Category: Subject Year 3

Notes taken during the discussion with the group and Ingrid :

Interested in process and tradition, skills and process, technical knowledge and understanding. does the bookbinding become its own content? Make a book about binding? History Understanding contextually. Material samples, binding into decorative art, 3D object. Paper letterpress and binding. Look at heritage craft association . Cultural differences. Traditional tools, Methods and materials. Pure formalism. Look at special book collection at uni. Sculptural form, film and photography to document, materiality, process, scale. Film and sound. Projection. multi dimensional, Empty book making sound of own making. Put the focus on the process not the content of book. Truth and purity. Focus on beauty of material process.

Effective,

Expresses many of my 6 words (storytelling, illustrations, traditional methods, but perhaps not diversity and nature)

Ephemeral character made from paper within a set sold background, semi translucent represents fragility and vulnerability of the man.

Clever use of weather and sound to make people aware of the ideas I am trying to show.

good use of pathetic fallacy

inprovments-

Could I photograph the bowls at the site?

Form… representation of inside and outside the bowl. is the fact the man is inside the bowl is important?

The answer to this is yes and to strengthen this idea I may have to rethink how i show this within my video to make the connection more powerful

Bowl one, I wanted to encapsulate the old man in his feelings as an overwhelming confusing time many vulnerable people have found themselves in. I feel the strength of this piece comes from the use of the covid material to make the paper as well as creating repetition using the letterpress, the meaning becomes more significant as the material qualities exaggerate the isolation and vulnerability. The use of paper mache allowed me not only to make a very handmade outcome as I was able to use paper created from covid newspaper clipping but I have also been able to pursue my interest in traditional methods by using paper mache to form the bowls. I illustrated the man to look hunched and cold, I did this as a result of numerous visits around the lake vulnerable older people tended to walk alone or early in the morning to avoid contact with other people. This started to form the significance of the man.

Bowl 2, I wanted to explore the other feeling created as a result of this loneliness, a fear and darkness. this is why I had places the man within repetitive “covid” and “isolation” letterpress and foil prints to exaggerate the isolated darkness. This is similar with the illustration, for much of the time the lake visits were gloomy and most of the time quite depressing when visiting in the worst weather, this inspired me to illustrate the man to be wrapped up in a coat hat and to clasp an umbrella as for much of the time it was drizzly. For both these forms I decided to illustrate the man within the form to trap him within the environment as the walls of the bowl allowed the illustrations and prints to bouncy the feeling around and to make the feeling of isolation (as he is the only one in the bowl) stronger. the news paper hand made paper gave a beautiful grey tone with flex of text within in and also allowed for subtle translucent areas to emerge from the paper mache making the form seam almost more fragile and vulnerable. The organic torn edge of the paper creates quite a beautiful border and allows for a strong sense of handmade fragility.

I have animated this character to walk around the lake, be movable so that his limbs and umbrella are movable. during the one min clip I want him to walk to a bench, sit, pop up his umbrella and carry on his walk ALONE.

I wanted the video clip to portray a sense of overwhelmed loneliness, to do this i illustrated the paper man to be introduced to the video through drawing him and setting the scene in the park. I also wanted to exaggerate the time by overlaying news clippings and covid headlines to create a sense of being overwhelmed. The man then wanders through the park, this I overlaid my own recordings of related covid 19 words to make the viewer aware of the vulnerability of the man. along with a ominous ticking sound effect and recordings of bird noises from the lake. this then cuts to short clips of both my bowls where I used my phone to move around the interior void of the bowls, I did this to push the sense of being trapped.

moving Forward: if I were to have a chance at editing the video i would make the stop motion project the sense of loneliness and isolation further, perhaps by making him reflect on his thoughts while watching or feeding the birds and make it more obvious why i kept the exterior of the bowel plain and had him set within the bowls.

I wanted to express a sense of haptic fear using lettering. Using the letterpress and repetition I wanted to create a sense of depth and loneliness as an expression of someone’s mind during this time. Where many of the thoughts and feelings are surrounded by covid. this is a process I have undertaken in previous projects but I have never ovelayed lettering in this way before.

Using the same method shown to me during my one to one tutorial I used illustrations of the old man from the park to etch into the dry plate using a pin tool. Using this method I visited uni a couple of times to reflect and develop as my ideas change. by changing the buffing process and pressure applied to the plate once the ink is applied changes the crispness and darkness of the image. Therefore I played around with altering this to experiment with toal changes. I concluded the most effective way to have some darker ink surrounding the character as it emphasises the isolation. My first couple of attempts were using cartridge paper as during my one to one the discussions I had with Nigel was that we thought the strength of my hand made paper wouldn’t survive the soaking process needed to create the impression if the image off the plate. I experimented with dampening the paper and this did make it more fragile and some of the thinner sheets did disintegrate into nothing but the thicker sheets of news clipping paper worked extremely well and the images transferred successfully.

After the first attempt at making paper where I made a smooth pulp from covid news paper clippings, I wanted to have a second go at making a more obvious paper as I thought it would project the ideas better. I also had a go at laying the clippings of headlines into the paper during forming in the mould and deckle. this was not as successful as they didn’t bind very well when forming into sheets.

Whilst at home and having limited access to materials I wanted to see what printing processes I could experiment with here. I wanted to experiment with embossing or drawing into foil that would transfer into paper.

The outcomes are surprisingly crisp and I really like the effect the negative space has around the figure.

I quite like the effect of a solo figure, it almost emphasises a loneliness or a sense of isolation that I have definitely witnessed from my walks around the lake.

After some discussion with nigel about my project he suggested the best method to use for this project was dry point printing. this would allow for a clean print and gives me more control over the clarity of the print.

this process involves …