Final Evaluation

Preparatory Work Evaluation

The idea of using old fashioned/vintage games for my FPM spiralled from a Scotland road trip that took place in February, the weekend before unit 7 began. This is when I came across a wall graffiti’d with several games of notes and crosses catching my attention in Glasgow along with the board games provided to everyone in the hostel we stayed at in Edinburgh including Jenga. From there I had decided that I wanted to look at other old fashioned games such as playing cards, Dominos, Cats cradle etc because I thought some of them had qualities which possessed architectural structures like Jenga does and that is such a broad theme which is perfect for FMP.

I have continuously worked towards my proposal; providing practical, theoretical and intellectual evidence throughout. Working on 2D-3D design processes problem solving through out and using a wide range of materials such as card, copper rod and plaster. My research has developed through looking at the cultural aspects of Japanese architecture and modern architecture in several visited cities. Reflecting upon feedback from several tutorials and my presentation during the group critique gave me the ambition I needed to push my project to it’s maximum potential and helped in my growth of confidence. I believe that collectively having the support and critical feedback that I had for this project from my tutor and peers gave me the drive to produce my instinctive outcome of, “a selection of design sheets and 3D models”.

I believe that the research stage of any project is vital. The first weeks of FMP were spent gathering insiration from books, websites and visits to galleries such as the Walker and Tate in Liverpool giving the physical insight to real artists’ work. My initial research ranges from three books called, “Form Function and Design”,  “Japanese Detail” and “architecture Today”. I researched all of these books in depth and became indulged in them for their own individual reasons and believe they all helped my progression in this project. During the 4 months of this project I have been lucky enough to have travelled to 3 different countries; Germany, Belgium and Norway. This was the perfect way to grasp the differences that all of the cities possessed specifically looking at their architecture. Travelling to these different countries had their own amazing experiences but from researching a great amount of Japanese architecture that is where I wanted to be, fortunately and unfortunately the closest primary photographs I could receive from Japan was from a girl who I know is there for study, I personally asked this girl if she could send me certain photos of Japanese architecture including the pagoda styles roofs which I was very grateful to receive and be able to use in my design sheets. The building that encouraged my project the most was the Museum Aan de Stroom (MAS) I came across in Antwerp, Belgium which led me to my wire forms. Another important discovery during this project was the architect Frank Gehry, I instantly connected with his documentaries and related to him even though he is and older man and I am a youth, his work and what he was saying felt so relevant to me as an aspiring architect. Words spoken by him that I will never forget are,

“If you know what you’re going to do in advance, you won’t do it.”

And

“Your creativity starts with whether you’re curious or not.”

Other than his model and design work I educated myself on the way he sketches, layering drawings using tracing paper to improve drawings. I was influenced by this technique which informed my practice within drawing to then add to my design sheets.

My main development throughout this project has been upscaling and the question of weather it will succeed. I was informed during my group critique that the most difficult part of any sculpture is upscaling I made this a task for myself which Is what inspired me to purchase large cards to upscale my popular card designs and I also targeted myself to draw on a larger scale. I have definitely come across problems whilst doing this but these problems only led me to progress my work further and analyse what went wrong and how I can move on from it. Along with the problems I came across during my development I also succeeded in many different techniques and processes, the success on my work came from practice. considering I was folding cards throughout the length of the project it wouldn’t be a shock to discover that this is the material I was most comfortable using even when scaling up twice. I have also gained a stable amount of practice using plaster during the year which gave me great confidence in the material to develop quick outcomes. Unfortunately I found the success of experimenting with plaster very late in the project and even though I was satisfied with the outcomes of the domino pieces I was unable to expand on that and experiment further with the material.

Final Piece Evaluation 

From my presentation during the group critique after the Easter holidays I knew that my final outcome was going to include playing cards because of the amount of praise and acknowledgement they received and the enormity of enjoyment I possessed whilst  creating the small designs. I feel like that then became quite a large focus on my progression along with the challenge of upscaling. I didn’t come across any threatening or discouraging problems during my outcome process but I did find some things stressful and unnecessary, one being the spray painting. I feel like I went through too much trouble throughout the spray painting stage of my outcomes, out of 11 cans at £4 each I spent almost £45 on sprays for only two can’s to have been worth their money and as a teen who saves money for personally important things like University and travelling it is distressing to have wasted so much money. I do understand that I had to go through this process of finding the perfect spray it was just unfortunate how long it took me to find it. My final outcomes include four similar but also very different  designs created using the technique that runs through my blog on several occasions but using 3 different sized playing cards, (regular, A4 and A3) where some are selectively sprayed white as discussed and some showing the back pattern. This provides you with the attention to the detail in the card but also attention to the curves and forms the cards show. Within my final pieces I also combined two types of copper rod, the thicker wire used with the larger cards and the thinner to portray smaller versions with in. This to me portrays as the building structure and shape that helps to accentuate the idea of the card models becoming architectural.  I think this collectively adds depth and proportion to what I was trying to convey within modern architectural forms and structures whilst still hinting at aspects of the Japanese traditional architecture.

I know that when looking at my Final designs there are a lot of questions to follow, I wouldn’t understand what is going on or why they look how they do If I hadn’t created them myself which is why I liked to include design sheets. Design sheets provide background information and reasons to a finished design, they are a creative explanation which I enjoy producing. looking at the design sheets it is simple to receive the answers to many questions like, why playing cards? As you can see that my theme is games looking at the several games provided, you can see where my card inspiration came from, you can see where the wire design came from and the curvature of the cards from he Japanese architecture and symbols. I think they are an extremely clever design idea and I am glad I have come to appreciate them as much as I have.

When it came to exhibiting my outcomes I had several ideas and sketches but with my work its isn’t easy to predict how it will actually look until you do it, the only way to really do it is in the moment where you can see what looks presentable and what doesn’t. Compared to a simple painting or photograph that only needs positioning and mounting there are endless possibilities for my work to be exhibited which I believe to be a great thing because that is part of the art, depending on how you position your work it can make of break it. for me it took almost a full day of repositioning, moving and testing different positions learning what works and what doesn’t but in the end I did it with the grateful help of my tutors, I came to the point where I was extremely happy with the outcome. That being my square sculptural pieces coming down the corner of the board looking like it is tumbling down, I think it looks incredible. Although I won’t be exhibiting my two design sheets as collectively we agree that the 3D work speaks for its self and I don’t want to add more than is needed to my exhibition.

I am very impressed to say that I have followed my project proposal plan all the way through without having to look at it until now. I have done everything that I said I would. From looking at 2D to 3D design processes to talking about Japanese architecture and looking at culture to the obvious achievements which are problem solving, using a wide range of materials, reflecting on feedback and even keeping up to date with my blog which is something I usually slack at and do later on in the project knowing the consequences I feel like I have ticked all of the boxes in my proposal which I am very proud of, even having the outcome goal of a, “selection of design sheets and 3D designs” which I have proven to have produce.

Overall I am more than happy with how everything looks and has worked out for this project and I think that is down to letting the project and research carry me instead of deciding what I want as a final piece before I have done all of my research, that technique  may work for some people but it definitely doesn’t work for me. The only thing I would think about changing during this project is to experiment with plaster sooner than I had because I do think I could have done something great with the material after taking a previous interest to it in other units and I really began to enjoy the domino’s appearance in the plaster and cutting them up which is quite unfortunate but other than that I wouldn’t change anything because I think the growth of my project has been visible and I have progressed through good and bad.

 

Harvard Referenced Bibliography

[Accessed- 22/02/18]

[Accessed- 22/02/18]

[Accessed- 22/02/18]

 

Costing

Car spray cans- £4  x10 = £40

Pound shop spray cans- £1 x2 = £2

Dominos- £1 x2 =£2

Playing cards- £1 x3 = £3

Battleships- £2

A4 playing cards- £6.95 x2 = £13.90

A3 playing cards- £10.49

super glue- £3 x2 =£6

Total costing for this project = £79.39

(not including time costing or the £30 paid for materials at the beginning of the year)

 

 

Evaluation Notes

Final Photographs (Taken on Professional Camera)

Here are my final photographs using the Canon camera. I do think the photos came out so much better than my phone photographs, I was able to get more detailed close shots and capture focus on certain parts, sometimes the wire, or the card. I do think that the better quality made the light I was using more visibly appealing but still on the further away photographs it is very high beamed and dominant and takes over the work. I have found that using this camera my favourite focus is the smaller cards with the wire, seeng them in detail I think looks impeccable and I am very impressed with them but I will say that the close ps do capture the imperfectons which isn’t what I wanted to see. If I had access to photoshop I would very easily be able to edit out the parts that I don’t want to see but since that isn’t an option for me and I have already used my free trial on my laptop for photoshop I am forced to leave it. I am able to slightly edit these photos still so I have just slightly adjusted the lighting in some to accentuate the shadows and the create a look as finished as I can. what i should have finished this off with is a contact sheet to show how many photos I took in different positions and focuses but unfortunately I don’t have the access to doing that either.

 

Final Photographs (Taken on Phone)

Once my final designs were positioned where I wanted ready for exhibition I decided to start taking photographs on my phone. Even though I knew I wasn’t going to be presenting my design sheets I wanted a photo to prove that they were not needed in this space. As much as I do enjoy the deign sheets I understand why it is best not to have them displayed. After taking photographs of my work from different angles and using spot lights in attempt to create interesting shadows I looked back at the photos and on my phone they seemed to look quite dull, I then decided I could experiment with the editing system that comes on my camera app. I played around with the light and tone on the photographs discovering what I thought looked visually interesting. As you can see on the edit below I have lightened the picture and turned up the saturation, this caused a more vibrance in the pigment of the red (especially on the design sheets)

I have enjoyed playing around with different angles, lightings and editing. Although I did find it quite difficult achieving a good shadow from the light that we were provided with, I think maybe the light was too strong which is why in some photographs you can see a prominent light beam, but. never found an angle where I was pleased with a very interesting shadow even when using several lights (I had up to 4 at once). Maybe using something over the light would have been more efficient like the honey comb lid or the large dimmer I could have received different outcomes but knowing the limited time and the rush for everyone in the department getting ready for exhibition I thought it was best to leave it.

I have provided screenshots of different edits I have used to show the results, I have come to the conclusion that I appreciate when the brightness is turned up on the photographs because I think it really captures the purity of the whites and gives it a clean finished appearance. I am also very fascinated by the close up shots I have attempted in taking, I think it plays with your mind and the scale of the design is unknown.

I don’t feel like my camera captured the detail of some of these pieces to their full potential so my final step is to hire out a camera tomorrow to see if I can capture some photographs of better quality, maybe the lighting will look different on a different camera. I will find out tomorrow.

 

Exhibition- The process of change

The process of putting up the exhibition was a lot different to how I thought it would be, it all came in the moment and I had a lot of help with it. The first piece was put up quite instantly using wood blocks, it was screwed on the wall in a way that could easily be taken off and moved if I wanted to. We positioned and measured the first piece to the wall so that the second would fit under like I had wanted like a diamond attached by the corner and balancing on the floor but when it came to looking at ways we could do this the opportunities were low and I instantly removed myself from this decision.

We then looking into keeping the corner idea and making a kind of zig-zag coming out of the corner, this idea was interesting until we looked at the bottom of the zig-zag and I have shown in the photograph below that it isn’t visible enough to have there. The idea of moving the pieces up came about but if it was any further up there wouldn’t be enough room to stack all four pieces. Even though we we’re struggling with finding a way to display these pieces we kept being practical and testing out different ways.

Another piece was put above the first is a position where you can see the detail clearly but I chose to put this a way that you can’t see a certain spot which didn’t look as polished as the rest to hide tactically hide it. Oli held the board in the position I wanted it to be and I drew straight lines against the board, this gave indication to exactly where to place the wooden blocks that I would soon screw into my work. Once again this wasn’t permanent and could easily be changed.

We discussed where to put the next board,  there was an idea for this to go at the top, even though there wasn’t  much space we thought it could be hovering over the top of the boards but before we went to that height, Oli then gave us the idea of instead of having one under the first board attached to the wall or floor we could place it on a plinth, I was intrigued with this decision and wanted to see how this would be done, using the same technique putting the boards on the wall we used a wooden block and screwed it in at a random angle to get an idea once the work was attached.

I am extremely happy with how this looks, I think it is at a perfect tilt to look at from any height and the best part about this idea s that it can be moved anywhere compared to the work that has been screwed to the wall.

The idea for the last board was infant of us the whole time, After putting the third piece on the plinth and seeing the height decrease we looked at the fourth one on the floor and immediately thought about that one staying on the floor, placing a piece of the chopped wood Oli cut for putting them on the wall but instead using it as a stand just to give it a bit of height. I thought this was a great idea because now there is 2 that can move freely and I can photograph them in different places. ] am very satisfied by this outcome, it looks like my work is tumbling down the corner to the floor and I think its extremely visually pleasing to look at. I have spoken with my tutors who agree that I don’t need to put my design sheets on the wall because the work speaks for its self and I don’t want to add what doesn’t need t be added. It has taken a while to get to this stage of happiness with my outcomes but I may go away then come back to not feel the same way about it, if so I can easily change the idea but for now I do want to keep it like this and photograph it. My next step is to paint the visible wood blocks holding my pieces to the wall and clean up the plinth with some paint. Then hopefully I have time to take out a camera to take some professional photographs possibly using light beams to collect shadows like done in Murphy’s photographs because I think the wire on my work could make some very interesting shadows.

Exhibition – My Space. Ways of presenting

This is a sheet I was given to fill in to provide tutors with the information of the size and ideas for our presentation to give them an insight of what everyones exhibitions are going to look like. I found it quite difficult filling this in because for me I didn’t know how my work was going to be presented until I was given the opportunity to get it out of the store room to see what works and what doesn’t, I also didn’t know what size space I was going to get, it could have been 3, 2 or 1 flat board(s), a corner or the middle of the room. which is why I put a question mark on the drawing.

Looking at my pieces I wanted to test out how well they look together from the initial idea of joining them together in a cube kind of way, I tested this out with different pieces and rotated them to see the fullest potential but I could find a positioning that I was interested in, maybe this idea isn’t the most successful.

On this Monday when we were told that we didn’t have to go in to college I did decide to go in to add finishing touched to my work. I ended up speaking to Oli who influenced me to begin looking at ways of exhibiting my work whilst we had the time and the full room to work in. we firstly looked at putting my work in a corner, this was actually perfect because my work is in squares which fit perfectly into the corner on a visible slant, I hadn’t thought of this idea until now but be brought a second piece out to experiment with. We then looked at putting this piece in the same position but further up and discussed having them all like this but I wasn’t fond of that idea because I saw it to be quite boring, if I was going to have a corner I wanted to use it to its fullest potential. then we looked at Joining the corners which seemed to be visibly appealing and we adjusted the first piece so the second would touch the floor for stability, I think this would be an interesting way of exhibiting. We got the idea of having those positioned as planned then there was ideas of having the other two boards at either side to create an equal look or maybe having this go further up the corner we decided to sit on the idea and leave some time to think about it until it was time to begin putting the work up next week.

The 22nd May I came into college with my name on a wall which symbolised my exhibition space. I would have been happy anywhere and that wasn’t worrying me but I am extremely happy with my space, which is a corner in the centre of the room. I was firstly given the opportunity to make sure my space was perfect, there was a slight hole which I filled in, I took a loose staple out and gave most of the space another coat of paint.

It was nice to have my work out in front of my space because it gave me interesting visions of how I would like my exhibition. After being interested in what me and Oli had done previously I decided to begin sketching a few ideas. 

This is an idea that I have become very fond of but until I speak with my tutor or Oli I can’t tell if this is going to be efficient or work and until you see it in person you can’t tell weather you like it.

Finished Outcomes (Close Ups)

Even though my finished pieces have been put into the storing room safe I have still been able to go in to access them to give them final touches of paint and adjustments.

Here are some photos of my finished pieces in the storage room.

Exhibition – Clean Up

Last year I finished my Level 3 Extended Diploma with an exhibition which gave me a heads up as to what was expected of us as a class to get through these final weeks.

The first step was for everyone was to tidy the large  class room space. Throwing large amounts of work in the bin, empty drawers and cupboards, moving all tables and chairs to the sides ready for the exhibition boards to fill the outskirts of the room.

Everyone was given different tasks to make this as quick and easy as possible, my personal first job was with Maili to make sure everyones FMP work was stored correctly in the store room so no ones work got damaged.

Once this was done the boards were going up, I then began to gum strip the exhibition boards together to counteract the separation whilst other people scraped, de-stapled and sanded the boards ready for painting and others were removing the work from the corridors to prepare for painting

Painting is definitely the most entertaining job of them all and it is the part where you can really see the room turn into an exhibition. Of course making sure there is wallpaper put down on the floor to avoid paint stains. Once there was at least two coats on all of the boards all that needed to be done was to sweep and mop.

Overall I thought the teamwork that we commenced was incredible and everyone that turned up put in 100% to get this done in the amount of time that we had.