VISUAL LANGUAGE BIBLIOGRAPHY:

http://www.englishdefenceleague.org/
http://www.thadpope.com/protest_intro.html
http://www.sissonphotography.com/Documentary/News-Events-Editorial/Iran-Vote-Protest/8668882_MshDF#572510366_RWCEc
http://www.aucklandmuseum.com/410/nuclear-free:-protest-photography-by-gil-hanly
http://www.joseflebovicgallery.com/Photography/RogerScott/Pages/pg01.html
http://www.uaf.org.uk/
http://www.thisisnottingham.co.uk/homenews/Police-ask-UAF-switch-protest-rally/article-1569653-detail/article.html
http://nobnpfestival.wordpress.com/
http://www.bethlemheritage.org.uk
http://www.slam.nhs.uk/services/sitelist.aspx?site=Bethlem+Royal+Hospital
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bethlem_Royal_Hospital
http://www.beckenhamhistory.co.uk/flashNifties/gallery1.html
http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/archive/exhibits/bedlam/bedlam.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A2554157?s_id=1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plagues_of_Egypt
http://www.biblegateway.com
http://ancienthistory.about.com/od/judaism/f/10plagues.htm
http://www.essortment.com/all/tenplaguesofe_rwfp.htm

VISUAL LANGUAGE EVALUATION:

This brief despite its potential I feel I haven’t excelled in as well as I thought. This was due to a number of reasons. Firstly that the brief was continued over Christmas and much went on where I wasn’t able to do any work. Secondly I felt very creatively stunted for the entire course of the brief, I felt it was hard for me to come up with a subject I was passionate about, and I went down many more avenues than I normally do. Through this I learnt a lot that could work for me in other briefs when I feel the time is right however it wasn’t appropriate this time and because of that I wasted a lot of time looking around for inspiration. My time was managed badly as I mention in many of my evaluations and I feel that this is something I definitely need to work on, and will make a conscious effort to.

I felt my research methods have improved and I am now more motivated to get on with looking into things and learning about the world. Earlier this week I read a quote from a small time graphic designer in which he said that his best way of getting ideas was to read and learn about things and be doing this all the time, whether they be graphic design based or not. I feel my work will definitely benefit from this.
I am happy with the context of my work and I feel this is one of my strengths, I think there is a lot of meaning behind the pieces that I have done for this brief and much meaning that can also be determined as questions, I hope that people have looked at my work in the exhibition and questioned it and maybe even themselves.

This brief didn’t go the way I had wished it would, and ideally I could have come up with my final idea much earlier on and therefore saved myself a lot of wasted time. However I feel I did the best I could in the time I was given and I would like to work with these pieces much more to make them worthy of portfolio work. I learnt how to bookbind and how to use indesign in this brief and I will find that very useful for more of my briefs. I will definitely be making books again as it is something I have wanted to do for a while but never had the experience.

Overall this brief taught me a lot, much of which was practical for my work and the experience of having an exhibition was excellent as the last time I had one was at GCSE level. I hope to make more of having my work exhibited next time and try to get more pieces up. This brief has also taught me a lot about myself, I could never really say I’ve had creative block however now I am able to as I experienced it through so much of the beginning of this brief, this has taught me ways to prevent this from happening and the keep my mind working and engaged with the world all the time.

BOOK PRINTING AND BINDING:

After the exhibition I still had to print and bind my book. The printing didn't go very well as many of my images weren't in line and I had large bands of white that weren't supposed to be there, but all of it was a learning curve. There were no bookbinding sessions so I chose to staple my book together which wasn't my chosen way of binding however it worked. It was hard to get the staples in line and I messed it up a bit, but as the printing was a learning curve. I think I will be printing out my book again soon for portfolio purposes.

THE EXHIBITION:

The exhibition went really well and I had a lot of fun. I had some of my piers interested in my work which was good. And all in all I felt it was a real success for the whole of viscom.

INSTALLING AND HANGING:

I'd never installed an exhibition before and it was really good fun. I think that fact that we got a chance to be a part of the installation made it so much more ours. We were able to select images and choose where to put them which was a nice responsibility to have. Then it's ready to open the doors...

WALL PIECE:

I had a lot of trouble trying to decide what image to use for my wall piece as I was told I was only allowed one. After talking to Nick and my piers I chose to use the flies image as it is one of the most memorable plagues and it is a really powerful image. However when it came to printing it out A2 one of my earlier mistakes came to light and I wasn't able to use that picture because it wasn't as in focus as I would have liked, this was never noticeable on my computer but when blown up to that scale it was a thing I wasn't willing to sacrifice. I then chose to use the plagues of hail which I feel is a really powerful god like image. I am also going to be printing DIVINE OBJECTION onto acetate to put over the top.

POSTCARD:

Here are the two postcards I created for the exhibition:
I chose the words GODLESS and UN-GOD to use with my images because I feel it sums up the questions I am trying to ask.

INDESIGN:

Learning the basics of indesign wasn't too hard, I am able to mak a book layout and drop images into it. This has also helped with submitting work as I am able to now create a multi-page pdf.
This is the layout of my book:

BIBLE FINAL:

BIBLE:

In my book I will be putting my projection images in but also extracts from the bible to give the book context. I scanned in the pages of the bible and then places text over the top.
The phrases I chose to use were:
WE ARE THE CREATORS
BELIEVE EVERYTHING THEY TELL YOU
DIVINE OBJECTION
INFECT YOUR MIND
SAVE OUR RATIONALISM
KILL THE FIRST
These are phrases I personally came up with that I feel gets the reader to ask questions as opposed to telling them how to think. They can work both ways and you can apply them to religion and atheism.

WALL PIECE/POSTCARD/BOOK:

Unfortunately I won't have my book finished for the exhibition as it was brought forward. Which is disappointing because I feel that the images work as a collection rather than just one wall piece or postcard.
To make the postcards I will be putting low opacity text over some of my images asking questions about them, subtly. I will do the same for my wall piece except the text will be printed off on acetate and placed on top of the photograph.

PHOTO SHOOT:

When it came to taking the photos I used my pentax DSLR. I used no flash and no tripod, the no tripod was a mistake and bad planning on my part, because of this I am not as happy as I could be with the images. These are them pre edit:

GETTY IMAGES:

THE PLAGUE OF BOILS













THE PLAGUE OF LOCUSTS



















THE PLAGUE OF LIVESTOCK DEATH



















THE PLAGUE OF LICE














THE PLAGUE OF HAIL













THE PLAGUE OF FLIES















DEATH OF THE FIRSTBORN



















THE PLAGUE OF DARKNESS










THE PLAGUE OF BLOOD

VISUAL LANGUAGE FINAL IDEA:

After talking with Christian today about my idea I feel much more confident with it. I may be cutting my time very fine, but rather I do this than be working with an idea I am not excited or passionate about. I will need to use 'getty images' to find my photographs representing the 10 plagues as I am not really able to take a photo of a plagues of locusts or frogs etc, at least not in these time constraints. I will want to use a different person for each image to show diversity, however I don't know if I will be able to, with the time I have, find 10 separate men who will be willing to take off their tshirts. I will be taking the photos in the seminar room which is perfect because I can black out the room and there is a digital projector in there. I will be taking the photos on Friday.

TEN PLAGUES...PROJECTION?

After brainstorming the 10 plagues idea I wanted to do something around the 10 plagues in the modern day society and what they represent. Maybe dabble with questioning the existence of God. I want to do studio photos as much of my work had been documentarian. I also like the idea of using projection. If I was able to get photographs representing the 10 plagues and then project them onto something. Maybe people, representing the modern day view of biblical stories and how personal it is to people.

Images, each representing a different plague.
Projected onto the naked torsos of men,
naked because of the vunrability of humans,
torso because it holds your heart, a stronger believer in religion than your head I feel,
and men because of the continuous patriarchal themes throughout the bible.

THE REAPING:

I watched the film The Reaping over Christmas and this was one of the extra features. The 10 Plagues is something I'm very interested in and the fact that science can now theoretically explain it is even more interesting. I am agnostic myself and I feel that peoples firm belief in God still in this day an age despite there is no solid proof, yet God was able to smite all the unbelievers and 10 commandment breakers then, why doesn't he do it now?
I feel that I am able to work a lot with the collection of the 10 plagues themselves but the collection of believers and unbelievers is a subject to really think about.

CREATIVE BLOCK:

I can't seem to bring myself to come up with any ideas around Bethlem and the initial ideas just don't seem attractive anymore.
What to do.
What to do.
What to do.
What to do.What to do.
What to do.
What to do.
What too do.
What to do..
What to do.

VISIT TO BETHLEM MUSEUM:

Visiting the museum and art gallery at Bethlem Hospital was an interesting experience and I took much inspiration from it. I wasn't what I expected, it looked like a normal museum, but I don't really know what I was expecting.
I was able to see restraint chains used in the 1860's in the museum.
Artifacts and photographs of the hospital throughout the ages.
This was one of my favorite photographs:










At the time I went they were exhibiting the work of Richard Dadd (1817-1886) a selection of pieces representing his 22 years in Broadmoor State Criminal Lunatic Asylum where he died. much of it was fine art based and all was painting or drawing, not my preferred media but I liked how he obviously very talented with a brush which makes a difference from most outsider art. this was one of my favorite pieces:

BOOKBINDING:

(Made that on illustrator when I was bored!)

This was my first time bookbinding unlike the rest of viscom because I hadn't done it in my first year. I learnt a lot, two different types of bookbinding and made these (plus two more using the same two binding techniques):