Saturday, October 27

Pokemon Card

The past couple of weeks I have been using my lunch times to make a pokemon-themed card for my boyfriend - we loved pokemon in its hay day, and I thought this card would be a nice little trip down memory lane.

So here are a couple of the illustrations I made for the card!


The battle screen.


This is me as a bit of an eccentric pokemon trainer - and obviously as I was adhering to the pokemon style, I was extra kind to myself and gave myself a bit of a liposuction job there - as most people in the pokemon world appear anorexic, so I thought I would join them! Wa-hey! (Eat your food, kids! I do!)


And this is a crazy pokemon I designed, which is essentially a jigglypuff but with a fez…which adds character I think!

So there we go, a couple of pokemon illustrations! Whoop!

Friday, October 26

Bad Eddie Izzard Doodle


Another doodle from work - I kind of went off on a tangent...
(And that pic of Eddie Izzard wasn't supposed to be him, I just thought it sort of looked like him...and it isn't meant to be insulting! I love Eddie Izzard - I'm gonna go see him next May! :D)

Sunday, October 21

Web Lab by Google

During my trip to London-ini last week, we paid a visit to the gigantic Science Museum - which was very impressive! They had tons of interesting objects to gaze and read about. I think one of my favourite exhibits was called 'The Secret Life of the Home', which showcased household objects through the ages - including this little gem...


What a crazy hairdryer! (Plus the mannequin's eyes followed you down the corridor - creepy!)

But yes, the exhibit I was interested to see was Google's 'Web Lab' (which I read about in Creative Review). Web Lab is a series of online experiments created by Google - exploring how people can interact more deeply with the internet, and vice versa.


We were given a Lab Tag, which was our key to access the various experiments. The key would keep a record of what we had achieved with each experiment, which we could review at home or on a machine in the museum.


We then proceeded to try out all the experiments, I'm afraid I didn't get photos of them all, but heres the ones I got:




This experiment was called Sketchbots. You took your photo through a web cam on a computer, the computer then translated your face into lines that could be drawn into the sand.





Universal Orchestra was a series of musical machines which people in the museum and people online could conduct. A simple tutorial taught you how to play the notes on the various 'instruments' in each musical machine. The sounds of all the instruments would merge together, creating this strange melody that sort of symbolised the internet (thats what I felt anyways…)


Data Tracer showed a person whereabouts in the world a piece of information (such as an image) actually came from on the internet.

So there ya go! It was an interesting little exhibition, and you can check it on Google's Web Lab website HERE. (They do encourage you to download Google Chrome, but there is a basic version you can enter if you prefer - but you won't get the same experience).
It has lots of information on each experiment, so you can find out lots more than what I've just regurgitated!

The whole of the Science Museum was great fun, so after you've checked out the Web Lab (and you have the time), you should check out all the other stuff going on there! Theres a really interesting little exhibition on the code breaker Alan Turing which I definitely recommend!

Saturday, October 20

Pug doodle

Just a quick doodle I did in work this week!


(Came back from a short stay in London last Monday and it was pretty wicked awesome! I will hopefully be doing a blog post on a couple of the things I saw there in the next few weeks!)

Saturday, October 6

Liverpool Biennial - Part 2

Continuing on from my last post (I just thought I'd give you guys a little break there!), after the Bluecoat we wandered over to the Albert Dock to check out the Tate Liverpool.

There were so many cool pieces there, but I shall start with Sophie Calle's Hotel Room series:



Calle worked for a short time as a maid in a hotel in Venice; whilst she was there she would document what she would find in a guest's room in an attempt to piece together a story for these guests Calle would never meet. The descriptions of the rooms run over a number of days, so the audience can note the differences that occur and make their own theories of what a guest's life is like - Calle places you in her shoes. These descriptions are accompanied by photos so you also catch glimpses of these occupied rooms. By the end of looking at these I felt particularly nosey, as if I was intruding on something I shouldn't - but you just can't resist taking a peep in other people's lives! Why do we love spying on people so much?

The next piece of work I feel has a similar voyeuristic theme - although I don't think this is the artist's intention! 'Dalam' by Simryn Gill is a series of 258 photographs of the inside of people's living rooms, bedrooms, etc; taken as the artist travelled through Malaysia.



I loved looking at all the different interiors - seeing the little unique objects that each person thinks appropriate for their home! Whilst Gill was travelling she would approach random people's houses and ask if she could come in and take a photo of their main living space - I'm not sure how I would feel if someone came to my house and said that! But she got 258 of them, which shows that many people in Malaysia were willing to show their hospitality to a stranger, which is quite warming!

More photography now, as next on show was Martin Parr's 'Common Sense', which I know has been around for a while now but I've never seen an exhibit of Parr's work so I found it really engaging! What is it with his saturated colours, depicting quite strange/obnoxious subject matter that makes his photos so darn likeable?



Probably my favourite piece in the Tate (as I imagine a lot of other peoples will be!) is Pak Sheung Chuen's 'A Travel without Visual Experience'.






Forgive me if I get my facts about this wrong, but I think what this artist did was travel from one place to another (apologies for my poor memory!) with a camera and his eyes closed. He would take photos when he felt the moment was right to do so.
These photos are presented in the Tate within a darkroom; to be able to see these you need to have a camera with a flash to be able to see these pictures and navigate your way around the room! That way, you are seeing the photos as the artist saw them and are therefore experiencing his journey. It was pretty darn cool and I urge anyone to go see it (except maybe small children!)
It was a great experience, although I think I would have liked to have seen the photos in full light to really get a look at them all and see the sort of shots that were taken...I know this is defying the point of it all, hence why I am not a fine artist!

Yukinori Yanagi's piece 'Pacific' involves 49 glass boxes filled with sand that make up 49 flags of the world. Yanagi then released ants into the glass boxes (which are all connected) to let them burrow through and do their ant thing in them! What we see is the results of this endeavour (don't worry, the ants have been taken out - although I think I would have preferred to have seen them! But then I imagine the horror if they got loose!)



I will quote what the Liverpool Biennial guide book says, as I feel they describe whats going on in this piece better than I could!
"Thousands of ants were released into the boxes whose movements distributes the sand from one flag to another. Echoing global migration, the ants gradually eroded the borders between different nations."

And lastly from the Tate is Jimmie Durham's sculpture, wait for it, its a long title - 'Dans plusieurs de ces forêts et de ces bois, il n'y avait pas seulement des villages souterrains groupés autours du terrier du chef mais il y avait encore de véritables hameaux de huttes basses cachés sous les arbres, et si nombreaux que parfois la forêt en était remplie. Souvent les fumées les trahissaient. Deux de…'
which translates to: 'In many of these forests and the woods, there was not only subterranean villages grouped around the burrow of the head but there was still real hamlets of low huts hidden under the trees, and if nombreaux sometimes the forest was completed. Often betrayed the fumes. Two ...'


Now I'm not sure what this piece is about, but nevertheless I like it! I like any use of found objects, especially when they're used to make something that looks like a creature - they remind me very much of the sculptures that come to life in Tim Burton's 'Beetlejuice' (awesome film).

So there we have it, my little excursion to see the Liverpool Biennial! Now there were many other impressive pieces at the Tate (as well as other venues!) to see, I was just waffling on about ones that I particularly liked - there is A LOT more to see! (Plus the Turner Monet Twombly exhibition is still going on, and thats definitely worth a look too.)
So get your bums in Liverpool to see the Biennial! Its a great day out and you'll feel very cultured when you get home! You can pick up a guidebook from any old arty place in Liverpool and even in train stations and such - so now you've got no excuse! And awaaaay you gooooo!!!

Tuesday, October 2

Blackpool Comedy Carpet

I am off to jolly old London this weekend to see the bright lights and tubes and whatever else is there; so this is just a quick lttle blog post to show my spoils from my trip to Blackpool to see their Comedy Carpet a couple of weeks ago!









You could have spent hours there just staring at this wonderfully designed bit of paving! A great piece of public art that appeals to young and old audiences alike - featuring jokes from The Two Ronnies and Tommy Cooper alongside jokes from Dick & Dom in Da Bungalow and Spaced!
The use of typography was beautiful - influenced by the typography of old flyers/leaflets handed out to promote a comedian's show. The artist behind the whole public piece was Gordon Young, working in collaboration with the design agency Why Not Associates.

If you live in the north west then the Comedy Carpet is right on your doorstep, and well worth taking a look at! Its about a 10 minute walk from the train station and right opposite Blackpool Tower, so you can't miss it!