CoLLeCtiVe
CoOpeRaTiVE
CoLLaBoRaTiVE
Home Future, The Design Museum
Home Future, The Design Museum
"Explore today’s home through the prism of yesterday’s imagination. Are we living in the way that pioneering architects and designers throughout the 20th century predicted, or has our idea of home proved resistant to real change?" [The Design Museum]
Home Future, an exhibition at the design museum, presents a clever yet somewhat comical insight to the minds of the past as they predicted the future that we now live in. Designers, inventors and architects on display show a range of ideas as to what they imagined the 21st century would be like, and this fine line between imagination of the past and the reality of the present is the driving force of the work on show.
I thought that the ideas, concepts and work on display emitted real futuristic vibes, almost like that from certain movies such as Star Wars or Back to the Future. I felt that the division of work into different categories created a journey through these Home Futures shown in the exhibition: Living in Yesterday’s Tomorrow, Living Communally, Living Anonymously, Living with Less, Living On The Move, Living Smart, etc.
Centering the exhibition around homes - a lifestyle that we all experience - makes it more engaging and relatable to viewers. It evokes personal questions; I wonder how I would live like that? How would this affect my life? Will this happen in my lifetime? …
I was most drawn to photographs of designers’ and inventors’ theoretical products, such as Hans Hollein’s proposal of a portable office space - an inflatable bubble like structure, transparent, and for one to work inside.
Pieces like these placed the concepts in the real world, in a practical and working environment, and I feel like this gives a much higher level of sincerity to the works. The ultimate irony is that this project, Beautiful Fictions, is all about living in a post-truth society, and although these designs in the exhibition are all from the past, they have and still do blur the line between true and fake, potential and impossible - this is a defining fact of this century.
The role of technology within the exhibition, as well as our daily lives today, reinforces the potential to believe electronic devices more than other people, how accessible fake news is to us on the internet, and how fast it can spread across social media. Some works in Home Future touched upon this, such as this piece below. The traditional method of tapestry contradicts the imagery of a modern home, fixed with Google hubs and audio sensitive devises and record out every movement, in order to respond appropriately. The power of technology is a frightening catalyst of lies, disclosure and exposure in the post-truth world that we live in.
still taken from Cheng Ran's "Diary of a Madman".
Image of the interactive/immersive installation setup by Pipilotti Rist's "4th Floor to Mildness". Viewers were invited to get comfortable on the beds, and watch the video projections displayed on the ceiling above. This approach to enticing viewers was very effective, and unlike anything I have experienced - perhaps this modern method can relate to the topic of futurism, post-truth society and the concept of time.
Memories of the Future, Store X, 180 The Strand
still from Kahlil Joseph's "Fly Paper"
still from Wong Ping's "Jungle of Desire".
The 21 video and film installations on show at The Store X explore questions surrounding sense of time, history and the future. In much of the work, the juxtaposition between past and present is also harmoniously similar.
1968
1968 was a year of much political, social and environmental unrest. Students - particularly across Europe - took to protesting against the university systems because of limited job opportunities thereafter. In Paris, art and design students who felt frustrated and abused by the political and educational system turned their studios into propaganda production lines overnight. The following posters show their encouragement to take to the streets and protest the need for fairer opportunities after university, as well as in the working world.
École des Beaux Arts, 1968, "The continuing struggle"
École des Beaux Arts, 1968, "Beauty is in the Street".
“The posters produced by the Atelier Populaire are weapons in the service of the struggle and are an inseparable part of it. Their rightful place is in the centres of conflict, that is to say, in the streets and on the walls of the factories.” It was, to use one of their own slogans, art au service du people: art in the service of the people."
[http://www.artefactmagazine.com/2015/05/22/paris-1968-art-revolution/]
"Will he be unemployed?", 1968
"The radio lies, the press is poisonous", 1968.
"[In 1968] many students felt that a number of approaches to teaching, [for example] at the Brighton College of Art, were out of date. They were critical of what they perceived to be a wasteful under-use of equipment and complained of the inadequacy of the academic structures in place, particularly the lack of student representation".
"In a society seen as becoming noticeably wealthier, and in which technological advances were seen as potentially loosening the grip of manual labour on the masses and creating new opportunities for leisure, there was a great deal of interest in the ideas of personal freedom and self realisation, as well as protest against establishment values and authoritarianism. To some extent, the ferment in student politics of this period, particularly among students of art and design, can be seen as emerging from the extremely potent but potentially contradictory ideological influences of individualism, particularly the importance of individual creative expression, and collectivism as a means of changing the existing order."
"In May 1968, Hornsey College of Art was occupied by students, who barred the Principal from his office and ran a campaign for change from the occupied buildings. Actions were also undertaken at the Guildford School of Art and the College of Education, amongst other institutions."
In my research, although there are numerous sites that cover the basis of the student uprisings across the globe, this one document, and in particular page, epitomises why art and design students where at the forefront of these protests...
How artists and designers have dealt with ideas of the future in their work
Tomás Saraceno
"Argentinean artist Tomás Saraceno considers art as "a space to imagine possible futures. It's a necessity to really think about how we want to live." His experimental work encompasses utopian architectural proposals, inflatable sculptures and environmental installations that explore visionary ideas for a sustainable metropolis in the sky."
CoLLeCtioN oF FirSt anD seCoNd HaNd imAgEs as An iniTiaL ReFerEnCe PoiNt
[second hand image of the Glasgow underground]
[first hand image that I took of London, from a high angle]
IMPOSSIBLE IMAGES
GrOuP wOrK - process and development
Together, we began exploring experimental techniques that could encompass our newly envisioned environment. Combining our ideas, our group imagined space is dark, somewhat sinister, and a messy clash of urban and rural structures. Using the projector, which we turned into more of a lightbox tool, we explored layering images, as well as using acetate to project illustrations on top, and water to bring a new sort of texture to the piece. Eventually, we turned the water red to resemble blood, lending to our initial joint visualisation of a dark and dangerous place.
I really liked the effect of overlaying images, juxtaposing the relationship between natural and manmade structures in the environment. This, as well as playing around with the orientation and layout of the layered photographs helps make everyday locations and realistic spaces less ordinary, more imaginary and impossible [below].
Independently, I began investigating the potential of my camera to transform a single image, rather than using other physical and more elaborate techniques to change the image. With this photograph I took of London buildings from above [below], I manipulated the angle and position of the camera and printed photograph, in order to achieve this 3D impression. Ironically, this is almost the reverse of the project brief, as it makes the 2d, unrealistic version seem more realistic and lifelike.
BEFORE
AFTER
Another way of experimenting with depth of field and altered perspectives was by creating pop-ups from certain photographs and then placing them in front of various different background images. This photograph is a good example of how successful some of the results looked. I think, if we were to use two images that blended more in terms of colours, tone and scale, then the results would've looked more believable, despite ultimately being impossible situations.
[first hand photograph of an urban setting]
[first hand image of a sushi bar - I feel really inspired by the futuristic, robotic service of the conveyer belt food. My imagined space is really minimalistic yet modern]
[first hand image of the Berlin skyline]
ExPeRimENtinG wiTh ObJeCTs
After trying out many different ways to manipulate and alter the presentation of printed photographs to look like different spaces or impossible places, we began to think about how we could incorporate objects. Continuing with the sinister, dark and kind of spooky visualisation we had begun, we decided to draw on the impossible concept of everyday objects bleeding. Giving inanimate objects such a lifelike ability to bleed made them seem more human, and humans less so. I like the idea of this role reversal, and could continue to develop this as the project continues into next week and we progress individually.
The objects we used were first, a small tangerine, as the skin peeling kind of gorily mimics regular skin pealing on an exaggerated scale, as well as a small plastic police car. The car is a paradoxical idea - the vehicle that comes to investigate crimes and killings in this case could be either the criminal or the victim depending on how the viewer interprets the scene of the car and the blood, as if the vehicle is bleeding. I began to see how moving image could effect the narrative in comparison to still imagery, as watching the action unfold creates a narrative that is often very different to those that viewers imagine when they view a photograph. I want to develop my moving image skills, and independently could explore my impossible environment using film and video to make it seem more realistic.
GrOuP OuTcOmEs
At the end of the 12 hour overnight project, as a group we decided on presenting these 4 images, but as pairs accordingly. The two sets, we felt, presented our two styles of approach to the brief. In reflection, the next step would be to find a method of combining the two different ways we photographed the spaces and the objects, in order to create a cohesive and convincing presentation of the "impossible images".
[first hand photograph, taken on a bus]
[my room, the same type of organised mess that I envision in my imagines environment]
ReFLeCtiOnS
How have I found the 12 hour overnight project?
The twelve hour overnight project was certainly a challenge, but taught me perseverance and persistence, even in my most tired state. Exploring and investigating different creative techniques and experimental methods opened up the possibilities of how we could approach the task, and also deconstructed any preconceived ideas or plans we had to create specific visualisations. By doing this, I feel that we, both individually and as a group, really had to consider our concepts. I felt us slowly creeping towards sci-fi ideas - we were advised to stay away from this, and to instead ever so slightly tweak reality to make it subtly "impossible". I need to bare this in mind when developing the project individually. We produced quite a lot of work, and worked together to reduce and refine the best ideas - this was definitely a success of our group !
How important has it been for the relationships with the people I have worked with?
Our group, but also our whole class, are definitely more comfortable, closer together, and open to sharing ideas than before the Beautiful Fictions overnight project. One thing I really wanted to gain from this foundation course was connections with my peers, not only in a personal sense but in a way in which I feel I can cooperate and collaborate with them as fellow creatives in the future. This task was the greatest opportunity to bond, and discover our strengths as weaknesses as a body of likeminded artists/designers.
Would I do it again?
I would do this project, or style of 12 hour intensive work again, because I felt so focused - despite simultaneously being tired - and driven to explore the potential I could create in the constrained time limits. I enjoyed working with others in a context none of us would typically find ourselves in. If I were to do this again, however, I would try to go in with more force, and be more ambitious with the type of outcome we could've produced, for example film, video, or even interactive work.
How to I propose to develop the work as an individual, creating my own beautiful fiction and impossible image?
As next steps in progressing with the work we created during the intensive 12 hours, I plan to combine my initial stream of consciousness with the developed visualisations/work made as a group. Because I am really keen on improving my skill set, I want to make a moving image piece, perhaps with accompanying photographs that capture the mood, or edits that pull on the experimental techniques from before. I also think that video work, in this case, will help create a sense of the atmosphere and other sensory effects in the fictional space, giving the viewer a fuller impression of the place I am trying to create. With video, I can explore movement, sound, lighting, action, etc.
I propose to create a display of the dark environment I imagined when writing my stream of consciousness, but not dangerous or sinister as with the group work. I will perhaps shoot at night, as if it is day time, and during the day time as if it is night time. I could also experiment with reverse motion and unusual behaviour, reinforcing the unrealistic and "impossible" nature of the place I am trying to create. I should consider what the people (if I decide to include figures) will be wearing, what sounds I will record/include, where I will shoot in order to capture the sense of environment that I originally thought up, what time of day I will shoot, with whom, how I will edit, what visual effect I will use to subtly bring a sense of confusion or strangeness to the piece, and so on...