“An Ode to My Vagina” work at Human Manifesto, CSM

Exhibitions, Photographs, UNIT 2, Work in Progress

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Process photos from screen-printing my illustration and poem piece “An Ode to My Vagina”. So far I only have the one finished print which I put into the Human Manifesto exhibition at CSM, ran jointly by the ArtsFem and LGBTQ societies at UAL, but I intend to print a limited run of this colour scheme, and others, to sell as prints. The illustration was drawn in pencil then gone over in pen, and scanned then cleaned up on Photoshop before I took it to the printmaking studios, and the poem (originally written on my phone) was also handwritten, scanned, and edited on Photoshop before printing.

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These photos show the piece being put up in the exhibition, and a few shots of the piece surrounded by other works in the show. Overall I am very happy with the presentation of my work, and of the response I got from attendees, so I would consider this a success, even though the text is slightly off centre on the illustration (something I will correct when I print more copies in print making).

This piece is deeply personal to me- as a non binary person I have always struggled with accepting my body, and in particular my vagina. For most of my life I hated it and wished it didn’t exist, and only saw it as existing for the pleasure of my sexual partners, not myself. Over the last few years I have been trying to accept, and eventually love, my body the way it is, which is very difficult when you have a lifetime of self hatred and self loathing built into your brain, and as part of this I started masturbating. Previously it was something I viewed as disgusting and dirty, something unnatural, but at the same time I felt broken for having no experience of it, so gradually discovering my body and coming to terms with my vagina’s existence, and my own independence (free of the burden of sexually gratifying others) has been a long journey. Many non binary people, trans men, and cis women have similar struggles with their bodies, but with this piece of work I speak purely for myself, and my own body.

Group Presentations- Alena and Eugenia 07/02/19

2ND YEAR PRESENTATIONS, Tutorials, UNIT 2

Alena

  • broad variety of research:
    – Schiele and Klimt exhibition- large inspiration, dramatic style, distinctive poses and angles
    – books- illustrated book of eye diseases, looks super gross and interesting!
    – Royal Academy of Art, Tate Modern
    – Heidi Lee- fashion, wearable sculptures
    – Miles Johnston- surrealist drawings
  • very diverse range of research- very visually rich, from science to art, photography, fashion, and makeup
  • I think it’s time for you to experiment and drive the physical side of your work forwards, researching through making
  • eyes, vision, internal and external meanings, different representations
  • lots of sketches, painting for parents
  • you have a very beautiful illustrative style- you can see the influence of Schiele and Klimt, and of fashion sketches/illustrations, but it is still unique
  • you said you are interested in use of materials- it would be good to see you explore other materials and mediums, to push and develop your practice further, you have started to try other medias- keep this up!
  • making connections from older artworks/movements to contemporary artists, photographers, and designers
  • “eyesthetics“
  • are the ceramic pieces featured on your blog? I don’t think you should give up on ceramics, maybe just take a little break before you go back to it?
  • using the canvas as a sketchbook
  • “eyes are the window to the soul”
  • absence or inclusion of eyes in art- it’s significance and symbolism
  • it could be cool to take your work into the 3D inspired by your sketches and paintings- jewellery, wearable art, manipulating 3D forms
  • 3D scan your eyes/sunglasses/ect – manipulate and layer the forms digitally- these could stay as digital pieces or be 3D printed and worn/displayed?
  • Eugenia and Paola both have experience 3D sculpting/printing digitally, could you ask them for tips/tricks, or possibly collaborate?
  • I can picture a room full of distorted mannequins that you have dressed, sculpted onto, painted onto, ect
  • a well put together presentation, but I definitely enjoyed seeing the research from your paper that Jonathan asked you to show us- it took your presentation to the next level and I really want to read your paper!
  • Some references:
    – Ronit Baranga
    – “1984” – book by George Orwell, “Big Brother is watching you”
    – John Bergers’ “Ways of Seeing”- book and also TV series from the 70’s

Eugenia 

      • digital advertising- how and why do we use them?
      • “Alter Ego: Avatars and Their Creators” book, sounds useful
      • are online avatars helpful or is it a lie?
      • extensions of the self through the digital
      • creating digital “people”- is this okay? Is it ethical as long as people know they are fake? i.e. the fake Instagram models and the controversy around a white man creating a fake black woman for followers
      • stealing people’s identities to create fake digital personas for money/attention
      • virtual girlfriends- a really interesting topic, is this ethical or does it cause real world harm? Are they different to sex dolls/robots?
      • have you looked into dating simulators like Mystic Messenger or Dream Daddy?
      • IMVU- avatar based chat rooms, often used for sexual encounters online, with highly sexual looking avatars as a standard across the site
      • “The Toy Becomes Human”
      • you have lots of varied and engaging research!
      • some experimentation with digital and traditional- would like to see more!
      • you have a strong and distinctive illustrative style
      • what next? Where do you take your practical work from here?
      • I particularly like your youtube videos and would like to see more of these- could they become a series? You could create a character and try to make this fake person popular
      • Perhaps you could make a series of videos of your game avatars online doing things they shouldn’t? You could create fake personas and play the games as them
      • money and sex- everything online, and in real life, comes back to these two inescapable things- do you want to use this is your work or fight against it?
      • A very dynamic presentation and fascinating topic- would have liked to see more of your avatar experiments in your presentation- sounds really fun and exciting!
      • References:
        – Gorillaz and Madonna hologram concert
        – early motion capture- the old Barbie movies are a good example of this, as they used motion capture of dancers to animate the films

–

Snotgirl Comics

    • –

Avatar

    • (film)

 

    • –

Alita: Battle Angel

    • (upcoming film)

 

    • –

Altered Carbon

    • (Netflix Series)

 

    • –

Ready Player One

    (book, popular film based on book)

Touch workshop with Professor Kojiro Hirose

Lectures/Talks, UNIT 2

notes made during the workshop:

  • accessibility of art/museums/galleries
  • how to engage multiple senses for those with different impairments and those without impairments
  • tactile works- 3D? How can we make 2D works (i.e. pictures/books) more accessible?
  • watch that speaks- tells you the time, watch that is tactile- you can tell the time by feeling it
  • paperless braille memo pad systems- has memory and can be connected to a PC for reading or storing notes
  • braille has limitations- education needs to learn it and use it
  • computers have made things more accessible, but to get qualifications in other languages you still need to learn braille
  • braille requires more space than text and specific printing techniques- meaning it is more costly and less accessible
  • we need to make braille/sign language/deaf-blind sign languages more widely available for everyone to learn so that it is easier for impaired/disabled people to get on with their lives
  • translating the visual information into tactile information can be difficult- can we do this the opposite way round or is it better to give both equal importance at every stage?
  • using disability as a framework to develop better educational systems
  • translation as an act of creativity, using creativity to solve communication issues- there will always be more than one interpretation or version
  • when translating visual information into tactile information how to you put across the emotions/feelings?
  • light as heat- rather than seeing it it can also b felt, modern lighting gives off less heat than before, and makes less noise than ol fashioned lights
  • engaging other senses- not just sight and touch in artworks- this can benefit more than just disabled/impaired people
  • layering sounds/smells/textures/air/temperature/light/ect

This workshop was fascinating- I have been saying all this time that I want to make my work more accessible, and it was vital for me to learn what is can be like for people with impairments different to my own, so that I can be more considerate of this in my own work going forwards. It has made me think much more critically about the choices I make in my art, and making sure that my goal is genuinely to make it as accessible as possible, rather than just pleasing token people.

Christian Heath- Anthropology of the Object

Lectures/Talks, UNIT 2

Notes made during Christian Heaths’ lecture:

  • the use of objects and how people use relatively simple objects everyday
  • lift up the object (not physically) to see the complexity behind the object and its use
  • treat the mundane as highly complex- use it to discover new things about humanity
  • get a feel for the intelligence required to use certain objects (seems a bit racist/ableist to me)
  • using anthropology and sociology to inform the design of certain objects and interfaces
  • ethnography used to analyse people
  • Field methods:
    – detailed and systematic observation of use- situations, activities and interaction
    – drawings, photos, videos, diagrams, notes
    – discussions and interviews- not necessarily the best way to find out how people use things
    – materials documents, manuals
  • Principles:
    – immerse yourself in how the participants use and view the objects, disregard your own ideas
    – analysing situations and activities
  • tacit knowledge- things you know how to do, but can’t explain- i.e. talking
  • invisible skills
  • familiarity conceals the complexities of use
  • render the familiar world strange- investigate these familiar things as if they are new to you
  • field studies and systematic observation of use of objects to accomplish a task
  • how use is shaped with regard to the activity and situation
  • discovering the differences in use between different people
  • anticipation of the use of an object
  • how long do people interact with the object (s)? What is their experience of using the object (s)?
  • he mentioned a gender project at a museum that seemed really iffy – it didn’t take into account trans and non binary people
  • how can you take the information you collect, then organise it and use it?
  • consider the structure of the activity and space and how this will affect the interaction, and as such your observations
  • if your research is detailed and systematic it should focus on a few or one small thing- this allows for stronger, more powerful research
  • how can simple objects provide the most impact?
  • interplay between elements of the physical environment
  • interaction and collaboration- natural v.s. forced
  • hands as primary tools
  • economy of action, adjustments to make objects faster/easier to use
  •  we devalue human action and try to replace it with robotic/computerised tech, when actually if humans do it better we should probably leave it be

I tried to ask Heath about implicit bias and the racist roots of anthropology, and if he was aware of/ tackling implicit biases within himself and his research teams and he brushed me off, which was highly disappointing and frankly, annoying. If these scientists and researchers are allowed to study people and their behaviours as they interact with the world around them I feel they should properly tackle implicit biases within themselves regularly to make sure that they do not unfairly stereotype or make false assumptions. What do I mean by implicit bias? 
“Implicit bias… comprises those views and opinions that we may not be aware of. They are evaluations that are automatically triggered when we encounter different people or situations, and commonly function without a person’s full awareness or control”
Taken from this site
Having researchers making judgements on people’s behaviours is highly unethical if they aren’t challenging their unconscious views, because their research could be influenced by them and contain unfair biases towards certain people.

However in terms of my project this talk was very interesting- as I want to explore the object (in this case my bones and the casts of them) and how materials and colours affect the viewers perceptions of them. Of course the key problems I face are:

  • how do I get the audience to actually pick up and interact with the objects? Due to the gallery/museum space culture of not being able to touch the art, at the interim show most people wouldn’t pick up my objects until I went over and encouraged them to
  • How do I record how people interacting with my objects without it changing the way they naturally interact with my work? In the lecture he talked about how asking people how they interact with objects isn’t the most accurate way to find out how they actually interact with them, so I need to come up with a way to observe the space and track how the audience interacts in a way that doesn’t infringe their privacy or affect their interactions

I need to consider both of these further, and it would be a good idea if I can do some practical tests- i.e. smaller pop up exhibitions at uni- I could try and book a small room out to set up my work and invite other courses or staff to come see my work, and find a way to record what happens. This will obviously still have some biases though- people at art school are more likely to act the way I want them to (.i.e interacting with the objects more readily) than people who aren’t at art school, but I still think it could be a good start for my research.

3D Printing iPad Scan

river project, UNIT 2, Videos, Work in Progress

The scans using the iPad didn’t pick up much detail, but captured the shape of the bone quite well- I then used Meshmixer to try and get rid of the pen I used to prop up the bone, which was harder than I expected- cutting it off was the easy part, but I struggled to figure out how to seal up the hole left in the mesh. I haven’t shown this part in the video, as I forgot to record it, but you can see on the 3D print where I dragged the mesh across in an attempt to seal up the hole, so I definitely need more practice with this! Overall though I am very happy with how the print came out, for a first attempt I think I did a good job, and going forwards I know I need to practice messing around on MeshMixer to make my other 3D scans and prints look better!

I am planning on scanning the rest with the iPad as well, to see what they come out like, and to act as a back up in case I can’t get them to work with photogrammetry in time.

Group Presentations- Feedback for Gabby and Arlette 24/01/19

2ND YEAR PRESENTATIONS, Tutorials, UNIT 2

Gabby:

  • “connection, or lack thereof”
  • connections shown in Gabby’s work, focusing heavily on family and familial connections
  • research into lack of connection
  • Gabby’s imagery is all beautiful and well thought out, with clear focus on composition and lighting to emphasise the subjects (or lack thereof) to convey a message
  • “when or where do you feel in tune with your most honest feelings?”
    – for me personally either when I am with my best friend or during yoga
  • your “honest feelings” change frequently and aren’t fixed – you could research why this is?
  • can you think too much? In modern society are we constantly putting off and distracting ourselves from our true feelings?
  • suicide is a very tricky and difficult topic to discuss and make work about and should be treated delicately, especially if it is not something you have personally experienced (i.e. loss of a loved one by suicide or experiencing suicidal thoughts/ideation)
  • Nitschke’s “suicide machine” – Sarco pod
  • do images always need text to explain them?
  • spontaneous v.s. staged, curated imagery
  • Gabby’s body of work is gorgeous, varied, and full of emotion communicated purely through image
  • photographers crossing moral boundaries- Gabby obviously has permission from her family to create her work, but other photographers often lack these permissions
  • Gabby’s work is authentic and powerful and she obviously carefully curates her images to convey the message she is aiming for
  • you recognise when outside influences have impacted your work and are honest about it
  • tackling sensitive topics with compassion
  • your work combines thoughtfulness and emotion with strong technical skill
  • how will you present your work? With or without text explanations? are the titles enough? Especially with the project about your friend
  • your work seems to be more about the feeling than the story- your work evokes feelings in the audience and encourages them to bring their own stories to your work
  • your work almost presents us with a blank story board or template, that we, the viewer, can insert our own stories into and bring our own feelings to
  • well put together presentation and I enjoyed physically handling your prints!

Arlette:

  • Why is art purely visual? How can we make art more interactive?
  • “Interactive” v.s. “Practicability”
  • sensory art- art that uses all the senses get viewers more in tune with themselves, the environment, and each other
  • how do we get the audience to interact with our work- this is something I am struggling with in my own work- most gallery goers are used to the unspoken rules of not touching the work
  • playfulness, familiarity/comfort, space, feedback- key to getting audience to interact
  • how interactive do you want to be? Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Rooms v.s. Olafur Eliasson- are there constraints? What do you want, as the artist?
  • why do you want the work to be interactive? How?
  • online questionnaires, hashtags, paper feedback forms, “leave a comment” box/board, invigilating, recording the space, speaking to the audience in the space
  • art as a community- art can build a community, it can also exclude people from that community, or create a sense of community
  • “Art is not just an object it is a sense of community” – Eliasson, 2012
  • “The turbulent storm of potential meaning” 
  • Object as a representation of the “individual” in Western society, interactive art steps away from that and encourages the audience to engage as a group rather than as individuals
  • strong body of research- it would be good to see more practical experimentation to back up or disprove the research you have done
  • interaction as a tool or medium to explore different topics
  • I would like to see more of your practical work and how it links in to your research topics (i.e. your paintings as I think they are amazing!)
  • your presentation was well put together, very interesting, and I think it would be cool to collab on a project some time, as we are both exploring the topic of interactivity in art

3D scanning photogrammetry

UNIT 2, Videos, Weekly Summaries, Work in Progress

 

The set up for photogrammetry is the same as for scanning with an iPad, as you can see from the set up photos above. Much like the iPad you need to capture a full 360 of the object you are scanning, however the process takes longer, and is harder to get right. You have to take around 50 images of the object, moving very slowly around it as you photograph, making sure to keep the camera the same distance from the object and the same angle as you do it. These photos then get uploaded into a programme called Autodesk Recap Photo, which stitches your photos into a 3D model.

The images included above are of one of the first attempts to scan one of the bones using this technique- unfortunately the back of the bone didn’t come out.

the video above shows what I mean better- although the detail has been captured beautifully, only half of the bone has come out as a 3D model. I tried a few times with no more success than that, and the software takes a long time to make the model only to find out that it hasn’t worked. I might need to find another method of 3D scanning, as the iPad scans lack the detail that I want, but photogrammetry is proving to be really difficult!

 

 

 

Group Presentations- Feedback for Vanessa

2ND YEAR PRESENTATIONS, Tutorials, UNIT 2
  • Joseph Beuys– “anyone can be an artist”
  • Art as communication
  • Art is for everyone and should be for everyone
  • There should be an inherent value to all art, regardless of monetary value or quality, which is highly subjective
  • Can art be used to help people/ bring people together?
  • Adolf Loos– ‘Ornament and Crime“- a relatively short read that could be used as a counter argument
  • “Social sculptures“- interesting phrase from Joseph Beuys video- using his “social sculptures” to communicate to a larger group of people

– using people’s innate urge to be part of a group or community to get people involved in his projects

– using those projects as a way to influence those people and get them to listen to his ideas

  • Using your platform or your skills in a certain medium to engage socially and open up the dialogue- aka musicians using their music to be political, artists using their art to get a message across, writers writing about things they feel strongly about
  • Anselm Kiefer– trying to make the people of Germany “feel” again
  • Refugees travelling to Greece- graves, life jacket installation
  • “History is a material” –regimes can manipulate history as they see fit
  • Examining how the societies and times artists live(d) in influence their thinking and work
  • You could strengthen the links between post war Germany and the modern day situation with the Middle East?
  • Etching idea sounds promising- you could look at Francisco Goya and his etchings of the Spanish Civil War
  • I think it would be worth looking at artists making work about refugees and modern conflict (i.e. the Middle East) particularly artists who were or are refugees as they have first hand experience- much like Beuys and Kiefer had first hand experience of WW2 and the aftermath
  • Justin Mortimer- wasn’t sure how he relates to the other two at first
  • Mortimer creates new mythological narratives through painting collages of seemingly unrelated digital imagery- much like how the first two artists created their own mythologies
  • Dream v.s. Hope, the lofty aspiration v.s. the slightly more achievable goal
  • How do you take a dream and turn it into a more realistic, but still satisfying, goal?
  • “La Mitrailleuse” (“The Machine Gun”) by Christopher .R. Nevinson- artist whose style changed dramatically over time with the changes happening around him- WW1, WW2, ect
  • See also Paul Nash
  • Have we suppressed the feelings of and memories WW2 too much? Has that allowed the resurgence of Neo-Nazi ideals and the rise of other conflicts and regimes?

On another note, I think you put together a really well thought out presentation- the material was clearly divided into sections, the links were mostly strong, and the videos helped to break it up and make it easier to engage with. You just need to pull this back into your practical work and keep making!

3D Scanning using iPad 14/01/19

river project, UNIT 2, Videos, Weekly Summaries, Work in Progress

This video is of the Digital Media Technician Adamina demonstrating how to use the 3D scanning software and piece of kit for an iPad. This is one of the more basic 3D scanning techniques available, and as you can see the scan hasn’t picked up the details of the bone, only the rough shapes.

The next step for me is to install a free programme called MeshMixer and cut off the pen, as it came up in the scan, and seal up the piece. Then it will be ready to be 3D printed on Monday next week.

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These photos show the set up in the studio, including white backdrop, plinth, and lighting set up. We suspended the bone from nylon wire so that we could scan the whole object, and used a pen and blueback underneath it for stability- we needed it to be still for the scanning to work.

Next Steps:

  • download MeshMixer and clean up the scan for printing
  • meet with Adamina next Monday (I have booked an appointment with her) and send the scan to print
  • hopefully next week we will also experiment with photogrammetry, which she mentions in the video. This process is a bit more lengthy and complicated- I will have to borrow a camera and lens from uni, and photograph the object multiple times from multiple angles, and then upload these photos to a specialist programme that stitches everything together to create a 3D model. This will take a fair bit of time, and I might still need to work into the objects on the software to clean them up before we can send them to the 3D printer