Visual Literacy Round Two

Today was our second day of visual literacy lectures.  We had to take a banana a kitchen utensil(I chose a potato masher) and a plastic cup with us.  We began by painting the banana with the utensil...

Then we had to paint the banana with the utensil on double A1 paper, and paint the utensil using another non-drawing object found in the room (I chose a rubber glove)...

I quite enjoyed my self to be honest.

We then had to draw on the banana using a pin, which is distinctly more difficult than it would first appear...

In the afternoon we watched the second episode of "The Genius of Photography", which was less interesting than the first one, but still useful.

New Inhabitant

Alex from the flat across the hall has decided that he now lives in our flat.  This is for no apparent reason, but he has begun eating with us, and decided to camp in the hall the other night (although it only lasted two hours).  It was quite entertaining.

Lectures

This afternoon I had my first of four lectures this week, it was interesting, we  went and researched some pretty obscure photographers and then had to present what we had found to the class.  My group looked at Adam Fuss, who focusses a lot on dye destruction prints and photograms.  I also found the work of Stephanie Valentin which is similar but focusses more on animals.  Very interesting.

Ether 5, 2006, Stephanie Valentin 

From the series "My Ghost", 1999, Adam Fuss

Paint

I have finished painting my pinhole camera black now - painting MDF is really quite difficult - it is very absorbent, trying to get the whole thing to stay black was very challenging, but I think I managed it.  Back to the workshop next week to assemble it.

Cleaning

Well, I have cleaned and tidied both the kitchen and my room, now everywhere smells like antibacterial spray, and is almost sparkling - satisfying.

Cows

When I got up this morning the cows were right near the wall at the back of halls which made me smile so I took a photo : )

Masquerade Ball

I thought this sounded like a fantastically grand occasion - which it was, a little disappointing after all of the ones you see in films, but none-the-less everyone had put the effort in and it was a lovely evening.  There were some awesome masks, and amazing dresses (and suits).  Afterwards we had a small gathering in our kitchen which was a really good laugh, and then to bed at silly o'clock in the morning!  Goodnight guys.

Town again

I went into town this morning to pick up some paint/sandpaper/black tape/milk and other general oddments.  I found everything on my list which I am quite impressed about - and nothing else : )  Also, as I was in a stationary shop I heard New York, New York being played - I thought to myself "what is this wonderful music"?  Turns out, that on a Saturday morning there is a brass band that plays on the band stand - how quaint!  Sadly, by the time I got out of the shop to take a photo they were packing up, but just for the record...

Pinhole camera

I have now cut out all of the parts for my pinhole camera - I just need to sand it down and paint it black, then I can assemble it.  That shall be done this weekend after I have been to get some paint.  It seems to all fit together ok which is promising...

Woodwork induction

I have just got back from the woodwork induction for the first half of our photography class.  The woodwork area here is great - a really good lecturer, and it is really well set up with excellent machinery.  We were only shown how to use the band saw and the pillar drill, but that is all we really need at the moment.  It was really interesting, I am looking forward to getting in there and making my pinhole camera.  I am going to finish my designs now and go back this afternoon to cut the wood out.

Leaflets

Tom and Lea went for a drive and did some shopping this afternoon whilst Greg and I stayed in and did some research.  This was the result of the trip - leaflets for various days out , which we plan to begin in the not to distant future.  

Brief 2

We got our second brief today - we have to research another artists style and use their work as inspiration for a series of at least four A4 finished images with a 500 word critical appraisal.  It should be pretty interesting.  I'm going to find it difficult though, I am not used to working from a brief, at school I always used to have an idea, go out and take photographs, then find the artists, and write the brief around what I had done.  My art teacher always said that was fine, but hey, I'm sure it'll be fine.  Anyways...off to do some research now - start thinking of who to study?!?

Kitchen Tennis

Kitchen Tennis is a game invented by the kitchen staff at Tom's old place of work - the Toby Carvery in Bolton.  It is a wonderful game, played in a similar way to traditional tennis, but involving a ball of either foil or cling film being played from end to end using saucepans (or the small shovel that was in the kitchen when we arrived).  It proved very entertaining (if somewhat scary) indeed.

Laundry

I have done two loads of laundry this afternoon - and now only have three white tops left to wash - nothing has shrunk or gone a funny colour - i am very proud : )

Macdonalds

We went for a drive thru on the way home!

Freshers Fair

After workflow we went to Fusehill Street campus (just over two miles away) in Tom's car to the Freshers fair.  An event which happens during freshers to introduce everyone to the clubs/societies/local facilities on offer, and basically somewhere to get loads of discount vouchers and free pens/notebooks/balloons etc.  It wasn't quite as fun as we thought it was going to be, but it was still quite entertaining, especially as when we got there, the only space we could find to park in had a bin in it which Lea unsuccessfully tried to move.  Tom and Greg had to go and find street parking eventually while me and Lea began hoarding.

Workflow

This morning we have been to an hours induction in the digital darkroom which was so confusing.  It was called 'workflow' and was basically telling us how to use the programs on the Mac's, the correct file formats to save in, and the correct print settings to use.  It was very much a whistle stop tour - hopefully they'll show us again!

Record Breakers - Angels or Devils

Tonight was our world record attempt to get the most number of people in one place dressed in either horns or halos ever - apparently we did it.  It is an attempt as part of our freshers fortnight, some people really went to a lot of trouble.  It was a great night with some good laughs and good friends.  

Visit the news coverage here

The night ended with me and Lea watching the first half hour or so of About A Boy - Good times : )

Visual Literacy

This morning and afternoon we had Visual Literacy lectures - which turned out to be much better than i expected.  To begin with Jan (the lecturer) explained how we should use the time as a form of expression through making marks on paper, and how we should make these marks with the confidence of a five year old.  It turned out that we were 'discovering' what a large variety of ways there are to use different materials - e.g. a pencil/oil pastels/biro etc.  We went out and did some frataging (effectively brass rubbing), as another form of making marks on paper.  Then she told us to draw anger.  This was really interesting because we put up all of the pictures on the wall afterwards, the range of expression was incredible, no two pieces even look similar. During the afternoon session we watched the first program in the genius of photography series - I have seen it before but it was still interesting.  We then discussed some of the aspects addressed by the program, and were given three people to research for next week.  All in all it was quite an interesting day - not in any way what I expected it to be.

Paris Je T'aime

I went over to the flat opposite tonight to watch a film - we eventually decided to watch this film.  If you haven't seen it/don't know about it you should research it because it's fantastic.  Eighteen different directors/pairs of directors produce a short film (only five minutes in length) each as their own representation of Paris.  It is amazing to see one city from so many different angles, looking at so many stories.  It is a really interesting film which I really like, but need to watch it again (luckily Lea has it as well as Tom so that shouldn't be too difficult).  Now I'm off to watch The Bodyguard... : )

First food delivery

Tonight Lea couldn't decide what to eat for tea, so we called up flames, the kebab/indian takeaway in town and got them to deliver to our halls.  She had pizza and chips, i had poppadoms and naan bread, tom had naan bread and stef had poppadoms.  It was some good food, but we were waiting outside for about quarter of an hour for the delivery guy to call up.  It was fun though!

Post

Today all of our post was for me!  I had two posters from play.com which I had to pick up from reception, my TV license, a package from Mum and Dad, a package from Em, and a note from the post office saying that I had to go and collect something from the sorting office. 

The package from Em was The Bodyguard on DVD which I plan to watch this evening.  That is so exciting, we were discussing it before I left and saying how it was the film that her, Mum and Suzie always used to watch when they were ill or couldn't sleep - now I can watch it too!  Thank you so much Em x

After persuading my flat mate Tom to drive me to the sorting office (as it's like two miles away), I picked up an A4 pice of post from Suzie.  It turned out that she didn't know that the rules as to paying different postage according to size AND weight.  It was well worth going to fetch it though as it contained a drawing by Mia of her and Andrew with some butterflies and flowers, and a drawing by Freya of what I am sure are a rainbow and fireworks.  They are beautiful and are now up on my wall with my posters and the drawing Mia gave me when I left.  Thank you girlies (and I love the envelope made of wrapping paper - thanks Suzie) x

So all in all a lovely day for post!

Lectures

I had two sets of lectures today - this morning was a technical induction in the studio where we were shown the very basics of a D-SLR camera by Roger the technician.  It was really interesting and very useful being told basic meanings and theories - lots of note taking.  This afternoon was an introduction to the pinhole camera with David, one of the main lecturers.  We have been given a brief to produce a pinhole camera and a set of images on black and white photographic paper for a crit in six weeks time.  It sounds really challenging but very interesting to go back to the absolute basics of photography.  I look forward to tomorrows visual literacy lectures.

What uni looks like

Halls of Residence our kitchen window is the second velux roof window from the leftThe main university building and main entrance
The view from the main entrance 
The kitchen of flat 350
The dining area of the kitchen of flat 350

Mia emailed me this morning to ask what my university actually looked like, and I noticed that I hadn't actually posted any photos of it, so I went for a walk and took some.

Bye bye tulips : (

I had to throw out my tulips this afternoon sadly - they were dying and begining to smell : ( I didn't want to get rid of them though - they still looked so beautiful!  Now the vase looks so sad and alone : (

C block's first top floor party!

The first of many gatherings of our two flats i'm sure!  A most enjoyable evening with Milkybar ice cream - from which I found out that Tom (on the left) auditioned to be the Milkybar kid and is friends with Noel fielding! Craziness! 

Home sweet home

Carlisle

Lea and I went into town this afternoon to do a bit of shopping and generally mooch about and do some discovering.  It was most enjoyable : )  We had chinese all you can eat buffet for lunch too - it was SO good!

Hypnotism

Tonight we saw a hypnotists show which was really cool - very scary though how much control you can have over someone else and their actions, really impressive though!

Edinburgh

We went on a trip to Edinburgh today - very much fun!  We went to the Vanity Fair Portraits exhibition at the Scottish National Portrait gallery.  It was really interesting, there some amazing photographs, especially by Annie Leibovitz and David Lachapelle.  It was really interesting.  We also went for our fist meal out - pizza hut buffet which was most enjoyable.  We got the bus back to Uni at 3.10pm and got back at nearly 6pm - far too long if you ask me, but it was fun.

These are three of my favourite images

Stags and Hens

Tonight was our stags and hens party, where you dress up and the guys and the girls go on different pub crawls and meet in terminal 1 at the end.   It started quite slowly, but by the end of it me and Lea had a great laugh, we got a taxi back to halls at 1.45am because we couldn't be bothered to walk - it only cost £5 as well!  We also bought lightsabers while we were out - always an entertaining adventure

Morrisons the third

We decided to go to Morrisons in Tom's car after lectures today, get a bit of shopping, another entertaining trip : )  Then back to the flat for some quite entertaining times and some relaxation before tonight's stag and hen parties!

First Crit

Today was the first critique of our work - the photographs we took on Tuesday. It went quite well.  Before hand we had about an hour long talk from Mike England on contemporary photography which was rally interesting, we got loads of great examples of photographers and their work.  After the crit we went off for lunch, then we watched a dvd on David Lachapelle - a really interesting case study.  We also had to talk through our background etc with Sam - the course leader.  All in all, about 5 hours of 'work'!  

Tulips...

The way the tulips look on day three...beautiful!

vOdKa JeLlY

I made vodka jelly this evening with Lea, it was sooo yummy!  Us two, Tom and Greg decided to commune in the kitchen and eat, celebrate and enjoy!

Morrisons on the bike

I just got back from Morrisons for the first time on my bike!  I did the shopping and brought it back in my rucksack, I did't even fall off!  I am very proud of this, the bag was so heavy though

The first trip into Carlisle

We went into Carlisle for the first time during the day to begin collating costumes for next weeks parties.  Sadly though, I forgot to take photos whilst we were there, so this is about 10 yards from the uni entrance!  It's a really nice, friendly city - I love it!

Henry's first task

Sadly, Greg dropped his mug on the floor (it's ok, we'll forgive him for this as there was no tea in it).  Said mug broke :' ( 

But...this meant Henry the hoover's first job - to clean up the broken job - a task completed with style!

Pizza

Lea decided to make pizza for lunch using a pizza kit where the dough is ready made, you just have to roll it out.  Then she realized...no rolling pin!  What to do - use the pasta sauce jar, a worthy substitute i feel!  The pizza was supposed to be for 6 people, but wouldn't roll out so ended up being an inch thick before cooking, and not cooking in the middle : p

Pub tour...

It chucked it down with rain on the way there, we all go DRENCHEDThe DJ in Walkabout decided to rub foam in my hair...thanks?!?
The floor in terminal 1, gate 2 ruled!!!

The event of Tuesday night was the pub tour.  An event enthused about by many freshers reps - rightly so!  It was a fantastic night, we went to Office, then Walkabout, Spirit, Concrete, terminal 1, and finished up at Lloyds.  The chants on the way round got louder, the tasks got funnier and the Freshers got more involved - a great time was had by all!

First lecture/brief

Today was my first lecture, we were given a brief, which we are not being assessed on, however there is a crit on thursday.  The brief was to get to know your model (another student on the course), and take a photograph of them in a way that shows something about them and their interests.  More difficult than you would think, we had an hour to take the photograph and load it onto the computers so it could be added to a powerpoint presentation for Thursday morning.  The girl i am paired with is called Sarah, she is interested in sports, likes being outdoors and always wears trainers, so i took a photograph of her feet with my bike on the grass in front of hall to try and incorporate as much of this as possible.  We'll see what thursday brings...

Happy Birthday Steph!

Today is Steph from our flats 20th Birthday (yet again I am the youngest by several months, there are two 20 year olds, a nineteen yea old and two eighteen year olds).  We did some decorating of the flat before she got up and got her some flowers, a card and a cake.  

Happy Birthday Steph, hope you have a great day!

Night the second as a FRESHER!!!

The second night out in Carlisle, we went to Walkabout and Terminal 1, which seemed a bit rubbish when we got there, but turned out to be a right good laugh!  I love Carlisle, right an early night for me tonight I think...