CSM
I attended a four day course at CSM (Central St Martins College of Art & Design) in London near The British Museum (map). We were set a few projects each day that we had to complete independently or in groups.
The projects and tasks included:
A trip to The Barbican Centre
The main exhibition on at "The Curve" space at the Barbican saw Céleste Boursier-Mougenot contribute a New surreal commission. Walking through a door of hanging chains, you walk down a wide curving corridor with shadows being projected onto the smooth walls and the sound of chirping birds and the subtle twang of electric guitars in the distance. the space widens when walking further and you are met by various elements of a band set, guitars and cymbals on stands, it is then you realise that the sound coming through the speakers is caused by hundreds of small zebra finches, landing and taking off of the equipment rigged to amps. This was both a surreal and clever concept that could leave you standing there soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the almost comical birds as they land on your rucksack and perch on your shoulder.
Creating a mechanism that can draw or mark make without human influence.
I came up with using ice cubes to create water-stains in ink, in theory the ice would melt over time and disrupt the ink. In practice this did not work, but I found that an amazing effect could be produced by dripping ink into the pool of water that sits on top in the middle of the ice.
In the future I may use the same technique but with frozen ink or bleach.
Creating an image from type
The next project was about making a composition from typographical elements. Although resources were limited, I managed to create 2 experimental compositions made from paper and Letraset transfers in Helvetica Bold 3D.
A trip to The Wellcome Collection
A first time trip to what must be one of the most interesting and eccentric collections of art, science and seemingly random objects all infused together to create an engaging. The Wellcome Collection was established under Sir Henry's will in 1936 and contains a definitive collection of countless artefacts.
Wellcome Collection Online | Medicine man exhibition
Narrative project
For this project, I made a small hand made book to illustrate my experience at the Wellcome Collection, I made it up from a series of observation sketches of artefacts and exhibition pieces.
Spend a pound
In groups, we were asked to go out and buy something for a pound or less and create something interesting with it. My idea, which was taken on, was to get a book of blank paper and create a giant ten pound note from it. Finding a book of paper cheap enough was proving hard, but in the end we found a perfect exercise book that, laid out in individual pages, created a rectangular sheet that resembled the dimensions of a ten pound note scaled up. The cover and backing happened to be the perfect shade of yellow for the diamond shaped 'ER' mark. I was really proud of the outcome that had been achieved in a matter of a couple of hours and it was a shame that it was too big to be kept.
The phone book project
A simple ending project, the idea was to cut out an interesting name from the phone book and create a collage character using magazines and newspapers on what you think they may look like based on their name. I chose a person called Festus Loftus as I thought it sounded funny with the similarity between forename and surname, and I came up with an old grumpy smoking man with oddly positioned arms and back to front hands. I think this piece has a rough and individual style that I find quite amusing.
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