Author: DemelzaB

Castle/Dream Factory

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One nice way to spend a Sunday: strolling around town and visiting an exhibition. After a year of living in Oxford, I had never seen the castle. I thought there were maybe a few ruins but I didn’t expect to see the full building (below left) in all its ancient glory.

Why have I just discovered the castle? I was on my way to the OVADA art gallery. My only visit to the gallery previously was to see it empty between exhibitions. This time the building was full of art, how good this was to see.

The fact that it was so hard to find, only made it more of an adventure.

I caught the end of the 3-day exhibition, Dream Factory. This exhibition presented work by BROOKES MFA students. While I may not be able to credit each artist individually, here is a list of the artists involved (below right).

(below image) The OVADA warehouse is a unique space. It’s interesting to see the work in these surroundings. It gives a totally different feel to art that’s presented in a plain white gallery space. Sometimes the art blended into the roughness of the warehouse and with other pieces there was a bold contrast that I really liked.

Dream Factory Exhibition, OVADA gallery
video installation by Alamelu Annamalai (@alamelu24), projected onto book pages.

I loved the way the type moved across the page, just long enough to grasp.

Artwork by Deborah Pill

I felt these slates represent us. ‘The blank slate’ being the possibilities of everything we could be. Deborah has used sand to represent the things that happen to us. The shifting things we have no control over. The life changes we all face, but more recently the covid pandemic.

Paintings by Yolande Wyer

I found Yolande’s paintings amazingly light and delicate. This impressed me because I can see the patience and gentleness needed to paint them, which is the opposite to how I approach drawings. The way the light shines through the cellular structures is so beautiful to me.

Sculpture by Emmett Casley.

(above) Don’t they look so at home in OVADA? Emmett is inspired by the weathering of forms over time. I was drawn to the strength of the material and the colour of rust which is one of my favourite colours. I saw this piece as a representation of a person growing from a small child into an adult and the effect of that journey emotionally and mentally.

Lastly, these colourful squares were beautiful. The artist used a combination of reflective, iridescent, transparent and matt surfaces within the work. I loved how each tile was tilted at a different angle, creating chaos. I wanted to be in a room full of them.

Artwork by Siobhan Cooney.

I didn’t photograph every artwork, but the rest were equally impressive. Every work felt like it belonged, even though they came from different minds.

Final zine evaluation

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I used different images, combining photos of my figure with photos I had taken around Oxford. This allowed me to express different elements of the narrative. For example, printing the brick wall image over the image of the figure’s face expresses a stubborn or trapped state.

Black and white is suitable for a zine generally because it cuts down printing costs, but I also feel it helped to create the mood I wanted in this story. The zine begins sad and the greyscale helped me to show this.

I pulled inspiration from a variety of sources, such as the song lyrics, personal experience and zines I have seen in the past.

Looking at graphic design books was also helpful in informing my ideas. Books such as The graphic design idea book : inspiration from 50 masters, Fanzines by Teal Triggs, The fundamentals of creative design by Ambrose/Harris, Behind the zines self publishing culture, and Visible Signs : an introduction to semiotics in the visual arts . Buying 2 zines from etsy.com was useful because I could see how another artist would approach zine-making.

Looking at photos of zines on the internet was important because it allowed me to see how a physical zine can be constructed. I didn’t take every idea on board but absorbing these ideas allowed me to be creative and apply my own methods to zine making. For example, I looked at the posterzines by people of print and although I liked the way all the information is compact on the one sheet of paper, I did not want to go down this route with my zine. Since my zine is about a story of change, I wanted it to physically read like a book, with pages that could be turned and a narrative that could be slowly revealed to the audience.

I considered the bookbinding methods we were introduced to in Ruth’s workshops for module 002. These methods informed the direction of the physical format of the zine.

The use of cut-out text reflected the theme of the zine. My zine is about breaking and fixing. Both emotionally, physically, and metaphorically. The way I glued the words together, forming them from separate found letters, helps to represent this narrative.

I used exclusively collage for my zine. (I did not use drawing or digitally produced images). I stuck with analogue methods for this extended project as I wanted the zine to feel handmade and personal. The cut and paste method I used for the images gives the same impression as the repairing theme mentioned above.

Once I got into the making of the zine, I took it in my own direction. I was still reading and looking at research material throughout but I felt like I needed to tell my story in my own way. There was a point in the process where I did not feel the need for outside input anymore. This was after I made the draft zine. My research period was more near the beginning of the project.

I have avoided copying any one design, but have been influenced by elements such as the distortion used by Sofia Clausse in her zine about ‘the windy city’. The distortion in her zine was a reference to the windy weather. In my zine, the distortion represents change and mental health.

I struggled with knowing how long to spend on each area. For example, I did a lot of experimentation because I felt I needed to explore my object and how to present it on paper. This was not much of a problem in this semester but did lead me to feeling overwhelmed. If I had set time limits for each task, it might have helped me keep on top of the module overall.

Presentation rejig

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I wrote a script for the 1st draft of the presentation:

Script

Slide 1

Arriving at the design museum, I had no idea what to expect because I’d never been to the museum before. To find the exhibition of designer maker user was easy because of this huge colourful sign and it was obvious to see where to go and it was on the top floor

Slide 2

Walking into the exhibition, I was confronted by so many objects, and it was quite overwhelming because I was surrounded by lots of different objects, from different time periods, things I liked, things I didn’t like, things I recognised and things I didn’t recognise, and this is a picture of people’s favourite everyday things which the public voted on.

Slide 3

Here is a picture of the layout of the exhibition. This is the start, and this is the finish, but when I arrived there, I didn’t notice this was where the exhibition started, so I started at the finish point, meaning I first saw the ‘maker’ section, which focused on the production of the objects. I walked around once and then walked around a second time before I even noticed the ball wall clock, which was right at the top of the wall and easy to see because it’s just so bright and bold. Maybe this is why the museum placed it at the top because you don’t need to see any small details and it just stands out because it’s so loud and different. Straight away I knew, this is my object.

Slide 4

Being on the wall with other time-telling objects is really interesting because it’s on the wall with calendars, filafaxes, watches. But the modern digital watches make the ball wall clock look old fashioned. For this clock to be beside similar objects, helps me to place it in time by comparison. I kind of guessed that it was from the modernist period just based on what I already know about modernist design. The plaque told me the clock was made in 1947 and designed by a designer called George Nelson.

Slide 5

I think another aspect that indicates when this clock was designed, is that the structure of the clock is quite like an atom and this places it in history because in 1946, the first photos were taken from space and therefore people were starting to think about space travel and nuclear research.

Slide 6

This picture is the first drawing of the structure of an atom so you can see that with both there’s a centre and then spokes that extend outwards.

Slide 7

I’ve talked about the design being modernist in its style. the modernist period occurred in the western world between the 2 world wars. It was a philosophical and an art movement. People wanted to look forwards into a utopian future. Modernist designers were focused on reinventing the city after destruction and during the housing crisis. There was a focus on domestic design. After the war people wanted nice things around them in the home, so the design was quite uplifting and happy. Things didn’t have to be there just to serve as a function anymore, they could be aesthetically pleasing. This clock is aesthetically pleasing but I would say is not the most functional because there are no actual numbers, and this could be challenging for some people so it would probably be best in a home setting or somewhere where you didn’t need to know the precise time.

Slide 8

The sunburst clock is another clock designed by George nelson and they’re iconic clock designs because they are widely recognised and really represent people’s homes from that period. particularly American homes. The star shaped designs also reference space.

Slide 9

The ball wall clock that I saw in the museum is still being made today which I found quite amazing, and it just shows how popular and well-loved they are that they’re still being made all these years late r they are currently being sold for 269 pounds and I believe the reason why they’re worth so much is because they are handmade, so this shows really good quality. The choice of different colours now means that they are suitable for more of a variety of different rooms.

Slide 10

And finally, I really like this black version which was introduced after the designer’s death and marked what would have been his 100th birthday. Although the structure is the same, taking away the bright colours means that it looks more elegant and stylish, and I imagine it could be good for a corporate setting and it looks really contemporary compared to the original and therefore I think this version could have much more appeal in today’s world.

I turned the script into prompt cards to use during the presentation:

Prompt Cards

Slide 1

  • Arriving at the museum..
  • Designer Maker User
  • Easy to find

Slide 2

  • Walking into the exhibition..
  • overwhelmed

Slide 3

  • This is..
  • ball wall clock at top of wall
  • easy to see- bright and bold- don’t need to see small detail
  • knew it was my object

Slide 4

  • Being on the wall with other time-telling objects…comparison
  • I guessed it was from the modernist period
  • The plaque tells me…

Slide 5

  • Another aspect that indicates when…structure…first photos 1946…this places it in history…space travel & nuclear research

Slide 6

  • This is a picture of…You can see they both…spokes

Slide 7

  • I’ve spoken about the clock being modernist in design…in the western world between the 2 world wars.
  • Philosophical and art movement
  • Building back the city with a utopian view of the future
  • A focus on domestic design- uplifting
  • Somewhere you don’t need to know the precise time

Slide 8

  • The sunburst clocks…
  • Represents particularly American homes from the 1950’s
  • Star shapes also references space

Slide 9

  • The ball wall clock I saw in the museum is still being made today
  • Popular and well loved
  • Handmade= good quality

Slide 10

  • And finally, I really like the black version
  • Elegant stylish contemporary
  • More appeal in todays world

I recorded my voice delivering the presentation but it over-ran the time limit of 5 minutes. I re-recorded it but could not get the presentation to less than 7 minutes without rushing it. I therefore needed to re-consider and think about where I could cut 2 minutes out.

I thought of 3 possible areas to be cut:

  1. entering the museum
  2. about modernism
  3. about atoms/the space age

I timed the section about atoms and it was only 40 seconds.

I then decided to cut the beginning slides about entering the museum, as I felt it was less interesting than speaking about the origins of the design.

Slide 1
Slide 2
Slide 3

After needing to cut it down more, I removed this slide, as I felt I could mention his other designs in a sentence within another section: