Unit X so far

I have really enjoyed doing Unit X, my favourite part was working in Hotspur, it is such a good space to work in. Everywhere you look you will find something new and different. I feel I have expressed myself and delivered a lot of ideas. My development of my soap has been up and down but I am really happy at the point I am at now. I think my work is really strong and the theme of Planets and Space has been well executed. I have enjoyed working alongside other course such as Fine Art; I have made a really good friend in Fine Art who allowed me to show my work at her exhibition at Antwerp Mansion, that was a great experience. Having different opinions from a Fine art student and a textiles student on my work has been really helpful as I get two completely different views.

Interrogation Manchester has been fun, finding new places, meeting new people and having brand new experiences. It was a great way to end my first year. I feel I put everything in to it and i would not change anything.

Fish eye effect

I have just created my own fish eye effect on my camera using a piece of cardboard the results are better than I could have planned. I am really happy with the images. I love how it is a circle as it links in with the planets. It is almost like the planet is made up with extremely large rocks, which also links in with project as I have been using strange and unusual objects. The images with the curves soap structure have been most successful and as it curves with the circle. The colours have also been successful, as i looked at the photograph on the NASA website it had a lot of purples and golden colours and in these photographs the hint of purple makes it look more magical. The soap was actually just photographed in front of a white background so the colours from the soap must have made the slight hint of purple. I love the small shadows some images have. One thing I need to work on with to make sure the circle does not move and is always in the same place, it was difficult doing this with a piece of cardboard so I need to stop it from moving. In my final piece I need to figure out if i want the images to be side by side and a lot of black or if they are all individual cut up and they have a hint of background colour also. I will test out both options. I want a large amount of photographs in my final piece, as I feel this will make more of an impact and from a distance they will all look like floating planets. 

Space Geology

(Earthlike Planets)Surfaces of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Moon, Mars.

Bruce Murray-Micheal C.Malin-Ronald Greeley

These are images I have found while looking at books on objects found on the Moon, such as rocks, ice and NASA machinery. These images are similar to the ones I want do for my final piece, very close to the floor and like they are on a small robot with a camera on the end. I like how all the rocks seem large, are you actually very big? Alternatively, is it the angel of the camera? One thing I have taken inspiration from by looking at these images is the horizon on them. I have never really thought about this. I will now consider this in my photographs. These images have a lot of depth, which I would like in mine to. Looking at factual books like this has helped me gain knowledge on space and the Moon, also help on my photographs, If i use the rocks as soap it will make this situation look a lot more unusual and strange. Makes the viewer think is this real of not. I like how the colours between the real thing and mine are going to be so different, makes it more interesting.

NASA

http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/iotd.html

Now I have an idea of where i want my final piece to go, with the fisheye lens photographs of my soap, I need to start thinking about how and what I want to photograph. I started looking at the NASA website to look at the images they have, I choose these four as the top two have a nice circle quality within them, which I want in my own work. The last image is the style I am aiming for in my work; with have the black outer ring. The reason I like the fisheye effect is it really has a space effect, it is in a planet shape and it curves like a planet. In my work, I am photographing the soaps, which look unusual and look as if they have just come of the moon. With photography, I can make it look as if they are on the moon. I have put the third image on here to look at as I love the colours, many of my soaps are just green and I need to start looking into my colours. I love the pink and golden colours.

This is my own image, I have tried to make the fish eye lens with lighting, however it is to subtle. I want it to be a lot bolder. I can do this with photoshop of a fish eye lens.
This kind of photography is the way i want to go. With soap on the ground looking unusal, it looks like it could be on the moon. My final piece will be made up on hundreds of images like this.

Brendan Dawes

I went to Brendan Dawes lecture in the second week of Unix X,   The piece I can remember the most seeing was called Cinema Redux. Which is a collection of stills from films. Every second a  finger print from a film is taken. Each line represents 1 minute from the film. I really love the idea, however I am more interested in the lay out of the Cinema Redux. I have now decided to photograph my soap, doing an instillation with the 3d soaps was not working as much as i hoped, the soap was not looking as if it would be in space or on the moon and with photography I can do that. My photography of the soaps is more successful and can portray the space theme even more. I have started photographing the soap with a fish eye lens which is successful, it reminds me of the cameras put on the moon on a robot slowly moving across the moon. I am going to photograph the soap with a fish eye lens and lay the photographs out in a very similar way to Brendan Dawes, I love the way the fingerprints are so small the only way to see what is happening is to look in very close. I am also really interested in scale.

I have included my notes from the lecture, as i found it hugely inspiring, and it shows more of his work.

Circle of Soap.

I have continued using the aluminium rods, but now i have started making them into circle shapes. I much prefer the circle shape compared to the organic line structure.  The ring of soap reminds me of planetary rings, so it really relates to space. However looking at the ring up at Hotspur makes me think if my work will really work well as an instillation. The ring is a really interesting object however when it is floating in space like it is, your attention is not fully on the ring. The eye is distracted by the objects all around it. Photography may be the best way to make each soap sculpture really interesting, also there would be no distractions, unless I wanted that.

3D Soap Sculpture.

I have done something very similar to this already, however it was not as 3D as i would have hoped. I wanted the piece to be more unusual and have more to look at. So the one i made to hang has less to look at against this piece. I got a aluminium rode and shaped it very organically. I then cut up a bar of soap and then put them in the microwave. When the soap was still very hot I threaded them onto the rod. It looks really unusual and goes with my fantasy space like theme very well as it really just looks so strange. As it is so 3d you can move around it and see it in different angles. Each time you look at it, it will most likely be different. I am going to get more rods and develop this idea some more.