During my visit to the British Library I was not expecting it to be open and spaced out such as the reception/lobby. I first registered for my library card once i had that we went exploring. I think i went into the science section and I was admiring a window with 6 panels of class forming a triangle and panels getting smaller and smaller.
‘States of Mind’ Exhibition Review
The exhibition ‘State of Minds’ consisted of various topics such as disorders of memory, consciousness, synaestheasia and sleep walking. Those who have not had these experiences or just want a more understanding of it will find this exhibition of use. This exhibition allows us to get even closer of understanding what these experiences feel like by exploring the perspective from others researching the same topic. This exhibition was also a follow up on the installation ‘yellowbluepink’ by Ann Veronica Janssens.
The exhibition didn’t allow us to take photos but I managed to sneak in a few pictures. As I entered the exhibition the first topic I came across was ‘Science & Soul’. In this section they were explaining how we were able to be conscious and dream of a world which relates to reality but doesn’t conflict with it. The most logical theory was that we have two separate realms which is known as dualism.
The next section was ‘Sleep & Awake’, at first I was confused on why there was a pale man on the ground but once I saw the video beside him it made sense. I would have embedded the video in here but I can’t find it. This section showed and explained us of how when we are in sleep form we are unresponsive and unaware of your surroundings. Although our brain is still active we do not perceive dreams are reality therefore it’s not unusual to ourselves when we are sleep walking. Further on the topic they were explaining about sleep paralysis having the same principle as sleep walking excluding its difficult to move and more realistic. researches have taken examined people who have experienced it and claim they feel like something is applying pressure onto your chest so its very difficult to move and when it ends you wake up in a shock aswell as still in that state for a few seconds after you have woken up! (I have also had this experience and it’s not nice). Overall this Exhibition was very informative and I learn’t stuff i hadn’t known before, although only downside was I couldn’t take pictures.
Modular type design – Workshop
In this workshop we were given a grid sheet and had to create your own typeface using the cells within the grid and the letters ‘aegkmnosuvxAEGKMNOSUVX’ while keeping everything consistent. We experimented how many cells we can cut till the letter is not eligible any more.
Genius Loci Initial Idea
This was going to be my Initial idea but as there were many places init and most of them had the same atmosphere i’ve changed it. The title of this video is self explanatory but to break it down, I traveled along the tube and notice there were a lot of people and you’d assume with people there would be noise, not in this case. I then went outside the train station and there were fewer people but made noise. I compared many areas in the station but i thought the escalator, in a train carriage and outside of the train station would convey this comparison the best. The reserve had no other purpose other than i thought it fit well.
Workshop – Placement of type
In this workshop we had to create a promo poster using the given dummy text then to experiment which works best for placement/spacing. There were rules also i.e we couldn’t place our text horizontally.
Workshop – Typographic forms
In this workshop we were told to redraw given a set of typeface twice the size but we could’t trace over it or use any type of guidelines such as grids. Once done we moved on to experimenting with Kerning, Line spacing and Tracking.
Pose! That’s not me – Lecture
This lecture was really interesting as it had a fair amount of figuring out photographs, which inspired a lot of questions. The main topic is photography and how we relate to it.
First, the lecturer, Mark, asked us what we thought was happening in an image of a group of people looking upwards. They were all looking at something, and it was correct! It was the launch of Apollo 11. Then we looked at the first photograph and camera created. During this, the question of “what is a photo” came up, and someone replied “a photograph is just a photograph”. I can agree and disagree with this. Then looking at how photographs were done in the Victorian era, although we didn’t know it. He asked us what the image below is:
THis device is to hold people still while having their photo taken as it took a while, so they were propped upright in order to have a non-creepy blurred image. Which is also why no one is smiling since holding a smile would be hard to hold and kill your face. Then we saw pictures people took of their children when they had died, held them up right and opened their eyes post mortem. This way, they’re able to have a picture of their child since they wouldn’t move, but it’s a memory of them. People were thinking about why they did this, it does have weird vibes but that was the norm back then. If they had easy photographing systems, they wouldn’t do it. It’s the only way they can remember how they looked.
Imperial War Musuem: Peter Kennard: Unofficial War Artist
The most recent exhibition by Peter Kennard consist of conflict from the mid- twentieth century to this day and history of war for the past 45 years. As a former painter, Peter started to turn towards the path of a photomontage artist and senior research reader express his views by involving in the anti-Vietnam War movement. Since moving on from painting in 1970s he has been journalising political event (mainly war event) in a photographic way, in every image there is obvious subliminal message in arguments with the political events.
The first person to use photomontage was by a Berlin Dadaist, John Heartfield which Peter Kennard was inspired by. The meaning of ‘Photomontage’ is a method of constructing a whole image using images similar to a collage. In order to make these photomontages designers/artist would use newspapers, magazines and images etc. Dadaist such as John Heartfield preferred using photomontage because it was simple and easy to use.
The room I found most interesting was the ‘Reading Room’ as the newspapers copies were dated back to 1994 teared with hands. It had a clear message of Peter having lack of ability trying tell us the truth behind and so this was one of the few ways he expressed his frustration towards the political events that were occurring.
The image here is named ‘Warhead 1’ made in 1981. Cruise 
missiles to John Constable’s The Hay Wire in this image will always be remembered by PEACE activists. When kennard was interviewed about this image he quoted “They’re totally cruel and disgusting and the fact that they can get elected…’’ this horrific event is one of the examples why Peter creates hard hitting photomontage. Out of all the work i have seen of his in my opinion this is the most cruelest and uncivilized way to live and people should be more aware of peter’s work and his point.
Reference
Peter Kennard. (2001). My Story. Available: http://www.peterkennard.com/main/home_set.htm. Last accessed 15th Novmeber 2015.
John Evans. (2015). Battle for the ‘unrevealed truth’. Available: http://www.camdenreview.com/node/989148. Last accessed 15th Novmeber 2015.
Hyperlapse
A hyper-lapse recorded before and during rush hour times. My intention for this was to record the unusual sounds people do not pay attention to when they are focused on something else. I took this clip next to a train station and under a motorway yet it isn’t as loud as you would imagine.
I remember from ‘Typography & communication’ lecture
I remember a program he mentioned ‘Ways of seeing’ from the BBC in 1972 by John Berger. He also mentioned a quote from the program by John Berger ‘Our tradition of art called those appearances reality’.
Prospectus for central school of art & design – Anthony froshaug 1978, he got rid of the time/dates to make it more interesting and kept only the dates which were relevant, simple but effective.
Umer 