2010.

Its the day before the start of term and the first post of 2010 im looking forward to getting stuck in. Although unlike most people i will have to miss the first day of uni (i know....shocking) to wait for some very important packages. They include things that will make this blog a bit more easier to do like a scanner and a Dictaphone, hopefully making it easier to write up interviews if i ever get round to setting them up.

I got my film developed in Milton Keynes of the fog photographs and a few from sunnier weather before then. The top image has to be the favorite of them all...but for some reason every single photograph feels really nostalgic....not in the content but in the composition. Maybe its something to do with using film instead of digital...or maybe its the fog. or the fact i can't focus a film camera properly.

Another Christmas

The project is done and this term is over and i am in for some 'well earned' rest. Although it seems i have already started planning too many things and im not sure when i will really have time to myself. I was pretty happy with the outcome of the project but not with the way that the project came to a conclusion. As usual the whole class presented on one day in two halves, leaving little time for people in the second group to discuss anything about there design. Coupled with this more people generally sit in the second group and this lengthens the whole process.

I just think that it would of made sense to do the Final project crit on another day before the party that was scheduled to take place in the studio. As well as this Drew said some things about feedback that im pretty worried about, im sure we will find out more about this next term though.
Most people in the Uk will know that Borders has unfortunately gone into administration. But whilst allot of you will be mourning the loss of the selection of books that they have on offer i will be wearing a veil for the magazine section which has fueled my addiction for many years. Another Magazine is one of the publications that i buy frequently from them (thankfully its quite a widely sold magazine) and in there most recent issue there is some fashion photography work from Anders Edström, the photo above is NOT from this shoot but is his, who produced a series of images that have a real feeling of continuity although the scene/styling changes in each shot. I really recommend buying this issue (17) if not for the rest of this content but just for his work!

A stranger to Brutalism

In the lull between finishing this project and touching up the images that i have to present informally on Thursday i have been watching allot of films (even going to the cinema twice in one week) to take up my time. Stranger than fiction has to be one of the better films that i have seen this week. The story itself is great but the set and costume design is even better (although im sure most of it were just commissioned).

Dustin Hoffmans character spends most of his time on screen in an office at the university of Illinois. The windows are so beautiful and the furniture works so well in that room...i wonder if it was there in the first place or if the set designers had to get them in?

As well as the university the film also introduced me to an architect known as Bertrand Goldberg, in particular his River city building. It reminds me in a way of some of the buildings that Gaudi has designed specifically the windows/balconies of his flats in Barcelona. I think at the moment im going through a phase of being obsessed with Brutalism within architecture and design...the clean lines, the sharp angles and uniform use of concrete as a material for construction.

The constant hotel

It goes on and on.
With the editing of my film completed (a small visual resource for the research stage of this project) I had hoped to upload it here but instead it seems i didn't convert it properly and so...VLC is the only thing that recognizes the file type. As well as this the Final cut pro files don't work so i can only really show stills. Boo.

Recently had a crit which went reasonable well considering i only had two floor plans to show whilst other people had basic visualizations and was assured that my 'quirky' designs would be in the expo in April. WOO HOO.

Photography exhibtion

The Newbury tower at the art school hosts alot of exhibitions from students of different specialisms around the year, Today was the opening of an exhibition by second year students in Fine art Photography. I have always been interested in photography in particular its processes and this particular show, for me anyway, left me wondering about how some of the photographs had been produced.

One of my friends Jakub had some images in the show. They were pictures from a protest about coal production, in particular one image of a man in a coat looking really cold and slightly confused stuck in my mind. Below is his image on the website for this exhibition.

I decided to buy the catalogue for the show so that i could get to keep some of the pictures shown and came across an image that wasn't present in the exhibition.

I really like this image by Simon Kubik the colours are so rich! Although to be honest i haven't given much thought to the meaning behind it was its surface value that bought me too it.

Red light Exhibition