Vicky Clampitt - Forgotten Spaces

Vicky Clampitt is studying a Foundation Diploma in Art and Design at Priestley College. Having finished her A-Levels, this course has allowed her to take the initiative in projects as well as preparing her for the start of a Fine Art degree at Oxford Brookes University this September.

I have always been enthusiastic about painting and often explore its boundaries by experimenting with materials such as plaster, silicone and wax. However, more recently I have used painting as a platform to push my investigations and define more conceptual areas within my work.

Over the past eight weeks, I have been working towards my Final Major Project titled 'Forgotten Spaces' which unearths the abandoned and neglected spaces within our urban landscape. I've always loved exploring urban fragments and places by looking at the aesthetics of decay and the layering of history which is held. My aim has been to enhance the significance of these neglected places, particularly around Liverpool's Docks by focusing on the unintended beauty that occurs within them.

What initially attracted me to the Docks was the refurbishment of the Bascule Bridge and how it transformed the structure from its decaying, corroded state to a space which is know usable and no longer forgotten. It was at this point which I decided to explore the location further by focusing on areas which often go unnoticed or dismissed by passersby. My investigations and enquires led me to six sites which have been crucial in the development of my project: Jonty's Hut, Dunnett Street Warehouse, Brunswick Place, Porter Street Walkway, Vulcan Street and Lascar House.

At first, I decided to respond to each site by creating paintings and sculptures inspired by the spaces and from objects which I found there. However, I began to see my work as abstractions of reality when what I actually wanted to do is reveal these spaces. After visiting the sites several times, I realised that is was my conversation with the sites and how I interacted with them which emphasised their existence. Therefore, with minimal manipulation I'm now promoting the existence of these spaces and the idea of them existing as ready-made Art Galleries/ Museums within themselves.

For more information you can visit Art Feast website for an exclusive interview about this project

http://www.artfeast.co.uk/2011/06/art-feast-interviews-priestley-college-art-foundation-student-vicki-clampitt/

Natasha Lee - 'Cotton Panties'

The title of my project is 'Cotton panties'. I chose a book; page and line number entirely at random and used the outcome as my title. At first glance, it looks like I have chosen a chick lit or romantic novel; however the book was a harrowing novel about a woman's escape from the east side of the Berlin wall. Thus, the title highlights the importance of context to the meaning of language. It also seems to have no relevance to my project when, in fact it sums it up perfectly.

In my SOI I proposed to explore language and the importance of context to its meaning and to create a final piece which portrays this. I intended to start by researching artists whose work looks at exploring typography and its placement. I did initially research artists such as Daniel Pflumm, Stefan Stagmister, and Alida Sayer but I realised I had a strong concept and that I needed to experiment it in depth and develop it further. These artists just showed me different techniques to present typography rather than influence my ideas.

I aimed to produce a variety of pieces using different disciplines and I feel that I have managed to do this. I experimented with drawings, video, photography, projection and collage. I experimented with both existing documents and spoken words which I manipulate using video and transformed into new written documents. I feel I produced a varied and thorough investigation into my chosen theme by doing this.

During my development stages I began with looking at existing text and manipulating the words within it into something different. I was highly influenced by Meg Hitchcock's work as she reconfigure's religious texts, letter by letter, into other religious texts. I felt exploring manipulation was relevant because it was taking the text from its context and losing it's original meaning. It had taken on a new meaning, but not the one in which it was intended for. I completed a number of experiments exploring this; I re-arranged existing written texts such as news articles, lonely hearts adverts and speeches as well as manipulating spoken text videos . I also blanked words out of pages of a book so that they read differently. I did this where I controlled what words were left and where

I was not in control of the left words. They where bothsuccessful, the first I had formed into a sentence with a new meaning. The latter a new document had formed which didn't communicate anything as the words had completely lost their meaning. I developed this into manipulating peoples conversations through writing down snippets of what I could hear onto a performance projected piece in the college cafe. I ran into some problems, for example not being able to hear people and not being able to type fast enough. However this was a very successful piece and this is why I chose to present it in my final show.

If I were to do this project again I would think more about the audience. I have been focusing on the text and taking it from its context, but I've not took into account the audience and maybe I could have manipulated how they interpret text. I also think that I would experiment more with interactive pieces to gather information and then develop using the knowledge. I would also research deeper into language, (accents, dialect, translation barriers, computer code, and homonyms) perhaps and maybe create experiments informed by my research.

Aimee Richards - Entrapment

Entrapment can be seen in many different ways, from comfortable to uncomfortable, from physical to psychological. I have attempted to cover all of these different ways in my experimentation and final exhibition pieces. The main reason I chose to research deeper into entrapment is due to my personal life at home, and how I feel trapped in my own home due to the fact that I have a dysfunctional and bad relationship with my mother. We don't have anything in common, and I feel she judges me for who I am, whether it is due to my sexuality or the choices I have made in life. At the beginning of this project, I had no intention of making any autobiographical artwork, but I am extremely glad that my work progressed into this. I didn't feel as though I had anything interesting enough in my life to create something autobiographical, but since my work turned out to be completely influenced by my own personal experiences, I now realise that there are many people who have the same problems as me. Creating this artwork has definitely helped me to grow as both an artist and a person, helping me see that my personal issues can be overcome by exploring them through art.

At the beginning of my project, I intended to focus my attention on the uncomfortable ways people may feel trapped, mainly in my experimentation where I created small installations consisting of tight enclosed spaces. I progressed to create spaces which contrasted to these uncomfortable installations, by creating spaces which invited people to inhabit them, making them appear appealing. My most successful piece of experimentation was perhaps the comfortable space I made underneath my desk in the studio. Manipulating this space into something which resembled both a child's 'den' and a padded sell (one which you would expect to see in an asylum) allowed me to experiment with the different ways which children and adults deal with and interpret entrapment, thus leading to the idea behind my final 'twister room' piece.

Rebecca Darkes - Experience Life

For my final major project I advertised gift/experience days called "experience life". It was through discussion with my tutor that I came to think of this concept. I started to question, why do people pay a large amount of money to go on these experience days when you can get these things similar for less or even free! If you consider everything that you do in a day then each thing would be an experience. So life is an experience.

My concept that "life is an experience" brought me on to think about the project in a whole different way, A more humorous approach where I would be advertising experiences as amazing, when in fact they are quite the opposite.

In my statement of intent I did state that I would use photography for primary sources which I did. I found an article which was about Liverpool Toxteth and how the area "suffered from problems". This provided me a location to take photographs which would highlight the low culture of the project. I also needed pictures of old cars that were faulty, poor and unacceptable to use. To get these I went to a scrap yard where I found cars which suited the situation well. The photographs I have taken did contribute to my final pieces.

Experience Life Website

Matthew Bailey - Method in Madness

I initially started this project with the intentions to create a series of kinetic sculptures housed around a theme of "method in madness" Meaning, my designs are logically sound, yet the finished creation is something rather strange or indeed silly.

I am pleased to comment this was a success. Through many hours planning and sketching I gained a foot hold and managed to put together six working machines with varying functions but at the same time they keep to a form of house style making them all appear to be part of the same group. This was unforeseen, but a happy accident none the less.

Of course this success goes hand in hand with failure though these failures where necessary in order for the project to progress. They allowed me to steer clear of the perhaps more scientific reaction or theory to a more hands on, physical and meaningful way of working. This is what first introduced the bicycle into the design forte; this left its mark on all of the work which was finally displayed in the exhibition. (Including the boots, we need feet to ride bicycles)

Looking back on the original statement it was clear that the project did not fully keep to those initial plans of time expenditure. Though the research and tasks I set myself where carried out, the project seemed to take a life of its own particularly after the first few weeks went by and the first of my machines "The foot printer" was assembled. The follow up of the machine sparked up a sort of flair in the work, this resulting in many spontaneous experiments and machines to be devised.

The work took on a much deeper meaning at this point, my research became more involved in a broader spectrum of people and ideas. Including; Da Vinci, Karl Marx, and HG Welles's novels the WAR OF THE WORLDS and THE TIME MACHINE, the design of the machines involve in the books are truly fascinating and well before their time but it was the human interaction and reaction that interested me, what people did when they saw such machines and their feelings towards them. This also started a research plan into 1930's – 50's B-MOVIES such as "The day the earth stood still" and "It came from outer space". When boiled down it is a simple principle of the universal fear of the unknown or the miss-understood. To my joy many of my machines caused such a reaction.

To conclude, I decided on this theme and style of working purely for its outlandish nature, as it is known I am a painter at heart, sculpture was a medium that quite unknown to me, but yet always admired. It has been a strenuous ecstasy to be able to indulge in this form of art work, I am sure it will rub off into future pieces I am involved in when I move onto new things. And yes I can honestly say, I became a slave to my own creation.

Jade Kiddell - Psychological Space

Psychological space could be in explored in a whole variety of different ways and avenues. I wanted to particularly focus on evoking a response in the viewer and creating real emotions. I chose to focus particularly on evoking fear, I find darker work more interesting to create and enjoy experimenting with visuals and manipulation to create the desired effect. I chose to work with photography and video specifically as I had worked in this media during previous projects and wanted to develop my skills further and continue to push my boundaries. I felt this was a particularly challenging media as it's difficult to create something un-literal.

I began to experiment with video and created small films and clips based on the idea of claustrophobia and under water. I felt the first videos I created didn't capture the feeling I was trying to create and seemed too calm. However, experimenting with them in After Effects inspired new ideas and left me eager to create more. I worked with layers and time, reversing my footage to give a more surreal element to the work. The excitement of creating work I found interesting and inspiring pushed me my desire to continuing to produce video work. I looked specifically at directors to enable me work more professionally and researched the work of Alfred Hitchcock and considering the way he constructs a scene and his use of angles and the way he builds up tension. This along with discussions with my tutor led me to creating a short film, based on a storyboard. I'd never created video in that way before so it was an interesting learning curve and I felt a lot more organised. Although I felt the outcome was too narrative, I liked the footage I had created and considering elements such as lighting and angle had gave much more professional footage to work with. I decided to use this footage again to create my final video, but would consider techniques that had been effective in previous experiments and the type of outcome I wanted to create.

I wanted the final video to really provoke an emotion from the viewer so I considered my own experiences of fear. I particularly looked into sleep paralysis as this is a vivid experience of fear I have experienced myself. I considered the feelings I had experienced such as panic, a heavy feeling on my chest, inability to speak and a feeling of extreme restriction. I worked in many layers and created a very fast paced video and really portray the feeling of panic. Working with layers gave the video more depth and added a more confusing and disorientating element. I also looked into the use of subliminal messages and incorporated these into my work, through unpleasant yet relevant flashes of words such as 'suffocation' and 'asphyxiate'. I considered the other unpleasant feelings I had experienced and ways of portraying them. I thought back to the ideas of 'psychological space' and knew a video installation would be most effective to give the viewer a real experience. Combining the video with an unpleasant low frequency sound as well as strobe lights created a horribly disorientating experience. Presenting this in an enclosed space created a feeling of complete restriction and I felt it really captured the elements of fear.

Kayle Fairhurst - Entropy

Entropy, the concept of dealing with change, is something I have been newly introduced to. I found out about it by watching the programme 'Wonders of the Universe' where professor Brian Cox talks of the arrow of time, and the notion that everything is moving forward, everything goes through change, no matter the scale, and I found this so interesting that as soon as I found out about it I knew this was what I wanted to base my project on. I did research on various artists who not necessarily used the concept of entropy as the theme of their work, but whose work involved entropy and change none the less, including Simon Starling, Philippe Ramette, Cornelia parker and I looked in depth at the video work 'The way things go' by Peter Fischli and David Weiss, a video about chain reactions, and the notion of one thing leading to another.

Some of my initial work I did included a painting. A painting is a perfect example of entropy, once the paint touches the boards, it cannot be taken off, not without leaving a trace, I played around with cutting the board up and rearranging it to continue with the entropy. I then moved on to the idea of letting entropytake it's course, without my help, all I did was start it off, using glass jars, I placed pieces of

aluminium inside, and poured liquid separately into each one, white spirit, white vinegar and coca cola, and left them to corrode/erode the metal over the course of the project. I then wanted to play around with different materials that were easily manipulated, mud was a perfect choice. Creating a mud cube and eventually a mud gun, helped me to understand how giving form to something that usually would not have one, makes an unexpected change in what nature intended, proving the unpredictability of entropy.

Looking at the artist Antony Gormley and his use of the human figure, the idea was conceived where I would create a man using blocks of mud, and I would push it over, destroying it, this mud man was to be the size of me, and the same width, however, my ideas developed and I decided to use my actual body shape to create a piece of work. Lying on a patch of grass, I had my outline carefully and accurately cut out, I then dug the outline out and lay in it to see if it was the right depth. This is where I started to begin to fully understand entropy and where things started to get interesting. With help, guidance and a watchful eye from my tutors I set fire to my outline after filling it with layers of newspaper and chopped up wood, this was the most cathartic thing I have ever done, the fire was so entrancing, watching it dance, I was lost in it. I filmed the whole experience and this is the video shown in my exhibition.

Looking back to what had originally been my starting point 'Wonders of the Universe' I was inspired by the use of sand as a prime example of what entropy is, the way in which entropy is not just about change, but how much change something can go through, a sand pile is low entropy, it can be moved in any way and would still be a pile of sand, as where a sand castle, if you move it in any way and it falls apart it is no longer a castle, this is high entropy, because it can go through more change then a pile of sand could. This is where I decided to make a sand pit, where I let people make the sculptures themselves, I left a bucket and spade for people to make their own castles and documented their creations. My burning man was the more cathartic part of my project, and my sand pit was the opposing entropic side, a gap needed to be bridged and so using sand I had personally acquired from Southport beach I created a path of sand and walked in it bare foot, documenting my footsteps. This was my balance of what I had been trying to do, and although it was a simple idea I feel happy with the outcome. This represented the personal entropic natural journey that people go through, specifically me, this is my journey displayed in 13 foot steps.

Gemma Young - Communication

I began by reacting to the social networking site 'Twitter'. With Twitter being an outlet for any random thoughts I decided to casually leave my thoughts within the real word with the use of stickers. This allowed me to put my thoughts into context as I left the stickers in the area of origin. This created a further personal connection in an unusual interesting manor. My interest with Twitter did not stop there as I reacted to the ban of the site within the college network. With college being a place of personal choice driven by individual interest surely we should be allowed the freedom to spend our time in our chosen manor, knowing fully the consequences of such actions. By gaining access to the site via mobile internet I located a college whiteboard and placed it within a popular socialising area on site. I then repeatedly updated the board with a hand written tweet. The use of hand writing in a space filled with computer generated text created a contrast leading to attention and interest. I found the level of Priestley's control interesting as I was able to carry out a bold physical act yet I was stopped from simply visiting a popular social networking site. Starting to feel uninspired by the use of text I decided to look into deeper into my initial ideas and started to investigate the way we communicate and edit our lives with the use of imagery online.

I found the pure scale of the images we display amazing. A large majority of people show their entire lives on the Internet without giving it a second thought. I toyed with the idea of displaying thousands of images in a shocking collection however I was slowly losing interest once again as the work lacked personality. I feel that my work with imagery was unsuccessful as I did not hold the passion to expand and develop the ideas.

I began by looking for strange and alternative ways of communication, straying away from the use of technology. My initial idea was that of a paper cup phone, we played with these in the studio and received a positive reaction. Developing the idea for a finale piece I played with the idea creating a game. The cups seemed to encourage a childish nature and I wanted people to allow the idea of communicating with an unknown person. For the final piece I decided to thread the string through two wooden boards, this created a divide between users and focused attention on the sculptural appearance of the string. I also crossed over the string creating a 'find a pair' game, encouraging people to interact with the piece. I experimented with the tension created by the string, testing to see if it could support the two boards creating a free standing piece. However as the piece was to be used it needed to be secure and hinges were added. If I was to do this again I would hinge the boards first. I would also move the piece to a quiet area as the background noise makes the piece fail as a communication device.

The pipe was inspired by the previous use of simple materials (string and cups) and the play ground game of pipe telephones. At first use they were extremely effective and I knew I wanted to show a piece using the idea of distance as a divide. I also exhibited a second pipe piece, this time two pipes were used creating a telephone effect. By crossing the pipes in the middle it creates an extremely effective communication device where a whisper can be heard loud and clear. By creating a large distance and a divide with boards it once again encourages people to risk creating a conversation with a stranger as they interact and use the piece. If I was to do these pieces again I may consider experimenting greater with the path they take; creating elaborate and interesting routes. I would also consider the finished appearance in greater detail.

My last piece was a pulley system. I first installed this through the wall separating the two art studios. Whilst installed the pulley was used repeatedly and people started to enjoy the act of written messages. It was the most successful piece and was used to aid conversations for multiple weeks. By installing this into the exhibition I am interested to see how the environment changes the way the pulley is used. I hope people will wait for a reply from whoever happens to read their message.

Michelle Watts - Transfers and Tensions

I realised during this project that I have a deep interest in the potential of a given situation. I think this is because my A-Levels in physics and maths were often concerned with energy transfers and tensions/forces, and a lot of the questions were related to something about to happen (e.g. A ball about to drop). This means that I view the moment when something is about to happen as the "interesting bit".

I encountered many problems and conflicts of interest during the FMP. My original intentions, mapped out in my statement of intent and time plan, involved the investigation of how a combination of 'real' and 'abstract' spatial attributes can be manipulated within physical structures / shelters. This concept was inspired by Emilio Vedova's piece "Absurdes Berliner Tagebuch '64" that I saw whilst in Berlin. However, I felt that to develop these shelters thoroughly to a high standard I would need more time to consider the complexities of creating useable space. For this reason I chose to focus on characteristics and dynamics of materials / mediums and situations, with a view to extend this enquiry at university.

Another difficulty I faced was due to the transient nature of balanced elements in a state of precariousness. As soon as I documented / photographed a situation it became frozen in time, which deteriorated the energy it originally possessed. Claes Oldenburg's "Balancing Tools" helped me to realise this: it was built sturdily so that it could be displayed permanently, but I felt that this manufactured "situation" reduced the integrity of the work. I also faced this dilemma myself – as an art student I was required to produce a tangible outcome to be displayed in an exhibition context, yet the nature of my investigation is fleeting and temporary. I was not willing to compromise my work and ethics by creating an artificial sense of precariousness / potential – it had to be genuine. After much consideration (within group critiques, tutorials and independently) I decided that the sculpture in my exhibition would have true potential to collapse but that if this happened I would reset the situation, giving it the opportunity to happen again (if I did not reset it the potential of the situation would have been reached so the work would lack the dynamic sense of energy I was trying to create). I debated whether this was cheating by dictating the outcome of the situation, but I decided it was not – resetting the system is similar to rewinding a film to re-watch your favourite bits, it does not change the ending!

I tried to accumulate / retain as many elements suggesting fragility within this work as I could – the use of reclaimed and damaged materials, frayed rope, delicate glass forms of wine glasses, relatable human actions (knots – connotations of human error / weakness), fragments of disintegrating boards from during construction of work. The accumulation of these gives a true sense of the frailty of the situation.
I have been able to use my accumulated findings from research / experiments / developments undertaken within this project and past assignment to progress to a logical, informed conclusion. Project 10 influenced my decision to use wine glasses as the indication of a consequence of my sculpture falling – Gaston Bachelard's "The Poetics of Space" suggests that our thoughts explore physical spaces and that they rationalize and inhabit them. For this reason I chose the familiar form (with an emphasis on void rather than mass) of wine glasses with the idea that the viewer's thoughts would travel around and into the spaces involved, making the potential of collapse personal. As the viewer familiarises themselves with the spaces beneath the boards I feel the "wellbeing" of the sculpture would become important to them, so the potential would seem more significant.

Jane Barber - Gravity

I started to deal with gravity in my own way, by experimenting with mechanisms that can support paint, such as making a mini seesaw, that hold paint across it, whilst trying to balance it out, I made different slopes to hold it onto to see the difference of how paint would fall onto, into and drop of the strip of board. I then moved onto an installation of paint, where I manipulated some strips of board, by bending them in different directions to control the gravity of paint and how it would fall into place, I found it interesting to see the process of how the paint falls and drys differently to how it is while it's wet, and viewing the outcome of the drips that have been left behind. I think that both of these ideas worked well initially as the seesaws implied more that I could control gravity and movement together, and my installation worked because of the bends being controlled to the way I wanted the to drip.

I developed my ideas further by deciding to work with paintings that basically painted themselves. I made a miniature swing that functioned with a board across it. I put paint along the sides, followed by some boards attached to them, I moved the board up and down to the mark that was left behind and experimented using different colours. I felt that this didn't work in the best way as the piece kept falling apart, and that the boards weren't looking too great. I then decided to focus on making my own mechanism using fans, a plank of wood and some string. This was highly influenced by Tim Knowels and his drawing done with trees. I wanted to have some more control over force of wind, to control how gravity works, by using two fans that would push the string back and forth creating a sophisticated painting. I thought that this worked well because it was simple but effective.

Lastly I decided that my seesaw idea was good, so I decided to expand on it and create 2 bigger seesaws using 2 stools and 2 cylinder shapes to make the curves, and 2 boards. I then painted them both at the same time to make it fair and so it would be the same, I then chose to leave them in different weathering conditions, the first board I left outside in the rain, to see what weathering would do to it, and the second I took inside to dry properly. Overall they both turned out well, I think that the weathered piece turned out the best because it looked more planned out and different than intended to look.

Letita Kapfunde - Shadows, Light and Reflection

In my statement of intent, I initially started to look into the idea of how shadows, light and reflections can change the structure or atmosphere within a space.

After developing relevant research into these areas I decided to start looking at each individual area, starting with the reflections of light, I created a range of experiments with reflections and recorded how the light was changed and how the series of angles used affected the way the light was controlled. I then wanted to look more into the aspect of just using light and manipulating it using glass, I also gathered and researched into more scientific features involving light, such as prisms and convex and concave lenses and how these affected light in a range of ways. I also developed a lot of photographically based work on the experiments I carried trying to manipulate light. After gaining basic information on how light reacts differently to lenses and a range or thickness of glass, I began to think about using jars and how i could manipulate the light around and through these to create different effects.

After going into the broader outlook on light, I decided I wanted to direct my project in a particular way in order for me to develop it further, so I decided to start looking into the idea of just manipulating light and how I could achieve this. I came up with a range of ideas about how to manipulate light such as: changing the colour of light, bending light as it normally travels in straight lines, and also coming up with the concept of blocking light out of a space completely or trapping light inside a particular space.

After going down the pathway of manipulating light I wanted to incorporate this into my final exhibition along with some of my photography work from my previous experiments. I realised that the photographs were very varied but worked as pieces within themselves, especially the ones that had a large contrast of dark and light, which gave the effect which is linked to chiaroscuro drawings. After choosing my photographs that showed the diverse range of experimentation I had carried out, I also wanted to create something installation based for my exhibition. Making a series of boxes with different lighting effects inside, I was able to incorporate the idea of my work being interactive with people and

also still showing the range of techniques I had explored using light.

I think overall my project and exhibition went successfully but if I could change anything about this process I would try to look into more specific areas with light in order to create more installation based pieces instead of a whole project mainly on experimentation and photography. The final product was different to how I initially started in my statement of intent on how shadows, light and reflections can change the structure or atmosphere within a space, but showed how much I had progressed into a particular pathway involving the manipulation of light and I am pleased with the range of work I have produced.

Joshua Yates - Join the Rhythm

I have undertook an number of art works including performances, instalations and internet based sound art. My Join the Rhythm piece was the very first that I carried out, in the early weeks of the project this moment of spontaneity was born out of the coincidental acquisition of a large amount of drumsticks, in a matter of days I had decided that a large scale performance was the obvious way forward and by the end of the week I had organised and executed the performance. What I didn't realise at the time was that this piece also ties in with the research that I was working on into the Fluxus movement, as this work falls under the label of 'Happenings' a type of performance art championed by the founders of Fluxus. However with such a strong piece to start off with I found that after it was all done and documented I was left with a very blank page. I deliberated over performing another Join the Rhythm at a different location, but turned away from that idea due to the complexity of the plans involved. Instead I continued with my artist research in the hope of finding another pathway for my work.

The next idea that I started working on was my YouTube Sampler, this is a fairly unique idea born directly out of the two areas of interest that I've been studying; it is partly influenced by my knowledge of music samplers and partly by the research I was doing on sound artist Christian Marclay on YouTube itself. This piece developed over a couple of weeks from early experiments where I was trying to collect random videos from the internet and piece them together to make music that is similar in sound to both early sampler music such as the Prodigy and the work of Marclay. This work later developed into a much more substantial piece of work that I've adapted to be accessible and easily useable by the general public and users of YouTube. I am really pleased with the outcome of this work because I feel it embodies the whole philosophy of this project; it's digital and employs the new wave of international social communication. I also feel it's firmly an art piece and references the Fluxus ethos, and it is musically grounded and enriched, and without the use of video and the internet the songs work independently as conventional music pieces.

Max Vickers - Space and shadows

On my statement of intent at the start of the project I wrote that I would be working off canvas on a non traditional format and recording this subject of increasing people awareness of compositional elements and marks within space. I feel I have touched upon taking my work of canvas by treating my place of work more as a space than a canvas using each wall and the floor as an area to produce marks within, also working in the outside world recording the journey of shadows and light shows I have made sense of this objective. The project has developed and progressed through different avenues in which I thought it wouldn't, such as delving into light, shadow and the natural elements as much as I did. I became highly influenced and fascinated by the effects light has on space and the marks and shadows that it creates, leading me to produce a lot of work concerning shadow and reflection. Overall I am glad I did delve into to this as it has lead me to produce work that I never would have doing if I was just to stick purely to the brief. Looking into different approaches and ways to take my project has defiantly a vital part of my progress.

My final exhibition pieces came through a lot of development and exploration of different ideas. They are based upon photos I took of the composition light can create in the outside world and my obsession with trying to increase the awareness of them, making the ordinary extraordinary. From the photos, I created glass pieces which I cut and manipulated to reflect and compliment the natural aesthetics of the photos and compositions in the outside world which I found so interesting to begin with. I Then could project these pieces using an overhead projector on to my canvas to give the effect of the original composition. I then used my own aesthetics and mark making style to compliment and work with the composition and tones I saw on the board, bringing the piece to life and making intertwining my style with recreated composition of the light photos I took.

John Schofield - Accessible Art

I wanted to bring a conceptual element to my work. I came to the conclusion the art is not simply about what you create, it is about how you create it and what you do with the creation. I wanted my concept to reflect my beliefs on art. I began thinking about the purpose of art; I believe that art should reach people however that may be. This led me to thinking about art galleries and how they are not going along with the purpose of art. Art galleries have elevated art to such a level that it is inaccessible. I wanted to take art out of the gallery environment and into an ordinary place where it would have more of an effect and be on the level of ordinary people in ordinary places. Something is truly noticed if it is in a place it is not expected to be in. I thought art could be more appreciated if it were in an unexpected place.

I wanted what I did to reflect this and so I placed my art in these unexpected places such as pub toilets bus stops and alleys where I thought they could be more appreciated than in a gallery. I wanted to create contrasts between the art I displayed and the area I placed them in. I wanted to record people's responses to the work I would put up, how they would react. So I photographed their reactions to the work. I displayed a painting in an alley and observed the reactions. The first one I placed was smashed up by a group of people. I found this very interesting. People seen something they were not used to and couldn't understand and their first thought was to destroy it. So my work can be seen as a social commentary. There is a contrast of expressions; myself trying to express my views on art, and them expressing their disdain towards it. So as a whole the piece becomes a true expressionist piece of work. I found it interesting

that though destroying art they have actually contributed towards it. The smashed canvas became a piece of expressionist art and in a paradoxical way, they are actually artists.

I continued my work to another level, and wanted to do something that required some kind of intervention. I experimented with participatory art, displaying an empty canvas along with paints and paint brushes with a single instruction: 'Paint Me'. The idea was to spread art to the people and give them a chance to express themselves through art in a place they wouldn't normally expect to do so. I was pleased with the response of this as many children seemed fascinated and spent a while painting on the canvas. My work became a combination of my own expressionist ideas and the people who participated in my experiments.

Connor Roberts - Value

I began this project with a purposely vague starting point, I was to explore value. Be it monetary or in terms of something of a more holistic value. The vague nature of the initial idea was so that I started with a blank slate and the course of my creative processes, flowing naturally from one instance to another, would solely shape the outcomes I created.

I began by researching on a multitude of levels about subjects which I felt either embodied the theme of value or that would aid me in creating works of this nature. It was the 'non-artist' research that interested me the most, particularly of a financial sense such as that of hyperinflation and working for a consistently low wage, it was not the financial implications of these dire situations but the social science, the behaviour of the common man in his most desperate hour that interested me, how a situation can be ultimately cyclonic, exhausting mans modern marvel of currency until the collective have only themselves to rescue.

To get the ball rolling I completed a number of small pieces, pieces that dealt with either peoples actions or attitudes when money is concerned. It was findings from a combination of initial and ongoing research and reflection after these early pieces that lead to the larger works that I created towards the end of the project. My work moved shortly away from value where money was concerned and became more about holistic forms of value such as how an object can gain sentiment and how sentiment can be of varying value. I feel that the most interesting and ironically short lived explorations of the whole project was where I attempted to convert the sentimental value of objects and created something of an exchange rate between sentiment and currency.

I am happy with the work that I have created, although I would have spent more time on certain pieces rather than others. The original idea behind what type of experience that I gave the viewer of my works was to question themselves, however my work slowly and naturally moved away from gently prodding at a question and turned into somewhat of a warning as to not accept common Faustian bargains. I used my self in my final workings as a representative of the very people my work addresses, a low paid person effected by economic downturn, I used myself in my most basic form, displayed myself mostly with nature wearing understated dress as to not take away from the messages my work embodied. I operated as the laborious character to whom my work sympathises and both condemns in equal measure.

Helen Whittingham - Urban Situation

I aimed to create art that responds to a given environment/situation in a graphical way to attempt to change the existing conditions of the locations and make people question the perspective of the world.

I watched the documentary 'Exit through the gift shop' by Banksy. It is the story of one French man that loved to film, that got into the graffiti scene and became Banksy's friend and helper, and saw firsthand how difficult the graffiti process can be. There are many artists shown in this documentary and I have researched into a few. My Favorite was Swoon, who uses the print and paste technique in her work. I then looked about drawing lifelike images of animals to be printed and pasted around in locations. I also looked at trying to create the sketched effect with images of actual animals, and came across the threshold, black and white image. This reminded me of a stencil and would work perfectly as a character.

I focused my work on Foxes because they have well known anthropomorphic traits, such as being cunning and sneaky. Also because they are hardly seen in everyday life, but are considered becoming more 'Urban', increasingly being branded as vermin and people are using inhumane methods to get rid of them. I then thought of creating my fox stencils and making a blog with all the information I came across to find out other people's views and give people more understanding of the fox's relationships with humans. I looked at many articles on fox hunting, pest control solutions, the UK urban fox count and also wildlife books to have a greater understanding of this nocturnal animal. As my blog developed I carried on spraying my fox stencils on different types of surfaces and placing them around college to represent that they are there but not always seen, and to show that when you see something so much you don't really stop and question why it is there, therefore desensitizing the image. The main thing that interested me the most in my research was the urban fox count, so I created a Google map of the college and pinpointed the locations of my sprayed foxes. For my exhibition I printed out a larger version of the map and used drawing pins to show the locations of my foxes. I have also included my blog with various images and videos showing the process which I have undertaken and three A3 images of examples of the sprayed foxes.

Carlie Wilson - Elements

Throughout this elements project I have gone through different pathways which have led me to these sculptures. From looking at small pine cones and holly leaves I began to build on these miniatures seeing how I could sculpt them into shapes. This then led me to working outside and I started to look at creating a path using the surrounding elements. In college there was an area on the back field which for me was too neglected and almost an elemental dumping ground. Piles of wood chippings were left around, in-between a row a trees. So I decided to create this pathway to connect the area back to the field by giving it a use.
Once I had done this I noticed new plants growing in the area, I planted new grass which has now grown and lots of mushroom too had begun to grow. So the elements were working around us just as much as I worked around them, and now the path has started to become submerged by the undergrowth of the grass. I collected all the down fall in the area and began to build a small dome sculpture based on an installation by Chris Drury.

After building this dome I decided I needed to work bigger, and looking back everyday I thought I couldn't

collect a bigger twig but I did. Until after building the four elemental sculptures based on the Greek, Plato I didn't realise to the extent of how many twigs, branches, small trees I had actually collected from the forest behind college. At first I thought building the cube (earth) was never going to end, it took so many tries to get it to what it is now, I first built a frame and the frame collapsed because the wind was so bad so I decided to build it much thicker and heavier by piling the twigs and interlocking them to create this cube shape, it built much faster and stronger than with using the man made screws, string and drills it simply held itself stronger than I thought it would. For me I feel the cube became an experiment rather than the beginning of the four shapes, as I learnt a lot and spent the most time on it understanding the strengths and weaknesses of how the twigs hold together.

From the knowledge I had gained building the cube I then decided that I could build the tetrahedron (Fire) in the same fashion. As I was building, I already new what twigs should go where, because of spending time and seeing what happens on the cube. So the tetrahedron went up even quicker and supported itself fully and became just as strong as the cube.

Building the last two shapes; the icosahedron (water) and the octahedron (Air) was much easier, firstly because I had already built a few of the icosahedrons from reeds and the octahedron was similar to the tetrahedron only with the shape having a point at the top and the point at the bottom. I chose not to build these two in the same way as the cube and tetrahedron because I wanted the air one to be suspended and for it to look lighter and to move more in the wind than the others because of it being air, and also wanted the water one to stay see through as water is clear and is more free than the other too. So I wanted the icosahedron to be more interactive than the others.

Whilst working out on the field I also felt a certain vulnerability to the elements, the constant rain, wind, heat, cold and seeing how the trees and other natural elements are committed rather than people, as we can go inside and get out the of the certain weathers, although I feel these sculptures answer my statement of intent I think it was more of me being outside and working in the situations which showed the intensities of the elements and you will only really realise how influential the elements are until you are out there.

Beth Heaton - Installation Painting

Can you appreciate a painting in the same way if it is viewed from a different angle?

I began with the content of the paintings not being important, allowing myself to work freely, drawing inspiration from the marks already existing in the studio.My paintings were boring, they lacked texture, depth and movement. They were still just existing as a painting on the wall, made using slightly unconventional techniques yet they still hung at eye level. I then thought more about where you would view the series of work. I chose the beach as a starting point and began creating a painting using only my hands and a jet wash. The idea was to show the movement of the tide washing away the paint as it would be viewed on the floor with the sea moving over it. The painting did what I set out to achieve but still didn't answer any of my questions. So I took the questions literally. The bricks from the walls and the laminate from the floor became my canvas and I began to paint using colour like Stockholder and spray paint like Grosse. The work developed, using my personal techniques of rotating the canvas whilst I work and using no brushes, along side blowing ink at wet canvas, scraping and dragging paint and white washing over original work to create layers.

Jessica Stockholder and Katharina Grosse influenced my work greatly. The choices of colours within their work helped me to choose my pallet. I tried to combine the spray paint techniques of Grosse with the bold block colour and consideration to space of Stockholder. From the beginning I wanted to create an installation piece for the exhibition inspired by Katharina Grosse's work. I had problems getting to grips with the space and making movements with the paint that were longer than my body. I re-painted the space white three times during my two day slot but I think now this worked in my favour. It created layers and gave me the chance to consider what it was I am trying to achieve. The finished work allows the viewer to stand inside a painting and become surrounded my colour, marks and movement. The layers and choice of bold pallet trick the eye into moving around the space. Having a canvas roof allows light into the space but encloses the viewer, letting them become part of the painting rather than stepping back to view it at eye level.

So at the end of this project I have proves that paintings don't have to be viewed on a white wall in a gallery at eye level. As long as it is gravitationally possible paintings should envelope, enclose and emerse the viewer, allowing them to become part of the marks.

Nicole Stirrup - Cleaning

Throughout the final major project I have been focusing on the process of cleaning, what it means to keep clean and how cleaning effects people through out working lives.

I began experimenting with objects such as basins around college, in the work shops etc. I used different Medias such as film and photography to capture the process I went through to achieve a clean space. I then moved onto thinking about cleaning in cultures and the working class. I came to the conclusion that a cleaning job is at the bottom of the working pyramid in any work place. Considering this I began to think about jobs which are at the top of such pyramid, for example politicians and royalty are the highest positions someone could work for.

Linking royalty with cleaning, I decided to create a piece of work to represent this, so I contracted three paving flags from around college and from home, cleaned the union jack flag onto the biggest paving flag while cleaning the queens head image off a 2p coin and an image of a crown onto the two smaller flags.
I then decided that this now was a British theme. How the British are so obsessed with cleaning, people are willing to have full time jobs cleaning different facilities around the country. In keeping with the English theme, I retrieved an old birdbath from my grandparent's house. As this statue fits well within a British garden, I thought the point of my exhibition space could be a classic English garden with the flags acting as the floor.

After these two pieces I thought about how cleaning affects everyone, so I visited an old friend of my mums and offered to clean her house. After she had accepted I asked her a few questions about how she finds cleaning and what it means to her to have a clean house. The interview can be found in my journal. Considering how I felt after I had cleaned my mum's elderly friend's house I decided to clean my own room from top to bottom. Afterwards I felt a sense of freedom and freshness within my own space.

Rosa Silva - Extension of the Body

For this project, I was required to work a lot more independently. Initially, following the previous project I decided to continue with the concept of 'Extension of the body'. I was going to create various controversial garments, using interesting and unique designs to show how our bodies function within the environment. I had originally planned to alter a garment over a 30 day period, this idea was discarded as I wanted to push my boundaries and create an obstacle to confront. Throughout my project, my ideas and concepts have gradually altered, and I have become more aware about how I want to portray my work and inspiration as a final outcome. I think it has become apparent that my initial intentions have changed considerably and I have tried to break out of my comfort zone. I have challenged myself during this project, conducting unfamiliar techniques and processes and in conclusion, I believe I have produced several controversial, outstanding and successful pieces of work.

I began looking deeper into extensions of the body, focusing on artificial or 'false' additions and why people feel the need to manipulate their bodies in order to 'perfect' them. I was interested in Perfection itself, and what extremes people would go to accomplish their dream bodies and enhance their confidence. I began researching perfection and in contrast, imperfection, I carried out a few experiments or 'tests' to gather initial and primary information to begin. I created a 'confessions box' and received over 30 confessions, the question on the box read 'what don't you like about your body and why?' I discovered that the majority of people with particular low self esteem and body image issues were females. I also conducted a questionnaire and uncovered that a staggering 25 out of 30 females would consider getting plastic surgery to 'perfect 'their bodies.

Ben Connelly - Project 10

My FMP was a continuation from the 10 project. The 10 project was based mainly around negative spaces but for this project I was looking at entire surfaces. It was the success of the 10 project that inspired me to continue down this path and explore surfaces and locations. I wanted to capture various surfaces and locations and show that every location is a piece of art in itself.

I already had a bit of a starting point for this project as it was continuing from my 10 project but I looked to artists for further inspiration. Some artists were more relevant than others, such as the Boyle Family, who were probably my biggest inspiration during this project. The thing that inspired me most about the Boyle Family was their random selection technique where they make sure each area around the globe has an equal chance of becoming the subject matter for their work. I tried to use the same method but scaled down to in and around the college area. The method I used was probably not entirely random but I tried to make it as random as possible. I had people to have their eyes covered and had them place pins onto the map of the college area and each place chosen will become the area I will capture. I could have used different techniques such as throwing darts at the map but I didn't really have any darts available so I had to work with what I had. Rauschenberg became quite a big inspiration for my collages as it really interested me how he went on walks and collected found materials to use in collages so that the collage then became a representation of his journey and conceptually I think that my collages were very successful although the Arte Povera movement itself doesn't really appeal to me aesthetically. Although not all of the artists I researched were relevant to me such as Karen Hale, Gordon Matta Clarke, Jackson Pollock… The artists that did inspire me helped me to progress through the project and create some successful outcomes, such as Kurt Schwitters inspiring my collages and Antoni Tapies inspiring my painting.

I am happy with the outcome of my project but if I had the chance I would probably try to experiment with a wider variety of materials and develop my prints and casts further now I know how successful they have been.

Samantha Wilson - Recycled Interiors

For my final major project I aimed to produce a series of interior outcomes and I am happy with how it has turned out. The unwanted garments that I chose to use as materials worked well together and the mix match colour scheme clashed in an effective way. I started looking in charity shops for inspiring garments that had potential. And found a number of different items that I could work with, I also found furniture that lead me to more ideas.

My trip to Berlin was where my inspiration began and it developed whilst back in England as I visited local cities during my development stage. Whilst in Manchester I visited Affleck's palace, I came across intimate boutiques full of vintage garments and hand made decorative items. I then went to upmarket

stores like Harvey Nichols and compared the products I saw to the designer brands on sale. Although some of the products were very similar the prices had a big difference. I took my inspiration from Berlin and created four small decorative canvases's to display in my exhibition. I then started to think about how I could look at the garments I had collected and not value them price wise but value them as a sentimental value.

I hoped to use knit throughout my project focusing on Clare toughs work, whilst experimenting with scarfs and jumpers I had collected I realised that the knitted materials were falling apart and some fraying. Theses samples were more messy than shabby so I introduced knit in a slightly different way. A cardigan I purchased from a charity shop had a leaf pattern knitted into it. When cut out it looked really effective and so I added some of the cut out leaves to my

interior outcomes to give them a shabbier feel. I created a throw using odd cut offs from the garments I had chosen I used a range of thick and delicate fabrics and the contrast worked well.

I also produced decorative items such as small hearts and lavender bags. I had looked into cushions made from shirts and dress's and created three shabby chic cushions that brought my exhibition together. I wanted a focal point for my exhibition and so I chose an old chair and recovered the whole thing with different floral materials. My idea to go through with this came from the company 'squint' this company cover home furnishings with overpowering fabrics, this links well with my project. I took this further and recovered the frame on a mirror.

Carrie-Anne Latham - Happiness

I am really pleased with the impact of the vibrant colours I used in my exhibition. The idea that the bright pink colour I used would draw viewers into the work was important to me as I needed individuals to engage within the work for it to operate fully. The vibrant colours also give the work a great energy, this relates to the idea of happiness being an energetic thing, when you are happy you feel like you have more energy and you feel a bigger drive to do the things you enjoy. This was important because I wanted people to feel really uplifted by my work and to buzz of the energy that is created in my exhibition as they interact with it. I created the logo, badges and keyrings to help to commodify the idea of happiness; I wanted it to seem as though happiness could be packaged and sold to individuals.

In my statement of intent I stated that I wanted to work with children and try to gain an innocent understanding of what happiness is. This was unfortunately not possible due to requiring a CRB check to work in a school with young children. To solve this issue in another way I collected my own happy childhood memories and visualised them via photographs, objects and accomplishments, I then took these into my final installation to create this tree full of my own happy memories.
I wanted to work with film photography to gain knowledge in a different era of photography, I was unable to gain access to a film camera but when I was gathering photographs from my childhood I soon realised that all of these were photographs taken on a film camera, some were even taken via Polaroid. I then continued taking photographs with my normal digital camera which still produced the high-quality photographs I wanted to document all experiments I did for this project.

Nicola Whittaker - Natural Cosmetics

When I started my FMP I set out to create a range of packaging for a new natural cosmetics line, I decided that there was a gap in the market for a natural cosmetics line with an exciting packaging as so many of them seemed to be quite plain. I wanted my packaging to be quite quirky and have a strong colour scheme which I felt would help target the younger market who I was aiming for.

I decided that for me to produce a range that was going to be quite different to what is currently on sale at the moment I should look in to why packaging on natural cosmetics is currently the way it is? When I

was trying to find some facts on why natural cosmetics packaging is quite plain I didn't really find any useful information from the companies directly, I had concluded from speaking to peers on a group critique and from internet research that one of the main requirements for companies producing packaging for a natural product is that they will want the packaging to be natural also. By this I mean the packaging should be made from non toxic materials such as paper based, that the packaging should be able to be recycled or at least part of it recycled. I concluded that the reason the colour scheme is often plain has nothing to do with recycling or ethics just that a white or plain packaging can give the product a 'clinical' look and by using this technique on natural cosmetics the consumer will believe that the product

has 'science' involved and therefore that the product will be more effective and is more likely to do what it states.

In my statement I also stated that as a material for my packaging I could include fabric, after my samples I decided that using fabric as one of the main materials in my packaging wouldn't work as the fabric wouldn't be as strong as it would need to be, I also had issues with the fabric being able to be recycled afterwards also so I decided to stick to using small amounts of ribbons on to may designs to make them more interesting.

Emma Hastry - Metamorphosis

Initially within this project I set out to blend the fine line between fine art and fashion using the theme of metamorphosis; so altering something's original form or function by experimentation. I intended to do this by using a variety of media and materials, I feel like I have achieved this goal and have expanded on it by experimenting in a variety of ways.

I have created a variety of garments such as; A shirt sample which I painted to relate to Toni Maticevski however I expanded on the idea of just painting it I then continued on to use a variety of techniques to change its form again, by pinning, cutting, folding and sewing. I feel like this garment has shown the many outcomes which can be produced using a shirt. I have gone on to paint a canvas inspired by Joseph Beuys and to alter its form and use I have then gone on and created a garment out of it, this piece turned out really successfully and I have achieved some really nice photographs of it to document the process. I have created an acetate corset, and also a peer destruction piece which have both made me give up my control of how the garment would end up and the finish of the piece, this has made me relax into the deconstruction part of my project better.

The wedding dress I have bought from the charity shop has been a large part of this project, as I have taken something modest and turned it into something completely different which has been painted, spray painted and had gold leaf placed on it. I thoroughly enjoyed producing this garment and feel like I have achieved my goal to alter its form and within my exhibition where now it is a sculptural piece I have also changed its function. I feel like I have thrown myself into this project and it shows with the work I have produced, I am happy with all of the finished pieces and wouldn't change how I had done it in the slightest. I stuck to my time plan with a minor hiccup of the paint on the wedding dress not drying but other than that I have stayed on target throughout the whole project.

Joshua Campher - Art and Technology

When I moved on to the development of my first few Ideas I was very clear of what I was going to do for about the first 3 or 4 weeks as I wanted to explore how I could use my artwork to show people the added advantages that technology could bring to their everyday lives .First starting with the medium of paper to show this in a way that was familiar to people who use traditional art techniques then moving no to more digital video and 3d art work. Eventually I started using very technical and complicated digital work which I had only learnt to use in those development weeks as I had no prior experience producing things like 3d models in 3d studio max or full add on campaigns and maps with the valve dev kit. When I look back at my work I can see a substantial improvement in the amount of technical know how and it was only through the constant research into how to do these things was I able to create most of my artwork. I think that my work with the kinect and hammer map editor was the most successful part of my outcomes just from the reaction that I got from people who saw it for the first time, which I was not expecting as I thought the more traditional orientated of my piers would be more interested in the paper and illustrative work.

I had one or two problems through out the project with I had to overcome to achieve my goals such as moving over to a more comprehensive map building software as it gave me more freedom with the customizable elements it offers as well as the ability to publish my work as a free independent developed file that other users can download and play with friends co-operatively. I believe that my final outcomes were very successful, my experience creating and developing my game level, augmented reality display and conversion of real world spaces into virtual data were all challenging but I had a great feeling of accomplishment when I had finally completed them. The journey from simple augmented reality with a laptop strapped to my stomach to the development of possible ways to improve the efficiency and then the finished machine is an eye opening experience as it allows you to establish the mindset that when you arrive at a point were you have a challenge or problem to overcome you have the skills necessary to do it.

Robert Ryan - Underground

I was really happy with the end result of my flyers. My main influence for this project was underground raves from the 80's and 90's era and I went with the theme of escaping from reality. One side shows a person in reality, sad, miserable and fed up. The colour is in black and white to represent this feeling. The opposite side shows them escaping from reality, into a fantasy type land, this side is full of colour, life and happiness. The rave paint smudged over the faces is based on the concept of being free and also linking back to rave paint from the 80's and the work of Iain Crawford. On the flyers it shows my logo, I wanted to create a very simple modern looking logo with a detailed meaning behind it. The meaning behind the symbol of my logo is based on Bluetooth signals, music volume and twister portals. On my flyers they also have my tagline on them and the Facebook group address.

My flyer is very plain so that students then visit the Facebook group and find out what it is all about. Once they log on to the Facebook group it will give clues out to where the event is, making it a challenge to find.

In this project I didn't want to just stick to what I was best at, I wanted to be experimental as I could so I created alcohol paintings which were inspired from the work of Millie Brown's 'Puke series'. I drank alcohol then spat it out on to canvases. The concept behind this was that I have no control over how the painting is going to be when the alcohol leaves my mouth, so the painting becomes very free, just like what happens when your on a night out, you drink, forget about your insecurities and become much more free.

Throughout this project I have experimented with colour, typography and surfaces to express the idea of a vibrant night life. I think my strobe light photographs represent a vibrant night life style best. The colours and shapes move in and out of each other creating a wild and uncontrollable feel about it. These pieces were influenced by the work of Mirza Ajanovic, a photographer that photographs sound. As well as being inspired by the work of other artists, the group critiques, self evaluations and tutorials I have had with peers and tutors have really helped me to explore different possible pathways and helped me in producing my final outcome. The group critiques and tutorials have helped me to discuss my ideas and concepts to a diverse audience, which has then enabled me to reflect on my strengths and weaknesses of my work to then highlight potential outcomes that has then made me design much stronger final pieces.

Amy Hall - Trapped

I used my own primary sources alot throughtout the research stages, and my inspiration stayed continuous to the end. I concentrated on tourist attractions such as the memorial and museums as I felt this was a main aspect of the trip helping towards my theme, focusing mainly on how they displayed and exhibited belongings. I didnt want my outcomes to be literal or too obvious but hoped they would draw people in by my aestical approach and continue to find the deeper meaning through my journal. I studyed extracts from 'Anne Franks Diary', and articles from the internet about Jewish Ghettos to realise and capture language of emotion, which helped me develop an idea of a very domestic setting in contrast to glass cabinets in the typical museums. I intended to keep a sense of tradition, I have achieved this by use of colour and carefully chosen items.

I successfully created a range of collages/ assemblages with the help of photographs, papers, fabrics and images of jewish quarters. The descriptions of these places inspired my collages to be 'wrapped' in various materials, so that they would lose their function and be out of use. This was also my interpretaion of showing these items trapped and as another metaphor for emotions. My outcomes show a subtle narrative throughout each object (e.g. Apron, collages). I carefully chosen items to experiment with that everybody would recognise and associate with a home. I did this as possessions were shown on displays, behind glass which was very impersonal and could easily be un-noticed. I explored this issue, that once leaving the museum it becomes forgotten, so I wanted my exhibiton to be noticed in a different, more personal approach.

I constantly reffered to my research and sketches in my journal and found critiques extremely useful. My most difficult points were primary photographs for manipulations, as I couldnt re create scenes from the holocaust as I felt it was not true. I chosen specific images from ghettos of families and children, using sources from the internet. I photographed each stage of making and experimenting with outcomes to explain reasoning behind my techniques and processes.

Katie Goodier - The Liberated Silhouette

Within my project, I have researched into feminism and the treatment of women throughout the world because of what they wear. For a while I began to despair at the negativity and amount of crimes committed against women for this fact. Then I read an article about "Slut Walks". They are held all over the world, and aim to raise awareness that no woman should be raped, attacked or abused for what she wears. The protesters march in conservative wear to underwear, to provocative clothing. It makes a powerful statement that now, finally, women have the confidence to say no, the blame will not be put on them for these horrendous crimes and they will be heard.

Throughout this project I have developed on the idea that a woman should be allowed to wear what she likes, and feel safe in doing so, and not have to hide behind a veil or feel less of a person for wearing a short skirt. As I wrote in my Statement of Intent, I

wanted to celebrate femininity through fashion, an area that most women can relate to. So I took a 70's kaftan, symbol of an era of freedom, peace and the rise of second wave feminism and the Burka, a common symbol now of constraint, oppression and lack of a voice, and brought the two together, through my own style, in a fashion shoot.

Inspiration came from many places, including a trip to Dubai I took, where I had to wear a Burka for the first time. I kept a diary, and wrote this on the day I went to the Mosque;

"I was hot, not very comfortable and to be honest felt a little embarrassed, for myself! I mean, was I not good enough to stand in a house of God (any house of God for that matter) in what I choose to wear?"

I am not questioning religions or culture in anyway, and I will respect any traditions of the places I visit.

But this piece of clothing is enforced by men, the same way that men made the decision in France to ban the Burka, a piece of women's clothing, and the same way that men choose their rape victims: So in a sense, no silhouette is truly liberated until we look at things differently.

I wanted my project to forget about the politics, the religion, place, culture, society, crime etc and just concentrate on the fashion, and these two dresses, and what they mean to women. I have developed them with fabrics and pattern and made them a celebration, something that every woman would want to wear and feel good in.

I hope that by showing these garments together, in such a positive light, the women and girls that see my work will understand that they must put aside all other factors going on around these garments, or be influenced by other peoples opinions and just see them for what they really are: two dresses.

Heidi Cornelia - Self Expression

My initial ideas involved the concept of expressing my own personal feelings, thoughts and ideas which I wanted to convey through a personal collaged journal. I was moved when I researched into "The diaries of Courtney Love" and Yoko Ono's spiritual book "Grapefruit" which captured me and encouraged me as I felt I wanted to create my own personal journey. By keeping my options open I was able to explore diverse techniques and skills such as mono -print and digital manipulation. I also experimented with cuttings, drawings; paintings and creative writing which were all demanding techniques I wanted to explore. I found that sampling different materials in my journal and working out what my original style was, helped me to progress further in creating mixed media collage. As well as looking at expressionist artists such as Teesha Moore and Dan Eldon who had similar ideas in the form of illustrated journals this enabled me to gain the confidence to take my own ideas and transform them into pieces of artwork.

After researching into my concept and discovering new artists I came across an artist named Stuart Howitt whose work was inspired by Francis Bacon's dark portraits. I was particularly captured by a portrait I saw; he portrayed his partner in a sea of shadows. I found that Howitt's portrait was based on the concept of "Identity" and how you can capture a characters essence in a painting which you cannot show in a photograph. I wanted to push my project further by linking this into the exposing nature of my personal journal. I figured I could contrast the two themes of "hidden identity" with the "exposure" of personal collages; I wanted to create a self-portrait inspired by Stuart Howitt's dark and deceiving style. I found that experimenting with lighting and shadow a difficult challenge but after the development stage I manipulated the images on Photoshop creating a dark shadow effect. My aim was to cover my face in shadows so that my identity was hidden. After the initial challenge through photography the outcome was translated into a large painted outcome using acrylic. Whilst planning my exhibition I decided to focus upon contrast in my artworks to illustrate the exposing nature of the collaged artwork on display and the hidden identity in the shadowed portrait.

Alice Kenyon - Anamorphic shapes

In the course of online investigations, people using the technique of anamorphosis proved less scarce than I'd first thought, with several of their photographed pieces featuring online. Not only were people using projectors to put anamorphic shapes onto more than one surface, but typography was being used, which meant the words could only be read from a solitary focal point. Instantaneously, this had a huge impact on what I proposed to do to develop my project. After showing the photographs of anamorphic typography to my tutors, there was a resounding decision that I should at least attempt to make a similar piece of work.

With the incentive to produce an exciting yet unfamiliar piece of work, I printed a simple phrase onto acetate and found an over-head projector. I positioned the projector within my studio space and made sure the words lay across three surfaces, but it was clear the letters were being augmented. Disgruntled, I couldn't understand why the phrase wasn't able to be read, in the same way my anamorphic line could be seen. It wasn't until I became conscious that the projector lens enlarges the letters that I realised the over-head projector wouldn't work alike the laser. At this point I felt deflated. After having watched so many videos of anamorphic artists who all used a projector, I thought I'd defined the technique and had persuaded myself that I would be capable of achieving work beyond my held capabilities.

As I'd seen advanced anamorphic works online, I felt I couldn't continue to make simple lines as it seemed a step backwards, but I convinced myself to continue practising the process of projecting. After explaining the issues I'd experienced with a tutor, he suggested using a slide projector. Using a smaller font size to fit within the narrow lens, I projected the phrase down a corridor. Standing at the source of the projection, the phrase projected across the walls was clear, and I didn't experience any of the previous issues regarding the over-head projector. Because the corridor was in constant use, I felt it wouldn't be appropriate to obstruct the way, and so returned to begin work in my studio space. I successfully completed two anamorphic phrases over the next five days, one being painted and the other cut from sugar paper. It was an immense relief to finally be able to produce the work I'd aspired to, and I was pleased that I could now concentrate on a site specific piece to be situated within the exhibition space. My biggest concern at this point was what phrase I would project. After thorough research into quotes about art, I finally decided on 'The principle of art is to pause, not to bypass'.

Instead of being placed within the actual exhibition space, I decided to locate myself by the stairs leading to the exhibition. By positioning the projector on the landing between the stairs, I was able to project the quote upwards onto several surfaces. After spending a while adjusting the projector, and I was happy with its position, I began sticking up pieces of blue paper, drawing around the letters,

taking the paper down and cutting around the letters to leave the negative shapes. This process was repeated over the next five days until the installation was complete.

Despite the limitations during the course of my Final Major Project, and the constraints within the exhibition environment, I believe the effort that went into installing the piece was time well spent. Though my time plan now seems completely unrealistic, I have accomplished a piece of work that I would not have had the confidence or knowledge to do, even a few months ago. I deem the piece a success, because it meets the criteria I set myself, to make people aware of space, viewpoint, and hopefully their interpretation of art.

I feel the underlying concept has matured since the experimentation stage, with emphasis on the relevance of the quote, rather than the technique itself. By allowing the project change as I felt appropriate and not work too constrictively, I feel my creative ability has evolved.