Visual Research

Research – Self initiated

Primary Research

·        Looked at buildings, modern architecture to achieve a feel of futurism, as shown in fig no.1. John Lewis building in Leeds as seen on the right was very eye-catching to me when we had a trip to Royal Armouries in the first unit; The Rock, shopping centre in Bury, as seen on the right, also has very interesting architecture.

     ·         Zooming into the detailed rich sections, to inspire my work, and something I could translate in my own style through drawings and mixed media. 



fig no.1

Secondary research – artists, Companies, library research



fig no.2

In my feedback I was advised to always look back in the past to predict what the future might hold.

     ·         I was very inspired by the book Art Deco by Judith Miller. Futurism and Futurisms by Hulten, Pontus; Palazzo Grassi (Venice), some examples can be seen in fig no.2. It is seen how artists in the past had already designed the future buildings to be, so geometrical and colossal in structure, as we are witnessing today.

·         The Chrysler building in New York City, as seen in fig no.3 To me, it was very interesting to see that yet having the geometrical structure; it has a feel of the past. The colour and the details on the top look very traditional, a very balanced merge of the past and the present. 

 

fig no.3

·         Hospital Art – where people could look at an art piece and its modern nature could take it’s viewer to another world i.e. the future. To make them ponder and take them to a different world to where they are. 

·         Companies – Jason Bruges Studio’s installation in Great Ormond Hospital, called The Nature Trail, runs along a 50m length of corridor and aims to create a calming and engaging route to surgery.

The installation features illuminated and interactive animal characters, including hedgehogs, horses and rabbits, which appear in a forest and foliage wallpaper. The animals come to life when sensors in the ceiling sense movement below. See fig no. 4

fig no.4

fig no.5

·     Artists – Debbie Smyth, is an artist who draws with pins and thread. As seen in the fig no.5. I was very intrigued to translate this in a way that it looks intricate yet futuristic. Inspired from the idea of using pins, I have translated the photographs in my own style and then experimented the pins into different mediums, such as, metallic acrylic paint, hammered them down into linoleum sheets.

The dimension created by this technique is very interesting. The linoleum sheets look like the glass exterior found on buildings, due to its greenish tint; but it is malleable and the process of things going in and out from it is very unusual.

Engineering embroidery (Live Brief)

From my initial observations, I am aiming to produce an interior piece that could fit within a hospital or a public space such as transport stations.
The theme future forward will be influencing my work during this project.

Next step

·         Research beyond just the buildings, to bring some contrasting element.

·         More experiments and risk taking with the pinning technique with linoleum sheets.

Initial ideas

To begin this project, I had a few ideas for colour and the kind of feel I want to achieve.

Colour

• Fresh oceanic or sky like colours such as blues.

During the thought process, when every blue colour started catching my eye, I found this, fig no.1, and instantly captured. The smoky, fluorescent shades of blue coming off this dark and geometrical structure, which was just the stove, was very interesting to me.

Fig no.1

 

• The bright flame made me consider having metallics, again in my work. As I always end up having metallic colours in my work, and it has now become a part of the style of my work.  

Theme

For a project, to have one direction, a theme is something that gives me a visualisation of the designs, the structure, the composition and the overall feel of what my work should have. It makes it look more personal and most importantly, having common elements in samples, makes it look like it is one individual's work rather than a group work.

A few points to consider:

•  To try something different then what I have been doing previously, such as the traditional embroidery and the architectural patterns.
• Keep the intricacy, as it is a personal style; but perhaps do it differently this time.
• Not changing everything what I have experimented previously.
• Take elements from the experiments that worked in the previous project but didn't have enough time to develop them further. Such as, playing with silver leaf.

fig no.2

One aspect that I had begun to notice around me was the structure, how it has and it is changing. An obvious example as shown in fig no.2, I realised how minimalism has taken over the structures around us, architecturally. 

Evolving structures

• Geometrical
• Technology – I assume, humans' requirements are changing and increasing
  with its rapidly growing population. In short, more needs to be done in less time, for which, we rely on machines.

Future

·         Colour –we mostly associate future colours to be very dull; we see greys, blues, and primarily, no colours.

·         Lack of designs – we see how our mobile phones have evolved. Every year, their designs are developing to be just a plain simple box.

Things that were more intricate in their designs, consisted of round structures and flowy patterns, are now structural and deficient in rich designs. Just squares, triangles and rectangles are what we see in the new architecture, now-a-days.

• I could base my initial research on searching for geometrical patterns. 
• Try to investigate and look for intricacy in those geometrical patterns to bring the details in my work.