PP&M: Blog entry  19

These a just a few images from me fannying around with a kaleidoscope app on my phone; I used it to photograph parts of the experimental pieces that are in my sketch book, and this was the result.

This was and interesting experiment, but I don't think I'll be using this technique again. Although it does obscure the text in a completely different way to that which I have been looking at.

PP&M: Blog entry  18

I Showed my work again in Monday's session, all of my work from last week, and the only thing that seemed to drawn any one attention was this piece;

(can be found in blog entry 10) Now, I hated this piece. Although it looks simple, it took along time to make, for a very unexceptional piece of work. I had written it off an moved on. But with the comments made, (for a little while at least) I will return to this idea. Possibly not in exactly the same way, although some one said that this was similar to stars in the night sky, coming back to the theme of the universe...I have though about some how merging/incorporating this into my image of the hexagonal universe..? 

Experimentation in Photoshop - Entire Borges text, focusing on the letters MCV

This also took along time to make, however, with this piece it feels justified. This works quite well, but now I've done it, what do I do next?

I also just spent the best part of my afternoon trying to make a .gif, which has just not worked at all...it was going to be like the above image, but the letters tumbling down the page on a loop. maybe ill have another go at it another day, but after spending a whole afternoon trying to make this work I am reluctant. I might have to practice by making a simple one, perhaps with some images of me banging my head against a brick wall.

Yesterday, I started thinking about MVC. Why had Borges chosen that? At first I thought it could be roman numerals, but after trying to convert it, I realised that it doesn't work. I then started looking into the symbolism of it all. 

Symbolism of M:

- Masculine and feminine (chalice and the blade)

- Symbol of water (Aquarious, chalice)

- Hebrew = 'Meme' transition between night and day/life and death

- Most devine/sacred letter

- In hebrew and latin M symbolises a number that cannot be counted

- 13th letter of the alphabet

Symbolism of V:

- Symbol for vagina/chalice

- the devil

- victory

- (hand gesture) to be violated by the devil

- Pan-  androdgynous god of fire

Symbolism of C:

- An incomplete circle

- Sleep cycle

- 100

- 3rd letter of the alphabet (9 and 12 multiples of)

- the moon

-the first letter of christ

Symbolism of hexagons:

- Centre of the star of David

- 666 the devil/the triple goddess, the power of three (6 points, six sides)

- hex: spell

- masculine and feminine symbols together

- Sacred geometry (look at Mark Goulding later)

But did Borges intend any of this??? or is it just random and nonsensical like the library? he also refers to circles (life/death/creation) and fruit (birth/seed/woman) although there is no references of woman in the library, she is there in the symbolism, but was any of it intentional? Are women in the library a myth, perhaps? After all of this, I still don't understand why Borges chose MVC, surely it can't just be random?

I've thought about trying to incorporating some of this into my work, but God knows how...

But i'm coming around to the idea of pulling out small bits of the text like i have done in the pieces on this post, making it illegible, like a code to be broken, as is described in the text.

I shall have another crack at this tomorrow, hopefully I will have a more productive day.

PP&M: Blog entry  17

I wanted to recreate my previous sketchbook experiments (Blog entry 13) in photoshop; this is much cleaner and neater than my sketchbook experiments, although some of the qulities are lost in this, others are gained (such as easily being able to change to grayscale)

Experimentation in Photoshop

Experimentation in Photoshop

Experimentation in Photoshop, incorporating text from the story of Babel

I then took this, and tried to incorporate the pages of text into the design. I think that this is quite effective; although I didn't try this in colour - I think I might stick to the original plan of working in black and white when working with the pages of the book...

Experimentation layering watercolour and text in grayscale

I think this is really effective, but then part of me doesn't  want to completely write off working in colour yet. I think I will just keep experimenting with both and see what happens.

PP&M: Blog entry  16

Had a go at using pin pricks on paper with the text. These look really nice on the light box, but don't photograph well like that. So I've had to settle for scanning these in. Although i wanted to obscure the text, I'm not sure if this really works, is it going too far? I can read it, but is that because its my writing?

I'm not massively won over by this one, although it might work well if used differently (with the watercolours perhaps?)

PP&M: Blog entry  15

Today I brought all of my experimentations with the water colours from the past few days into uni to begin playing with the results on the computer. In these experiments, I used the textures I created the other day (see Blog entry 12) I scanned them in, and then started layering them onto my pages of text, altering the opacity and also cutting out shapes. I was wanting to incorporate the watercolours into my initial idea of wanting to obscure the text of the story.

Experimentation with watercolour and text in Photoshop

Experimentation with watercolour and text in Photoshop

Whilst creating the textures, I was contemplating what colours to use. For me, the story conjures up images of old fashioned dark, dank place. with lots of dark wood, and green and red fabrics, dark plain clothes. So far, i have not been able to create any really dark deep colours (I need to work on this more) however the patterns and marks made by the watercolours is similar in places to the marbled pages in some old books.
For now though, I just decided to stick with red, as the text talks of a Crimson hexagon;

"They were urged on by the delirium of trying to reach the books in the Crimson hexagon: books whose format is smaller than usual, all-powerful, illustrated and magical."

Experimentation with watercolour and text in Photoshop

Experimentation with watercolour and text in Photoshop

Experimentation with watercolour and text in Photoshop

Experimentation with watercolour and text in Photoshop

Experimentation with watercolour and text in Photoshop

Experimentation with watercolour and text in Photoshop

Experimentation with watercolour and text in Photoshop

Borges, JorQe Luis. "The Library of Babel." Coltected Fictions.

Trans. Andrew Hurley. NewYork: Penguin, 1998. 

PP&M: Blog entry  14

These are the last few pieces I made yesterday from the bits I had left lying around. I cut the shapes out of paper and then cut, adding more layers then cutting again. I think these work really well (although I haven't mastered drawing a perfect hexagon, and this bothers me about the pieces). I like that they're really simple and clean; i think that this is something that I will have to experiment more with in the future. 

Sketch book experimentation with layers of watercolour

Sketch book experimentation with layers of watercolour

Sketch book experimentation with watercolour

This is just a little bit more experimentation with shapes and different colours and textures with water colour. I'm really struggling to get perfect lines and shapes with just the watercolour - this makes the work look messy. I need to see what I can come up with in Photoshop, and also experiment moire with the above technique.

PP&M: Blog entry  13

Sketchbook experimentation with water color and geometric shapes

Today I re-did this piece. Is still not perfect, because I am that impatient (and apparently do not learn from past mistakes..) however it is better. I love using water color, and i just want to do so much more of it! I think for the rest of today I'm just going to alternate between making large textures to use in Photoshop tomorrow, and creating patterns similar to this,  still using the new love of my life; watercolor.

I'm also scribbling down ideas for things to make when I go into uni tomorrow;

- Cutting out shapes from my watercolor textures.

-layering pages of text and watercolor

-(combination of top two points)

Basically just to experiment and play, mess around with montaging these images, thinking lots about geometric shapes and trying to incorporate the babel text if possible.

Have been abusing Pintrest looking for ideas; Click here to see my board