Summative Assessment Commission Unit: Part 1 - Environment

Mark Sutherland
Date: 9th December 2013
Monday, 9 December 13

Concept
Simple idea perfectly performed Very complex but may result in failures Complexity Actors/Models Paintings of estates Tradition style easy to t around timetable Estate Scene Costumes? Early Photography inuence

Mountain landscape scene

Confusing sense of scale Constructed using easy to obtain materials: Wire

Not original Small Scene Illusion

Papier mache Fits into a shoe box Acrylic paint Hobby shop supplied grass

Already obtained the method to produce a small f stop aperture

Adventurous to build

Idea 1 Organisation

High F Stop Lens

Diffusion issue

Will provide excellent results if perfected

Landscape Ideas
Idea 3

Idea 2

Contrast control to such high degree Ansel Adams

Perfect balance of light

Organisation

Organisation

Thorough research on location Could never obtain these results in the given time frame

3 Starting ideas: Ansel Adams Landscapes, Country Estate Scenes, Small Scale Landscape Recreations. Small scale idea chosen. Not fully honed but chosen for its uniqueness and personal interest.

Locations Time Frame Other projects to control at the same time Home Studio Local Kent

Finished before december 1st to allow for anything.

Small Scale Landscape

Peter henry emerson

Roger Fenton

John Constable Early painting Thomas Gainsborough

Early photography winding road, bicycle meandering down natural materials Quaint countryside Paper

rolling hills quaint small cottage

opposite of the urban decay scene local village train station Romantic landscape old England, particularly the south large lush trees and roving elds Train set model stuff why small scale? Materials london isnt spreading like a plauge its growing like a tree countryside is not dead

grew up in the countryside, have seen no changes since actual materials Quintessential landscape is still there, but why? It hasn't changed like the city has and evolved over time its been xed in one era and stayed, why? Is it money or politics that have driven the city to evolve but not the same countryside that was there in the 1920s, why? Go there and observe, test shots, talk, face to face research!!! Why has the countryside I know not changed in my time? The estate has not changed! In 18th century, jane austins goodnestone gardens were the same as now, no new buildings since then, why! its representations

society view the quaint countryside as a tiny fraction of the land, when really its still the majority. better reasoning replicate the countryside into a shoebox, but physically the city is a shoe box compared to the wild natural landscape using natural materials from the landscape to recreate it on a smaller scale

Monday, 9 December 13

Research Artists
Tess Hurrell Thomas Demand Anne Hardy

Monday, 9 December 13

Experimentation
Architects Model Materials Paper and Card Materials

Monday, 9 December 13

Further Research Artists

Lori Nix Thomas Wrede Martin Lang

Monday, 9 December 13

Further Experimentation
Natural Materials - Small Version This proved to be a highly successful technique to illustrate my ideas and concepts, opening new avenues for contextual inuence.
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Monday, 9 December 13

Further Experimentation
Natural Materials - Large Version

Monday, 9 December 13

Re-Developing The Concept

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Using the diversity of plants in a single area to create individual scenes different in visual aesthetics to each other. However closing the project in. Widening the area of materials to include anything, but focusing on the original location of the plant. Creating scenes in which the native location of the plant before introduction to the UK is displayed.

Monday, 9 December 13

Contextual Research
Botany, History of Nature, Horticulture, Introduction of Various Plant Species

Using library and charity shop books, as well as internet searches, to investigate the introduction and origin of specic plant species. Combining this information with that of the assumptions of these plants, this history and place in society as meaningful symbols.

Monday, 9 December 13

Scene Composition and Research Into Diorama Backgrounds

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The scenes have now taken on ctional composition, not recreating an exact scene but merely relating to the assumptions of the visual aesthetic the original locations of these plants have. Research into dioramas and their backdrops proved to be fruitless. These backgrounds were distractions to the main focal points, conveyors of my intended meaning, within the scene.

Monday, 9 December 13

Research Materials/Plant Scouting

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Blue Gum, from a neighbors garden in Canterbury. Originally from the Mediteranian Pine, from a small eld in Canterbury. Originally from North America. Yew, from a churchyard in Canterbury. Originally from Northern Europe.

Monday, 9 December 13

Test Shoots
North American Pine, North European Yew, Mediterranean Blue Gum

Studio ash lighting kit: Prolite Camera: Mamiya RZ Lens: 127mm, 140mm and 110mm Film: Illford Delta 100 Black and White ISO:100

Monday, 9 December 13

Test Shoot Contact Sheet

Monday, 9 December 13

Peer review
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Scenes should look more realistic, through no peak of studio set up (i.e. the background boards). and the use of creating weather. This photo showed that weather can drastically inuence landscape scenes and can be used to make the fake scenes look real. The scenes should be entirely different to each other visually. At the moment two of them are too similar. Change Yew to Bamboo.

Monday, 9 December 13

Composition Basis
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These three scenes formed the basis for my recreations, they are the original locations in which the plants evolved. North American Pine, Mediterranean Blue Gum and Chinese Bamboo.

Monday, 9 December 13

Final Shoot

How each was set up? Why those specic choices? How each were different compositionally?
Monday, 9 December 13

Finals Contact Sheets

Monday, 9 December 13

Printing and Mounting Finals

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Tone and contrast? Paper size? Border size? Mounting? Display sequence? Issue resolution?

Monday, 9 December 13

Critical Appraisal
For me this project has been immensely enjoyably and highly successful, I have learnt so much in so short a time. I found it difficult at first to narrow my concept down into one that had a workable goal and specific intended meaning. However after I conducted research into other artists that work in the same field, and experimented with different visual techniques to convey my meanings I found the project pushing itself forward under its own momentum. I set out to explore the use of scale and recreation as tools for representing specific meaning in a landscape scene, I feel my final prints do just that. By creating the scenes in which plant material found in the UK originated, I communicate my message of humanities ability to manipulate the nature around it, to place un-indigenous species into any landscape, just as I have placed these plants into miniature landscapes, small homages to their true identity. I found the organization of this project one in which I could easily manage, being fortunate to own a large garage in which I could set up these small scenes in a comfortable manner, the set up and photographing of the mini landscapes could be conducted at my own pace, allowing time for precision. Were I not to have this space I would have found the project highly unmanageable. I found that my test shoots were a good representation of my intended meaning, but needed a lot more technical skill to develop professional quality photographs. Fortunately the workshop sessions for the Object Unit gave me those skills I required to light and frame my scenes in the manner to which they required. I faced many difficulties throughout the project, a specific concept to start from, lighting and framing the scenes, printing the photographs to the high quality I desired, even to the mounting of the photographs onto boards, however I took each problem with calm consideration, sought advice from peers and tutors, and above all maintained a level head to solve the problem and move on. As always though I felt that time management could have been improved, and will strive to do so in future projects.

Monday, 9 December 13