Southbank Exhibition and Tate Modern

Here are some of the artists and there art work which I saw in the tate modern and a Southbank exhibition.

John hilliard - cause if death 

Gavin turk - garbage bag 

Hayley newman - stealth 

Henry moore - maquette for atom piece 

Robert capa - americans landing on omaha beach, D-day, normandy, france

The Installation + Evaluation

Finally the day of assessment was upon me, and the preparation had to be done, so I got the equipment I needed, projector and plinths, and organised sharing a room with Julia and Josh as we needed the room for our projects. 

So the day before, we gathered are projects and started to set them up in the room, first off it was trying to find the placement of all our projects and trying to find the best way to lay it out.

 

 We finally found our places in the room and set up, so now I had to position the projection so it was focused on the sculptures and not the wall and keep them in frame.

Over night I tried to convert my laptop, with the help of my dad, so it could run Windows for me to use a program, However we struggled to do that and had to look for another program which I then had to learn over night, which wasn't the best idea, but I tried my best.

So the morning of assessment I came in early to set up and make sure everything was alright and started to use this new program. It seemed easy enough until the textures I made were too big and not showing the whole image.

So I had the idea to go back and re-size all of the texture images to see if that would change the apperance... Sadly it did not. 

After much faffing around with no success I accepted the fact that this was the best I was going to get. 

The final look of the projections.

The final look of the textures mapped around the shape of the sculptures.

During assessment. Damn sun!

Fields and Frames - Evaluation

When making the textures, I sturggled with making them 3D but then wondered if it would matter seeing as they would be projected onto something and possibly be distorted. Of course I made the texture but wasn't sure if I would be able to animate them in such intricate detail to what I had in my head, instead I would keep in simple with simple frame animations, however due to time issues and fears of trying a new programme I did not animate them.
In making the sculptures everything was perfect until it started to reach the end. When finishing the sculptures I struggled to get the look of them just right, I tried to layerthe newspaper, as to get rid of the chicken wire outline, however that didn't work. So I experimented with some toilet paper to see if it would buffer out the outine, then put newpaper on top to seel it in, but that did not work either. I gave up on layering it and hoped that what ever I did, it would buffer out eventually. The final finish to the sculptures was a thin layer of toilet paper to cover up the text and colours of the newspaper, as the paint did not cover it up all that well and did not react to the surface of dried glue. After glueing the toilet paper down gently I let it dry before painting so that it had stuck properly and then painted over it which worked a lot better. Sadly they didn't come oout perfect but they are a lot better then what could have been. I actually like the texture the toilet paper has given, sadly I ran out of paint and could not get more in time, as I think they needed either 1 or 2 more layers to completely cover up the newpaper font. Next time I need to look more into sculpting as I now have the basics down. Or maybe try a easier material to work with.
When it came to arranging the instalment, I could have been a little more prepared, luckily with the help of julia, we arranged to share a room at uni to show our work in and she helped with finding me some plinths for my sculptures and recommended someone to help set up the projector. It all seemed very last minute but I managed to do it. 
As a bonus to the original idea, I was going to add a sound piece for it to give it more of an atmosphere, but due to time and forgetting that that was a part of the project so far in, it never got done. 
Overall, the project came out how I wanted too, I made the sculptures and got my hands dirty doing it. I made the textures to be projected onto it and I enjoyed the overall experience of making this project. But sadly due to badly timed personal reasons I couldn't give it my all like I hoped. Also again with better time managment and more motivation to get up and do my work, I think it could of come out even better then it already is. But even then I am still proud of what I have made and have learnt a lot from it.

Projections

Of course, to make the projections I had to learn how to make them, so a bit of research on Lynda.com to see if there were any tutorials on it, sadly there wasn't. So doing a general search on Google gave better results, with Youtube tutorials that guided me to a software that does projection mapping, which is what I need.

So after boot camping my laptop to run windows to then be able to run Facade Signage. After looking at more tutorials on Facade Signage, it looks very easy to use. 

Now I have that part sorted, now it's time to work on the textures.

Making of Sculptures

Here is the process I took to make my four paper mache busts.

Geography research

The World's Weirdest Weather

After watching a few episodes of this, it sparked up my love for Geography again and so I tried to relate some weather related into my work. 

Looking into weather was my main idea as I wasn't sure what to do with natural disasters till inspiration hit me in lesson.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Going with pattern of the 4 elements natural disaster style: 

Fire = Volcanoes

1. A volcano is a rupture on the crust of a planetary-mass object, such as Earth, that allows hot lava, volcanic ash, and gases to escape from a magma chamber below the surface. Earth's volcanoes occur because its crust is broken into 17 major, rigid tectonic plates that float on a hotter, softer layer in its mantle.
2. 
   

Earth = Earthquakes

1. An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time.
2. 
   

Wind = Hurricanes

1. A hurricane is a huge storm! It can be up to 600 miles across and have strong winds spiraling inward and upward at speeds of 75 to 200 mph. Each hurricane usually lasts for over a week, moving 10-20 miles per hour over the open ocean. 
3. 
   

Water = Tsunamis

A tsunami, also known as a seismic sea wave or as a tidal wave, is a series of waves in a body of water caused by the displacement of a large volume of water, generally in an ocean or a large lake. Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions and other underwater explosions, landslides, glacier calvings, meteorite impacts and other disturbances above or below water all have the potential to generate a tsunami.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Carbon Footprint

For starters what is a carbon footprint? 

- It is the amount of carbon dioxide released into the atmosphere as a result of the activities of a particular individual, organization, or community. -

According to the Dictionary but more importantly what does it have to do with my project? Well the fact that carbon footprints are causing global warming which in turn may cause natural disasters to worsen and kill ourselves and the planet.

What is/causes global warming?

One of the first things scientists learned is that there are several greenhouse gases responsible for warming, and humans emit them in a variety of ways. Most come from the combustion of fossil fuels in cars, factories and electricity production. The gas responsible for the most warming is carbon dioxide, also called CO2. Other contributors include methane released from landfills and agriculture (especially from the digestive systems of grazing animals), nitrous oxide from fertilizers, gases used for refrigeration and industrial processes, and the loss of forests that would otherwise store CO2.

 Since 1990, yearly emissions have gone up by about 6 billion metric tons of "carbon dioxide equivalent" worldwide, more than a 20 percent increase.

Possible outcomes if global warming continues:

• Ice is melting worldwide. This includes mountain glaciers, ice sheets covering West Antarctica and Greenland, and Arctic sea ice.
• Researcher Bill Fraser has tracked the decline of the Adélie penguins on Antarctica, where their numbers have fallen from 32,000 breeding pairs to 11,000 in 30 years.
• Sea level rise became faster over the last century.
• Some butterflies, foxes, and alpine plants have moved farther north or to higher, cooler areas.
• Precipitation has increased across the globe, on average.
• Spruce bark beetles have boomed in Alaska thanks to 20 years of warm summers. The insects have chewed up 4 million acres of spruce trees.

The effects that could happen later this century, if warming continues.

• Sea levels are expected to rise between 7 and 23 inches by the end of the century, and continued melting at the poles could add between 4 and 8 inches.
• Hurricanes and other storms are likely to become stronger.
• Species that depend on one another may become out of sync. For example, plants could bloom earlier than their pollinating insects become active.
• Floods and droughts will become more common.
• Less fresh water will be available.
• Some diseases will spread, such as malaria carried by mosquitoes.
• Ecosystems will change - some species will move farther north or become more successful; others won’t be able to move and could become extinct.

All of this will lead to us either becoming extinct, because of overpopulation, environmental destruction and climate change. 

Finalized Message and Idea

This project will consist of the use of projectors to imitate 4 main Natural disasters, and include 4 handmade human sculptures (Busts) to project onto. 

The point of this project is to show the constant battle of survival between the two forces, Earth and Humans. But I'm questioning if there even is a battle, from newspaper headlines we are told that Us (humans) are "killing" the Earth - climate change, pollution, carbon footprint, ect - Yet from what I've seen, the Earth is fighting back and we are unintentionally making it stronger. 

From visible evidence the Earth is not dying, it's a planet, it will continue on without us whether we like it or not and I am using this layout/project to show fight between the two  with the impact of natural disasters on humanity.

Lists and Layout

Layout of the installation:

What I need to get for making the sculptures:

• Chicken wire
• Wire cutters
• Newspaper
• Paper towels
• Flour or glue
• Paint brushes 
• White paint

For final presentation:

• 4 podiums
• 4 busts
• 1 projector
• 1 Laptop 
• Speakers

3D Modelling in Maya

For this Professional Toolkit we had 4 sessions with our tutor, and in each one he showed us the basics for modelling, UV mapping, texturing and basic animations along with rendering. 

Day 1: Spaceship

UV Mapping the spaceship (which takes way too long)

Using Photoshop to texture the spaceship

Rendering

Day2: Asteroid

 Day 3:  Moon

 Sadly after rendering it the ambient shell didn't show and was just a black ball and I couldn't find a way to fix it 

 Day 4: Enemy UFO

Basic animation