This is a blog is going to help me understand the potential digital media in contemporary art and design practice also be able to select materials for digital experimentation and be able to produce work using digital art and design techniques.

Monday 15 November 2010

Vivienne Westwood.


  The fashion designer.

Vivienne Westwood was born in Tintwistle, Derby,  England. She became well known in the 1970s when, with Malcolm McLaren the rock music entrepreneur, she opened a shop in London that became the focus of the punk rock movement. She gained international recognition in the early 1980s with her Pirate and New Romantics look. Vivienne Westwood has played a vital role in the emergence of Punk Rock in the 1970s and has gone on to become one of the most original and influential designers of our time.

Her designs combine a fearless unconformity with a sense of tradition. She is renowned for her gentle parody of Establishment styles.

Upon meeting Malcolm McLaren, it signified the end of Westwood's marriage to Derek. Westwood and McLaren lived in a council flat in Clapham and Westwood continued to teach until 1971, when Malcolm decided to open a boutique at 430 King's Road - Let It Rock. Westwood began to sell her outrageous and outlandish designs in the shop, which drew inspiration from bikers, fetishists and prostitutes. During this period, McLaren became manager of the punk band Sex Pistols and subsequently the two garnered attention, as the band often wore Westwood's designs and shopped at 430 King's Road. Westwood still owns this shop, which is now known as World's End, from which she sells her Anglomania label.



By 1972 the designer’s interests had turned to biker clothing, zips and leather. The shop was re-branded with a skull and crossbones and renamed Too Fast to Live, Too Young to Die. Westwood and McLaren began to design t-shirts with provocative messages leading to their prosecution under the obscenity laws; their reaction was to re-brand the shop once again and produce even more hard core images. By 1974 the shop had been renamed Sex, a shop ‘unlike anything else going on in England at the time’ with the slogan ‘rubberwear for the office’.

 In 1980 the shop was refitted and renamed Worlds End, the name still in use today.
She is a very successful fashion designer,with her 'orb' logo thats know world wide. Her designs are now broadened to: purses, bags, belts, eye wear, shoes, ring, ear rings, bracelets, necklaces cuff links and broches. 
I like her jewelery the most because of the random and out of the ordinary style. Westwood, has a great love for unusual objects and she is fascinated about how they work.  



www.viviennewestwood.co.uk


Arts, design and living-Film studies.

 Vogue-page .177 the September 2010 edition
"Photographer Tim Walker's unique brand of English fantasia is making a leap to moving pictures.By Charlotte Sinclair.'

 Tim Walker's photographs have entertained the readers of Vogue from month to month for over a decade, by his extravagant staging and romantic motifs characterize his unmistakable style. But now he has a new love for film making. This has all steamed from his desire to express himself more clearly.

Charlotte Sinclair said. "He’s a Peter Pan, a daydreamer, a fantasist. His pictures are mirages, telling stories conjured directly from an imagination that most of us left behind in childhood. Looking at Tim’s photographs is like following the white rabbit into a world where elephants are painted blue, horses are dusted lilac, paintings come to life and pretty girls with Thirties faces are transformed into marionettes or abandoned princesses," about Tim.



These have all been featured in Vogue.


Walker's first short film is strongly related to his background of extravagant photographs, reflecting his personality. The film is called 'The Lost Explorer, is biased on Patrick McGrath's short story in which a young girl, Evelyn, finds a Victorian explorere in a tent at the bottom of her garden."

His film has been said to "capture the sadness of suburbia, the boredom and satisfaction"The film is set to take Evelyn from childhood to adulthood, and from what I have read withing this artical I have come to the conclusion that Tim himself is going on a life journey. From going into film making from phtotography, he now has to think about how to finds ways to get the emotions of his characters to the audience through speech rather than still images. Charlotte quoted that he said, "if I was photographing that set, I would spend three days working in that room, and you'd get two pictures that captures the beauty of it. We had to do this scene in a matter of hours."


To make his films he received funding from Mulberry, thats looking to support  cultural projects and also Juicy Coutures founder Gela Nash-Taylor.

He followed the famous three rules of film making when he produced his film,
  1. The story has to come first.
  2. The acting.
  3. The visuals.
The hardest part for Tim was finding the perfect actors to fit the description of the characters, Richard Bremmer played the Victorian explorer and Olivia Campbell played Evelyn. All the actors that worked on the film didn't recive any money for there work.


I was truly inspired by Tim Walker after reading and doing some research about him. He has an unusual take on art, but he has a great love for what he does. He is very ambitious and knows what he wants to do, he has many reasons for going into the film industry. His background of photography has help him immensely. This shows that with a passionate background you can go anywhere as long as you have a drive to be successful within you.

"The Lost Explorer," will be resealed on DVD in the new year, for more information visit www.timwalkerphotograohy.com


Monday 8 November 2010

Abram Games.


Abram Games was born in Whitechapel in the East End of London on the day World War I began in 1914. He was the son of Joseph Gamse a Latvian photographer who at a later date changed the family name to "Games'. Abram was locally educated but when he left Hackney Downs School at the age of 16, in 1930, his headmaster scoffed at his hopes of becoming a artist ad he refused to support his scholarship application, therefor his parents had to pay the fees which they could not afford. As Abram was unable to buy artist materials he used the white card off hat boxes. Although he had a great passion for art he left after two terms due to the teaching at St.Martins.

He then went on to be hired as a studio boy where he was fired in 1936, as he was caught jumping over four chairs as a joke. Later on in this year he won a £20 prize for coming first in a competition to encourage people to enroll for London County Council evening classes. He then was inspired by winning and then went on to embark his career as a freelance commercial artist and won poster commissions for London Transport, Shell and the Post Office.

While Abram was working for Shell he befriended a design director Jack Beddington. He later then became private but thanks to Jack support he was released form the ranks and in 1942 became an offical war artist. These are some posters her created:



I find these pictures carrying a strong message, they are to the point and when you see then you can instantly connect with them. When I saw these picture I knew that they were war related.
They are bright and colorful,they all include pictures and text, they all have images of people on, this to me relates to the people who will be reading these. The text on the first picture is persuasive as it calls being a solider a "worthwhile job", in the time that these were displayed there wouldn't have been as many jobs that are available today, this means that this poster to cause emotion for the people who see it, because they are wanting to better themselves possibly for families or partners they have when actually they are putting themselves at great risk. 
Overall I believe, Abram Games fur filled the task that was set and the need for these posters, whether the outcome and long term advantages or disadvantages were correct.