I really enjoyed my visit to House of Illustration. It was the first time I visited there and thought that the two corresponding exhibitions taking place at that time were both so very different yet both were illustration. Lauren Child's exhibit consisted of 3D and collage methods to narrate her stories and EH Shepard: An Illustrators war exhibited his watercolour and pure line drawings. Both are completely different methods, time periods and narrative motives but are both considered Illustration which shows how broad illustration can be.
After explaining that I want to concentrate on childhood memories for my project, Fiona suggested that I visit the V&A Museum of Childhood in Bethnel Green to find kinetic movement in childhood toys, and I'm really glad that I did.
I loved the interactive side to the Zoetrope's of the Musuem. I thought that they represented the idea of a circular spinning movement alike bicycle wheels perfectly. The idea of using a children's interactive 'toy' to relate to childhood memories of cycling sounds like a perfect connection for me. I think to develop from this, I could make my own animations using a zoetrope and present it as a film. What I feel like I need to define is the context of the animation itself.
Working as a group, the decision to think that the Naomi V Jelish piece of work by Jamie Shovlin was illustration or not based on our research concluded yes. Only the commercial side of placing the artwork in an art space created this illusion of a factious piece of documentation when in reality it's similar to storyboarding a fictional character's life. Either side to it, it's still narrating a character's life and narrative motive was what depicted this piece of work as illustration for us.
A Bicycle Ride from Gemma Aylward on Vimeo.
"From the top of we had a magnificent view of the surrounding country and a more magnificent ride down into Market Weighton. We just sat there on our bikes and coasted on and on into the plain in which York stands. A brief stay in the town gave us a chance to buy some teacakes and apples to help us on our way. A few showers had to be faced, but by the time we reached York, both of us were warm and dry." (ed. Smith, 2006 p.6)
Smith, M. ed., (2006) A Bicycle Ride from Norwich to Sunderland in 1950 By Leslie Brown, aged 40, and David Brown, aged 11. Norwich: Stolen Press. This was the first time I had made an animation type piece of work. I thought animation would be most suitable as cycling is all about the movement. I was hoping to include sound however I ran out of time to include any alongside that I believed to be relevant. I did originally plan to go out and film sound similar to the Chris Paul Daniels workshop we had done previously. I also though due to the lack of time to maybe find some license-free sounds from the BBC FreeSFX's, however I still didn't allow myself time to search through and find the ones which I believed would give the appropriate atmosphere of what I was trying to depict. The slow pacing of the animation would had made the use of sound more significant because it allows the viewers to listen more carefully to the the sound in connection to that current image. I do wish I had planned my time more efficiently to allow sound because that was one aspect people commented on for improvement. Another improvement needed was the typeface which I agree upon. I think because of the way I was rushing this, I didn't look through for the most appropriate typeface and the one I had used was rather unfitting. I was trying to match the final shot typeface for York that I hand-drew, I think it would had been a better match if I hand-drew the typeface in the same manner. From the comments people left, they did notice that I had depicted the British countryside and the weather being a major factor of the story as well. I think this means that people did understand my narrative without reading the piece of text and I think that was a success itself. Whilst at the Millennium Library in The Forum I discovered these advertisements of cycling photographs from the Norfolk Heritage Centre on their on-line site. After visiting the Archive collection before, I decided to visit it again to uncover more cycling documents from Norwich itself, hoping to find something similar to the British Pathé video. I loved seeing this photos because they represent to me memories of people's lives and you can see the personality of these people shining through. When I think of cycling I think of the modern bicycle, however with these I see a new side to the crafting of bicycles and I find it fascinating. I'm not too sure how I can develop from these images to create an active piece of work. I also found an archived book of The Amateur magazine which gave me monthly updates of how this cycling club was progressing. It gave me details of certain cycle runs, what certain members were participating in and some issues even had stories that their members had done. I think what I enjoyed reading the most out of these issues were the stories that were in some of them. I think this is because I find them like a little treat to read, it shows the personality of the person of who's it about and they weren't in every issue so to find one made it all the better. I know from researching on-line that the The Norwich Amateur Bicycle Club is still running and It's a possibility that I could contact them to provide 'stories' for my project. I absolutely adored this documentation of a father and sons bicycle journey from Norwich to Sunderland. It's these sort of accounts that interest me the most. I love how the memories of these two particular people are archived forever in this book and can be known to other people by it. I think this containing an account of a child's journey sort of connects with my survey when I was asking about cycling in their childhood. I think if I make my work active, I want it to be about childhood and be active for children, as they're my favourite target audience to work for.
Shipwreck from rebecca davies & leah fusco on Vimeo.
The lecture from Leah Fusco was very inspiring for this current project. I found it interesting in how she researched historical facts to create her artwork. I thought the films Fusco showed us at the end very inspiring. I loved the narration on top of her images.
The workshop task in the afternoon made me experiment with sound and it provided me a different approach to take this project. The sound clip I had used were of the pedals cranking.
After speaking with Fusco, we agreed that I should turn these into a moving image somehow as the mechanics and function of a bike are moving. I immediately thought to turn these into a spinning .GIF just like a bikes wheel.
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This day has really motivated me on this project and I feel like I'm aiming closer to what I want to do for it. I now know that what I produce at the end to be moving, however I'm not sure about the context yet directly as I'm not entirely sure what about cycling that I'm completely interested in.
The Norwich Dodgers Penny Farthing Cycling Club founded by Mr Kerrison. Norwich, Norfolk. M/S of a group of people with their bicycles, camera pans across to various vintage models. M/S man adjusting large bike. M/S of another man looking at wooden type cycle. C/U of man adjusting 'bedstead' type bike. M/S as a whole family mount a large tricycle. M/S of the group starting on penny farthings etc. The man mounts the bedstead and rides off. Various shots as they cycle along the road. I stumbled across this video on-line whilst looking up cycling in Norwich's history and found it relevant to Fusco's lecture as she too had used British Pathé as a research source. What I love about this video is it shows a group of bike enthusiasts from the past here in Norwich, and the quirkiness of their bikes they've crafted. This has definitely interested me further in looking into cycling from the past as I find learning how our ancestors lived a fascinating subject for myself.
I'm pleased with my design for my Editorial report and choice of paper for my hard copy. I feel that the choice of paper compliments the images and text. I think the layout of my report is easy to read and reflects the designs I looked at beforehand for influence.
Petra has a captivating story of its history and how it came to be re-discovered from the West in 1812 by Swiss explorer, Johannes Burckhardt, and become one of the 7 wonders in our world on 7/7/2007. It’s gained its title for its mysterious location, and has yet to been fully excavated by archaeologists, leaving many secrets still to be uncovered. It was also announced as a designated World Heritage Site on 6/12/1985. It’s located in the country, Jordan, between the Red Sea and the Dead Sea, surrounded by mountains. What initially amazes people when visiting the ancient city, is its architectural beauty. It’s clear to see why Petra is so renowned for its architecture due to the nature of it being carved into a mountain perfectly, which is quite a spectacular view. The name Petra itself is a Greek word for “The Rock” as Diodorus calls it. Petra is also named the Red Rose city for the colour of the rock the city is carved from. The lost city is popular for not only its world heritage or 7th wonder titles, but also its archaeology site which is one of the richest and largest archaeological sites on red sandstone land. What is it about Petra’s history that we are so enthralled upon to discover about our ancestors?
The Nabataens were the name of the civilisation that settled upon the land and formed the city Petra and others like it nearby. First documentation of them was noted from the 6th century BC. Up to the 4th century BC they weren’t originally as prosperous. Initially they were nomads, refugees of a nomadic tribe, and lived in tents that weren’t permanent. Their choice of land to settle on created a reference point for traders and others who were constantly travelling, and because of this, it’s how the Nabataens began to prosper. The scattered nomads grouped into an organised society and their lifestyle became dependant on the incense trade that travelled through, however as they became permanently settled in this region, they began to establish an agriculture lifestyle. To make their prosperous capital city, Petra, to survive in a dry environment, the Nabataens had developed an intricate water system that collected water off the surfaces of rocks into channels that led to open-air reservoirs or closed cisterns for hoarding. The amount they collected was enough to deliver 40 million litres of water a day to the 20,000 inhabitants at the height of its status. Petra became an essential part of the trading industry 2000 years ago. It was an important junction to allow trading across the world, such as silk and spices from China and India towards Southern Arabia, the Mediterranean and Europe. By the end of the 4th Century AD, Petra had received the title ‘Metropolis’ which displays how highly respected the city became. One of Petra’s famous features is its architecture. The architecture itself helps archaeologists to understand the history of Petra and how it became the prosperous city it became. Looking at a world map today, we can see that Jordan is near enough the centre of the world which makes it a perfect spot for world trading across all cultures, and this is clear to see through the architectural style of Petra. By analysing the architecture, it’s possible to tell that many different cultured people would has passed through here and deliver an influence alongside. The architecture is a fusion of Eastern design with western Hellenistic and Byzantine flair, which shows how Petra was a central point between these two different stylized cultures that came together here, bringing their influence with them. In 106 AD, Petra became annexed by the Romans which caused a lot of Roman influence upon the buildings that would be built upon there, such as the Colonnaded Street and the circular Theatre. When Burckhardt ‘re-discovered’ Petra in 1812, only few of the locals knew of its location. Petra had become deserted and forgotten by the world for hundreds of years and it’s not entirely explained as to why, however there are many theories as to how this may have been caused. It’s estimated that this could have happened during the 8th Century AD, over a millennium before Burckhardt had found Petra himself. It’s theorised that the main cause was because of earthquakes that Petra had received multiple times. Highlighting the 747AD earthquake, which happened when the inhabitants were thought to have been progressively abandoning Petra. Although, it is also known that there was a period of time where trade routes began to shift away from Petra and change. With the development of technology for seaborne trade, this mean trade would bypass Petra. This would had caused a major drop in the income proceeds for Petra as it did rely heavily upon travellers and its trading status. BBC’s Human Planet also depicted Petra as a ‘Boom-and-Bust’ civilisation where the water would had run out. It’s a possibility, which as Petra was a wealthy city with water, it may have somehow lost its water supply (maybe caused by the earthquakes as mentioned before) causing people to leave the city in search of a place with a substantial water supply in order to survive. These theories show me that the reasoning’s for the inhabitants to leave the city is not because they didn’t like it, but because they had to go elsewhere to survive and protect themselves, which shows me how popular this city must had been amongst our ancestors at the time. Petra has a detailed history of being a highly respected, lively city that became lost throughout the centuries, to becoming a wonder of the world. Archaeologists are still searching through the city to uncover its hidden secrets of our past within its mountainous walls. There is much about Petra that can tell us about our ancestors and I think that is what has intrigued me the most about this wonderful city. As some westerners have described it; it’s an exotic place. It can teach everyone that visits something new about the sort of people our ancestors were, and how they operated 2000 years ago. It’s also given an insight as to how our society today was formed on the concrete our ancestors had laid upon for us in the terms of multi-cultural trading. Petra deserves to be wonder and preserved forever for historical and educational purposes. Performing this survery helped me understand what attracts people to bikes and how they use them. It's interesting to see how much impact riding a bike has on people lives. It's been insightful for me to see this considering I'm not a bike owner myself.
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