Blog – Page 28 – Karyn Easton

Nov 06

by Karyn in Ai, Experimentation, My Work, Research, Videos 0 comments tags: ai, Experimentation, my work, Research, Videos

Remixed Ai Chladni Patterns

Experimentation – What does Ai Make of My Designs? I tried experimenting further with my Chladni kit, but to no avail. Ideally, I would like to video the patterns forming but even getting them to appear is just too difficult at the moment. After speaking with the kit’s maker I realised that actually creating the patterns is a skill that needs to be learned. Indeed it is just like learning the violin and an art form in itself. I hope that with both patience and practice I can improve as I really like working with my kit. When it does work the results are impressive! I felt that the images created yesterday worked quite well, even though I would have liked to see more patterns. Therefore, as I continue to perfect my bowing technique I wondered what Ai would make of my designs so far? In my previous post I used Ai to generate images from the text prompt: ‘Chladni Patterns’. Today I am moving it a stage further and I am giving the Ai a starting image and asking it to generate variations. I actually found the results to be interesting. Below you can see my starting images and […]

Nov 04

by Karyn in Ai, Experimentation, Research 0 comments tags: ai, Experimentation, Research

Chladni Patterns and Ai

What does Ai think Chladni Patterns Look Like? – Over the course of the two years I would like to see if the Ai algorithm improves. Time and it’s effects, just like sound and light absolutely fascinate me. They are so interconnected, that it seems a shame not to keep a log of how Ai changes over time. At the moment I am looking at sound and vibrations, more specifically Chladni Plates and their resulting sand patterns from sound. As an experiment I fed the text prompt ‘Chladni Patterns’ through the algorithm. The images below are what the system ‘spat out’. I think that it’s fairly clear that in this area Ai hasn’t quite caught up yet. I intend to repeat this experiment towards the end of my course, along with any other relevant prompts that I discover along the way. It will be interesting to see if the software has improved at all. Ai Imagery Generated from the Text Prompt: ‘Chladni Patterns’

Nov 03

by Karyn in Disasters, My Learning, Problem Solving, Timelapse, Videos 0 comments tags: Disasters, My Learning, Problem Solving, Timelapse, Videos

Complete Disaster!

Trying to Make Progress – Today felt like a completely wasted day in terms of what I was trying to achieve. I wanted to finish off yesterday’s post by adding an assembly video of my ‘Chladni Plate’. Unfortunately my rather dumb ‘smartphone’ had other ideas and wouldn’t give me access to my footage. In fact I still don’t have access to my footage because apparently my phone’s storage is full! Indeed as I’m writing this the problem still exists. I suspect a trip to the Apple Shop for some ‘tech’ support will shortly be the order of the day. However, I hate to waste time, so I took the opportunity to try out another ‘Touch Designer’ tutorial. Below is the result of today’s efforts. I’m hoping that my phone will update overnight so that I can at least pull off the last few Chladni Plate videos that I shot today. In the meantime, here’s a thirty second time-lapse of me working on a tutorial to create some animated, coloured wavy lines. The time-lapse is 30 minutes condensed into 30 seconds. I am becoming increasingly interested in sound, so just like my Chladni plate videos, I have left in the original […]

Nov 02

by Karyn in Experimentation, Ideas, My Work, Research, Timelapse, Videos 0 comments tags: Experimentation, Ideas, my work, Research, Timelapse, Videos

Chladni Plate

The Chladni Plate – Sound has always fascinated me. I remember being introduced to an oscillator at school. I was completely mesmerised by the waves generated by sounds. Later in life I discovered Chladni Plates. The Chladni Plate was named after its German inventor Ernst Chladni, who was an early pioneer of experimental acoustics. He discovered that by using a violin bow to vibrate metal plates covered in sand, a number of distinct patterns emerged. The patterns would change with the pitch and the tone of the sound vibrations. The idea of sound creating hidden patterns is something that I want to explore. I am intrigued by anything hidden or unseen. The Chladni plate patterns, in my opinion, falls nicely into this bracket. The patterns of sound are hidden until they are revealed by the vibrating sand covered plates. In order to experiment with this phenomena, I decided to source an authentic Chladni plate kit with a bow. Some Chladni plate kits come with electronic tone generators. However I wanted to remain as authentic as possible and I was really excited to find someone who made these kits as close to the original as possible. Below is my Chladni Plate unboxing […]

Nov 01

by Karyn in Ideas, My Learning, Tutorials 0 comments tags: Ideas, My Learning, Tutorials

First Tutorial

My First Tutorial Today was my very first tutorial with Jonathan Kearney. Over the last few weeks I’ve been working hard on my ideas and concepts, so I was a little nervous, just in case I was headed in the wrong direction. However, I really enjoyed my tutorial! I came away feeling really inspired. Jonathan asked me some key questions about my work. The questions made me think about what I was doing and particularly why. It was good for me to question my own motives. Jonathan also made a couple of suggestions which I intend to follow up. He recommended speaking to a former student who became incredibly proficient at Touch Designer. This is one of the programs that I’m trying to learn right now. Any help I can get with this program is massively welcome. I also enjoyed our 5th zoom session today, with some in-depth conversations about the work by the Brooke and Black partnership. Overall I felt very good about today. Indeed after our weekly zoom session I even got round to shooting an unboxing of my CHLADNI plate kit, that arrived earlier in the post. I will be posting all about this very soon. Please […]

Oct 30

by Karyn in Ideas, Research 9 comments tags: beginning, Ideas, Research

Ideas

Research Notes, Ideas and Links – Below is the very start of my research. I have been collecting a few ideas to help me decide my area of research. It is interesting how my ideas are beginning to evolve, as I discover new materials, videos, imagery and new ways of thinking. I began with my initial research question ‘Unseen’. However I do believe this will certainly change over the course of the two years. I also have a journal of written ideas which I want to compile into more coherent mind maps. I suspect this will be the next stage of my journey. In the meantime here is the flow of my ideas and inspiration. They are in chronological order with the earliest at the top, ending with my latest links. 1). My research question – ‘Unseen’ when the unseen becomes the seen as in the visualisation of sound waves or vibrations or different forms of light such as infrared can those same visualisations stir emotions visually as the noises that created the vibrations. For example the vibration of a baby crying is this more or less visually appealing than say the visualisation of birds singing. Can these visualisations be […]

Oct 29

by Karyn in Artists, Culture, Galleries, My Work, Timelapse, Videos 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Galleries, my work, Timelapse, Videos

Newcastle 2022

Northern Culture and the Laing Art Gallery – Newcastle is one of my favourite cities. I was born in County Durham only around 30 miles from the city. It was a real treat to go to Newcastle with friends. The nightlife as a teenager was fantastic! It is also true what they say about Northern women. They actually do come out and queue for a nightclub in the skimpiest of club wear in sub zero temperatures. They really aren’t bothered by these freezing temperatures either. As a Northern woman myself, I actually know about this phenomenon, having once been part of this weekend ritual myself. Apparently psychologists have tried to analyse this behaviour. However, the simple fact is that if you wear a coat you need to carry it with you throughout the night. It is either that or pay a cloakroom fee. This involves either parting with cash and/or facing long cloakroom queues. Hence lots of women preferring to stand queuing outside in the cold with very little attire. It really is that simple. Yesterday was my birthday and as a treat I decided to stay for a couple of nights at the Gosforth Hotel a couple of miles […]

Oct 28

by Karyn in Artists, Disasters, My Work 0 comments tags: Artists, Disasters, my work

It’s My Birthday

A Quick Photoshoot – It’s my birthday today, so I’ve decided to take a day off. Yesterday I discovered that my camera is pretty poorly! The autofocus on my prime 105mm Sigma macro lens is not great. Every time I part depress the focus button it makes a strange noise. I’m struggling to work out whether it is the lens or the camera itself. This is not great! I was helping my daughter set up a shoot so she could do a response to a Claire Luxton (photographic artist) and I took some test shots for myself. The focus is definitely not as sharp as I would like it, although I was quite pleased with some of the results. It looks as if I’m going to have to get my camera overhauled which in the great radiation of photography is not going to be cheap! Watch this space. In the meantime here is the result from my shoot. Overall I was quite pleased with the composition of the image and the editing, but sadly the focus is not great.

Oct 27

by Karyn in Artists, Experimentation, My Work 0 comments tags: Artists, Experimentation, my work

Artist Research – David Spriggs

Amazing Ethereal Creations Using Layers and Light – My Responses – David Spriggs produces large ethereal installations using layers of hand painted acrylic and light. As a creative photographer I have played with similar concepts for many years, but never on this scale. Examples of Work by David Spriggs The reason I’m so drawn to the work of David Spriggs is his creative use of light. I feel this is similar to my own practice of photographing oil on water. These materials only come to life with the addition of light. Once light is added, they too create an ethereal appearance. My Responses to David Spriggs I actually shot the following experimental work, before I discovered David Spriggs. Indeed I was already some way into experimenting with different layers of substances with the addition of strong natural light. I have included my work here as a response to David Spriggs’s work because it is a similar way of layered thinking. The work below was created using glass, water, blue ink, layers of acrylic prisms and of course strong natural light. I feel these experiments were useful and could work well as a larger installation, borrowing […]

Oct 26

by Karyn in Reflection 0 comments tags: Reflection

Reflection

Week 4 – Taking a Step Back to Reflect – It’s already week 4 and I can’t believe how quickly the time is passing. Currently I am on half term October break from the college where I work. I feel that this is an opportune time to sit back and reflect on everything that has happened so far. As usual we had a lively zoom meeting led by Jonathan Kearney and we were also joined by Paul his boss. Paul talked about ‘Shared Campus’ which seems to be an interesting concept and one that I’m looking forward to learning more about. When thinking generally about my work, I often feel as if I’ve not achieved very much. This has been a common thread of mine throughout my career as both an artist and teacher. So staying true to myself this was naturally my view of my work over the last few weeks However, one thing thing that I’ve often failed to do is reflect. This has often been due to the pressures of work and the rigours of life generally getting in the way. Having a structured approach has always been a barrier to this as well. Luckily during our […]