The Others - Evaluation

The Others - Evaluation

My initial idea was based around how war and destruction affects young people in third world countries. I was inspired by a girl called Phan Thi Kim Phuc, who was photographed at the age of nine during the Vietnamese war, the photograph shows her naked running on a road after having her back severely burnt by the South Vietnamese napalm attack on June 8th 1972. Through using Phan’s story I wanted to create a pot that shows innocence and youth being damaged, I came up with an idea to make a pot that has one side completely smooth and the other side altered in some way. After going through some design ideas I chose to make the pot into a shape of a torso and have the back of the pot look as though it is melting or being burnt. This symbolises Phan’s pain literally and metaphorically and shows that through this torment her innocence has been stripped from her.

To help me help me understand Vietnamese culture I chose to research traditional Vietnamese designs on pottery. I came across blue and white porcelain which is very soft and intricate designs traditionally with crisp white and cobalt blue. [1]I found that the majority of the late 14th/early 15th century Vietnamese blue and white consisted of wares decorated with floral or cloud like motif. There are spur marks on the inner base of bowls and plates. The second half of 15th century was the golden period of Vietnamese blue and white. During this period, the Vietnamese potters introduced their unique style of decorations and many new innovative vessel forms. Archaeological surveys revealed that two districts in Hai Duong Province, Nam Sach and Binh Giang have the greatest concentration of kilns that produced blue and white wares.  Among them Chu Dau in Nam Sach and  Ngoi kiln complex in Binh Giang were the biggest producers. With this information and with help from pictures of this pottery I began drawing out some designs and trying to encapsulate the Vietnamese culture with these designs.

When it came to making the pot I had no problems, the shape was just as I envisaged and with hindsight I think that I should have just left it there as it would have come out crisp and white. But I decided to attempt the traditional Vietnamese pattern of the cobalt blue intricate designs and on the melted affect side I decided to place blue on the drips. While doing this I found it very difficult, the colour wasn’t going on great as it was heavy in some areas and barely noticeable in others, also the colour wasn’t the cobalt blue I was hoping for, it was more or a turquoise. I knew that it wasn’t going to be great so once it was fired I decided not to glaze it as I didn’t want money to be wasted on something that I wasn’t proud of.

The successes on this project have been the research, I enjoyed looking into young people's lives that are struggling a lot more than people in the world we know are and seeing the strength of Phan Thi Kim Phuc after the pain that she went through as a nine year old girl. Also I believe that the shape of my pot was very unique and different and I think that it showed the message of innocence being ripped away from this young people who have to face war every day of their lives. Having looked at all my successes I also recognise that there are targets I need to set myself to enable development.  These are taking more time to think about what I’m doing, if i had spent more time thinking about the design of my pot and planning it out more thoroughly then maybe my pot would have turned out how I wanted it to. To conclude I believe that I showed the message that I wanted to but I didn’t necessarily do it to my best ability and I could have improved it had I spent more time on the planning.

Megan Chilcott

[1] http://www.koh-antique.com/vietceramics/vietceramics2.htm

Solar Energy

Solar Energy

Information

                             Solar cells

Solar-powered ticket machine

[1] Solar cells are devices that convert light energy directly into electrical energy. You may have seen small solar cells in calculators. Larger arrays of solar cells are used to power road signs in remote areas, and even larger arrays are used to power satellites in orbit around Earth.

Solar panels

Solar panels do not generate electricity, but rather they heat up water. They are often located on the roofs of buildings where they can receive heat energy from the sun. The diagram outlines how they work.

Cold water is pumped up to the solar panel, there it heats up and is transferred to a storage tank.

A pump pushes cold water from the storage tank through pipes in the solar panel. The water is heated by heat energy from the sun and returns to the tank. In some systems, a conventional boiler may be used to increase the temperature of the water.

Advantages

Solar energy is a renewable energy resource and there are no fuel costs. No harmful polluting gases are produced.

Disadvantages

• Solar cells are expensive and inefficient, so the cost of their electricity is high.
• Solar panels may only produce very hot water in very sunny climates, and in cooler areas may need to be supplemented with a conventional boiler.
• Although warm water can be produced even on cloudy days, neither solar cells nor solar panels work at night.

Megan Chilcott

[1]http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/science/aqa_pre_2011/energy/mainselectricityrev6.shtml

The Future- Timebased

Timebased- Litter

During Timebased we had to take pictures of litter to show the damage to the environment when people don't recycle their litter.

This is the image I chose as I like the heavy, aged and yet beautiful cobbles contrasting against the eye sore of litter. The running parallel lines gives the affect that the litter is trailing all the way up the street.  The message is is that the litter is ruining what would be a delightful picture which transcends the message that pollution is ruining what could be a beautiful climate free Eco-friendly world.

Megan Chilcott

The Future- Rosemary Horn

Rosemary Horn 

Rosemary Horn is from New Zealand. She has become quite an expert in the environmentally friendly processes such as anthotypes and photosynthesis.
During her final year at university Rosemary completed a research project, she wanted to address her concerns for the environment through the photographic medium. Rosemary felt a change was needed towards using less processed materials and a simplified printing process. Rosemary's concern for the environment lead her to reconsider the materials used in photography. She felt the need to use less processed materials and a simplified printing process. Each leaf has its own peculiarities responding to the process differently.


By using the anthotype method the prints are automatically seen as being very organic, this is also shown by the faint pastel colours which translates to fruits and nature. The one toned gives a soft aged look to the picture almost as though the image has a coloured sepia filter. In my opinion Horn's anthotypes are very elegant and classic and the fact that they use solar energy really inspires me to research more printing methods that are renewable.



Megan Chilcott

The Future- Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec

[1] Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec was a famed 19th-century French painter and poster artist known for works like 'The Streetwalker' and 'At the Moulin Rouge.' [2] He became highly famed for his posters, influenced by Japanese styles and Impressionist Edgar Degas, and for imbuing marginalized populations with humanity in his art, including sex workers, as seen in his 1896 print series Elles. Other notable works include At the Moulin Rouge andThe Streetwalker.

 [3] Moulin Rouge: La Goulue is a bold, four-color lithograph depicting the famous cancan dancer La Goulue and her flexible partner Valentine le désossé made to advertise the popular French club, Moulin Rouge. Their audience is reduced to silhouettes in order to focus attention on the performers and evoke the Japanese art then in vogue. The triple repetition of the club's name draws the focus down to the central figure of the poster, La Goulue herself.The stark white of her petticoats, depicted with just a few lines on the white paper, epitomizes Toulouse-Lautrec's boldly simplistic style, a sharp break from the text-heavy posters of the day. 

The bold primary colours of yellow and red draws the eye to the importance such as the title 'Moulin Rouge' or the cancan dancer, this gives a fun atmosphere to the poster and advertises La Goulue the cancan dancer as an entertaining person. The composition of the poster is interesting, there is something happening in the foreground, mid-ground and background yet the eye focuses on the mid-ground as it has a big block of white and there is a lot going on whereas in the background and foreground everything is very dull and subdued so the eye glazes over it. 


Megan Chilcott


[1] http://www.biography.com/people/henri-de-toulouse-lautrec-9509115
[2] https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/laut/hd_laut.htm
[3]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moulin_Rouge:_La_Goulue