TUESDAY 16TH
Today we prepared our pitches for the afternoon, in which presenting still makes me feel nervous, then we had a workshop with our guests Linda and presented our ideas. Overall I had a good lesson, yet I was quite fatigued and depressed from procrastinating so much over the past week, so I honestly wasn’t excited for a workshop about reflection.
A WORKSHOP about reflection
It was nice to understand the groups opinions and realising how much we can relate to another, and the anonymity of our responses, similarities and differences alike, gave me more comfort within the class. Although I was blunt with most of my answers due to momentary brain fatigue. She did mention bilingualism which resonated with me to due my speech delay growing up which can still impact how I linguistically and literally express myself as an adult.
The exercise in the end seemed very pointless. To structure and reflect on the next 5 weeks - without a theme - a group - a motive - is pointless, everyone in fact copied off the Moodle calendar or wrote a fat question mark. It did the opposite of help me since I am already have a tendency to over reflect. Overly reflecting or addictive reflection can cause a person to deeply visualise the future and set unrealistic expectations. It can distort a persons perception of time which removes you from the present and sense of self. It’s a huge headache so I found that last exercise unhelpful.
EDIT: But flash forwarding to after the pitches. Now that we have a concept, a group, a motive , I see a point in that exercise and reflected so much without realising. What may seem useless in the moment can provide help in other times. Once the groups were designated I already began plotting our next steps in a timeline.
insert link or file for pitch
SPECULATIVE PROPOSALS 2 minute presentations
MY PITCH IN WRITING
“So, as Lara was introducing this brief I already started getting some ideas and it seemed that one of the main focal point of this thing is to attract people. So when we went to the venue, the two main things which attracted me most were obviously the artwork, but also the leaky pipes which not many noticed. There was something interesting and beautiful about how the green moss followed the trail of water and how that could be a natural source of energy that we can utilise.
Then I asked some friends and myself what we think of Digbeth, connotations to it, things we love about it and arts was a very big recurring thing. Then that led me to digging into some context, and I came across David "Panda" Brown, who runs GraffitiArtist.com out of the old Bird's Custard Factory. He says:
“The sheer volume of public art is what attracts artists to the area. "Street art and graffiti to Digbeth, it is just the heartbeat of it, It just makes it so vibrant”
It all made me consider just how vital the graffiti, the public artwork and the art community is to Digbeth. It is literally the magic, the colour the height of the birth and therefore Birmingham there is no other place like it here so it somehow lead me let me to think about what art is about, making sense of the world, forming experienced and nostalgia, creating unique magical enchanting experiences.
What do you mean what do we love? Where are you attracted to? When I look around Digbeth I see so many different kinds of people every kind of demographic. We are all so unique and different, but we all human. What do people all love we crave, nostalgia magic memories and so how can we integrate that into this Site without taking away from the artwork, and instead, enhancing it and one of the main most magical things to me is lights how it interacts with reality and nature to create things like rainbows and sunsets and auroras and you name it. I am interested in the concept of phenomena is all idea of phenomena and how it can enchant us.
So I came up with graffiti garden to be honest I just love the name I really love the name it’s so catchy and it is it is essentially a mosaic of graffiti and greenery with an actual rainbow in the middle of it. You can pass through the rainbow, and as you do even become rainbow colours, as I’ve demonstrated with my finger and my eye in these photos apply, it would be created using perhaps small hydro powered steam devices that eject, humid, water, steam water, which interacts with light to create a rainbow effect, the devices well the rainbow would be powered hydropowered by a water source coming from the pipes from above, or from below (considering the nearby river and solar energy) and it seems body of water can also provide, sustenance to the moss and greenery.
One thing I noticed is that it will only grow where there is water so we can intentionally distribute areas of water across the structure the arch to control where the plants grow on the walls so that it does not overtake the pre-existing heart, and instead become a part of it. The ground will be covered in beautiful green plants, and there will be some area to which people have the option of choice to create out themselves using reuse spray cans from redbrick market which is just opposite I thought this to be a very effective way of collaborating sustainably with independent businesses because that is one of the main motifs of Digbeth. And there’s just so many ways of expanding this idea.
In addition, the humidifying device, the steam device would create a cool breezy atmosphere in Somers and can be turned on and off during the winters or provide some comfort during bad weather and gloomy skies. Seasonal depression is rarely talked about yet I think it’s something that genuinely affects a lot of us so this can also provide us a momentary solution for people. I also considered projecting leaves by shine if light through actual leaves similar to how a tree by a window illuminated a room.”
REFLECTION PRE RESULTS
I spoke more confidently than previously which I am pleased with. To be honest I settled with a simple concept because I intended for it to be a mediocre and useful element of a theme we chose not THE THEME we choose. The only thing I truly love about my concept is the name - GRAFFITI GARDEN - it’s so catchy! But ultimately I want to put these character design and digital skills to use in this final lab.
I liked how everyone’s concepts were intriguing and different, but assessing them was clearly difficult since we had no specific standard or structure to refer to; that says ’ this is the best’ this is the worst” . That and having zero experience marking work, we basically had to guess everything and trust our intuitions. Using this system to determine groups for our final year project feels a bit risky and not that effective, but this is what teachers, particularly in the arts, have to do constantly when assessing work since there is no ‘true’ standard for good or poor. I think Phoebe’s, James’s, Helen’s and Alberts pitches were the strongest, Ryan, Hannah and Elleana served some interesting ideas too.
I should have given Phoebe a 5 instead of a 4, because I can put my best skills to use in designing the robot! In the moment I was thinking “realistically”when this is a completely speculative brief which doesn’t require us to have the creative resources. I can go crazy with all the character designs, Nomad Sculpting, 3d printing etc. I really want to be on her team.
REFLECTION POST RESULTS
I really did not expect for my idea to be one of the chosen ones so now I am freaking out but excited. When the groups were being formed I had to go out and buy arm support for a friend who injured themself and when I came back my name was on top of the board, which immediately took me out of that burned out state I was in the whole day, because I now have a responsibility to support a group in our final module. It was slightly disappointing that I didn’t get the option of joining Phoebe’s group since I already imagined some amazing ideas, which I can still tell her about. But we can still reconstruct those ideas and skills I have in mind to create something even new for ourselves.
Also I may have an advantage since I was the only one who attended the last cohorts presentation of what we re doing right now. Although I barely remember the contents of their presentations, I remember being in that environment which is insightful enough to visualise what our final group assessment will be like; having that knowledge is reassuring in itself.
Despite only being a single module, there are actually many more factors that we have to account for in our assessment, including our previous modules throughout the year. This can be easily overwhelming if there’s a lack of reflection and organisation, which I learned the hard way in our last module, so I made sure to start off this project doing just that. I spent 2 hours after everybody journaling with voice notes, transfusing my determination and documenting all of my thoughts so that I won’t forget; themes to research, next steps to take, tasks to make, experiments, ways to expand the concept, etc.. this is what Linda meant by reflecting over the course of the future.
VOICE NOTES…………………
WEDNESDAY 17TH
FULFILLING THE BRIEF
Last night I managed to sum up all my audio notes in writing and this morning I began reflecting on the future of this project so that we start off strong.
ANALYSING THE BRIEF
I selected key bits of information from Lara's introductory presentation.
Then I revisited the official mark scheme of the speculative brief and copied it onto a Pages document, where I can add notes for every part highlighted; proposing tasks, ideas, themes, etc..
HITTING THE CRITERIA
I summarised the criteria into relevant questions that we should ask ourselves throughout our group discussions, in order to define a clear focus in our proposal and final essay.
CRITERIA essay structure
PROJECT
How well can we develop our coursework’s purpose?
How well can we develop our coursework’s usability?
How well can we develop our courseworks aesthetic appeal?
CONTEXT
What are the needs of the planet/digbeth?
Environmental (i.e. more natural spaces)
Or
Ethical (i.e. preservation of art and culture, alongside the natural world)
PERSONAL SELF
What are things that we learned in First Year? (E.g. I learned to organise tasks early on, reflecting on the brief before beginning our project instead of the end, so that we can work with organisation and strong intention.
CLIENT SURVEY
What are the needs of the public?
What are the needs of the shareholders?
What are the needs of the Digbeth community?
What are the needs of the humanity? (I.e. nostalgia, magic, surrealism, natural dopamine)
Specificities are unique needs/specific requirements
Public?
Shareholders?
Community?
Humanity?
STRUCTURING OUR TIME TIME
To also prevent getting sidetracked, I prepared a timetable so that each of us can distribute tasks amongst us, taking heed of what Kate said last semester:
THURSDAY 18TH
Bus stopped working in just the right spot.
WORKSHOP
For some reason technology hates me today, everything from the buses to the mac computers were stressing me out but despite the drawbacks I managed to catch up in Tony's workshop. I was amazed at how simple and effective Sketch-up is and we will most definitely use this software to visualise our final concept in the final assessment.
I also managed to talk to Amelie for the first time today after our workshop and I am really happy that she has a lot of enthusiasm and bright ideas for this project.
FRIDAY 19TH
OUR FIRST GROUP MEETING
Today is our first group meeting and I began by re-explaining the Graffiti Garden concept to my group mates alongside the analysis I made yesterday, and each of us shared many ideas on how to develop this idea so I believe our group is off at a good start.
AUDIO OF GROUP DISCUSSION
THINGS I TOOK FROM THE DISCUSSION:
ELLEANA
Recommended one drive file to share
Researched graffiti
Some research OLAFur
Reminded us to include experienced from previous modules
Flower arranging ( mom’s hobby) reflecting artwork
Likes the aesthetic of dried flowers
Will research minerva
KORD
Looked into graffiti flowers since we need to use original art
Looking into graffiti artists
Thinks of designing a fancy entrance, projector for the rainbow.
Might use sketch up
Imagines himself painting something
Kordian already began designing a logo for the proposed app moments after proposing it, incorporating his fast graphic skills from the previous module.
SARA
ADVERTISEMENT (LINES TURNING INTO FLOWERS) we need to find it
Daffont website
Started making graffiti mood boards
Started our Miro board
AMELIE
Researched - HiSTORY OF GRAFFITI
Made amazing concept designs and improvements to our concept
COMMUNICATION
We also ensured to set up our social’s. Based on our previous experiences working in groups, we understood which collaborative tools are effective for a certain purpose:
WHATSAPP : effective for professional discussions, sharing notes and files.
OUTLOOK EMAILS: sharing complex files e.g OBJ’s
INSTAGRAM : effective for inspirational reels, group chats and calls.
MIRO: effective for organisation, documentation and most importantly ideation.
PINTEREST : effective for inspiration and mood boards
GOOGLE SLIDES : solely for presentations
Sara set up a Miro board for us to collaborate on and I began allocating areas to put in our research, which we tasked ourselves to do over the weekend :
ME
OLAFUR ELIASSON
RAINBOW SCIENCE
PHENOMENA
HUMAN NATURE
FICTION AND LITERATURE
NATURAL MATERIAL AND HABITATS
SCULPTURES
SURVEY
LORE OR FOLKLORE*
ELLEANA
OLAFUR ELIASSON
GRAFFITI/ARTISTS
URBAN PROJECTS
SHAREHOLDERS
COMMUNITY - i.e minerva/ redbrick
NATURAL ARRANGEMENTS
AMELIE
RAINBOW SCIENCE
SCULPTURES
POLITICAL HISTORY OF GRAFFITI
KORD
PERFORMANCE/PERFORMANCE SPACES
APP?
GRAFFITI ARTISTS/ART
SARA
NATURE/NATURAL MATERIALS
COMMUNITY GARDENS/TYOPES OF GARDENS 9 DIFFERENT WAYS OF USING SPACE.
LOGOS
SATURDAY 20TH
RESEARCH
1.
OLAFUR ELIASSON
Olafur Eliasson is an Icelandic–Danish artist known for sculptured and large-scaled installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer's experience.
I started by going on his webpage and scrolling through his body of work from 2024 all the way bad to 1991 , picking about 30 pieces that caught my interest. He described each of them and how he made them in short sentences which helps me understanding how they work. Taking aspects of them which we can use in our concept.
ART PIECES OF INTEREST
LIGHTHOUSE: vibrant, evrchanging, Planes of coloured glass and shutters turning steadily on motors. Dichroic color effect filter glass, a material which reflects certain wavelengths of light.
Your circadian embrace is illuminated during the day by the light of the sun. Suspended from the ceiling in the exhibition room, a prismatic ring surrounding a dichroic colour-effect filter slowly rotates within a beam of light. As the ring turns, it casts moving circles and arcs of colourful light on the walls. Some of these are single tones, while others display the full range of colours in the visible spectrum.
Positioned outside of the exhibition building, an heliostat, or sun tracker, redirects sunlight onto the rotating ring using a mirror that follows the ‘movement’ of the sun across the sky. The normal ‘movement’ of sunlight through the room is not a result of the motion of the sun, however, but rather, the optical result of the rotation of the earth.
Three concentric polyhedrons, one nestled inside the other, project an elaborate array of geometric shapes, shadows, and colours onto the surrounding walls. The tinted-glass faces of the outermost form – an eight-sided solid known as a rhombic dodecahedron – are curved outwards to create a segmented sphere or bubble.
Within this outer skin, the two interior forms, whose geometries are loosely correlated, turn slowly on a motor. In addition to colourful panes of handblown glass, the artwork incorporates panes of colour-effect-filter glass, a special material that reflects light of a single colour while allowing the remaining light to pass through. LED spots integrated into the outer frame illuminate the core and are reflected back out by the inner forms.
The missing left brain, 2022, unfurls before the viewer as a constantly changing lightshow of shapes, colours, and shadows, created through the reflection and refraction of light. The symmetrical sequence develops and vanishes in a slow continuum upon a circular screen that seems to hover in the space. The screen is in fact a semicircular screen affixed to a mirror, which creates the illusion of a full circle and doubles the amorphous shapes into a symmetrical Rorschach-like light display. Viewers can glimpse the apparatus responsible for producing the projection inside a custom-made box mounted behind the screen. The box contains disparate glass lenses, colour-effect filters, and objects from Eliasson’s studio. A light inside the box illuminates the objects as they turn, and the resulting distortions are projected via a lens onto the screen. As each motor revolves at its own pace, the relationship between the various elements constantly changes, so that the light sequence appears always new. Chance alignments produce an ever-changing symphony of shadows and reflections on the screen – a phantasmagoria of evolving shapes, arboreal shadows, spectral arcs, and fields of colour that wax and wane and ooze across the surface of the screen.
Most of the lenses and objects featured here come from the artist’s own collection or are recycled from previous artworks and experiments. Eliasson has long been fascinated with optical devices and collected all sorts of lenses over the years as part of his investigation into perception and the qualities of light. In his projection works, the lenses are divorced from their potential for use in observation and recording and are taken as material to create something of beauty, what the artist refers to as radically analogue films, dependent upon the physical encounter between viewer and artwork in the here and now.
Structure, attached to the wall along one mirrored side, is tilted downward toward viewers, who face the curved screen straight on. Reflected by the two abutting mirror panels, the optically enlarged mirrored space seems to expand down and away from the viewer in three dimensions. On the wall behind the screen, a wooden box with a slowly rotating arrangement of lenses and color-effect filters refocuses a spotlight beam onto the rear of the screen.
A spotlight shines on three rotating coloured glass discs, casting moving circles and ellipses of light on the surroundings. The three colours used here – cyan, magenta, and yellow – are the secondary colours of the additive colour system. When all three hues are combined, they produce white light, while other shades arise when only two overlap. The variations in colour and pattern are multiplied in this work through the use of colour-effect filters, which allow certain wavelengths of light to pass through the glass while reflecting the others.
This kaleidorama comprises two abutting mirror panels with a flat screen fanning out between them at a right angle. The entire structure is mounted perpendicular to the wall. The front side is open to the viewer, while the projection screen covers the rear. The mirror panels form the illusion of a pentagonal, reflective interior space. On the floor of the adjacent water basin, three mirror strips refract the spotlight’s beam into parallel red, green, and blue lines. As the water basin is agitated, the wave wobbles and reshapes the lines: discrete shapes divide into complex, layered coronas of light and color derived from the movement of water.
The sun, made using compositional layers of watercolour and light.
Light shines out from the centre of an asymmetrical polyhedron that hangs from the ceiling, illuminating the work itself and casting variegated patches of light and shadow around the room. The form combines a rhombic dodecahedron (a polyhedron with twelve rhombic faces) with an icosahedron (which has twenty triangular faces). The result is a complex, not-quite symmetrical polyhedron that stimulates the viewer to move around the work and examine it from multiple angles. The black powder-coated stainless-steel frame incorporates panes of iridescent colour-effect-filter glass, which reflect light of a single colour while allowing the remaining light (which is of the complementary colour) to pass through. A solar panel on the gallery roof powers LEDs mounted on a slowly rotating armature suspended within the work’s core. The highly reflective, colour-limiting panes of glass multiply the light countless times, producing a galaxy-like array of shifting stars in a variety of colours.
For this work, we invited the dancers to come and play around with physically interpreting the question: what does it mean to actually dance light? How does one physically express energy? The idea of physical energy or of physical power (and of course dancers typically have great physical power, not just in terms of strength, but in terms of presence), this idea of suggesting that having access to power also means having power yourself – there’s something in this that I like because it’s about the body. Since everyone has a body, it doesn’t make a difference whether you have electricity or not for how you feel when you dance; it’s something that speaks to everybody. You can dance and express your power by physically moving, by dancing it. You can perform power physically.
The project does not end at the property boundaries, but incorporates the entire surrounding landscape. Building and parking lot have been integrated into the landscape. Set directly in the rambling meadows, Eliasson’s five mirrors form a series ranging from a perfect circle to ever more elongated ellipses. The mirrors reflect the ever-changing sky above and the contemplator’s own gaze, as if in the surfaces of glacial pools in Iceland. The sky opens up in the soil beneath the viewer. This blurring of the boundaries between above and below, inside and out, finds resonance in the landscape’s melding of wilderness and garden. The dense and clearly delineated groups of trees, planted by Vogt on slight elevations, may appear to be cultivated gardens from a distance. Up close, they are in fact slices of untended wilderness. Although one might expect to be allowed to enter the wild groves, fences deny access – they are Gardens of Eden that cannot be entered.
Five coloured spotlights, directed at a white wall, are arranged in a line on the floor: a green light positioned next to another green light, followed by a magenta light, an orange light, and, finally, a blue light. These colours combine to illuminate the wall with a bright white light. When the visitor enters the space, her projected shadow, by blocking each coloured light from a slightly different angle, appears on the wall as an array of five differently coloured silhouettes.In addition to the dark shadow created where all five lights are obstructed, the colours of the other shadows – one yellow, one violet, one cyan, and two magenta – reflect the properties of additive colour. As a visitor blocks light from the blue spotlight, for instance, the resultant shadow is lit by a combination of green, magenta, and orange lights, creating a yellow shadow. The overlap of the five silhouettes produces further hues. As visitors move about the space, passing closer to and farther away from the lights, the silhouettes shift in colour intensity and scale.
In the glazed roof gallery of the exhibition space Portikus in Frankfurt am Main, a series of twelve light experiments was installed over a two-year period. The works were visible only from outside the building to the north. https://res.cloudinary.com/olafureliasson-net/image/private/q_auto:eco,c_fit,h_1920,w_1920/img/light-lab-1-12_7341.webp
2.
RAINBOW SCIENCE THE PHYSICS OF LIGHT
Rainbows are formed when light from the sun is scattered by water droplets (e.g. raindrops or fog) through a phenomenon called refraction. Refraction occurs when the light from the sun changes direction when passing through a medium denser than air, such as a raindrop.
Sources that really inspire me:
HOW RAINBOWS FORM: https://youtu.be/xkDhQGXqwCM?si=klfQUUpN6FRdI9au
3.
PHENOMENA
phenomenon
/fɪˈnɒmɪnən/
noun
plural noun: phenomena
a fact or situation that is observed to exist or happen, especially one whose cause or explanation is in question.
a remarkable person or thing.
a rare or significant fact or event. b. plural phenomenons : an exceptional, unusual, or abnormal person, thing, or occurrence.
Something which caught my eye is the term phenomena. Since rainbows are natural phenomena’s, could we link that the theme of phenomena in connection with human nature to target not only the environmental needs of Digbeth, but also the psychological needs of people?
Why are we so fascinated by natural phenomena?
The Psychology of Mystery and Fascination
What is the relationship between mystery and fascination?
To better explore our viewer experience in Graffiti Garden we can think about the human-nature interaction. Research shows that people tend to prefer environments that evoke sensations of mystery. These environments usually display views that look partially obstructed from the outside. Let us think about a woodland setting that partially hides the brushwood: people have to actually walk into the forest to fully visualise the composition and extension of the environment.
But why are we attracted by such settings?
The psychology of mystery is grounded in the implicit assumption that by accessing a scene that appears indistinct and vague, we will acquire more knowledge. This attracts people’s interest and pushes them to explore the scene. From an evolutionary perspective, this feature likely dates back to early humans, who—unlike today—were vulnerable creatures confronted with constant dangers. They needed to develop a visual strategy to rapidly identify the environments that were worth exploring. Mysterious settings can be valid candidates, as they look challenging, useful and potentially cosy, at least when we observe them from the outside.
But there is more to say. Mystery is linked to the concept of fascination. Fascination occurs when our attention is involuntarily captured by a given environment. Being a potential source of unprecedented knowledge, a mysterious setting easily attracts us and it is therefore a source of fascination. Once more, natural environments serve as a good example. They capture our attention without demanding a huge effort. When looking at nature, people don’t struggle to stay focused and they hardly get distracted. All of this explains why human interaction with nature can lead to cognitive benefits, such as improved memory, sustained relaxation and therefore reduced stress. When we engage with nature and we are fascinated by it, we essentially allow our brain to rest and recover because we don't have to devote our energies to stay focused. Thus our Graffiti Garden concept can respond to a much deeper human need.
The Magic of Rainbows
A rainbow is one of the most spectacular light shows observed on earth. Their appearance will depend upon the conditions and they are something that will often happen completely out of the blue.
Many cultures have legends and myths surrounding the power of rainbows. Some cultures believe that rainbows are associated with demons as sometimes the rainbow's generating storms are accompanied by lightning and thunder. Some cultures believe that you mustn’t point towards a rainbow otherwise it will bring bad luck. Some cultures consider rainbows as a bridge between Earth and Heaven. In western culture it is considered lucky to look at a rainbow and it is known as a symbol of renewed hope. The north eastern Siberian tribes see the rainbow as the tongue of the sun! A rainbow seen over the ocean is considered as a fortunate sign by the Arawak Indians of South America. Rainbows always were a source of inspiration for countless works of art, music, movements and poetry. Nowadays, they also are a challenge for photographers. Hard to catch because they are so unpredictable, but by harnessing the right conditions you can simulate that unpredictability.
Terms synonymous with phenomena are : nostalgia, surrealism, simulation, dreamlike, visceral , etherial, enchanting, awe.
4.
FICTION AND FOLKLORE THE SPIRITUAL HEALTH OF PEOPLE
For some reason arches, rivers and rainbows are historically associated with mystic creatures in mythology and folklore. I for one have always been infatuated by the unknown and supernatural since I was little and it shows throughout my artwork growing up. So since we are creating a speculative reality, what I want to do to is engage the public by building a modern lore or enchanting charm about our garden which they can romanticise; seaming together reality and magic in the most unlikely place in Digbeth.
Humanity craves nostalgia, a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return, to a simple past which may or may not have even been. We indulge in nostalgia, perhaps because we as a race are scared to move forward as time flashes before our eyes. And perhaps out of fear of living in an Anthropocene we caused. Especially due to the rise of modern technology, our lives have changed more drastically in the last century than in our entire evolution. In the past we used to find magic in the natural world and would create stories teaching life to our ancestors, now science has uncovered most of nature's mystery and Earth may become too modern for our liking.
Could the human being’s infatuation with fiction be a form of escapism, rooted in our biological evolution?
Our ever changing planet has become more mechanical and dull, and the concrete structure of Digbeth is a reflection of that. It’s clear that all life on Earth has been negatively impacted by the rise of human developments, including humans themselves; with the creation of social media, the internet, chemically processed food, pollution, industrialisation and modern capitalism, etc… We cannot comprehend just how detrimental these sudden changed have on our bodies and psyche, how unnatural it is to live the way most of us do compared to our ancestors, so much so that our condition could be that of survival or deprivation. It all correlates to the rise in depression, suicide and mental health issues. A rise in cancer, obesity and immunity diseases, brain disease, digestion and hormonal problems. People need to touch grass again, make art and thrive! Not work and work and die.
Despite the lack of green, Digbeth is a melting pot of creativity which quenches our innate human needs unlike any other area of Birmingham because it fosters human connection. The majority of gigs, exhibitions and public art scenes are centred here and I have personally experienced how healthy the community spirit is in these spaces, people gather and connect, make friendships and converse intellectually, it makes the majority of Brum feel like brain rot.
THEATRE
Last semester Lara I remember when gave us a presentation of the theatre group PunkDrunk where they created a space in a primary school to give children a magical experience.
l
Punk drunk understands the subtle power of nostalgia, those children will still remember those magical experiences 20-30-40 years later. Essentially with our underground arch, we can recreate a similar thing but for a wider community.
ESCAPISM
Stories reveal everything about ourselves. Many of us want to escape our reality, freedom from our societal boxes and the cyclicality of our lifestyles. We internally desire adventure and magic, away from normality, responsibility and polluted spaces, yet we don’t always get what we want in life so we tend to escape within our minds, and imagine.
This is one of the main reasons why we invest so much in art, fiction, literature, music films, and such, because they feed our spiritual need for creativity and nostalgia which grounds us to the earth and each other. Therefore our Graffiti Garden seeks to also give people a taste of magic in normality. I want this to be a space which preserves the simplicity of life from modern technology through nature and art.
NATURAL ELEMENT
There needs to be a spacial balance between the canvases, rainbow lighting and greenery, so that the garden is like an actual natural environment to be explored not be overwhelmed by the rainbow, sculptures and plants, (linking back to the psychology of mystery). Its natural landscape and vibrant colours can bring people fresh air, alongside a level of mindfulness, awe or peace amongst the worn out concrete surroundings and rowdiness of the city.
ARTISTIC ELEMENT
Our site can be functional in a way witch promotes spiritual health. Including graffiti canvasses and (Kordian's) creative platforms gives it a greater purpose which connects community members and allows people to express themselves freely. Here people can openly choose to create, observe, spend time how they want, so long as they are respectful (in which potential criminal behaviour is something else our group may have to consider realistically later on). The canvases must also be unique in a way which compliments its environment yet attracts the public, so I proposed the idea of sculptural canvases (or just plain sculptures) that people can make art on. That way we can be really creative with the design and expand in so many bizarre ways which can take inspiration from fiction and folklore, or the surroundings of Digbeth. i.e The Green Man.
SURREALISM
Annihilation is a cosmic horror film which explores post natural disruption, post human transformation and epistemological breakdown (Epistemology is the theory of knowledge. It is concerned with the mind's relation to reality, the moment of rupture separating science from its non-scientific past.) This film inspired me so much and I want to incorporate the surrealistic aspect of it into our garden concept, specifically in terms of sculpture and spacing, and the overall sensation we want to evoke in a person.
Article:
Extinction of experience: the loss of human-nature interactions
Increasingly, people are becoming less likely to have direct contact with nature (natural environments and associated wildlife) in their everyday lives. Over 20 years ago, Robert M Pyle termed this ongoing alienation the “extinction of experience”, but the phenomenon has continued to receive surprisingly limited attention. Here, we present current understanding of the extinction of experience, with particular emphasis on its causes and consequences, and suggest future research directions. Our review illustrates that the loss of interaction with nature not only diminishes a wide range of benefits relating to health and well-being, but also discourages positive emotions, attitudes, and behaviour with regard to the environment, implying a cycle of disaffection toward nature. Such serious implications highlight the importance of reconnecting people with nature, as well as focusing research and public policy on addressing and improving awareness of the extinction of experience.
Article 2:
Nature and limits of Social Phenomena
“That is, although nature stimulates us to action and although we may build representations of nature, we do not associate with nature in any such sense as we do with other humans, …”
Article 3:
Exploratory preferences explain the human fascination for imaginary worlds in fictional stories
In a theoretical paper, we proposed that imaginary worlds in fictional stories artificially trigger the human preference for exploration. This preference is best described as an evolved cognitive mechanism that processes cues of new or information-rich environments as inputs and delivers an adaptive approach behaviour as the output: it makes people environmentally curious and prompts directed exploration (i.e., exploration that aims at seeking and acquiring information about the environments, thus reducing uncertainty, as opposed to exploitation or random exploration. This mechanism of environmental curiosity was selected because it enhanced fitness in ancestral environments, motivating humans to discover new habitats, new cooperative or sexual partners, resources such as food or water, and new fitness-relevant information. It explains, for instance, universal walking patterns
The Science of Awe
Q ; Why are we so infatuated with art, vibrant colours ?
………..........
5.
SCULPTURE CANVAS
Sculpture: an artistic form in which hard or plastic materials are worked into three-dimensional art objects. The designs may be embodied in freestanding objects, in reliefs on surfaces, or in environments ranging from tableaux to contexts that envelop the spectator.
Loosely inspired by my desire to design Phoebe’s robot i thought of Intergrating sculpture into this space to make it more aesthetic and functional.
When Phoebe told us about a robot I already began envisioning what it could look like, and how I could use all my character design and sculpting skills bringing it to life.
Despite being in a different group I am still able to create characters - sculptural canvases.
IDEAS
In redbrick there lays a batman action figure covered in drawings and stickers. Initially I thought of installing blank white walls or paper walls in the site to encourage people to spray paint freely, but something about randomly placed blank walls that felt boring and unattractive, disconnected from the beauty we wanted to create. But what if the said canvas had form, limbs, faces, character- that’s something Birmingham has never seen.
Amongst our group we can generate a range of unique designs for our canvases, which I can recreate in Nomad Sculpt then import into other softwares like Adobe Aero and blender3d print, or 3d print into physical models. Our sculptures could be anatomically abstract and bizarre, etherial and lifelike. It can symbolically reflect the surroundings and heritage of the area, such as the towering Pan statue nearby or the beloved Birmingham Bull. Hence we could delve further into the history of Digbeth for inspiration. The material of these sculptures could be recycled or interactive, incorporating technology to create immersive user experiences in a sustainable way; that’s also a potential subject of exploration but for now I want to keep it fairly traditional.
Sculptures bring such an exciting element to this project with unbound potential.
types of sculpture: Assembly, carving and modelling
A COMMENTARY ON ELITISM
What is the difference between brick and marble. If you were to spray a brick wall nobody would think much of it even though there is a risk of getting in trouble for ‘vandalism’. But if you were to spray paint the statues in mell square, or in a museum, the punishment can be for life. Its strange how both are made of the earth yet are treated so differently. I find that currently some of the most magnificent awe inspiring art I have witnessed in my life were painted onto public walls, yet some of the best art galleries are filled with lifeless rubbish.
When I visited the Tate modern years ago I kid you now I saw an entire room the size of our classroom exhibit squared paper in a few large frames..plain, square, paper. Half of the TATE building exhibited pieces just as nonsensical and pretentious, meanwhile the homeless man outside had to tape his beautiful drawings onto the dirty floor and fence in order to sell them to live. His work deserved to be in a Museum not the ground and that squared paper deserved to be on the ground not a museum, it’s a crime. Why should we only be restricted to showcase our art in galleries when these same biased institutions disrespect and capitalise off us, art should not be exclusive which is why I respect public artists who aren’t tamed by capitalism coated in the “law”.
Imagine being encouraged to spray on a sculpture in public with no consequence - young and old, that is the kind of freedom I want give artists in Digbeth.
By including the idea of sculptural canvases, I want to remove the contrast of a Greek statue and a brick wall, to regard them as one and the same.
FURTHER IDEAS
To balance our site we could use plant sculptures just like the ones in ' Annihilation' to create a gradual effect which blends the canvases with the rest of its environment without them it looking unnatural or out of place.
DRAWING ////INSERT
TIME TRAVEL
Historically most statutes and architecture, such as those made my the Greeks, Egyptians and Elamites, were once vibrant in colour, but faded over millennia. By the time of the Renaissance Greek statues faded completely, so when European artisans wanted to revive this ancient art form they abstained from using colour.
This interesting fact inspired me to think of how our sculptural canvases are the opposite, they start off plain in order to be coloured, so in a way that can be interpreted as time travel in the making; to think of our sculptures, not as being tampered with, but restored by public art.
6.
ETYMOLOGY OF GRAFFITI GARDEN
I chose the name because it sounded catchy. I imagine young people and old people saying it casually "Hey let's go to G.G", but Im starting to realise how well it embodies our project throughout its development. The two words have Juxtaposed connotations;
GRAFFITI tends to be associated with crime - poverty - youth - urbanism - resistance - freedom and such, resonating more with teenage, middle aged and masculine demographics. Whereas GARDEN has peaceful undertones encompassing innocence - luxury - beauty - fertility - femininity - nature - and thus resonates more with elderly, infant or female demographics.
These two terms combined neutralise another, thus it simultaneously removes the negative biases of Digbeth rooted in its graffiti scene, crime rate and underdeveloped buildings.
There is a uniqueness to the name which leaves a person curious upon hearing it, and can be interpreted in many ways given its connotations. Thus in our group development we can dissect the words - graffiti and garden - individually and play around with these themes to inspire new ideas like the sculptural canvases, since sculptures are objects that are intrinsically linked to public gardens and public art.
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