Food for Thought – Karyn Easton

Jan 03

by Karyn in Experimentation, Food for Thought, Ideas, Timelapse, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: Experimentation, Food for Thought, Ideas, Timelapse, Unit 3 Blogs

Mobile Designs

Getting the Timings Right – Having reversed the concept of how humans perceive AI art, to how computers perceive images, I decided to consider potential designs. At this stage I am still thinking in terms of a large mobile. However, I would like to base the mobile’s design on binary code. The binary code will conceal a hidden message relevant to my overall project. Using binary code might at first appear to be a superficial idea, but actually the concept goes much much deeper. Early Experimentation In my early experimentation I used a circle to represent the zeros and I cut out holes in the ones. I am not convinced that this works particularly well and it is extremely time consuming! Below is an image of some of the prototypes I made. Further Experimentation I felt the above prototypes were quite bland, probably wouldn’t move very well and didn’t leave a much surface area for designs. I decided that an oval shape was much better than a circle for representing the zeros. I used layers of recycled cardboard and recycled printer paper along with some of my own black and white designs. I think that the second […]

Dec 24

by Karyn in Experimentation, Food for Thought, Ideas, My Work, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Experimentation, Food for Thought, Ideas, my work, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos

Stacking Cardboard

Ducks in a Row – It’s Christmas Eve and surprisingly this year I am ahead of schedule with wrapping presents etc. Therefore, I decided to start getting my ducks in a row so that I have everything ready to begin Unit 3. One of my goals is to create a huge mobile. Initially I would like to make it from cardboard boxes recycled from items bought for our house. So, today I finally began flattening it all out and storing it upright to keep it in good shape. I’m hoping that this is the start of something interesting. New Videos Following my feedback I also decided to catch up on my Zentangle drawings. I wanted to do this because I think hand drawing is something I’d like to incorporate into my work. I also decided that any AI that I would use would be for animation purposes only. Therefore, I took three of my most recent black and white hand drawn then digitised creations and animated them using AI. The results seem to have a very organic feel. I was fairly happy with the results. I introduced a digitised Polaroid frame around the videos to both add interest […]

Nov 19

Epic Making Session

Yaacov Agam Inspired Work – Over many months now I have been wrestling with a myriad of ideas. In my Study Statement I was keen to develop a new form of hybrid human, digital and AI art. I also wanted to include an element of mystery and discovery whereby elements of the work were hidden. During my search for inspiration I came across two artists that particularly resonated with me, namely: Alexander Calder and Yaacov Agam. I particularly liked the idea of movement and mobile art seen in Calder’s work. Indeed I was so taken with his work that I went to visit the Tate Modern to see some of his pieces there. However, Yaacov Agam’s work really did inspire me. In his Artist’s statement he says: “My aim is to show the visible in a perpetual state of becoming”. I think this is a beautiful way in which he describes his work. However, I personally would liken it to, showing the visible in a perpetual state of change. Given the nature of the subject matter that I’m exploring, his work for me very much aligns with this notion of change as well as ‘becoming’. Below is a short […]

Love Letters From AI

Hidden Art – When I first began my MA, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do. Ultimately I knew it would be something to do with the hidden or the unseen. Initially I began looking at invisible phenomena such as sound waves and the passage of time. However, nothing captured my interest quite as much as augmented reality. It was this whole concept of a hidden unseen world (only accessible to those ‘in the know’), that intrigued me. While conducting research for my Research Paper I discovered that there is a distinct negative bias towards AI generated art. I looked at a number of strategies to help mitigate this bias. Finally, after a number of image polls, used to inform my project, I created a fictitious robot called Athena. Her name was inspired by the old Athena posters from the past. My research was suggesting that humanoid robots with a sad ‘backstory’ could help to reduce bias and win over an audience when presenting AI art. At this point I began to develop a narrative for my robot. During a visit to Barcelona, I was completely amazed by the sheer weight of graffiti adorning the city walls. I […]

Oct 11

by Karyn in 3d, Abstract Art, Ai, Experimentation, Food for Thought, Ideas, My Work, Photography, Risk Taking, Unit 2 Blogs 0 comments tags: 3d, Abstract Art, ai, Experimentation, Food for Thought, Ideas, my work, Photography, Risk Taking, Unit 2 Blogs

Grotto Print Ideas #2

Adding Value – I quite like the idea of ‘Killing Time’ and the oil on water re-imagined clocks. However, I do feel that there needs to be some level of interactivity with my Grotto print. I decided that since posting the video short included in the Grotto Print Ideas blog, more of the clocks needed to be shown. This is pure experimentation and the full video can be seen below. A couple of years ago I began to explore Paul’s book. I felt that the nature of the folds created within would lend themselves very well to warping the clock faces and dials even further. Killing Time – Calming Edit As well as the calming edit, I also produced a shorter more rousing video short, showing the clocks animated as they warp and destruct. This is more in keeping with the idea of ‘Killing Time’. I’m debating whether or not to include these either one or both of these digital edits as part of the print sale? At this point in time it is just a thought. I’ve a long long way to go before I make a firm decision. I’ve also had another idea regarding […]

Sep 24

A Mental Derive Part #2

Picking Up Where I Left off – Ever since my first mental derive, it was always my intention to recommence this particular project. now that the second draft of my research paper is nearing completion, I feel I am better able to return more fully to creative activities. Since part one of my mental derive, I didn’t totally abandon this project and I experimented with suspending some of the circles on a sheet of acetate between some thick heavy duty white elastic. Below is a gallery showing the results. This is a project I’d like to return to at some point, but I don’t currently have the correct materials. The acetate was far too thin and buckled under the strain of the elastic. Therefore thicker acrylic is possibly a better choice. The patterned discs/circles also had a habit of ‘pinging off’, so a better method of securing them is required. However, I do think that there is room to develop this project further. Moments in Time and Space Each black and white patterned circle/disc above, is a collage of many little moments in time. For this reason I wanted to trial another form of suspension. I am particularly […]

Sep 20

Deeper Meaning

How to Find Meaning? – Having recently finished 21 days of an augmented reality investigation followed by another 21 days of research paper investigation and compilation, I’m feeling somewhat down. I think that primarily it is due to my investigations into AI generated art. The further I dig into this, the more depressed I become. I’m sure this is just a transient phase. Why am I so sad? It’s because over the years I learnt so much about photography. I collected a wealth of knowledge on this subject especially because each year I tried to present my students with increasingly technically challenging workshops. I was proud that I was able to replicate pretty much any style of photography from slow shutter work to speed shooting, star trails to zoom burst, macro photography to physiograms. I felt I had reached the pinnacle when I managed to work out the technique that Michael Jackson (the photographer not the pop singer), uses to make his ethereal Luminograms. Even today colleagues are badgering me to give up that secret which I flatly refuse. It’s so beautifully simple yet complex at the same time and I nailed it! However, with the advent of AI art […]

Jun 29

Barcelona Graffiti #2

Hidden Away – During my recent trip to Barcelona, I was was mesmerised by the colour and variety of the street art both in and around the city. I briefly touched on this in part one of this post called ‘Barcelona Graffiti’. I still don’t know exactly why I was so drawn to the graffiti (street art), except to say that the colours were amazing! It seemed to relentlessly permeate throughout the whole fabric of the city, weaving a disjointed tapestry of colours. Indeed it could even be described in some places as a riot of colour on an otherwise typical traditional cityscape and its walls. All of this was in stark contrast to the walls of one of Barcelona’s most famous contemporary art museums, namely the MACBA. Here there was no graffiti. Everything inside was pristine with beautiful gleaming white walls. A Short Recap Below is short video recap from Barcelona Graffit part one. It helps to illustrate the scale of graffiti and street art that can be found in and around the city. In stark contrast to the brightly coloured graffiti in the video above, the following image gallery illustrates the crisp, clean, neutral […]

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 22

by Karyn in Food for Thought, Hand Written, Ideas, Research Paper Journey, Unit 2 Blogs 0 comments tags: Food for Thought, Hand Written, Ideas, Research Paper Journey, Unit 2 Blogs

Research Paper Journey #1

Crafting a Research Question – I think possibly one of the hardest aspects of formulating a research paper is to come up with a simple yet powerful question. What that might look like at this stage, I’m not entirely sure. Therefore I think that the most sensible approach for me is to write down all of my ideas. I have a number of potential ideas pertaining to ‘Information Overload’ including: subliminal messaging, overlooked information, hidden information, coded information, changed information, missing information and the list goes on… During a couple of our zoom sessions we tried out continuous writing and I wondered if that would actually help me with my process of defining what it is I actually want to do? Below is a short time-lapse video of me continuously free writing for around five minutes. Free Writing Exercise My ‘Time of the Signs’ project really did enlighten me about the sheer volume of environmental information that we are all subjected to on a daily basis. This led me to query whether or not this may be having a detrimental effect on humans? It may well turn out that it has no effect at all except leaving a ‘messy’ […]