Power of Making at Victoria and Albert

Yesterday I went to the Power of Making exhibition at the Victoria and Albert museum.

There was such a variety of work; from riding saddles to machines that could ultimately replicate themselves - the exhibition truly celebrated the practice of making and the opportunities it presents. There was also a workshop going on - where they were showing the public how a 3D printer works and getting people to design and then print mini buildings which they were making into a miniature city - kinda like a monopoly board. I thought the 3D printing was awesome but didnt realise just how long it takes! - about 45 minutes for a 5cm by 5cm shape.

Really loved this film that was shown - focusing right down on the detail of each craft.



I was also really interested in the work of Sabrina Gschwandter who makes quilts out of 16mm film - creating really interesting patterns.

Also came across this new app called Penki that allows you to 'paint with light' using you iphone. Here is a little video that shows hw it works - really wanna try this out!



Overall it was a really interesting exhibition - making you look at objects in a different light.

Technology Light Play

So this is my final outcome for a project I've been working on called Biographies.

Everyone in our class was randomly assigned a famous and interesting person including designers, chefs, cartoon characters, thinkers and so on.

I was given Oskar Fischinger.

I had never heard of him before but I really loved his animations he made; he was just so ahead of his time.

Aside from his animations he also made a machine called a lumigraph.

When a button was pressed, this caused a particular coloured light to shine.

When multiple buttons were pressed this made patterns that would move around.

I became interested in how in everyday live we are constantly pushing buttons on technology and subsequently are making things light up, flash and move without even realising it.

My final piece is more a collection of experiments from filming this lights; playing with the sound, speed, rhythm and making patterns out of the shapes.

I really feel this is something I would be interested in pursuing further -  one week just wasn't long enough.

New Technology

Last year we were given a project that I never got around to putting up on here.

I really enjoyed this project as I had the opportunity to really incorporate my love for music.

The brief was to find a new way of using a piece of technology and experimenting with materials and technology. 

I started out quite lost until I bought a lovely old gold projector from Battersea car boot fair.

This got me started thinking about light and shadows.

I then started using my scanner as a way to control light.

I shone the light from the projector into the scanner then begun to move the lid of the scanner up and down in time to music whilst the scanner was scanning.

It took a lot of experimentation to get the effect right; using different objects and techniques.

The outcomes I made were pieces of visual music - of about the first 20 seconds of a song (the time it takes for the scanner to scan)

Here are some of the results:

I think it's important with these images to click on them to make them bigger

This is Rolling Stones' Under My Thumb

And this is Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik

Anthony Mccall: Vertical Works

So after our interactive drawing session a few of us headed to Anthony Mccall's latest work at the University of Westminster.

It was located within this underground warehouse and there were three streams of light coming from the ceiling. The light almost acted as a barrier and when you looked up you could see this weird smoke effect on the light. On the Floor they created really sharp lines of light.They were all constantly moving which made them even more interesting. For ages we just sat on the floor watching it move; it was kinda hypnotic.

This exhibition is definitely worth going to see and it was really inspiring to see how light could be used in different ways.

Oh and I'd never been to baker street tube station before so I got little sidetracked by all the Sherlock Holmes' on the walls.