CONTEXTUAL PRACTICE
02/12/19
It was quite relaxing drawing the sounds we were listening to, but after a while I found quite difficult not repeating the same patterns and making every time different forms to have a broad range of images to choose from. So I needed to force myself a bit, but at the end I had some nice patterns to work with. I believe it was easier for me to draw while listening to music rather than the sounds of outside locations. As drawing while listening to music is something that I do frequently since it helps me to concentrate, relax and scan the rhythm of my work. On the contrary, drawing outside listening to sounds was a bit confusing for me at first as there were lots of random sounds that didn't connect to each other, but when I started to focus on specific sounds one at a time it came much easier.
Link to the songs I listened to while drawing:
"C'era una volta ed era bella"- Tre Allegri Ragazzi Morti
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upWIlmA_cPY
"I'd rather go blind"- Etta James
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u9sq3ME0JHQ
"Impressioni Di Settembre"- PFM
RESEARCH
Vasilij Kandinskij - Guggenheim Museum collection (New York)
I have never been a big fan of abstractionism. However, when I visited the Kandinskij collection in the Guggenheim Museum I remained impressed with most of his paintings and particularly "Several Circles" is one of the pieces that I remember more clearly. It is one of his simplest paintings and I think that the composition is very well thought out. It has a very modern vibe and in my opinion it can still be considered as really contemporary.
RESEARCH
The Colour Sound Grammar Game - Ellen Hackl Fagan
I find this project really interesting as she involved the public by collecting information on their perception of colours and the link between them and the musical scale. She made people match each note to a colour and then she used the information that she carefully collected to make some works. I think it is a great example of the development of an idea as she clearly shows the whole process and her way of visualising data is really visually interesting too.
This way of visualising data reminded me of sound bars. And I remembered that an Italian band called Bouganville has used sound bars on its singles' covers and videos. And I think it is a nice and simple way of visualising songs, that gives to the image vintage 80s vibes. Which reflect the band's style and music. There is also a big similarity with the drawing that I did in my sketchbook.
Bouganville - Imparerò
RESERARCH
In music there are lots of examples of visualisations of sounds. One of those could be the video of the song "Do I wanna know?" by Arctic Monkeys that starts with a simple sound wave that then splits into multiple ones, according to music and sung parts, to become moving images. I think that the transitions between the wave lines and the images are really well thought out. And I particularly liked the final scenes where the line were fitted into the images of the animation to highlight the correlation between the two.
Link to "Do I wanna know?" (video) - Arctic Monkeys: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpOSxM0rNPM
AM - Arctic Monkeys (Album)
Another famous example that includes wavy lines could be the album cover of "Unknown Pleasures" by Joy Division. Which is an image of various sound waves put one in front of the other. And these overlapping of lines create a very interesting "raised illusion".
Unknown Pleasures - Joy Division (Album)
A different way of visualising sound could be the cover of the single "Blue Monday" by New Order. Which is a basic image of different colours circles, one inside the other. I think is a simple and elegant way to represent a song.
Blue Monday - New Order
And I was also really interested in the vinyl cover of the single as it is quite unusual and very minimalistic, all black with the addition of three little round grey shapes and just a hint of colour on one edge of the cover. I think its simplicity makes it sophisticated and very modern.
Blue Monday - New Order (Vinyl cover)
Link to "Seven Nation Army" (video) - The White Stripes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9ANOzmSKQg
I find the use of a repetitive pattern in this video very interesting as it shows a triangular shape that is repeatedly moving towards the viewer, which gives the impression of falling into the shape. And the light that illuminates the shapes is not steady, but it pulses following the music. Maybe I could use also light similarly to give emphasis to my work too.
Link to "Teardrop" (video) - Massive Attack: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HwhwSirr098
This is not an official video of the song, but I thought it suited the music and reminded me of the ink blots and space dust. In fact, the images on the video were taken from the Hubble Space Telescope. The author of the video collected those photos and made them more interesting adding a "kaleidoscope effect". I believe the video works really well as is quite nice and relaxing to look at.
Link to "Fell In Love With A Girl" (video) - The White Stripes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTH71AAxXmM
The fact that this animation is entirely made of lego bricks really impressed me and I think I could use it as a reference to make a lego animation of my work.
CONTEXTUAL PRACTICE
03/12/19
I've decided to use the drawing of the repeating "beep" that I heard while I was at McDonald's. The work will be make of laser cut acrylic and I will attach all the little pieces of lines to a squared clear piece of acrylic. I'd like to place it in the diner, between two sort of communicating windows inside the local. They are quite distant from each other so I think I will place the work on one of the "window" and then take the photo from the other one.
RESEARCH
Audiovisual Concert - Ryoji Ikeda
His works are really complicated. He uses data as a source for sound and visuals, that each time are different from one another, creating immersive exhibitions. These immersive concert experiences are highly hypnotic and overwhelming as people are submerged by infinite numbers of data-codes in a blind state.
RESERCH - Christopher Simmonds
Simone Rocha campaign
I really like how the model blends with the background and becomes a sort of component of the natural landscape. The choice of earthy colours makes everything more calm and romantic. It reminded me of pre-raphaelites paintings which used very warm tones and had often as subjects nature and very pale ginger women, like in the photos.
- Ophelia - john Everett Millais
- The Lady of Shalott - John William Waterhouse
- Windflowers - John William Waterhouse
Gucci - Cruise 2020 film: https://www.artpartner.com/artists/creative-direction/christopher-simmonds/archive/story/gucci-cruise-2020-film-2/
The video immediately reminded me of the film "Hollywood Party" as they share many similarities. From the big amount of people wearing over the top luxurious outfits, to the unusual dance scenes.
I have found in the video even that scent of fun awkwardness that you can sense throughout the film. And then the similarities between the waiters scenes, which are always yelled at, and the iconic final pool scene.
Gucci campaign 2019 (Showtime): https://www.artpartner.com/artists/creative-direction/christopher-simmonds/archive/story/gucci-ss-2019/
Even for this video they got inspired from various films and musicals, first of all "There's no business like show business".
"There's no business like show business" - Ethel Merman: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIiQMsDQ0Uo
They took as starting point the performance of Ethel Merman in the musical while she sings the main song of the show. And then they added iconic scenes from other musicals like the one from the performance of Marilyn Monroe while she sings "Diamonds are a girl's best friends" in the film "Gentlemen prefer blondes".
Iconic scene from the musical "Gentlemen prefer blondes"
I could find some similarities also between the character of Polly interpreted by Twiggy in the film "The Boy Friend" and the protagonist of the video of the Gucci campaign. Their make up and facial structure is very similar and both have that distinctive self-conscious melancholic vibe.
The Boy Friend - Poor Little Pierette: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uCIH75wkWTw
CONTEXTUAL PRACTICE
04/12/19
I believe that our team campaign was successful. The choice of the brand to reinvent was really spot on and choosing a young target audience helped us to easily develop the concept as we belonged to the same age group, so we could use our experience with the brand George to make it more appealing for teenagers and young adults. I've enjoyed sharing opinions with my group, but I believe there wasn't enough of that. I think that it would have been better if everyone would have worked more as a group, developing each concept together and not doing it individually and then putting all those ideas together. The art director should arbitrate, find compromises and enable agreement to be reached so that the outcome could be the best reflection of the client's expectations.
RESEARCH
Photographer: Amie Milne
Jeweltopia - The Liberty gift guide
Jeweltopia (Gena Cut-Out Floral Print Dress - Preen by Thorton Bregazzi)
When I saw the presentation I immediately recognised the model that posed for the shots on the stamps. I remembered her as one day I was randomly looking through a magazine and her shots caught my attention. I was really impressed with composition, the colour palette and the romantic vibe. It reminded me of Renaissance paintings, of famous portraits of powerful women, from the braided hair to the absence of eyebrows, and some of the poses are very similar to the Venus paintings' ones.
From left to right:
- Portrait of Battista Sforza - Piero della Francesca
- Portrait of Elisabetta Gonzaga - Raffaello
- Portrait of Simonetta Vespucci - Botticelli
Different versions of Venus (Simonetta Vespucci) - Botticelli
I also thought that the model resembled Queen Elizabeth I a lot, maybe because she tried to mimic quite regal and elegant poses.
Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I of England in her coronation robes
I have researched more on the photographer and I found these interesting shots where she experimented with light, shadows, poses and movement to create really nice effects. I particularly like the one with the model sitting on the floor with her legs up. I think that playing with shadow and light she managed to give lightness and relaxation to that very uncomfortable pose.
Shadow Play
RESEARCH - Jamie Reid
Kiko Kostadinov x Asics Korika
This campaign is really fun, casual and very unusual. it is completely random and I would say that is so bad that it makes it actually good. It seems a collection of those random fun photos that anyone could find on their phones. But it works as it put the product in a day to day life context. It's ostensibly sponsoring the product shamelessly with natural nonchalance.
Chopova Lowena - Campaign Art Direction & logo redesign
I was drawn to these shots as I thought that the poses of the models and the composition mimicked the logo that was also redesigned. It is a nice concept to play with those changes of directions with the letters, the contorted poses and emphasise that placing the shots vertically.
RESEARCH - Ben Kelway Studio
Craig Green - Art direction of campaign materials across print layouts and digital platforms
I really like those shoots and the idea of pressing the work to destroy it documenting the final outcome. As it transforms the artwork into something else which does not relate anymore to what it was at the start, so they ended up with two different outcomes for each piece. It reminded me of the self-destructed painting of Bansky. Does the destruction make the art piece valueless or more expensive?