Thinking of the old punk flyposters or political activist posters that would just appear overnight in '70's/80's. These anti establishment posters had a do it yourself philosophy, carrying simple, direct messages - so with this in mind I chose two pics that I considered to be clear and eyecatching from a distance and used a 'litho' font (had an immediacy and hand-made feel to it).  Turned some of the pictures into posters and titled them 'ALTER URBAN SPACE,  as the simple, direct message and displayed them in various places, similar to a guerrilla poster campaign.



poster from the band CRASS from late '70's



I photographed the posters in various situations and then removed them.

Experimenting with pinhole photography.

Simple wooden box with small hole in front, using light sensitive paper and varying

exposure times for different effects.

                                    Such a simple method achieved some interesting results.

Decided to revisit kaleidoscope experiements(using metal box pipe), this time moving camera back from the pipe making the image clearer.  This means that it is easier to distinguish what has been altered by the effect of kaleidoscope.

Lisa's drawing pins.

 

Studio window.

 

I think being able to identify the objects in the image adds to the kaleidoscopic effect - you can uderstand the space that has been altered by looking though the pipe.

 

Went out to college car park and took some pics.

 

Cropped pics down to just the kaleidoscope view and enlarged.

 

Kept some of the images full format, think its interesting to see the two different perspectives of the same space.

 

 

 

Took photo's around town, graffiti, carparks, industrial estate, housing estates, town square etc.  Cropped most to the kaleidoscope image but kept some full format to allow comparison between the scene and the altered image through kaleidoscope.

Still working with shattered mirror -photoshopped mirror and some shots of college hallways

Thinking of David Creedon and his photo collection - Ghosts of the Faithful Departed -
where he has a series of derelict and deserted houses, each giving the viewer a glimpse of an ordinary, everyday life that no longer exists. Homes and belongings that to the inhabitant were of great significance and importance now just left abandonded and unwanted. Very thought provoking, sad but beautiful images.








With this theme in mind I decided to experiment with a similar theme - old photos - family snaps - and place them so they were visible through the cracks in the mirror, to show that these moments can never be recreated (people have grown older, some have died, some of the particular locations don't even exist anymore) like the shattered mirror, can never be reassembled.

Working again with shattererd mirror - I scanned the mirror into computer, and then tried out different effects.  Some interesting results -

Drew design of shattered mirror onto mdf and marked out for cutting

After cutting -a very uninteresting jigsaw puzzle!

 

Made a vacuum mold of some of the pieces. Nice crisps lines,  I like the

gridlike background, good contrast to the smooth shapes of the pieces.

 

 

 

Reassembled the piece and glued it to card to print

 

 

 

Artists using mirrors in their work -

 

MIRIAM BACKTROM - Smile As If We Have Already Won

A 12 metre wide 'tapestry' of broken mirror fragments - an entry for Artes Mundi contemporary art prize at National Museum of Art in Cardiff (Oct 2012)

So many planes to look at - light and reflections really interesting.





ANISH KAPOOR - Islamic Mirror

Looks like multi layers - depth

 Casting workshop - working with wax

used a button for pattern, pressed into clay mould and then poured in hot wax - allowed to dry.

Mike Fox was telling me about a sculpture by Anthony Gormley, where he uses the kaleidoscope qualities of polished box stainless steel.

We experimented with similar tube of steel - I took shots through the tube, interesting effects - square facets instead of triangular.

Continuing with facets and fractured images as seen through the kaleidoscope, I have experiemented with shattered glass - facets - giving a distorted image/view.

Collecting multiple items that have a reflective quality and mounted them in a frame to suggest a mirror - the varying and different reflections give a distorted view.

 

 

John Dahlsen - Australian installation artist - Primary Installation

 

 

these works are digital photos on canvas on the wall and the floor piece is made up of

found plastics.

 

 

Taking photos around the college stairways and hallways through the  kaleidocscope.

 

 

 

Discoverd that areas with less colour make more interesting images through the kaleidoscope. Colour split into small facets and replicated just overwhelms the overall effect - windows, lighting and light areas result in better finished images, clearer, crisper and less cluttered.

 

 

Exploring other ways to achieve multi faceted images.

 

 Reflective squares mounted on a board, each with varying tilt to distort image.

Two way picture - two different images, view first at one angle and tilt to view the other.