From the Ashes

Since the Summer Show ended and my College dayz is all but over, I've been working on Architectural projects. The theme seems to have been a common thread throughout my work over the last 5 years. Combining this investigation with my photo-montage/collage/assemblage techniques and working with both stills and video I'm putting together a new series titled 'Other Worlds'. The project also underscores a new and liberated chapter of work with more of a focus on technique and production values.

What happened to theTime?

One minute I am here on this blog trying to document my progression when Wham! time hit the speed of light and I was mysteriously catapulted weeks into the future!! This means that all my notes and observations are embedded in a secret place and locked away with 'Time itself, sigh.
The good news is that I finished the video piece and it is now showing at the Summer Show. So for anyone who happens along this blog at any time and actually gets as far as reading any of this, you've stumbled a link to the Final Piece 'Stairway to Babel'

The debate about New-Media Art roars on, what is it and where does it fit into the contemporary art market?
I've found a few interesting discussions and papers on the subject, here are a few:
http://319scholes.org/exhibition/notes-on-a-new-nature/

http://laudanum.net/geert/files/1129753681/

Judgement Day

 6  years in a wilderness and now in a place sometimes called Hell. Will I resurface to become a 'Butterfly? only 'Time can tell..

End Game

Here's a new still from the working of the Final video short stairway to Babel

Writing a soundtrack

With only 6 days to go until assessment or should I say judgement day and having clipped together 2 seperate video edits, one in After Effects, the other in Premiere Pro I have moved on to look at the overall soundtrack which I will be creating myself.
I've already made a series of loops using programmes such as FL studio 10 and a basic track in Garage band although I may not use either.
FL studio 10 is a create composer and can pretty much do everything you want. Tricky part is bringing it all together into a soundtrack that fits the film. As I'm working on my own with this it's nearly all being done from memory composition with a few tweaks in Encore at the finish.

Rendering some ideas

It's render time for a preview then back to Premier Pro for a bit of tidy up..

Searching for Babel

The next phase in the video production was to decide on the feel of the new work in terms of design and so I set about  creating the style based on the low-key approach to greater emphasise power. This is what I came up with.
It is beginning to take on a more Sci-Fi look.

Some new stills from the video 'Stairway to Babel' 

The influence of Fritz Lang

In 1927 the incredible talent of Fritz lang hit the movie screens with his creation of the World's first iconic themed Films, 'Metropolis'. An awe inspiring and frightening depiction of Dystopian society set somewhere in the future where Man had simply become automatons and a strict division between the workers and the Master Race persisted.
The time of it's creation could not have been more perfectly timed, the rise of the Weimar and German expressionist period added fuel to the political ideology of the times making the Film even more powerful in it's statements.
With beautifully created sets and low key lighting we were placed in a Futuristic City that seems all too predictable today, one fuelled by greed and power. This vision of the desire to create the fabled City of Babel further influenced many future classic Sci-Fi themes of which Philip K Dick's classic novel 'Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep' eventually went on to become Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner', just one example.
It does in fact have overtones of Dante's (Inferno, Purgatory and Paradise), the 14thC Italian epic poem in it's depiction of the dark depths of Humanity where workers are removed of their individuality by the repression of freedom.

For further reading on Fritz Lang see this blogspot

Update on project development

During the creative process there are times when frustration sets in with a path or direction your work takes and not least of all mine.
I've been working on the a/v aspects of my work, having spent a lot of time wondering where the sculpture was going. Consequently I decided to drop that aspect of the work and fully concentrate on the development of a final video production.
The architectural theme remains and has blossomed into a theme close to my heart, Dystopia. So just to show the development of that I'm posting a few development pictures that I wanted to work around.

The Croatian Designers Society Exhibition

I just came across this amazing installation from The Croatian Designer's Society. Total cost to produce was 95 euro and 96 hours of work.
http://www.b3designers.co.uk/blog/2010/06/17/tape-installation/

Anish Kapoor The ultimate City Futurist

I have been  aware of Anish Kapoor's work since his Turner Prize win in 1991. His Colossus architectural art installations are awe inspiring and give you a sense of the gigantism of City space. Of all modern art/sculpture Kapoor's work is favourite for me due to his expressions of eternal and endless cycles. It's as if we are looking at the deep chasms of the body from an external viewpoint.

http://www.gillesvidal.com/blogpano/monumenta.htm 

Introduction

Having completed my Foundation Degree in Film @ PCA in 2010 I opted to do my BA in Fine Art. This was a slow and lengthy transition as I had spent 3 years in Film and needed to adjust my direction accordingly. 
At first I hadn't a clue where to start and continued with experimental film-making utilising time-lapse photography as a medium. It became apparent that this wasn't going to be the only direction for my work and during an agonising year of decision-making and plan changes I seem to have settled for installation design but still using A/V within the context of the work.
Hopefully this blog will attempt to illustrate the changing process that I went through in order to get to the final output.