Study Task 4- Summary/Introduction

I intend to write my essay about how social media, the internet and technology influence practitioners work both positively and negatively. More specifically I am interested in looking into theorists such as Baudrillard, who writes about hyper-reality and simulation. There could be a link between this theory and social media trends as there are the same styles seen online frequently. I would explore how this can be positive as it can influence artists to make work that is in demand and popular, but also the risks of work being interpreted as copied and unoriginal.

I am also interested in writing about the positive effect from artists using the internet. How the audiences can differ from having a social media presence compared to selling at events in person. When researching texts and quotes for this essay I came across another idea for a discussion point; 'It's come to shape our habits and behavioural patterns, as well as redefine social norms'. It's becoming increasingly known that the internet now dominates and controls our lives to the extent that it changes our behaviour, mood, routine and even careers. New processes that have been introduced as a result of advances in technology are changing the way artists make their work, advertise their work and communicate. This has also affected the value of previous processes and skills.

Study Task 3- Images/Theory

Theorists:

Baudrillard: Hyper-reality and simulation
John Hartley: Communication, journalism, media and cultural studies
Roland Barthes: Authorship
Bruno Munari

Terms:

Trends, intertextuality, simulation, postmodernism, meta-communication, signification, bricolage, algorithm, marketing, practitioner, value

Texts:

The Creative Citizen Unbound: How social media and DIY culture contribute to democracy, communities and the creative economy (Edited by Ian Hargreaves and John Hartley).

Creative Economy and Culture: Challenges, changes and futures for the creative industries (John Hartley, Wen Wen, Henry Siling Li.

Study Task 2- Reading and Understanding Texts

Laura Mulvey- Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema

Skim Reading and re-reading:
The sexual differences between genders, how we are controlled to see them in an erotic way
Women as a bearer of meaning instead of maker of meaning
Scopophilia
Modification of instinct through narcissism and ego, controlling and objectifying
Woman as image, man as bearer of the look
sexual imbalance as a result of pleasure in looking as female is passive, men are active
male gaze fantasy of the female figure

Reading thoroughly: I think Mulvey is explaining that we are forced to objectify women as they are heavily sexualised in the media. It's a modification of instincts as it has took a turn where narcissism and ego is involved which allows pleasure from objectifying another whilst being in a position of control. Not only does male gaze control womens gender role but it also narrative structure in texts which then deepens and continues the objectification.


Concepts:
Feminism
Male gaze


Key Quotes:
'How to fight the unconscious structured like a reality'
'An active/passive heterosexual division of labour has similarly controlled narrative structure'


Key Points:
Womens purpose is to be something to look at
Men as active and women as passive, different roles
It is a construct that has been applied in the media


Examples by author:
Marilyn Monroe


Examples in real life:
Beyonce believes when she performs, she is in control of her audience as she has chose to represent herself that way and is gaining financially from being in that position, therefore she sees it as a position of power.

Relation to illustration or essay theme:
This relates to current illustration projects I am doing about feminism, or feminism in general with illustration. My opinion of feminism is that women should be able to dress and do what they want as they are in control of themselves and the objectification from male gaze.

Study Task 1- Research Question

How is social media/online resources beneficial to creative practitioners? can it also be negative?

How does social media play a part in the repetition of styles/trends in the creative industries?

Discussion points:

Work being stolen online/copying others work
Time being consumed promoting your social media profiles
Benefits of online profiles, benefits of attending conventions and meeting people, communication
Following trends/keeping up with trends/trend prediction
Internet research resources that are not valid due to lack of sourcing
Instagram, pinterest
Attracting global audiences vs local audiences
Making original work, how to be influenced correctly

OUIL401 End of Module Evaluation

1.  What skills have you developed through this module and how effectively do you think you have applied them? I have a well organised bibliography in my essays as I become more familiar with the Harvard referencing system. I feel like I have improved on how to apply contextual research to my artwork to have the work communicate a meaning, I found this really difficult before this module. My researching skills have also developed as I had to do a lot of research to find the right information for my essays. Overall my knowledge has improved especially with Postmodernism and the history of print illustration which I applied to my essays. Also from reading through my essays my last two are definitely written better than the first, so my writing skills have developed throughout this module.
2. What approaches to/methods of research have you developed and how have they informed your practical outcomes? I have looked at more books for my research in this module as I have learnt where I need to look for them online. I’ve also found as related words and sections can be picked out of online books it makes it easier deciding which ones are relevant to my practical work. I also made sure I fully understood the meaning of quotes and texts I looked at so that my practical work would make sense and relate to them.
3. What strengths can you identify in your work and how have/will you capitalise on these? In my work I think I have responded to my overarching theme with consistency but also with a variation of outcomes. This has helped me to compare and change around the visual side of the module without moving away from my original quote and theme. I kept the processes restricted at the start which gave me the opportunity to go into more detail and push what I could do with few mediums. I would definitely do this again in my work as if I didn’t I wouldn’t have made the work that I did.
4. What weaknesses can you identify in your work and how will you address these in the future? I think on the whole my work lacked quality and detail, I’m used to developing work into a final outcome but as I had so many ideas and received a lot of feedback from people I tried out as many of them as I could but I started to run out of pages. In the future I would plan how many pages I do for each section of the project to stop me from getting carried away. Another weakness is when I add meaning to my work I think it isn’t obvious to others about what it actually means. In the future I will add text to pieces or use more famous figures so that people can identify the meaning.
5. Identify five things that you feel will benefit you during next years Context of Practice module?
- Lots of research on theorists, artists and of different views on the same issues. - Sketchbook organisation - A variety of research sources (type, age, current) - More planning to help with essay structures - Time management, regular blogging to prevent confusion with ongoing study tasks
6.How would you grade yourself on the following areas: (please indicate using an ‘x’)  5= excellent, 4 = very good, 3 = good, 2 = average, 1 = poor
	1	2	3	4	5
Attendance					x
Punctuality					x
Motivation			x
Commitment				x
Quantity of work produced				x
Quality of work produced			x
Contribution to the group				x
The evaluation of your work is an important part of the assessment criteria and represents a percentage of the overall grade. It is essential that you give yourself enough time to complete your written evaluation fully and with appropriate depth and level of self-reflection. If you have any questions relating to the self-evaluation process speak to a member of staff as soon as possible.

Summary

What I've enjoyed:

-Researching and discovering new books which really appealed to me
-Feeling like I've actually gained a lot of knowledge from research
-Trying new approaches in my journal which I will use in the future
-Combing the two art forms I'm interested in and exploring ways they can work together
-Making art based on research, has helped me to learn about it more

What I've found hard:

-Structuring essays
-Making sense of texts and quotes
-Application of texts within the essay
-The balance of testing ideas and developing in the journal
-Choosing a really open and difficult topic for the essays

Evaluation of Synthesis

      1.I began my illustrating pages based on the overarching theme. I did this by drawing a conventional piece of commercial art and fine art and explored line styles to visually show the contrast between the two. I drew a fine art piece which was a sculpture my Rodin. I chose this artist because he was a very successful and well known sculptor. ‘Artists showed them only to initiates and only in the shape of paintings and pieces of sculpture’ (Munari, 1966, p.34).


2. After exploring how these two art types differ, I then combined them into one piece to relate to my research on how the categorisation of art seems to be blurred. I did the same subject for this so that something in the piece would be consistent. (quote)


3. I went back to displaying the differences, based on feedback but also to stay relevant to the theme. I did this by drawing fine art associated words in a gallery space compared to design words in a book. This was based on one of my essay quotes, ‘the separation of the arts into categories of ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ (pottery is low art, sculpture isn’t)’ (Dormer, 1997, p.19).


4. I was suggested an idea to make a detailed piece of work and them make it gradually simpler which reminded me of the bulls by Picasso. I did research on and used Picasso’s work to inform my own work in the journal. This piece was an effective way to place fine art and design in the same piece, which was his intention. I drew this to get a feel for how I should gradually take information away.


5. I made my own version based on Picasso’s work with the subject being a portrait of Bruno Munari made of lines and removed them in each piece until the most basic information was left. I chose Munari as his quote from his book Design as Art has been a key reference for my essays and research.


6. I researched the academicians that founded the royal academy and drew them in my journal against bold lines. I included them because it was traditionally the place of success in fine art and the lines overlapped the portrait showing that there’s a battle between the two with simplistic design styles dominating the page.


7. I did a lot of research into Postmodernism, specifically graphic design to analyse in my essays and for the style and layout of some journal pages.


8. For the portrait of an academician towards the end of the journal I chose a pop art colourful style for the piece to contrast to traditional processes and techniques. I kept coming back to art based on the main theme so that I wouldn’t go off track.


9. ‘the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled’ (Berger, 1972, p.7). I made pages based on this quote because I found it really interesting as its something that happens to everyone and people often won’t even notice that they do it. I tried making art that didn’t really fall into a category and it is up to the person who looks at it what they would call it.


10. ‘Representations of the human face and form are not about to go away’ (Clubbe, 2016, p. 230). I came across this quote in a book about portraits and how the traditional values of these are still relevant today, although it was an argument against my essays I found it interesting to make art about this and still include portrait work in the journal.

End of Journal

I finished the journal going back to Picasso, copying the way he made his brush strokes and lines/shape. I chose to end the journal with this as I wanted to use the journal almost as an art journey, which is why my first pages are some of the most developed. I wanted to use the journal as a journey of deconstructing art and making the development stage of the journal fairly simplistic. The best images I found were the bold and simple designs compared to the detailed pencil drawings further back in the journal.

Based on both my research and my visual exploration, I learnt that its not necessarily the more detailed the piece the better. Each style that I tried out is effective and successful and personally I don't think any is better than the other, its down to what what someone likes as an individual.

Reflective Practice Essay

Reflective Practice Essay

The work in this journal is mainly based on the differences and the compatibility between commercial art and fine art. The emphasis in the journal is how a piece with design and fine art conventions can work in one piece to imply that the lines are blurred between the two. Both are successful in their own way but the visual research in the journal shows how there can be a harmony between perfect geometric shapes and tonal sketches.

The intention of the visual research was to keep the ideas open and strongly relating to the quote, which then developed into finished pieces of art.  'Once upon a time there was pure art and applied art (I prefer to use these terms, rather than 'fine' and 'commercial' because 'commercial art' does not cover enough ground). At all events, forms were born in secret in ivory towers and fathered by divine inspiration, and Artists showed them only to initiates and only in the shape of paintings and pieces of sculpture: for these were the only channels of communication open to the old forms of art.’ (Munari, 1966, p.34).

These two pictures are pieces in the journal that imply the meaning of the quote above. The first piece is a selection of shapes which mirror Bruno Munari’s design work, within these are other shapes which resemble a face or more specifically Bruno Munari’s portrait. As portraiture was a traditionally favoured subject in fine art it is a main feature of the piece to collaborate the art types.

‘the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled’ (Berger, 1972, p.7). This quote especially relates to the left page in this piece as when this is seen people will naturally be drawn to the face and pick that out although it actually looks nothing like a face, it is just shapes that are arranged differently. Berger believes we will instantly form an opinion of a piece of art the second we look at it, before words come into play. This is why the journal piece is successful as it is left to be interpreted. The idea of keeping a piece open to interpretation was mentioned at the start. However the visual idea was something that came together suddenly at the end of the journal when doing further research and making work from the quotes used in the previous essays.

The second piece is a portrait of Munari with the first page being simplified using paper shapes and in the second the exact same shapes are used but arranged differently. This originally was inspired from the image of the bulls by Picasso, where an image of realism slowly changes into abstraction. This is an ideal way to make a fine art and design piece come together in one image as it also clearly displays the successes from both. The second part of the image has the less important shapes in the portrait removed to only show the key information, as that is a technique used in design. ‘the separation of making from meaning’ (Dormer, 1997, p.19). The success of this piece is the use of minimalism, the challenge of the art work was to make someone recognisable with the fewest shapes. This makes the work suit both the function of likeness within fine art and abstract within design, which is a consistent focus point throughout the project. The choice of paint came from it being a typically traditional medium, to have more of a balance of the two art types.

Although visually, both of these pieces are strongly design based which is a pattern that continues throughout the journal. This could imply that overall commercial art styles are more effective when adding meaning and context. Balancing the two art styles within one piece was an ongoing challenge when making art for this project. This was because the art styles had to be generalised in order to make work that made sense visually.

I-D Magazine Cover, 1980, Terry Jones

This cover from I-D magazine is postmodern graphic design and for commercial purposes. Although technically it should not be categorised as an aim of postmodernism was to have freedom to express a piece however the artist chose to and without any constraints. ‘…postmodern graphic design as a contained stylistic category… implies that the design that succeeded it… no longer has a relationship with postmodernism.’ (Poynor, 2003, p.18). It is mentioned by Poynor in No More Rules that there can be confusion surrounding stylistic and specific categories. This is why making work in the journal that is from more than one and completely different categories created art that cannot be specified.

Similarities between the magazine cover and the journal pieces are the abstract shapes and colours to form a portrait. Although the magazine piece is a digital collage layered over a photograph, it has a very similar effect to the journal pieces because it isn’t the portrait that is the art, it’s the way that it is used as just a section of the piece. When looking at all of these pieces you are meant to be drawn to the typography and shapes and not necessarily the person in the image. ‘Representations of the human face and form are not about to go away’ (Clubbe, 2016, p. 230).

‘In the early 20^th century, artists like Picasso began to dismantle traditional portraiture with cubist portraits that did not rely on recognisable likeness’ (Clubbe, 2016, p.230). The success of traditional portraiture came from the likeness and verisimilitude of the art work, in contrast to modern portraits which pushed the boundaries on how a face can be formed. In this sense the journal pieces are very relevant to cubist portraits especially as Picasso was used as inspiration for the look and idea behind the work.

Bibliography:

1.    Munari, Bruno (1966) Design as Art. Rome: Editori Laterza

2.    Berger, J. (1972) Ways Of Seeing, Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp. 129-141

3.    Dormer, P. (1997) The Culture of Craft (Studies in Design MUP). Edition. Manchester University Press.

4.    Poynor, R. (2003) No More Rules. London: Lawrence King

5.    Clubbe, John (2016) Byron, Sully, and the Power of Portraiture: Volume 2. Edition. Routledge

Image Analysis Essay

Image Analysis Essay

Art is a powerful form of communication and gives an accurate indication of how the world was at the time and how people were thinking. Relating to my previous essay, I will be analysing relevant images that back up the points and quotes on art from certain time periods, class and the categories in which they belong.

The Portraits of the Academicians of the Royal Academy, 1771-72, oil on canvas, The Royal Collection by Johan Zoffany

The first image is an oil painting completed in 1772, it depicts the Royal Academicians from the time. I came across this image through the lecture programme. From this painting, you can see that they are all upper class, white men and in the background you can see numerous sculptures and paintings (Print Culture and Distribution lecture, 2016). ‘Artists showed them only to initiates and only in the shape of paintings and pieces of sculpture’ (Munari, 1966, p.34). It is composed so that you can see all of the Academicians and the work that they have produced. This painting alongside the quote from Munari gives us a definite indication of the form in which art was favoured at the time period of 1770-1900 in London.

‘It mounted exhibitions to display recent work to fellow artists, critics, and collectors.’ (National Gallery of Art, 2016). This sentence from the National Gallery of Art’s website implies the same scenario from Munari’s quote, ‘At all events, forms were born in secret in ivory towers and fathered by divine inspiration’ (Munari, 1966, p.34). This suggests that this form of art was limited to few people which encouraged a change from ‘Pure Art’ to ‘Applied Art’.

Engraving from the Illustrated London News, 27 April 1889. Artist's conception of USS Trenton being passed by HMS Calliope during the Apia tropical cyclone at Samoa on 16 March 1889.

However, also in London around this time was The Illustrated London News, which launched in 1842 as the world’s first weekly illustrated magazine. Art was so restricted in terms of the mediums used and who could see it, this is why print illustration was distributed. It was also illustrated over photographs as it was less expensive and pictures such as the one above could only be drawn as they wouldn’t exist as photographs. It was considered a lower art form due to the processes mainly being drawing, printmaking and etching and then being printed many times over. It was accessible to anyone, it would only cost a sixpence to own a piece of art. This news magazine was aimed for the working class and often had illustrations of them.

From these two images you can see the divide of art during this period of time, the art schools and the design schools. This relates to a section from the triangulation essay ‘the separation of the arts into categories of ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ (pottery is low art, sculpture isn’t)’ (Dormer, 1997, p.19). Design has always been seen as a lower art, although its purpose is usually to communicate. Whereas high art was usually just to look great or show class.

Printed artwork can only be in black and white so a big difference between the art types is what it is presented on and what media is used. Another difference is the purpose, in the Royal Academy painting, the painting boasts the Academicians skill and status. Whereas in the image above, the artist of the piece would have aimed to capture the moment of this event realistically but still in a form that works well as a piece of art.

The New York Times magazine, Brian Rea

‘We’re photo-saturated, so drawing is now special again’ (Vogue UK, March 2015). This suggests that people are now drawn to pictures over photographs. Compared to the illustration from The Illustrated London News, this type of image making is more expressive and creative, the drawing aesthetic cannot be achieved through photography. The earlier piece is more like a drawing to look as similar to a photograph as possible.

I-D Magazine Cover, 1980, Terry Jones

The last image is an I-D magazine cover, it is a British youth culture magazine where the front covers focused on postmodern graphic design. ‘As postmodernism favours expressive designs and a rebellion against for strict constraints, many of the designers who pioneered this movement were young’ (Pure Graphics, Modernism Vs Postmodernism, 2017). The success of using postmodern graphic design as a reoccurring style for this magazine is likely to be down to the audience, as it’s mainly young people. The designers involved in the movement were also young which ensured an understanding between the art and the readers.

The image has very bright colours in a collaged style, resembling the Dada movement. The typography used breaks the rules of standard typography layout. It’s upside down with a more abstract font which ties the hand in with the text, contributing to the postmodern quality.

The first and last image contrast significantly, postmodernism is a reaction to fine art and aimed to lack rules and constraints which is put in place from fine art approaches. ‘As an art movement postmodernism to some extent defies definition – as there is no one postmodern style or theory on which it is hinged.’ (Tate, Postmodernism, 2017). This definition from the Tate website suggests that Postmodernism tackles not being specified by being a wide variety of styles, as it is art that is meant to represent freedom. ‘the use of postmodern graphic design as a contained stylistic category is misleading because it implies that the design that succeeded it in stylistic terms no longer has a relationship with postmodernism.’ (Poynor, 2003, p.18). I learnt about placing art into categories in the last essay and found this quote was helpful when understanding this.

I’ve learnt from researching these images, the supporting quotes and my own understanding that a piece of art can mean so much more than just the picture itself and the purposely included meanings. It can inform you of the conflicts within art at the time, the type of people that were involved and the movements that were formed as a result of this. Art is so complex both in the way that you acquire skills in order to make art and how you interpret another’s work.

  

Bibliography:

1.       Munari, Bruno (1966) Design as Art. Rome: Editori Laterza

2.       National Gallery of Art. 2016. Britain's Royal Academy of Art in the Late 1700s and Early 1800s. (Online) Available at: http://www.nga.gov/content/ngaweb/features/slideshows/britains-royal-academy-of-art-in-the-late-1700s-and-early-1800s.html. [Accessed 29 January 2017].

3.       Dormer, P. (1997) The Culture of Craft (Studies in Design MUP). Edition. Manchester University Press.

4.       2015. The Revival of Interest in Fashion Illustration. Vogue, March 2015

5.       Pure Graphics. (2017). Modernism Vs Postmodernism | Pure Graphics. (Online) Available at:https://shanny12.wordpress.com/modernism-vs-postmodernism/. [Accessed 28 January 2017].

6.       Postmodernism | Tate. 2017. Postmodernism | Tate. (Online) Available at: http://www.tate.org.uk/learn/online-resources/glossary/p/postmodernism. [Accessed 29 January 2017]

7.       Poynor, R. (2003) No More Rules. London: Lawrence King

Triangulation Essay

Triangulation Essay

'Once upon a time there was pure art and applied art (I prefer to use these terms, rather than 'fine' and 'commercial' because 'commercial art' does not cover enough ground). At all events, forms were born in secret in ivory towers and fathered by divine inspiration, and Artists showed them only to initiates and only in the shape of paintings and pieces of sculpture: for these were the only channels of communication open to the old forms of art.’ (Munari, 1966, p.34).

The intention of this essay is to explore the meaning and arguments to this quote. There will also be debating over the notion of art belonging to a certain category or movement and how this could be positive, as it generates a mutual understanding or negative as it may be restrictive.

The sections ‘ forms were born in secret in ivory towers’ and ‘Artists showed them only to initiates and only in the shape of paintings and pieces of sculpture’ from the quote imply that art was strongly associated and dependent on class. Only a select few of a higher class could view pieces of fine art whereas prints were created and mass distributed so that many people of a lower class could obtain a piece of artwork (Print Culture and Distribution lecture, 2016). As there was an obvious divide, the purpose and audience of a piece of art was much more straight forward compared to modern day where there is much more variety and art can be accessible to anybody. Traditionally art could have been used to form a wedge between working class and upper class. (pottery is low art, sculpture isn’t)’ (Dormer, 1997, p.19).

Now, art is so broad that there is confusion surrounding it. In the quote above Munari uses the terms ‘pure’ and ‘applied’ to categorise art in order to simplify it, as they are broader terms. This contrasts to the opinion of Heskett. ‘Design… it is full of incongruities, has innumerable manifestations, and lacks boundaries that give clarity and definition’ (Heskett, 2002, p.3). Here the use of a broad term is considered as a negative, ‘little agreement will probably exist about exactly what is understood by the term’ (Heskett, 2002, p.3). From these quotes it’s clear that there are numerous debates on what defines a category of art. However, the last quote explains that the issue is from how open design is visually and not from the over-categorisation of design.

Poynor backs up this argument in the sense of styles belonging to a period of time ‘…postmodern graphic design as a contained stylistic category is misleading because it implies that the design that succeeded it in stylistic terms no longer has a relationship with postmodernism.’ (Poynor, 2003, p.18). This quote suggests another confusion surrounding the visual aspect to these categories, there has to be a point where the art is changing into a new movement. Postmodern art is especially difficult to recognise as it is a movement that expresses freedom and refuses to be involved in the constraints of categorisation.

Dormer wrote a possible solution for this which contrasts to those opinions. If there is an agreed specific definition and constraints for design, there may be less confusion around the practice. ‘To be of any real use definitions should not proceed through generalities’ (Dormer, 1997, p.5). This expresses that a vague statement on what makes art a certain type will not work, the conventions have to be consistent in order to make an art type valid. Similarly to the quote from Heskett, who also believes that there is a lack of specification within art categories.

Berger mentions in Ways of Seeing that we see what is around us before words and explanations are used, words are just a way of explaining what we are seeing. Although words work as an agreed language, ‘the relation between what we see and what we know is never settled’ (Berger, 1972, p.7). As we view visual pieces, our individual thoughts take place before discussion on what it is. We try to work out what it should be called after, which would imply that there is no need to at all.

From the texts used, it seems that categories are mainly in place for conversation or understanding a piece. We may never have a single definition so there isn’t really an understanding. There are several sections to form a type of art, ‘Form, genre and style’ (Boundless, Categorizing Art, 2017)

A reaction to traditional art types was anti-art, most well-known from the Dada movement and more specifically Marcel Duchamp. ‘Dada anti-art was a snub to academic art and it’s set of values (inspiration, genius, uniqueness, eternal beauty)’ (Beech, 2002, p.208). Anti-art did not want to be recognised as a category or movement, it was in place to defy the conventions and associations of art genres. ‘Anti-art was set against art but really it set out to refashion art’ (Beech, 2002, p.221). However, anti-art naturally fell into a category of art due to it being defined through communication so failed to break the restraints of categorisation. An example of this is from this article ‘Anti-art is a label for art that intentionally challenges the established parameters and values of art’ (Boundless, Categorizing Art, 2017).

Linking back to Munari’s terms of ‘pure art’ and ‘applied art’, Dormer mentions a similar definition in the book The Culture of Craft. ‘the separation of the arts into categories of ‘higher’ and ‘lower’ (pottery is low art, sculpture isn’t)’ (Dormer, 1997, p.19) again the point is made that sculpture is a higher valued piece only for the purpose of aesthetics whereas pottery which has got a function is not as valuable. ‘the separation of making from meaning’ (Dormer, 1997, p.19) these two terms simplify what the purpose of a piece is, which may be the most successful or only necessary form of categorisation, which makes sense of Munari using two broad terms for art.

To conclude, having definitions for art types is essential, but in moderation as confusion stems from the overuse of definitions and diversity in modern art. Munari’s terms pure art and applied art appear to be the most balanced form of categorisation as they are very open and suggest a purpose which can be a most important factor. This is appropriate for design however fine art is mainly for the aesthetic purpose meaning it can be admired for simply what it is. It may be impossible to not categorise art as communication is a key part of it and the only way to mutually understand art.

Bibliography:

1.       Munari, Bruno (1966) Design as Art. Rome: Editori Laterza

2.       Dormer, P. (1997) The Culture of Craft (Studies in Design MUP). Edition. Manchester University Press.

3.       Heskett, John. (2002) Toothpicks and Logos. Oxford/Newyork: Oxford University Press

4.       Poynor, R. (2003) No More Rules. London: Lawrence King

5.       Berger, J. (1972) Ways Of Seeing, Harmondsworth: Penguin. pp. 129-141

6.       Boundless. (2017). Categorizing Art. (Online) Available at: https://www.boundless.com/art-history/concepts/categorizing-art-0-6117/. [Accessed 27 January 2017].

7.       Beech, Dave (2002). The Philistine Controversy. Edition. Verso.

COP Proposal Presentation

Journal Paper Cutout

Probably my favourite pieces in the journal are these paper cutout pages. I loved the messy acrylic background against sharp pieces of white paper. I think they are successful in communicating my theme for the journal, which is taking away the detail to show it in its simplest form. I chose paint as it is a traditional media as I still wanted that balance in the pages.

I wish I did a lot more of this but I didn't come up with the idea until quite late on in the journal when I was running out of pages, so I moved onto my next idea instead.

Journal Idea Refinement

To discover the best way to summarise my research I continued along the lines of the Picasso pieces. I figured out that another way to show the two art forms and within the subject of shape would be to dissect full pictures and turn the next page into an arrangement of shapes. I chose paint for this as I can easily make geometric shapes using a chisel brush but I intend to next use paper cutouts as I think this is much more relevant for a shape piece.

This lead me to the idea of making full pictures from the same 3 shapes. I chose an image of the old Royal Academy hall and replicated the architecture and the paintings on the wall using the same couple of brush stroke techniques to show how a repetitive and simple technique can make a detailed image. I particularly liked this page as I think it strongly relates to what I have wrote about in my essays (blurring the lines between art categories). However, I think I could find a way to make the idea look better as it may not be obvious what the page is about.

Journal development

I did some research on pieces where both fine art and design are used. I found a piece by Picasso where there were several pieces of a bull, it started of realistic then information was taken away with each drawing until it became an outline only displaying the key information. I found this really relevant to my project as it shows the differences between the aim of design compared to fine art. Design needs to be simple and easily display the key information, especially for commercial art so whoever sees the piece will instantly understand what the piece is telling them. Fine art is more to show skill and aims to display every detail to make it a quality drawing, when someone sees this they are expected to think it is a bull and not a piece resembling one. I am glad I used Picasso for this part of my journal as he went through a journey himself from realism to abstract art.

I tried this out for myself and did a portrait of Bruno Munari using lots of lines and removed some of them in each drawing until I got to the key information. I think this went well however, I think I started off too basic as I became difficult to remove that information in the later drawings as there wasn’t many lines left. I think I need to start of realistic and end very simple, to replicate the effect in Picasso’s bulls and so it is fine art to design.

I am finding it difficult to pick one of line, shape etc. as the different art types often use different elements. One way to solve this would be to have a portrait as a posterize effect and then remove and rearrange sections in each piece until it is in its simplest form, that way it would all fall under shape.