{"id":1433,"date":"2023-08-10T20:44:49","date_gmt":"2023-08-10T19:44:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/spaces.oca.ac.uk\/wallet6\/?p=1433"},"modified":"2023-08-10T20:44:49","modified_gmt":"2023-08-10T19:44:49","slug":"current-studio-practice-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/north-coast.space\/?p=1433","title":{"rendered":"Current Studio Practice"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This was my presentation<\/a> (https:\/\/spaces.oca.ac.uk\/wallet6\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/3554\/2023\/08\/Current-Studio-Practice-smaller-David-Wright.pptx), but not really how I presented it! I was expecting some people for another cohort, so I put in some background, but only one was present. I wrote a bit for the other cohort, and here it is, but I didn’t read it out, just improvised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

1 First Page<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Hi, I\u2019m David Wright, I\u2019m a retired physicist and passionate photographer.  In the MA I\u2019m continuing with photography, and also working with acrylic paint and forms of writing. I\u2019m showing my various workspaces;  Photoshop for editing and creating digital composites; an architect\u2019s table where I do my  work with paint and extraction poetry; a table on a train for reading, writing and observing; and another table, this time in a pub, again for reading and writing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cover Page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

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2 Themes, Context and Practice<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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At the beginning of the MA  I had no definitive idea of a theme for my practical work.  My background is in scientific research, which can seem very different from fine art, but I wanted to discover if there could be some overlaps.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had thought of using my photography and writing skills, maybe some others, to explore some themes in a fine art context.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of themes I have always been interested in time. Using photography on a beach, for example, an image can reflect the effects of different amounts of time passing, and on things related to the beach, as I walk on local beaches most days.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In the third week I was introduced to artists who championed the use of everyday objects and\/or events into their work, and Georges Perec  in particular challenged us to observe the \u2018infra-ordinary and the mundane in our daily lives. He also was interested in memories of simple events in the past. Perec\u2019s work particularly rang a bell with me as I had just discovered a wallet and box containing artefacts from a period in my life in the mid-1970s when I had spent a few years in Canada doing a MSc in Physics. Discovering the wallet was like Proust\u2019s character recalling a past interlude through tasting madeleines, and for me the wallet, its contents and a camera I bought at the time in Canada (and still use sometimes) gave me the material for exploring my interest in time, memory and photography in a different way. This is a new and exciting direction for me and one where most of my practice has been concerned in this module.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 In addition, I am concerned with various aspects of time. I have tried to show some of them in my work, but I think more research needs to be done to see if I can tease out any more interesting aspects. The wallet and box represent a large period of time in the 1970s, but photography can be used to portray much smaller \u2018slices\u2019 of time. There are so many factors here e.g. dogs on the beach, living in the now; abstract images concerning movement of dogs; minimalist images from very long exposures which obscure wave and cloud motion; small details produced by wave and tidal motion. I have done quite a bit of work on these \u2018beach and time\u2019 ideas prior to and during the course and I hope to explore these further at a later date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

3 Photoshop Composite Work<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Currently I am making composite digital images in Photoshop. I put images taken from artefacts in the wallet or the box on one layer, contemporary photos on another layer, and perhaps my MSc thesis pages on a third, as an example.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 I put each image on a new layer, then using masking techniques, produce selections of that layer, then employ different blending modes to introduce them to the other layers and get the desired combination.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

 Lubaina Himid says, “My work isn\u2019t about being distant and admired. It\u2019s about trying to broker a deal, open a conversation. It\u2019s not about making something that is grand and mysterious. There\u2019s plenty of mystery in the everyday. The more you know how something is put together, the more you can marvel at it, really. I want to make something that is sort of incredibly ordinary. And out of that comes some mysterious and special things<\/strong>.<\/em>“<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I wonder if that\u2019s what I am doing, creating something mysterious and intriguing out of quite ordinary artifacts? And what about my memories? And the change in memories and condition of the artifacts with time?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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4 Hybrid digital and analogue media and erasure\/extraction\/cut-out poetry<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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I wanted to progress from purely digital composite editing to a hybrid of digital and analogue work, so I began to use a gel plate to introduce some acrylic paint marks to the digital media.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have been experimenting with extraction\/erasure poetry, where I take my base text as a page from my MSc thesis and try to find new meanings from the dry, scientific text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently I have been using diluted acrylic inks on crumpled tissue paper to make collage paper, which is torn and place over the work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m always looking for new (to me) ways of exploring the infra-ordinary, such as writing overheard conversation snippets  or observing everyday scenes from my train journeys and memories of similar in the past. I\u2019d welcome any suggestions for broadening or improving my work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Addendum<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I’m putting in the single images from the 4th slide so they can be zoomed and seen better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Image 1 thesis page<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Image 2 Selected words<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Image 3 Selected Words and deselected, crossed out and highlighted<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Image 4 Selected Words protected with orange cardboard<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Image 5 Acrylic paint and pattern from a gel plate<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Image 6 Collage Paper added (Diluted acrylic ink on tissue paper)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Image 7 Selected words revealed<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Here are a couple of videos I made that cover my science thesis being driven to extraction,<\/p>\n\n\n\n