The purpose of this final assignment is to help you review your work and decide how you’re going to submit it for assessment. Even if you’re studying for personal development alone, it could still be helpful to take stock of the work you’ve made during this course and think about how you might develop it further. Although this sounds like a relatively straightforward and quick exercise, students generally find it takes much longer than they anticipated! Tackle this task methodically and allow yourself plenty of time to do justice to the effort you’ve made throughout the course.
Following my feedback discussion with my tutor I agreed a set of headings for this assignment. The advice was that I had completed A5 as far as I needed to take it. The Internet is a vast subject but the fact that I had decided to do a 20 year snapshot meant that I could close the project here for the moment. Hence A6 will become a concluding phase to the entire Digital Image & Culture level 2 programme.
Course content:
When I started Digital Image and Culture I was enthusiastic after having completed Landscape. I wanted to push my practise further. I wanted to expand my technological knowledge. I felt on the cusp of something. After the first assignment, which I thoroughly enjoyed making, I embarked on assignment 2. Very soon I felt weighed down with research work. Although I am very accustomed to researching, I did not enjoy the research that was being asked of me. I felt I had seen much of it before. I found the work recommended to be repetitious of previous research. I missed new and exciting photographers like JR, here in France, true African photographers like Malik Sidebe and wonderful old Japanese photographers like Daido Moryama. I wanted to blow the dust off the research articles before I read them…… As I progressed on the course I began to loose momentum. My work was suffering. I tried to make personal work but could not work up any enthusiasm.
I feel it would have been more advantageous if we were asked to create work by looking at, and studying the work of other photographers, Hannah Hoch being a typical example, rather than write 500 words about their work. Students at Level2 can be trusted to do the research and the end product will give a clear indication of how well the student has studied the recommended work. I am sure most students read, listen or look at the links recommended by their tutors as these are always relevant.
I could not see the point of assignment 4. Why not suggest a face to face contact with the tutor to discuss the A5 project?
Once I got to working on my A5 project my motivation returned and I loved the whole exercise.
Assessing my own Assignments for Digital Image & Culture:
I started A1 by learning how to divide up a circular image. I finally got around to making political satirical circular images. This was real fun. The fourth image I made of the Russian Presidents eyes was not successful but my dissatisfaction with it and the changing political scene in the UK lead to the ‘Boric Johnings‘ idea.
A2 started as a total disaster. No one liked my idea to study the Chilean mining situation. I had to rethink the whole project and it all took a long time. Once I had settled on making it about my great grandmother I was happy and was able to proceed with the work. The object of the work was to tell Letitia Millet’s story to my children and grandchildren. Hence it had to be in commercially printed book form. But the material was so tactile I felt a handmade book was required as well. This was the highlight of the course for me. Being in the presence of a reputed bookbinder as we worked alongside one another, to produce my book, was a real privilege.
Writing essays is not difficult for me. I found A3 extremely useful in that I studied the digital self and used the opportunity to analyse my own digital self. This too is a huge topic and worthy of greater in depth study.
I will discuss A4 and A5 together as, for me, they are one and the same assignment. I so wanted to do this project. My husband never makes any issue of his participation in the beginnings of the Internet, nor do any of his colleagues. But these were the people who made it possible for Tim Berners-Lee to write his front end page which became the World Wide Web. Those who came before Berners-Lee are the forgotten people. They are all in or coming up to their eighties and their story needed to be told and heard. The subject is very technical and this posed a real challenge for me. I wanted the end result to be comprehensible to the least technical person I know. My tutor claims to be untechnical and she assured me the video held her interest until the end. I am very grateful to her for this reassurance.
My grandchildren have no idea their Grandpa played such a pivitol role in the beginning of the Internet. To them he is “Silly Goose”. So I wanted him to tell the story with his own voice.
Personal Technical Development:
I feel I advanced my technical skill very little in the early sections of this course. However the making of the video was a wonderful way to return to something I had scratched the surface of in Landscape. My technical skills were abysmal when I started, with iMovie, to make videos. I was advised during Landscape to move to Premier Pro. I was totally lost and had to climb a steep technical mountain. I feel this project helped me to hone my skills a little more. I have so much more to learn but I feel sufficiently confident now to take this further. I used a DSLR with an external mic but my cinematographer friend asked why I wanted to make a video with a stills camera when I would never use a video camera ot make a still image! Because I had no choice was my reply. I am saving for a video camera which I hope to be able to put to good use in Level 3.
The making of the book for assignment 5 required patience, a commodity in short supply with me. This was because the dot matrix paper was so lightweight and the print was much heavier. The length of the print, 2.4m also posed problems. I had to fold it first and then add the glue to sections and then attach it to the lightweight dot matrix paper. Then this had to be attached front and back to the covers. The reaction I got from fellow students, friends and my tutor would indicate that the end result justified the decisions made along the way.
I also enjoyed making layered images for one of the exercises.
Outcome
I have completed this level despite having lost momentum along the way. My completion is due, in great part, to my fellow students and tutor, Clive White, who gave me such helpful advice and encouragement during our Side Wide hangouts.
The outcome is that I am ready to present the work for assessment. I am relieved that I have managed to get this far. I am reasonably satisfied with the end result but I do not feel that I have found my own voice yet. I feel that I have ‘created’ a voice which does not sit very well on my shoulders. This is a documentary type voice when inside my head I am not a documentarist but want to produce more original creative work. I appreciate that I have stories to tell but I am still struggling with how to tell these stories.
Where to from here?
Onward and upward. I am impatient to get on with Level 3 but am terrified at the same time. I discussed with my tutor if it was odd that I want to work on something, at Level 3, that I have not even touched on so far in my studies. She assured me that this was not unusual. In the HE6 Hangout Ariadne outlined the process for deciding on a subject for our Body of Work at level 3. She advised that we must be passionate about what we want to work on. My tutor seconded this.
I have always been passionate about the environment. I am lucky enough to have a wonderful garden on my island home. I work biologically and recycle everything possible. My compost heap is the story of my life. It contains all my shredded paper, all my cardboard cartons, the contents of my hoover, my cats hair, my own hair and all the vegetable waste in the household and garden.
When I leave my own controlled environment I am shocked and appalled to find all sorts of rubbish and litter. I am especially upset by the indestructible plastic that washes up on our shores. Most of us, with some notable exceptions, are aware that we need to do more to protect our fragile world. I would like to increase awareness of the problems of plastic pollution by getting my local community involved in finding creative solutions. I am also interested, as a qualified chemist, in exploring replacement materials for plastic. A third line of interest is using recyclable plastics to create sculptures.
Had feedback with tutor on A4. I will now get on with the collection of material for this assignment.
I answered John Sterne’s message from Trinity College asking for access to his archives.
Tutor also gave me some pointers to artists who have made similar type projects. So plenty of food for thought.
8 August 2019
Great find yesterday, hubby found, when he was clearing a book shelf, a booklet about one of the pioneers of the Information retrieval world. This was the precursor to the Internet. Spent my spare moments in the Craft shop yesterday reading it. Will be very helpful to put a time line on things.
Am also toying with the idea of relating the story to what was going on in the World at the time when all this online stuff was starting. Would be a laugh to add the music of the time as well as the news headlines. Just noted that in 1971 India and Pakistan were fighting over Kashmir – nothing changes…. It was my tutors mention of the space project pioneers are that triggered this ides. I also like the idea of putting the material on boards. Could be done in five year spans – am liking this idea,
11 August 2019
My lovely Mum would have been 101 today, or maybe it was yesterday – she was always confused as to whether her birth date was 10th or 11th of August!! But she was one of 9 children so I suppose my grandmother did not have time to recall exactly which day each child was born.
Have been looking at other DI&C students A5 & A6 work. It is all so different and looks so professional. I am beginning to quake about how I will ever get all this together. However I am beginning to collect material. I can then see how it goes.
12 August 2019
Am wondering if I could make my superhighway in dark grey material and add the story to this – HOW? no idea for the moment – print on material? Would be fun to intersperse the story with the cars I drove over this time, Fiat 850, 2 x orange 2CVs and an Austin….
14 August 2019
Collecting, collecting, collecting mostly information and trying to establish in my head what happened when and by whom. Interesting programme on TV last night about Hedy Lamarr as an inventor rather than a Hollywood star.
15 August 2019
Worked in the shop yesterday. Used some spare minutes to read up some more on the run up to the Internet. My head aches. Got Barry to explain some of it to me over dinner. But this was after I stopped off to attend the opening of my best friends exhibition. Discussing TCP/IP after a glass of red on an empty stomach does not assist understanding….. But I am getting there and am more convinced than ever that the story behind the WWW is at least as interesting as its ultimate arrival.
21 August 2019
Finally got A2 book off to Blurb. Also contacted book binding lady in Cork to bind handmade book. She will give me a date when she has one free.
Contacted two ex colleagues of Barrys about their memories of working on EURONET. They don’t seem to have much but we will see if I can jog their memory. At least they think the project is worth while and Chris sent me some links.
Had a few days off as we had to go to Cork for pre operation for hubbys cataract operation on Friday. Will spend the weekend with son and family. He and I can discuss how and when he can interview his father for project. That is if we get a moment in between grandchildren activities.
22 August 2019
My beloved daughter’s 49th birthday – where did those years go?
Decking finished around studio and garden cleaned around north side.
Had interesting exchange of emails with the parliament about material they have on EURONET – precious little. But they did have an image of the first computer used for EURONET. They also apparently have a video of the launching by Simone Veil and Roy Jenkins. The material is not digitised so I am not sure how or if they will be willing or able to give me a copy. Also had a good paper on the History of the WWW indicated by my husband’s colleague of the British Library.
25 August 2019
In Cork with son and family so that Grandpa can recover after cataract operation on Friday. All going fine. Back for check with surgeon early tomorrow and then back home.
Haven’t had time to discuss project with son. He very busy and travelling all over Europe in the coming weeks – Brexit preparations I suspect. Today he is making skateboard ramps for youngest member of family who is obsessed with skateboarding at the moment. Half the family gone to the Women’s football semi finals in Dublin…. It is like a merry-go-round with children these days.
I managed to get some sort of ‘highway’ on the wall of the studio before we left. Now I need to add information in a sort of timeline. Then I will try to make some sort of visuals to demonstrate the technical material around the Internet Background.
27 August 2019
Trying to make a chronological order to the Internet and WWW development – it is incredibly difficult as people are sloppy with dates on the Internet.
At the same time I am trying to get out to the garden to get it ready for the Garden fete on Saturday…..
29 August 2019
I wish I had seen this when I was doing my project on the Industrial School for Landscape.
I will go to see the exhibition when I am in Dublin. It is powerful work.
1 September 2019
It has been a busy weekend for me. We had the garden fete yesterday which was a brilliant success.
On Friday I went to Cork to do a book binding course to bind my handmade book on Letitia Millet: The Dressmaker. I found the one to one day brilliant. Barbara Hubert runs a book binding business and gives group and very occasionally individual tuition. Because I could not attend the group day she agree to give me an individual half day.
I had everything ready all the pages cut to size. She made an identical book in size and thickness alongside me. I had to follow what she was doing as she explained.
4 September 2019
Back in Cork for a day and a night for hubby to have medical tests. This all takes eons of time. He has amazing good health for his age but ones body starts to break down and medics expect people of his age to be decrepit! Trying to get him discharged from hospital took a full hour. The staff were super busy but we had a boat to catch. Only one nurse, a Chinese male nurse, seemed to get the urgency. He finally discharged us as the doc was unable to leave whatever emergency he was attending. Hubby very tired, needing a bit of TLC. But I have to work in Craft Shop today. I’ll leave all ready for him.
Won’t be busy in shop today. I may have time to think about how to represent project. I’ll bring computer in case I have some down time.
Busy few days ahead as garden and studio open on Saturday for the Taste of West Cork.
Then friend looking for photo of me for the book he is doing on artists of West Cork. Need more days in the week and more hours in the day.
6 September 2019
Need to get everything ready for tomorrow. Wondering if I could get input from visitors (if I have any) on how to represent the ‘Superhighway project?? Might try but my experience with these open days is that people are just curious to see your house and some of the garden. They are not especially interested in the work….
Took photographs of my handmade book. Added these to A2.
9 September 2019
Today is the calm after the storm. The sun shone from early morning till late evening. This is always the decider as the weather an event here on the island is a roaring success or not. From the first festival boat at 10.30 till the last at 5.30 the people came.
I live well off the beaten track so signposting is important. One of the artists has signposts made and I made copies of these. We were four artists living along my track. I am the last on the track. I thought no one would climb up to our place – but they did – lots of people. Some are interested in our garden and some in art. All were delightful. I was alone as hubby was in Dublin with the three generations of Mahon’s watching Ireland play Wales at rugby and celebrating the youngest’s 8th birthday.
It was a tough day for me but I thoroughly enjoyed it. I did not get any great suggestions for my project but I did meet an IT guy and his civil engineer wife who were very interesting about the future of all this technical world. They were also interesting as they have just bought a whole island just a little further out to sea from us. They invited us to visit which I would love.
I fell into bed with no great ideas for my Superhighway project but this morning I see Kate posted that we could have a hangout tonight and I suggested discussing my project. Ley’s hope they agree.
13 September 2019
Friday 13th……. We off on a night out to celebrate our wedding anniversary and Barry’s birthday.
After my guests left yesterday I got some work done on my Superhighway in Illustrator. Really it only helped to get me re-started on using Illustrator. I will set up as many A3 landscape files as I need for my scroll. A couple of things became clear already. I will need quite a bit of space for each year that something happened. Am wondering if the audio of interviews and/or sound effects will help with the explanation. I think it will have to. I think I will have to have the scroll finished before the audio can be made so that it will ‘follow’ the timeline. Otherwise I will have to do a lot of editing on the audio,
15 September 2019
Wonderful meal and evening at Liss And. Could not believe that I did not know that James Thurell had designed the Sky garden there. Thurell is one of my all time favourite artists. We visited the garden before dinner then had amazing 7 course taster menu. Wonderful food.
James Thurell’s Sky garden. Liss Are
Back home Sunday and got some cleaning of moss off paths. Lunch was a BBQ RNLI fund raiser at the island hotel. Back home and more moss cleaning.
Then still working on different designs for the scroll. Did not know that Illustrator would not recover images from an external hard drive for an illustration. Had to move all needed images to a file on the desktop and redo. Not happy with road so will probably redo it before I watch Monty on gardener’s World at 7.30 a.m.!!!
16 september 2019
The time is flying by and the weather is beautiful so I am busy putting the garden to bed. Got daffs planted and gladioli transplanted as well as a Pieris transplanted. Some mowing done and now it is down to building highways!!!!!!
19 september 2019
In Dublin to see sister and try to meet up with the Trinity archivist. Sister doing well – down to one velcro wrist support. Meeting Trinity guy on Friday. He does not seem to be a ball of laughs – we’ll see. Worked on my scroll in the train on way up to city yesterday. Will look at it again now to see what I think.
21 september 2019
Met up with tech archivist in Dublin – strange guy. Could not figure out who funded him or for whom he was working. He had some suggestions about how he thought the project should go but I am not sure I altogether agree with him. I will certainly research and use some of the suggestions but I felt his experience was very academic and Ireland based.
23 september 2019
Planted just under 200 bulbs but unfortunately hit my chest against the handle of the wheel barrow – very bruised and sore. Joined hangout last night – really interesting as always. I did not present anything. Due to rain all day so will have time to do research. Young neighbour to dinner later.
24 september 2019
Horrible day. Am up to 1983 on my scroll. Can only do so much and my mind freezes.
1 October 2019
Where did the Summer go???
Sent a first version of the scroll to tutor. I also sent it to son and daughter. Latter replied with suggestions. I am now working on these – making it less wordy and more visual. It is difficult to work on such a large piece. Have reduced the type face.
6 October 2019
Have got the scroll to a place where I will present it tonight to the Hangout for comment. Await tutor’s input too. Also received a recording of a 2015 presentation from an old colleague of Barry’s . Might be useful for the audio.
Decided to return to France on Wednesday next. All very frenetic trying to get everything put away. Have my box ready to post tomorrow containing all my work.
14 october 2019
Back in France and all set up to continue my project work. I called to my printer first to discuss whether he could print 2.2m long work. I showed him the work and we discussed papers. Since this is an expensive exercise I would like to have a ‘test’ print. As always Pascal had a suggestion – he came up with a cheap paper option for the test. I’ll go with this.
I also ordered the dot matrix paper – I had to order a whole box as 40 sheets on eBay were almost as expensive…. i sincerely hope this project works. But it is principally for the grandchildren so it will work for them anyway.
Barry checked the story and is reasonably satisfied with it.
16 october 2019
Picked up a cold on my way back to France…
Sent a low res copy of the project to my daughter who was very broadly positive. She made a couple of suggestions and picked up some typos. These are now corrected. I like her suggestion of an Intro. this will be easy with the dot matrix paper.
Now I just have to get the paper – should be delivered tomorrow.
18 october 2019
I am using my time waiting for my dot matrix paper delivery making a combined image of Boris Johnson and Dominic Cummings. I’ll replace the Russian Presidents eyes with this as I like it better.
I am also re-reading the whole of this Level 2 submission….
22 october 2019
I left a copy of the 2.4m image in with my printer yesterday. He will make a test copy so that I can check the text and the positioning. I will stick this copy to the dot matrix paper . I am worried about what glue to use as I tried 3M and it shows through. My printer could not help with that. I will put up a question on the Hangout.
Just came across this Wacom video I really shoudl take mine out and try to come to terms with it:
Listening to BBC World Service this morning I heard about Naim June Paik’s exhibition in the Tate Modern. He created a work called “The Electronic Superhighway” Had a look at it. His work is really interesting and inspiring. My work looks so FLAT compared to this but it has inspired me to try to do better and maybe to carry this project forward.
The Electronic Superhighway
24 october 2019
Pascal, my printer, had my test Super Highway ready this morning so I went round to collect it. I was well pleased with the quality on the cheap paper but it has a strange backing. I checked for typos and then I folded to try it out on the dot matrix paper – only to discover I have miscalculated the width of the paper. It is 28cm and not 28.5. So I had to reposition a lot of stuff on the 2.4m long image…. But all this gives me great practise with Illustrator. I also learned from Pascal that you can open a file saved in Illustrator in Photoshop. This retains all the information and you can then save it as jpeg. One learns something every day.
Now the corrections are made I will have to wait till Pascal has time to print it. He is working on huge images for an exhibition at the moment.
25 october 2019
Took part in the Tutor led Group Work online: HE6Contextual studies and Body of Work led by Dr Adriadne Xenou. It was the first time that Zoom had been used for a video conference like this. There were a few teething problems but this did not detract in any way form Adriadne’s facilitating and opening presentation. She guided us through what is expected of us at L3 and how we can go about selecting a topic. She started with the choice of Grand Narrative. This will then lead to the part of this narrative that especially interests us. She dealt with the need to love the topic and how this will help with the research.
We will receive the slides she was working from as a PdF. She was assisted by Gina Lundy. We were a group of 14 students, most already at L3.
27 october 2019
The final version of A5 is with the printer. Now I am working on ideas for a cover.
This morning the Profile om BBC4 was Bridget Riley. What a woman at 88 she is still working and producing amazing work.
This painting disturbs your head like much of her work.
29 october 2019
Waiting for Pascal, the printer, to email to say he has finished the work. But he did warn me he is very busy this week.
Meanwhile my husband and I (sounds like the queen….) spent yesterday morning out on the street beside our house cutting up board to make a cover for my book. This is the joy and the problem of living right on the roadside of a French village. We do not have any garden so all this kind of work has to be done on the side of the street. This means that many of the passer’s by offer advice or just stop for a chat. This, of course, means that the whole project takes ten times as long. But it did get done and I bought an image from iStock to put on the front as I don’t have any suitable images myself. I spent the afternoon resizing it and adding a title with dot matrix print. Fun indeed.
This morning I printed the cover image on A3 lustre paper but did not like it much so I tried the etching paper which has caused me no end of trouble in my Pro9000 printer, in the past. But it sailed through and printed nicely. So now I need to go to the art shop in Aix to buy black paper for the back cover – I have every other colour under the sun but only a scrap of black left. I also need PVC adhesive. We used ot have an art shop in the next big town but with the way of things in this modern age it closed. But the plus to a trip to Aix is we can have a lovely lunch somewhere. Must check what’s on the the gallery.
30 october 2019
Today is the 50th anniversary of the first message to be sent using packet switching network. Only half the work arrived!!!
8 november 2019
I have been waiting for my print for a week now. Pascal had some emergency but has promised to get on with it on Monday. Hubby will be away for three days so I hope to get the video done before he returns. Then I can get him to do the audio. It is a lot of work and I need to get on with it.
I have checked the whole level 2 DI&C blog work. I will get the labels and plan done this weekend.
Meanwhile I am reading about preparing for my final year. I am reflecting about working on the broad theme” Pollution”
10 november 2019
Went to the African Film festival night in our local cinema, last night. Wrote up a review.
Made the audio of Barry’s story of the Superhighway. Now I need to refresh my Premiere Pro experience….. I found this good video:
15 november 2019
Been a manic few days. Hubby back in Ireland to have a small skin ‘thing’ removed from his face. That went well but on the way back he discovered his bank card had been hacked for the second time in 5 months. My sister’s car was stolen last Friday but was recovered by police – a very weird story.
While dealing with the million calls regarding these upsets I was trying to clean up the audio which I was happy I did.
Then Pascal was ready with my scroll and my Boric Johnings image for A1. Got to work immediately to fold and stick my scroll into the dot matrix book. This was difficult and messy. Got it done.
Made video of book – in fact had to make 3 videos to get one that ‘fitted’ to the audio. Not sure if this will work. Started to try to fit them together but realised that I needed to leave it till today as I was too tired. Also we had torrential rain and for the first time ever we had a leak coming in around the window…
Will concentrate on it today.
21 november 2019
I put the video up on the hangout on 17th November. I knew it was raw and unfinished but I needed guidance. As always I got it from Tutor Clive White. He suggested making a story board to check where I needed to break the video to match it to the audio. Karen made the point that she wanted to see close ups of the content of the book and Kate wanted to keep the sounds and even offered me the dot matrix sound.
I took all these suggestions on board and have been working on the video and audio since. This involved reshooting the video at the original height from the book and a lot of cutting of both the audio (to eliminate background noise and hesitations) and the videos. I then made a series of close ups of some of the book. I thought originally I could use ‘zoom’ but Clive had advised against this and online this was confirmed. So I used the tripod placed nearer the book and shot a number of short videos. I then uncoupled the audios from these and placed these at the points where I had decided they should go.
I added titles and the imported sounds of dot matrix printer, old telephone and finally modem.
I worked on the whole for two days and finally was reasonably satisfied with the result. I am uploading it to Vimeo as I write. The first attempt ended in a error as my internet connection is unstable today.
Lat night I participated in the ‘Zoom” presentation by by tutor Andrea Norrington. It was excellent and I wish I had had this when I was starting. There was twenty student participants. The Powerpoint presentation was seamless and students could comment either using Mic or with chat. A really positive experience.
Just listened to the Roddy Doyle and Anthony Gormley interview:
Really interesting to hear two artists explain how nervous they are before letting go of a piece of work and putting it out into the world. Also they are both still developing their art.
25 november 2019
Looking forward to tutor feedback today.
Read this interesting article in NYT this morning by Tim Berners-Lee. Should I use it as back page of my book????
Communities are being ripped apart as prejudice, hate and disinformation are peddled online. Scammers use the web to steal identities, stalkers use it to harass and intimidate their victims, and bad actors subvert democracy using clever digital tactics. The use of targeted political ads in the United States’ 2020 presidential campaign and in elections elsewhere threatens once again to undermine voters’ understanding and choices. [Opinion | I Invented the World Wide Web. Here’s How We Can Fix It. – The New York Times. 2019. Opinion | I Invented the World Wide Web. Here’s How We Can Fix It. – The New York Times. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/11/24/opinion/world-wide-web.html. [Accessed 25 November 2019].]
27th november 2019
Coning up to the last hurdle. Feedback received and uploaded to Drive. W can complete the final step tomorrow.
Thank you to my tutor for the link to this lecture – terrifying:
Use your tutor’s feedback on Assignment Four to help you develop your digital identities project to the point of resolution.
The method of presentation that you choose for your project should be appropriate to, and complement, the work you make. Your work may suit a print-based submission, or it may be appropriate to present your work in a book, audio-visual form, web-based project or installation.
Your project should involve substantial artistic investigation, and the method of presentation should do your efforts justice. You should view the project as the culmination of the Digital Image and Culture course.
Include a 500-word text that contextualises your project and provides a self-evaluation.
TUTOR EEDBACK
The initial plan was to use assignment 5 to collect material and to start to think about presentation and for assignment 6 to be the refinement of this presentation. It may be that the project does not reach a final conclusion but you rather reach a stopping point. You outlined that was similar to your current experience with assignment 2.
LINKS FROM TUTOR:
These links are helping me with ideas of how to arrange my work when I have it assembled (1,2):
My tutor also provided two movies of more conventional book presentations one by Homar Sykes and another by Harry Borden My preferred presentation is Tary Simon but I also like Wolfgang Tillmans.
HOW DID WE GET HERE ON THE DIGITAL SUPERHIGHWAY?
ARTIST STATEMENT:
The reasons I chose this project are many and varied. Having looked at and researched my own digital self I began to think about how all this Internet connectivity started.
My husband was one of the first graduates of Information Science in 1969. The whole area of information collection and distribution fascinated him. He was asked by the Irish Government to represent Ireland on the original EU committee set up to discuss how information could be shared in Europe. He went on to head the team which set up the first European network.
Another reason for doing this project was that my grandchildren are unaware that their grandfather played such a pivotal role in the origins of the Internet.
Finally I wanted to try to understand why my husband is not an active participant in most social media platforms.
Collecting the information:
….the ABC (C0MPUTER) began development by Professor John Vincent Atanasoff and graduate student Cliff Berry in 1937. Its development continued until 1942 at the Iowa State College (now Iowa State Universi
In 1941 Hedy Lamar, the Hollywood film star, and George Anthiel invented a system of manipulating radio frequencies between transmission and reception which meant messages could not be decoded. Many years later this ground breaking ‘spread spectrum’ technology formed the bases of digital communications.(1)
Computers that could run stored programmes soon followed. IBM’s computer appeared in 1953. Computers with Random-access memory (RAM) followed in 1955.
The first minicomputer appeared in 1960 and the desktop in 1964(2).
1971 Intel produced the first microprocessor. It was designed for use in calculators, automated teller machines and cash machines.
1975: The first portable computer (PC).
1985: We bought our first PC was a Commodore PET
The Internet Timeline
During the 50s, 60s and 70s researchers, both in Europe and the USA, were seeking ways of sharing relevant research.
1966 Dr Toy Kent, a UK zoologist and ornithologist, wrote programmes to retrieve text based chemical paper information from databases. He was distributing this information to chemists and assessing the value of the results of his retrieval program.
1968: We moved to London and my husband, Barry Mahon, started his MSc in Information Science in City University.
1969: Barry wrote his MSc thesis. The title was “Selective Dissemination of Information” (3) Once material was indexed and could be retrieved it was then necessary that computers could be linked and could talk to one another and users could access the data on these computers. The information had to be in such a form that it could be carried from one computer to another independently of what type of computer it was or what software was being used.
Some mechanism for shaking hands between the computers and transporting the information was necessary. The ‘shake hands’ mechanism is called a Protocol and the information transportation is called Packet Switching.
Circuit Switching: Before Packet Switching information was transported by circuit switching. The “circuit” is dedicated to the two communicating devices it connects for the duration of that connection. It was more suitable for voice than data.
1964: Packet Switching: Packet switched networks are networks that send and receive data in the form of packets. When a document is sent, it is broken up into a series of packets that make usually contain around 1,000 or 1,500 bytes of information. (4) Baran in the US and Donald Davies in the UK were both working on package switching networks at the same time.
Many different protocols were being created in different research centres and proprietary ones by computer manufattureres in both USA and in Europe.
1971: The Council of Ministers of the European member states agreed to create a Network, later named EURONET, for the collection and distribution of Scientific and Technical Information (STI) in the European Community. A European wide launch team was formed, with Barry as head, to make this happen
1973: In the USA Vint Cerf and Robert Elliot Kahn worked to introduce ARPANET. It was funded by ARPA and the Department of Defence. Four University computers were connected originally, California in Los Angeles, the Stanford Research Institute, the University of California in Santa Barbara and the University of Utah. This was called the Internetting project and the system of networks which emerged from the research was known as the “Internet.” (5)
1976 CERNET: In Europe CERN (CERN is the European Organization for Nuclear Research) had created its own network – CERNET – to circulate their own research information.
1980: Unlike in the USA it was decided that it would be impossible to achieve this type of network using private enterprise, in Europe.Therefore it was decided to try to get the PTTS(Post & Telecommunications) to work together to provide this network. The data communications network was based on the French TRANSPAC software. Nodes or exchanges were set up in Frankfurt, London, Paris and Rome and ‘user terminals’ in Amsterdam, Brussels, Copenhagen, Dublin and Luxembourg. EURONET used X.25 package switching for its network. It was launched in Strasburg in 1980 by Simone Weil and Roy Jenkins.
Once established it was decided that the PTTs could privatise EURONET.
DIANE was the name given to the content that could be accessed through EURONET.
X-25: X.25 is the name given to a suite of protocols used for packet-switched wide area network (WAN)communication. Defined by the International Telegraph and Telephone Consultative Committee in 1976, X.25 had the original purpose of carrying voice signals over analog telephone lines.(6) This network uses packet switching with physical links consisting of linked lines, telephone cables or ISDN connections. This was the network protocol used originally in 1970 by the PTTs. X.25 was used for EURONET DIANE. The European communities funded a number of development projects with mainframe computer manufacturers to create X.25 interfaces. X.25 was used widely internationally throughout the 80s and 90s covering a large amount of the globe. It was the first international and commercial packet switching network. It was complicated and heavy weight. It is only used today for ATM machines and credit card verification. X.25 was slow and was eventually replaced by another protocol TCP/IP
1973: TCP/IP: A system, Transmission Control Protocol (TCP). was being worked on by Robert Elliot Kahn and Vinton Gray “Vint” Cerf, in the US, which is the system still being used today on the Internet. The first version of this predecessor of modern TCP was written in 1973, then revised in 1974.Today’s IP networking represents a synthesis of several developments that began to evolve in the 1960s and 1970s, namely the Internet and LANs (Local Area Networks), which emerged in the mid- to late-1980s, together with the advent of the World Wide Web in the early 1990s.(7)
By 1986 networks were becoming commercial
World Wide Web
1989 Tim Berners Lees put his idea of HTML (which was first described in a paper by Vannevar Bush in 1945) pages to his boss in CERN.(8).] This is the first World Wide Web idea. Berners_lee’s boss thinks the idea is vague but has potential. Berners Lee works on the idea and puts it to a meeting in Paris. Barry was there. No one seemed very interested in Berners-Lee’s idea. He continued to work on his idea using HTM which is the language for writing Web pages. It consists of elements to describe things like a paragraph.
1990: By October of 1990, Berners Lee had written the three fundamental technologies that remain the foundation of today’s web
HTML (Hypertext Markup Language)
HTTP (Hypertext Transfer Protocol). In 1991, Berners-Lee outlined the motivation for the new protocol and listed several high-level design goals: file transfer functionality, ability to request an index search of a hypertext archive, format negotiation, and an ability to refer the client to another server.[High Performance Browser Networking. 2019. HTTP: Brief History of HTTP – High Performance Browser Networking (O’Reilly). [ONLINE] Available at: https://hpbn.co/brief-history-of-http/. [Accessed 25 August 2019].]
URLS (Uniform Resource Locator)
by the end of 1991, the Internet grew to include some 5,000 networks in over three dozen countries, serving over 700,000 host computers used by over 4,000,000 people.(9)
Re presenting an assignment across different media for assessment. I really struggled with pinning my A5 down for EYV. The photographer that my tutor suggested as a good example of providing a cohesive whole across a raft of different presentation options was Kurt Tong’s The Queen, The Chairman and I. Looking at the work I decided that I was better off keeping things simple. I’m going to point you to my tutor feedback post on that one because I was also looking at older technology, and you might find something useful in there. https://kateastoneyv.wordpress.com/2017/07/14/assignment-5-tutor-feedback/
No one predicted the role that pornography would play in driving commerce and bandwidth, for example. And I don’t remember anyone waxing eloquent on the use of the Superhighway for the propagation of spam, spoofing, phishing, bots and fake news. Like most things human, it’s a mixed bag – but the story was pretty one-sided in the early days.
Instead of a scroll following a suggestion from Kate in the hangout I decided to use dot matrix paper. I think this will be more relevant and easier to present. My tutor also liked this idea.
The print paper will be protected inside two covers:
The ‘book’ making process:
I sourced and bought a suitable front cover image on iStock.
I printed this on Museum etching paper as I like the dull finish – it was a little too heavy at 350grm.
I then sourced a suitable back cover paper. I chose 200grm black slightly textured craft paper.
My husband cut two covers from hardboard:
I then cut the front and back covers to size leaving about 4cms extra all round.
I glued these on to the board using PVA glue.
These were left to dry under heavy weights.
The inside cover paper were cut from A3 white paper and glued with a layer of the dot matrix paper in between the cover and the inside cover page.
Made video/audio of the Superhighway story with husband
Cleaned the video off leaving only the audio. Cleaned this audio up.
Left file with printer and decided with him what paper could/shoudl be used(2.4m long)
I folded the printed scroll in a concertina before sticking it to the dot matrix paper.
I used PVA glue but this was a mistake as it was too heavy. I used 3M 75 for the final few pages which worked better. Left all to dry.
Set up lights for making videos. I made video of turning the pages of the book, I made this while playing the audio of my husband talking on the computer. I had to repeat this several times to try to get the page turning and the audio in sync.
16. I exported the video/audio to Vimeo and put it up for discussion on the Side Wide Hangout
Got some good feedback on hangout from Five, Kate, Alan and Karen. Basically it involved re-working the video which I have outlined in my assignment diary.
Final video version:
HAVE I SUCCEEDED IN MY AIMS WITH THIS PROJECT?
With this work I wanted to show the role my husband, Barry Mahon, and his colleagues played in the setting up of the Internet. My aim in doing this was that their story would not be lost in what has become, with the World Wide Web(WWW), an information juggernaut. The project covers a twenty year period from 1969 to 1989. These are the pre WWW days without which the Internet, as we know it today, could never have existed. I feel I have achieved this.
From the outset I wanted to make this a visual project. I wanted to make it comprehensible to the youngest of our grandchildren as well as to the least technical person who might view it. I think I have managed to do this with a difficult technical subject.
HOW I ACHIEVED THIS
My first step was to discuss the project with my family. I searched our own family archives to see what material we had retained from the period. Because we have moved frequently during our lifetime and because we have a policy of travelling light we had not retained a lot of material. Most of what I needed was in our heads. I made contact with a number of my husbands ex colleagues. Most of them are approaching or are already in their eighties. Only two of them showed any interest in the project. I contacted the European Parliament Communication department to see what archived material they had retained. I was a little shocked at the lack of material. They did send me some photos which were of peripheral interest but not central to my story. They promised to digitise Simone Weil and Roy Jenkin’s official opening of EURONET, for me. I am still waiting for this.
I met up with a gentleman in Dublin, John Sterne, who has set up a technology archive online. His main interest was the part played by Ireland and Irish researchers during this period. His input, especially about the ‘Protocol Wars’, was interesting and useful, if somewhat biased.
I researched the papers and books my husband and his colleagues had written on the subject. Most were too technical to be considered. I tried to find interesting or amusing images of the time but these were serious researchers and did not bother making pictorial records of their work.
Having collected as much material as I thought I might need I cut out a sort of highway from material. I attached this to my studio wall and made a sort of timeline. I attached development dates and images to my timeline. This helped to visualise how the Internet had developed and how my project might do so.
I considered many different methodologies of presenting the work(10). I presented it twice for discussion at side wide hangouts. My original idea was to make a series of individual images. I rejected this in favour of making a book. I then discussed putting the work on a scroll with my peer group from the hangout. Finally on a prompt from one of my fellow students I decided to attach the printed work to dot matrix paper.
I had to make the audio and video separate and getting it synchronised proved extremely difficult and I do not think I have succeeded very well in this.
I again put it up for discussion at a Hangout and got invaluable help with hw to improve my first video attempt.
I feel I have succeeded up to a point with this project. Because the subject is so vast and often too technical I was unable to include much of the material I had researched. The subject is totally open-ended so I decided to limit my project to a twenty year time frame. This means the project is unfinished.
[TCP/IP – Complete History of the TCP/IP Protocol Suite. 2019. TCP/IP – Complete History of the TCP/IP Protocol Suite. [ONLINE] Available at: https://history-computer.com/Internet/Maturing/TCPIP.html. [Accessed 15 August 2019].]
[cern.info.ch – Tim Berners-Lee’s proposal. 2019. cern.info.ch – Tim Berners-Lee’s proposal. [ONLINE] Available at: http://info.cern.ch/Proposal.html. [Accessed 25 August 2019]
A Short History of Internet Protocols at CERN . 2019. A Short History of Internet Protocols at CERN . [ONLINE] Available at: http://ben.web.cern.ch/ben/TCPHIST.html. [Accessed 13 August 2019].
Computers | Timeline of Computer History | Computer History Museum. 2019. Computers | Timeline of Computer History | Computer History Museum. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.computerhistory.org/timeline/computers/. [Accessed 14 September 2019].
Phrasee. 2019. A brief history of email: dedicated to Ray Tomlinson – Phrasee. [ONLINE] Available at: https://phrasee.co/a-brief-history-of-email/. [Accessed 19 September 2019].
Develop a project around the theme of identity within the current digital climate. This could be an autobiographical exploration examining how you relate to digital culture, or it could be a more critical examination of an aspect of digital culture.
You should develop your project over the course of Part Four. This is your chance to find and articulate your personal voice in relation to digital culture.
Start by listing or making a brainstorm diagram/mind map of possible ideas and starting points. Put this in your learning log. Expand your list or develop your diagram as you work through Part Four. Try out a few of these ideas, and develop further those that seem to be the most effective or interesting.
When you have developed at least one idea to a point where you would like to receive feedback from your tutor, submit it to them by whatever means you both agree.
What my work is attempting to communicate”
First Part:
I want to document how we, as a family, and especially my husband, have been there since the earliest development of the digital superhighway.
I want to show that the Internet did not just spring up but involved many people and many strands
I also want, if possible, to interview the other pioneers who worked with him at the beginning of this journey
Part 2:
I would like to investigate how these pioneers view where this digital world has lead us
Finally I would like these original thinkers to crystal ball gaze to ‘predict’ where digital identities are going on the superhighway in the future.
My brain storming & mind map:
Brainstorming words associated with the origins of the Internet Superhighway with daughter and husband.
Creating a mind map of how the internet originated and roughly how it links up.
Practitioners I’ve looked at in relation to this assignment:
This is just the beginning of this journey. It is a vast subject but, in the first part, I will try to concentrate on our participation in the origins of the Internet. Many of my husbands colleagues are getting quite infirm and may not be willing or able to participate. Should this be the case I will use archives one of which exists in Trinity College Dublin. My husband has input some information to this archive at the University’s request.
I cannot be more definite as to how I will proceed at this point as I will await my tutor’s evaluation of the project before contacting possible collaborators.
I know this will be of interest to my immediate family as they are anxious that their children learn of their grandfather’s part in starting this vast and complicated world that has become such an integral part of all our lives.
Write a critical essay in response to ONE of the following questions:
Using relevant case studies, discuss whether digital cameras and related technologies for the dissemination of digital imagery have affected our choice of subject matter or how we take photographs.
Has the ‘digital revolution’ created more problems than opportunities for today’s professional photographers? Discuss this question using relevant case studies and/or specific aspects of modern professional photography.
Discuss how the conditions of the ‘post-photographic era’ relate to a particular area or institution of photography.
What is your understanding of the‘digital self’and what is the effect of our everyday use of photography upon it? Discuss using relevant case studies and published research.
As someone who has lived through the whole development of the digital explosion I found it extremely interesting to read about how it is developing and where we have arrived. Because of my husband’s involvement, in the early days, I found reviewing the topic specially interesting.
It is an enormous topic with so many facades. In an essay of 2.500 words is only possible to concentrate on certain aspects and to scratch the surface of the these topics. For this reason I decided to investigate my own ‘Digital Self’, as a photographer, and to expand this very slightly to a few other examples of photographers.
I have barely touched the whole area of ‘selfies’ or the world of gaming and gamers. I have mentioned ‘influencers’ but barely exposed their function in the digital world. The use and abuse of the Internet to turn us, the users, into ‘the product’ was mentioned but not expanded. I have not touched YouTube or Vimeo. I have not mentioned the Dark Internet, Pornography on the net or Internets use as a propaganda tool.
However I feel that I have fulfilled the brief within the limits I set for myself.
TUTOR FEEDBACK
We had a very successful Skype feedback discussion. The connection was good so we were able to have a fairly extensive discussion both about the essay and the upcoming assignments.
In general my tutor made favourable comments about the essay. She made a couple of suggestions which can be viewed in the written feedback.
Produce a series of related images that use a readily available online archive (or archives) as their starting point or subject.
Make a small book for this project, using proprietary software, to be viewable online. In your book, you may use a selection of images from primary sources (your own images) and/or secondary sources (images found online and/or scanned from other sources). Think about a theme for your book and use the references provided throughout Part Two as inspiration. Your book should contain a minimum of 12 double pages and can contain text if you wish, or simply a collection of images. Provide a link to where your tutor can view your book and also provide a few double-page spreads as still images as part of your learning log.
If you have any queries on your subject, then discuss these in advance with your tutor. Use BLURB or other proprietary software that will allow you easily to construct your book and publish it to the web. Remember that it must be accessible to view via your learning log.
RE-WORKING ASSIGNMENT 2:
I have decided to completely re-work assignment 2 as I have been unable to progress my project on mining in Chile.(Link) I will take up this project at a later date as I believe it is a story that needs to be told.
ARTIST’S STATEMENT
There are no photographs of my great grandmother, Letitia Millet so I am ‘creating’ an image of her using archive material of the time and the facts I can find.
Here is the Flip Book: Letitia Millet The Dressmaker
This project is dedicated to my great grandmother Letitia Millet. My father had always maintained that she was French. He also told us he remembered his grandparents speaking French together. He said that our great grandfather was a Scots Presbyterian who had changed both his religion and the spelling of his name to marry our great grandmother. My research has shown that most of this was myth. Letitia was born in Dublin city in 1829. She signed this fact on the 1901 census.
I cannot establish where, in Dublin, her family lived at the time of her birth. The name Millet is very unusual in Ireland and its origin is probably French Huguenot.
Many of those who fled France returned when things became safer, but others stayed and they are the original bearers of other Hugenot names still found today in Ireland such as Guerin, Millet, Trench and Deverell. These names are mostly still found in the areas in which their ancestors settled hundreds of years ago.(1)
The first recorded act of Letitia’s life, after her birth, is her marriage, at the age of eighteen, to my great grandfather, John Stephenson. They married in St James Parish Church, James’Street, Dublin 8, on 21 August 1847 where my husband and I were married 121 years later, less two days, Sadly the future of this beautiful church is being threatened (2)
My great grandfather was born in Belfast in 1828.
They had at least six children. Only three of their children, Robert, Letitia and John, were born after 1864, the year when births had to be registered, by law, in the state register. I was able to locate birth information for three children born to them before this date, Julia, Katherine and my grandfather Matthew. They may have had more children but I was unable to locate information about them.
Before 1864 births were registered only in the parish church records. One needs to know the name of the parish to access the records. Some, but not all, of these records have been put on microfiche. Many are illegible due to the damp conditions in which the original records were kept. Since my great grandparents moved from one accommodation to another, within Dublin city, it was difficult to know in which parish, their children might have been registered.
The three children, for whom I found information, were born while they were living in a tenement at 36 Denzille Street in Dublin. There were thirteen families living in the same tenement house. Denzille Streets’ name was changed, in 1924, to Fenian Street, the name it bears today. Most of the tenements on this street have been replaced with modern buildings.
My great grandfathers’ occupation was given as ‘servant’ on the birth certificate of their daughter Letitia and ‘butler’ on another child’s birth certificate and finally as ‘ship builder’ on my grandfather, Matthew’s marriage certificate in 1894.
At some point, before the death of my great grandfather, the family moved from Denzille Street to Great Brunswick Street. This would have been seen a step up in the world and it was here that my great grandmother, Letitia, was first registered as a dressmaker.
A dressmaker was described in the literature of the time as:
…. dressmaking constituted the higher end of female employment with the needle; they were “respectable” occupations for young women from middle-class or lower middle-class families.(3)
The death certificates and/or marriage certificates of some of the children, including my grandfather Matthew’s marriage certificate, indicated that the family had settled at 165 Great Brunswick Street and remained there for a great number of years. At least three of the children died there, of tuberculosis, in their twenties,
In the 1901 census, the first surviving census in Ireland, Letitia is registered as living at 165 Great Brunswick Street with her sister-in-law Mary Jane Stephenson. The fate of the other Irish census is described as follows:
The original census returns for 1861 and 1871 were destroyed shortly after the censuses were taken. Those for 1881 and 1891 were pulped during the First World War, probably because of the paper shortage. The returns for 1821, 1831, 1841 and 1851 were, apart from a few survivals, notably for a few counties for 1821 and 1831, destroyed in 1922 in the fire at the Public Record Office at the beginning of the Civil War (4)
Both ladies marked their occupation as ‘dressmaker’ on the 1901 census form. My great grandmother also marked that she was “Head of Family’ despite the advice given, on the form, to widows that they should mark “widow”. My great grandfather died sometime between 1894 and 1901 but there is no record of either his death or his burial. I know this because he was the witness at my grandfather’s marriage in 1894 but was not on the 1901 census and my great grandmother described herself as ‘widow”.
I found an architectural drawing, in the Australian Melbourne Museum while visiting family there, of Great Brunswick Street which showed 165 as a single storey building. On the census form it was marked that my grandmother and family had three rooms, one of which must have served as her dressmaking room.
Great Brunswick Street, modern name Pearse street, was a city centre commercial street. I therefore assumed that if she was involved in any sort of commercial undertaking it would be registered in Thom’s Street Directory for Dublin. I found the entry in the 1894 Directory(5). My great grandmother and grand aunt shared the premises, at 165, with a tobacconist called Matthew Lalor.
It is likely that for their dressmaking, they made use of the technological advances of their time.
Technological advances, such as the invention of the sewing machine in the mid-19th century, also helped to democratise fashion, enabling both professional and home dressmakers to adapt and copy the latest fashions more easily.(6)
I remember, seeing when I was a child, a foot operated Singer sewing machine in my maiden aunts apartment. I believe they had inherited this from their grandmother. My aunts, Mary Leo and Letitia, were both seamstresses and worked in my fathers clothing factory. My father was a tailor.
The styles of the Victorian period were complicated (7). Dressmakers, in the Victorian period, often used magazines rather than patterns to make their garments. Clients would bring a magazine image or the dressmaker would have a selection of magazines from which the client could select a garment they wished the dressmaker to copy. I assume Letitia used this method as my father never used patterns other than the ones he created himself. He made copious measurements and then used tailors chalk to draw his pattern on the material.
If she used a pattern it would probably have been a Simplicity pattern. These patterns first appeared in the US in the mid 1800s. They arrived in Ireland in the late nineteenth century.
It is impossible to learn who were Letitia and Mary Jane’s clients, in Dublin, at the end of the 19th century. But one could make an assumption that they were both rich and poor people.
Many women – governesses, ladies’ maids, dressmakers and the wives of tradesmen, for example – were expected to dress respectably on a fraction of that sum (a shilling a day (or £18 5s a year)) and were equally anxious to “avoid the appearance of poverty”.(8)
My great grandmother, Letitia, was able to afford a marked grave, in Glasnevin cemetery in Dublin, in which to bury some of her children and grandchildren and in which she herself was buried. Many poor people were buried in unmarked, or paupers, graves and it is often difficult to locate these without precise dates of death.
My great grandmother died, in 1902, at the age of 74. In the 1901 Thoms Street Directory her sister-in-law, Mary Jane, has moved to no 172 Great Brunswick Street and continued to work as a dressmaker with one of Letitia’s children.
The Story Board:
Storyboard
RESEARCH MATERIAL
Here is the Flip Book: Letitia Millet The Dressmaker
The book looks like a finished product and the use of the patterns as illustrations adds a layer to it.
Well done for the persistence on this part of the course and onwards and upwards now to the end!
Best regards
Andrea
HANDMADE BOOK
I decided the project warranted a handmade book as well as a printed version which can be given to the grandchildren.
Making the handmade book
I used old pattern layouts for the pages and stuck the information to these pages. I interleaved these pages with the actual pattern tissue paper.
Handmade book before binding:
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Book Binding day:
I spent half a day with the book binder Barbara Hubert in Cork city. She looked at my book preparation and cut some sheet the same size. She worked alongside me making her book and I followed her instructions.
My book worked out well despite being difficult with light tissue interleaving pages.
Book Cover
Interleaving tissue pages
Page of book
REFLECTION ON THIS ASSIGNMENT
This has been along road to completion but there is a sensation that it was all worth it. I started with the idea I would do a project on the exploitation of mines in Chile. But I could not manage to make this interesting. I feel this was because I was trying to use my images made during a visit to Chile. These were not made for the purpose so lacked the necessary impact. There is not a lot of other material on the subject out there.
With a distinct lack of interest by both my tutor and my OCA peer group I decided to scrap the idea of the Chilean mines and look to my own family history to create this assignment. I have always been fascinated in my great grand mother Letitia Millet. This is partly due to the fact that my father told us all sorts of stories about her. She, in fact, was dead before he was born and he never knew her. Being estranged from his father he ‘invented’ a family for us.
Letitia turned out to be a very interesting subject. She seems to have been a very strong woman. My cousin told me her father, my uncle John, always maintained that Letitia was, in fact, a formidable woman. My research shows she set up a dressmaking business in Dublin. Her daughters worked with her as did her sister-in law. The boys in the family became printers. These were very respectable occupations for a family that had started in very poor circumstances in Dublin.
The other interesting finding is that there is a thread going down the family, right to the next generations after me, of making and designing things.
Making the handmade book, in addition to the printed one, I felt fitted the subject and was a brilliant experience. I feel that I had the opportunity to work with one of the great experts in book binding in Ireland. I feel inspired to use this skill in the future. The setting up of the printed book for Blurb also renewed my InDesign skills.
After many months on this project I am finally satisfied with the result.
Slaves of the Needle:” The Seamstress in the 1840s. 2019. “Slaves of the Needle:” The Seamstress in the 1840s. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.victorianweb.org/gender/ugoretz1.html. [Accessed 20 May 2019].
Victorian Era Gowns: dressing style and fashion. 2019. Victorian Era Gowns: dressing style and fashion. [ONLINE] Available at: http://victorian-era.org/victorian-era-gowns.html. [Accessed 19 May 2019].
Produce either a series of four to six portraits (looking at Stezaker and Stenram) or a series of four to six landscape-based images based on your immediate surroundings (as with Gill’sHackney Marshes series). Complete Parts 1 and 2 of the assignment and upload the finished images to your learning log together with a short reflection (500–1,000 words) on your motivations, references and methods for both parts of the assignment. Part 1:
Use traditional ‘cut and paste’ techniques (scissors/scalpel and glue) to produce a series of simple photomontages using elements from two to five original or found photographs. These can be found images and/or images that you’ve shot yourself. Re-photograph your finished photomontages and present the work in your learning log as a digital file.
Part 2:
Using digital montage techniques (Photoshop or similar image-editing software) produce a digital montage using elements from a minimum of two and a maximum of five digital files. Use components that you have shot yourself rather than found images for this exercise.
Here are some further online resources that you might find useful: Listen to Daniel Gordon discuss his digital portraiture with MOMA curator Eva Respini: Link 12
ARTIST STATEMENT PART 1
My aim, with this work, was to create an amusing set of images based on a set of sepia photographs of my village in France. The original images were made by a local man, at the beginning of the 1900’s, and are held in a small private museum. I wanted, in each case, to introduce a modern element into the final collage. I did not want to slavishly follow one of the collage artists recommend for review, but instead to try to find my own voice with the work.
Preparation for Assignment
Having looked at all the reading material suggested for me Hannah Hoch stands out from the rest. But since I have produced ‘politically’ inspired collages for my 1.3 exercise I have decided to make collages of the landscape. I was given a CD, by a photographer neighbour and member of the local Commune, of Deydier’s images made at the beginning of the 1900’s. There are 71 images in total. There are some duplicates among them and some images of postcards which he produced.
Deydier lived and worked as a photographer in the village where I live. His grand niece lives now in the house where he used to live. When I asked her if the house was in the family for a long time she replied “No not that long. Since about 1850 I believe!!” I picked out a number of the images which I thought could be the basis of a collage.
COLLAGE 1
The first image I chose is just a couple of meters from my home. It shows the house of the man who gave me the CD. Although the original image is not dated it must have been at the beginning of the 1900s. I made an image from the same place last week and it shows that very little has changed around here in the past 100 years. The steps up to the Portail, where cereals and animal bedding were dried, are gone and there is a garage door where the original door used to be.
Alhambric Port de l’Etang Deydier ~1900House of Regis Valentin 2018
I superimposed these images to obtain the image below. The idea was to combine the old and the new as I wanted to add a modern theme to the combined images.
Old and new superimposed images
The theme I wanted to add was of the very topical problem which is taking place in France at the moment – the ‘Gilets Jaunes’ protests. These men in the old image are probably distilling cider. But they are very ordinary people who, for me, represent most of the people who are participating in the Gilets Jaunes protests. The ‘casseurs’ are the ‘rent a mob’ who turn up at every protest march and cause havoc. They have nothing to do with the real people participating in these protests. So I did not want to show any destruction. Macron is also in the image wearing a Gilet Jauane – something he would never do! The police officer is there redundant as these people are going about their job calmly.
The collage:
1. Look out behind you Macron
COLLAGE 2:
The second collage is also drawn from Deydier’s images. The Etang or pond is situated at the entrance to our village and was a mill race. I decided to make a fun collage supposing the Olympic swimming would be held in our village in 2020. I added the swimmers which is an image I retrieved from a magazine. I added the flags to give the idea of lanes and the publicity strip along the side. Our village is called Cucuron, the title was taken from our village magazine. The Olympic rings were copied from Google Images.
L’Etang, Cucuron Deydier ~19002. Cucuron will do whatever it takes
The collage:
COLLAGE 3
There is an ancient tower in our village. Dydier also made images of the tower. I decided to copy his image but to cut and repast the tower as if it was leaning like the leaning tower of Pisa. I then made a publicity type collage of the ‘new image superimposed on the old with the tower leaning. The superimposed mage is printed on tracing paper so the original image could be seen through it.
Portail de l’stand DeydierPortail de l’Etang N. Mahon
To this I added publicity material for tourism. It is a very light hearted collage.
The collage:
3. The Leaning Tower of Cucuron
ARTIST STATEMENT PART 2
With this part of the work I am returning to my photographic archives to extract sets of images, of my village and its ambience, which I can combine into a number of collages. I am aiming to give the viewer a taste of what life is like in a Provencal village,.
Preparation for the assignment:
I looked at the work of a number of young artists working on digital collage. Among these was Justin Peters (1). I liked the originality of his work. I loved some of the work on this site (2). The work of Sebastian Onufszak(3) I found very graphic design based but I was not sure if I wanted to go down this road. I feel collage suits the graphic artist equally as well as either the fine artist and the photographer. For my project I wanted a more pictorial feel to the collages.
My aim was to create three circular collages which could be easily read. In order to do this I had to revisit a very large number of my archived images. I then had to learn how to cut an image into segments in Photoshop. I found this video (4) useful.
The technique:
I made a circle, created a new layer, made a perpendicular line with pencil tool, removed overrun of the line with rectangular marquee. Then I selected the line, used the free transform tool, selected centre top square and chose an angle size depending on how many segments I wanted. Then holding down shift+Alt+CMD+T(pressed a number of times depending on the segment number). I switched off visibility of image layer and merged the visible layers, switched on the image layer again. I then used the magic wand tool to select a segment, switched to image layer and used clt+c to select and copy this segment and opened a new file and pressed clt+v to place the segment. I repeated this to complete the circular ‘new’ image.
The reason I wanted to present the work in this way is because I have not found other photographers making collages like this and also I wanted to learn another skill in Photoshop. A search for collages in circular form, came up with the following selection:
COLLAGE 1: Cucuron rooftops
My archive images of my village roofs.
I live in Cucuron, Provence from October until April, approximately, every year. It used to snow almost every year but has not done so for a couple of years. I love the tiled roofs of Provence houses. I love the light and the clear blue skies even on the coldest of days.
I used three images to make this fairly simple collage. This is made up of six x 60° segments.
2. Cucuron roofs
COLLAGE 2: Fêtes de Lumière
My village fireworks images.
The Fête de Lumière is a festival of light older than Christmas. It was, in fact, the precursor to Christmas. I enjoy trying to capture fireworks but have always been dissatisfied with the results. The display takes place around the village pond, on the 1st December, which is surrounded by 200 year old plane trees. While this is spectacular to see it is very difficult to get a place from which to photograph the fireworks. One is not allowed to go up behind the people doing the fireworks which would be the best place from which to take the images. Then there is the problem of crowds around the pond and the jostling for a better view or to allow the children to see what is happening. Trying to keep a tripod steady is almost impossible. However I have struggled to keep a record over the years as this is one of the big village events.
I wanted to make my ‘wheel’ as colourful and as balanced as possible. I used a total of five images and used more than one part of the image if I felt it would balance the final outcome.
As I got more skilled with the procedure I was able to use the parts of the image I wanted by rotating the original image and repeating the segment making procedure. Below is the final combined “Fête de Lumière” image. It is made up of 12 x 30° segments. Five images were used in the final selection.
2. Fireworks wheel
COLLAGE 3: Fruit, Spices and Vegetables of the region
I did not have as many images to choose from although I would have thought before I began the exercise that I had many more. I used five different images, guava, dried tomatoes, kumquats & lychees, figs and spices. I started with the guava because it was so strong then I added the figs and fitted the other slices where I felt the colours made the wheel interesting.
This collage is made up of 24 x 15° angle segments.
3. Fruit, vegetable & spices of the region
Having completed the work I felt that a 3D title superimposed on the images would detract from them although I had planned on giving each image a 3D title (5).
Set up for photographing the collages:
I don’t have a studio in France so I have to use a Heath Robinson set-up. My studio lights here are a cheap version and the heads snapped off the base last year. Everything else about the lights is still working. So I set up the lights on two chairs. I used a 50m lens on my Nikon D800, used the back screen to focus and made the images.
REFLECTION ON THE WORK
Having completed the work I was unsure if I really understood what was involved in creating a montage so I checked the definition in the Cambridge Dictionary:
a piece of work produced by combining smaller parts, or the process of making such a work
The MOMA defines collage as a:
“technique and resulting work of art in which fragments of paper and other materials are arranged and glued to a supporting surface”.
This definitions reassured me that, in the practical sense, I had created six montage.
I then found the brief unclear. I was not sure if I should create 4 – 6 images for each part. Looking at the work of other students did not clarify the situation. My tutor suggested she had received different interpretations from different students and to follow my own council.
The montage artists that had been suggested to us were all creating serious work with, in many cases, political or social messages. However it was my aim, with this work, to create three amusing glue and paste montage and three visually pleasing digital montage. I am struggling to find my own voice in whatever work I am producing and I try not to be too influenced by the proposed reading and investigating of other artists’ work.
I am interested, always, in expanding my knowledge of techniques. As a grandmother I have a lot of experience of working with my grandchildren on ‘creating’ images with glue and paste. I have always found their imaginations to be much richer than adults with this technique. I think we loose the ‘innocence’ of childhood as we experience more and more in our daily lives. Hence I feel my glue and paste collages are too contrived and not artistic enough to resemble the deep meaningful work of Hannah Hoch.
I like the digital montages I have created. I think they fulfil the brief I created for myself – to create pleasing, non demanding, digital montages. I enjoyed the technique of creating them and I like the vibrance of the end product. I am thinking about turning the ‘slices’ of the fruit montage into a still life montage.
REFLECTION AFTER SIDE_WIDE HANGOUT
I think the general consensus was that the cut and paste collages fitted the brief better than the wheel montages. From Clive’s comments I gathered that the assessors would be looking for something similar with the montages. So I tried, while keeping a sense of fun, to use the technique I had learned to make a montage of Margaret Tatcher and Teresa May:
Woooohoooooo now we’re really getting somewhere! Maybe Theresa needs to be a bit more obvious.
Good point, I only said maybe.
I’m enjoying the way it’s making them look literally pug-nacious.
Image 1:Never Better Value: 13 Mai et La Dame de Fer
This involved quite a lot of resizing and blurring of Theresa May’s image to get a reasonable match.
2. All the Presidents Men
Three images used, Donald Trump, Ronald Reagan and G.W. Bush. The pretty nose is The Donalds…
3. Behind every great man
Holland his ex wife Segulin Royale and his lover Valerie Treweiller. What a menage a trois!!!
For this selection I used Putin, Khrushchev, Brezhnev, Gorbachev, Lenin, Medvedev. The original images were all low resolution but I felt the blurred look gave the impression they were hiding.
18October 2019
Today I am waiting for my dot matrix paper for my assignment 5 so I decided to add Boris and his adviser to this series!!!! He managed to get a ‘deal’ across the line with the EU yesterday by selling everyone, more or less, short. But that is the nature of deals. As I listened I wondered what part Dominic Cummings was plating behind the scenes. So I created this ‘montage’ of the two of them.
One note, on the firework circle the bottom red slice has a fine white line between that slice and the blue one next to it. It is probably just an issue of adjusting the slice again to get rid of the white line.
Corrected:
The final images do certainly add some humour but they also have merit as they echo the combination of humour and political message that is in the tradition of Heartfield, Kennard et al.
Looking again at Heartfield’s work I am struck by the very serious nature of it. Hitler’s Germany was not something to be joked about or even satirised, whereas present day politicians, in my opinion, lend themselves to ridicule. Peter Kennard’s work certainly has a great deal more interest for me. Perhaps it is of my time. Since he was born a couple of years after me….. I just love Cameron and find the missile one really brilliant – no words – the image says it all.
To follow up on the power of Instagram – the account @murad is interesting to read about. There are now many ‘travel couple’ accounts, but this one was one of the first. The images have now become highly stylised but they have kept the idea of her leading us into the frame.(6)
I really did not like the work of Murad at all. The whole thing reminded me of those couples who devote their lives to travelling around expensive hotels and resorts and then blog about it….. There is nothing spontaneous or original about it. I could not see how this work relates at all to the work of Susan Tangmar. I liked her work especially this video:
In terms of montage, the work of John Heartfield is worth looking at again in light of the politics of our time, as is Barbara Kruger’s work.
I do love Barbara Kruger’s work – she is a real beacon of light for women.
FURTHER FEEDBACK FROM OTHER ARTIST FRIENDS:
Jo Ashby: Fine artist
I am always so interested in your work when it is totally beyond my experience or comfort zone – these most definitely fall into that bracket, although also described as ‘collage’ – interesting, isn’t it? My question would be – are the words required by the task? The images work on their own, I feel – but who am I? Very clever, whatever. I would be cutting up photos and sticking them down with pritt stick! Not very useful of me…..
Sandi Holmes: Artist, graphic designer and ceramicist:
These are great collages, first & second much more successful for me, although the lipstick is a great idea, I’m not sure if it’s too computer graphic, if that makes sense!
The third has good elements, the blue surround throws it for me and perhaps blur does not quite work. I’m sure you have been looking at Hockney’s, I love the one of his mum.
I took this on board and made a black background with no writing which I think works better. Couldn’t do anything about the burring as the image of Segolin Royale is a painting!!!
YouTube. 2018. Photoshop Tutorial – Divide circle into equal segments – YouTube. [ONLINE] Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TQ_1fEKBQ0s. [Accessed 18 December 2018].
Maybe Theresa needs to be a bit more obvious.
Digital Image & Culture 