DSDN144 - Project 3 - Finals

For this project i have come up with a concept i call "Light Architecture". I will investigate a variety of different locations and using the technique of light graffiti on a slow shutter speed setting i will attempt create a purely aesthetic set of images in which the space has been changed and manipulated with the use of light.

I feel I have been largely successful in creating an unique aesthetic with my series of four images. The images show spaces that have been changed by the use of light. After framing the images I then used the bulb setting to expose the sensor for the time it would take to draw in the lighting effects with torches. Once the light writing was complete I further exposed the sensor for a few more seconds to attempt to remove any shadows of myself as I drew in the light. I then used Photoshop to correct any over exposure. I ran into a few problems while doing my series. The first was not having any reference to what I was drawing until the shutter closed. I then kept the light writing simple to avoid this problem. The other problem I came across was over exposure of images due to the long shutter speed. To minimalize this I used a small aperture. Of all the spaces I investigated I narrowed it down to four and tried to separated each space as much as possible with my four different shots. The result in a dynamic series of photos, showing and almost third dimension of depth within the two dimensional frames. An interesting bi-product that I did not intend on creating.   

DSDN144 - Project 3 - Light - Final Contact Sheet

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Group Task 2

15 Second Clip Here

Company Name: Spot Cleaning Company

Provides: A solution for cleaning up messes that is so efficient and effective that it removes every trace of the mess in a fraction of the time as other similar cleaning solutions.

Target Audience: 20 - 40 age group with little time or patience when it comes to having to clean up messes.

Slogan: “Clean up the mess”

The intentions of this advertisement is to sell a cleaning solution to the target demographic and differentiate the Spot Cleaning Company from other companies who sell similar solutions. 

This advertisement targets its audience with strong visuals and sound that grabs their attention and leaves a lasting impression in their minds, so that the next time they need a cleaning solution the Spot Cleaning Company advertisement will instantly spring to mind.

The advertisement shows coke, paint, wood shavings, PVA glue and paper being spilt, spurted, dropped and mixed together on a white backdrop to the sound of classical music, and the video has a dirty quality feel to it which gives it an arty feel and further enhances the mess making. The final scene of a clean white backdrop with only the company slogan and the type of product on offer is cut to quickly with the music being cut off. 

The idea of cutting to the white backdrop so abruptly is to show the audience that the Spot Cleaning Company’s cleaning solution is so efficient and effective that it cleans up a big mess in no time at all, and leaving no evidence that there was ever a mess there.

DSDN171 - Blog 5 - Locovisual

Prudential Assurance Building

The First World War had major effects on the world in the 1920s and the formation of Art Deco was a cultural, social and political manifestation of these effects. It wasn’t till the great depression of the 1930s was nearing its end that the New Zealand government began instigating new styling’s of Art Deco projects around the country. Built in 1935 the Prudential Assurance Building became the forefront of this movement and is now classed as a “Category II, Heritage Building” (Wellington City Council Heritage Inventory, 2012).

Plans for the building where drawn up by Melbourne architecture firm “Hennessy and Hennessy in association with local architects Gray Young Morton and Young” (WCCHI, 2012). Construction on the building started in 1934 as the British insurance firm Prudential Assurance’s new New Zealand head office, following the demolition of its previous Auckland office in 1934. To this day Prudential Assurance still owns and occupies the building, but are operating under a new name. The interior of the building has drastically changed from its original design, leaving only a few authentic oak banisters and marble floors in the stairwells. The exterior, however remains untouched as a definitive salute to the firm presence of Art Deco in Wellington.

The building’s distinct appearance has been what has kept it aesthetically relevant throughout the development of Wellington's CBD. The structure of the building consists of reinforced concrete, and a harmonious veneer of Benedict stone. Once we begin to dissect the buildings visual arrangement, the Art Deco influence behind its creation is evident. The frame and foundation of the building is almost entirely square with is four facades being strikingly similar in symmetry and ornament. The rhythm of the rectangular windows and the way they bisect the horizontal pediments and Parapets are reflective of art deco’s restrictive style, reminiscent of neoclassical architecture and its golden rule of thirds. The way the design of the building “rejects any natural rhythm and flower inspired by designs of the Art Nouveau style, in favour of a more masculine geometric style (Gallager, 2000) is also intrinsic to Art Deco.

Sources:

Wellington City Council Heritage Inventory. (2012). Heritage building search. Retrieved From: http://www.wellington.govt.nz/
Kelly, M. (1961) Heritage trail: art deco: Wellington's 1930s buildings. (2nd ed). Wellington City Council, Wellington: NZ.
Wilson, J. (1996) Zeal and crusade : The modern movement in Wellington (1st ed) . Te Whaiora Press, Christchurch: NZ
Gallager, F. (2000) Christie's Art Deco: Introduction. Pavilion, Shepherdstown, VW.

DSDN144 - Project 3 - Precedence

This shot further enforces my idea of using the lights in the shooting environment to create light trails. The above picture is of a slotcar set. The track itself has no light but because of the movement of the lights on the slotcar the track still exists by the representation of light.

DSDN144 - Project 3 - Precedence

Habi - "My Bike"

The idea of painting over a preexisting object like the photographer "Habi" has done in the above photo is a unique way of light writing. It defines the way the object exists in light and dark. Whats also interesting is the way Habi used the bike's light to paint the light trails. Adding further depth to the photo. This also generates the question of whether i could use the lights of the surrounding environment to create light trails.

DSDN101 - Project 3 - 300 Word Design Standpoint

Using the umbrella of Industrial design I will produce my 30 – 40 second clip as an attempt to raise awareness of sustainable design within mass production. In a growing global culture and at the crossroads of the foreseeable future of this planets conservation sustainable and environmentally friendly design is needed now more than ever. It is our responsibility are future designers to spread awareness of the consequences the environment will face if we do not create stability with how much resources we are using and giving back. By starting to consider sustainable design as students, we can manifest into a generation of environmentally conscious designers that have adapted to a changing world.

The "Venus Project" and its founder Jaques Fresco, have been a major influence towards my ideas of sustainable design. Fresco is an industrial designer and has fashioned a concept for a civilization "that offers a comprehensive plan for social reclamation in which human beings, technology and nature will be able to coexist in a long term, sustainable state of dynamic equilibrium" (The Venus Project, 2012). I believe this concept of  a utopian future through sustainability is a positive concept to work towards as young designers 

The movement of environmentalism to cinema has also been a major influence for this animation. Films like 11^th hour, An inconvenient truth, A Crude Awakening and Earthlings have made a global environmental consciousness even more achievable. Cinema is a powerful tool and has the ability to relate with the masses more than a magazine or journal article can. It was the main influence towards the way I have began to think as a environmentally conscious design student and I hope to be able to relate these ideas to my peers using my animation.

The symbolism I will use in my animation will be key to the ideas of sustainable mass production and design, and will represent “A new way of seeing”. I want the semiotics in my animation to be a complete derivative of the idea of sustainable design without needing sound to explain it.  In conjunction with the symbolism I feel having a narration on the ideas behind sustainable design will add to the informative aesthetic. 

Sources: 

The Venus Project. (2012) The Venus Project: Beyond Poverty, Politics and War. Retrieved From: http://www.thevenusproject.com/

Gelpke, B. Mccormack, R. Caduff, R. (Producers & Directors). (2006) A Crude Awakening [Film]. Los Angeles: LP.

Conner, L. Conners, N. (Producers & Directors). (2007) The Eleventh Hour [Film]. Burbank: Warner. Brothers

Monson, S. (Director). (2005) Earthlings [Film]. Burbank, National Earth.

Guggenhiem, D. (Director). (2006) An Inconvienent Truth [Film]. Los Angeles, Paramount. 

 

DSDN144 - Project 3 - Precedence

Dave Hill is a commercial photographer who specialises in commertial photography. This photo is from his promotional series "adventure". The way the effect exagerates the photo to the point of fantasy is an intersting aesthetic. I would like to use this technique to help exagerate my light trails in my photo series.

DSDN144 - Project 3 - Precedence

i found these on a travel blog and went through the photographers previous work to find a motif of hdr in most of his work. I like the effect he has achieved through long exposure times and the use of hdr making surreal images even more extraordinary. I hope to be able to achieve the same aesthetic in my work,

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Final Storyboard

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Test Clip

Test Clip On Vimeo

This clip is using the setting, software and camera i will use in my final clip. However the motions and objects in this clip are only to trail these settings.

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Development

This will be the text that will be narrated over the top of my animation...

"To achieve global sustainability we must capitalize the fact that waste is our most abundant resource. As future designers we will one day take on the responsibility of sustaining a healthy global living environment for future generations. We must generate a new way of seeing sustainable design. Continuously develop more efficient ways of recycling, turn old products into new designs, and safely return the bi products back to nature."

DSDN144 - Project 3 - Contact Sheets - Shoots 2/3/4

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Final Proposal

Using the umbrella of Industrial design I will produce my 30 – 40 second clip as an attempt to raise awareness of sustainable design within mass production. In a growing global culture and at the crossroads of the foreseeable future of this planets conservation sustainable and environmentally friendly design is needed now more than ever. It is our responsibility are future designers to spread awareness of the consequences the environment will face if we do not create stability with how much resources we are using and giving back. By starting to consider sustainable design as students, we can manifest into a generation of environmentally conscious designers that have adapted to a changing world. The symbolism I will use in my animation will be key to the ideas of sustainable mass production and design, and will represent “A new way of seeing”. In conjunction with the symbolism I feel having written text quotes interwoven in the narrative will add to the informative aesthetic.

My animation will be a metaphor that displays and environmentally conscious design process outlining the various considerations required. The stages i will be highlighting are where the required materials for the final design come from, how the use of the final product will affect the environment, what bi-products are formed in the creation of the product and where the product will end up when it is no longer needed.

The preface of my animation is a piece of paper on a desk that is discarded into a rubbish bin. The bin then becomes alight using the technique of light writing. The ball of rubbish then proceeds to roll down the stairs and out the door, transforming into different forms of origami along the way. This process will represent the idea of reuse of materials. The ball of rubbish then forms a paper plane which flies out the door and into the garden where it becomes buried in leaves and grows into a tree. This is the closing animation i will use to reflect the importance of biodegradable materials in the design process. The title will then become lit up in light writing "Sustainable Design, A New Way Of Seeing." This will be my only text displayed in the entire animation as i will be using a narrator to recite text of the importance of sustainability in design. 

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Storyboard Concepts

I have created 3 storyboard which all three contain a breakdown of all my precedence's ideals of sustainable design. I feel the top frame has the most potential for development and intertwining of metaphor and facts that will convey a sense of awareness of sustainable industrial design amongst designers.

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Precedence

 Jacque Fresco and The Venus Project 

"The Venus Project offers a comprehensive plan for social reclamation
in which human beings, technology and nature will be able to
coexist in a long term, sustainable state of dynamic equilibrium" - The venus project's website  

The Venus Project and its founder industrial designer Jacque Fresco are preaching sustainability in the form of offering a parallel system to democracy. By being an industrial designer himself, Fresco understands fully the importance of sustainable design. A prime example is his design for a self energy generating bullet train. It is this exact way of thinking and applying it into all design processes that i am trying to convey in my animation. 

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Precedence

David Suziki

"Economists don't include all of the things that nature does for us for nothing. Some technologies would never be able to do what nature does. For example, pollinating all of the flowering plants. What would it cost us to take carbon dioxide out of the air and put oxygen back in, which all the green things do for us for nothing? It's possible to do a crude estimate of what it would cost us to replace nature. Well, it turns out, [one researcher] estimated it would cost us $35 trillion a year to do what nature is doing for us for nothing. Now to put that in perspective. If you had added up all of the annual economies of all the countries in the world at that time, it would come to $18 trillion. So, nature is doing twice as much service for us as the economies of the world. And in the madness of conventional economics, this is not in the equation." —David Suzuki, geneticist and broadcaster.

Suziki has offered a bottom line to the world by saying we cannot afford to replace nature. I find this face very chilling and will try to include parts of the above quote in my animation to drive home the importance of sustainability in design. 

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Precedence

These products are a common site around campus and not only are they they amongst the most popular laptops on the market today but one of the greenest. Apple is taking steps towards not just becoming a carbon zero company, but making sure its products are as close to bio degradable as the technology allows. The Apple designers should be taken as major role models to us as design students. Not just for their close to perfect aesthetic designs but for the way they are looking towards the future of sustainable design. They will be used as one of the key information examples in my animation. 

DSDN144 - Project 3 - Shoot 1

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Precedence

Kaboom by PES

I find this stop-motion by the animation artist PES to be a very effective animation by the way he uses semiotics. The animation itself is a reenactment of the Hiroshima bombing in world war two. PES uses various household objects to make up the animated models. These objects are of very little relevance to the context of the story but somehow the viewer gains a clear view of what the animation is about as animation transforms them into symbols we relate to as the viewer. This use of semiotics is something i would like t o replicate in my animation as it is another metaphor for "Seeing differently" and would give my animation its self more depth and help enforce my messages in my animation.  

DSDN144 - Project 3 - Precedence

Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke

These collaborative works by Cenci Goepel and Jens Warnecke form a series of photographs that contrast former light graffiti. Their work seeks to harmonize the light with the surrounding frame of nature. I feel they successfully create this aesthetic and i will use this idea to make my own light painting photos homogenize themselves with the surrounding environment in order to create a successful aesthetic of light architecture. 

DSDN144 - Project 3 - Weekly Task - HDR

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Precedence

The 11th Hour - Motion Picture

The 11th hour is a motion picture, produced my Warner Brothers that investigates our effect on the environment as human beings. It goes into details about how the resources we consume are not being sustained. As well is illustrating the problems associated with the way mass production consumes our resources it also gives valuable solutions to the way designers think about the materials they use. This is an attempt to create a consciousness for where the materials used in products are coming from and where they will end up once used amongst consumers. I will use these ideals to attempt to raise awareness of sustainability in my animation to produce "A new way of seeing" amongst industrial designers.

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Draft Proposal

Draft Proposal for Project 3

Using the umbrella of Industrial design I will produce my 30 – 40 second clip as an attempt to raise awareness of sustainable design within mass production. In a growing global culture, and at the crossroads of the foreseeable future of this planets conservation sustainable and environmentally friendly design is needed now more than ever. It is our responsibility are future designers to spread awareness of the consequences the environment will face if we do not create stability with how much resources we are using and giving back. By starting to consider sustainable design as students, we can manifest into a generation of environmentally conscious designers that have adapted to a changing world. The symbolism I will use in my animation will be key to the ideas of sustainable mass production and design, and will represent “A new way of seeing”. In conjunction with the symbolism I feel having written text quotes interwoven in the narrative will add to the informative aesthetic. 

DSDN144 - Project 3 - Precedence

 Pablo Picasso Light Painting

One of the most influential artists of the 20th century, Picasso, was also a pioneer of light writing with a slow shutter speed. In his later life Picasso experimented with light writing on his own in front of the camera scribbling brief and simple forms. The expressionist aesthetic picasso has achieved just through experimenting is something i would like to replicate in my next shoot. I believe i will be able this aesthetic to connect with the audience and allow them to easily understand the forms i will create in each frame. 

 

DSDN144 - Project 3 - Light - Proposal

Light Architecture

For my light  project i have come up with a concept i call "Light Architecture". I will investigate a variety of different locations and using the technique of light graffiti on a slow shutter speed setting i will attempt to draw into the frame with light how the space could potentially be used. Will involve drawing in structures and objects in an attempt to satire the surrounding setting or create a whole new setting within the frame. 

DSDN101 - Project 3 - Brainstorm

DSDN144 - Project 3 - Light - Light Writing

Playing around with some light writing, need to have a read into this technique to get some sharper images

DSDN101 - Advertising Flyer - Group Work



DSDN171/DSDN111 - Blog 4 - Curatorial

 

“Just as the human body yields a circular outline, so to a square can be found in it.” – Da Vinci (Guttenberg, 2006)

There is both a definitive and abstract relationship between organic fluid and angular forms found throughout the human body. From the angular forms of intermittent neurons, to the long flowing fluid forms of blood vessels, these forms exist organically in harmony to create perhaps the greatest work of art, the human body.

This piece of work reflects these organic examples of fluid and angular form as well as abstracting the works of designers that have also taken influence from anatomy. The fluid form of this piece is a direct abstraction of Ross Lovegrove’s “Solar Tree”, both restricting the fluidity creating symmetrical, balanced forms. Like this exhibited work Lovesgrove’s solar tree was also celebration of “design, Nature and Art” (Fairs, 2007), and reflective of the rhythmic curves intrinsic to the structure of the body’s blood vessels. The angular form made up of the cotton thread is a clear reply to Peter Eisenman's algorithmic design City of Culture of Galicia. Eisenman’s intricate “collision of structure and surface”(Hill, 2011) is a clear derivative of the sporadic angular form created by a lattice of neurons in the human brain. The exhibited piece transcends this influence and through the use of materials is able to create two forms that are interdependent.

The wooden veneer used on the exterior of this piece has been warped into a fluid form against it's natural function of being a straight material. Subsequently the thread holding the design together wouldn’t be able to create its angular forms without the wood veneer creating tension. It is for this sole reason the exhibited design completely transcends its precedence and is able to directly reflect the harmony of organic fluid and angular forms within the human body.

Sources:

Guttenberg. (2006). Ten Books on Architecture: Book III. Retrieved from http://gutenberg.org/files/20239/2039-h/29239h.html#page_72

Fairs, M. (2007) Solar Tree, Dee Zeen. 1 – 3.

Hill, J. (20th July, 2011) City of Culture of Galicia. (Blog Post) Retrieved from http://archidose.blogspot.co.nz/2011/07/half-dose-91-city-of-culture-galicia.html

DSDN144 - Project 2 - Final Handin

With this series I want to explore the relationship between time and place. Attempting investigative photography I will try to show and explore how people interact with certain places over time. I will shoot places that invoke basic human interaction such and transitory spaces and objects that people readily and subconsciously interact with. By using a time lapse set up over an hour I should be able to obtain a decent variety of images, this will hopefully show some consistent paths that people interact with. Also by using slow shutter speeds I will be able to exaggerate these paths by giving peoples appearance a phantom like glow.

I feel I have been largely unsuccessful with achieving the desired aesthetic I set myself at the beginning of this project, however, I believe the bi-product of this failure has been some very interesting images. The fist problem I ran into was the over exposure of my first set of images when I was shooting slow shutter speeds during the day. By using a pinhole lens I though I could reduce the aperture enough to allow for the slow shutter speeds I was using. My second shoot using the pinhole lens gave a correct amount of exposure but nothing was in focus. I then decided to do a shoot at night. This allowed me to use slow shutter speeds without over exposing the images. I set up time lapses in 5 different spots for and hour each. The problem I ran into then was the lack of people walking into frame due to the time I was shooting. The lack of people was an un accounted for, but unavoidable circumstance for my shoot, and through this I was unable to obtain my desired aesthetic of a frame full of ghostly figures. Although with the pictures of people I did take I was able to layer them on top of each other in Photoshop and create four subtle but haunting images of an hour frozen into one frame. I then chose to greyscale all the images. This was purely a replication of my precedence’s chronophotogray work, part of the aesthetic I was trying to replicate.  

 

DSDN101 - Project 2 - Waste Animation Final Handin

I was having trouble at first with automating the sound within flash. This left me with in apropriate levels of sound to what was going on, on screen. The particular trouble I had was with the loud drip at the start of the animation. The volume of it drowned out the other sound effects. I was able to finally get around this by converting the file into two layers, each with a different level of volume. I am very happy with the final outcome of my animation and feel i have done well to appropriately match the sound to the video. I have uploaded my finial copy of the animation to Vimeo so there is no loss in audio/video quality. Find it by clicking on the link below. Waste Final Handin

DSDN101 - Project 2 - Waste Animation w/No Sound

I was unable to succesfully sync my animation with my sound file made in logic so in the mean time i have have uploaded the animation without audio at the link below. I am going to do more tutorials on using sound in logic and attempt to sucessfully create the soundscape within flash itself. Waste w/No Sound

DSDN101 - Project 2 - Animation w/Bad Sound

 Below is my first attempt of synching flash with the sounds i have made on logic. I have not manged to get the sounds completly synched, however i will upload a revised final version in the next few minutes.

Waste Animation w/Bad Audio

DSDN101 - Project 2 - Final Animation - Sound - Development

I have chosen to use Logic 9 to create the sound scape for my animation. Above i have included a screenshot from my session. Logic gives me the advantage of adding filters and envelopes over the sound effects. I have used reverb and a cutoff filter on the sound files to automate different velocities of sound as the waste hits the ground in my animation. I have also included the individual sound file above.