Blog – Page 8 – Karyn Easton

Feb 27

First Looks

First Footage from the ‘Balance of Power’ Mobile It feels like it has been a long journey to get to this point, but at last the mobile is up and running. It stands around 3m tall and is by far one of the largest structures that I have ever made all by myself. Although, I haven’t kept an hourly diary of how long the mobile has taken to complete, I know that it has taken many weeks. At the moment the balance of the mobile is quite precarious and this is quite a threat to the project so I need to ensure that it is really secure going forward. I already had one mishap this morning while trying to hang it up. All of the pieces ended up on the floor, so this is far from ideal if it is to be transported then hung. My intention is to ensure that all of the mobile elements are secured so that if the balance does tip then everything will be relatively contained. In many ways hanging the mobile is just the very start of the journey as there is so much more hidden in the whole structure. However, I will begin […]

Feb 27

by Karyn in Zentangles, Zoom Meetings 0 comments tags: Zentangles, Zoom Meetings

Zoom Session 48

Double Loop Learning – Today’s session covered some of the information we needed regarding the end of year show. We also had a small discussion session on ‘Double Loop Learning’. I was in a discussion group with Jo and Emma which was nice and we chatted using a predefined list of questions as a basis. Below are a selection of slides from the presentation. Sadly since commencing work on my large mobile structure I’ve not had any time to update my Zentangle Gallery. However, I’m hoping to have a catch up session over the Easter holiday period. This is as well as catching up on all of the guest lectures that I’ve missed. I used to really enjoy these and I found then very inspirational so I am looking forward to making time for these. Selection of Slides

Feb 25

by Karyn in 3d, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: 3d, Unit 3 Blogs

Nearly There

One Last Push – Today I worked solidly again on my mobile and it’s very nearly complete. Once again the hardest part was hanging it. I probably would have fully hung it today had it not been for wet paint on two of the rods. Below is a snapshot of the day’s activity. Tidying the Mess Over the last few months, the manufacturer of my two mobiles has left the house looking like a bomb site! The images below show only a part of this. Finishing Up Below is a short video of me tidying up and adding the final touches (mosaic mirrors) to the mobile’s elements. It was a really long day but I feel as if I’m finally nearing completion. The mirror mosaics are not there purely for decoration. In fact they serve an important purpose and form and integral part of the piece. However I will reveal all shortly 🙂 Final Image Here is the final image of the day. Although I’m really glad that the physical making side of my mobile is in sight, there is still a long way to go with regards to the digital and AI […]

Feb 24

by Karyn in Exhibitions, Little Wins, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: Exhibitions, Little Wins, Unit 3 Blogs

Little Wins #7

Digital Art Gets another Showing – After having my ‘Balance of Power’ mobile shown at ‘The Gallery Paradiso’– I was absolutely ‘chuffed’ to be asked for more of my work. The gallery would now like some of my digital work and also some of my photography. Normally they don’t show an artist twice but because they liked my work they decided to make an exception. I might even have to get some business cards printed. I am currently working on a selection of photographic images for them but below is one of the video pieces that has been taken for display. Echoes of Sadness This is a 5 minute digital piece from the height of my despair about AI potentially robbing me of my photography. All of the images in the sequence are mine except the last three which are AI generated. These last AI images represent the tentacles of AI and how people will eventually try to fight it. One of the images, namely the flowers with the little bee was in the Photo Speed top four of the week. The ‘forget me knots’ in the little brown vase came in the Wex Mondays top ten for the […]

Feb 24

by Karyn in Conclusion, Photography, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: Conclusion, Photography, Unit 3 Blogs

A Break

Now for Something Different – Today I needed to teach my daughter all about slow shutter photography. She is taking her AS Level photography this year and as part of her personal investigation (course requirement) she wanted to look at a theme of ‘Moments in Time’. She particularly likes the look of silky water cascading from a waterfall. It’s not the easiest of shoots to do but seeing as I would be explaining the technique to her, I thought that I may as well do a few shots of my own. We were very much up against it today, because my camera batteries were running low very fast (probably due to the lengthy shutter speeds) and we only had a couple of hours. It was very cold too which didn’t help. However, I came away feeling that the day had been successful because my daughter picked up the slow shutter concept really well and managed to produce some great shots all of her own. I often wonder if I should have concentrated more on my photography over the last year with regards to my course. However, I don’t think that I would have had half as much fun or challenged […]

Feb 21

by Karyn in Food for Thought, My Learning, Uncategorized, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: Food for Thought, My Learning, Unit 3 Blogs

Art and Propaganda

The Use of Visual language as a Propaganda Tool – I stumbled across this video today and I found it absolutely fascinating! The narrator explains the difference between advertising and propaganda as follows: ”Advertising is meant to influence what you buy – propaganda is meant to influence what you think. A lot of effective propaganda is subtle.” I feel that my own work to some degree is designed to influence how people think. Although I would never describe myself as a propagandist. However, the following video gave me an interesting insight into how art has been effectively used as a tool for propaganda over the years. It is important to me that my mobile carries a message, and is so much more than a bunch of cardboard in flux.

Feb 19

by Karyn in 3d, Final Major Project, My Work, Photography, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: 3d, Final Major Project, my work, Photography, Unit 3 Blogs

Process

Another Full Day of Working – When I first began making my mobiles, I honestly hadn’t realised how much time each element would take to make. However, I am enjoying the process and I’m looking forward to seeing the end result. Today was another full day of making. My plan is to finish my second mobile by the end of this weekend so I can work out my next steps. During this process I have shot a number of time-lapse videos so I thought it would be nice to add some process stills. Process Stills

Feb 16

by Karyn in 3d, Final Major Project, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: 3d, Final Major Project, Unit 3 Blogs

Weekend of Work

Moving on to Prototype #3 – Now that the physical side of my first prototype is finished, I am beginning work on a more refined and larger version. The design is more robust and I’ve added eyelets to add strength to the cardboard whilst hanging. One of the issues I faced was ensuring that all of the code was on a level and could be read as an actual line of binary. After numerous attempts I realised that the quickest and easiest way to do it was to change my arrangements of keyrings and clips. This worked out to be a pretty effective way to balance everything out.

Feb 16

by Karyn in Ai, Research, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: ai, Research, Unit 3 Blogs

SORA

The Right Choice – Today I made yet another AI discovery called SORA by OpenAI. This completely convinced me that working in the physical (with my mobile) was the right choice. I have used text to video generators in the past, but this software, just like ChatGPT seems to be on another level! Sadly, I don’t have access to this technology yet as I think it’s currently still in beta testing. However, as soon as I do I will post an update. I’m actually quite proud to say that having explored AI generated art I am finding a way forward with it. In my original study statement I wanted to explore new forms of human, digital and AI art combined, and I still believe this is a good model for many artists going forward. SORA Explained Here is an excellent video that sums up some of the capabilities of SORA. Given the nature of what I’m currently exploring in my project work, this software definitely warrants further exploration. AI Art Explained I thought that I had already posted this video as it is a particularly useful one. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find it. Given that this post is about […]

Feb 15

by Karyn in Artists, Exhibitions, Galleries, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Artists, Exhibitions, Galleries, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos

Open Evening

Balance of Power – First Showing Tonight was a special night for me because it was the first showing of my prototype mobile called ‘The Balance of Power – Unity in Bits’. I felt so lucky to be showing at ‘The Gallery Paradiso’. It all came about when a friend of mine called Sue (an excellent photographer currently studying for her own MA) suggested that the call out for ‘Line and Form’ artworks would be a good fit with my mobile because of its lines of binary code. I was very interested, and luckily the following week Sue showed a video of my mobile to the curator who said he loved it! Following on from that we had a quick phone call and I delivered the piece the following Saturday. There were some beautiful artworks being shown and I felt quite honoured to be a part of it all. People really seemed to like the concept of binary code. They thought that the hidden words (Unity in Bits) built into the lines of code was quite a ‘cool’ idea. The curator knows about all of the secrets built into the mobile. However, I chose only to share some of them […]