28 March 2007
From Homebush West to Pyrmont






22 May 2007
From Enmore to Pyrmont

Flickr is what I'm going to use to show the photos that I'm taking for my project.

galina's Flickr webpage

At the moment there are shots from my trips to work:
Homebush to Pyrmont 28.03.07
Newtown to Pyrmont 22.05.07

and from the iiNet Campaign at Town Hall.

Some of the shots I have played around with are in the earlier post.
I want the final product of the 'Photographic Essay' Documents for Mid Year Submission to look a bit like the image below. Just tried finding something that looked like what i had in mind:



Luke, please read my response to your comments last week. Thanx

From 22.05.07 07.50am-08.30am between Enmore/Newtown and Pyrmont/City

Keep in mind that these are just roughly put together and I would need to take it further, like Gregori Saavedra did in terms of 'over-populating' it with advertising...
My pics are also a bit pixelated, and a bit harsh, but I think I like this approach to showing how both architecture and out door advertising work together/or don't work together... Focus on the two elements.. as well as the enviroment it's all in etc...

From the latest IdN (International designers Network) Magazine Volume 14 Number 1:
Civilization 2006 by Gregori Saavedra "We already live like this. God save civilization!"


I'm would like to take an approach like this in the black and white photo/images that I was talking about earlier for my 'document'.

Thoughts?

Relational Aesthetics by Nicolas Baurriaud is turning out to be a key element in me research this year. I’m taking out (piecing together) themes that interest me, and are key to what I would like to develop/learn about/research/achieve/produce this year. (this will also feed into my end of year essay)

At this stage it’s just Work In Progress/Draft:

"This 'chance' can be summed up in just a few words: learning to inhabit a the world in a better way, instead of trying to construct in based on preconceived idea of historical evolution. Otherwise put, the role of artwork is no longer to form imaginary and utopian realities, but to actually be ways of living and models of action within the existing real, whatever the scale chosen by the artist. Althusser said that one always catches the world's train on the move; Deleuze, that "grass grows from the middle" and not from the bottom or the top. The artist dwells in the circumstances the present offers him... He catches the world on the move: he is a tenant of culture... " (Page 13-14)

"art has always been relational in varying degrees, i.e. a factor of sociability and a founding principle of dialogue. One of the virtual properties of the image is its power of linkage (Fr. reliance), to borrow Michel Maffesoli's term: flags, logos, icons, signs, all produce empathy and sharing, and all generate bond." (Page 15)

"Art is the place that produces a specific sociability. It remains to be seen what the status of this is in the set of 'states of encounter' proposed by the City." (Page 16)

Art is a state of encounter.

Relational Aesthetics can be described as a “materialism of encounter”, or random materialism (the philosophical tradition that underpins this relational aesthetics was defined by Louis Althusser).

The essence of humankind is purely trans-individual, made up of bonds that link individuals together in social forms which are invariably historical (Marx: the human essence is the set of social relations).
There is no such thing as any possible “end of history” or “end of art”. (Page 18)

Today the ‘glue’ is less obvious, as our visual experience had become more complex, enriched by a century of photographic images, then cinematography... (page 20)
The setting is widening; after the isolated object, it now can embrace the whole scene: the form of Gordon Matta-Clark or Dan Graham’s work can not be reduced to the ‘things’ those artist ‘produce’; it is not the simple secondary effects of a composition, as the formalistic aesthetic would like to advance, but the principle as a trajectory evolving through sign, object, forms, gertures...The contemporary artwork’s form is spreading out from its material form: it is a linking element, a principle of dynamic agglutination. An artwork is a dot on a line. (page 20-21)

Format:
I’m thinking of producing an A3 portrait ‘documents’ (part of a series… maybe only 2 at this stage). 5 Sheets of A2 folded and stitched. This ‘document’ will consist of mostly large-scale photographs (bleeding off the page) and will work as a Photographic Essay. I will have some writing to support and explain some of my research, but will focus on the visuals mostly.
I could put together a few more of these (if they are successful) for the end of the year, and have them assist something… something larger.

Paper stock I’m interested in printing on is: Mohawk Superfine, 148gsm uncoated. (imported from US)

My update:
Last weekend/Monday I moved into my new house. From Homebush West to Newtown. My commuting to the city every day has changed, ‘visual tunnel experience’ speaking! I still have the photographs from my original journey, but can now expand as my journey has changed. I’m much closer to the city now, living in a 4 bedroom terrace house (so glad to be out of the apartment) with 4 other people. A 22 year old guy who’s also a graphic designer/student, a German couple in their mid twenties, he’s a multimedia/post productions designer and she’s doing an architecture internship, and a 35 year old high school teacher who used to own his own design company… so makes for good conversation!)

The Process/Plan:
1. I will look into photographing some new material (while I’m still excited about it!)
2. Finish reading Relational Aesthetics and The Architecture of Happiness. (Loving reading RA, I do end up going back to pages I have already read to get a better understanding, make sure it's sinking in, it's a very 'loaded' text). A of H on the other hand is a much more poetic text, I'm just getting started on this book though. For my 'document' content i thought about choosing a phrase from every page (there's only 104 pages) and using that somehow in my photo essay... or communicating ideas from RA to the public somehow...
3. Start writing content for my ‘documents’ and this could work towards, or part of the essay for end of year.
4. How do the ideas I’m reading about in RA and A of H tie into what I’m wanting to create/make/produce… ?

Last night I went to the MOHAWK SHOW 7. It was a good opportunity to meet some designers (paper and print suppliers also), make some contacts in the industry and check out some creative work (even though it was rather commercial, but still good value. Sometimes the commercial clients can produce some excellent design work/concepts, could be because they have the budgets for it! So I was impressed with some pieces.)
Didn’t walk away empty handed either, lots of catalogues and paper/print samples… not to mention the wine was flowing and the finger food was delicious!

mohawk winners/paper mill

This is an interesting example of outdoor advertising that is interactive (not relational).

Because it's best that I post the Canty Library book back to chch from Sydney to avoid being held up at customs with my library debt, I went to the MCA today (Museum of Contemporary Art) on my lunch break from work and brought "RELATIONAL AESTHETICS" by Nicolas Baurriaud! $24 well spent! (+$3.60 bus to get there, but who's counting)
I've started reading and the thought that I found interesting is:

"The space of current relations is thus the space most severely affected by general reification. The relationship between people, as symbolised by goods or replaced by them, and signposted by logos, has to take on extreme and clandestine forms, if it is to dodge the empire of predictability. The social bond has turned into a standardised artefact." (Page 9)

I may or may not elaborate on that later.

Just on a side note, I'm lucky enough to use WACOM Intuos 3 Graphics Tablets while the lady that usually has is overseas. These things are amazing. I hold a pen type things and hover it over the tablet that’s in front of my key board, and the mouse moves on screen. The amazing thing though, you don't have to drag/scroll like you usually do with the mouse when you run out of motion, the tablet is like the screen... example: i place the pen above the top right corner of the tablet and the mouse is in the same spot, i can lift the pen and place it anywhere else on the tablet and the mouse appears there... it doesn't have to SCROLL to that location. If I let the pen tip press on the tablet it clicks, etc. Basically it's like drawing on the screen... makes a lot of the detailed work in Illustrator really easy. I love it!