Blog 2

Research Statement and Annotated Bibliography
Research Field: Gothic Revival


1. A book with single author
Classical and Gothic by Michael McCarthy
The content of this source would be very useful for my topic of choice, since this book is all about the Gothic Revival. This book has a lot of examples in it of illustrations describing how each one has been influential and has had its effect in the past. 


McCarthy, M. (2005). Classical and Gothic: studies in the
                  history of art. Great Britain: MPG Books, Bodmin, Cornwall. 


2. A scholarly journal article
Gothic Histories: The Taste for Terror, 1764 to the Present by Clive Bloom. Posted by Tony Venezia
This source would be useful for my topic because it's an article that informs us readers about this book written by an author who has studied the gothic histories. It outlines all the details of what is to be expected in the book, and how useful it would be compared to other books like it.


Venezia, T. (2010). Gothic Histories: The Taste for Terror, 1764 to the Present. London 
                  Continuum. Retrieved from 
                  http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1P3-2431779021.html


3. An edited book
The Gothic Revival by Kenneth Clark and J. Mordaunt Crook
The content of this source comes in very useful for my topic. It was written by one of the greatest art historians of the century, Kenneth Clark, and contains the best introduction to an influential architectural and decorative arts movement the UK has ever produced. This source contains new explorations and ideas of the revival, along with details of people like Augustus Welby Pugin, Gilbert Scott and John Ruskin, who have been influential throughout the century.


Clark, K. (1950). The Gothic Revival (2nd ed.). Crook, J. M. (Ed.). 
                   Great Britain: Butler & Tanner Limited


4. A website
Ontario Architecture Website by Shannon Kyles
This website is very useful because it's all about architecture, and has a whole page devoted to the Gothic Revival. The website was started by Shannon Kyles and all articles and photographs have been done by her, showcasing Gothic architecture from the 1750 to 1900. 


Kyles, S. (2002). Ontario Architecture Website.
                   Retrieved from http://www.ontarioarchitecture.com/gothicrevival.html


5. An image
Design for an Egyptian room for Lord Charlemont, 1762 by J.H. Muntz
This image would prove useful to my topic because it informs us about Gothic "Egyptian" referring to the contents of the room. In this case it shows us the vases that J. H. Muntz designed with that gothic design to it.

McCarthy, M. (2005). Classical and Gothic: studies in the history of art. Design for an Egyptian room                             

                   for Lord Charlemont. [Photograph]. (fig. 1.8. p28.) Muntz. J. H. (1764).

Individual Work

I thought shadow photography would be really interesting to look into with my individual work, so I researched it and found a photographer, Antonio Grambone, who specializes in shadow/black and white photography. I tried to portray a style he did on one of his photos called "Shadow bike", by making my compass an optical illusion, giving it the sense that it's floating and also adding 2 shadows by using 2 light sources. 


http://www.antoniogrambone.it/
http://www.designerterminal.com/inspiration/photography/street-photography-gallery.html

Touch and Draw

Section

Draw

Hatch

Identity

DSDN 144 Final Photos

C.A.T.

(Crouched Angle Technique)

These are my final images for this project. I developed what I had from my first and second shoot and improved them a lot more, messed around with the lighting and angles of each shot and eventually ended up with successful photos. The reason my my project name is because every photo is taken from what we imagine a cat's point of view is down low within a closed and open space. Also i came up with C.A.T. which means crouched angle techniques, which simply means that every photo i took i was pretty much crouching. The journey begins with the cat surrounded in a closed space with leaves over-hanging in the photo, which makes for a nice crop. The second photo has a nice repetition within it and has been framed right to give it that symmetry. The images go on from points of views under certain objects to show that contrast with shadows from a low angle, giving it feeling and darkness in the image. Finally we reach the shed where these photos give off the most curiosity, along with fear. Curiosity of what could possibly be inside of the shed, and fear of the nearby person walking past. Which is why i took a photo from the inside looking out to give that feeling of this cat, hiding in the darkness. I'm pretty happy with my end result, the images turned out good and my story makes sense. 

DSDN 144 Space Ideas

 

These are the main images from my first and second shoot. Most of them are similar but still lack a story towards the sequences of images. The lighting within my photos will be low light, with most of these images being taken in the rain/cloudy day. I experimented with different angles and points of views and found that either a point of view from above or below would look the best with the kinds of space I'll be showing. I also tried to focus on certain aspects of my space, without repeating myself in photos again and again. So far this is what I've come up with.

                                                           

DSDN 144 Part 1 Research

Poppies. Author - Tais

I researched low angle photography and I've found some useful images that will help me with my final shoot. This photo of the poppy field shows the sunrise/sunset in the background but has because of it's low angle it has been blocked out by all the red/green of the poppies. This shot focuses more on the image in front of you instead of the background, although the background does help add effect to the image itself with the usefulness of it's colors. 

Mt Zion Cemetery Graves. Author - ewilfong

I especially like this image because it's going to be very similar to my photo shoot. It's taken probably about a foot high from the ground and is in black and white. The fallen cross is the main object within this image, sort of creating a frame inside the photo to separate all the little details. My photos won't be black and white but yet will still use this technique to help add feeling to my series.

A Different Angle. Author - David Yeo T.B.

This photo is similar to the poppies one but doesn't crop the image as much. It still uses the technique of taking a photo through the plantation which i'll use for my final images, creating an open/close space within it. 

http://www.pxleyes.com/blog/2011/04/50-professionaly-executed-low-angle-photographs/

Contact Sheet 2

This is my second shoot. I had difficulty taking it because it was both raining and windy outside, but yet provided the perfect lighting for my photos. For this shoot i focused more on the area with the garden shed, showing single details and the space between random objects. I also used some framing within some photos to show space. 

Mini World

This is my mini world that I've transformed from my panorama. The only problem that I had with it was that my panorama had a building on the far right corner, which was hard to merge into a full circle world therefore i had to crop it out. My world looks smaller than it actually is but turned out looking good in the end, plus it wasn't that hard to do on photoshop either.

Blog 1

Design Persona


Getting a B+ to my family is like getting an Asian F. Anything lower would be considered mediocre. My names Jay and no I am not the best at design, nor will I ever will be. But the pressure of high consistency gives me the drive of inspiration mixed with passion to create that motivation within me. That being said, I guess my parents would have to be my biggest motivators. I moved here 14 years ago from the Philippines, and since I've been here, they've taught me and pushed me at everything I had ever done. Throughout my past I found that I was quite the natural artist, and I would always get good grades from all my artwork. It was during college however that I was introduced to something new and exciting; photoshop. This is when the inner designer in me came out. It was like I was introduced to a whole new world. Straight away design became my favored subject, I had developed a passion for creating new things and communicating in a entirely different way. I knew this was what I wanted to do with my life, so i decided to start my journey by coming to Victoria University of Wellington and studying Design Innovation. This course offers me a wide range of fields, although I am still undecided what major I will pursue to get in for next year, Media Design is definitely an option. I'm making it my goal. This year I'll work harder than I've ever worked before and conquer every obstacle in my way, plus have fun doing it at the same time. I can't wait to see what the design industry has install for me, because design is all around us. It is in everything.

DSDN144 Part 1 Research

An image of an abandoned tractor, the way it has been photographed gives us the feeling of sadness within the image. It has a dark contrast in it, which helps with the hierarchy. 

This image of the tree and the branches is similar to the photos i took. It's a very populated photo with branches going everywhere, but yet it's still contrasted giving it a sense of a story behind the image. 

These images by Julie Rancourt were taken outside an abandoned house, portraying each details of it's old spaces. I like the way she has shown a story behind the images, and will be helping me a lot giving me ideas on how to approach things. My first photo was actually quite similar to hers, but I need to explore my area more.

http://julierancourtphoto.blogspot.co.nz/2011/10/fascinating-and-sad-abandoned-house-in.html
http://www.dyscario.com/travel-and-places/the-sad-side-of-abandoned-places-by-anthony-kurtz.html

Proposal

SPACE

I started off originally with 3 ideas for my set:

- Wellington Station Bus Stop

- Waiting Room

- Nature

I was excited to do the bus stop because it would have showed spaces as people don't portray them. I was going to show the spaces between buses in the station, but got into trouble for it saying it was too dangerous. My second idea didn't work out well either because it's hard to find a waiting room these days to be allowed to take photographs. So I ended up doing a nature one, which was lucky for me because there was a lot of vegetation etc around and near my place which would have made it easy access for me. I messed around with a couple of photos and ended up with this one as a starter:

This is the main idea of my shoot. I'm trying to capture a space that gives a feeling that it has been abandoned, a space that gives it a mysterious history behind it. This was actually taken near my house at this old shed. My idea was to possibly go from a less dramatic area, leading onto a more dramatic area similar to the image I have taken here. This will give my images a sense of a story throughout it, most probably a sad kind of story.

First Shoot Contact Sheet

This is the contact sheet for my first shoot. It is only the first shoot so I'm still brainstorming ideas, even if I find a better setting I'll use that. But this shoot was taken up my long drive, and it was interesting on what I have found. There were random holes throughout the tree trunks which hid little spaces inside them. I actually found a rusted old can inside one which i took photos of. There is also i rusted old garden shed with an old lawn mower that i took a photo of, which kind of tells a story/history. 

Panorama

I made 2 panorama's of the view from my house. The first difficulty I had making these were that I didn't have a tripod. This made it difficult to keep every photo I took straight and in-line with the others. The second difficulty which led from my first problem was merging them together in photoshop. Some of the lines are still visible, but throughout the whole thing it turned out fine without no further problems.