LastWeekPost15

This week I made a poster covered in the comment cards that I had recieved during the silent critique of my Final Project.

Generally I had recieved very positive critique on the final outcome, format, and concept, "Extremely cool concept. The idea of typography, photography, and personality is very strong". Most urged me to continue on to my final project, where typography would be painted on to people's faces as I have been planning. Dan Sinclair suggested that I don't over think this project, but just go and let it happen intuitively. This is something that I will be doing immediately as school comes to a conclusion for the semester.
SOme contructive criticism stated that there could be more product for the process that I had undertaken. What I failed to present was the extensive photography sketches that I had done in my sketchbook and wall. I suppose pictures didn't suffice.
Otherwise, my exploration is astrong and there is a great movement towards the final project.

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I have begun embracing my studio process by continuing collecting and posting found items onto my wall. Soon I will begin taking these photos and applying them into my final, which will be a book and explores the relationship between typography and the human figure.
So far most of my found items are coming from the bins in the darkroom, where people trash bad and damaged prints.
I am not going to use these as my own, unless I damage and manipulate them in such a way that they become my own creations.
As you can see, my wall is literally covered in color, black, white, and type.

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I have been feverishly researching my topic, focusing on two themes-- human expression and destruction. This has led me to several interesting websites and books, one of which is a site dedicated to facial anatomy and expression: http://www.face-and-emotion.com/dataface/anatomy/anatomy.jsp.
I also found interesting information on the bone and nerve systems of the face and it's purpose towards our everyday function: http://emedicine.medscape.com/article/835401-overview

I have printed images from this site and begun mapping possibly solutions towards my typeface design. Some inspiration has been coming from Process Type Foundry:http://www.processtypefoundry.com/. I also have decided to begin with using Helvetica as a typeface to destroy, due to its avid popularity and loaded quality.

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Through out the last week I have come up with 5 different variation of my project, working on the next four in the next few days. My most radical departure from my original idea was the application of collage on to the subject's face. This is radical due to the damage and contorted proportions towards the typeface that would occur during the process. Perhaps the process of application ought to be most focused on, as it is a mask or a disguise to the subject. In some ways, collage would make the entire process could even expand to a developed mask, made of collage and paper mache. The typeface could become an object that could stand alone, compared to the synthesis between the subject and the typeface that was primarily suggested.

MidWeekPost.

Spring break was more a time of relaxation and reflection. I have begun planning my final project looking into different artists and movements that inspire me. Again, there is another posting on fecalface.com of photography in Venezuela, http://www.fecalface.com/nyc/. Again, there were children in crafted Halloween costumes, which was something I was first interested by a little bit earlier in the semester. The idea of identity being hidden and transformed is what fascinates me, and is a leading concept towards my final.
I have decided to design or apply a typeface on to several faces of different subjects through face paint. This will be done very precisely with measurements that will determine the anatomy of the typeface on the subject, creating unity and a balance through aesthetic and style.
I am deeply interested in how the expressions made by these subjects will effect the form of the typeface, destroying a carefully designed form and balance.

Group Profect-Process

The color inverted during the upload...I have no idea why or how to fix it. Regardless, these are a few of the compositions created for our projection project. Nameless Vicus has been working very hard to make this projection happen. So far our group is doing well, everything is getting done as it should be.

It's been interesting to see everyone's collages and messages that range from poltics to contemporary society and culture. A great deal of typography is being experimented with. I feel that this investigation is making our work stronger, as most of the direct language is coming through written word. This allows us to be creative and bizarre with our visual work.

All of our compositions are currently posted on our group blog : http://namelessvicus.ning.com/

Please view and comment.

This group project has led me to consider more interestig elements to my theme of destruction. Typographic form is essentially perfect in quality. It is designed to be as such in any give environment. Perhaps there is something to be said about that relationship, and maybe use that as a playground for the destruction of form. The Halloween photographs project an intention to hide the human form and figure, to distort and disguise it. This isn't necessarily destroying form, rather it is a temporary state of being.

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Our group is making progress towards the final project. Although, we do not have an image of our group working, we will after Monday night (during our meeting). Instead I will discuss our plans and my ow individual progress towards the collaborative project.
In general, we are focusing on the disturbance of space and environments. We aim to make a collaborative film of still images,collage, movie clips, sound, and all the things in between that will later be projected around the school by a moving projector (a projector on a mule).
My part in this film will be based on collage. I plan to cut figures and objects out of still images and animate them in stop motion format. This will be very time consuming however, I think the overall effect will be nice and applicable to the other pieces produced by fellow group members.

MidWeek

Vicus Manifesto

Nameless Vicus is a group that is inspired by street and guerrilla art methods. The violation and interruption of a environment and the reactions it causes are strong ways to get a point across. Our intention is to further our observations with this approach to art, what it means to the audience, how it changes the distance and relationship between the visual information and its' receivers, as well as, the political and cultural ramifications of such an illegal/unorthodox display.

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MANIFESTO:

Kasia: Nameless Vicus is a movement that challenges and interrupts a collectively chosen environment. It is set out to push out the irony of a subject, to look at the farce, the ridiculous.

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We have started organizing and proceeding with our collaborative group projects. Here are some links that display successful collaborations.
http://www.meca.edu/GalleriesExhibitions/Longoverdue.aspx

This one is very successful because it is an unique way to re-animate old books. Each artist could focus and express a certain message using only the book as a primary medium. This creates an interesting discourse between each piece. It begins a conversation on the culture of books and book design. The most intriguing aspect about this project is the availability to the public that was set up. It presents the idea that if every book is a piece of literary art and design, then what makes other works of art not available to the public?

http://www.boingboing.net/2008/04/09/cool-collaborative-a.html

This is also an interesting work of digital art. It a collaborative piece by one artist and hundreds of volunteers who were asked to draw part of a 100$ bill. It is interesting because it's a commentary on internet presence and social media.


For this week, each person in our group is to brainstorm an image or mark that somehow responds to our agreed concept: "What we need". I chose to look at the idea of "fear" and how we need that in order to continue functioning and making certain decisions over others. It is a necessary awareness, knowing what the consequences are over certain actions, that shape our understanding of what we need to do to get what we want or desire.
So, for this image I am looking at appropriating the figures of one or two old halloween photos and another source towards collage. I will scan it tomorrow or tuesday for the group to see.

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For this week, we were assigned to match and pair different post-it sized images together, placing and moving words around these image clusters to create a relationship. I started looking at pairs and quickly expanded these pairs into large groups of images. I feel that each group is describing an essence of an idea or mood, which is further explored through the groups of words pasted on the side of the pages.
The first group, the black and white image, is an exploration on the mood of isolation and self fulfillment. These images are all very high in contrast, and each carries texture through hair or fabric. The figures create shadows that overwhelm the entire cluster, forming static shapes and postive space.
The second group, was put together by the bright color. Each has either yellow, red, or blue, the primary colors. There is an atmosphere of simplicity in this compilation, an essence of childhood as well.
I am attracted to images of people, as most of my pairs carry some sort of human like figure or face. I don't really understand why, however I suspect its the identity of people that I look to carry, and express.

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This is an image from my sketchbook which is a collage of all the grayscale material that I found around my apartment. I used the textures and images to my advantage and created a composition that is united by color, rhythm and texture.

Now the black and blue drawing is from the sketchbook of illustrator, Justin Cownden. His sketchbooks are predominantly line work, however he also looks at how the form of various images becomes connected through rhythm and style.

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I found an interesting article during Ideations class. It was about a man who collected vintage Halloween photographs, and these photos were so ghostly and brilliant.
At the time, when they were taken there were definitely seen as innocent and non threatening. Now, looking at these, the subjects, predominantly children, are awkward in stance and their masks are very simple, yet demonically haunting.
I would like to further my interest with these photos,and masks as well. It's interesting to me how the atmosphere of a photograph, an image, can change so dramatically when the context of time, and culture are changed and displaced.

Here are scans from my sketches of the 4 Narrative ideas towards class. They each explore something about a woman or man, traveling to or from Georgia to New York City or Krakow. I was focusing on a phrase that I found on one postcard that read "I may be a Peach, but please don't bite me". That set a narrative of self exploration or something of that nature towards the protagonist and other characters.
I decided to use a map of the New York City subway system for the presentation, and then I am going to make a line of colored thread or lines and objects to mark the characters' travels.

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I found this amazing website called FECAL FACE. Here is a link: http://www.fecalface.com/nyc/

There is a recent post of photos on urban decay. The beauty is extremely inspiring, and it leads me to want to find settings like these myself and record their essence through either a collection objects found at the area or photographs of the various places...drawing these places...maybe all of these methods combined.
I feel that these places allow for an examination of decay and what that brings to the vision of a place. For example, I recently watched a video on the Auschwitz concentration camps, and how the museum is lacking funds to properly maintain the buildings and artifacts, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/7842671.stm. What gets me is how a place that represents and holds memories/scars of horrific suffering, barbaric killing, and the perpetual sadness of millions needs to be preserved still, for it represents this very evil that never ought to be forgotten.
It leads me to question whether in fact, evil establishes the good, as the good establishes what is evil. How destruction and creation come hand in hand, and synthesize into a single essence/memory/ or moment.

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This week, I have begun to look at form and examine the many ways in which it can be destroyed and recreated. I am very interested in the structural qualities of a form, a form being a result of any media, be it sound, charcoal, or ink. I have found a few postcard and images that I find to be descriptive of the human form, or at least strong in detail and characteristic.
I found a piece of paper that reads "change keeps us on track, itself is a matter of fact, the only constant is history because repeating is a story". I find this to be very helpful in ideas and words to keep in mind through out the my research. Words such as "change" and "history" allow me to examine the process of deconstruction and creation. I'd record these transformations as "moments". Obviously, these seem very spontaneous and ill conceived, however I like to keep things loose with my personal work, as graphic design is so heavily dependent on organization and planning.
In general, for the rest of my research and collecting this week, I am keeping "change" and "history" and the relationship between these two concepts with matter.