We were taught simple stitching to allow us to make our own embroidery pieces. We looked at other artists embroidery and were particularly taken by Ghada Amer’s ‘The Bugs and the Lover’s’ which at first glance was a beautiful piece depicting insects and flowers but after further research represent female sexuality. We used this embroidery as a blueprint to influence our own work.

With the help of yulia we learnt how to embroider. We connected this project with out theme of identity and community by using cut-outs from the display we went to see at the jersey museum. To link with the theme of feminism I embroidered halo’s onto the women’s heads and horns and a devils tail onto the man. I used thick red thread to symbolise femininity and brutality.

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After I was done stitching I used photos I had taken while creating the piece and turned them into a gif by layering the photos on top of each other and creating a loop on photoshop. This basic form of animation made my piece look much more interesting an showed the progression of my work.

The next week Yulia came in to help us with the last piece of our embroidery work. In this session we worked to put all of our pieces together ready for display. We decided to sew it together like a tapestry and came up with a few ideas of how to present the layout. Some ideas included making it like a patchwork quilt, putting it in a line in order to tell a story or to just put the pieces together randomly to see what looked good. Ultimately we decided to do the latter and set to work arranging our pieces and then sewing them onto the tapestry, hopefully to be displayed in our NFT exhibition.

when we did the workshop with Julia, we had a go at doing our own stitching, we did this in order to create a GIF as the final outcome. I did this by taking a photo of my piece every time I added a new stich. This is because taking multiple photos will make it look like the image is moving when the images are played quickly one after the other.

using photoshop to create my GIF;

I uploaded all my 17 images and copied them over each layer.

when I finished uploading them all I selected ‘window’ and then dropped down to ‘timeline’ in order to start creating my GIF.

I then created frames from all the images and the selected them all and made them play 0.2 seconds after another.

final gif;

using many photos is very useful for making animations as the more images the more the image is ‘moving’ and makes it look more lively.

Billie Zangewa

Billie Zangewa, born in Malawi 1973, now based in South Africa, is an artist who is known for her intricate needlework and using silk to create collages of domestic environments and urban landscapes, aiming to capture moments of every day life that most of us pay little attention to. The artist has claimed that she is drawn to this medium of textiles as the sensory experience of touch creates a bridge between the viewer and the external world. In addition, Zangewa states that she creates artwork through the medium of textiles as “Fabric, this thing we all have a daily relationship with, is often dismissed by the world as mundane and unimportant, much like the daily, mundane work that women do to keep a home”. With this, the artist’s aim is to foreground the lives of black women in a patriarchal society that predominantly marginalises them. Calling this ‘daily feminism’, Zangewa attempts to present this message through her personal experience in this oppressed position and places herself as the protagonist in most of her pieces.

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Analysis

This collage created by Billie Zangewa, displays what appears to be a scene of a mother walking her child to school. This is in fact a recreation of Zangewa herself and her son, as she walks him to school through a what seems like a rural setting. Here leading lines are created through the tree trunks, leaves and stems of plants, which all appear to be curving around and towards the focal point of the image, Zangewa and her son, leading the viewer’s eyes to move from the edges of the piece inwards. The busiest area of this piece is the right hand side of the embroidery, as it contains Zangewa and her son amongst a densely packed area of plants and nature, with the upper left side of the piece showing empty space. This could be a way of showing the movement of the mother and son, with the weighted right side of the embroidery urging the viewers eye to keep moving along and ahead, much like a mother might have to do with a child. Due to Zangewa”s use of the material silk in her work, the texture of a piece like this appears to be be smooth and almost close to two dimensional, despite the intricate layering of colours and tones needed to create this image.

Zangewa’s choice to name this piece ‘Soldier of love’ may be a way for the artist to express how in society taking care of children is seen as an essential duty, in which a woman can fulfil, to her husband and family. This could cause the same effect of a soldier heading into war, as she is protecting and serving something she loves but is bound by societal restraints that do not allow her to stray from these duties occasionally. Zangewa uses her embroidery talents to escape oppression that she faces as a black women, by the presentation of self love, stating that ‘the ultimate act of resistance is self-love’. The method of hand stitching, sewing and embroidering on the material of dupion silk, acts as another representation for the female experience in her work as Zangewa states. This could be due to the soft, gentile and elegant properties the fabric possesses, which are often linked with the idea of femininity.

A story board is a series of images that display a storyline in a linear sequence of events. These are used for various purposes such as planning for films and animations, making sure people are aware of what shots to create when filming. Although they are useful in giving you an idea of what scenes to film, this doesn’t mean that it must be followed strictly, as it is there as a guide more than a rule book, allowing for creative freedom in producing the film.

For the first scene of our film we are planning to film a same-sex couple sitting on the pews in church apart from each other, sharing glances. This will hopefully display how some are cautious of revealing part of their identity in fear of losing another part of it, such as their religious identity. We will capture a few different angles and shots, such as close ups of the two reading the Bible and them looking at each other, as well as long shots of them sitting apart in the pews, that establish the religious setting.

For the following scene we are going to combine two settings, flashing between the two after editing. One of these two settings will contain one scene of protest against people of the LGBTQ+ community, showing signs that have religious quotes that condemn this. This will be found footage of such protests, giving the film a more authentic feel to it, bringing the fear members of the LGBTQ+ community endure to light. In contrast with this, we will also include a dream sequence scene, in which the couple are seen running through a field, representing what they wish could happen if they didn’t feel bound by religious constraints. These two scenes will mostly be composed of long shots, showing a clear juxtaposition in setting and mood, with possibly a few close ups of aspects such as signs in the protest scene.

The next scene will showcase the couple praying together after moving closer to each other in the church. This will start to demonstrate our message we are aiming to communicate through our film, that these two communities can exist peacefully if we are open and accepting. The way in which this is portrayed is through the two helping each other with their faith. We will film this by taking close ups and medium shots of them reading the bible together and long to mid shots of them looking at the cross.

This will be followed by a scene of the two standing up and looking at each other, with the aim of conveying a sense of acceptance of themselves and their identity, with also a sense of pride in their faith. This will also be filmed through medium shots and close ups.

Finally, we will conclude our film with the end scene of the passage in the Bible that states “Love thy neighbour”, linking to the title of the film. This is as this passage acts as an umbrella term for the Christian faith that encourages acceptance, love and a sense of community that should be prioritised over any personal prejudice. This will be filmed with one simple close up.

What is a NFT?

A NFT also known as a non-fungible token is a unit of data stored on a blockchain which is a unique certificate of ownership of one specific piece of data. NFT’s can be used to represent items such as photos, videos, audio and other types of file.

History of NFTS

The idea of an NFT was first thought up in 2012-13 and started as a coloured coin issued on the same blockchain as Bitcoin. Coloured coins represent real life assets and can prove ownership of something.

The first NFT was created by a man called Kevin McCoy on the 3rd of May 2014 and called it “Quantum”. Quantum is a octagonal shape filled with moving circles creating pulsating and hypnotic hues. It is still a one of a kind art piece and is worth roughly 7 million dollars.

What is Digital Art?

Digital art is an artistic work that uses digital technology as part of the creative presentation process. It is also called multimedia art and links to the larger label of media art. Digital art is a very good example of how modern art can be represented. It is a very powerful form of art and utilises modern techniques.

History of Digital Art

The first use of “Digital Art” was used in the early 1980’s after computer engineers developed a paint program which was used by the pioneering digital artist Harold Cohen. This program was known as AARON.

Digital art can be computer generated, drawn and scanned or made with a computer. In the 1990’s video had the ability to now be downloaded onto a computer allowing artists to manipulate video and still images. They could now cut and paste creating collages and mash ups of images.

A storyboard is a collection of images that tell a story and how the shots telling the story will look. Our storyboard is below and we printed an empty storyboard in which we drew a small image and wrote a small sentence describing what is happening. The storyboard follows a sequence of events that begin with the main subject putting on a VR headset outside when he is transported into a VR world.

The Bayeux tapestry is a embroided cloth that is nearly 70 metres long and 50 centimetres tall, which portrays more than 70 scenes of the events leading up to the Norman conquest of England in 1066 by the Duke of Normandy. It tells the story from the point of view of the conquering Normans but is now agreed to have been made in England. The story begins with a introduction to Harold’s visit to Bosham on his way to Normandy in around 1064 and ends with the flight of Harold’s English forces from Hastings in around 1066, however the story should have been taken further and should end with the Anglo-Saxons fleeing at the end of the Battle of Hastings in October 1066 but the end of the tapestry strip is missing.. Along the top and the bottom of the tapestry runs decorative borders with figures of animals, scenes from the fables of Aesop and Phaedrus and some scenes related to the main pictorial narrative. 
The tapestry is made up of 13 chapters each containing a various amounts of scenes within the chapter. Each chapter tells a different part of the story, developing the story in each chapter and scene.

When first referred to in 1476, the tapestry was used once a year to decorate the nave of the cathedral in Bayeux, France. This made the tapestry be discovered by by the French antiquarian and scholar Bernard de Montfaucon who then went on to produce the first reproduction of the Bayeux tapestry in 1730.Bernard de Montfaucons reproduction of the tapestry was exhibited in Paris at Napoleon’s wish in 1803–04.
The tapestry is of greater than a work of art, it is also important evidence for the history of the Norman Conquest, especially for its evidence of Harold’s relation to William before 1066.

In the 19th century a group of Victorian embroiderers take on the project of recreating the Tapestry in its entirety, where they reproduced every single detail stitch-by-stitch so that the Tapestry’s story could be enjoyed by people in England.

https://www.britannica.com/topic/Bayeux-Tapestry

Discover the Bayeux Tapestry

Mind map

Street Photography is a good technique to capture communities as they are in the moment. Its a way to photograph the natural social human life with not purpose or before hand set up. Capturing different cultures, race, and age all socialising together is what Jersey wants to be. Welcoming and friendly to all, photographing these moments in time will give a visual look on how life is in Jersey.

Jersey Farming

Jersey is known for its highly ethical ways of farming over the years. Fair trade has been introduced into the island since the 80s and has been a great way of farming not only for the workers but for marketing and other food businesses’.

Statement of intent

For our NFT group project, we are focusing on Jersey as an environmentally friendly community. We are going to use a model who will travel around Jersey on an Evie Bike and buy locally and ethically sourced food. This will show Jersey as environmentally friendly as a lot of Jersey produce is grown or found locally, which reduces a lot of pollution from shipping food in from abroad. We will us music in the background of our video to create an upbeat mood and take shots at a high/low angle to create interest for the viewer.

A community of the future will celebrate diversity, equality and inclusion and propose a new digital world; a metaverse where everyone is equal regardless of class, race, gender and age. A digital ecosystem that transcends all virtual identities into a utopia for peace, prosperity and progress

Our Group Ideas

Our group have decided to focus on how Jersey’s community is a strong, eco friendly environment. Here are some images of how we as a group may picture our short film may turn out to be.

Mood- Board