a video to accompany my last blog...

CYMATICS ARE BRILLIANT!

The video itself is silent, but i have to say it looks even better when you listen to music while playing it...

enjoy :)

fun experiments with sound and visuals...

This week has been fantastic!

I have been doing a series of experiments into cymatics and trying to recreate my own visuals produced by sounds.  I knew I would need some help so asked my lecturer who directed me to a technician and lecturer in the music department.  With his help I was able to use a slightly modified small guitar amp which I could then sit a metal plate on top with sand and a small petri dish with liquid and inks in it.

modifying the small amp

The experiments we had tried with sand on a metal plate didn't work as well as I had thought.  This was explained by the metal plate being slightly too thick and having a tiny warp which meant the sand tended to shift to one corner very quickly.  It was also compromised by not having a mechanical shaker to sit the plate on while playing the tone, however we did have a frequency tone generator on a phone which was plugged into the amp positioned directly underneath the middle of the plate.

adding some fine grit to the plate

We then tried out an experiment with a petri dish positioned in the middle of the speaker, which worked extremely well.  Some slightly viscose fluid was poured into the dish which was secured with blu tac on the bottom of the speaker.  As with the plate of sand we played frequencies generated by the phone app and the results were spectacular.  I have now decided to take forward the visuals I had created here and use them in the final piece I will produce.

added a drop of white ink then a drop of purple ink to the middle of the petri dish

then started to play a frequency through he speaker

the ball of ink looked like the centre of a daisy and the vibrations looked like petals in the water

it pushed most of the ink out which looked like petals but the shape of vibrations looked square

at its most agitated...a high frequency was used here

cymatics and stop motion/stop motion and cymatics

Last week I had been trying to develop more of the visuals for my project which led to a few small experiments of ways to show sound.

A small experiment with card, flour and a speaker.

This had led to me looking into cymatics and ways to use them in my video piece but the more I found out the more I began to think, actually being able to achieve the patterns in sand or liquid may not be as easy as I had first thought.

So, incase my experiments didn't go to plan I created a few other short stop motion videos as an alternative way of looking at sound and nature.  I was quite pleased with the short videos, bearing in mind they were just short sketches of what my final piece may be like.

stop motion headphones 

stop motion cut paper sound bars

stop motion pebble shapes 

stop motion wire sound spike

Next week I am to start some bigger experiments using various materials into cymatics, with some techie help from the music department.  I'm sure they will work out better than my home made attempt.

So...

Last week I had been finalising my research in my sketchbook, and thinking more about the concept development of my video as well as the visuals.

I was thinking that because the bulk of my research photos were of T-Pot Studio at Path of Condie, it would make sense to work into my piece a musical/sound theme.

Lots of people who replied to my questionnaire of '3 things that remind you of the country' gave me descriptions of some of the sounds they heard while out and about in the countryside.  So I was able to start forming a plan to incorporate sounds and music into my video piece.

This decision spurred a look into cymatics, which is where you vibrate a plate with sand scattered on top at a certain frequency to produce patterns in the sand. The higher the frequency/note the more complex the patterns and the lower frequency/notes produce a more simple pattern.  Some of these patterns, i thought, looked like the cross section of a tree trunk which seemed to link back to the photographs I had taken in and around T-Pot Studio.

I still need to consider creating a soundtrack for my video or if i will use some collected audio from around Path of Condie and the Studio.

a great many musical instruments are made from wood...

The mixing desk at T-pot Studio with a wooden frame

the last of the research...

After my initial research into rural locations I had made the decision to focus my project on Path Of Condie to see what more I can find out to inform my stop motion video.  I visited T-Pot Studio in the tiny hamlet and had a great time finding out more about life in Path Of Condie.

This research has, as I find it often is with research, been very helpful but for a while slightly overwhelming as I was still trying to figure out how I would take my project further with all this new information.

Most of my research photos reflect an interest in music, the countryside and people.
As I had stated in my Personal Learning Plan I would like to look into peoples perception of things, which I thought would tie in nicely with how we perceive the countryside and the people in it.

I have also just recently posted a little question about the countryside for people to answer on social media sites Ello, Facebook and Twitter.  I have also set up an email account for people to respond to privately if they don't want to post anything publicly.  The response I got through Facebook was fantastic but, I think because both my Twitter and Ello pages are new, I have had far less response on those sites.

Next week I should be starting to work on experimenting with visuals for my video and maybe even a  very short mock video with a rough story board to develop.

View from outside T-Pot Studio in Path Of Condie

the kitchen curtains 

the rare old mixing desk

Robin Wynn Evans on the guitar

green and black patch leads

some multi coloured patch leads

More researching of things...

This week I've been continuing with my research into rural locations and have narrowed it down to visiting 3 places. 

 I've been able to come up with some good visual and contextual ideas for my final project and importantly been able to get started on filling up my sketchbook with the decisions I've made about what location to focus on and the direction I want to take the whole project. 

I also spent a few days at my chosen location taking research photos and recording a few videos, which were all invaluable as far as being able to develop both concept and visuals for my piece. taking ques from sounds that I recorded on videos and photos of key objects and colours. I can't wait to continue developing this project and I will post more photos of my locations and some of the objects that I found to be relevant. 

Location research photos...

Tillicoutry looking towards the ochils...note the cars

Tillicoutry with some interesting graffiti under the Ochil Hills

Lots of Alloa's old buildings/Mills are now leisure centers or shops

Some old signage lost in amongst the new ones in Alloa...funnily enough it's the name Young!

This week...

With this week being a Holliday from college I have been spending a lot of time researching, photographing and visiting some locations for my degree show brief. My first thoughts for this project was to look into small rural communities and find out what main industry, if any, drives them now. I also wanted to look at some of the perceptions we have of the countryside and how lots of the stereotypical views we hold of the quaint little country village/hamlet are based in the past. Some new paintings I have seen of such locations don't even seem to have street signs in them let alone a car! I have some photographs from a few of the locations I visited but will upload them in a separate post. 

reflective blogging...

So...

This week I have concerned myself with coming up with a plan of action.  Something that can help me organise the tasks I have to do leading up to the degree show we all have coming up.

 I am a little daunted by the prospect of having a real life degree show, but with all the time plans and reflective writing that goes along with it I'm sure I can manage to not forget anything important! Which is a comfort.

I can also still add things at any given time along the way, as i remember them or as other problems arise that I may have to correct.  So far the plan I have seems to be working but I'll know by the end of my degree show I'll know if I should do anything different or not!

Hello there...

After my brief holiday obsession with old signage I am back at college again.  For some this may seem like the start of lots of work, and it is, but it is work that I enjoy so much it feels like fun!

So...

This year we have a much quieter studio space as it is only us 3rd years coming and going from the  studio we have.  I much prefer it quiet like this, with the exception of radio 6 playing away behind us, I think it makes for a more productive place, for me anyway.

The first week of work started right away, not like any '2 weeks to get back in the college mindset' we had previously been afforded.  I thought this was great because I absolutely don't want to waste any time on projects this year.  I am trying to become a more organised and professional person, especially when it comes to my art practice.  

Our first project that I am working on is a live brief...which is quite exciting really!

It has come from the MacRobert Arts Centre in Stirling and they would like us to design a christmas themed piece of art to take the place of the massive christmas tree they normally have just outside the theatre entrance...the only thing is they have asked for it not to be a christmas tree.  Hmmm...

Some initial ideas were to look into the panto they have on in the theatre and take some inspiration from that, as well as looking into other areas of the MacRobert Centre that could be utilised by me for the purposes of this project.

I have been really enjoying creating stop motion films...I quite like that they seem to be a cross between mixed media and painting, only they move which I am still fascinated by.  The filmmaker Norman McLaren created many stop motion films in his lifetime and I am massively influenced by the work he has done.  At the MacRobert Centre they also have a cinema which is appropriately named The Norman McLaren Film House.

I liked this connection and have decided to look into stop motion with cut paper for this piece.  Here is one of Norman McLaren's cut paper stop motion films La Merle 1958...

http://vimeo.com/19545301

Still on my holidays...

So...I've decided to start a new couple of projects for my own amusement during my time off between college terms.

After having been through to Edinburgh for a previous project I had a fair collection of images from various parts of the city. Views of streets and closes, old buildings and really old buildings, unusual little markings on the pavements or partially worn away posters on telephone boxes.  That sort of thing, city stuff.  The one thing that did grab my attention was the very old graffiti at the top of the Scott Monument, fascinating stuff.  Not just scrawled writings like 'baz waz ere' and stuff like that but beautifully etched perfect lettering depicting initials and usually a date too.  I also began to take photos of old and fading hand painted signage for businesses around the city, usually found at the entrance to a tenement which housed several businesses.

With that in mind, I have taken myself into my home city of Glasgow, to do the same.  Its amazing how many there are and how many look like they may disappear from sight very quickly.  Some are already worn away without much trace but there always is a little left over, maybe even just a slight discolouration of the sandstone they were painted onto.

Well, I thought...and so I'm on a one woman mission to try and preserve as many of these lovingly hand painted signs that may not remain for much longer in our cities or towns and even villages.

I'm not entirely sure yet exactly how I will preserve these masters of signage but I'll just see where my research takes me, either way its entertaining just trying to find them!

Some world famous hand painted signage up The Barras in Glasgow

Integrated Project...final resolution and projection of film...block 2

And finally...here we have the product of research into community, magnets and murmurations.  I decided on filming various sequences of birds together then overlaying them and creating a paper murmuration.  I then cropped, detached the unwanted audio and blended in the video of magnetic iron filings.

I also created my own sounds to accompany the video. A bit of an assault on the senses, i mixed the noise of a group of people chatting and a group of starlings taking off and chattering too.  I felt they worked well together because I wanted to give the impression of something being overwhelming like very large groups of people or murmurations of starlings.

Stills from my video before adding the iron filings ...

A still frame from the final film I produced and uploaded to YouTube as Magnetic Murmurations...

A photo of the final projection of Magnetic Murmurations produced by myself M.Muir copyright 2014.  The videos of the rooftop projection and final video have been uploaded to YouTube for your viewing pleasure...

just follow this link to YouTube or copy it into your search engine...

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJoTq9dMVgd7vw23Q5A2zlA/videos

Enjoy

Integrated Project...paper bird animation...block 2

My initial idea was to animate some birds that i would cut from paper, so i decided to continue with this idea too, to help create my paper murmuration and to try another effect...

This is a rough draught of the cut paper animation i had in mind...its amazing how quickly the brain joins things up and even though there is a full second between between frames we still see moving objects.

After the success of this video too I decided to incorporate both elements of handmade paper birds and iron filings together.

Integrated Project...block 2...development

Well, after finding out about all the magnetic properties of starlings I decided, on advice of a lecturer, to try out some iron filings...the last time I had seen any iron filings was in this old game...

I experimented with moving the filings around from underneath some paper with various sizes of magnets...

I was very pleased with the results I got. The filings looked like the shapes murmurations make in the sky, the only problem I had was that I needed to find a more secure surface as the paper had a tendency to buckle and warp as the magnets moved the filings around...

I tied to secure it with books and candle holders and all sorts but the paper wasn't strong enough, so I opted to use a streched canvas instead.  

integrated Project...starling murmuration experiments...block 2

Since I had decided I would create a stop motion animation, I started to research more about starling murmurations and their behaviour...why do they do that? knowing that they did it when coming into roost for the evening I found myself asking. I discovered its for more resins than just that and pretty much the same reasons we gather together in large groups, they do it to exchange information, for protection, for fun, for company, to find food...which all seemed to be very similar to the reasons I would give people for gathering together.

The Shee album cover for their album Murmurations...every one is slightly different...

I also looked into (briefly) the science behind the actual flight patterns of a massive fast moving flocking starlings otherwise known as a murmuration.  It turns out magnets can explain it, or the same principle can be applied to that of the murmuration to explain why they don't have masses of in flight collisions...WOW!

I decided to try and include a reference to the magnetic properties of starlings after finding out all this info.

Integrated project for Without Walls...block 2

At the start of this project, which specifically had to be produced for display outdoors I had a whole different medium in mind...sculpture, which I was soon to discover wasn't something I enjoyed, at all...don't get me wrong sculptures are fantastic, I'm just not very good at creating them as I thought!

The little maquettes I started creating before realising sculpture wasn't for me...

The concept of starling murmurations and relating their behaviour to our human communities stayed the same but I decided to create a stop motion animation instead as I had a good experience with making one for my last project and having some workshops earlier in the year also hugely informed my decision to choose stop motion animation.

experimenting with drawing onto 35mm film directly with ink...

I attended a Norman McLaren exhibition and workshop to learn a little more about how the animation is created on film as apposed to digitally aided stop motions.

Some film with sharpie marker pen scribbled onto it...

I was very kindly given some film from the camera less filmmaker Steven Woloshen, who works for the National Film Board of Canada and was at the workshop with a film he was working on.  It was great to speak to someone so knowledgable about film.

Textiles...final pieces...Block 2

In the development of my final piece I thought about producing a series of inkjet printed fabric in A4, to be hung like on a washing line or in a photographers dark room...however with a bit of thought and a good look at it, I decided that A4 was just a bit too boring for me, and it was at this point I changed my mind about the size and layout of the print...

First ideas about size change...

Hung on a window you could really see the fibres in the print too, I added some extra bits of fabric, which made me think of negative strips...so i changed my mind about layout again!

I love this photo of my fabric on a washing line, even although I decided not to go with this design after all...

I did go with this design however. In my final piece there was twice the amount of printed fabric strips, I also had more of the film draped and coiled over the washing line too.

Textiles...block 2...development cont...

So, I decided that the t-shirt transfer paper hid too much of the fibres in the fabric and gave it quite a glossy finish, which I didn't want...I was really looking for an image stained into the fabric so I could still feel the true texture of the fabric.
I decided then to try simply printing directly onto my fabric, I had tried to find printer friendly fabric but to no avail, and any I did find was out of budget.

I glued a sheet of fabric I had cut to the same size as an A4 sheet of paper onto normal printer paper, very lightly and only with a glue stick.  I then quickly printed my series of photoshop images onto the fabric and removed them from each other so as the glue wouldn't fix my paper completely to the back of the fabric.

This was the final article which was very cheap to produce and very simple to do...I also liked the photographic quality and detail I could achieve by doing this...

Textiles...Block 2...ideas development

As my project is based on transient memories, I thought I would focus in on the quick degradation of these unwanted memories.
I started to experiment with altering an image on photoshop then transferring it to fabric somehow...I bought some T-shirt transfer paper which I printed onto, then ironed onto my fabric.
I choose nice tight weave cotton so as the fabric would be as smooth and easy to print or draw on as paper/canvas.

photoshop images printed onto transfer paper...

image on paper cut out and placed face down onto fabric...

 transfer paper was then ironed onto fabric.  Iron hot with steam settings turned off completely...

The type of t-shirt transfers I was using were for light or white coloured fabric.

Textiles...Block 2...lovely fabrics!

Well...I previously mentioned how I had been trying out hand making paper.  In this blog however I'll be taking you through my devore velvet piece, which I enjoyed the process of very much.

To start with I cut a piece of freezer paper about the same size as my piece of black velvet and drew a small design onto the back of it.  I cut this out carefully with a scalpel then stuck it to the back of the velvet, the side with no velvety texture.

I then painted/brushed on some devore paste, which eats away at the back of the fabric so the fibres come away where it's been applied.  I left it to stand for a minute or two after ironing it in, and gave it a little wash to remove the excess fibres and any unwanted paste.

There are many ways of applying the paste and stencils need not be used all the time, many effects can be created with this technique.

Here is mine...

I over used the devore paste a little, as the two big birds near the top left have little holes in them...oops!