The Story so far...

     This entry is dedicated to catching up on writing about what I did last week on my University course. It was my first week so It's mainly just introductory stuff I was shown and guided into doing as a way to ease me into the project.

The project itself is all in relation to the Talking Heads' concert/film Stop making sense. I was already familiar with the band, production and recently remastered re-release of said film. While the film(s) itself is still on my watchlist as of this point, I have before listened to the band's discography -album by album- in full. In short, I've a good idea of THs' overall feel and conceptual message -- something which makes me confident going into this project.

Anyway.

16/09/24 Monday

Intro done, I best tell you what I've actually made so far.
Starting on Monday; after a detailed presentation to introduce the course and project; my Monday tutor and course runner Cam got me to pull out my lyrics (a set chosen from a song included in Stop making sense, mine being the lyrics from song no:5 -- Slippery People). I was set to snatch forth a selected phrase to bring into a collaged poster. I chose the phrase "Are the slippery people gonna see you through?" -which is a lot of words to work with let's get nuts.
           I used a grid system to create this poster. A method used to ensure exact alignments and symmetry if desired. To break out of a boring squared grid, I also included an overlapping circular grid into my overlay to have more interesting line combinations to follow. I only really got a couple of progress snaps from this step but I'll slap them below now to show.

Initial Poster concepts

Later that day I got handed a big lump of clay to turn into what can easily be described as a "wet slab". Said slab was created so I could eventually screenprint my final poster design onto it -- allowing for easy 3D manipulation to create surface texture and warp-idge. I didn't take any photos of the finished wetslab but truthfully you're not missing much... We'll circle back around to this project anyway.

17/09/24 Tuesday

On Tuesday, under the guidance of Hazel -whom I have on Tuesdays- I was to design a (specifically) grid-less typographic poster/graphic which resembled the word it spells.
     I didn't take note of all the word I was able to choose from but they were all single words selected from SMS lyrics. some inclusions I can remember were: sunken, infected and critical mass. The last one I can only recollect because I picked it haha.
           So anyway I didn't take any photos of it in development I KNOW I KNOW. I can tell you my process however. I took inspiration from the "caution risk of explosion" sign in relation to critical mass (because critical mass refers to the start of a nuclear explosion duh).

To realise this concept, I traced a circle onto some white backed black paper and hand-scrawled some jagged letters into it -- making sure all lines of action emerged into the centre of the shape to really sell that implosion vibe. from there, I cut them out and cut myself some shrapnel out of the same type of paper to get some nasty shards flying out from my volatile volume. If you've been paying attention, you'll realise that upon flipping my assets black side up, the graphic will have mirrored. Which it did. I took a photo when I finished.

Critical mass poster
What I need to different/to further this piece is to photocopy it with more contrast and blow it up A3. I'd also be interested to see how it would look inverted.

18/09/24 Wednesday

This was my first media context session with Jane. This session was mostly just introductory; to discern what Wednesdays were for. This is the more written side of the course with pre-planned essays lined up for me to write (unironic yay). I'll include more details as an when they become relevant/I'm told them. What I can mostly understand is that I need to look into and research modernist artists that I like or that inspire me to create.
           In the afternoon I went back to my Monday poster and clay slab! This involved heading down to the screenprinting area and being shown how to do it as part of the facility induction. I first tested printing my poster onto coloured paper which I put to dry and haven't seen since. When I was happy enough with my consistent results and confident enough with the process, I began to print onto my clay.
I think it turned out well. With Cam's instruction to get us thinking, I started to smush various items and extremities into the clay to distort the image; using an old spool, wooden blocks, knuckles and rods. I've added a photo of it below.

(I promise I'll take more developmental photos in the future please don't kill me).

Smushed clay

That's pretty much an overview of my first week. Don't know how to sign off.

Fin.