to try using coloured figures instead of coloured thread.

I don't think this works as well, you lose the significance of the thread. The textures work quite nicely but I think I'm losing what the image is supposed to represent.

This image was a complete accident, I was trying to begin working with black space, and scanning on top of a piece I did in my sketchbook where I followed conversations as they were happening around me. Instead i got this. I think it's quite interesting and I love that you can see the lettering coming through in all shapes and sizes. It's made me think more about using black space and cut outs instead of the figures themselves, moving forward I think that is what I need to experiment with next.

'Record' Project: Journal, Valeska Soares and Conversations.

I was looking through my journal and I came across this piece of found material I discovered in a road. The way the letter stamps were clumped together reminded me of an artist called Valeska Soares I came across in a book I was reading in the library.

(piece of paper I found in the road).

Valeska Soares looked at a project where she collected hundreds of love letters and deconstructed them.

I started thinking about my own project, and the sounds I have been recording and began to think about words and conversations. From this I started deconstructing my own conversations.

"What shall we do?"

"I don't know".

"Alternatively I had another idea, which was to..."

I love how these came out and I think it would be really interesting to pursue this idea. I will have to record many more conversations. I think lettering is something I've avoided before and could actually really benefit my work. Also, in terms of focusing in on one aspect of the theme I think this could be a good place to start.

'Record' Project: Video

After my video from the journey while I was away, I wanted to film a journey back home. I started filming my bus to college in the same way, but I split it up into sections. Mainly because the first part was so boring!




You can see that this is just trees, it's interesting for a short time but after that I don't think it really works very well. I wanted to get more windy roads and people like I had before.


I picked up filming again when I know there were going to be more houses and people and generally people moving around. I much prefer this.




I did enjoy this, however as I do this journey all the time, it wasn't really as exciting as filming somewhere different was. Personally I find myself not being able to engage as much as I would had it been somewhere else. I'm still glad I made the films but for future reference I think i'll try and step more out of my comfort zone.

Inspiration

A little bit of photo inspiration for colour and pattern.

'Record' Project: More Sounds.

Over the break I've been trying to collect some more sound pieces. They are quite varied but I think that's important as I want to have lots of very different material.




I like this sound clip because it shows a very normal everyday situation, however you are focusing on it in more detail. I think the conversation and language is interesting!




Something incredibly different. My younger brother ended up joining a choir through what started as a Sheffield music project in primary schools a few years ago. This is from a performance we went to see in the church. I decided to record one of the songs because the material is so different to what I have already. This is a great contrast to the everyday voices and sounds I have already.





This is very muffled and you can barely make out anything at all, it is very loud on planes. Even so I kept it in, I think it's a lesson that very loud background noise isn't always the best time to try and record, and also the quality on my phone is rubbish!




This one is great, there is very mixed conversation going on and in different languages too! Unfortunately you can here my cousin and uncle talking about berets but perhaps that only adds to the strange but great mix of different voices here!

I'll leave it here for now, but I'm really enjoying working with these sounds. I think it's a great alternative way to collect material and adds another dimention to the work. I apologise for the rubbish quality though!