Experimentation – Page 2

Mar 18

by Karyn in Collaborations, Experimentation, Lectures, Materials, Timelapse, Unit 3 Blogs, Workshops 0 comments tags: Collaborations, Experimentation, Lectures, Materials, Timelapse, Unit 3 Blogs, Workshops

Mattering Life Day #1

Grow Lab Intro, Lectures and Workshop – Today was the first day of the ‘Mattering Life’ Programme. Firstly, I needed to attend the ‘Grow Lab’ at 10.00am for an induction session. Here we went through everything we needed to be safe while using the lab. Heather Barnett – Introductory Talk After completing our induction session Heather introduced us all to the people we would be working with throughout the week. We filled out our consent forms and she also gave an introductory talk. I have included a selection of slides for reference. A Selection of Intro Slides Talk By Nick Lane Next we had a talk by Nick Lane which helped to highlight some of the problems that science was facing when trying to define ‘What is Life?’ and ‘What is Living’ Below are a selection of slides for reference. Nick Lane – Selection of Slides Masahiko Hara The next talk was by Masahiko Hara, who posed the question ‘What is Colour, Fundamentally?’ On balance it would seem that colour is as a result of brain perception as opposed to eye perception. The eyes ‘see’ but it is the brain that actually decoded the […]

Mar 17

by Karyn in Experimentation, Food for Thought, Risk Taking, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: Experimentation, Food for Thought, Risk Taking, Unit 3 Blogs

Off to London Again

Best Laid Plans… Today I’m heading back down to London for the ‘Mattering Life’ Programme. So thinking I had everything planned, guess what?? Yes, the coach broke down!! I’m nervous enough about travelling but this really threw me. Judging by the reaction of the other passengers, perhaps I wasn’t the only one with travel anxiety. There were some pretty cross people aboard the coach. I really didn’t envy the driver having to make peace with everyone. When I got on the coach I was happy because my case was nicely stacked. I am bringing my camera kit with some of my best lenses for the workshops so I was concerned that heavy cases on top of mine could be problematic. On the first coach I was pleased as this didn’t seem like it was going to be an issue. I was also really pleased to be giving my new camera strap an outing. My daughter bought me a new strap with my Instagram handle ‘Secret Shutter’ written on it. However, now sitting on the replacement coach I’m just hoping that my case hasn’t been squashed! It is a hard case so here’s hoping everything will be okay. Killing Time […]

Mar 08

by Karyn in 3d, Artists, Collaborations, Experimentation, Lectures, Low Residency, Unit 3 Blogs, Workshops 0 comments tags: 3d, Artists, Collaborations, Experimentation, Lectures, Low Residency, Unit 3 Blogs, Workshops

Low Residency Day #1

All Things Pink – We had lots of fun today! Alex Schady put on a fab pink themed workshop. If I’m totally honest I struggled to get my sculpture to ‘work’ exactly as I wanted it to, but it was still a great session! I got a little sidetracked by some of the materials I was using. I became quite absorbed by the layers of plastic that I could create. However, the project brief required the sculpture to hold a smartphone. Unfortunately my sculpture was a little flimsy and my phone very heavy, so it was a recipe for disaster. Luckily my creation just about managed to make it to the end of the day. Below is a picture of Alex Schady in the photographic studio wearing his sculpture. I really liked Alex’s creation, which was a much better and more solid design for holding a smartphone. Shots of My Creation Below are some shots of my strange pink layered sculpture. Sadly it really struggled to hold my heavy iPhone. However, I did manage to shoot some video. Textures I was really intrigued by the textures created by the plastic layers of my creation. So when […]

Mar 04

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

Visual Exploration #2

Video Exploration of the Mobile – In my first visual exploration of the ‘Balance of Power’ mobile I shot a number of stills using a wide aperture. This was to allow for only a narrow band of focus on each of the images. The goal was to add an air of mystery to the mobile and hopefully leave the viewer wanting to know more? In part #2 of this ongoing visual exploration I shot some videos using my DSLR camera. My aim again was to add an air of mystery to the finished video clips. Below are the experimental results from this endeavour. The Balance of Power – Unity in Bits Mobile This is a complex piece that has many hidden layers to it. Below are some of the key points: The mobile comprises 11 lines of individually hand drawn elements that represent the ones and zeros of binary code. The binary code represented in the mobile spells the words ‘Unity in Bits’. It is a visual metaphor representing how our society is ultimately fractured by computers and their code. For example the harms of social media and the taking of artist work without permission. At least 10 […]

Mar 04

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

Visual Exploration #1

Photographic Exploration of the Mobile – Now that my ‘Balance of Power’ mobile is fully installed I can start to experiment photographically. Over the weekend I took a number of stills and I also shot some videos. Editing the videos will take a while longer. In the meantime I thought I’d share some of the stills. I decided to shoot my stills using very specific camera settings. The mobile hides many things, therefore it was important to me to try and capture an air of mystery about it. For this reason I deliberately chose to use a very shallow ‘depth of field’. Indeed I was actually working with an f-stop of 1.8 (A very large aperture). What this means essentially, is that only a very narrow band of my image will actually be in focus. These narrow bands of focus can be seen in the images below. I certainly had enough light streaming in through the windows to enable me to shoot at f-16 (the minimum aperture for my 50mm lens), however, I genuinely feel that the selective blurring adds something a little more mysterious to the images below. I feel that the images are much more atmospheric. I also […]

Mar 02

by Karyn in Experimentation, Timelapse, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: Experimentation, Timelapse, Unit 3 Blogs

Experimental Time-Lapse

Interesting, But it’s a No –

Feb 04

by Karyn in 3d, Augmented Reality, Collaborations, Experimentation, Photography, Problem Solving, Risk Taking, Unit 3 Blogs 0 comments tags: 3d, Augmented Reality, Collaborations, Experimentation, Photography, Problem Solving, Risk Taking, Unit 3 Blogs

Keep it Moving

Small Steps – Big Changes. I had to write yesterday off almost completely as I had so many non MA activities to complete. These duties ranged from setting up a new phone for a family member, to composing and posting an important letter. However, today was much more productive. I managed to test my concept and augment a number of my mobile elements. Early indicators suggest that ‘all things going well’ – I should be able to realise my vision. My greatest fear was that the mobile wouldn’t augment very well. I also worried that the elements were too close together, and as such would interfere with one another when augmenting. It appears that as long as the user/viewer is careful then each item should augment separately. Up to this point it has been a bit of a risk. Today the concept however was tested and seems to work. Athena the robot continues to 3d print but this activity is also not without risk. Jamie (my collaboration partner’s) 3d printer isn’t always consistent and parts often become loose from the 3d printer bed. This ultimately leads to print failures which is slowing down the project. On a more positive […]

Jan 22

by Karyn in Experimentation, Final Major Project, My Learning, My Work, Timelapse, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos 0 comments tags: Experimentation, Final Major Project, My Learning, my work, Timelapse, Unit 3 Blogs, Videos

Blogpost 200

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly – After working solidly for two days over the weekend, I finally finished the first prototype for the mobile. I felt on the whole it was pretty good. However, the sheer weight of the project even at this scale was pretty bad. Balancing the elements was also an absolute ‘nightmare’. This meant that some of the spacing between the mobile elements was pretty ugly. The short time-lapse video below shows roughly how many elements went into making three quarters of the mobile (some elements were already strung). I always imagined cardboard to be quite light but after this project I’ve come to revise my view. On the whole I do think that the prototype was a success – not because it was perfect or anything like that, but because of what I had learned during the whole process. First Looks Below is a very short video of the mobile. As I was concentrating on the movement of the video there is nothing to show scale. The mobile turned out to be around 6ft tall in the end! I had envisioned something much smaller and lighter. Alternative Music […]

Jan 16

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

Stringing Along

The Mobile Hanging Process – Today a number of items arrived that I identified as being useful for my mobile. I felt that black elastic bands might secure the pieces in place better than tape. I also ordered some phone charm strings and some swivel head keychain clasps. Below is a picture of my ‘haul’. New Hanging Items The items shown below contain tiny black eyelets sat on top of the box they came in. There are also some swivel head clasps and some phone charm strings. I have threaded together the swivel clasps using a phone charm string to illustrate how each bar of the mobile will be held in place. The large circular key rings will be used to suspend the zero elements of the mobile. I tried stringing one line of the mobile this evening using the new items. It has made an immeasurable difference. It will now be so much easier to standardise the thread lengths because the phone strings are already a uniform length. Also with the zero elements now secured using the tiny eyelets everything will now stay in place. I was extremely hard trying to balance everything when many of […]

Hanging Around

Choosing a Suitable Stringing Method – Choosing suitable materials and a hanging method for my mobile has to be one of the most challenging aspects so far. I’m way beyond my comfort zone with this! Noah one of my fellow students shared a link by the creative force that once was, namely David Bowie. Im going to put what he said here so that when I struggle I’ve got a point of reference to start things moving again. Today, having produced enough mobile elements to explore hanging and stringing I started running into multiple problems. Some of these included: 1). What kind of stringing method would I like to use 2). How do I arrange the elements neatly enough so that the viewer understands them as binary. 3). What materials should I use to actually string and hang the mobile? 4). Will a smaller prototype actually translate into a much larger one? The problems above were to name only a few. I spent the evening trying to source suitable hanging materials. I managed to source a very good older pdf on the subject of mobile making which helped a lot! How to Make Mobiles How to […]