Second hand research (PROTESTS)

This is what a riot looks like, well, some of them do.

The riots at 30 Millbank

I intended on showing my support for the first protest against the rise in tuition fees, but i woke up unusually late and missed setting off with the rest of the gang. First thing i do in the morning is check the Guardian newspaper website, I'm not expecting anything, I'm not suspicious of anyone...

All over the news was these stories of riots in the centre of London, sorted.

I put on some clothes and ate a piece of bread, something like that, then i made my way to the chaos on my own. I was alone, but i wasn't really alone as the spirit of the protesting united us. I won't touch upon in much further, it didn't really connect with my print project until a week later when looking at some of the owl collages i had created.

They all looked awful angry and i had intended on creating character within them although at the time there was no purpose for their emotion. After witnessing the riots at 30 Millbank i wondered if i could create a mob of angry owls?

Here's some of the images i created, exploring the idea of owls as angry citizens being politically dissident.

Week 7

I realized there was something i enjoyed in creating owls from collaging composite owl parts, I'm able to manipulate their character and create narratives where they might belong. From producing the collages in todays lesson and the ones last week, i decided i would like to try to blend elements of owls and humans, making hybrid creatures, it's just a laugh, really. I think this one sort of reminds me of a wizard.

Week five

So this week, i decided to roll with the idea of studying endangered UK species and as i had already spent some time observing the owls at London zoo, i thought it would be a good idea to investigate the creatures a little further.

Although I'm fairly adamant on the final image being a freestanding aniaml that becomes apart of the street, or the street becomes its backdrop, i decided to draw various scenes and place an owl within it, for the hell of it.

Turned out to be a valuable exercise because it gave me loads of new ideas of how to approach the project, just be simply placing owls in different situations it led me to think of how i want to capture the creature and with what image making process i should use.

The collages below were produced on the day:

Breeding program

Since moving to London, It has come to my attention that their is sadly, a lack of interaction between the people who live here and british wildlife that had never come to mind whilst living in my hometown of Southport, on the north west coast of England.

I am by no means a ruralist but i do believe there is a great importance in all humans having regular interaction with nature and understanding that the world does not revolve around mankind. It is my view that it is important to understand ones relationship between human and animal and it is important to know how to respect them. Even such a simple act as growing a plant, caring for a domestic pet or spending time in a park could have a great effect on ones attitude towards living.

I am aware that there are young children being dubbed the 'concrete generation' because of their lack of interaction in their lifetime with nature, living exclusively in urban environments and shockingly, in some cases, believing food comes supermarkets. 

This is a very fascinating starting point for my print project, thinking about how i can in some way make the urban generation re-aware of nature through the addition of printed imagery in a street environment.

There are currently a number of native species in the UK that are endangered, of this list there are a few whose loss in number is due to their natural habitats being destroyed because of human activity, i am keen to focus on these and especially those that inhabit parts of London. This includes; red squirrels, greater mouse-eared bats and long-eared owls.

week four

Despite the title of this project being as broad and open-ended as it is, and the multitude of ideas that could be generated from brainstorming, i have found it difficult to respond to in a way that will keep me interested and curious enough to continue working on it. Im also aware of my desire to create something more than an attractive picture, i would like it to have meaning, even if it be communicating something evident that people choose to ignore.

As soon as i started the printmaking module i was certain on a few things that i had learnt from previous print making experiences that i was very keen to explore further.

Firstly, that i would like to work in a relief print method such as linocut/woodcut or investigate screenprinting techniques as i find these processes easier to understand and able to produce images that suit me, using layers of flat vibrant colors or incorporating the use of photographic images to create collage.

Secondly, that i have always been interested in print because it allows an image to be produced many times over without the quality differing, street artists use this to their advantage, especially when creating large wheatpaste posters that can be pasted to walls in the streets, by doing this many times, the artists is in no anxiety over where would be the best arena to showcase their work, they are free from this burden.

I may not be sure of what i want to communicate just yet, and Im not completely sure of the imagery, but i can be certain of the processes i would like to use, and i can be sure i would like to produce work that interacts with the street so im going to spend some time brainstorming and drawing from observation to gather ideas.

London Zoo

As the project title suggests, i need to consider zoo animals, this may or not be about communicating anything about animals. As someone suggested, the project could be about highlighting the enslavement of humans through poverty or capitalism perhaps. A trip was taken to draw from animals and in the process, hopefully find a topic i find interesting. The following photographs and drawings were produced on site.