Visual Essay Progress;

This evening i finally made a breakthrough on my Visual essay web layout.
I finally got it working smoothly and have hosted it on my site. I will continue to build and add to it as i progress through the task, allowing me to document my own progress as i go.
At present the site is HTML, which i know means that my site will be static, but it will be interactive and allows me to explore the space of a website to host my essay.
I opted for this due to being more comfortable with fireworks than flash, i knew that if i used HTML i could get a site that worked first and allow myself to get my content up. Perhaps afterwards if i have time i will explore further into css and javascript.
I did, admittedly, begin with css and javascript but this only caused problems which i felt i would be better of without for the time being.



This is a screen shot of the site so far, but it can be physically viewed by clicking the animated GIF to the left and proceeding to click the Portfolio link.

Prose for Palates;

As a studying print/broadcast journalist, my girlfriend has created her own blog.
She is using it as an opportunity to reflect and become comfortable with the art of blogging before starting in september on the Journalism course at NTU.
Outside her current course she works for a local paper and so writes regularly.
I've designer the layout for her, which has now encouraged me to redesign mine, it's started to annoy me, i think its a bit too dark and heavy.
Anyway i think that you should keep an eye on her blog, i think itll be exciting and interesting, im looking forward to seeing it develop over the coming months.

Prose for palates

Visual Essay;

"as you know, the premiere loves surprises" (upon the americans finding out about the doomsday device)

This week ive been concentrating on getting my head around the visual essay. I now know what im doing and how to do it and have begun creating its structure.

As i intend to specialise in web, i am creating my essay in Fireworks and Dreamveaver. The end result will be a HTML file that will be both submitted to the NTU dropbox and uploaded to my website. I feel this is a coherent and good way of showing my interest in the subject.

Although i accept the outcome might not be perfect it will show my interest, enthusiasm and knowledge already, but through the project itself will also show where i want to be and how i want to improve.

For my 3 practitioners i want to concentrate on successful local web designers. The reason behind doing this is because i know of local companies that are well established and quite prestigious. Therefore it shows a realistic example of where i could be in the future, while effectively showing successful examples of web practitioners and interactive developers.

As it stands, my 3 practitioners will be the design company Un.Titled, which are a very good web and graphic designers. I know of them through the college i went to before joining NTU. One of their designers used to go to the same college as me and had designed the art and design prospectus for NTU from 2009. The other is Andrew Warwick from Warwicka, a local designer who has been submitted for many awards and worked with many high profile clients. The final is the company called Seismik who have once again been submitted for many awards and worked for many high profile clients, my personal favourite being the website for the small but eccentric shop called Le Chien Et Moi. Other references are Green sheep designer, JDR, Bubble and Kebler.

I can no longer sit back and allow the International Communist Conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Im watching Dr Strangelove for inspiration for a "secret cabinate / war room" style room room for my secret lair. Ive been working on my designs room-by-room and as a result have arguably spent too much time drawing and planning and not enough time actually making.
When brainstorming ideas for what could be in my lair, ive looked to a wide variety of sources. Rather than just think of super heroes ive tried to look outwards from that.
Good examples in games, cartoons, tv and film and i feel this has strongly influenced me and directed me to create a strong idea of my own secret lair.
In all honesty i dont like revealing my influences because, as childish as it sounds, i dont want people stealing them when ive spent a lot of time looking for the less obvious but coherent sources, and so instead i keep a personal log for all my research that will then go into my presentation at the end.
One idea that did come to me was of a war room. I felt it fit the criteria of my lair - a sinister alter ego of myself - to have a "round table" where all my fellow evil conspirators (..?) could sit. Good examples of this are Austin Powers and as mentioned, Dr strangelove.










I have however since became distracted and found myself watching the entire film, laughing to myself, and quickly finishing this box of wine.

Watch this space.

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.

I went to see this yesterday evening, it was my girlfriend's recommendation as she had read the first book.
I wasnt entirely sure what to expect, although the trailer and reviews were positive.
The end product was a throughly enjoyable, though relatively long, film that resulted in only having enough time for one pint afterwards before the bars closed.

The first thing i noticed was the beautiful wide angled shots the film used with a low depth of field, which really suited the cold contrast of the film.
The story was thrilling and captivating. It was forgiving for those who hadnt read the book while, according to my girlfriend, was pretty true to the story. She said that areas had been, naturally, trimmed out, but only really to keep the film quite streamlined and no become lead a-stray.

The film was quite dark and gritty and a little disturbing in some sections, though i wouldnt consider this a bad thing. It wasnt there for the sake of moving you or to simply cause shock. It provided sustenance for why the main character, Lisbeth, was like she was.

The girl with the dragon tattoo played out much like the Bourne trilogy, by being full of action, but not over the top of glorified, filled with mystery but not irrational or far-fetched, and the way the two main characters worked together was energetic and lightened the mood of a heavy film.

The way the two main characters played out was interesting, however. Through the name of the film im lead to believe Lisbeth is the main character, though through how the film played out, it was more centred around Mickael Blomkvist. This leads me to be a little confused as to how the next film will play out.

Motherland

I found this collection by Simon Roberts while looking into the art of photojournalism. Something that actually really takes my interest.
I enjoy and do quite a lot of photography in my own time and so i like to look at photographers too.
Simon Roberts wanted to take an objective view of Russia from a westerners point of view. But rather than portray Russia in a negative light, highlighting the collapse of communism, it imposes a more positive outlook, looking at communities and the outlook of people in such a vast country and how cultures changes as you travel.
Simon Roberts is also famous for a contemporary photography project on the English. Which is another clever observation on how England is represented in terms of its photography.

"I was surprised by the lack of contemporary studies that had been made over the past decade. So it seemed like an appropriate opportunity to try and extend this important legacy, to explore themes of identity, memory, history and attachment to place - of belonging."



The website is made in flash so i cannot put any images up, but his website is available here.
Simon Roberts

his photography isnt necesserily iconic, or shot in a spectacular way. but his outlook and what he aims to capture are intelligent and objective. Its sort of like a documentary in image form.

Tuesday afternoon Seminar.

The seminar was an interesting one. It required us to look at eachothers blogs and see how we note down our development and research.
It was interesting seeing what people put on their blogs. Most listed images and videos theyd seen that had interested them, others also put websites up with stuff useful to them.
I feel that in hindsight i perhaps do not put enough practitioners work up on here, but i do think i reflect upon my progress quite well.
So in future im going to try to make a conscious effort to upload other peoples work to this blog.

the next part of the session was to create 5 questions that would get you to think about your development.
In what way dyu think youve improved?
How confident are you starting a new project?
How have your thoughts towards your practice changed?
How has research affected your development?

We only had 4 in the end as we scrapped our 5th.

I got some interesting responses. for this section i was working with Ulysse.

He told me that he has improved by developing new skills and learning to use new software.
He is confident starting a new project and he looks forward to starting something new and fresh.
His oppinions of the direction he is taking hasnt changed and so his thoughts havnt changed.
For research, he often starts somewhere that he already knows, finding a common ground and then working from their.

And to cap off, so this isnt a post that is purely text, i thought id insert an image of some work i like.



This is the template design to Embrace The Cultures new website. Good, isn't it?

Vertigo!

I sat up late with my girlfriend last night and spent what will be the first of many monday nights watching Alfred Hitchcock films. First on the agenda: Vertigo.
With his whole archive to work through i didnt really know where to begin, between us both we knew 4 or 5 of this biggest films and were instantly the attracted to watching these first, the likes of Psycho, 39 steps, the birds and of course, Vertigo.



We absolutely loved every minute of it.
The intricacy of the narrative was fantastic, the unexpected and morbid twists in the plot had us on the edge of our seats from beginning to end.
The composition of his shots were beautiful and often very clever. One particular area worth mentioning was the way he panned out when the main character - who is afraid of heights - looked down, to exaggerate the depths of which he was looking down upon.

Another section worth mentioning was Hitchcocks almost signature dream sequences, where the film became stylized and trippy. For its day this, i assume was pretty cutting edge, but the style in which it was done was fantastic and represented so well the impression of the main character going mad.

We thoroughly enjoyed watching Vertigo and shall continue this event by watching another of his films next monday, which i shall also comment upon.

Signifier/Signified;

In this morning we rounded up the events of the last few weeks, the relevance of the work we'd studied and films we'd watched.
The fundamental link was Focal Periphery.
Events can happen that have no particular relevance but when placed alongside other insignificant events suddenly find meaning.

A Noun, a thing, is a signifier: It is what it is. While the Signified is what it means.
Through connections to other signifiers, they become signified.

A Good example of this is the film we watched last week called Homicide.

Based around the murder of a jewish woman. Events that occur around it suddenly find meaning.

On its own the signifiers - the note that said "grofaz" - are irrelevent. But within the context of the film - the seemingly anti-semitic conspiracy - the note suddenly has meaning.

"Saussure's 'theory of the sign' defined a sign as being made up of the matched pair of signifier and signified."

A better description can be round at Changing Minds.org




Homicide Conspiracy

Moving Image

This is the outcome of our moving image project in its current state.
We are still waiting for the sounds to be attached, which is something that is out of my hands sadly.



Editing was an absolute nightmare, with around 20 minutes worth of footage cutting it down to only 3 was incredibly difficult. We had, however, filmed quite efficiently but breaking down what needed filming, where and how and so editing it all together was relatively straightforward.

I feel dora has done exceptionally well with how the film portrays. We wanted to make sure the difference between now and the flashbacks was distinct and obvious and despite having no sound at present, i feel the film successfully portrays this, and through good, clear acting, the story is quite clear and concise.

There are a few issues regarding the camerawork which in hindsight i am a little disappointed with. Although the camera angles were rehearsed and strongly influenced, i dont think they are as effective as id have hoped. but i do think the straight on camera angle does work well by clearly showing the actions of the characters and the divide between them both.
Some of the errors with the camera weren't noticeable at the time but once on the pc were more visable, which annoyed me.

I am generally quite pleased however, i think the filming went quite well, i feel my camera work is adequet and dora has handled this first editing cut well. We just need sound now..

Embrace the Culture;

I recommend anyone interested in stunning Graphic design to take a look at these guys, calledEmbrace the Culture.
I met them through a common interest of a band that i am friends with, called Minnaars. They have since been working together producing the bands posters, adverts and virals etc.
Outside of this ETC design their own fantastic tee's and produce some stunning posters.
I suppose there is a big similarity between what they do and how the swiss typographers approached their work. Their designs are driven by the use of type, typically sans serif and a sophisticated use a negative space but will intelligently partner the text with an image backdrop. I love the strong tones of their work by often reducing everything to black and white.

I will be photographing at a gig in leicester at the end of the month, where i will be collaborating with these guys. My images, their designs.
It'll be interesting to see the outcome, and its a great honour to be working with such a high calibre of designer.

Absence/Abscess;

My apologies for not blogging much recently. Its something i enjoy and usually like to do regularly as ideas flow and i keep track of what ive been doing.
Truth is i havnt been doing a great deal these last few weeks. Since having an abscess 2/3 weeks ago, when i was in excruciating pain for 2 weeks, i have struggled to find myself the effort to do much work. My abscess has now been gone for a week but i have since been extremely low.
I am always tired, had no appetite and also having difficulty concentrating.. along with not really enjoying the things i usually enjoy.
Hopefully this is just a phase that i think, as i am writing this, pulling myself back out of.
I have attended all 3 virtual environments sessions and been able to do the in-class tasks set, but i am behind on my secret lair.
While unwell i did do quite a bit of research and hand drawn ideas of what i wanted to do.. but didnt make a start on the actual 3d building.
I have now almost fully made the walls/shell of my building, which i hope to have complete by this weekend for me to begin building what will go inside.
I have 3ds max on my computer and laptop and so i am not worried about being behind as i know ill catch up.
Im far more concerned about getting myself well as i really havnt felt myself in any way/shape/form for a good 3 weeks now, and feel its affecting those close to me too.

OnLive;

Recently, hype is being built around a new product called OnLive, which can be found here:
OnLive

OnLive is a piece of software that allows you to play games on your pc and tv, to either rent or buy.
the fantastic thing about it is that, unlike conventional gaming machines where the hardware of your console plays the game. Games from OnLive are streamed, the servers and hardware on THEIR end deals with the running of the game.
This eradicates the need for an up to date machine, which for PC gamers especially (myself included) is great news as it means that gamers no longer have to buy new graphics cards and processors to keep up to date with the requirements of new games.

All that is needed is an internet connection.

"OnLive is launching the world's highest performance Games On Demand service, instantly delivering the latest high-end titles over home broadband Internet to the TV and entry-level PCs and Macintosh® computers."

This, to me, is a fantastic idea. As media moves further and further towards internet and digital streaming, this allows households to maintain that their TV's are still a "multimedia centre".
I know that my family, myself and the families of a few of my close friends, have their main TV sets connected to multiple pieces of hardware, or run a PC through their tv so that they can play downloaded content.
OnLive, will allow them to continue this trend but with games.