No Bo

Had my first gig as a New Bohemia resident on friday night - wasn't the bravado specticle I thought it would be! Not too clever when KidKanevil had spent the best part of 3 hours beforehand as a make-shift sound techy for his album launch night, had to go home and get his own decks as the others were ruined, and that the regular for Hang the DJ, the room I was in, was a full on village idiot more fussed about floggin ket. Wicked

Onwards and upwards, there's a real good night coming up in afew weeks. Best Joined Up is hosting its first 'UpSkirt' event; a strictly female collection of illustrators, painters and doodlers - I'm looking forward to Faunagraphic and Luna in particular. More info here if you're interested

dawnin treadin

time lappppsin

Whaaaa you call it???

Factually nearly wet myself

Synf Shkin

Duno whether I'll be incorporating this within my collections brief or not, but it's well nuts! Skin Bag 'anticipates the fusion between the digital and the organic'. Might be the rahh fashion next year?

BPProtest

Rolled out of bed saturday morning and had a wander with lots of others down to HMV. The anti-fascists were out in full force against the British People's Party and their views on 'black Hip Hop' so to speak. Got some nice photographs..

ONline.

Check out the final AVisuals for my self written brief. More to come this year..


Who are The Warriors? from Daniel Maddison on Vimeo.

Back in the room

So after summer break I'm back in sunny Leeds for second year, having worked my tets off at Sainsbury's for 3 months solid to fund it! Mixed feelings right now; looking forward to catching up with everyone and goin out, but also knowing that this year will have a massive affect upon the direction I find myself heading in when I leave. Really want to try and push myself to do well, build on what I've enjoyed doing previously and learn skills that are gona be useful for times ahead. I want to work with briefs that will demand a professional approach and thought process, ultimately to try and gain as much 'live' experience as I can. The next two years, in sugar coated theory, will ultimately be the necessary preparation to open doors for a mint job in the big bad world. Sugar coated indeed!! We'll see how much I want that to become a reality over the next 21 months I guess. Here's a snapshot of my 'Collectors' research over the summer:

How Manga changed the world' - Urbis Centre. Really well presented, explored the art of Manga and its influence upon popular culture, including music, fashion, art, right through to the corporate sector.






Full Circle @ Upperspace. Sister project of Sketch City collective, this is the only designated Street Art gallery outside of Landan Taan, the same ethos revolving around inclusivity and promoting art as a positive form of expression.




The Conquest of Imperfection - Very interactive installations by Maskaki Fujihata detailing how new technologies redefine reality.

SVM 1000

A demonstration of the first ever audio/visual mixer made by Pioneer, the SVM 1000, which is made for the DVJ 1000's. Sander
Kleinenberg demonstrates what a revolutionary machine this will be. Best start nagging the college to buy one soon..

EEEfect.

Here are some screen shots from the more radically edited sections of the visuals. Sharon said to experiment - so I did. It's a shame the whole thing is too large to post up as still images obviously do not have the same effect.

Look&Listen

Leeds' best (only) dedicated audio/visual club night, rocking a sideline in leftfield projections. I first went to one of their nights at the Faversham a while back in the year, and it provided a more conceptual outlook of VJing and it's possibilities. Below is video of the more recent Outdoor AV Night that i popped along to briefly.



I also came across more mobile and site specific styles of visual arts, with the onus more on creating work for the space rather than space for the work. This is something that I'd definitely like to experiment with in the future.

Decisions decisions

So after waiting for weeks and weeks to use the DVJ 1000's, it turns out they wont be available for use until May, which is a fair amount of time in terms of project capacity. I think it will be better to instead concentrate on producing visuals for a track as opposed to planning a whole set, which would probably be a slap-dash attempt with the time available. Also Jay's clubnight has had no responses in terms of a venue, so the chances of being able to perform a live set are looking slim. Fingers crossed it gets going next year though - it's definitely not a prospect to give up on.

Burley Park

Screen shots from Burley Park train station when the last train was arriving. Tom wanted to start filming a character for a narrative throughout his video, so we dragged Nik along. From my point of view, it was again a chance to utilize movement of intense light that could be manipulated within the editing process.

Starters

So me and Tom went out late last night with a camera and tripod to start collecting some footage that could be used within our respective projects. Here are some screen shots..




I for one was very keen to try and have longer batches of film with intense lighting, so to have the effect in essence doubled through the water's reflection was a bonus.

Visual Communication Brief 1: Influences

The reasoning behind my brief stems from an immense curiosity that I have always had for the Video DJing industry. Having the ability to play both music and video at the same time is nuts. The range of interaction between you as a (V)DJ and the audience is in essence doubled, as sound and image combine and contrast - the possibilities are endless, and it's interested me from the word go.



In terms of practitioners, I see VDJ's such as DJ Yoda, Sander Kleinenberg, and Charles Kriel as sources of inspiration. The massive interaction between Yoda and his crowd is achieved through the abundance of chopped up vocal samples that are dropped into his sets, which usually appear visually as the person speaking, and are obviously heard through the speakers. This works well with the music that he plays; as a Hip-Hop DJ tracks are usually cut rather than mixed, and the vibe is usually bouncy, light-hearted, almost humorous. Kleinenberg and Kriel have a more refined style, and their sets are slightly more darker and atmospheric; a reflection of the moody techno and progressive house they are associated with. Two different styles, one mad-effective result.

So where next? I didn't want to jump in too soon with this before I fully knew what I was doing and how the process worked, so research was pretty important. I bought a god-sent book, 'How to DVJ', exactly as it says on the tin... It covers literally everything, from setting up equipment to getting gigs, and I'm currently rifling through it to get my head around how it will work 100% good and well. It also came with an instructional CD of making DVD's from scratch to playing them out in a club, which was talked through by DVJ Kriel step by step. This was particularly useful as he explained how the Pioneer DVJ X1 worked. This is the previous model of the version that I'll hopefully be using in a-few weeks, so I'll be ahead of schedule providing it all goes ok.



The next and most crucial step is to start knocking out some footage that I can edit onto tracks, and this is where the collaboration with Tom will be useful. It'll be good to bounce ideas off each other, share footage, and give opinions on how each respective project is going. We've decided on a track that he'll be using for his music video and I'll be using as a part of my set – Stanton Warriors' “Who Are The Warriors”. It's a breaks track that has no video or visuals, so it'll be cool to see what direction it goes in, working from a 'clean slate' as such. Not too grimy, not too up-tempo or melodic, it's a track that we thought was a good compromise between Tom's initial 'darker/conceptual' vision for a video, and my need for a track that will move a dance-floor. Fingers crossed we'll be on track for the interim crit.

Audio Visual Djing

This is the Pioneer DVJ 1000, the machine that i'll be using to try my hand at Video DJing. In a nutshell, its like a CD player that projects images, which can be edited to synchronise together. Have a looksi at the clips below.

The clip below is the intro of a VJ set by DJ Yoda, who sort've pioneers the VJ movement at the moment. It gives you an idea of the interaction that is made available between the crowd and the DJ.



If you don't believe that, the clip below shows what goes on in the DJ booth, (which is less tripped out in real life i can assure you).



I actually can't wait to get going on it. I'm gona be doing my video elective throughout next term as well which will be a big help. The possible grand plan is this:

Ben makes the track.
I make the audio-visuals that allow it to be put in a VJ set.
Tom makes a music video for it.

Then we release it and make milllions. A plan if I've ever heard one..

Nuff chocolaty Easter love to you all. x

Beats & Pieces.

Here's the final flyer design I came up with for the first Beats & Pieces night, 'Shake Crackle & Pop', which kicks off Easter Sunday. Canneee wait like

Cover


Reverse

Os Gemeos

Brazil Nuts

Annnnd im nickin' yer purse..

Wellll looking forward to our next brief. Gives alot more freedom in terms of media, size, purpose etc as opposed to a month of Dreamweaver and Photoshop, which i enjoyed don't get me wrong, but my attention span wavers, and i do get bored easily..

Here's what I've come up with so far:


CONTEXT:

"Students are creatures of habit. Many of these habits have negative consequences, some of which stem from excessive alcohol consumption. This is made available by the abundance of establishments that advertise dirt cheap drinks, a raunchy atmosphere, and cheesy music for their student-based nights. The emphasis is upon quantity as opposed to quality, targetting the stereotypical student ethos of cheap and cheerful, on the pull, hands in the air, and it is very successful. More up-market, less student targetted establishments offer an alternative concept, with elaborate, expensive beverages, an eloquent atmosphere, and a less commercialised array of music, and are also successful."

BRIEF:

"Design a poster that will encourage students to go to a more stylish bar or club on a night out."


I'm gonna try and incorporate this within design/music based ideas for a night that I want to put on in the Easter break, which will be held at the bar that I play at back in sunny Rugby. Am currently in negotiations with the owner, fingers crossed and all.

If it gets the nod, it'd be cool to get afew people up for it.

Communication Technology - Evaluative Thoughts

First and foremost, I really did enjoy this brief. The concept of modern technologies is something that I think about sub-consciously quite often, (how it got to this point, where will we be in the future, imagine a world without it, etc), so my initial feelings of the module were positive. However I found that the physical learning process that we have encountered over the last few weeks gave a great deal of gratification in itself. It is the first digitally based project I have ever enjoyed being dictated to, and I genuinely found it very satisfying to walk out of tutorials having learned new skills that I have never come across before.

My initial outlook for the project was not to be overly ambitious, but not to aim low and just get by. I immediately discarded the idea of having a ‘descriptive’ website or dvd with regards to my opinions on individual technologies; I thought it would be too difficult to produce something that wouldn’t appear bog-standard or stereotypical having never encountered the software before. So I thought about trying to integrate my feelings of technologies, or a technology, in a different way, possibly a way that would physically show the pros and cons without having to actually describe my opinions or thoughts at all. I felt this would offer my website or dvd much more substance when it was finished, and would hopefully be less tedious and bland.

My hatred of Internet virus is quite an intense one, and was something that was 100% going to be expressed throughout the project in some way. As I felt exceedingly stronger about this than any other technologies that I came up with, I decided to try and centre the project around it, and work the other opinions around it where possible. I thought that a website would obviously more suitable to portray an Internet virus than a DVD so I took that route, and came up with the concept of building a website that would demonstrate the annoyance of their very being. The finished site didn’t really stray from this initial vision at all, and I’m absolutely chuffed with it! To tie in with the notion of ‘love and hate’, I based the actual function of the site around the worse place I have ever been to; Bognor Regis. Incorporating Bognor Regis and Internet viruses in the same piece of work; it would be nigh on impossible not to realise my take on the subjects, surely…

Although my personal style choices appear to be shocking, I did consider the contents of the site carefully! I wanted to convey the same ‘slap-dash’, bog standard, almost cheesy format that is apparent within online visitor guides of small British towns. This accounts for the very ‘try-hard’ font, block colours, stereotypical summer ice-creams as rollover icons, Butlins links, and the overly bad pop-ups that appear. Note that these popups actually convey other technological dislikes that I have, albeit subtly, to retain the same principle of physically showing the viewer as opposed to describing.

As I have said already, I took a lot from the physical learning process and the satisfaction of learning new skills that could be built on to quite an extent. Although initially quite daunting, I feel a strong basic relationship with Dreamweaver has been forged, and it is a piece of software that I would definitely want to try and build on in the future. The same goes for Final Cut Express; and with this I may hopefully have an even greater opportunity to expand with my Video elective. I have to admit that I pretty much disregarded DVD Studio Pro. The inductions to it I found extremely difficult, and the fact that I decided so early to go for the website, (and thinking that we had the choice of either) only tossed it to the side furthermore. It is shocking at best, slapped together on iDVD, has no substance, and doesn’t tie in with the nature of my project in any way, shape or form, which is quite obvious. However this is a piece of software that I am definitely going to try and learn to use within my work in the future, and I must reiterate that it only took less precedence as a result of the website based nature of my idea.

In all, I am extremely happy. I like it when I envisage an idea and follow it through, which is very true in this instance. Thoroughly enjoyed the learning process, and look forward to building on what I have learnt.

Where do I fit?

Daniel Maddison
Communication Skills 1

‘What is Visual Communication and where do I fit within it?’

Wikipedia, the on-line god sent of definition and understanding, is always a safe port of call when words get the better of you. However in this instance, the usual never-ending spout of text that precedes the search engine could muster only four sentences:

‘Visual Communication’

“The conveyance of ideas and information in forms that can be read or looked upon. Primarily associated with two-dimensional images, it includes: art, signs, photography, typography, drawing, graphic design, illustration, colour and electronic resources. Recent research in the field has focused on web design and graphically oriented usability. Graphic designers use methods of visual communication in their professional practice.”

It’s a brief over-view, nothing more, nothing less. Wikipedia had failed to paint the crystal clear portrait of definition; there’s a first for everything I guess. So I persist elsewhere, trawling the internet through various search engines fronted with ‘visual’, ‘communication’, ‘definition’, ‘what is’, etc, but came up with nothing of real substance other than degree courses in America. Even ‘www.whatisvisualcommunicationandwheredoifit.com’ came up with nothing... This task was obviously going to be more than just pretentious waffle.

I knew before I had even arrived at Leeds that the nature of ‘visual communication’ was extremely broad and that the outcomes were equally as varied. However I saw this in a very positive light; I was unsure of a specialism, and still wanted to consider different processes and techniques. Will it be almost an extension of a foundation year? I was very eager to find out. Fast-forward to Wednesday the 12th of December last year, the last official day of term and ‘where do I fit?’ module, and I felt like I had a greater understanding.

The workshops were good fun, approaching the matter from various angles, and provoking many questions. As it is such a broad topic, I wasn’t really sure what to expect from each session in terms of subject matter, as I interpret the notion of vis-com to consist of an almost unlimited array of sources. However I found that the sessions I attended worked well as examples of ways that you can approach the concept of vis-com. Teaching from a more theoretical perspective helped especially, allowing for a more ‘stripped down’ perspective.

The first ‘problem solving’ workshop was an approach that I would have considered; I personally have always identified with the notion of communicating design solutions visually, and enjoy the challenge. Our group’s design was overly ambitious, verging on ridiculous, and this was generally a trend that emerged from each group’s presentation. It obviously highlighted the high standards of problem solving that a designer must match and better within the industry, and the documentary following the group of designers’ quest to spawn the world’s best bin showed this furthermore.

I think that I benefited to quite a large extent from the ‘reportage’ angle of the module, using it almost as an extension of our first project to build up a greater understanding of its place within vis-com. After compiling a project of the same heading with explicit photography, exploring it through film was useful, and allowed you to compare and contrast two different methods of reporting. The HD Cameras were good to work with, and I was pleased with our group’s final outcome. We decided to compile opinions of the college from current students and staff, and simply walked around asking for quick opinions and statements. Although it was a fairly clichéd format of reporting, it worked well in that the footage showed only the mouth of the individual, which created an anonymity. This in turn could heighten the truthfulness of what is said; if applied to a live news report for example, individuals would maybe feel more at ease if their identities were concealed to such an extent, and would express more honest opinions. A simple concept, but I liked it. The short film of the man being held hostage within the ‘story telling and narrative’ workshop is a more advanced example. Through simple composition of lighting and camera angle, the final outcome packs a raw, hard-hitting punch. A knife-edge atmosphere is created, and the film is delivered with great realism and drama, all without any Hollywood effects. It showed what could be achieved with basic groundings, and an idea of real substance.

These are just a handful of the approaches that I found that you could identify with and manipulate. Infact there was never really a point in a session where I felt that what was being suggested to us could not be utilized in any way. I suppose that this brought me a little closer to the notion of ‘where do I fit’. I have never really overlooked or rejected the idea that a piece of visual material cannot be conveyed to others in the way that an individual wishes. But does that mean that I don’t fit within a specific area of vis-com? Possibly. Is there even a need to do so? I think there are pros and cons. Considering the same ‘approach’ frequently will obviously improve that particular approach. But I see vis-com as a way of conveying or provoking something to others. With this in mind, would it be wise to rubbish a different approach method? One that may be more suitable or practical, or ultimately more effective? It is all a matter of opinion. Obviously everyone has their own, which in turn gives the notion of vis-com its diversity and spontaneity, which can only be healthy.




Bibliography:


www.en.wikipedia.org

www.iconmagazine.co.uk/issues/018/whatisdesign.htm

www.google.com