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. 

Soap Structure.

I have developed my soap by reconstructing it and playing around with scale. How I did this was by cutting the soap into small section and then putting it in the microwave, They then expand triple it original size, which i then cut it in half again. With the smaller pieces I then connected them all together with a needle and thread. This connection of soap is around 1 meter and a half, however it is only made up by 2 bars of soap. I like the idea of having the soap which is usually small and making it unusually long, and begins to not even resemble soap. As my idea is to make a fantasy land, something nobody has seen before, I thought about having these long strips floating above my soaps on the floor. I am now imagining having a small space inside Hotspur full of strange and magical  objects. This structure to me seems to 2d and I want something more 3d, having more to look at. 

F A C E S

 Last night i went to the Kraak Gallery to see the F A C E S mcr event. As soon as i stepped in to the building i was ask to have my photograph taken, which would mean i could be part of mass living installation with all the faces of Manchester. The part of the night is to bring everyone together and for everyone to be part of something big. I heard about the night from the posters shown all around Hotspur. I am really glad i went, it was full of artist each doing their own thing, which was really inspiring. One artist asked people to put their face into a photocopier and then put the copy on the wall, which was both funny and also looked really good. Live music was also on which made the night a really relaxing. A huge projector was on the wall  which was going threw lots of peoples Facebook profile pictures, which was really cool to see more so  the peoples you don't know, feels like you are spying and looking into someone's life uninvited. The night was really interesting and inspiring, it was good to meet other people in the art community.

Composition of Soap.

Today i have started experimenting with the composition of the soaps on the floor of Hotspur.  The floor contrasting with the dirty damaged floor against the clean bright soap. The dints in the floor remind me about the surface of the moon, which I need to start looking more into as it links so well. In my piece I really want to create an out of this world environment. I now need to start my video of me making bubbles to have projected. I looked back at my work and I was really upset to leave the laughing gas and do nothing with them so i have decided to hang them to record the noises they make. The noise will hopefully sound really unusual and go with the rest of my work. I don't want them to go to waste.

CV

Beth Robinson

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Skills

I am currently studying Textiles in Practice at Manchester Metropolitan University. I am a highly motivated and hardworking person with a positive attitude. I consistently gain a reputation as an outward going and lively worker with focus on customer service. I am always looking for new challenges and I will be a great asset to your establishment due to my positive attitude and confident people skills.

 

Education

Manchester Metropolitan University- Textiles in Practice: 2011-2014

Newcastle College: 2010-2011

Art & Design Diploma – Merit

Cramlington Sixth Form: 2008-2010

Art & Design-C

Photography-B

Cramlington Community High School: 2005-2008

Art & Design-B

Graphics-B

Awards

2011-I was set a summer project after finishing sixth form to bring to Manchester, The Project was to create a dog. My dog won first prize for being the most outrageous Dog. I was very proud of my Achievements.

Work Experience

Mike Rogerson Estate Agents: 2010- For my work experience I choose to work in my local estate agents. I was trusted with the job of updating the website, marketing and promoting properties for sale, Answering Phone calls and helping customers in the shop. I enjoyed having a different task every day.  I got experience in talking to customers and working within a team.

The Holcombe Inn: 2010- I had a summer job working as a waiter, Chambermaid and bartender. Before I went to work in the hotel, I was inspired by Sophie Calle’s work “The Hotel, Room 46”1986. I took a set of photographs of people’s rooms while they were still staying there and when they left, which were interesting. I gained skills in Time management, Multi-Tasking skills and People skills. I really enjoyed being under pressure; this is when I work best.

Reference

Adeline-Foundation lecturer-  Newcastle College, Rye Hill Campus, Scotswood Road, Newcastle-upon-Tyne, NE4 7SA

Telephone Number: 0191 200 4000

Kate Egan-Textiles in practice course leader- Oxford Road, Manchester M15 6BH

Telephone Number- + 44 (0) 161 247 1324

Tutorial.

After having my tutorial I want to look more into rocks and space. The soaps look very out of this world and space like. I am going to record me blowing bubbles and creating a pattern which could be interesting to place on top of the soap. As I am going to look at space and the moon, I think it would be appropriate for me to put my soaps on the floor like they would be found on the moon, with some floating.

I now want my final piece to be out of this world and very strange. It is so contrasting compared to the urban Manchester.

Developing the Soap

I have started to half the soap using a piece of thread. The inside is really interesting as you can see the big and small bubbles.  The green soap when cut in half turned out the most successful, i do not know if this is because it has more surface area or it is because of the kind of soap. Inside the green soap looked very flaky. There were a few really big holes alongside some very small ones, I really like the contrast. The white soap was very different in the middle compared to all the others; It was more spongy than flaky. The green soap was very hard to touch as it would just break to pieces easily; however the white soap is a lot harder. Next I am going to experiment to colour. One thing i really want to do is inject some colour into the soap (pre microwave) and then microwave it and see what happens. I have no clue so such be interesting.

Fantasy Landscape

Today I tried out a fantasy landscape with my soap; I used an image I took of the some bubble I made in a bag. The bubbles acted as a sky, which looks very unusual, very much like a candy floss sky. The green soap was the bright green fields, the soap was good as fields as they have many dints and groves and not many fields and soft and smooth. I slowly started to add some of my smaller white soap samples to use for soft fluffy clouds. The part I think works best is the picture i used for the sky and the white fluffy clouds. I do really like all the colours together, like the bright greens and purples contrasting really well alongside the popping white.