Magic Custard

Our last project of this term was to create a one minute film based on a title which each group pulled out of a hat.

Here is our film...Magic Custard

Last night, since it was the end of term and the project we held an oscar night where awards were given out. Our film came away with Best Actor, Best Actress and Best Film!

Anyway, Enjoy!

Canon printer advert - sounds sculptures

Just came across this really interesting advert for a canon printer where, by placing ink onto a speaker and using some very fast cameras, they have been able to capture what they call 'sound sculptures'; a way to represent the beats that are coming through the speaker...interesting stuff! and also some really other great photography by Jason Tozer on his website.

Oh and the second video is the making of,...also really interesting to have a look at!

Canon Pixma: Bringing colour to life from Dentsu London on Vimeo.

A Popular Brief - Vinyl cover re-design

So last week Peter Chadwick, otherwise known as the company popular, came in to talk about his work including having art directed album covers such as the infamous Primal scream's Screamadelica to Groove Armada's logo.

After the talk he then set us a brief - to redesign our favourite 12" vinyl cover. After some tough decisions and being unable to find various covers I opted for Grace Jones - slave to the rhythm. I think the cover pretty much says it all - accentuating her most well known features; her mouth and hair.

I knew form the start this would be a difficult option, especially because on the back there is a ridiculous amount of text; exerpts taken from books as well as bits of interviews and a neverending list on contributors.

So where to start?

Well, after talking to Peter I really felt I wanted to get away from Grace Jones' face. All her album covers feature her face in some way and I think it would be interesting to take her face away and see what else I could come up with.

So I started looking into the meaning behind the song, but also the word rhythm and how rhythm can be represented visually.

Whilst researching, I came across this really interesting video for a band which uses 4 cardiography machines to map the different parts of the songs...a very interesting watch and kinda similar to another project i worked on last term...which will be posted very shortly!

The video can be found here.

http://www.korb.lt/video/illbegone.mov

Inspirational Kinetic Type - The Final Video

So here is my final video for the inspirational kinetic type brief. It's not kinetic type in the traditional sense but I think it works well in the context of what he's saying and the subject matter in general.

The audio track is from an interview with Storm Thorgerson, the designer who did Dark Side of the Moon and many many other famous surreal looking album covers.

Enjoy.

Inspired from Alexandra Brittain on Vimeo.

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.

Interactive Drawing

So on Wednesday as part of our new languages brief we had an interactive drawing workshop. This was quite a fun little 50 minutes where a laptop with a graphics tablet was hooked up to a projector. One person would then draw using the tablet and another person would react to the drawing that was taking place. Games included playing tennis, running away from the deadly line and the drawer reacting to the other person's noises.

It did make me think about how you can use technology you already have in different ways.

New: Technology, Design and Language

New Brief: 'As time passes, new developments and forms combine to give us as designers the chance to define a new language, to take or invent a new form of experimental practice or design tool and develop a way for this to be used, received and understood by the public. You will be exploring a diverse range of of contemporary graphic design forms'

At first this brief sounded completely and utterly confusing. We were given an introduction session to this new brief where a recent graduate from our course spoke about his FMP where he had combined reading and music through the form of a book. Whilst you read the book you would complete an electrical circuit which in turn would make a sound.

We also looked at other artists such as United Visual Artists who have used the form of light in various ways such as combining it with live music shows to make a completely new experience.

So in essence the brief is about taking a process and reinventing it. So it's a bit like product design and a bit like interaction design and thinking about using new technology.

Pretty much a tough one.

We also got told about these arduino kits which react to the world and can produce a response from the information it receives.

I'm gonna have to have a further look into these and more work around this topic I think in order to get my head round it a bit better.