Creative and curious illustrator with sights set on portraying the way I see the world in a way it sends a meaningful and global message whilst creating beautiful aesthetics.
Screen printing is a very direct method of printing, as the mark, word, or photograph will print directly, with no inversion or mirrored images, easing visualization for the artist. If you cover an area of the mesh up, ink won’t go through to the paper, hence not printing.
The most simple way of printing and doing this would be through paper stencils, something that can easily be done in under 15 minutes. The catch of this method is the same as anything involving paper and ink(specially if it is water based like the ones used in the screen printing workshop) after several heavy loads of ink trying to get through the screen the paper will moisten and start peeling off from the screen, often moving and causing loss of registration or the soiling of the print paper underneath.
Several methods have been developed to improve the process and so comes Rubylith forth, a two side adhesive red film that blocks the UV light and allows for a drawing to be exposed on a screen with a more natural trace than a digital mark. Another material that permits a more organic ark making is the Drafting film, a sheet of what appears to be tracing paper with a coarser feel on one side and a shine finish to the other.With specific inks and paints, brushstrokes or any type of mark making can be achieved with this film, and then exposed and printed. The last way of translating a drawing onto a screen is by printing a positive onto a laser film. This way you could easily print the fine line work on top of the layers of colour, making outlines pop out.
However, different layers have to be set up for every single colour or mark, and have to be executed in a very specific way in some cases.
This means preparation is of utmost importance! 2 thirds of creating a print is in the prep, of the layers, the measurements, setting up the table and thinking on what material you will be printing what type of ink.
The first term I tried paper stencils as well as a digitally edited scan of a drawing, then printed onto laser film only to find that my drawing was slightly enlarged by being printed onto an srA3 instead of A3. This meant none of my registration marks meant anything and it was evident in almost every print. I was completely deflated by a small mistake, yet one that propelled my whole print plan (and day) to the recycling bin.
These are some examples of what I got up to exactly last term
Paper stencil used to ‘block out’ the ink being printed for the hair area
An off print using water spray to dilute the ink
Outlines and hair colour
Here I was trying to calibrate the amount of ink vs the amount of strokes required to get a good thickness without smudging it or getting the paper stuck to the screen.(whilst trying out some really cool blends in the upper right corner)
The ink used here had an added shimmer due to a metallic pigment. i.e: glowing skin!
This is the most aligned print I achieved! success!
And here some overlay experimentation:
This term I wanted to go into more detail with screen printing to further understand how it works and what the possibilities are regarding technique and so on. I signed up for Pigment dyes and fabric printing by Simon, one of the workshop technicians who is a keen fabric printer.
The first thing to realise is that textiles behave differently from paper, hence having a similar but completely different process and preparation to that of paper printing. To begin with, fabric screens have a more open mesh due to the different thickness and composition of the inks used on fabric. They are called 90 meshes and don’t require to be mounted on the printing tables we see in the workshops. Instead, they work with manual weighs and can be easily moved in place to adjust the fit. (also leading in my opinion to loss of register)
Here’s a pattern by William Morris I tried out during the workshop.
I am currently preparing a print to hand in to Tony, our proud printmaker tutor, an absolute enthusiast of mark making and “non traditional” ways of printmaking (by this I mean every minute and baffling modification to traditional printmaking he discovers by experimenting).
He challenged us to deliver a print depicting our “alter ego” that uses at least a layer of each of the aforementioned techniques, except thankfully, paper stencils.
Positive on film, rubylith and drafting film. Two layers and processes more to think of as well as keeping tabs on what order to place them and the new techniques that I’ll try this time, I have to say its a tad nerve-racking.
Sketches for the new piece. Im reusing the design, although modified as I did not like some line work on the previous one.
Understanding the different layers and how to place them is not easy, and a little mockup goes a long way.
Watchmen by Alan Moore is one of the cornerstones of modern graphic novels. Not only did he introduce a new way to tackle social and moral issues in graphic novel’s narratives but he also set a precedent for the use of violence, colour and pane composition that have transpired from it’s publishing date to the current day.
In Watchmen, a war is at stake, fought by overwhelmingly powerful individuals and the only ones who stand between humanity and complete annihilation are misfits behind masks. Moore is highly critical of the destructive power of the human ego at battle, exposing the immorality of the normalisation of violence. With a decaying New York City for backdrop, its citizens are paralysed in fear by the realisation of their own mortality. This defeatist attitude they assume is caused in part by the set of extra ordinary individuals that surface with special abilities or powers that make them feel insignificant, as well as the super powers that nations like the US,Russia and North Korea hold at the press of a button.
A centrepiece in the plot is Dr. Manhattan, a nuclear scientist that undergoes an accidental transformation and becomes a God-like creature that harnesses the power to end all suffering or cause a nuclear disaster. Written during the 80’S in the height of the discussions about the morality of nuclear weaponry Moore uses Dr. manhattan as a tool to create awareness of the extent and consequences of such power. The scrutiny placed on the group of heroes is remarked whenever the phrase ” Who watches the watchmen” appears a a clear jab to the reality we face in our day to day lives: we are not in control, they are and they are omnipotent.
The way he allows our imagination to extend to the very edges of the veracity of a plot, to the point where a chilling familiarity with our own reality is one of the reasons Alan Moore is one of the most renowned and celebrated fantasy authors of the graphic novel industry. ‘V for Vendetta’ and ‘Batman:The Killing Joke’ are a few of his most eminent comics, both richly layered critiques of human behaviour that as well as Watchmen are peppered with a series of fictional yet painfully realistic and humane characters which have been crucial to the evolution of the genre.
I found a very helpful thesis by Sunah Ahn a student at Rochester Institute of Technology RIT Scholar Works where she dissects the role and meaning of shells in different cultures, past and present.
I will talk about it more in my PDF, but you can access her work through this link:
I wanted to be able to reproduce sound through the natural concavity of the shell, to trigger a potential common memory within the test group of my audience of taking a shell up to their ear and listening carefully to what it had inside.
Resin sample,User guide (resin shell speaker) and 2nd Silicone mold
Original Shell and 1st silicone cast
The whole gesture is the bridge to access that emotional state I’m asking my audience for. It prepares their disposition to be swayed in favour of my ideas. This is the effect of material culture versus a visually stimulated one. The whole aesthetic of my project plays with it back and forth to weave an alternate reality, the slim chance between the yes and the no, the what if.
Given that the shell has a cavity deep enough to hold and disguise a speaker system, It would only be a logistics problem to instal and solder a working electronic device, something with which I don’t have any experience.
I ran out of time, in particular once I un cast the replica, to realise the concavity is not deep enough. Which meant I could no longer use a bulkier prototype and had to really wring my brain out for ideas on miniaturising the hardware. I would have been happy with some of it showing, otherwise I would not have cast it in clear resin. Nonetheless It became a real problem as the total cost of the project kept rising, and the options slimming.
I resorted to a simple solution, not the best I have come up with, but with the time at hand and budget on my mind I decided to compromise. Using a maquette white tape, malleable cement and a pair of white in-ear headphones I made it work.
Generally speaking I have had no more training on how to effectively work with electronics than what I have taught myself through the years of living in a technologically savy culture and DIY videos. These are the ones that inspired me to do so.
This video is the one that directly inspired the designs of my speaker.
I can barely remember the number of video tutorials I have gone through, trying to find something as close as possible for what I am aiming for. It takes a lot of time and experimenting, so It would have been fantastic to have more time to go work in the prototyping department at the university.
The original design I had in mind required I bought a lot of components, like a flat 6mm speaker, the smallest bluetooth transmitter/receiver I could find, a tiny motherboard, cables, fiddle with the already working transmitter for it to work via the speaker and soldier the right cables and the list goes on.
Thi speaker would be discrete,but costing us quality
Simple and straigtforward
After all it did look okay, but Im not personally satisfied with the overall finish of aesthetic and functionality, since the volume is very quiet and can only be heard clearly if the surrounding environment has sound insulation.
Here is a video of how the shell looked right after the final curing process. At 60-72 degrees Celsius for 6 hours, the resin is allowed time to expand and contract and reinforce the heat based reaction that seals the chemicals together.
Lars Von Trier proposes a rigid approach to filmmaking as a counteraction to the innumerable and ever growing techniques to mask or modify the audiovisual art.
He even proceeds to denominate the set of rules as “The Vow of chastity”,that alongside with the following fragments repels me to an extent. I understand the balance we tries to propose, but I find it stiff, overthought and snobbish.
1.DOGMA 95 is a rescue action!
2.DOGMA 95 has the expressed goal of countering “certain tendencies” in the cinema today.
I see this a stylistic evolution of cinema, an unconforming individual that demands reform, a new breath of fresh air to an ageing field in the era of modernist and technologically advanced decadence. He criticises the lack of content and the banality of which can be blamed with a taste for flare and special effects. I comprehend this to be a natural reaction, in particular in the field of art, where multiple tangents of stylistic ideologies run parallel and entwine, giving birth to the history of we now know.
Nevertheless I find it a bit too bold, stripping the freedom the camera offers by imposing these military grade instructions to live by. I don’t believe in telling people what to do, specially if it comes in the form of military instructions. I think it’s effectiveness and impact is undermined by a predisposition to disobey imposition.
Today a technological storm is raging, the result of which will be the ultimate democratization of the cinema. For the first time, anyone can make movies. But the more accessible the medium becomes, the more important the avant-garde. It is no accident that the phrase “avant-garde” has military connotations. Discipline is the answer… we must put our films into uniform, because the individual film will be decadent by definition!
Rasking, R. (December 2009) P.O.V. Filmtidsskirift. A Danish Journal of Film Studies: Department of information and Media Studies- Aarhus University
I have always admired the ability to deliver social concern and incite peoples imaginations as rap and hip hop do. Biggie small, or Notorious Big, is one of those once in a lifetime people who have a mission and a message and they make us a part of it, they pleasure our sound receptors and stimulate our mind. These commandments are no different. They are a straight analogy that uses the crack dealing business to explain the rules of adult life.
Every one is specific to rules we are already familiar with. Similar to Jenny Holzer, Biggie enumerates truisms of life, trying to impact all his listeners with a piece of advice.
5. Never sell no crack where you rest at Biggie is illustrating the dangers of mixing your business affairs with your personal life. In the drug world, if customers aren’t satisfied, they’ll return to where they bought the product… for a resolution. In the crack game, that resolution won’t be peaceful. Protect yourself, so that work problems remain in the workplace. After you clock out, remove yourself entirely. If you have a family, spend time with those closest to you. If you have a girlfriend, take her out to dinner. Make sure that these things don’t interfere with work and, more importantly, matters of work can’t interfere with them
The First things first manifesto delves on the senseless use of ones craft not to improve and develop new sciences or promote education, but instead being exhausted for the purpose of financial and comercial success. Garland and his colleagues halt the market in hopes that peers would hop onto the moral wagon and change the way that Graphic Design has always been thought of as and what they can achieve together. It is a passionate declarations of intentions which I feel sympathetic of as a fellow artist.
It is as well a concern that no matter where you place yourself in life, but specially on a career path. When do you stop prioritising money over the right design, satisfaction of pay over satisfaction of mind and of a job well done that has impacted someone else apart of oneself.
At CTS we worked in groups in order to visualize a quick reflection on the subject of Garland’s Manifesto.
Jenny Holzer: Truisms
Holzer’s Truisms are a genuinely brilliant way to deliver not just one message, but 300 of them to the general audience, raising with a tad of humour the concern regarding misinformation in the information era. Committing to work that tells your audience exactly the opposite of what you think is a daring move. She didn’t compromise comprehension over innovation while still delivering a superb amount of work.
Marshall Mc Luhan: The Medium is the Message
Sol LeWitt: Sentences on Conceptual Art
Vincente Huidobro:We must Create
Tristan Tzara: Dada Excites Everything
I like the anarchist approach of dadaism. They don’t care, it runs like a wildfire through a forest, electricity through neurons and to them It is vital force at its purest form. A almost hedonistic abandon to apparent randomness and nonsensical elements to truly own the reality that might not be the one they’d prefer to live on. Dada is a reaction to strict and sombre power, to modern rational pragmatism, to boring tradition, and to authority and rules.
These fragments of the manifesto appear to have a subtle message within the apparent structural and nonsensical order of ideas.
WHAT DOES DADA DO?
WHAT DOES DADA DO?
50 francs reward to the person who finds the best
way to explain DADA to us
Dada passes everything through a new net.
Dada is the bitterness which opens its laugh on all that which has been made consecrated forgotten in our language in our brain in our habits.
It says to you: There is Humanity and the lovely idiocies which have made it happy to this advanced age
DADA HAS ALWAYS EXISTED THE HOLY VIRGIN WAS ALREADY A DADAIST
DADA IS NEVER RIGHT
Catholic Church: The Apostles’ Creed
As a woman without a faith, and a disbeliever in the institutions that reap their benefit off someone’s ingenuity I find this one to be of no interest. I have dissected in and out and all the way around it why I dislike the church. Not to mention how literally they interpret their sacred manifesto.
I believe in God, the Father Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth; and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary; suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died and was buried. He descended into hell; the third day He rose again from the dead; He ascended into heaven, is seated at the right hand of God the Father Almighty; from thence He shall come to judge the living and the dead. I believe in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Catholic Church, the communion of Saints, the forgiveness of sins, the resurrection of the body, and life everlasting. Amen.
On the other hand, if we look at their scriptures with a more critical eye but an open mind, one starts to see common points with history and you can truly learn something our ancestors believed and saw .
Home / Verse-by-Verse Bible Commentary / Psalms / Chapter 77
Having a skin short
This versicle is a fascinating to me. I come from a traditionally catholic middle class spanish family, and although I have been indoctrinated by my guardians, I have never been religious myself. As a matter of fact I label myself as an agnostic individual, who denies the role religions and cults have as controlling “material” apendix of the entity they praise/serve but still find it possible to believe in other sources of trust and faith. I understand human kind needs something to believe on in order to structure their world, to establish an under and above that gives normalcy to life.
However, the writings that multiple faiths have are I think valuable pieces of introspection into the human condition, and can give insight into the ever repeating history and support evidence that would apparently be disconnected by centuries.
Psalms 77:10
3.The hyper-sensitive constitution is another organ of martyrdom. Like Cowper, many noble souls are morbidly sensitive and shy. They seem born with a skin short , and feel with grievous acuteness a thousand things of which the ordinary man is positively unconscious, or to which he is practically indifferent. God alone understands what these neurotic, nervous, shrinking souls suffer in a rude world like this.
user guide
Leave your shell,listen to what it has to say
These drawings are pre manifesto and post user guide sketches to reflect how I feel about our numbness to emotion and pain. It directly delves into the subject of being a skin short. My previous manifesto also contained it in the speech, but was modified to suit the style better. Nonetheless it is still clearly present in the core of it.
The beat Manifesto:
This piece by John Clellon Holmes is superb recapitulation of events that influenced a generation and that was “labeled” in its entirety in a very broad way and a reflection on how these conditions repeat themselves to form a list of adversities almost every young generation has to overcome . It is the uncanny resemblance and the capacity to identify with the moral questions of generations that draw us back 50 years or more. This was the first and only “Beat Manifesto” that ever happened, busy as they were looking for themselves and Utopia on the beaten roads of the US.
It is a postwar generation, and, in a world which seems to mark its cycles by its wars, it is already being compared to that other postwar generation, which dubbed itself ‘lost’. The Roaring Twenties, and the generation that made them roar, are going through a sentimental revival, and the comparison is valuable. The Lost Generation was discovered in a roadster, laughing hysterically because nothing meant anything anymore. It migrated to Europe, unsure whether it was looking for the ‘orgiastic future’ or escaping from the ‘puritanical past.’ Its symbols were the flapper, the flask of bootleg whiskey, and an attitude of desperate frivolity best expressed by the line: ‘Tennis, anyone?’ It was caught up in the romance of disillusionment, until even that became an illusion. Every act in its drama of lostness was a tragic or ironic third act, and T.S. Eliot’s The Waste Land was more than the dead-end statement of a perceptive poet. The pervading atmosphere of that poem was an almost objectless sense of loss, through which the reader felt immediately that the cohesion of things had disappeared. It was, for an entire generation, an image which expressed, with dreadful accuracy, its own spiritual condition.
Having studied the generational cycle before, I cannot but think that we must indeed learn from our mistakes and move forward whilst owning them. This fragment talks about the influence each generation has over the next and supports the idea of people having an active role in the subject of nostalgia as a key element in the behaviour of an entire generation. This amongst other things support the idea for my project to pull from the concept of nostalgia to trigger a willingness and disposition for the assimilation of an Idea.
http://www.litkicks.com/ThisIsTheBeatGeneration“This is the complete text of the article by John Clellon Holmes that ran in the New York Times Magazine on November 16, 1952. This article introduced the phrase “beat generation” to the world, although the writers who would come to personify this generation would not be published for several years more.”
My manifesto was greatly influenced both ideologically and stylistically by the Beat Generation. These elements are found throughout their style and I have decided to appropriate them and make them my on to evolve my writing.
Trying to emulate but own the beat dynamic of writing and transmitting by not halting, by fluidly threading the words as if a deeply moving or exhilarating speech being given. SHOCK! I plan to stir minds with the unsettling structure and apparent lack of boundaries
I was also inspired by the dizzying passion, the all consuming madness that Kerouac as a writer managed to transmit onto his manuscript of the novel ‘On the Road’. The roll of paper is a statement on its own, an invitation down the rabbit hole of his thoughts.
The document, which was the second draft of the novel and begun by Kerouac in April 1951 in New York, is 120-feet of continuous scroll. In an attempt to make sure his creative flow wasn’t interrupted, the writer taped together rolls of architect’s paper and fed it into his typewriter. Then, in a burst of creativity characteristic of the beat generation, the writer typed the novel in three weeks.
Another Brick in the wall by Pink Floyd delivers a simple message : LEAVE THOSE/US KIDS ALONE! Political unrest, lies, war, money, power. Similar subjects are tackled by the beat generation, wrapping it up around the search for self, to find the right balance of mediocrity and wit that is acceptable, the rebellion of a generation against the euthanasia of freedom of speech and our human rights.
Ditch social conformity and homogenous disposition, create your own definition of yourself, respect other definitions and promote freedom of speech and love.
A message of peace…
…………………………………………………………………………
It isn’t about you, It is about them.
Why, even if they’re under the same scrutiny and reject, do they ash out against each other? Why do we use our peers as stepping stones? Why do we fight to be the last one on top? One may argue animal instinct, self preservation and greed but I believe there is more to us, that it is possible to live in a just and respectful society.
Body shaming
Here individuals are exposed to intervention case scenarios where a Surgeon applies South Korean plastic surgery advice on them and they share experiences and a digitally edited photograph of their “better” selves.
This is the reality of the millions of people that decide to go under the knife, be it vanity, necessity or peer pressure.
In this website, proud young females with body modifications living in the States decided to send out a message of acceptance and self assurance by unapologetically exposing themselves and their motives to wear a certain fashion.
As women we are held up to countless standards of beauty, and being pure and unmarked is a huge one. When we break the stereotype, people are weirded out – but we get it. It’s hard being so hardcore. It’s been said that beauty is pain, and if a needle piercing through the skin is what it takes to get that cute jewellery, then so be it. The elderly might freak out, and our parents might think it’s trashy, but we love it. If it heightens our confidence, and makes us happy, then we don’t give a fuck what you think.
This is the NHS website with information about Gender dysphoria, a condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because there’s a mismatch between their biological sex and gender identity. It’s sometimes known as gender identity disorder (GID), gender incongruence or transgenderism.
And below we can find two disputing minorities, that in fear of being compromised, one takes a negative course of action to establish their superiority, therefore their survival. Very interesting views on how we still pile up against each other regardless of voicing oppressed minorities because we OVERLAP our opinions [devoid them from actual meaning due to feeling fearful of an attack to the basis of their beliefs]
Having looked into the history of oppression of ideas, speaking out and embracing our voice through manifestos made me pause and looked at the pictures with a critical look. What, who is it that is always there to shut down, to refrain, to shame and out speak?
See for yourselves.
(left to right) A Christian Street preachers yells at a group hanging outside of a bar whiledrag queen Charles Loraine Wendell yells back on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter during Fat Tuesday Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans, Louisiana USA on Tuesday 12 February, 2013. Fat Tuesday is the final day of Mardi Gras celebrations in New Orleans.
Public speaking isn’t a bad thing. Delivering a message of hate is. Our voices play an incredibly important role in our lives, and whether we use it for good or for bad is in our hands. It is not up to us to cleanse misery from the planet, however, we can do our part by not spreading it or supporting it. By contributing to society as best we can, offering our best self.
The role a public speaker has in society is cornerstone to any movement. People with the capacity to convince and sway minds have a unique gift, or maybe their voice just happens to be louder. But there is difference between being the loudest to being heard. If we only contribute with empty thoughts and self interest, in the end we will all be on our own.
I went to Hyde park corner, Speakers corner specifically and even though I looked I could not for the life of me find a single voice.It is a historical landmark that was existed since the opening of the parks doors to commoners. Anyone is entitled to an opinion and time on the “podium” and to simply voice or compel their audiences. It reflects on their website that attendance has reduced over the years and the “makeup” reforms the location undergoes every year, reducing and caging their free minds space. It is a sad metaphor of the state of current events.
In these early sketches I reflect the agony of informative disinformation.
The final presentation comes neatly packaged into one container and is divided into several segments:
The box
The vinyl sleeve
The plastazote base
The corner tabs (what hold the vinyl sleeve at sufficient height to pick up and serve as a lid)
Materials used where:
Acrylic
Extra material I experimented with. Transparent engraved acrylic and laser cut white acrylic
Plastazote
The one to the right is laser cut. The left one isn’t.
Laser cutting machine (inside the workshop facilities and outside)
Plastic cement
The plastazote was something I decided to add later on, I realised that the best way of neatly and safely packaging and exhibiting the shell speaker while not being used was to have it fixed into it’s own shape. I had two ways of going around this issue, bearing in mind that my replica is still curing inside its mold, and the original cannot be used because it will not have the imperfections the replica might come with. I could vac form it, or laser cut material to house it.
Vac forming demanded too much of my time and as the deadline was creeping in closer I decided laser cutting the material would be quicker, cleaner and more efficient. That would have been the case, but I envisioned a thickness of about 10-12 mm and instead I had 3 and 6 to play with. In the end I decided to cut one sheet of 3 mm plastazote with the shape of the original shell, which I vectorized by scanning the shell’s shadow (measuring 3D objects is not the most accurate). The shape sadly doesn’t fit completely, so this is definitively one of the things I would love to redo. Plus I had to cut another sheet of 3mm foam to place underneath as the shell was deeper.
Here are the sketches I made for the plastazote layer.
I designed both boxes, and although my initial design appears to not have any flaws, I did measure wrong and the result was slightly off in several areas because of it.
The base of my box was larger than the lid of the sleeve, so it could slot in and have a snug fit within the box, but I made a mistake. I should have had in consideration that to create the correct perimeter I had to make two of the sides slightly shorter and two of them to go all the length of the side.
Instead I sized it the following way:
Base 33x33L& R 32x22 F&B 32x22Complete sleeve once assembled 32x32x6mm
Base 33×33
L& R 32×22 I made the mistake of making the sides smaller than the base, which led to several issues:
The first one was that at least 5 mm of the base was peaking out from the sides of the box. Secondly, this meant that the top component of the sleeve would not slide in( exactly same measurements as the perimeter of the box, so the bottom part sat on top of the corner tabs while the lid had the tiniest of grips over it. The way I made up for that mistake was raising the placement of the tabs to the highest point possible to achieve maximum safety of the lid.
F&B 32×22
Complete sleeve once assembled 32×32
Another way I tweaked the design of the box to achieve a good grip on the lid was subtracting a small u portion of material at the top of the sides, that way by pressing the fingers from underneath of the sleeve it will gently come off.
Below are both files that I prepared for the laser cutting services. Note that the sleeve is marked in red and the other file in blue. This is due to the different settings with which several laser cutting facilities work with.
Packaging
Vinyl sleeve+ Packaging lid
In the end everything worked out, not as seamlessly as I would have preferred but all in all it is a functional working design. I really enjoyed working with this medium, although I’d like to point out its highly reflective surface catches on a lot of dust, particles and fingerprints as well as being very prone to scuffs and scratches. Ideally four transparent gel stoppers at each corner of its base would greatly improve this situation as well as providing extra stability.
From working with this material I also came across a rather innocent looking adhesive: Plastic Weld (Methylene Chloride). Although it has passed the H&S check with the technicians at the 3D workshop, I would not use it again without a fume cabinet. For part of the project I had to finish gluing it at home and it’s odourless fumes where terrible to inhale. If I will retake this process at any given point I would proceed with extreme care.
Final outcome
Vinyl sleeve+ Packaging lid
The sleeve also presented some difficulties, as the strips of material for the sides were extremely thin and refracted the light in strange ways, it was not easy to align, plus if not glued perfectly the sides would give in in the areas that they are subjected to most pressure.
Box final outcome with Shell and plastazote assembled
One of the most exhilarating parts of the project has been recording on a vinyl my manifesto. For this I researched an individual who has made his name by cutting handmade vinyls for the independent DJ scene of Peckham, in particular of the Canvas bar. I met up with him and saw the studio where he works from, a tiny shoebox sized room with tons of blanks stacked up, the windows almost fogging up due to the temperature. In order to allow the diamond tip to scratch sound onto a sheet of plastic this needs to be heated up to exactly the perfect melting point (around 36-9 degrees Celcius) and the track has to be as crisp and clean as possible, to achieve maximum quality of audio.
I recorded a short video and took a picture of how the machine looks like. There are only two people in London currently doing this.
That being finished I only had to lay out my design on the sticker template and print, but there was some last minute struggle with the files and design and Its definitively something I would redo .
One thing I found difficult to achieve was studio perfect recordings, even though I used a microphone (Zoom Hn2) from the kit room, which had different microphone settings it would unfortunately catch up some of the background noise. The lack of facilities fully equipped to record it meant that I had to do some serious editing work.
I had in total 4 voices including mine and two of them volunteered from abroad (having this specific idea of the presence of the voice stretched my possibilities thin) . I crafted a guide for them to read, and instructed them to impart their own personality to the text. In the end, I had an interesting array of recordings which then I decided to mix and choose the right one for the record.
Please find below a like to my soundcloud page where I have uploaded chronologically organised tracks that show development on the final track that was used on my vinyl.
I used Logic Pro X a profesional audio editing software. I used it for the first time for this project and although complex it seemed intuitive enough to get one with the basics.
I did find it problematic to experiment with the tracks once combined, mainly because of difference in tone and speed made it almost impossible to pair.
This project has challenged me in several new ways. Material, concept, brief and field.
To begin with, I decided to compose a piece of writting that could inspire another human being. Secondly I lifted those words and allowed them to be spread by sound waves, from the bottom of my lungs to the breath exhaled by the thespian who gave life to them. Making them reverb inside the concavity of the carapace that gives it purpose. Crashing onto someones mind, making their heart flutter or skip a beat.
ink+noise
Writing the piece I was inspired by the beat generation poetry. It’s sense of urgency, contrasted by the low monotonous tone with which they read it made the message impact in my brain, slowly seeping in. I want my piece to reflect that.
My poster had an element of crazy repetition and overwhelming use of the entire space. I’ve used this resource in the past and will continue to explore it. The repetition allows a semblance of a “blank” canvas, due to the apparently identical style for each individual element, allowing accents to be spread throughout without it being too evident. They are key in the way you read the manifesto, and the way you associate the style of writing the piece with what it talks about (noise, cacophony) .
First poster
Sketchbook,first draft
As well as the beat generation, the piece came to life in response to what I call Modern day mind polution. Our world is an ever expanding one. All the voices, opinions, lives. All clashing and bruising each other against the beat road of life.
I saw a piece by Lawrence Abu Hamdan, called “The all hearing” that reflects concern about freedom of speech, noise pollution and the divulgement of mosque’s sermons in the city of Cairo. I felt that the subject of my project was not only felt in London, one of the hearts of “the West” but as well as the other side of the world. This allowed my audience spectrum to be one that fluctuates not geographically, but demographically. The more there are in a tight space, the deeper my test subjects will be intertwined with the point of my message.
Weeks after writing the manifesto I decided I wanted to record it onto a vinyl as an ongoing part of the new brief asigned and decided it needed some work done to it. It improved the readability, the prose and the presence of the message.
For this I asked a friend who’s a writer for advice and we read through it and did some brainstorming. She showed me this amazing video of a woman reciting her poem to a crowd. The way she imparts passion to it is absolutely shocking.
It’s an inspiring and moving delivery of a socially concerned manifesto. And it rocks.With Dominique Christina I was encouraged to not fear passion and loudness (being visually bold and loud are so different to achieve, the latter being the most challenging for me).
My friend also suggested I used metaphors and embraced the element of repetition instead of pursuing grammatical correctness to improve the quality of the speech, and I have to say that after a couple of drafts it already sounded more meaningful.
Other speeches that influenced the way of delivering my speech were the following:
And last but not least, the audiovisuals of cinematographer Adam Curtis sums up the political climate that I react to with my manifesto.
Here is the cheat sheet I made for my voice actors to follow and guide them with the enunciation I envisioned them to deliver.
From the blooming emotion Society, on behalf of the paper thin skinned people,
(ascending)To those scurrying behind the battlement of their carapace.
I say to you, (midpause)my hardened kin; whom I’d love to love;
Fall he|ad over heels (stress head, emotive)
Love
LOVE
LOVE! And expand your soul.
Brothers and sisters, we have a voice! Big or small, or not quite there at all (descending tone)
Something is said by everyone and anyone.
If only we had a set of ears and a heart as well as a mouth because who’s to listen if all we do is shout! Try to fill in someone else’s shoes. New shoes old shoes, comfy cool or no SHOES.
STOP
I say pause. Breathe in and listen the all so valid voices
Proud, Loud, Timid and soft.
from the blooming emotion Society, on behalf of the paper thin skinned people,
(ascending)To those scurrying behind the battlement of their carapace
I manifest my love to you.
My acceptance
My understanding and support
My patience empathy and open mind
We might not agree whether blue or teal should appeal
But I accept you as I hope you accept me
Because we are valid and flawed as the next, we who breathe think and feel
Let’s not profess hate| Let’s not campaign it| Promote it| Carry it or develop it
Let’s not sink in and feed its horrendous and ungrateful mouth.
Don’t let it thrive, don’t nurture or nurse it, neither within nor without.
Shed your numb façade and allow yourself to feel again
DISCARD your IRE and fight HATE with LOVE and inch by inch we will reconquer our sanity, our humanity. For you my Kin, I’ll wear my heart on my sleeve.
Copper & Dual is a two part collaboration with young talent Made magazine, a fresh and exciting Fashion, art and photography editorial produced for and by creatives making their way into the industry. This number revolved around men and the adoration of sharp angles and features, softened by a certain tenderness. I had an absolute blast designing these dreamy eyed gentlemen that could stop any creature in a heartbeat.
I used watercolours, ink , polychromes and digital edition.
I met Ruben,Carlos and Lorena during my HND Illustration studies and felt an immediate connection with their proposal of crowd fund, collaborative publication. It’s inclusive, it’s young, it is bloody beautiful and the ethos they bring to the table has no rival. Employing local models, photographers, designers, illustrators, tailors and brand owners they have single handedly contributed to the boost of an economy and the encouragement of young and passionate people in a god forsaken (but very beautiful) islands.
Cloudiine 