Getting Started

Since starting this course I have been relishing the thought of getting to grips with a conceptual art work. Now that we have the opportunity to not only create a piece of work but also write an essay on conceptual art, I have been making mind maps and jotting down things that come into my head when I think of our title ‘Nation’.
I’m thinking about moving away from flat art work as in working on paper or canvas and moving towards installation work and possibly performance. The ability to express oneself is something that needs to be explored.
The more I work with different media and materials the more flexible I become when it comes to developing ideas. I tend to think a lot more open mindedly about where my work could go especially when I know it is going to be a conceptual piece.
Now that we have received the deadlines regarding our contextual, conceptual and developmental drawing projects I have been able to days and times when and where I can work on each one. The college library has provided me with a selection of books that I am working my way through when I am at home. Mondays and Fridays in our studio spaces are a great opportunity to get some practical work done as well as taking time to update my blog.
I am determined to keep on track when it comes to time keeping and deadlines. Also, group crits have been enjoyable so far! They outline my strengths and weaknesses when presenting my work. Sometimes I tend to drift off in presentations and go off on wild tangents. This is probably due to my enthusiasm and lack of planning talks.
P.S. I will probably be posting to my tumblr page more often from now since most of my classmates are on there. Here is the link below!

www.martinpringle.co.uk

Day Today #4

This is the video piece I came up with for day 4 of our project. I wanted to illustrate the increasing use of brutality within the police force in America. I wanted to do this using footage from various news channels and reports from the mainstream media. The involvement of mobile phones and cameras in these cases is important, especially when it comes to the inevitable investigation. Head cameras and chest cameras fitted onto police officers is also very telling statement. This way we don't have to rely so much on witness statements or unreliable memory.

I love working with video, from selecting material from research to the editing process. Looking at timing and the length of each clip is something I spend a lot of time on. I am always conscious of what is being said in each clip and whether or not the viewer will relate the words they hear to what they are seeing. I try not to get too bogged down with this though. Ultimately I am creating work for myself. I probably shouldn't be overly concerned about how much the viewer understands it.

Day Today #3

I think that Anthony Horowitz’ comments about the possibility of Idris Elba playing James Bond should be taken seriously. Whether or not it was a mistake or a misinterpretation doesn’t matter. This sort of thing happens all the time in the media. An accomplished member of the celebrity world says something that is not entirely politically correct and the press goes crazy for it. I’m sure in this case, Elba didn’t take it too seriously. Even with such a successful career anyone in the limelight is open to criticism. Horowitz has came out and admitted he was “mortified to have caused offence”. This is also a common stage, typical of a scenario that has attracted the media. There is no suspicion that these comments are racially motivated, not in the slightest. 

However whenever things like this do happen, I always look to the mainstream media and look carefully how the cover the ‘story’. I think of the media as -for lack of a better phrase - ‘shit stirrers’. Even if the person who first broke the story knows for a fact that there was nothing sinister in the authors comments, it’s the agenda of the media outlets to make something out of nothing.

Over the years I have come to realise the media and press have a certain agenda to fulfil especially when it comes to celebrities.

I think what I want to get across in this piece is my personal view on how the mainstream media outlets aim to bring out the worst in people, not the best.

Day Today #2

Today was the second day of our newspaper headlines project. I wanted to focus on a subject a little more serious than curry, so I managed to pick out one about a man who has been sentenced to death by lethal injection. So yeah, just a bit more serious than curry.

The man is to be excecuted on the 15th of September for murdering his boss. The very short article explains that the man has reached out to President Obama, hoping he will intervene and get his sentence changed.

The death penalty and it's existence in the modern world has been part of heated debates for a long time. It's something I find very interesting. I have in the past talked at length about it, and the part it plays in justice systems around the world. I figured because of my interest in it, that this article would be a good one to work on.

I made a mind map as soon as I had read the article and began jotting down thoughts and feelings that I personally felt about the death penalty.

At this stage all I wanted to do was get as many words down on paper as possible. I tend to scribble down words rather than sentences, this helps me when I refer back to notes later in the development process. I think this is because I attach certain connotations to words whether negative or positive, and the feeling I have in that moment in which I jot them down stays with me and I remember why I wanted to write it in the first place. These singular words usually make their way into sentences in the later stages of the process.

I began thinking about what materials I could use to project my feeling towards the subject.

I love working with typefaces and text on Photoshop, so I used this urge and photographed the image (mugshot) of the man sentenced to death and got it up on the iMac.

Working with text on top of images, I have came to realise how important composition is. I can spend hours on one poster adjusting one single line of text, the kerning, the spacing, point size etc. All the time spent is worth the outcome, usually...

I really enjoyed tackling this subject - albeit individually - and figuring out my own personal views on a subject.

Although, I do realise that these past 2 days and the pieces I have made haven't had much research behind them. This is something I will focus on more tomorrow, Thursday and Friday.

The image below is what I came up with!