casting shadows

OK so this week we have feedback from our tutors and I'm expecting a serious boot up the arse and a bit of a bollocking but i wouldn't be the only one I'd say so non whinging and more work is the call of the day. I was messing around with a few more cutouts of limerick on card to keep producing more in the series of boxes (which I've been told to do a hundred times and i keep going off on tangents) and i just started playing around with throwing light on front of the image rather than from behind or within the box itself. What i found by doing that is a real depth and that spooky image of a shadow which always used give me a chill as a kid, like a mental picture of a forrest in a ghost story or something, and by casting two separate light sources in different directions and so forth instead of adding an extra dimension to the photo it added an extra dimension to the shadow itself which i thought was pretty cool and i think it is something that can only add more atmosphere to my project. So this week the plan is to mess around with lighting, coloured light and possibly sound to see if i can really emphasise the atmosphere and that uneasiness I'm trying to get across.

A change in direction...well slightly

Have you ever felt someones stare? Ever been somewhere so dark you could almost feel it? Ever catch yourself speeding up your walk through an unfamiliar place or locking your car doors as soon as you get in? I think everyone has at some stage, but is it because you feel unsafe or is it the mood of where you are that you just don't understand why this uneasyness comes over you? I think the darkness is associated with eery feelings but i think light can also provide mood so that is what i want to explore with my models. Along with the models that pose a question to the viewer i also want to try and create an atmosphere with them so that it does pose that question inside of feeling the unknown!!

A hard week

Well last week my project hit a speed bump in the form of the tutors and my pride......still following what i'm doing with the 3D little scenes from limerick i decided i'd paint the image instead of just manipulating the photos, not the best idea i've ever had but i didn't want to be accused of not trying other media and different ways of representing the scenes i was making other than just photographs. I personally didn't think it was that bad to be honest but i did invite a bit of an onslaught of criticism from the tutors because painting wouldn't be my strongest area. In other words.......they thought it was shit.

Now, i could see where the tutors were coming from so i'm not gonna say they were wrong, but at the same time i did want to finish it and have it there so they could see at least what i was trying to represent. So i did, and as much as i tried to stick up for it and try and convince myself that it wasn't that bad.......a small bit of pride swallowing took place and i have to really agree that it just plain and simply doesn't work. I still wouldn't consider it a waste of a week because there were parts that i can take and use them in the following pieces so all is not lost but here are a few pictures of the finished pieces anyway and i'll hopefully have something a little better and more positive on my next post.

Concept ideas

Here i just have some images of the models i made and some idea's that ran through my head. I am not going to reveal the context of the models and their significance because i want the viewer to make their own connections and conclusions of what the finished project is about.

Progress

After two weeks of taking photographs and making models of urban scenes, i had an individual tutorial with my tutor and he finally got his point across that a picture or photo takes the viewer on a completely different journey when the context of that scene has significance. Realising this i really started to look at the urban enviornment in a different light, thousands of us can walk the same path every day and take no notice but if an event of criminal nature or positivity takes place on that path we see it in an entirely different way. This is where i want to focus my project, to make the less obvious and the places we take for granted the focal point.

Things Aren't Always as they seem

This blog is to take you on a journey through my mind and the Urban Enviornment around Limerick City, the evolution of an idea and assumtions made, but as the title shows "Things aren't always as they seem"