Blog 3

Antiques Hunter
English Rococo Silver Plate serving Dish Folgate C1890 

During the time when Louis XV (1710–1774) was the king of France, he gave way to a new style of delicacy and refinement known as Rococo. This serving dish has obvious elements linked to the style of the French Rococo but was not made during that time, it was created in 1890 over 100 years after the main Rococo period. This antique piece bears the hallmark of the Folgate Silver Company, which was in operation between 1875 to 1900.

The French Rococo style was known to include patterns such as vines, flowers, and shells, giving it the elegant and graceful look Louis wanted during his reign. This antique serving dish clearly shows the vine-like beauty around the outer rim of the dish, with its handle having a matching cover decorated with its leaf style design. The decorated handle is also removable, allowing both halves of the dish to be used as serving dishes if desired.

"Silver has always held an exalted position within the decorative arts" (J. Munger, 2003). This hand-crafted silver serving dish originating from England distinguishes itself from other media such as wood, glass and porcelain, which do not have inherent value. This antique would have justified a purpose back from it's origin, giving it a sign of wealth and status. Silver dining is very common now making this antiques value profitless today.  

Trade Me Link - http://www.trademe.co.nz/antiques-collectables/silver-metalware-tins/silver/silver-plate/auction-457145161.htm


Munger, Jeffrey. "French Silver in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History.  
           New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/fsilv/hd_fsilv.htm  
           (October 2003)


Tour: 18th-Century France - The Rococo and Watteau Overview. (n.d.). Retrieved From
           http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg54/gg54-over1.html


"France, 1600–1800 A.D.". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–.   
           http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=09®ion=euwf (October 2003)

Time

First Shoot

My first shoot was pretty much to get an idea of what i could photograph to portray time within an image, I tried out several different ideas, but most of it was to do with water. I tried using a spray can or a can of deodorant to hopefully show the time from when it exits the can and what it looks like. I then proceeded to photograph traveling water from a hose, and lastly another main one i did was food coloring in water, what happens during a duration of time and what it looks like when it's mixing. I had some good images which turned out reasonable. 

Time

Weekly Task One

For this exercise, I used my phone and the light within to show the difference between having a slow shutter speed and a fast shutter speed. This technique is very handy in showing the motion of time especially when light is applied to the image. This is my results:

Fast Shutter Speed

Slow Shutter Speed

Time

Proposal/Plan/Ideas

For this project I must show the "essence of time" within my photography, I shall aim to submit 4-10 images of time for final presentation. Playing around and experimenting on the shutter speed and exposure on my DSLR will be essential in this project, in which these key features will help me portray the word "TIME".

I've got several ideas whirling around in my head, I am interested in:

- Water 

How it can change over time, what certain things can change water itself, using things like paint or food coloring to effect the color of water giving it patterns throughout it over time etc. Also water based things such as sprays, ice melting, mixing things like alcohol.

- Technology

There are different ways in portraying technology in time these days, like that moment when you receive a text, or an alarm clock going off in the morning. Possibly an analog clock ticking, my friend's analog clock actually goes anti-clockwise rather than clockwise which confuses people. I might take a photo of that too to portray time travel. That or in a camera within itself, the time taken to focus into an image, and then to take the photo itself...another interesting (hard) idea.

- Light

Probably a common thing to photography to show time, I will be thinking about doing this although i have a feeling most people will be. But to show light maybe on a busy highway at night? Or a phone's backlight turned on in a dark room with the clock next to it to show time? 

I will develop these ideas even more once i get more ideas on what I should do and portray, and how i can portray it. I'll also upload images of several ideas I have further come up with.


- History
I came up with this idea initially after my other ideas, because I wanted to explore the time/history of the buildings around Wellington. We all walk through Wellington every day but we never really notice the buildings around us, some being new and some being over 100 years old. Some even a mix of both, I think this will be an interesting topic to shoot as it would definitely make sense with portraying time in a historical/cultural way.

Project 2 Ideas

I brainstormed heaps of ideas on a sheet of paper of words that could be a possible final product of mine, and so far I have come up with 6 words that I have documented into a storyboard. I chose Pour, showing the fluidity of the word by pouring it down the box and slowly filling it up, giving it the hint of water. Fall starting from the top and each individual letter falling down one by one. Grow to show the growth of a tree/plant, starting with one word and slowly transforming to a bigger tree. Bass, starting off with block letters, then transforms to massive letters like you would hear from the bass of a subwoofer. Drink was a fun I thought, Placing the letters vertically, then slowly emptying like someones drinking it, might give it the hint of it being alcohol too. But my favorite one so far was dance. This could possibly be my final word. I had the idea of it using DANCE twice as legs/feet, as the letter D makes that perfect shape for feet. It was going to start off on the outside then "moonwalk" in to the center, hip hop spin 2/3 times then jump into the splits...Also I was interested in making it do the "shuffle" (LMFAO reference) which I think would be very entertaining to watch. 

This is the class exercise that we did for project 2, we had to cut out each letter then paste it back onto a new page. We had to explore different spacing between each letter but it has to be perfectly horizontal. "healthy" was a serif font so it was harder to use. I had trouble with the letter A the most because it was bottom heavy with the top of it being just a point. It was hard to judge it was aligned or not, also similar problems with the L, T and Y.