...CONTINUED...

This document is for the display of my first terms work for my second year at

Camberwell College of Art and Design.

CONTENTS

- Shunt

- Reflection, planning and presentation

- D.I.Y

- Make something really big

- External group project

- Acme

- Evaluative report

ManifestoShunt is an extremely unpredictable and diverse environment. While on the outside it appears modest, perhaps even non existent, on the inside it reveals a hidden, lively, changing, dynamic place.It consists of individual parts that vary greatly, yet are able to somehow harmonise through their variety.It contains hand made, rustic and tangible elements.

s h u n tA project in collaboration with:

Louis Carter and Jade Mahoney

We began by focusing on the idea of shunt being a live venue and performance space. We initially wanted to use a 3D material to represent this and decided a good place to start might be by using boxes. We hoped boxes might evoke a sense of mystery and un-known that we wanted to attach to the club. So, we set about using isometric grid paper to lay out a three dimensional typeface which we hoped to create with, at that stage, a still unknown 3D material. A typeface seemed like the most suitable place for defining a whole brand as something that could provide continuity throughout.

With our 3D type layout, we experimented with physically constructing the typeface from a selection of wooden blocks. However, this proved to be expensive and time consuming, not to mention fairly unstable structurally when glued together, although we did get to experiment with the shadows created by the objects. We were ideally looking to try and make the type face out of metal but as you would expect this turned out to be extremely expensive.

Because of these impracticalities we began to look for other ways to try to create this 3d type and settled on using cinema4D to create the whole typeface virtually. This allowed us to move around and still take shots of the objects from all angles. We then traced over the letters to try and re-introduce the hand rendered feel we’d been looking for.

However, it was commented on that this type approach may have looked too “structural” which wasn’t a route we necessarily felt we wanted to take the branding down and had probably diverted too far from our original box concept. After talking amongst the group we decided to begin the typeface from scratch, this time opting to pursue the hidden idea more immediately. The most obvious way to achieve that was literally by hiding the typeface, which at first seemed paradoxical. To overcome this we took just the square surface of the box and placed them over a carefully selected typeface, “Basic”, a deriva-tion of “Futura”. In lowercase, it felt like a suitable, on the surface, simple, modest type which could represent the club.

In addition to this we wanted a changing recognisable image to accompany the type.We proposed a selection of square and rectangular shapes which would act as stencils to go over pictures of previous nights and events at shunt or any other picture of the cli-ents choosing. The shapes would move around each other into new positions for every new poster/flyer produced and provide a dynamic element for printed media.

The web site was produced in fairly basic html coding making it straight forward, easy to use and easily adaptable for any of the clients future additions. Again it developed the hidden and dynamic theme used through the other areas of our branding. Upon arriving at the index page you’re greeted with a selection of moving images. Each film clip shows looped footage of previous shunt events, happenings and installations. Interaction from the user by rolling over the film clips with the mouse reveals that they have the ability to stop the clip and that placed underneath some of the videos are different links to areas of the site containing information about the club. Responsibility is placed on the user to hunt down and find each of the links to find the information while in the mean time be-ing shown what shunt has on offer.

It can be viewed online at www.thomasjwpayne.com/SHUNT/index.html

n.b: this URL is case sensitive.

The Reality of Perception and Technology

Reality is the world or the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic or notional idea of

them. It is a thing that is actually experienced or seen; a thing that exists in fact. There are however numerous

routes to perceive reality; perception being the ability to see, hear or become aware of something through the

senses.

We should for the sake of argument assume that the world around us is ‘real’. Perception, relating to the

self of an individual, means we all experience this real differently, each person witnessing it from a subjective

perspective.

Since its conception art and design has pursued the capture of reality using whatever method appropriate

to make as accurate a depiction of an object, situation or concept, as possible. Technology has aided it in this

pursuit and as new tools and equipment have become available, so we have been able to capture reality with

increasing ease and in ever more detail.

Jean Baudrillard puts forward in various articles, his theory of hyper reality, the idea that we are now

surrounded by so many forms of media, all projecting an often utopian version of captured reality, that we

create an alternative reality which we are unable to distinguish from real life.

This new world provides a sort of escapism, a way of hiding from reality. Which is becoming increasingly

easy to do. Of course it is understandable to expect us to want to live utopian, which is perhaps why we

choose them. On the other hand the media projection might be so unavoidable and overwhelming that we have

no other option but to live in the world that it’s projecting. The common understanding of hyper reality can

be seen through people who watch soap operas developing an interpersonal relationship with the characters

of the soap as well as the writers. People contrast their less exaggerated lives with the hyperbole story lines

of the soap expecting to live in a more extreme way like the lives they’ve seen on tv. In a similar way the

celebrities in the soaps themselves live a hyper reality where an entourage of people take care of the everyday

hardships and tribulations they would normally face.

The hyper real can also distort concepts. God for example, is based entirely in a conceptual realm. In many

major religions it’s indeed seen as blasphemous for people to replicate images of god. None the less, such is

human natures need to try and understand, that in many cases divine images were produced. Immediately

one person’s opinion of a metaphysical idea becomes the hyper real in a tactile world. God is maybe not the

elderly, white haired, bushy bearded man that is so commonly perceived. In a similar way the cold war was

another example that illustrates this idea. Here the idea of war is purely a concept. Although it had two

opposing sides as with any other war, no actual fighting took place. The medias ability to exaggerate however,

created palpable feeling of war in the traditional sense.

It’s an unavoidable consequence of the media driven age that we live in, where due to the more refined

methods for capturing the real world the hyper real becomes even more real than it once was. The invention

of the camera undoubtedly made the biggest leap in terms of capturing the real. The camera itself is a

three-dimensional object. It holds the ability to take and frame a split second of an individual perspective of

what’s going on in the real world. The video camera was a development on this taking the two dimensional

aspect of the still and adding a third dimension of time through the sequencing of still images. Initially

these, as all art before it did, acted as a means of documentation. A form of documentation that was far

more accurate than any form before it. On the surface also, documenting through a lens appears completely

legitimate unbiased and impartial. However, again as with all art forms before it, the subjective nature of it

causes peoples perception and methods for communicating to change. Experimentation takes places, taking

away from the documenting and building on the technology as an art form, resulting in often thought

provoking work, changing the perception of that reality. This is particularly potent in the modern day, with

major developments in computer programmes and digital imaging equipment. The more advanced digital

cameras capture scenes in several million pixels of quality, which we can import into programs to examine

and manipulate. The high resolution and quality of the images has reached such a level that we’re able to

see things in everyday situations that would not be seen by even the sharpest of human eyes. We only have

to look at the close analysis and examination by celebrity magazines of the celebrities they follow. Computer

programs have also allowed us to manipulate the images, radically distorting them and in turn distorting

the reality they originally captured. This creates a whole new realm of possibility, as although in many

cases computers are used to manipulate images in order to recreate methods that could already be used in

photography, many other uses are completely original creating a sort of new age digital hyper realism. This

often produces scenes with elements that have vaguely recognisable real life elements that we can understand

and relate to but have been distorted to create something unusual, perhaps abstract and completely fictional.

This is of course continued through to the medium of the moving image, which like the still image can now

be totally morphed and adapted. In many cases, 3d motion computer assisted design can produced 3d sets of

real life situations within a computer. Using these sets the director can choose any number of camera angles

and view what is supposedly a non-real happening from any number of points of view. The sets themselves

and the ability to view any angle of them with such ease, abstracts what we would be capable of in the real

world.

Because of aspects like this, it seems that we’re increasingly finding ourselves in a digital realm. Video

games seem to provide the most immediately satisfying version of hyperrealism. The games themselves

provide the alternative worlds with the consoles providing the methods for interaction. The Nintendo Wii

being the most obvious commercial example where users actions in real space correlate to their actions in

the hyper real space of the game. This idea is of course continued in amusement arcades where you might

find racing games with real race cockpits or shooting games with real aiming guns. Its games like these that

were undoubtedly the first to offer a truely interactive element, and especially a digital interactive element.

Interactivity seems to be something that becomes increasingly important in reflecting how we would interact

with objects in a real world. It is certain that as games continue to develop they’ll push the boundaries of how

we are able to interact with them, what elements of reality they can simulate and which of our senses they

can affect to attempt to completely immerse ourselves in their hyper reality.

However, I feel this is not the most significant digital realm. Undoubtedly the most rapidly accessible and

expanding digital reality would be the Internet. It has provided a world (web) in which people can extend the

lives they live in the real. Strangely though, the Internet has no actual substance. It’s hard to pin point exactly

what it’s made of or attribute it to a single material thing in the same way that we attribute the CD to the

game or the hard drive and digital camera to the digital image. Despite its meta-physicality many people still

value it equally to, if not more than, their spatial lives. There are numerous examples of people completely

immersing their selves in this hyper real lifestyle. Since the development of web 2.0 the Internet has become

a more open dynamic world, with emphasis shifting from the use of commerce and trade to a means for

discussion and communication and the progression of “open source” facilities. This move has created a far

more social environment. Although it isn’t simulating interaction, the Internet provides the link for people

living in two separate points of reality to transcend and begin a whole new reality. This has lead to people

living their whole lives on the Internet, as an alternative to the real world. Strangely the type of reality

they’re living in is, although digital, seemingly trying to replicate the reality they actually exist in. They still

talk to people in the real world not to mention find out about facts, happenings and future events that will take

place in the real world. Images, videos and 3d tours on the web even allow a sort of removed experience of

the real world. These experiences however, are never quite the same as they would be in reality.

Sculpture and architecture are prime examples of things that do exist in reality. Because of this we can

touch and feel them, smell them perhaps even taste them. These are the crucial senses, which for the purpose

of art, technology has not been able to recreate. We have to resort to raw materials and careful structure.

It makes it harder to distort these experiences, as they are always real in the truest sense of the term. For

example, if we were to put our hand in a flame we would feel a sensation of extreme heat. Technology has not

yet been able to replicate or distort this feeling, to make the flame feel cold. In the same way, the digital world

has not been able to achieve a visibly rough surface having a smooth touch. This is not to say this will always

be the case, however.

Having said all this, though, we can still distort our perceptions in the real world. I find distortions of the

real to be potentially the most worrying as well as the most interesting. To get ourselves through the day

on a regular basis we have to assume, as I stated at the start of this essay, that everything around us is indeed

real; that we are, infact, living in the truest sense of reality. Through repetition and regularity of natural laws

that appear to be in place, what I assume to be reality has a sense of satisfying this belief. When things begin

to show otherwise however, it is hard to know what to believe, and more importantly, what I can trust. Some

of Bridget Riley work is an example of this, using patterns to create visual illusions, such as the appearance

of a three dimensions using only two dimensions.

“Hallucinations” is term we would use to describe these distortions of reality and for this reason

hallucinogenic drugs have been a frequent source of inspiration for many in the art world. The 1960’s,

especially, was a period where artists such as Riley documented the idea of hallucinations in art heavily. The

drugs would allow a dramatic change in perception and experience of things otherwise unexperiencable. They

would in themselves provide a new reality and provide a ground on which you could question the weight of

existing reality. The scientific production and synthesis of LSD and any other man made hallucinogenics are

the closest technology has come to providing a complete change in perception of reality through out all the

senses. In this way we could consider them works of art in themselves. However they often lack the control

and direction that tends to be a requirement of art. We could argue that in one way the user becomes the

artist themselves, creating things driven by their mind and their mind alone. On the other hand however,

the drugs access and affect the body and mind on such an unconscious level that it’s hard to claim the user

is actually in control. A more fascinating example might be that of mental illness, where the brain is able to

create hallucinations without the consumption of drugs. I image in these scenarios it would be difficult, if not

sometimes impossible, to know what to believe as real.

Other than sculpture, which some may argue is not strictly a technology; the only other mechanical

development that I feel has really captured real life anywhere near successfully is the analogue camera.

The ability to take the real and hold it visibly on a completely different substance, in this case film, seems

to produce a certain quality which helps establish a relationship with people as something that also exists

in space, just as they do. It also seems to produce a higher level of trust as something that’s far harder to

manipulate. It is, of course, still possible to distort the images and play with light to produce distorted,

psychedelic and unusual pictures but in a way this is no different to the distorted experiences we sometimes go

through in life, or the effects of hallucinations from certain drugs. These images can be reproduced into hard

copies many hundreds of times, expanding the real world, captured in a two-dimensional frame but still very

real and tangible.

It is only really in the last 150 years that we’ve begun to see mechanics start to play a part in the role

of art, as the technology to image make and communicate has become available. However, in that time it

has increased its ability to simulate the real world and I believe will continue to do this until we become

satisfied enough with the simulations. When we are able to switch between two realities maybe this will

help us to appreciate the real world and the seriousness of its events all the more.

With this project i tried to bear in mind the size of the exhibition space we’d found for our end of year exhibition at area 10 in Peckham. I felt this project would be the perfect excuse to try something fairly new and experimental as well something that could pro-duce a fairly large scale piece of work.

Having also recently bought a new car which I intended to travel round Europe in over the summer I saw it as an even better excuse to try and incorporate it into a piece of work in some way. This was especially useful considering the good condition white exte-rior surface of the car which immediately drew me towards the idea of attempting some sort of illustration over the top.

From here it became an experiment in trying to apply a 2 dimensional image to a 3 di-mensional object. I hoped that by doing this I might be able to heighten the relationship between the 2 dimensional image and audience by attaching it to something more physi-cal and easier to relate to, although really i had no idea what the result would be.

In order to apply an image to the surface accurately i needed to create a structure to work from, so I set about applying a grid to the car using masking tape to mark off 10cm x 10 cm boxes.

As it turned out, the total width was 26 boxes wide and 32 boxes in length. The red ar-eas in the grid below represent the non existent areas of the sheet due to the bending corners of the car. On these corners some of the boxes became unavoidably distorted across the car surface. The green areas on the grid opposite represent the window coor-dinates which i intended to avoid painting across so as not to affect the cars functional-ity.

The image I settled on was a two tone version of a finger pointing, directing the car for-wards. On a relatively unplanned journey i felt it would be comforting to know there was some form of guidance leading me in the right direction. Naturally, because of the grid-ded structure, it appeared sort of pixilated. The next stage was applying the image to the grid and eventually the cars surface.

The end result has so far produced a fairly abstract conclusion. I intend on contrasting the car with a original 2 dimensional version in the exhibition to retain some clarity in the meaning behind what exactly is on the car. I’m also still toying with the idea of adding triangles to the unused squares to try and fill the image and car surface a bit more.

In a group with twelve other people, we chose to take this brief extremely literally and tried to take advantage of the large number of people we had. We attempted to make a moving image projector using members of the group as the operating component parts, quite literally making a really big video. Given the basic construction and make up of the machine we chose the “Muybridge horse” as the content of our projection to reflect an equally basic animation. The fruit of our labour produced what I feel is a multi dimen-sional outcome, with numerous angles to it. The main one for me being the relationship between people and film.

The animation can be found on my blog by searching for “in french”.

n.b: www.thomasjwpayne.com/blog

My group saw the external group project as a chance to experiment with something new that none of us had any real experience of. Eventually we settled on attempting to selectively clean a design into dirty areas, something none of us had done before. We planned on using hydrochloric acid as cleaning detergent and laser cut Perspex hexago-nal stencils to clean a honey comb pattern into dirty surfaces. The hope was, the series of hexagons would symbolise us working together as a group and coming together as designers. We expected the outcome would be a series of expanding honey combs at either one site or maybe even in a variety of situations.

Due to the corrosive nature of the hydrochloric acid we were working with, we were careful to take safety precautions using suits gloves, goggles and protective masks.

We proceeded to decant the acid into hand held plastic bottles so we could squirt it into the stencils and make the cleaning process more portable.

And so we tested a variety of different areas to try and find out which surfaces would work best and what the best method for cleaning would actually be.

Eventually we settled on a area of pavement opposite college using scouring pads to rub a small amount of the detergent into the surface and then forcefully applied buckets of water to remove the lifted off dirt and wash it away.

As you can see, the honey comb expands over the pavement invading the pedestrian space creating a curious pattern across the floor. It appears to be fairly abstract and un-usual.

The current Acme Fonts brand seems very clinical and predictable of what i think a lot of graphic designers expect typography to be. I felt language and type should be more playful and physical, an idea I tried to communicate in this poster design.

Evaluative Report

Over the course of the last year I’ve tried not to pigeon hole the area of design I work in, instead opting to

experiment with a wide variety of areas. It was around the turn of the year however, that I became compelled

to explore the Internet and designing for the web. This eventually led to the completion of my second year

web site, thomasjwpayne.com, that I spent a majority of last term creating, scripting and designing. It was

the technical ability to do things like this that I had always admired and wanted to understand myself, as, like

many people, I’ve had a fascination with computers and what they are capable of. However, although learning

about this was extremely insightful and interesting, I don’t feel it’s an area I necessarily want to pursue any

further. In many ways it’s been an extremely useful skill to develop but I feel in retrospect my time would have

been considerably better-spent working with more traditional methods of design, which I feel I’ve neglected

since last year, if not since foundation. I imagine it’s these traditional methods that would in the long run be

more useful to my overall understanding of design. In some instances, I would go as far as to say that I now

find working with web design actually fairly boring.

I feel as well that it’s always been the case that I’ve been more interested in the media and method of

communication than the content of what I’m actually communicating. Although the media is half the

message, if not more, I think I still need to explore and develop how I execute my content delivery. Next

term I hope to focus a bit more on my drawing and illustration ability as I feel it’s a skill I’m losing my grasp

of.

In terms of final outcomes, I think some of the things I produced this term could have benefitted from

a more 3 dimensional finish. The shunt project in particular I would have liked to try and produce the 3d

typographic sculptures I originally intended on. In this instance we were restricted by our financial situation

but 3d type is something I’ve always been interested in and will bear our intentions with this project in mind

for future work.

I also regret having not worked in groups more over the last term. What experience I did have of working

with groups seemed to produce mixed results. On the one hand my external group project I felt lacked a

conclusion although it produced a great deal of thought and ideas through the process of getting to what

we eventually did, which was definitely positive. Working with my group on the “in French” video, however,

turned out to be extremely rewarding. In both cases however, I feel I learned valuable lessons in listening and

developing ideas. These were the only real chances I felt I had of being able to collaborate with a “group” in

the truest sense. Where I was unsure about what I thought would be a loss of my control and decision making

I now appreciate the easing of responsibility and variety of ideas and opinions groups can produce. Its likely I

would have got to finish some projects I didn’t have time to attempt, had I have tried to approach them with a

group.