Initial Ideas...

CONCEPT : Blog entry 2

Still havent had any major brain waves about what I might do for a project...or even work to make that might be more relevant to my disseration.

I am still thinking about something to do with British wildlife (watching spring watch is not helping..) have had acouple of ideas but nothing solid yet..

-RSPB Red list

The book I thought of whilst doing the Babel project. I like this idea, but I think I want to do something that will allow me to experiment a litte bit more..but something along these lines would be a good start I think

-An info booklet in the style of a childs book - pros/cons/explanation of badgar culling?..This could also apply to foxes

-RSPB Red list, bird guide...using poetry and poetic nouns (an unkindness of ravens, a parliment of owl etc.)

Have also started doing a few doodles;

These are a little rough in places.. but I am keen to keep working with watercolour. I love it! and i think it works really well. infact, I might have gotten a little obssessed and made a pin board with lots of examples of this.

Skecthbook work - Starlings murmuration

Another thing that came to me was starlings in flight. I had been thinking of things to do around the Red List again, Starlings drew my attention as they are not hard to spot, can be considered a pest, and in this form take on quite a menacing form, but are a part of the ecosystem no less and have made it to the Red List (although i need to check if they are still there..they may have moved to amber recently). the murmuration of starling is something that I have never seen in person, and something that I may never get to see. I also find it really interesting that scientists still dont know how the birds form theese patterns.

While doing this piece I was thinking about lots of things, andgot lots of little ideas. I was also reminded of the Photography Richard Barnes, who did a series of images or the starling murmurations titled 'Murmur';

Richard Barnes, Murmur 21, 2006

Richard Barnes, Murmur 08, 2005.

Richard Barnes, Murmur 25, 2006

(Richard Barnes, 2014)

Here's a video from youtube, of the murmuration at Gretna Green for good measure; 

As I was saying..this gave me a few more ideas, one of which links back to the Babel project - using text (possibly poetry) to create images of the murmurations (this is somethig that i'm going to have a bash at later once I'm done blogging).

I haver also been thinking of poetic/collective nouns, and possibly incorporating this into my work in some way (FYI the collective noun for starlings, as well as murmuration, are also a chattering or an affliction)

Another thing was flocks, plagues, animal and human relationships...organic shapes in nature (which I also looked at breifly within the Babel project) I was particularily in the idea of flocks, as this is something that I have looked at before in my BA;

BA Fine Art degree show piece, Sheffield Hallam, 2012,  Feral Rock Pigeon: Columba Liva, 500 Polaroid photos of pigeons.

You can view more photos of this piece here.

I have had a couple of idea to work on, mainly at the moment I think I'll focus on the starlings, but I have much more research to be done.

Richard Barnes, (2014). Murmur. [online] Available at: http://www.richardbarnes.net/murmur/ [Accessed 2 Jun. 2014].

wildaboutimages. (2013). Gretna Green Murmations. [Online Video]. 21 November. Available at: <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M1Q-EbX6dso> [Accessed: 02 June 2014].