Unit 5 - Live Music - Jesca Hoop + By The Sea

The Grand - First Live Photography Session

On the 21st, we went up to The Grand in Clitheroe to photography 4 live music acts; I was really optimistic because it was the first time I'd photographed live music before. It was a lot more difficult than I'd first expected, mainly due to little things like the musicians faces in shots.

The most difficult part was probably the massive difference in lighting compared to any of my previous work. The lights were multicoloured, rapidly changing in intensity and position, and the subjects were lit from behind instead of in front. I expected a lot of silhouette styled photographs from the night, but the reflected light lit the musicians fronts well enough.

I really enjoyed the experience, and would definitely shoot more live music. After taking more than 650 photographs, I narrowed my selection down to 23 images, most of which I turned monochrome via Adobe Photoshop. Some of the originals were high contrast and bright enough to use, due to the bright coloured lights.

Third Roundabouts - 24th + 26th September

Media

In media, we were given a brief introduction to the subject, and shown some examples of different kinds of work that can be made in the media pathway, both professional and made by students. Some of the pieces we looked at included the work of Len Lye, and experimental film artist who worked in the 1900s, and example of his film art is below.

The above piece is from 'Rainbow Dance', made by drawing on 35mm film in 1935 - a technique we would look at later called scratch film.

We were also shown some of the early work from Mitchell and Kenyon from 1900-1906, a duo of producers from Blackburn who turned to travelling to broadcast their work, some of which I have included.

The short, silent films were of people walking, in schools, mills, streets etc. Although the pieces appear simple, filming was a revolutionary idea that hadn't been seen by most people before, so it was a fantastic experience for everyone involved. It was hard to imagine being in that kind of situation; we've grown up in a world where the majority of people have access to film and photography, so it seems like a regular part of life, whereas the people involved in this must have been amazed by the whole process.

Another example of work we looked into was cave paintings from prehistoric times. 

Cave paintings are one of the earliest art forms, dating back millions of years. The paintings were used to tell stories, a lot of which included stories of hunting bison for meat and fur. The markings were made from 'pigments' of different colours. The cave paintings were relevant, because it showed how far back art actually goes; although media, photography etc. was developed as technology evolved, paintings and drawings have been around millions of years.

After in depth discussions about media, we started to work with scratch film; massive amounts of inspiration were taken from Len Lye, it was really clear throughout the whole of the final product. The group had 16mm film (post development to avoid fogging and exposure) spread out, with seven seconds of film each. With the seven seconds, we drew on the film with markers to create moving images. It was really interesting to see every have such different outcomes, despite all working with the same materials.

Photography

In photography, we started working straight away, using long exposures to make light drawings. We were in a pitch black room with small light sources like torches, using 'bulb' for the shutter speed to allow the shutter to stay open, and the sensor to react long enough to capture trails of light.  The aperture was set between f5.6 and f10, this allowed the large aperture to let more light in, compensating for the darkness of the room.

My examples of light drawings are varied, due to the different coloured lights, using different focal lengths (including changing the focal length mid exposure) and creating different patterns with the lights.

After practicing the light drawings, we started to photograph shades of grey and white in different ways. I really didn't enjoy this task because being proficient in photography, the exercise seemed really simple. My examples are below.

Although I didn't enjoy the task, it was good to revisit early photography work to keep it 'fresh' in my head; it would be a really good starting point for someone starting photography.

Second Roundabouts - 17th + 19th September

Fine Art

In Fine Art, we were given a brief introduction to the subject from the tutor, and shown some examples of a range of fine art pieces. Some of the examples included work from Gerhard Richter and John Stezaker. After taking inspiration from these artists, we started working with collages, paints, pastels etc to create our own fine art pieces, which can be seen below.

 Textiles

In Textiles, we were working with ink and materials. The ink was rolled out onto a plastic wallet, then had a piece of paper/cloth placed on top of it. Drawing on the paper/cloth transferred the ink from the plastic to the material, making the image with the ink. My examples can be seen below.

After printing on cloth, we stitched over the top to make the picture in thread instead of ink, making a range of images instead of just the ink prints. Although my piece is unfinished, the example can be seen below.

I really enjoyed the printing part, and working with ink, it was similar to work I'd done previously in photography with thinks like cyanotypes, so the process was relatable. I'd definitely use this process again, but try to make much neater, more detailed pieces instead of the simple, untidy one that I made. Stitching and sewing are things I will avoid in future work, I was open minded to start, but it was too repetitive and simple in my opinion.