The Untold Story Part 1 - Choosing My Subject

Visual Subject 

In todays session we were given 3 visual subjects in which we could base our picture book on which I liked the idea of as I had bit of a variation to chose from. I made some notes on each of the topics so I could initially pick the one I think would suit me best, which ended up being 'Age'. To gain a little bit of research we discussed with our tutorial peers what we know about the subject and asked each other questions on what the topic actually meant. This gave us starting points and allowed us to create a small book of rough sketches. I think this was really important as it opened up a whole new range of ideas and thoughts on my chosen subject. 

Planning ahead - work for this week.

Audio

As a part of the brief an important source of research involves gaining 3 audio recordings of conversations about my subject. My intentions for this week is to interview different generations of people about the same age, e.g interview my 14 y/o sister about what its like to be 14, and contrast that with what it was like for my grandparents and parents to be 14. I have chosen this idea purely because in todays session I asked students "what was your favourite age?", One said 14 - which I found a lot of students would reply with a similar answer (including myself).

Observation

Another form of research which is needed as a part of this brief is observational sketches. I intend to make lots of drawings from observation in perhaps places I used to go as a 14 year old/young teen. A place I used to go as a 14 y/o was Bolton town hall steps, which interestingly is still being carried on by the younger generations, so it would be nice to revisit this location and gain a sense of nostalgia and make some nice drawings to recreate what it was like to be a young teen. Another thing to think about is similar places like bolton town hall steps - its a place were people gather, much like the steps outside of Uni of Leeds.

Ephemera 

I think it would be really nice to pick objects up relating to my subject throughout my journey. It might be worth visiting some charity shops/antique shops which the majority of the time objects held in these shops are able to show a clear representation of age. I could also consider if theres is anything I can get hold of that represents that feeling of being 14 - like empty cigarette packets on the floor around bolton town centre. (will that look weird picking things up off the floor?)

Secondary

I need to consider collecting any historical information or data? It might be a good idea to visit any museums - museums could open up and influence a better understanding of my topic age especially if theres is any memorabilia across different eras relating to age.

One Week Map: Screen Printing

Screen Printing Induction

Today we transformed our template into screen prints. I wasn't really looking forward to doing screen printing after trying it at foundation - it didn't work and I didn't really understand the process of it, however, Mike guided us step by step through the whole process and I feel so much more comfortable, I know A LOT more about screen printing now - how the process works - how to prepare your screen etc and I've also learnt that I really like screen printing and will definitely be doing it again. 

What went well?

• I was able to get a lot of experimentation out of the induction - creating lots and lots of prints, some successful and some not so successful but it was all apart of the learning process. 
• the screen overall was successful and it was a clear representation of our template.
• I really like the colours on all of our prints, it was nice to experiment with more than just one set.
• I think the shapes are really nice and bold which give the piece a really nice and simplistic tone of voice. Simple yet effective.

What could I improve on?

• Im looking forward to being able to do screen printing again purely because I wasn't massively happy with our design and I know I am capable of creating some really nice work through screen printing. Although this task was purely an experiment, I wish my group could've spent more time on the print to make it more detailed and refined which would make it a better representation of our journey.
• I think the shapes are very basic and both layers would look better with more shapes and detail.

One Week Map: Collecting Research

S O U N D   M A P P I N G!

In preparation for collecting our research the class created a sound map. This basically meant that we close our eyes and create lots of mark making which represents the noise you can hear. I really liked this research technique as it is unique and really effective in a way in which it can really vary your research.

Collecting the initial Research

In order to gain our research for our screen prints we were put into small groups and sent into the city to explore and investigate different locations in order to create a unique map of our journey. A few things to consider when carrying out this task were how where we feeling? Emotions? what could we smell? what could we hear? So it was a good idea to keep record of this in our sketch books as it may become useful when making our final maps.

Other research which we also thought would benefit our final map were photographs, in which we could draw from, and also audio recordings so we could go back and create some more sound maps.

Cafe Nero

Christmas Markets

Trinity Shopping Centre

Victoria Quarter

Victoria Gate

Kirk gate Markets

Colours May Vary

 Sketchbook Drawings

I'm really happy with the outcome of my drawings, I think they look really lovely. It will be nice to see if I can incorporate anything I have taken from today into my screen printed map. Overall I think my research is really succsessful, I have recorded the feelings and emotions we felt throughout the journey, I have taken voice recordings, observational drawings and many photographs.

Preparation for Screen Prints

Me and my group have taken lots of little elements of our research and added it to our map designs. We have taken elemets of the sound we recorded e.g the music notes and the saxophone which have both come from our audio recordings, and also have simplified object in which we thing represent the areas we have visited.

In preparation for my groups screen prints we initial drew out some sketches in our sketch books on what we wanted the screen to look like. Once we was happy with out final design we then took the idea onto kodatrace and created two layers for the two different colours. This was a really interesting process as I was completely new to screen printing however it was really nice to learn as to why you need a different layer for each colour and why you have to colour in black the shape that you want to be coloured.

Overall thoughts?

• I'm not massively happy with the collaboration piece, I think if I was to do this on my own I would make it a lot more detailed.
• I am kind of glad it is simple because it is my first time screen printing so it will hopefully make the process and method a lot more easier to understand.
• Overall I'm really excited to screen print!!!!!!