Where would you like to wake up?

                                   

Where would you like to wake up? 50 people, the same question, simply filmed and executed with a warming soundtrack.  I can relate this simple and effective film to my extended major project, as many of the answers refer to simply being happy to wake up at home. This relates to my project as my direction for the work and research I am currently undergoing, explores what marks and traces make a home.

'I'm kinda alright with where I am right now, my house' the film seems to portray the comfortable state of many people, simply wishing to wake up where best it suits them...in their own home, making the viewer remember the aesthetics of the home which make us want to remain there.

love in a card...

As a fundraiser for our final show at the end of the academic year I worked on a collaboration project of creating valentine's day cards to sell. The cards went down really well and it was nice to know that people were receiving the cards on February 14th in all parts of the country! 

A bit of history

I found and love this Pelican poetry book! Printed in 1944, the book presents us with the classic design of the Pelican Books, along with adverts for cigarettes, Mars bars and Horlicks, brilliant!  'CHOCOLATE...to sustain, GLUCOSE...to energise, MILK...to nourish'

A shadow of palimpsest...

To visually express the meaning behind 'Palimpsest' I have experimented with creating type with dust. Dust lines that appear when something has been moved present the idea that something was there, this is an example of 'a shadow of palimpsest'. Quite disgustingly and regrettably I sourced the above dust from my house, it surrounds and forms the white type creating the image of something being moved an leaving the dust lines, a trace and mark has been made within the home, showing that someone is present.

Above are two images taken from a series that suggest the idea of a trace of something that was within a family household. Having to take down photographs, certificates, pictures from a living room wall at home due to building work creates the title, 30 years of life taken down, the time in which life began for my parents together. A strange presence and emotion is felt when we view the remaining picture hooks. They also works with the statement, 'a shadow of palimpsest', not only because of the picture hooks, but also the traces of sun damage and stains on the wall. I am intrigued to continue and explore the idea of traces and marks that suggest family existence, the subtle hints that present movement and the habits of family life that create these marks and traces.

An image of what once was

These images portray an example of what has inspired me to develop for an EMP subject. The peeling paint reveals something that was there before. Traces and marks tell us the history of the subject, an idea of heritage and layers providing evidence.

This relates to an article I have recently read in Visual Language, regarding, 'Palimpsest. The future of the past'. I feel the word, palimpsest, helps me to define the subject area I wish to explore, it carries the meaning of 'scraped again,' a manuscript written on parchment that has another text written over it, leaving two (or more) layers of visible writing. Palimpsest can also be applied to the subject of architecture, it is interpreted as a ghost, an image that once was. This certainly works well with my initial inspiration images seen above. 

A mark

A visual experiment exploring a form of leaving a mark. By collecting a waste paper bin situated next to a photocopier in a library I was intrigued by the evide

nt page marks that had sunk to the bottom of the bin bag. I admire how the scale and torn effect of the page marks state that they were once used as an indication of position.

Above I have captured the effect and essence of the page marks being intended for marking a page to photocopy by photocopying the whole book with the collected page marks. I think this is an effective image created through the aesthetic quality of the grainy black and white photocopy.  

Collaboration...

Above is one of six principles created by Lee Shulman, president of The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of teaching, identifying 'authentic and enduring learning'. I found the principles to be quite inspirational regarding their relationship with design. The above principle especially works well with current collaboration work that I am involved in, whereby we have been set the week long brief to identify and represent the characteristics associated with established forms of design practice and to contrast those with practice that is new and innovative. Our group has the task of visually representing ‘messages’ as a topic.

At the end of the brief all groups will meet, we will locate all of the different representations, such as audience, materials, and touchpoints, describing our discipline as a whole and to locate how everything links.