Culture – Karyn Easton

Jun 13

by Karyn in Artists, Culture, Experimentation, Food for Thought, My Work, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Experimentation, Food for Thought, my work, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos

Barcelona Graffiti

Barcelona – Graffiti Capital of Europe? Is Barcelona the graffiti capital of Europe? Within only a short walking distance, the 1.15 minute clip below exposes the shear volume of street art around the city. In many cases residents have turned what is obviously a problem into something much more creative. They appear to have given up on trying to clear the graffiti. Instead, there is a sense that it is not just part of local society, it is in fact now embraced by it. Below is a video short highlighting the sheer scale of the street art. Calling it graffiti feels almost unkind because many of the colour schemes and designs seem carefully crafted as opposed to simply scrawled. Interestingly, the famous street artist Banksy has his museum in Barcelona. I wonder how much the colourful street art/graffiti clad surroundings influenced his decision? Barcelona – Graffiti Capital of Europe? One thing that particularly struck me while photographing all of the graffiti were the times that people seemed to have matching graffiti with clothes or other items. Below are some examples where people’s outfits or items matched the graffiti surrounding them. Maybe the graffiti was affecting their fashion choices […]

May 19

by Karyn in 3d, Abstract Art, Artists, Culture, Galleries, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: 3d, Abstract Art, Artists, Culture, Galleries, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos

MNAC

Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya – While I was visiting the Banksy Gallery one of the guides told me that I really needed to visit ‘Museu National d’Art de Catalunya.’ He explained that this was an amazing gallery and a ‘must see’. He was not wrong! The museum is set high above Barcelona and the views are breathtaking! Luckily I had my DSLR with me on this trip, so I decided to take lots of photos. My memory card was pretty full so I had to be a little careful about wasting frames but I managed to shoot everything I wanted. The building is very imposing! In fact everything about it was imposing, including the security and guards. After a relaxed and friendly visit to both the Banksy (they actually made me a coffee), and the MOCA and MACBA museums, I was left in no doubt that one false move and I’d be in serious trouble. One guard shouted at me for just holding a bottle of water – maybe he had heard about the ‘Just Stop Oil’ protests in the UK and thought I was about to throw it over a painting or something? I duly complied and the […]

May 18

by Karyn in Artists, Culture, Galleries, Little Wins, Mentions, My Work, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Galleries, Little Wins, Mentions, my work, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs

MACBA

The Museum of Contemporary Art Barcelona – The MACBA was a short 35 minute walk away from the Hotel Barcelona. Below is a short video of the route showing some of the surroundings. En Route to the MACBA Beautiful Light at the MACBA Before launching into a gallery of artworks at the MSCBA, I want to highlight both the beautiful architecture and light of the building. I was completely ‘taken’ with the stunning light that streamed through the huge windows of the building. Indeed I felt that the atmosphere created by the large windows, together with the clinically white interior, architectural angles and vaulted ceilings, warranted a mini photographic project all of its own. Therefore I decided to take some time out to shoot some of the beautifully lit interiors that were flooded with natural light. Below is a photo gallery of a photographic study of the light at the MACBA Self Publishing a Small Book of Beautiful Light at the MACBA On realising that I had produced so many interior images of the MACBA, I decided to try out a few page layouts. I felt that the images worked well together, so I decided to […]

May 15

by Karyn in Artists, Culture, Galleries, Ideas, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Galleries, Ideas, Photography, Unit 2 Blogs

MOCO

Modern Contemporary Museum – Barcelona – The MOCO was one of the first museums in Barcelona that I visited and it certainly did not disappoint! Below is a short video of my journey to the Contemporary Art gallery from the Hotel Barcelona. A short walk to the MOCO Moving with the Times Not only does the MOCO display static works of art they also display NFT’s, but more importantly they even have some artworks that utilise the power of augmented reality. Guillermo Lorca produces large visually arresting works. However these works take on a whole new life of their own when viewed through the MOCO’s very own augmented reality app called MOCO play. Initially, I hadn’t really taken much notice of the signs for this app, but then my curiosity got the better of me and I’m really glad that it did. Not only did viewing the artworks via this app add a whole new dimension to them, it also allowed the viewer to video record the experience in-app. Below is a compilation video that I made of the short augmented reality videos I made in-app. To say that Guillermo Lorca’s artworks really did come […]

May 15

by Karyn in 3d, Abstract Art, Artists, Culture, Food for Thought, Galleries, Ideas, Photography, Timelapse, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: 3d, Abstract Art, Artists, Culture, Food for Thought, Galleries, Ideas, Photography, Timelapse, Unit 2 Blogs, Videos

Barcelona Trip

Time to Unwind and Return To Blogging – The last 3 weeks have been incredibly busy. At work this is the time when we are preparing students for their art exams. However, for me the biggest task and time consuming activity is the production of the end of year film. There are more details about this in the blog post ‘A Temporary Distraction’. I always enjoy seeing the wide variety of work produced by our students but assembling it all into a coherent narrative can often be quite challenging. After nearly completing the film, luckily I was able to take a break in Barcelona. My students were now on a reading week, so it was the perfect opportunity to get away. This blog is a record from the start of the trip in England, to the return journey and most importantly everything in between. Sunday 14th May – Morning Sunrise The weather started off well enough and as we drove off to Bristol Airport we were greeted by a lovely sunrise. Unfortunately my camera was packed away, but I did manage to capture this iPhone shot. Apologies for the poor resolution. What Greeted us at Bristol Airport Although […]

Apr 28

by Karyn in Artists, Culture, Unit 2 Blogs, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Unit 2 Blogs, Zentangles, Zoom Meetings

Zoom Session 23

How to Read a Book & Other Ideas – This week was all about reading and getting the most from it. Apparently Kevin Kelly the founder of Wired magazine had said that we are now in an age where we are moving from book literacy to screen literacy. As part of this we discussed the F pattern of eye movements when tracked across a screen. I always enjoy our group sessions and find the information from them really useful. I discovered that that there is something called ChatPdf which I would like to explore further. I would also like to try out ‘Voice Dream Reader’ and ‘Speechify’ which are text to audio generators. We also looked at the ‘Pomodoro’ technique as a way to approach the research for the research paper. An outline of how this technique should be used is summarised in the slide selection below. I intend to try this as I think it will be very helpful as both a time management and motivational tool. Perhaps the biggest takeaway for me this week though, was the notion of: ‘I feel’, ‘I wonder’, ‘I think’. I’d never ever thought about something in those terms before and this week […]

Jan 10

Vilde Rolfsen – Inspired Work

Beautiful Destruction – For a few weeks now I have been wrestling with ideas for my research statement. Ideally I would like to integrate some form of current affairs or pressing agenda into my work but I wasn’t quite sure how to approach this. I then remembered a shoot I’d done a little while ago. I stumbled across an artist called Vilde Rolfsen. I found her plastic bag landscapes absolutely fascinating. Not only was her idea clever it was also visually very appealing. Her images are certainly creative. There’s just something special about taking such a mundane object like a plastic bag and transforming it into an amazing landscape. Below is a small gallery of her images. Vilde Rolfeson – Plastic Bag Landscape Responses to Vilde Rolfeson I felt that Vilde Rolfeson had produced something truly unique. However, inspired by her idea I wanted to use her imagery as a base to experiment further. I was also keen to incorporate elements of animation and time into my experimentation as this ties in heavily with my theme. Most of Vilde Rolefson’s plastic bag imagery is light and bright, therefore I decided to take a slightly darker approach. I wanted […]

Jan 03

by Karyn in Artists, Books, Culture, Food for Thought, Galleries, Ideas, Lectures 0 comments tags: Artists, Books, Culture, Food for Thought, Galleries, Ideas, Lectures

Dean Kenning Lectures

Summary of the Dean Kenning Lectures Term One Below are short summaries of the Dean Kenning Lectures that began this term Oct 2022. I will document these on a termly basis and include relevant slides. The Art and Politics of Statues 18/10/22 – This was the first lecture at the start of the term. I think that the key takeaway here was that sometimes it isn’t always appropriate to ‘hijack’ someone else’s cause because it could be seen as self serving self promotion. The case in point was the Marc Quinn ‘A Surge of Power’ (Jen Reid) erected 15th July 2020. Anti-racism protesters in England pulled down a statue of a 17th-century slave trader while demonstrating in solidarity with the US Black Lives Matter movement. Quinn surreptitiously erected the statue early on the morning of 15th July 2020. Although this would seem like an act of solidarity on his part as a white male, it raises questions about the true motivation behind it. Was Quinn simply trying to use a political situation in order to further his own career? Would it have been better to have community art erected instead of art from a white male already making a […]

Dec 21

by Karyn in Artists, Culture, Galleries, Videos 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Galleries, Videos

Day Job

End of Year Exhibition – Response to Experience- Like many of my fellow CSM Fine Art Digital students, I am also working while studying. I am currently a lecturer in both Photography and Art and Design across a variety of levels. This year (it varies), I am currently teaching on the Level 3 Diploma in Art and Design and also Foundation Art. In previous years I have taught Level 1 Photography and Animation, ‘A’ level Photography and the Level 3 Extended Diploma in Art and Design. I really enjoy teaching. To me, there’s nothing more rewarding than seeing my students achieve their artistic dreams. Over the years I gained the unofficial role of producing our end of year video. This showcases some of the student work undertaken throughout the year. We have our own gallery space which gives a great opportunity to display lots of work and larger installations. This year we decided to make a video that also showcased our end of year Christmas exhibition titled ‘Response to Experience’. My boss, Pawel Psymanski, thought it would be a nice addition to my blog to add this video. It gives a flavour of what I do in my job alongside […]

Dec 21

by Karyn in Artists, Culture, Food for Thought, Galleries, My Work, Research, Videos 0 comments tags: Artists, Culture, Food for Thought, Galleries, my work, Research, Videos

London Part 2

A City of Culture – I’ve visited London on numerous occasions but this time was different because it was with the specific aim of visiting art galleries and museums. My visit to the capital last week was a business trip. This week I was helping my colleagues to escort 30 students around a number of museums and galleries. Following is an account of my time there. I have also documented some of the most amazing artworks at a number of leading galleries. Day 1 Our first day was spent travelling. Just like last week I travelled from Paignton to Paddington with one change at Newton Abbot. However it very nearly didn’t happen because a train broke down near Paignton. This meant that we were almost an hour late. Therefore we had to get a later train from Newton Abbot to Paddington. Sadly because of the delay we lost about 2 hours and arrived around 9.00pm instead of 7.00pm. Above is the view from my hotel room window. Although it was a later than planned arrival, we dumped our bags and headed out to find somewhere to eat. We wound up at a Turkish restaurant near to the Ibis Hotel […]