Geometric Design

I started my research by looking into how geometry has been used within art. I looked at Islamic art and sacred geometry. I love the pattern and symmetry within images of places of worship.

I like these particular images because of the colour and pattern. The top two images are from Mosque and the bottom from a church. I like how the two settings are so different yet the art within use similar shapes and colours.


I also explored Buckminster Fuller's Geodesic Dome. The vast shape and repetition within the structure is something that I find very inspirational. I find the simplicity of the structure interesting and want to explore using geometry within the 3D.

Live Brief

Before I go to Australia I have one live brief to complete. I have chosen to use the work of Leutton Postle as inspiration.

I love their themes and ideas as well as the outlandish knitwear they create.

I started out by identifying the key themes that they use;

• Traditional craft
• Tribal dressing
• Geometry
• Childishness
• Found objects

They use mixtures of these themes to create textural pieces of knit for fashion. I love the bold and orange colour scheme and the chunky knit used because it is eye catching and very 'in your face'. I am excited to explore using a similar studio practise. I am approaching this brief from an embroidery point of view so I want to use geometry and tribal as inspiration. I am keen to use found objects when I begin sampling as I feel this will reflect further upon Leutton Postle's themes and ideas.

Exhibition and Evaluation of Project

I chose to exhibit my story board and my final samples. The board explains how I got to where I did through experimentation. It is a snap shot of the key elements of the project, that tells the story of the two songs.

Evaluation Of Visions of Sound

I began this project by listening to pieces of music and loosely responding to them. I wanted the music to form a narrative and gave myself this goal. I wanted to experiment with how the music could become a visual piece. I started to research this by looking at Bjorks work with sound and nature. This inspired me to think about how the music can tell a story. I continued to draw to the music and select element from my drawings that I felt worked well. I used a photocopier to enlarge these sections. This process was quite random as I didn't always know what was going to happen. Through this process I began to create compositions that I liked and felt reflected upon the music. 

I then began to use the music to draw with. I layered up my speaker with cling film and paint and placed a piece of paper 2 inches above. As the music played, the vibrations caused paint to splatter up to the paper forming a visual of the music. I decided that I could compare two different pieces of music and see the contrast in pattern. I was overwhelmed by how well this worked. The two different songs produced massively different patterns, just like I had hoped. Daft Punk, The Game Has Changed produced a singular large splurge with another smaller one next to it. Whilst Boom Bip - Road Must Roll produced 4 splodges. I then decided that I wanted to experiment further with this process. I used different materials such as acrylic, ink, gouache and rice. I found that each material varied the patterns. I then moved on to changing the ground that I was printing onto. Cottons and wools absorbed the ink more giving a large area of colour whist man made and less absorbent fabrics let less paint in causing a more accurate mark. So far I was really pleased and excited with what happened. I spent 3 weeks playing around with different surfaces and materials to see where the project could go. 

As I am in the embroidery group, I needed to bring the project back to embroidery, so I began experimenting with embroidery techniques on my prints. I wanted to investigate how the techniques could vary the samples but still keep the essence and mood of the songs. I prefer hand embroidery so dedicated more time using techniques such as bullion knots, chain stitch and sewing materials onto the surface. I used materials inspired from a workshop involving the ideas of Richard Serra and his buzzwords.

I continued this process until I had produced 8 samples that I felt when put together reflected the mood and created a visual of each song. I see the context of my project to be an art piece comparing two very different sounds. I thought about bringing my project into different contexts such as fashion or interiors, but I couldn't see how this was relevant. I thought that in doing this I would lose the comparative factor that I feel is key in my work.

The process of printing on fabrics and paper worked really well in this project. Some of the interesting marks that I created I am very proud of due to the depth and precision. However not everything is bound to go well and I feel like my being in the wrong tutorial group throughout the project has hindered me. I don't feel like all of the embroidery I brought into the samples is necessary and i don't feel I dedicated enough time to really explore the boundaries of embroidery. In the next project, I would like to dedicate more time to thinking further about relevant techniques and materials to give my work more meaning and context.

Embroidery Workshop

Final Samples

I have now chosen the 8 samples that I want to present. I have chosen 4 Daft Punk samples and 4 Boom Bip samples. I want to present these side by side to show my approach to comparing the two songs.

Boom Bip

Daft Punk

I am happy with my final samples as I feel that as a collection, they show the mood of the two songs. I feel like my samples show the visualisation of the songs that I imagined. 

Cling Films Finals

I produced these samples using the cling films from throughout my project. I didn't know what to do with them but I loved the layering effect and how you can see the others behind each other. I decided to layer them together to show a new narrative of the songs. I am happy with the results, I feel like each one displays a mood of colour that I wanted to produce from the start.

Daft Punk

Boom Bip

Cling Films

Throughout my sounds experiments I have been layering cling film with paint and ink on over the speaker. I have been allowing these to dry but have been a bit stuck with what to do with them next. These tell the story f the songs just as much as my prints as the paint moves around on them causing a drawing to appear.

I think I want to separate them into the two songs and then have a play with layering them and creating a new visual image that displays the music. 

Machine Embroidery

After some time of hand embroidery, I wanted to have some time playing with machine embroidery. I used

Using the Embellisher. This sample fell in the paint, but I liked the shapes and colours still so I chose to keep it and try and make it into something new.

I really enjoy the pin tuck foot. I like the 'hair-like' quality that appears on the fabric. I want to print over the top of these to see how the hairy surface reacts with the paint and ink.

Influences - Emily Crane

'Wearable food couture'
That is how Emily Crane describes her work. I was initially drawn to this because the shapes and colours that are produced reflect upon the cling films that I have produced.
Her work shows how ordinary objects can create a different visual pathway and become something new. In this case, food is becoming clothing. This inspires me to look at how my work is moving from sound into something new. It is still the same thing but it is transforming into something completely different that has a new function. I want to play around further with my cling films in the hope I can transform these into a new dimension.

Context

I am now reaching the point in my project where I need to put my work into a context. 

Who is the work for? What am I trying to say?

I feel like because I am completing a comparison of two pieces of music, that I don't have a single purpose. I want to demonstrate this comparison and show how music can be visual and each melody has its own drawing. Therefore, my project is an art piece. It is something that anyone can look at, play with and interact with. 

Lowry and the Painting of Modern Life

Badly Dying Yarn

I have been thinking further about how to make my materials more relevant to my project. I wanted to bring more meaning to the thread that I have been using. Here I played around with badly dying some unbleached wool. I want to use this thread that tells the story of the song in a sample. I like how this worked, but I think if I was to do it again, I would use ink over paint. The wool has absorbed the paint so the yarn has only one colour where as I would of preferred it to have more than one tone to it.

Hand Embroidery

This week I wanted to explore hand embroidery and see how I can use techniques to enhance my work, but still keep it relevant to the project. I prefer hand embroidery although it can be time consuming. I have been using hand to reflect upon my work as well as enhance it.

In this sample I have used bullion knots to try and emulate the splatter patterns of a Boom Bip sample. I love the back just as much as the front as it shows a map of the song.

I want to keep going with this process and experimentation in order to select my work down to my most successful samples. Next I am going to play around with machine embroidery.

Playing with First Prints

I began to experiment with my samples to bring Embroidery into the mix. I initially played around with decorating the images using the tools I learnt from the embroidery workshop. Using multiples and buzzwords to enhance the images I photographed the experiments.

I want to continue playing around with being as experimental as possible to create interesting samples that reflect the mood of the songs. I want to decorate the samples, print over prints and see where the project can go.

Photoshop Workshop

Today I had a workshop in photoshop. I already have a basic knowledge of the software so it was a positive experience to gain further knowledge and shortcuts to help me to improve. I produced this image in the workshop. It is a manipulation of one of my cling films. I like this composition as I feel I can use it to inspire a sample

Third Tutorial

Feedback today has helped me to think about how I can use my sketchbook research in my samples

• Think about how to translate irregular shapes and composition from sketchbook to embroidery.
• Badly dye thread to tell story possibly?
• Use rhythm and freedom to create structure from unstructured.

I want to use my sketchbook research within my work more as I don't feel at the moment I am using it enough to influence my samples. I want to prepare surfaces before printing to make a repetition in the surface and more irregularities. By enlarging sections of my work already I am able to visualise the areas I like the most but now I need to translate these areas within my work better.

Influences - India Flint

India Flint has developed a dye method which she calls Ecoprint.
It is an ecologically sound sustainable dye process that transfers colours to cloth using direct contact.
The idea of direct contact inspires me as it leaves a print that directly reflects the memory. This si something that I have been using within my project, using sound to create drawings. Using a strong system of working like what Flint has created can help my process of drawing with music.

I really like the colours used and the display of sections of her work. I want to edit and select down my work to show the most interesting parts but still tell the story of the song. 

I can use this style of methodology within my practice in the future also. Having a strong method motivates me to produce more work which in turn I can build upon to take risks with.

Printing on Fabric

After experimenting on paper, I turned my attention to fabric. I gathered a variety of fabrics to initially experiment with how the paint and ink would react on different surfaces. The results I got were massively varied. It has also become clearer here to see the differences in pattern for the two songs.

Boom Bip - Roads Must Roll

I love the variation in mark dependant on the qualities of the fabric used. Above I have used plain cotton which has absorbed the ink, whilst on the right I have used a cheap blind material which due to the weave, has absorbed the paint in a completely different way.

This is the front and back of a piece of blind material. I used the other side of the fabric to the above print which allows the gouache to soak through to the other side leaving an equally as interesting mark.

Daft Punk - The Game Has Changed

I have also been thinking about colour more in terms of representing the two songs. The Daft Punk song represents more colder tones to me. I see a lot of deep blues and greens coming through in my drawings to the music. 

I am really happy with these experiments and now I want to see how I can incorporate embroidery into the experiments to enhance the mood of the two songs.