Unflattened 2D - progress

So having reviewed my creative direction after the last face to face, I decided to take a long view with my 'After Effects' ambitions and see that element as continuing throughout the remainder of the Masters as a whole, with a view to producing my motion piece for the final show. As I mentioned in the video blog post below, I intend that the piece I am currently working on will sit along side that motion piece and that some of the visual elements I produce now will be suitable for re-interpreting within the motion piece as I progress.
So freeing myself of that element for now allowed me to start visualising toward a flat 2d graphics piece. I expected that the challenge was going to be that I would be cast adrift without a client brief, but that the familiarity of the form would help me get going. What surprised me has been that I have maintained the commitment I had to try something new and so the visuals and ideas have moved towards the creation of an installation piece.
Below are some sketches of what, for now at least, I am moving towards creating.
What has been driving the progress in the last 2 weeks has been a desire to persist with unchartered territory for me creatively and to ensure that my VET focus of viewer experience and involvement stays at the forefront. So rather than launch in to the design and layout of a flat graphics piece about synaesthesia I have moved first to to address those issues. My next step now will be to fill the format with content drawn from my interpretation of the research. But first here are some drawings of the plan so far....

The first image shows an installation space, dark, with a light source / vertical light box at the far end of the space. Suspended from rails in front of the viewer are 6 panels output onto acetate. The facing panel introduces the notion of synaesthesia with the 5 panels behind featuring one sense per panel. As the design is output into acetate there will be a visual interplay between the layered panels. (I will give more detail on how this will work and the kind of typographic and image based interplay I have in mind later).


Each of the panels can be slid out individually. This allows the viewer to isolate a single panel and view it independent of the others so that text and imagery can be read more clearly.

The bottom image illustrates another aspect I am considering - that as an individual panel is slid out a noise/ sound will be generated by attached implements dragging across the surface of the floor. (For now I am picturing these as spoons ( to tie in with the sense of taste) grating along a barred surface - like when you walk past a iron railing dragging a stick along it. The visual impact of the sound element would be more subtle than it appears on this drawing... (and viewers will generally be in proportion!)

It will be up to the viewer to interact as they wish with the panels - viewing all 6 initially, then seperately or in any combination of their choice. Each layout will work as a stand alone piece, but with bounce off and visually play all other layers too - to varying degrees be it through type/image/colour interaction/ die cutting etc

I have sourced what I hope might work for the sliding mechanisms for the installation - they are triple track aluminium rails (I'll be using 2, so 6 layers in total). There will also be aluminium bars top and bottom to hold the acetate and give weight to the base. There will also be draw rods to pull the panels across without handing the acetate sheets themselves. I will post an image of them in the blog in the next few days. I intend on the panels being approx A1 in size, but until I have progressed more with the visuals that will remain open. I will let the design dictate the format of the panels.

I will post my progress in relation to concepts for the design and layout of the panels in the next day or two.

Bringing Sound into 2D Graphic Visualisation

So in the past week I've been trying to switch gears a little and move back into the world of flat 2D graphics with the synaesthesia project. I'm doodling away but have nothing to post here yet. Its great though because I feel my creative juices are flowing better now and as I draw out an idea i can see how I might weave it into an animated piece or see it with the element of time at least. One concern I had in dabbling again in flat graphics was that I would be leaving audio behind. This really bothered me, as over the course of REV I have found sound to be the most captivating - in the research itself and in its possibilities for communicating concepts - visually and aurally. I am attaching a link here that I have come across that has greatly encouraged me. It is a project by Laia Clos called 'SisTeMu' and is a graphic notation system which interprets musical texture. SisTeMu maps musical notes to CMYK colour swatches, and tempo to size and orientation of circles, lines and other bold graphic elements. It's no easier to understand than standard music notation, but it appeals to the senses and emotions in a direct way, much like the 'Four Seasons' concertos that inspired it.

http://www.yatzer.com/Cyan-Magenta-Yellow-Key-black-CMYK-and-The-Four-Seasons-of-Vivaldi

For Susan

HI Susan

I just came across this and was struck by it in relation to your work. I'm firing it up here without much pondering over - it just struck me as I said. I was thinking of your "water" ring and the points you made on the wearability/ comfort etc and thought that the almost droplet / flow feel to the back of this ring may provide some inspiration of sorts (totally ignore the front on this). Any way here is it....

It's closed here, but the leg of the "K" makes it look open, (like those size adjustable rings kind of) and that is what to my eye gives is the spash/flow effect. Or.... maybe not!

I love the development you mentioned in voicehtread - with the movement within the piece... It reminded me immediately of a big gold bangle my mother had in the 70's... one of those that had a hinge on one side and a clasp on the other... (you push the 2 hemispheres together to close it.) Maybe the "flow" element in this image could connect back around to a rivet or hinge. This could further highlight the wave type movement through the way the piece is moved by the wearer to put it on/off?

First Steps After E-Journal 01

REV E- Journal 01 Voicethread / 08 June 2011

design@ait end of year show

Just back from our end of year show. Really enjoyed it - a wonderful show from a great group of students. This was our first show on the main AIT campus in 22 years, and our new space looked great. Its' always so exciting to see the fruits of the students labour (and ours!) on those 8ft x 4ft boards at the end of their time with us. And there was plenty of exciting on screen work this year with 17 students in the digital media class. This year was special for me because although I've been on maternity leave for most of it, this was the first time I had taught every one of the qualifying students, and they're a great bunch of people. Good luck to them heading out into the big wide world!

(by the way there was live streaming of the opening which was fun to see and worked really well... I was getting texts from friends and ex students as far away as Denmark watching us there. Check out the blog

Couldn't resist

Couldn't resist posting this... It was recorded by my husband while I was out and my 4 year old son needed to tell me about "a bit of a pain" he was having... at bed time (always a bad time for pain/hunger pangs/anything that'll buy him an extra few minutes in the kitchen!).

The description is a bit synaesthetic... although my son is not!