We had a workshop with Yulia Makeyeva in which we learnt about a few different sewing patterns and working with different materials such as fabrics, rope and textiles etc.
The goal was to create a GIF from different images taken in different points of the process. Our pieces were made from the wall display canvas from our trip to the Jersey Museum before the summer about Identity and Community.
I chose a few different snippets and worked with an Alien card for people immigrating to Jersey, a image from the Warsaw Arsenal and a memorial. I cut out the image of the person on the Alien card and replaced it with a different woman’s face. I then stitched the words Warsaw Arsenal and Memorial onto the image so that it looked messy and barely attached. I then cut a gap for some of the memorial to come through. Then I attached the different cut outs and had my final piece.
Below are the 5 images taken of my tapestry with some other images showing the rough steps I took to create a GIF.
Below is my final outcome of my tapestry in GIF form.
The Bayeux Tapestry is an embroided cloth nearly 70 metres long by 50 centimetres tall that tells the story of the Norman conquest of England including William, Duke of Normandy, and Harold, Earl of Wessex, who became King of England, and battling at the Battle of Hastings.
It tells the story of the events surrounding the conquest of England in 1066 by the Duke of Normandy. Crossing the sea in longships, long cavalcades on horseback, shields and coats of mail, fantastic creatures and battlefields.
It is a prime example of 11th century Romanesque art, which was commissioned by Bishop Odo, William the Conqueror’s half-brother, to go in his newly-built cathedral in Bayeux in 1077.
Lucy Poskitt
Lucy Poskitt is a Canadian textile artist living and working in Victoria, British Columbia. She studied the Interdisciplinary Program of the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design University in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Lucy combines traditional techniques with non-traditional methods in her art. She creates panels of work with different colours, textures, sizes and styles and is inspired by surrounding landscapes. She focuses on emphasising deep and powerful geological formations with different methods.
As you can see in the image above, Lucy Poskitt emphasises geological formations, in this case a glacier. She makes use of very natural colours and contrasts dark with light creating drama found in photos in her textile art.
The project we are completing is about NFT’s (non fungible-token) and once in groups we have to create a 30 second video and still image in groups. The NFT’s will be produced and sold using a crypto currency known as Ethereum. The NFT project is part of the 2Lives exhibition project in St Helier. The Question we are basing our NFT projects on is below.
What will the future of Jersey look like as a community in the metaverse?
For the NFT group project, we got into groups of 4 and started thinking and putting ideas onto a piece of paper. We then turned the ideas into a mind map which is shown below. The mind map is about different communities and how they are everywhere in everyday life.
Mind Map
Me and my group created a mind map about community. We suggested large community groups of online which includes video games. Also we included students which links to school, class and friend groups. We added local community which links in with race and religion and the socially diverse communities filled with people from different places of different religions, races and languages. We added photography as we are part of the Hautlieu school photography community as well as the Jersey, UK and world photography community. Next we have music which links to listening to music at concerts, festivals and at home or with others and performing in front of people in person or online. Finally we have sports which links to watching your favourite team, country and player or playing it with family or friends casually or playing professionally for a team or country. Communities are extremely important for finding and spending time with people who share the same interests, hobbies or passions for the same thing you do. Communities can be with people of the same race, religion or language aswell as being with people who share passion for sports, music or even video games.
Mood Board
Below we created a mood board of different things we think will work well in relation to the NFT project. We gathered images showing connection through social media and the internet over different places in the world. We also added photos of a movie called Ready Player One which is about video games and how they real life is Dystopian where people worry about overpopulation and problems however once they are in the “Oasis” they leave all of their problems behind. They go from being in a Dystopian reality to a Utopian one in which they can be whoever they want, do whatever they want how they want to. The Oasis takes over their life and distracts them from their own lives. We gathered photos of VR (virtual reality) as it will be referenced in our nft final product.
Statement of Intent
As a group, we are looking at the theme of community in reference to an online vs offline persona. This links to the idea of a singular person living two lives in two different worlds.
What will the future of Jersey look like as a community in the metaverse?
3 words– Diverse, futuristic and advanced
A sentence – Jersey will be both advanced and diverse with people coming from different backgrounds creating communities to express themselves.
A paragraph – Jersey will provide space for people who come from different places, speak different language and believe in what they want to express themselves as they want. It is both futuristic and modern with a constant temperature and futuristic technologies. People will use screens instead of connecting in person as life has changed and people can do everything from their homes.
Content – How will you make your film?
Our 30-second film will be very visual, so we will be using mostly photo and video responses, video recordings, animation, analogue/ digital montages to create a story about the online and offline community of St Helier. The use of audio and sound effects would be impactful to exaggerate actions in the video, and possibly some loyalty free music. We plan to animate some parts of the video to represent the online world, where as the other half we plan to meet up and record some scenes based off the storyboard
Trevor Jones is a Scotland based artist and is one of the leading names in the crypto art medium. His first NFT sold for $10,000 and has the highest selling NFT with his The Bitcoin Bull
The Bitcoin Bull – Gold ($2,500)
The Bitcoin Bull ($55,000)
The Bitcoin Bull – Silver ($750)
The Bitcoin Bull – Bronze ($200)
Over his career Trevor Jones has created 4,167 NFT’s resulting in nearly $3.3 million. Jones used a very clever tactic to get people to purchase his artwork. He charged $777 for a open artwork that entered everyone who bought into a draw for a 1/1 Connor McGregor artwork.
Analysis – The Bitcoin Bull
The Bitcoin Bull is a piece of moving artwork that shows the pieces of a bull tearing apart and then coming back together. The Bull is made from different things that look like they have been cut and pasted from different forms of media. There is a bitcoin symbol and twitter logo that are seen when the bull is in movement. The Bull then starts breathing and kicking up dust and scrapes it’s foot along the ground. The colours are quite bland but a diverse range of different shades of similar colours. Finally a man is seen to pull apart the bull and draws the outline of a bull when it is suddenly brought back together.
Beeple
Michael Joseph Winkelmann, known professionally as Beeple, is an American digital artist, graphic designer, and animator. He is known for using various ways to make different works that makes political, social commentary while using pop culture figures as references. Beeple sold an NFT for $69 million and is shown below. It started at $100 at auction and after a 2 week sale, reached $69 million.
The piece above is called The First 5000 days and contains an image a day Beeple has been posting online every day since 2007. The piece contains 5000 images that from far out are seen as a collage however up close they are seen like this.
STORY: What is your migrant community story? Describe in:
3 words – A migrant community
A sentence – The migrant communities of Jersey.
A paragraph – This work shows the variety and vastness of the communities we have in Jersey including sub communities and groups that link with different hobbies or beliefs.
NARRATIVE: How will you tell your story?
I will tell the story through my images I have taken on walks through St Helier which have been arranged to show/ tell different stories and show opposition.
AUDIENCE: Who is it for?
My Zine will be aimed for anyone who is part of a community in Jersey to show that communities effect identity which include both personal identity, and social identity.
Images here
THEME OR STORY
I have used an image of a mural for my front cover with a French title La Vielle Ville which translates to the old town. The main theme of the zine will be revolving around how wide communities are and how many people are part of them.
The start of the zine will be revolving around natural vs artificial light and will be images from the museum trip. There will be a few images from the trip.
Next I will start to show the communities of Jersey and show how creative and unique the outcome from different communities are showing some art in town.
Next I will show the different members of communities through images and imagination. I will show comparisons from young and creative, to old and old fashioned.
I then want to show how old communities are and how communities are creative again. I will compare signs from different places through town showing building names and graffiti artwork. This shows younger communities and how we are creating our own signs and world around us.
Using Indesign, I have created a zine of the images I took over the two photography walks in town linked to identity and community. I have also used titles and a variety of images to link to identity and community.
I think the group of images above work well together because they reference different parts of society. The old car references the elderly and that the elderly are still part of the community. The image of the man with the guitar references music as a part of linking people together. The three pairs of shoes represent the idea of family and how a family is like a community. And the man holding the bin bags references the idea of working and providing for his family and community.
The group of images above work well together because they are candid photographs that show people in there natural environment. I like how people look when photographed without knowing so they don’t have to act in a certain way for the photo.
I grouped the images above together because the two images on the left are both old lanterns and have a good luminance and create a nice glow. I grouped the two images on the right together because they both have similar colourways and together, the two sets of images represent the idea of blue and cold looking images versus orange warm looking images.
I grouped the images above together because they all have good contrasts in bright light and dark shadows and colours.
The images above are all of writing on walls and i like the grouping of the old writing (top left) the new writing (top right), the illegal writing (bottom left) and the new but weathered writing (bottom right).
I grouped the images above together because they both use similar colour schemes and also both are artwork on walls.
Actual Design
I named the zine La Vielle Ville which translates to the old town from French linking to Jersey’s French and Jerriais (Jersey French) heritage. I also used an image of an old mural near the Jersey museum in Le Chemin Du Bel.
I chose to group the two images above because they both have shimmers from the light. They also oppose each other as the image on the left is very colourless and contains natural light versus the other image is artificial light and has a warm colour.
I chose to use the image above as a two page spread as the spine of the book where it folds is in the middle and looks like two different photos.
I grouped the images above as they both use the same colourway and are both murals on walls.
I grouped the two images on the left as they both relate to community. I grouped the images on the right as the one at the top is an old beer brewery and the image on the bottom right is an image of the Admiral which is a pub and links to beer.
How do Archives Function as Repositories of Knowledge?
An archive is a collection of documents useful for explaining and or giving an insight into what events, people or departments were involved in specific things relevant to history. The Jersey archive was established in 1873 as well as the museum and library. It is a unique collection of information. The Jersey Archives has collected over 250,000 records from the government and parishes. The Archive holds documents from 1378 to present day. The Jersey Archive contains information that can be accessed online. This includes records from Churches, Civil Registers, the German Occupation, Court Records, the Government and even Care Records. The range and availability of the information gives a key insight into the day to day life in Jersey throughout different periods in history.
An archive contains information that provide history, knowledge about the history and power of knowledge. A singular photo in an archive is useless however it is extremely useful if it has context that helps gain knowledge about the content of the photo. Photos are extremely useful as they provide a snapshot of a mere moment in time. For example, the Archive has over 31,000 registration cards from people who lived through the German Occupation of Jersey during World War 2. The Archive holds criminal records as well as court records showing what criminal offence had taken place and what punishment was given in turn for the offence.
William Collie was an Immigrant from Scotland and came to Jersey in the late 1840s. He used to dress his family up as French Women but in fact they were made to look like something they weren’t. He created his images using a process called calotype. In this process a piece of paper is coated with silver iodide and then silver nitrate in a dark room. After dry it is exposed to light creating the image.
Collies image was taken 174 years ago and has kept its detail quite well. It shows a woman in a dress with some baskets and pots next to her which can all be seen clearly. However the image is quite faded which can be linked to it being very old. The image even picks up details like the lines on the woman’s dress. Overall this image is important at seeing what life was like back then and can be used to date one of the first recorded images to be taken in Jersey.
The Jersey Archive has 157 photographs from Collie most are portraits however, a few are dated between 1845 – 1880 which are the furthest back surviving photographs taken of Jersey. However, the 157 images the Jersey Archive have of his aren’t accessible online. He also has some landscape photos including a photo of Mont Orgueil Castle and one of Queens road. These photos alone are useless but when put in series with current photos showing change of people, structures, landscapes and technology are extremely useful.
Thomas Sutton was another photographer who spent time in the UK and France before coming to Jersey. Sutton was a pioneer through the 1800’s and developed new camera equipment and photo techniques. Sutton is better known as the first colour photographer and typically focused on landscape.
Emile Guiton was a photographer in Jersey between 1910 and 1950. He is well known for producing one of the first colour images of Jersey. This provides knowledge and social memory of how the world was when he took the photos of Jersey.
Photography dates back to 1839 however photographic salts were being used from 1790 onwards to capture images. The chemicals used were sodium chloride and silver iodine and this basic process created mercury vapours which were later found out to be dangerous. The original shutter speed of the camera was 30 minutes meaning the image would be blurry unless an object was being photographed.
The next type of photography used a paper negative so to get a large picture you needed a large negative. For this process silver bromide was used with an egg white to capture the images. Later on a gelatine dry plate was used in 1878 which made the image last longer.
When at the Archives we were reminded of a Roman phrase which talks about memory and knowledge “immortal memory is held in archive”. This proves that knowledge lasts lifetimes. This phrase can be used to judge how well archives to as a repository of knowledge. The Roman phrase was archived and now it can be read and understood today. Archives are clearly vital to the understanding how things happened at a certain time in history. They also help with understanding how technology has developed and how far we have come since the photo was taken. Archives help us find out information about our family history and where we came from and why but mainly they bridge the link between where we are today and how we got here.
Overall I believe archives are a great repository of knowledge and provide knowledge by giving us an insight into life when a photo was taken. The photos from the archive could help me with a project ide like comparing an old photo to a new one or merging them to create a past vs present image group.
When we went to the archives to learn about what archives contain and are, we also went on a second walk around town. We went to places linked to the French quarter of the Community.
Filter Through Images
From the 395 images taken on the walk, I chose to flag 68 of the best to then choose a few for my final outcomes.
I then went on light room and gave each of the remaining 68 images a colour. Either green for the best, yellow for the ones I am unsure about and finally red for the ones I will not use.
From the 68 images I flagged as good, I only gave either green or yellow to less than half of them leaving 30 to be looked at further and finalized. I chose to use the 13 images I rated as green that would be edited and used as the best from the photo shoot.
Before and After Edits
To edit the original image above, I cropped and aligned the image before adding the photo colour preset vivid to the image. This preset added drama to the clouds making them slightly blue and much more distinct. Next I slightly lowered the exposure bringing out the details in the highlights. I then increased the contrast making the blacks darker and whites lighter creating a deeper sense of drama in the image. I then lowered the highlights as I felt that the image was too bright and the clouds didn’t have a lot of detail because of the brightness. I then increased the dehaze removing the foggy feel of the clouds bringing out a contrast between the blue window and red sky. Finally I increased clarity slightly to make the clouds more vivid and dramatic.
To edit the image above, I cropped the image so that the image was aligned with the pole to the right of the image. I also changed the colour preset to vivid to bring out the harsh blacks and bright whites to contrast each other. It also gives the plants a deeper green and flowers brighter yellow. I also slightly lowered the exposure to bring out the finer details and increased the contrast to make the blacks darker and whites lighter.
To edit the image above, I first cropped the image so that the figure was central and was the only focal point. I next applied the vivid filter to bring out the diverse colours and slightly played around with the temperature. I then increased the contrast and played around with exposure. I then decreased highlights slightly and played around with the hue and saturation of all the colours to make them pop more. Finally, I increased clarity to make the contrast between the colours sharp and precise.
On Monday the 7th June we met at the Jersey Museum so that we could see the last day of the exhibition to do with Identity and Community. The exhibition was to do with the history of immigration from different parts of the world and the stories behind those who came here. This included historical information from the 1800 – 1900’s and information from the first and Second World War. The idea of the exhibition was to hear the stories from people who came 500 years ago or 5 years ago and how ‘People make Jersey’. We went to the exhibit at 9 am on Monday the 7th to see the last day of the exhibit before it was taken down.
The exhibit had information about settlers in Jersey spanning from recent settlers and settlers up to 7,000 years ago.
Above I have grouped the images I took at the museum showing the idea of identity and backgrounds of people in Jersey. I took photos of some of the people of Jersey talking about their heritage but also examples of how the non-native people were treated. To the bottom right of the images above, there are small coloured cars given to people coming to Jersey to live called “Alien Cards”.
Above I have grouped images I took of maps new vs old and examples of old publications. It shows a newspaper and book as well as a map of France and England showing where the origins of “Jersey” names come from. I am interested by the maps as it shows how much we have changed the layout of St Helier. It is also interesting that we have reclaimed land and built more space for Jersey to spread and thrive.
Finally, above I grouped photos that were historical items you wouldn’t see now for example a pair of old clogs, old money, an old accordion, an old crown and finally a stone age flint tool. This shows the diversity in the past of Jersey and how it was influenced by people who came from many different places.
My Images
After taking photos inside the museum, we moved on to take photos in town to look at the different sections of town that were for the different migrant communities. On the first walk we went on, we went from the Jersey Museum to the St Helier Church.
Lightroom
From the 400 images I took on the first photo shoot, I only flagged 51 that I liked and may wanted to use. I then filtered them down into red green and yellow. I only edited the yellow and green rated images. This left me with a final 16 images to edit.
To edit the image above, I applied the vivid colour filter and increased vibrance/ hue slightly to make the colours more vivid.
Artist Inspirations – Niall McDiarmid
Who is Niall McDiarmid?
Niall McDiarmid is a Scottish photographer and he mainly documents the people and landscape of Britain. McDiarmid was born in 1967 in Scotland and over his photography career has had his work shown at the Museum of London, Bristol and the National Portrait Gallery in London.
Mood Board
McDiarmid positioned the subjects to be in the centre and slightly to the right of centre. The camera is also zoomed out slightly so we can still see the facial expression of the main subject but also the background of the natural street showing people doing their own things.
The subject is being naturally lit but some parts of the image are quite dark. The colour yellow is used as a form of repetition in the image and appears multiple times. Firstly the subject is wearing a yellow jumper. He also appears to have yellow tobacco and another box that is yellow. The van behind him is yellow and the flag behind him is also yellow. I believe this repetition is used to show how the subject is different from other people who aren’t wearing yellow in the background behind him.
Idris Khan is a British artist based in London who takes different social and political constructed and creates densely layered images from them. I like the way he does this because it resembles a ghostly image or a piece of art that has many construction lines.
My First Interpretation
For my first interpretation, I duplicated the tower and copied it. The outcome of the first interpretation was good however it was quite simple and did not resemble Idris Khan as much as I wanted to.
Second Interpretation
The second interpretation was much more successful than the first one, however it is still in colour and some parts are more detailed. It looks similar to Khan’s work but I need to make it black and white and try to make it resemble the ghostly feel of Khans.
Final Interpretation
The final interpretation is above and I believe is successful in resembling Khan’s work. The image is black and white and has a good tonal contrast between the lighter layers and darker layers. It resembles the ‘ghostly’ feel of Khans work and I am interested in the way his work is done. I would like to do it again in the future.
Photoshop Experimentation
I attempted to experiment with Photoshop and photo montage in relation to my images inspired by Andy Hughes.
I made the photo montages above on Photoshop. I took the original image below and took my original image. I did the same process for both images. Firstly, I took the image of plastic pollution and dragged it onto my image of the plastic bottle. I then put the plastic image behind other image and removed the section that is replaced with the plastic using the quick selection tool. I then arranged the pollution image so that the background was clearly visible and all in frame.
Gallery
Final Outcome
Evaluation
What did I set out to do? – I set out to take photos in black and white of human impact on landscapes. I wanted the images to be quite simple and have a dramatic tonal contrast.
How did the outcome turn out? – My outcome turned out well and has the features I aimed to include before taking photos.
Was it successful? – I believe comparing my outcome with an example of Gerry Johansson’s photography, it resembles it but also has some features from other photographers.
/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/68948366/2021_NYR_20447_0001_001_beeple_everydays_the_first_5000_days034733_.0.jpg)
.jpg?mode=max)
