Cherishing The Collection: April 2012

Thursday, 26 April 2012

CONCLUSION

This project has seemed like an excuse for me to pursue my own interests and has been really enjoyable. Just because there is a deadline doesn’t mean I will stop collecting and presenting my collections on the blogs I have created, I feel that this medium of expressing myself will be something that will stay with me for years to come. I am proud of the developments I have made in the exploration, investigation and analysis of cherishing an action but also the final photos are something I am really pleased with. When I finished uploading a bulk of the photos I posted a link to facebook, several friends commented and one person re posted one of images which made me feel like what I’ve been working towards isn’t simply an isolated university project but something which is real, alive and serving its purpose. On a personal level it has helped me assess myself, as I haven’t gleaned information about cherishing by researching others but my researching myself.

REVIEW....

If I could improve anything I would improve my ability to pack a mosaic for a train journey and trek across London so it didn’t break (and also maybe improved it durability by using a tile adhesive or glue first)

The quality of the photographs I am sure could be improved if I had a better knowledge of photoshop and using studio lighting.

When re-reading the brief I asked myself whether I had fulfilled it. I have certainly developed ideas about what cherishing….

But had I questioned materials? Then I thought back to the workshop session with ‘Material X’ I think the idea that if you disregard your previous knowledge and experience of an object or material you can develop much more interesting explorations with it. I think this is what I have done. I have put collections together which I cherish and so do others with rubbish off the street, left over train tickets which get binned, broken ceramics people from various eras have disposed off and left to be washed up, broken and neglected on the shore of the Thames.

NEW BLOG...

An initial plan I had was to produce a print of the image I produced from this project with vague ideas about producing it on a bag or other useful everyday object, however I had so many images by the end of my process! I thought about the opportunities of printing large poster sized prints as I took all the photos with an SLR they were high quality enough.

However what is my project really about? And surly the medium of the outcome should reflect this?

I wanted to produce and outcome that was associable in order to educate as many people as possible about the prejudice when it comes to which materials are traditionally cherished.

A blog seemed naturally the best way to communicate with as many people as possible, this BLOG . Really inspired me. Its clean, simple and plain layout with no real explanations or type I thought added to its appeal, it made me question the image more having no information describing it as it somehow added to the intriguing nature of the mixture of photographs.

Presenting the images on this blog didn’t seem like the right Idea as they would not be showcased but mixed in with notes and other bits and bibs, presentation, display and order are the key attributes to what I have been investigating so I applied how I arranged my collections to how I arranged my collection of images of collections.

It was also interesting using a different blogging site, as Blogspotter was my first experience of blogging. I suppose with anything there are advantages and disadvantages and they are good for different things. There is a limit of how much video you can upload in Tumblr and although it uploads images quicker there are less options on how you can display them.

Here is the link to my other blog. http://hulahirst.tumblr.com/

KNITTING...

Thank you Sonal for this shaky video, and for Yossrah who laughed so much it took us 6 takes to get one with out me cracking up. N.B this has been speeded up, i don't knit this fast!

FROM OLD TO NEW...USELESS TO POTIENTIAL

OH NOOOO!

DISASTER!

I had planned to drive up to London after Easter with my Mosaic nicely wrapped up however change of circumstances meant i had to go by train, my mosaic did not mike this, it broke :( i think it happened when i tripped and fell down the electors and Paddington, or getting on the 73 bus. anyway, i am not sure what to do...maybe try gluing it together? or embrace in new form and photograph it i little broken pieces representing...the fragile ecosystem int he thames that we as a socially are threating? hummm...

HOW I DID IT....

Me chatting through my mosaic making plan of action. i bumped into Laura, who used to Teach Ceramics at my collage, she had just opened up a shop in Wells. http://www.facebook.com/pages/Boop-Design/230149913691622 She gave me some advice on how to do it!

LETS GET SMASHING...

MAKING A MOSIAC...EQUIPMENT!

THAMES COLLECTION....

Me chatting about all the little bits and pieces I selvaged from the Thames Foreshore.
I had my Thames Adventure on Monday the 26th of March, i had to set my alarm early to time the tides right, http://www.pla.co.uk/display_fixedpage.cfm/id/11/site/recreation afterwards i traveled with them to the V and A, around Kensington, Harrods, and showed Tai. I then travelled to New Cross and washed them in My friends sink as they were a little smelly, everyone was curious. the next day I packed and they travelled with me across london as I sprinted for my train at Paddington, bumping along in my suitcase. When I arrived at Castle Cary station I took them out my bag and showed my mum, and purposely left them out so I could see them in the morning. I decided early on I wanted to make a mosaic in the shape of the Thames...I think the idea came to me in my sleep.

The idea that all these individual pieces of broken, neglected washed up pieces of ceramics used to be a tiny part of history, meals from another era, drinks with past company and hold stories that we will never know.

WALKING ALONG THE THAMES FORESHORE

PHOTOGRAPHY NOTES...

I was wondering, when I viewed the photos on my blog on my laptop the images seemed darker compared to when I had edited them in the computer room, I suppose the disadvantage of a blog is that peoples monitor and room lighting will affect how the images appear.

Vinegreting - I found out how to fix this HERE

White balance- Using the simple histogram of levels on iPhoto could make a dramatic improvement and i changed the exposure as well on most of the photos i took. however it is something I would like to learn more about on photoshop and the settings on the camera. I found that when I changed it because there were so many colours the changed seemed to be picked up on at least one of the colours in the photograph besides the background. humm, well the yellowy background is quite nice anyway if you ask me, more relaxed, less harsh and clinical.

Cropping-Nealy all of the photos I took I cropped, I think this is okay as its easy to crop bits of the photo but you can't adds bit in :) also I decide not to conform my crop to a standard size or keep a universal picture size as I felt by individually cropping the photo to suit the subject exactly it adds to the elevation of the subject 'its so important that the photo size fits around the subject and not the other way round'

Straightening-Always seems to be the same way I have to straighten it so I must be making the same mistake every time!

N.B if uploading to a blog files from Photoshop don’t upload, I think this might be to do with size? I found the setting on ‘Save As’ where I just clicked jpeg cause that seemed to work fine.

The quality doesn’t have to be extremely high as the photos on the blog aren’t that big! If I were to print them up obviously it would be a different matter.

Videos

I edited them in imovie as the movies were not final pieces in themselves. They were all shot on my digital camera with out use of a tripod. I would like to learn more about taking quality videos and this is something I would like to maybe incorporate in my next project.

Simply Google searching my question always resolved any issues I had. I found out how to rotate a video and how to speed it up this way.

BELOW

Videos of me sorting out my collection of nuts which I had invested several pennies towards! I like my nuts and seeds, for me they are very much a luxury item I use them sparingly and enjoy having a selection. My collection of glass jars was sitting there reminding me that I never did make jam this year. I decided to elevate my nuts and seeds by showcasing them in a glass cabinet in individual glass jars.

PHOTOS OF MY COLLECTION, SCEEN SHOT FROM BLOG SHOWING FINAL PHOTOGRAPHS

http://hulahirst.tumblr.com/

NUTS...

Wednesday, 25 April 2012

OUT AND ABOUT....

Photos from Shorditch Spitafields Market, these items of furniture accommodate an ordered approach to collecting and curating which I think adds value to the objects housed inside them.

Cherishing The Collection