Final steps for Independent Project

What a day!!!! Who would think so many problems would present. Anyway I think it is done. It is not perfect because the 'Jack in the box' keeps springing backwards and I was hoping to make it fall forward and unravel the images. Have tried re-weighting the box, shortening the material at the front, tying springs together to shorten them so they are weighted forward.......all sorts of things but it just refuses to fall forwards. Had to turn the images around so that as they spill out towards the back the images are right side up.

The only way I can see this problem being overcome is if I actually had a special spring made that folds inside itself when compressed. If I choose to progress this idea in future it is something I would need to give more time to but right now I need to hit the books for art theory this week.

Will upload images I have just taken

Making a Jack in a Box

This is a little more challenging than I thought but then isn't everything. I have spent the whole morning just sewing the lining and sorting out the step by step process of how exactly I manage to contain everything in the box without it all coming apart but still looking neat and fun.......The first job was to actually put a catch on the box on the outside. That needed to be done before the spring went in. The spring needed to be attached to a bottom plate which is then glued to the inside bottom of the box. The lining had to be sewed to the right length to go over the spring . The lining will have to be glued inside the bottom section of the box. I need to attach the photos, which are to be concertinered from the box, to the cloth and spring in such a way that they come out OK and right way up......all fun and games but getting there.

Independent project images

Jack in a Box

Independent project

At last have finished choosing and mnipulating images for the "Jack in a Box". Will download copies of the final 12 selected. I have used a variety of John Howard faces to superimpose over the faces of refugees placing him in their 'shoes'.- situation, some seeming totally incongruous for the situation but others using his more 'reflective' image.

The Spring for the Jack in a Box has proven far more difficult to find. I have been to tip shops, op shops, sports shops, auto wreckers, bed makers and furniture builders, craft shops, marine shops etc and lots of them. The bottom line is that the type of spring I need is not made anymore. It needs to be tall but able to be compressed into the box. Most springs available or seen are tight, small and designed to expand under pressure not contract under pressure.

Looked at agricultural pipe , vaccuum pipe or anything which may compress but none were suitable. I THEN FOUND AN OLD TV ANTENNAE where the wire coils around the horizontal arm. I think it will work...........................so back to the box I have found, painted the top to make it look like the deck of a boat and a lock so it will stay closed. Images have been printed today so now it is a matter of trying to put it together and hope it works.......

Independent Project

Have had to reload lots of larger images to manipulate with photoshop. Have had to decide how I was going to superimpose John Howards face over the images of refugees. Should it be the same face, should it be the SMILEY face or should it be a variety of faces. 

Thinking about the Jack in a Box.......this is meant to be ironic as a Jack in a Box is meant to be fun, playful, surprising, a joyful toy. A plaything. The idea is that we have John Howard and his political partners playing with people's lives,,,perhaps it will be more ironic if only a smiley face jumped out, the same one on every face,............still thinking. Will play with some images and see how I go. 

Independent Project

Have decided to go with "Keeping the Lid On" but will have to find a suitable spring to go in the box. The idea behind this is that the spring will be attached to many images concertinered so that when the lid is lifted, the images burst from the box like a "Jack in a Box". During John Howards last election victory, many of the refugees were left floating in terrible conditions at Ashmore Reef and Christmas Island until after the election. Certainly "Children Overboard" was not exposed for the lie it was until after the election also. I have appropriated many images from the internet to create new images for this project and will post them now. The quality of some may not be good enough to use for the final submission. I had googled large files but when saved have discovered they only saved as small files, new search  may be required or I may have to employ a scanner and start again.

URL for Iraq war art

www.dart.fine-art.com/aqd-asp-i_ 118643-buy-artlis...

Independent Project

Thinking about what I wanted to do for this project. Have decided to stay with the same concept but finding new ways of expressing myself. This process have proven quite cathartic and will probably be good for to get this out of my system   ......  or  not...... maybe it is just the beginning of something by way of protest or political art. I have enjoyed the collage medium and collage is one of the subjects in theory we are covering over summer. It has melded quite well.

Idea 1 Slideshow....maybe silent.... of refugess with faces removed. Silent rotation of lots of images. Thinking about the 353 people who died on the SIEV X and the memorial that is at Christmas Island. Nameless people with no face. The other thought I had was to replace their face with that of John Howard, placing him in their situation.

Idea 2 "Keeping the Lid On".....The idea is to have the same faceless images of refugees ( or with John Howard superimposed again over the face ) and to place the images in a box which has a lid on top sealed tightly. The lid is painted to be a replica of the deck of a boat, natural timber with the black tar stripe through it. This very much the idea based on how Howard managed to "keep the lid on this issue" until after the election.

Artist snapshots

Practising taking snapshots of screen and then included some of artists. Interested to see if this works

Artists to follow up

Saul Bass, Paul Rand, Ikko Tanaka........thought I would follow these artists up but ran out of time. Looked at their work when I was deciding which artist presentation to do.

Printing of Narrative Project

I had my final images printed today. I first printined them small to make sure everything was aligned before embarking on 7 x A4 images. All looked really good. Had them printed at Office Works. I then ordered the A4 size and the first three printed up quite dark so persuaded the fellow, very helpful, to reprint and they were better but still a little darker. Anyway decided ( at that price) to go ahead with them. All look fine but 2 seem to not be as well aligned as they should be so will have to see if they will work for the final assessment.

Narrative Project

A couple more images to add to project. This is the final selection of images ready to be professionally printed for final submission. The order the images will follow in terms of the "Barriers to Movement" will be War, Terrain, Despair/poverty,Leaky Boats, Wild Seas, Naval Patrols and Politics.

Narrative Project

I have had to redo several images. I get through the process and print out a copy and find that I have missed a step as I want all images to be uniform in size and pixelation etc. Anyway the final images in my Narrative project are as follows.

Narrative Project

Managed to have 6 images complete for Narrative project. It is a literal narrative, final piece will probably be 7 x A4 images read from top to bottom on the wall..........I have to redo 2 images I have done because I missed out the blur step before the barriers you put in place...

Narrative Project

Process of development of images

Image selection which cover the proposed barriers. I have standardised the size of each images so they can be processed and printed as standard and uniform sizes. Each images has been cropped if necessary for best effect. Each image has been converted to black and white. Each image has been blurred. I tried to create the blur by changing the quality of the image and then enlarging but have since discovered (Thanks Jesse) the use of the filters. I chose Filter - Pixelate - Fragment.

I then put in the bars via the ruler so each was the same size and location so when the images are on the wall they follow one another consecutively. I had trouble creating white bars, they were always pale grey but by using Image-Adjustments-Curves, I was able to create the colour I needed for the bars or barriers to movement.

The style of barrier I prefer for narrative project

 This is the style of barrier, spacing etc I want to achieve on images, this is a great image to use too but sadly the quality is not good enough so will have to research some more. The one thing I have also been thinking about is that the blurring effect from poor quality images is also a metaphor for the blurred aspects of the issue. The truth is blurred and there is nothing black and white about each case.

Narrative Project

I have printed off the works that I had prepared with photoshop but have decided there is more work to be done. For starters I have too many bars in on some images. I should have printed out a couple before I completed ALL that time and effort on each image only to decide today that it is not the effect I want. Will have to start again and some of the images will need to be replaced as the resolution is not good enough. Here is one of them to be changed.

Narrative Project

Have spent last night working on Narrative Project. Mine will be literal and will have a series of images which trace the story of refugees journey to a new country and the barriers they encounter in this process.  The barriers I have identified are Fear, War, Poverty, Terrain. Unseaworthy Boats, High Seas and Drowning, Naval Vessels, Rascism and Politics. I want to place bars across the images to represent the barriers and habve thought aboput using black or white bars mixed up or alternately to indicate that the issue of refugees is very much a humanitarian issue and solutions are not black and white.

Presentation Barbara Kruger

Did presentation today and I think it went OK. Provided a powerpoint presentation but have not been able to upload it onto this blog.

Test run to upload powerpoint before progressing it further

Well that did not work as it did not recognise format. Tried it as a video upload but that did not work either. I guess I will just have the powerpoint presentation ready on CD and on my USB stick and hope it is compatible with the Macs at Uni. May have to take my laptop too as old as it is....

Artist presentation

Have been reading a book about Barbara Kruger and thinking about her work today while having a HUGE day weeding and mulching my garden. My garden is not quite one of earthly delights yet but it will be an edible garden one day and I do enjoy the physical workout and time to think. Have been searching for some images on the internet but will need to scan some for better presentaton quality. Here is one image I really like