Tutorials

I'm going to blog my two tutorials this week from the dynamic duo of Matt and Luara. Matts tutorial on Monday put me in a good mood as he said he liked my drawing about the projectors and sequential which mixed my trianspotting interview with my conveyor belts. It sprung me into looking for more collectors to talk to to help ground my project. But he also saw the potential in doing perhaps a series of outcomes (something i'm well into) which could be an illustration (loosely, I'm not going to get too prescriptive about it) of the collection process, i.e. acquisition, display and storage, or something like that. My tutorial with Laura went really well. She talked about my process, and the transitions between drawing/idea and model/physical and from that to outcome/presentation. She said that I might not need to create the things I'm drawing if the outcome wasnt actually a set of conveyor shelves (for example). I could present the outcome and design the process, which is kind of a lot of what my work is about anyway. Laura said I've really got to figure out what the point of whatever it was i was going to design was, even if it just so that I can display/ present it in the right way.

I'm now going to print out all the interviews, good drawings and good models and start to merge them slightly into groups to design around. I've also got some more focused making and stuff towards a finished 'thing'. I guess it's also encouraging that Luara was asking me what kind of outcome it was that I wanted to produce (a video, an object, graphics), and it made me happy to think that i didn't care; whatever is relevant to the project. I like that I might actually be this Goldsmiths designer and that I use only graphics as a convinient tool.

Tutorial and Stuff

Having a good time at the moment but I'm getting worried that my project isn't getting where i want to be fast enough- part of this problem is not knowing where i want to be, i just know I'm not there! I had a good tutorial with Rosario she harked back to an old project of mine: the one with the puddles in bags and water collections. She pointed out that it's success came from a specific thing- a context, a problem and that now i had good research but that i was in danger of letting my research outdo whatever outcome it might be that i come to- i need to start getting specific- and pretty soon- I'm going to say that by the end of January for sure (hopefully sooner) i will have concluded my research to do list and that i will have a more specific area of interest to run with and make real good. We talked about which bits of my project were interesting...... i like this drawing and the idea of getting movement involved, time passing, motion, something happening during the accumulation/ collecting process- the way i see it the collecting process goes:

start static---------during, movement, interest, play, motion, active-----------after i.e. completion static once more, lack of interest, shelved,

slopes, conveyors and time passing interest me with that. We also talked about completion:

this shows an item given which contains one item, with spaces to fill, promoting collecting and accumulation- this links to one of my interests previously about a frame with a label will attract not just more of the same item mentioned within close proximity but will actively attract like a magnet, other artifacts of a similar label. A split box is better at suggesting collection by implying a set and an aim- a completion- something of a particular size for instance, when compared to a large empty cardboard box. Levels, compartments, trays, sections all describe and imply a set. I fancy making a group of objects some with 2 parts ranging up to many parts. Making tools/ objects to instigate a collection in someone- i guess to an extent i have it with my book a week framework, why not make other tools for others.

Rosario was also interested in the industrial process of standardisation. That when everything is manufactured to be 'perfect' the imperfections become the rare collectibles. If there are limited editions, or only a certain number of an item in existence (as is the main norm with collectibles- here defined as anything collected) then they are ripe to be collected. I'm wondering, what if every thing was different, but still was a product of an industrial mass process, then every one would be collectible- so none would be as each was as valuable as the last and the next. This leads on to the idea of the specimen- the best artifact within a comparable group of artifacts. Would this evolve despite having nothing to be directly compared against. Could a specimen still be manufactured..............

Tutorial No.1

I had my first tutorial today with Laura, it went well and hopefully i need to just carry on. Laura asked us to send her a brief overview of our territories to get to know what was going on and one of the things was listing 3 weaknesses and 3 strengths with the project- this was interesting as it helped me get out some of the things i was thinking about but hadn't externalised- some things were: that i think people outside of a design context (and of course within it) will be able to relate and engage with the project, i reckon everyone collects something- (this is something i need to come back to and explore more- i think a questionnaire for the moment would suffice with a follow up 'collection of the week' book for some of them to be photographed and displayed.) Mini projects are good. I need to get more people involved- collectors, curators and people who might be interesting. I've been wanting to do this but my to-do list is finally getting shorter and so i should be able to get involved on another level next week- interviews, by either email or video will be good. I also want the time to do some drawing- bad Luke- draw all the time.

Notes on... a week and a tutorial

Had a good one today, talked with Matt and he was positive that i had a territory but was looking too big, instead of getting in and being specific. He mentioned something that i want to keep up which is small projects rather than sprawling experiments or one massive thing, but a project based on a quote or a drawing or one idea. I like this way of doing stuff, it'll hopefully keep me feeling productive and give me good momentum. I thought i should take the opportunity to recap my key things that i want to keep ticking over. My project is essentially to do with collecting but I've tried to narrow it down into the specifics I'm interested in. Accumulation, Curation and Frames and Boundaries. these drawings help show some of my starting points.

Other important things at the moment (still) are that  frames create context. A box of 'x' helps describe 'x'. you can't have a box of ... whatever 'x' is a description or a name, it helps create a criteria or typology for the artefact(s). Creating a space for that same 'x' helps validate 'x's reason for being there.

That the repetition of something- an artefact- on mass has the effect to impress only when it is extra ordinary in scale. Something uncommon, unseen or disproportionate to it's parts. Words like awesome are good here i think.