Further vacuum form tests- the first one with the rope came out with less detail than I hoped, as the machine wasn’t hot enough, but the second one came out pretty much perfectly, so all I need to do to get my final cast is lay a sheet of wood or cardboard down so that I have a flat surface surrounding the rope. The brick and the drift wood are proving more difficult, however. as you can see, the undercuts on the brick make it impossible to get out of the cast without cutting, which ruins the piece, and the plastic gets sucked underneath the wood, sealing it in- meaning it also has to be cut free, ruining the cast. I spoke to the technicians and they suggested I fill the undercuts with clay or Plasticine so that the objects don’t get trapped in the plastic, so this will be the next thing I try.
Author: Kat Outten
Macro Lens Shooting Part 2
Photographs, river project
Further experiments with the macro lens, using my phone torch again to see how lighting from different angles changes the photograph. I also took some videos of this, which I need to edit together and upload to Vimeo, so that I can upload them here. I felt a little more confident this time round using the macro lens, although I definitely need more practice. I need to find out when the next etching induction will be, as I feel these photographs would look really beautiful enlarged and etched- I envision a series of large scale prints of sections of these photographs, as these could potentially look really beautiful. I am particularly inspired by the work of Jo Love for this project, in particular her large scale drawings of microscopic views of various materials.
The first image shows the set up for the photographs and filming- a white sheet of paper taped to a chair, with the tripod and camera set up in front of it. This was the best set up I found, as the table was too high with the tripod on the floor, but the tripod was too high when placed on the the table. I played with the settings on the camera, changing the aperture, setting it to white fluorescent lighting, setting a 2 second timer to minimise shake from my hand pressing the button, and using the manual focus to get the look I wanted for the photos.
Bibliography in Progress for “Perfect Victim”
Research for Perfect Victim, Uncategorized
http://www.femalista.com/if-youre-with-this-type-of-guy-odds-are-youre-being-abused/
https://jezebel.com/5923666/i-suck-how-guys-use-self-deprecation-against-you
https://www.globalcitizen.org/en/content/deardaughters-feminism-womens-rights-photos/
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-41755852
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/me-too-sexual-harassment-normal_us_59ef6e98e4b0bf1f883628ac
https://www.bustle.com/p/17-romantic-movie-heroes-who-actually-sexually-harassed-the-heroine-2949653
http://www.femalista.com/male-rape-victims-share-stories-theyll-break-heart/
https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/10/things-street-harassers-expect/
https://www.bolde.com/12-little-ways-youve-probably-experienced-sexual-harassment-without-realizing/
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/20/women-sexual-harassment-gaslighting-instincts
Girl, 4, raped by her brother, 12, who had large amount of porn on his phone
https://www.vox.com/identities/2017/10/15/16438750/weinstein-sexual-harassment-facts
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/sexual-assault-gay-men_us_59e4badfe4b04d1d51834114
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/oct/16/me-too-victims-perpetrators-sexual-assault
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/oct/16/facts-sexual-harassment-workplace-harvey-weinstein
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/blogs-trending-41633857
http://www.femalista.com/rape-culture-victim-listens-judge-praises-former-mormon-bishop-abused/
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/oct/10/donna-karan-defends-harvey-weinstein-women
https://feminisminindia.com/2017/10/06/origins-rape-culture-mythology/
https://www.nostraightnews.com/woman-tweets-viral-sexual-harassment-story/
https://torontolife.com/city/crime/lauren-mckeon-fifteen-years-of-silence/
Clothes accompanied by victims’ stories shine light on sexual assault at KU exhibit
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/item/610ec648-b348-423a-bd3c-04dc701b2985
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/reut-amit/he-never-hit-me-domestic-abuse_b_5974386.html
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/the-night-it-happened_us_580e5651e4b099c434319a5a
http://www.femalista.com/5-examples-rape-culture-every-day-life/
https://herway.net/love/every-girl-ever-lost-toxic-man/
EDIT- Further Research done Summer 2018
Week 5 Summary
UncategorizedDue to issues with my living situation I have had a very difficult week, and as a result I have not done as much work as I would have liked. I missed Tuesday’s tutorial and Wednesday’s lecture (although I will be watching the lecture on Youtube as soon as it is uploaded) due to having difficulties.
Things I have achieved this week:
- updating my blog
- trying out a macro lens for the first time and taking some macro photos of bones found along the river
- writing up a game plan in my sketchbook for the video game project, and making more notes on the topic
- began a drawing of one of the macro photos
To Do:
- catch up with this weeks lecture
- make a bibliography blog post for the video game
- play the video games previously mentioned and take screenshots for the Pinterest page
- add some more artist references to the Artist Reference Pinterest page
- finish at least one macro drawing
Test Shoot of Bones With Macro Lens
Photographs, Work in ProgressThese photos are from my first time shooting with a macro lens, borrowed from the CLS. My objective was to zoom in and get close up shots of all the textures of some of the bones I had found and cleaned from the river. Whilst these textures are visible to the naked eye you cannot see as much as when a macro lens is used. After about half an hour of trying with no clue to what I was doing I decided to ask the photography technicians for help- We messed around with the white balance and set a timer to minimise the shake on the camera, and this drastically improved the photos taken. I also used the torch from my camera phone at different angles to test how the lighting would change the images. I planned on taking more photographs, but unfortunately the camera battery ran out and I needed to return the camera, tripod and lens to the CLS. I am very happy with how the images turned out, as they are much better than I could have hoped from my first attempt with a macro lens, and I am definitely going to try photographing not just other bones from my collection, but also the plastic bottle, pieces of glass and ceramic, and pieces of wood and shell, to see how the macro lens will enhance and change what can be seen.
Vacuum Forming Process (First Attempt)
Photographs, Work in Progress Vacuum Forming Rope from the River Thames from Katherine Outten on Vimeo.
The following photographs are from my first attempt at vacuum forming. The first photo shows the rope and brick after being coated in the white plastic, the second and third are the plastic casts once I had removed the rope and brick from underneath, and the final photo is of the second cast made of the rope. The link above is to a video of the process of using the vacuum form machine, taken whilst making the second rope cast.
As mentioned in a previous post, the vacuum form machine had a lack of suction, so the casts (especially the second rope cast) were not as detailed as I had hoped. Once the machine is fixed I intend to redo these casts, and some others, to try and get as accurate casts as possible of the objects in white plastic. I may also experiment with other colours, to see how that changes things.
Cleaning My Finds
Photographs, Work in ProgressPhotos of the cleaning process- I start by soaking my finds, in batches, in a bucket of just boiled water and bleach. I usually leave them overnight so that the bleach has time to really penetrate and kill off bacteria. I then remove them from the bucket, and refill the bucket with just boiled water, which everything gets thoroughly rinsed in- some of the objects may still have dirt clinging to them, so this is when I scrub them if needed. Once an object has been soaked, scrubbed, and rinsed it is placed on paper towels to dry. I then pat everything with the paper towels to make sure there is no moisture, and the objects are then ready to be taken in to uni to work with. As you can see I wear gloves right from the moment I pick the objects off of the beach, until they are fully cleaned, as I am very cautious about picking up bacteria or viruses from the river, and also to protect my hands from the bleach.
- objects soaking in the bleach and water
- some of the objects drying
- other drying objects
- a section of jaw found with two teeth still attached
- a vertebrae
- almost complete clay pipe
Photos taken whilst mudlarking along the South bank of the River Thames, 20th October 2017
First Tutorial with Jonathan
TutorialsSome brief notes from my first tutorial with Jonathan
- exploring white, the symbolism, what it means in art, how it can change perceptions
- my two main projects (the video game and the river project) run in parallel with each other- the first being predominantly research based at this point in time, the latter being predominantly about research through making, colour, and the properties of different materials. They are separate but I am dividing my time between them fairly equally, so that I stay interested in both projects
- to take my river project forwards- borrow a camera and macro lens from the CLS and photograph the bones- these photographs will be work in themselves, but I can then draw them and/or make prints based on them. Also I need to continue using the vacuum form machine when it is fixed
- Jonathan needs to put me in contact with an online student on the course called Charlotte, who is looking at psychology of colour and mental health
- Type up notes on the Rachel Whiteread exhibition with photos
Week 4 Summary
Weekly SummariesAnother hard week, but I have continued with my research for the video game- I have finished reading and making notes on the relevant chapter of Everyday Sexism by Laura Bates, and have been reading more articles related to the topic. I have also found more games I need to play as references (Lifeline, Loved, and Depression Quest).
As far as physical making is concerned, this week I finished cleaning all of the river finds, and have made three white vacuum form casts- one of the brick I found, and two of the piece of rope. Unfortunately the casts are not as detailed as I hoped, as the vacuum form machine seems to be suffering from a lack of suction. The technician Gina is working on getting it fixed, so I should be able to make more soon. I chose the white plastic as I am interested in how the colour and materials affect the perceptions of objects- I wanted to take these old, dirty objects and see how making white copies in plastic would look and how this would change an audience’s opinion of each object. I am interested in colour theory, but especially in black and white, as they are often used to symbolise different meanings, and are used in the art world in gallery spaces. Gina has given me two references to look up for this topic, Inside the White Cube; The Ideology of the Gallery Space by Brian O’doherty, and the chapter on white in the classic novel Moby Dick. This week I had my first one to one tutorial with Jonathan, which I will write a post about shortly.
To Do:
- Read the two references given by Gina
- Continue making vacuum form pieces once the machine is repaired
- Play the video games and take screenshots for my Pinterest board
- Create a bibliography post for the articles/videos/ect that I have used as research for my video game project
- Upload photos from mudlarking and cleaning my finds
- Upload photos and video of the vacuum forming
- Make a post about my tutorial with Jonathan
KAT OUTTEN 