Static information design:

LCAD Graphic Design:

Ian Edward, third year Graphic design at Leeds college of art has some really good work on his website. What caught my eye was his interest in data graphics, which is something that interests me, enough to write my dissertation on it! I really like this particular piece of work he did, entitled, Nottingham: An infographic city guide, a printed publication consisting of 100 data visuals, all displaying information on the city of Nottingham, split into ten key topics. Each topic covers a double page spread with additional larger format fold-outs. As presentation is everything, the publication is held in a hard case and accompanied by silk screen posters with a spot varnish finish - nice!

Best college:

New prospectus for Leeds college of Art designed by Workshop, a design studio based in Harrogate, set up by two new graduates from the college itself, a former fellow school associate, Oliver Shaw and his design partner Tom Pratt. I really like their work, clean and precise finishes that look professional. Their client list is impressive to say they have only just set up the studio, and have featured in various journals and blogs.

Snow Globe photography:

Static Scrambling:

Cut and paste:

Further Statics:

Static locations:

My static project is starting turn in the right direction, after much research into what exactly is static?!
Static is something of which is fixed or stationary, that experiences no growth or change. This got me thinking, are there any places in this world where there tends to be no growth or change within a community? I came to the conclusion that a place would only be static without any inhabitants what so ever, which led me to conducting an investigation into abandoned, or 'static' locations around the world. I have become intrigued with such places, finding whole cities, and islands that were once a metropolis of activity that have been left empty and isolated due to disaster, or socio-economic failure.

Gunkanjima, Japan.

Hashima Island, or Gunkanjima, meaning Battleship Island is one of 505 islands off the coast from Nagasaki. The island was populated from 1887, to 1974 as a coal mining facility.

San Zhi, Taiwan.

Purposely built as a futuristic holiday resort for the US military in 1980, however the site was never finished and no tourists came to stay due to a series of fatalities whilst constructing the site.

Kadykchan, Russia. Built during World War II for coal mining purposes, Kadykchan was once a thriving Russian town, however in 1996, 6 men were killed in an explosion in the coal mine. The mines were shut immediately, with 12000 people being evacuated, leaving Kadykchan empty.

Kowloon Walled city, Hong Kong.
Now demolished, this city began to grow, beoming one of the most densely populated areas in the world, in 1984, there were 50,000 people to 26,000 square metres. The city became a dangerous place to live, as high crime took over.

Static documentary:

I am researching into areas of static activity, and found this location, the island of Hashima, off the coast of Japan particularly interesting. The island was once the most densely populated area in the world, due to the size of the island being roughly the same as a football pitch. The island was home to the coal mining industry, until the coal company declared there was nothing more to be extracted and closed the mines down in 1974. Upon closing the mines, the coal company offered a limited amount of jobs back on the mainland for Hashima's inhabitants, which led to the island becoming abandoned within just a few days.
As well as this documentary, I watched a programme that recreated the Chernobyl disaster as part of a series of BBC drama documentaries entitled 'Surviving disaster'. It documents the chain of events leading up to the explosion, and the after math and catastrophic repercussions the accident had. The program is told by Valeri Legasov, a Russian scientist who was a key member of the Soviet government commission, formed to investigate the causes of the catastrophe and to plan the mitigation of the consequences. Some of the documentary was filmed on location in the town of Pripyat and inside one of the remaining nuclear reactors in Chernobyl. It was interesting to learn exactly what happened that day, and how conflicting opinions from the Soviet government caused thousands of people lost their lives due to the ill-management of the situation.

Static

'Experiments'

Nicholas Felton: Daytum

As soon as I understand how to log data on Daytum, it will serve a useful purpose for my dissertation on data visualisation.

Liverpool Biennial: Mixed bag

:29/09/10

A Liverpool Field trip to have a look at the Biennial and explore the city, since I had never been before.

Touched was apparently about 'the art that moves you, that's close enough to be under your skin and stirs you in mind, body and soul'.

Although the whole concept of this international exhibition is a fantastic idea, and should be something that happens in other cities, I found most of the works, whilst mostly engaging, a little bit too conceptual for my liking.

52 Renshaw Street: An old hardware shop.

The highlight was a room with a mirrored ceiling by Indian artist NS Harsha.

The Temple of 1000 bells, a canopy of glass bells hung from the ceiling by the artist Laura Belem.

My favourite part of the Biennial:

'Look and touch' at the Bluecoat, a maze of brightly coloured ribbons hung from the ceiling on the top floor. Among the thousands of ribbons, which I was lost in, were two odd figures.

: Summer Project

I created a film festival which celebrates cinema from the North of England, by choosing a diverse range of films that were set in and around Yorkshire, Darbyshire and Lincolnshire. These five designs are a work in progress, but are what I have come up with so far. The cover poster promoting all four works the best, however, Kes, The Damned United, Dead Man's Shoes and Scummy Man all need tweaking.

Robbie Cooper: Immersion

:24/08/10

The work of Robbie Cooper

explores the issues surrounding the increasing amount of contemporary media immersion we experience on a daily basis through the medium of photography and video.

Cooper's subjects ranged from children playing video games to people living out second lives through online virtual worlds. I liked how this exhibition highlighted how each and every one of us are guilty of disengaging from real life on a daily basis, one way or another. I thought the concept was different, especially the photographs of people's reactions when video gaming and watching particular programmes.

The exploratory stage of Cooper's exhibition, photographing people whom possess a second life online let the exhibition down slightly. I think Cooper could have delved deeper into this investigative phase of the show, as the imagery was slightly poorer than that of the first part.

Having said this, I thought it was still a fresh idea to play with in terms of documentry photography, and worth a look.

http://blog.robbiecooper.org/

Simon Roberts: We English

:24/08/10

A documentry photography exhibition at the national media museum in Bradford, which took direct inspiration from Martin Par's snapshots of typically british summers at various Butlin's holiday resorts around the UK.

It was Robert's interest in the british public when partaking in leisure time that particularly attracted me to this exhibition. By doing so, Roberts travelled the length and bredth of England documenting the English at leisure in the richly varied landscape. What I found deeply impressive about Roberts' photography skills was that not only can he capture the landscape, he can also catch people through the lense aswell. Each photograph was awe inspiring and captivating, no two people were engaging in the same activity. This is what drew me particularly to the photography, the fact that on particular pieces such as 'Ladies' day' at Aintree racecourse, Merseyside, Roberts managed to capture a whole crowd, which, for the viewer, there is a lot of information to absorb in just one image. In a sense, what Roberts is essentially doing is 'people watching' then saving this image to be then shared with others.