Assignment AR 5b Networks

The following is a basic map of my networks, produced again using Inspiration. This is just the beginning, this will grow and probably not fit on this page eventually.

Assignment AR 5a : Project Plan & Research Proposal

Assignment AR 5a : My Project Plan & Research Proposal

Project Plan 2

via Inspiration

This is another way of breaking down the required tasks and processes for my Research Project using Inspiration 9 software. The beauty of this is that hyperlinks and notes can all be added simply, so it builds up over time.

 Project Plan

The above diagram represents my first attempt to produce a Gantt type chart via Microsoft Excel. This is for our current MA assignment for our experimental project. Hopefully I will be amore proficient in this process with practice, but I am quite pleased with it as a first step with Excel, which I haven't tried using until now.

Research Proposal

My interests are wide and eclectic I would say. I am keen on history and archaeology, architecture and art, and I ingest information on all of this and more avidly. So to pin point a particular area of interest can be a problem. My practice during my BA was primarily focussed on glass, but I really want to broaden my horizons and see where my research takes me. This is both challenging and liberating, and that I feel is one of the purposes of studying at MA level.

Inspired partly by my first small item, made in the first few weeks of the course and a film by Elizabeth Price called User Group Disco, exhibited as part of the BAS7 exhibition, I am delving into the world of Family Momentos. I find myself drawn to this area, as it seems it is a rarely explored part of our notion of ‘family’

The small item I constructed was a container of ephemera, objects that have no intrinsic value, but had meanings and told a series of stories. Elizabeth Price’s film is an exploration of an imaginary museum, a freakish vision of the future and a comment on our consumerist culture. What will we leave for future generations to interpret?

Our lives are a fusion of nature and culture, but nature and culture are a contradiction. Because culture is the essence of what makes individual humans into a group, the core of social identity, its continuity is vital. (Bertaux D, 2005)

There has been a large amount of research in Psychology relating to memories, particularly in the area of false memories by Elizabeth Loftus an American psychologist. She proved in study after study, that the mind is not a videotape device that we can count on for accuracy and clarity. She has shown that memory is highly susceptible to seduction by suggestion. That what we remember is coloured by what we expect to see, what we're told we've seen, what we want to see, what we are asked to see.

I have also noted some interesting work on the subject of Autotopography. In particular, studies on ‘mementos’ and the technical challenges of utilizing digital technology to record them, by academics from the University of Sheffield and Innsbruck (Petrelli, Whittaker and Brockmeier, 2008). The term autotopographies was coined by Jenifer Gonzales (Gonzalez, 1995), in order to describe the importance of personal objects in the constitution of the subjective. She argues that many scholars have theorised about "things" but there is a dearth of scholarship on what "things" actually mean to people and how one's subjectivity and one's things can be mutually constitutive.

I believe that research around this general area could be utilized to allow a community to engage and integrate in an artistic practice and to become part of an installation or exhibition.

My methodologies would include, interviews, surveys, photography, video, alongside experimentation within my practice.

History always constitutes the relation between a present and its past. Consequently fear of the present leads to mystification of the past. (Berger, 1972)

Bibliography

Berger, J. (1972). Ways of Seeing. London: Penguin & BBC Books.

Bertaux, D. (2005). Between Generations: Family Models, Myths, Memories and Interviewing. Somerset, New Jersey, USA: Transaction.

Gonzales, J. (1995). “Autotopographies”: Prosthetic Territories, Politics and Hypertechnologies. Boulder, CO, USA.: Westview Press

Petrelli, D. et al. (2008). Autotopography: What do Physical Mementos Tell Us About Digital Memories? New York: Association for Computer Machinery.

Assignment AR 4 : Mind Map

Assignment AR 4 : Mind Map 

Another part of this week's assignment was to produce a Mind Map.  I am fortunate to have Inspiration Mind Mapping software installed on my laptop. So here is my personal Mind Map, listings various tasks and travel etc. 

I have found a link to a free to download and use Mind Mapping software, if you are interested give it a try
http://www.thebrain.com/c/personalbrain/?c=32
I have found another free Mind Mapping program on CNET (my favourite website for free software!) here is the link;
http://download.cnet.com/Blumind/3000-18509_4-75532636.html?tag=dropDownForm;productListing

Assignment AR 3 : Research Methodology

 Assignment AR 3 : Research Methodology


What is Research Methodology?


Different kinds of research methods can and do use or generate different kinds of data, for example;

•  An audio interview will give personal opinions, attitudes and beliefs.
• An archival search will reveal a set of texts or statistics. 
•  An archaeological dig will give up objects of material culture.
• Practice based research will produce a body of art/deign work.

Different kinds of data can provide different kinds of evidence, which when seen as a whole gives a rounded account of the issue being investigated.

Research methods in Science and Social Science are long established and researches can call on a large range of validated methods dependant upon their particular field of enquiry. As an example of quantitative research, scientists can utilise controlled experiments in laboratory conditions and in qualitative research case studies of anthropological fieldwork on a particular social episode could produce the most relevant results.

Research methods and methodologies in Art and Design are still in their infancy and therefore have to be adaptive and inventive. Visual art researchers have to try and develop appropriate methodologies, taking into account current cultural contexts and technologies such as multi-media and multi-sensory methods.

The application of any research method requires the following critical considerations;

• Be responsive to the research context and appropriately utilised, both ethically and relevantly.
•  Be validated by other researchers, useful and meaningful to other users in a particular context and be dependable and trustworthy.
• Be applied with rigour and consistency.
• Be described thoroughly and documented accessibly, be explicit and transparent.

An interesting example of an Artist/Practitioner utilising research methodologies is Ian Ferguson. Whilst undertaking his PhD at the Royal College of Art in 1996 he was co-supervised by the Department of Materials at Oxford University. He was experienced in the Japanese art of Mokume Gane, traditionally a 'hit and miss' method of fusing metals. he applied and documented modern methods of solid-state diffusion bonding to the production of Mokume Gane objects. Initially he was faced with being accepted as a craftsperson in a scientific research environment, whilst producing work of a high aesthetic quality at art school. He developed his research methodologies utilising metallurgic research techniques from the standpoint of a craftsperson. (Seago, A, 1999. Art and Design. Design Issues, Volume 15, 11)

To sum up research methodologies should aim to describe and analyse methods, throw light on their limitations and resources, clarify any presuppositions and consequences, relating their potentialities to the twilight zone at the ‘Frontiers of Knowledge’.

Assignment AR 2 : Learning Styles

Assignment AR 2 : Learning Styles


Learning Styles, Which One are You?


This week, as part of our MA assignments, we were asked to participate in a short questionnaire, to establish our learning styles. A very interesting and thought provoking exercise. I scored the highest in Activist mode, getting 8, which means that one is open minded and enthusiastic, but also that one can act first and consider the consequences later. I realised that I have done this on occasion, usually due to being unable to access little or no information on the procedure, at least that is how it felt at the time.


I also scored 6 in Reflector mode, and 3 each in Theoretical and Pragmatist modes. Reflectors enjoy gathering vast amounts of information and postponing any action as long as possible. This is also true in my case, I really love researching but sometimes have problems correlating all the information into a useful conclusion. So apparently some people can be multi-modal,  therefore it is very useful to know which are your strongest modes in order to strategically adjust the weaker modes and fulfil your potential.


If anyone reading this would like to try it out click on the following links. For a downloadable paper questionnaire go to:
http://www.askdoctorclarke.com/content/c349.pdf


For an online version go to:
http://www.brianmac.co.uk/learnstyle.htm

A New Beginning

I am now on an Ma course at college, its called Entrepreneurship for Creative Practice. It should prove challenging, exciting and help me develop much further as an artist/practitioner. The college has great facilities and the course so far is offering all that I hoped it would and more.

Last week all the current cohorts and a couple of 2nd year cohorts embarked on a walking tour of the British Art Show 7, "In the days of the Comet" We are very lucky to have this exhibition in the city of Plymouth this year, and I was thoroughly looking forward to our collective visit.

Wolfgang Tillman's work 'Freischwimmer, 155 2010'

Our fist gallery was the Peninsular Art Gallery in Ronan Levinsky building at the University of Plymouth. There was a 

few great exhibits here, particularly Wolfgang Tillmans Freischwimmer, which my group critiqued for a plenary session later in the day. Also the monochrome tapestry by David Noonan.

Next stop was the Plymouth Museum and Art Gallery, which hosts the largest number of artists in the BAS7. We all had differing opinions of the works of course, being subjective individuals. Myself and a colleague critiqued George Shaw's enamel paintings which are based on his childhood memories of life in Coventry.Elizabeth Price's video 'User group disco' I found particularly interesting and I plan to re-vist to study it further. There are too many artists represented here to comment on them all, I just hope to encourage anyone reading this to not waste the opportunity to see contemporary art of this scale in Plymouth.

It was off to the Barbican area next to the Plymouth Arts Centre. This is a relatively small venue which we visited in a very short time. Sadly quite a few of us we a little disappointed except for a film by Anjar Kirschner and David Panos depicting Bertold Brecht's life in Los Angeles during World War II, we only saw a snippet, but it was interesting.

We marched on to the Royal William Yard next for a brilliant lunch organised by Karin and Hamid our inspiring leaders. I really enjoyed the food, the company and the sit down. Next door to the Slaughterhouse Gallery, the penultimate gallery of BAS7. There is much to see here, some of which our group was dubious about, go an see. The winner here is definitely "The Clock" by Christiam Marclay, (click the link for a short BBC news item about the film) an amazing tour de force of film research and editing. One of the gallery staff said that two young girls had stayed in the cinema for 12 hours unable to drag themselves out! It is an amazing experience.

Luckily we had taxis back to college for our last gallery. The highlight of the Plymouth College of Art gallery has to be Brian Griffiths' wonderful bear tent. Anyone reading this and in the South West please go and support the BAS7. Click on the link to see a You Tube video for some snippets.

Anja Kirschner & David Panos

Plymouth College of Art Show

Well it finally happened, final assessments over and many days spent painting and cleaning, not to mention arranging and re-arranging and the show was up and running. It does look really good this year as we have much more space. There have been very positive responses from visitors too. Here are some pictures of the show.

My wall piece "IF"

Ali Bullock's "Gorrilla Gardening" ceramics

Landa Zaijeck's ceramics

Christine Sinclair's blown glass

Lou Cloke's blown glass pieces, which have all sold!

Maria Puga's ceramic bowls

This is me in front of my wall piece "IF"

My Glass Bowls

Janey Pointing testing Kate Nayler's great "chair"

Imy McCullogh's blown glass

The range of work produced on our course is very varied, but all great, the overall look is brilliant, and although my pictures look on the dark side the whole gallery is actually flooded with daylight.


We are off to London next week to exhibit at New Designer's 2012 in the Business Design Centre, Islington so work will be packed away and loaded onto a van tomorrow. It's all hectic and exciting for me. Some of my colleagues have been there before, so they are not quite as excited. I lived in London for over 20 years and have not been back for years so I am looking forward to seeing it again and hopefully catching up with some old friends. So there will be more news and pictures at a later date.

Its Getting Very Close

Only a few days left and our final assessments will be happening, and of course the college show. The technicians have been working very hard along with some students clearing the ceramics studio of all its accoutrements. Wooden frames have been assembled around the walls and much painting of large panels has been happening. All in white of course. It looks really good so far, its very exciting. 


My glass bowls are all finished, several hours spent linishing (this is a belt grinder which uses water for cooling and to aid the process, its my favourite cold working kit) and the edges are beautifully shiny. I am hoping to get some really good photographs of them, but in the meantime here are some not so good...

These bowls are a culmination of several months work and hopefully will have been worth the blood, sweat and tears, literally!

I will publish some more photos of the show and my final presentation soon, watch this space.

Late Night Musings

I have been taking up carpentry this evening. I needed to make a frame of sorts to fix two glass sheets into. One has a ceramic decal fused to it, the other is a water jet cut design. Both designs were drawn in Adobe Illustrator, both were emailed to the appropriate company, to be made. 


The ceramic decal was printed by a company in Stoke on Trent called Tadema Designs. They are very good to deal with and the end result of my image is excellent. Traditionally used for putting images onto ceramics, the technology has developed so that they now fuse on to glass sucessfully.


The water jet design was completed by a company in Estover, Plymouth called unsurprisingly WaterJet Co. Initially the glass fractured when they tried to cut it, so I modified the design. The end result was great, would love to do more of both processes. 

This is the Water Jet cutting machine and below is my design cut into the glass

Next is the ceramic decal after fusing, awaiting removal from the kiln

So I had to come up with a simple way of combining the glass images, one in front of the other and wall mounted. I wanted to use stainless steel cables and clamps, but it was a very expensive method. I consulted a few of our talented technicians, and got a few ideas. In the end I designed it myself, and will post pictures as soon as I can. Here's hoping it all works well.

Disasters and other things...

KEEP CALM AND CARRY ON 

Well we all try, but sometimes its just not funny. 


After making sure I used the same kiln for another slump, after all the processes that had gone before (silk screening the enamel onto each layer of glass, fusing that, then fusing 3 layers together etc) it all went HORRIBLY WRONG. I had written down the temperature and soak time that worked previously, but for some reason, unknown to me, it was too hot or held too long and was a bit of a disaster. There must have been a gremlin in the kiln.

It was very upsetting, as it was my favourite colour combination, it worked well before disaster truck! Of course several of my fellow students thought it looked good like that, but underneath the glass had folded under itself and left very sharp edges. I don't think it can be rectified, but it could be cut up and made into other things. 


Anyway in true Blue Peter fashion, here's one I made earlier...

I have another in the same kiln, although the temperature was adjusted 
-50C from the disaster temperature (which was 665C held for 35mins) but it was on a long anneal so I won't be able to see it until tomorrow, sleeping tonight will be a problem I think, especially as everything is crossed.


This particular fusing kiln apparently overheats 50C anyway so possibly that was the problem, I was not responsible for programming it! 


Only one week until final assessments and the Summer Show, PHEW...

It's Hotting Up in the Glass Shop!

The end of our BA course is fast approaching and my fellow students are suffering trauma with cracking and breaking glass. It seems that this time of year arrives so fast and then everyone's work goes haywire as the pressure mounts. Its as if the glass has a mind of its own and refuses to do our bidding!

I have this week to finish the Kiln work, and then masses of cold working awaits. Thats if the kiln work goes according to plan. A fused piece is in one kiln to be slumped as I write, everything crossed that it works out, not time to go back to the drawing board now. It has been a weird term as too many holidays and Bank holidays, too many days when college was closed.

The College degree show is just over two weeks away, then the following week we are off to London for New Designers 2011 at the Business Design Centre in Upper Street, Islington. New Designers is like the oscars for the Applied Arts, so a big thing, not to be missed. Also Islington is one of my favourite parts of the metropolis, which I miss so much. It will be so good to see the old city again, its been a long time since I left.

This is a series of pictures of various stages of my work. The top image is a piece of silk screen printed glass ready to go in the kiln. This is Degussa high fire glass enamel, silk screened by myself. The Degussa enamels come in low and high temperature firing varieties.  Because I am fusing and slumping the enamels have to go in the kiln several times, therefore it was imperative to use the high fire enamels to keep the colour and sharpness throughout the processes. Degussa enamels are supplied by Pearsons Glass London, I include the link as they are an excellent company to deal with.

The middle image is of my test piece, three layers of screened enamels fused together and slumped into a bowl shape. The glass used is Bullseye Tektra 3mm. I would have used float but I dislike the green tinge that comes with it. Tektra has a textured finish, which as a side effect produces slight bubbles between the layers when fused, which I like. It adds little pin points of light!

The last image is showing the portion of the screen used for the first image. I produced the patterns using Adobe Illustrator. I really love using Photoshop and Illustrator and incorporating that with silk screening. Even though it takes some time getting the images enamelled onto the glass as perfectly as possible, and can be frustrating, as with many processes, the end result is well worth it I feel. 

Enamelling on to Glass via Silk Screen

After trying this technique last week I am totally won over. It's so satisfying to design something on my computer, get a silk screen made from that, then use that to enamel on to glass, fire in a kiln and there you go!

All the glass panels were fired at 800C. Combined with fusing this will be a great way for me to work. It has many possibilities and I am raring to do more. I used high temperature firing enamels, due to the probability of slumping. The down side is that these enamels do contain lead. Ultimately I will look at other types of enamels, hopefully there will be success with other manufacturers.

Trees Hugging!

What did the Romans do for us?

Remember that segment of Monty Python's "Life of Brian"?

I just heard a guy, an economist, on a television news programme, commenting on the Arts Council announcements today on funding for the next year, and the drastic cuts that have been enforced on arts organisations throughout the country.

This person, an educated man, a doctor, seemed very pleased with the cuts. His opinion was that art which pleases the masses deserves funding, and anything challenging and/or controversial deserves absolutely nothing! What an ignoramus, hence my analogy with the Python movie. With that attitude what chance does art stand in these times? 

Back to Casting

I decided it is worth testing some ceramic decals on cast glass to see what difference, if any, it makes to the depth of colour. I have tested another decal at 820C but it has not had any significant effect on the end result. I am thinking that it may be better to double up the decals to get a deeper colour. I will try this soon, when I can afford to order some more. The last batch cost £27 for four A4 decals.

 If anyone out there has had experience of this or applying decals to glass, please feel free to offer advice, as all will be gratefully received?

The next photos are of the mould empty and filled with frit ready for casting.

The mould was still too hot yesterday afternoon to remove from the kiln, though I will photograph it and the removing of the cast glass as soon as it is achieved.

Another Test Piece

Here is another example of my work with a fused ceramic decal added to the glass. I will add a video clip soon of how to apply the waterslide decals (or Transfers) to glass, when I have edited it. This one was fused and slumped (or sagged as named in the US)into a mould in one go in the kiln. It was taken up to 720C. The decal was quite pale compared to the original image which was initially a drawing of Arabic style text drawn by myself/ It was scanned into my Mac and manipulated slightly in Photoshop. The resulting image was then emailed to a company in Stoke-on-Trent, who the produced the decal.

I have been informed by the makers that the colours 'mature' with firing. To that end I have put some of the test pieces back in the kiln tonight for re-firing. Will report back the results!


I will post a photo of my horse next, as remembered to take my camera with me this evening, and he had been out without a rug on as it was a beautiful spring day at last it was warm.

And this is his new best friend Plum!

What a Beautiful Day

Sorry but today being Sunday, I had to suspend the constant thinking about my work and do something away from computers!

Rode my horse out through peaceful lanes lined with daffodils and whats left of the snowdrops.

Afternoon went to Mothercombe Beach with Zig, my dog, it was the first time he has been there, but not the last. You can understand why the movie people pick it as a location, it is so gorgeous, especially on a day like this. The last photo I could not resist posting, I love what the tide does to sand.