RAVENSBOURNE FASHION WEEK... no its just the Fashion and Textiles rotation.

Today we had explored the basics of how to use a camera learnt about the important settings to get the outcome that we want. We were shown different types of photographers from magazines such as I.D, Vogue,  stylist and more. The main part of the day was getting to know the different settings, most of the things were shown I already knew but there was one hing i struggled to understand about the camera and that was the aperture. I thought that it was to simply make the image darker or brighter but i didn't know that it was to control the depth of field in your image. The higher the aperture the more the subject infant of the camera is focused on and the lower the aperture the more of the background your image contains so it will have a great depth of field. Before today I found out that to take the perfect image you don't have to stick with the manual setting or the automatic setting, i learnt to be free with the Av setting which allows you to control the aperture while the camera automatically adjusts the shutter speed for you.

Lens based media. Day 3

So today was the last day on the lens based media rotation and I must say it was very productive. We were introduced into the world of animation and different types of animation. At first when I hear about animations I instantly think about cartoons for kids like gumboil ed,add n eddy but we forget about the true animations like stop motion such as wallace and gromit, Video games even shows like family guy because they are aimed that they are aimed at a much more mature audience. We had to make our own animations. I learned how to make 2-D animations and record them to make a showreel of stills to make a moving image. I also learned how to convert these 2-D ideas into 3-D animations that we had to create as a group of four. To begin with we were slightly low on ideas and things were moving slow but is funny how blowing your nose can make a final product we were all proud of. It all came together thanks to the Stop Motion Studio App.

Tate Modern visit.

Today we had to visit the Tate Modern to help us with get information for our essays that we have to write and compare two artists on. There were many interesting sculptures and paintings in the tate but one that stood out the most in particular was Pinot Gallizio's Industrial painting 1958. His work challenged capitalisms commodification of daily life. The paint was applied onto long rolls of canvas by using low tech painting machines so the product was mass produced but also unique. He would later on cut them into sections to be sold. He is in a way mocking the industry and their high tech machines by showing them that he can make just as much money by making something with a lot less money. And lets be honest it's not really a "Magnificent" piece of art, it looks like an ink failure in a printer, but it is still very interesting.

Lens based media. Day 2

Today we had to make videos that were based on narrative. Tom had shown us different people who are able to edit their films to tell a story. We had to generate ideas by ourselves in a group of four. Taking inspiration from +Zach King we used his approach in making a short clip out of everyday appliances. In out case all we needed was a locker and show one person going into the locker and showing two people leaving the locker which was humorous because the locker is not big enough to hold to people, almost like a clown car. We also learned how to use the App, Vine to create these videos, it was quite confusing to begin with as none of us had any experience using Vine properly. We thought that we had film our entire video then edit it on Vine, but we noticed it just made it harder and it was time consuming, so we just made our video straight from the app.

Lens based media. Day 1

Today was our first day in lens based media, and we had a brief talk from Tom about camera techniques and what we have to take into consideration when we are reflecting on photos we've seen for example the rule of third, the golden ratio, depth of field, lighting and others. It was very insightful and helpful when we read into images and looking at the subtext because to me it adds much more feeling.

We were given the a basic taster induction on the cameras and other equipments by Alys. She showed us the Reflectors, strobe lights and kino flare lights. When we were allocated to our groups we were left to try and get to know the equipments spread across the class. We tried out the soft box first and to begin with it was confusing to use because we had to use this little remote looking thing to help us get the best image quality possible. But we noticed that when we moved it around and took a photo it would the numbers would change, these numbers were intact telling us what settings to put the camera on to get the best quality image. The reflecters were pretty standard, they weren't hard to get the hang off apart from that sometimes it is not really needed indoors because it is usually used for the sun to get the natural light from the sun. But we still used it because it did give a nice glare towards the subjects. We tried the kino flare lights but they weren't really working properly because the batteries were dying so we all just put our phones together to give it the same effect as the kino flare light.

Friday 16th We made bridge

This task entiirley came down to teamwork and trial and error. Today we had to create a bridge that was tall enough to get a boat(a folded table) underneath without touching the structure. Also to get a remote control car over the bridge without it falling of or being obstructed in anyway.

Before we got down to it we were asked to make our own bridges out of paper from 3 pieces of A3 paper. After we done that we were able to see others peoples paper engineering skills and how creative their bridges looked. I should've listened properly to do this task properly because i ended up making 3 of the same looking bridges but when i found out that we were supposed to do i made another bridge that looked different in the middle.

When we were put into our groups we had to make a plan, so to start off with we all took a look each others paper prototypes and too ideas from one another.

So to start off with we were shown what we were working with, bamboo sticks, brown tape and elastic bands. At this point we knew that things wouldn't go to plan so we started making the support that will hold up the structure and work our way from there. We went for a pyramid structure because a pyramid has a wide base, which is good because it covers a large surface area making it sturdy and steady.

By the end of it all it was not what we had expected to look like. And i think that is one thing I learnt today which was the original idea may not be your final outcome so you have to work your way around these obstacles and work with what you have to still produce something. And this was our final outcome.

Tuesday 13th September (Another late night in class.)

I've come to a conclusion that Tuesdays are my favourite days.

On this day we had to make a structure that stand up by itself made out of spaghetti and superglue with a twist,... It should be able to hold three plastic balls in it. It didn't matter how or where, all you had to do was get your structure to hold three of the coloured balls we were given.

Now before we started this task we were asked to get out our sketchpad and pencil and close our eyes and just move our pencil around the paper freely, not thinking about i just letting the pencil roam around the page. When we opened our eyes we were all confused as to why we were asked to do this and how this had anything to do with our work. Then we were asked to take a blue, red and yellow medium and find spaces to draw them into. At this point i recalled Geoff talking about aesthetic and how we want our structure to look like, how we can make it look even better.

Just before we began to make our structures we were told to make at least 5-7 sketches of what we want our structures to look like, once we had an idea we got the spaghetti and went straight into it.

It was barely 5 minutes in and already my structure was a major flop... i forgot how hot the glue gun is and that came with consequences:

The glue guns were really hot so it was very hard to overcome the fact that they kept on melting the spaghetti. So it was a matter of using the right amount of glue.

Because the glue gun was so hot it was not a good idea to put a load of glue on because it will just bend and break off, spaghetti doesn't really have much texture. To tackle this we were given bamboo stick to help keep the spaghetti in place and prevent the glue from the sticking to the cardboard matt underneatch. It didn't stop it from melting but it did help a bit.

I already knew what i wanted my structure to look like, three flights os triangles to hold all three balls. After i got the base done i needed to set its hight by using spaghetti on the inner corners of my structure. And these were the results of my structue.

Monday 12th September (Birthday Presents?)

So for our first task we were asked to just try and think about all the presents we've received till our recent birthdays. And our tutor proved us right as most of us wToday was pretty straight forward and slightly random. We talked about how our minds recall certain events in our lifetime it could be a good experience or it could've been a bad experience. As humans apparently we cannot recall exactly what we've done already directly, it's he experiences, our senses that allow us to piece together what we are trying to remember.
ere having a hard time what present we received, but some were able to remember getting a present from one of their family and friends.

We were then asked to write out these presents on a piece of paper and see how far back we can remember. I had a hard time remembering anything from 8-10 years old, all i could remember from those ages was my primary school days but nothing about presents. I did remember my favourite birthday presents such as yu-gi-oh cards, Beyblades, the legendary gameboy advanced sp and an life sized action man car that my brother got me and hurt myself on as soon as i saw it... I tried to pick it up. But I remeber it so clearly because I had a painful experience with it. And that is what our tutor tried to get across to us that our mind remembers events depending on the experience you had especially with your senses.

Our next task was to put all of our words into typography form on paper, I didn't hear that bit so I ended up drawing out the gifts that I could remember. Of course when I realised what I was doing was wrong I started drawing the words out. But it turns out that what i done at first was the second part of the task, to draw out the gifts that we received on our birthday.

And lastly we had to cut out the paper we drew on but around the words and images we drew out. It got messy but it was a creative messy. We even hanged them up around the classroom and started to connect them with one another...I must say the outcome was actually pleasing.

To finish off the day we were all asked to cut out silhouette of one of our presents and put them on the floor at the front of the class. At this point we were all asked a question about what we learnt from today not just today but in general and i answered "The older we get the less presents we get, or the size of our presents are not as big as they were when we were little". Which I only realised after doing all of this... It's funny how all of this can tap into your past and reminisce your childhood.

My Utopia

After planning and filling up the little passport book with ideas for what we want our Utopia to look like I came up with the best Utopia ever...okay i lied it didn't turn out how i wanted it to. It looked completely different from how i imagined it... To be honest it was pretty basic but i guess my inferred meaning about it made it less basic and more interesting as I explained the message I wanted to get across.

So as you saw from my previous post you could see some of my sketched up ideas that I wanted to create. I ended up going for the pyramid idea. I had all of the equipment to pull this task off and it really took longer than expected.

To make things easier for myself on that day, the previous night i had made a pyramid net and tried to make prototype pyramids. Thankfully the first set of pyramids I had made came out perfect, all the points met at the tip of the pyramid. However 4-5 pyramids later they began to look very bad, as in the points were not touching at the top or the square at the base was too big making it harder.

If i've learnt anything from making these pyramids is that never throw away anything you made because it could end up helping you as you journey through the project. Due to my first judgment by eye I thought that it did not look right, but I wanted to try and fold it just to see if it might just work so I used my photocopier to scan and print the net, turns out it was even better than my first pyramid.

When it came to Friday i thought everything will go to plan, i brought in the pyramids that i had made the night before made the net so i could photocopy more pyramid nets in class. I brought the thin thread to connect all of the pyramids together. The initial plan was to hang them off the table so they would look like they are levitating by themselves. But I was suggested to try make the pyramids at a larger scale to show variation.

It consumed even more time to make more pyramids especially at a larger scale from a A1 piece of paper, there were no scanners that could scan A1 pieces of paper so i had to draw them by hand, again due to time running out I did not have enough time to decorate, hang them off the table or the ceiling because it was too high for me to reach so i had to just make do with what i had and improvise and I ended the day with this.

I had more time i could've elaborated on this and made it more interesting by creating more of these and connecting the with the thread to make a floating empire of pyramids.

Tuesday 6th September (When we realised we had lessons till 8:30pm)

So today it was a fairly straight forward day. To start of with we were asked to bring in 5 objects that cover different parts of society that will represent our ideal Utopia. We were also given a small passport looking sketchbook, I think it was from MUJI because it had Japanese characters on the label... Anyways in this small sketch book we had to fill up every page with ideas in sketches of what our Utopia will include or what it could potentially look like when we come around to make them on Friday.

So back to the 5 objects we had to bring in. I brought in an instruction manual from Call Of Duty to represent that my Utopia will be a world without war. 

“War is what happens when language fails.”

― Margaret Atwood

I feel that when most countries go to war or when counties have a civil war amongst themselves is because one side had opinions or made decisions that may have offended the opposition. In times like these a fight should not be the first resort it should be a last resort, i mean when there is no other option in the book. We should all learn to be rational in the decisions we make...unless that person rightfully deserves justice.

My next object was an ankh necklace to represent religion amongst a society. Religion nowadays is the main cause to the wars in this day and age. So in my Utopia, regardless of your faith or who or what you believe in, people will learn how to live together and not force any religion or faith upon one another in a negative manor. As a society we should be helping one another to strive to be the best at what we do and help make the world a better place to live in.

I also brought in 100 Naira, a currency that my country (Nigeria) uses. Money as much as we need it could bring people happiness, or sorrow or stress depending on your situation. When i went back to Nigeria i remembered that the conversion rate is ridiculous and because of this its making life harder for those in extreme condition.

I brought in a Job application because I feel that jobs are much harder to get these days especially with racism and favoritisms it put some individuals at risk, mostly ethnic minorities. Growing up in south London it becomes clear that the reason why "some' people form gangs or become rebellious towards society is because they find it difficult to earn money legitly. I say some because some people are just lazy and do turn to that lifestyle because its simply easy money and they do not want to work for it.

Later on during the day we were asked to draw one of our items in a set time limit, I cant remember how long we had, all i know is that it was not long at all!"XD". Okay pretty standard stuff. We were then asked to make pick another item that we brought in and  look at it for 30 seconds and then draw it with our eyes closed...WHAT??...It didn't turn out well i didn't even know what i made in the end. Just know that it was supposed to be a book.

We were then asked to draw another object but this time by simply looking at the object and not at the pencil or paper...it wasn't bad but my initial reaction was "OMG WHAT HAVE I DONE". We were then asked to draw the shadow that our object creates but only by shading. I think that was the second task that made sense to me. 

Just when we thought it was all over we had to make one of our objects out of the A1 piece of paper we were given...Yeah i didn't finish it on time. But by the end of it all i was beginning to understand what our tutors were getting us to understand.

Sometimes when you're creating something the end product is not the most important bit. Its the journey that we take to get there. In these sort of tasks what we want may not be what we end up making, sometimes ideas will fail but we have to learn to improve upon it and find different ways to get the final result.

Don't be afraid  make mistakes. 

Paris Is Burning

Okay first things first. THIS WAS NOT WHAT I WAS EXPECTING. "Paris Is Burning" It sounds like a Antoine Fuqua film. It is a documentary about the ball culture of New York City and the African-American Latino, gay and transgender communities involved in the mid-to-late 1980's. In these ball competitions, contestants must "walk","Vouge" and are judged based by criteria involving the "realness" of their drag, the beauty of their clothing and their dancing skills and abilities.

Relating to our topic of Utopia the Paris is burning movement is like a world within a world that is genuinly familiar to the real world, filled with ambitions, desires and yearnings that reflect America itself. Paris is burning  is an intimate portrait of one urban community, a world in which the allure of high fashion, status and wealth becomes an affirmation of love, acceptance and joy.

The film switches between balls and interviews of members of the scene including Pepper LaBeija, Dorian Corey, Angie Xtraveganza, and Will Ninja. All of these house and ball contestants are known for their consistency in winning walks, eventually earning the name "Legendary" as their status.

After watching this film it opened my mind up a lot more that Utopia does not have to be filled with clouds and rainbows. Someones heaven could simply wanting to become accepted by society or feel like they belong somewhere, a place where they can be themselves and not be judged for who they are, what they look like or what they have in between their legs.

The film explores how its subjects dealt with everyday racism, homophobia, AIDS and poverty. Venus Xtravaganza (Left) In the documentary she did explain how she'd meet up with guys and they'd just go and have a good night together, no sex what so ever...only sometimes, occasionally. She also explains that she had a really close friend  who comes and spends time with her and at the end of the day gives her money for her needs or luxuries.

According to her house mother Angie Xtravaganza, Venus was found strangled under a bed in a New York hotel room in 1988. Her body was discovered by a stranger four days after her death. Her killer has never been found.