You are currently browsing the category archive for the ‘Practice’ category.
This category is the most extensive of all. UNIT2 has been much more practical in order to realize the project proposal and to prepare for the final exhibition. Quite a few of these posts have been referred to as links in the body text of UNIT2 Assessment page, so I’ll just highlight in green those that haven’t and that I still think of importance.
Exhibition build
An account and some photographs I took of the show build.
Exhibition proposal
Where I looked at the different possibilities for displaying the iMacs.
Publicity
A display of the chosen images for the artist card and show reel as well as a short version (50 words) of the artist statement.
Final Intaglio Printing
Aa report on the printing of the last set of valves and my choice of framing method.
Final Chronophotography Piece
A recount on the technical side of the production of my chronophotography piece. I explain about the capture of the images, the post-production and the compression of the footage.
Inking and Printing – part 4
This details a successful attempt to print the first set of valves.
Inking and Printing – part 3
Third time of inking and printing, still no success. Trying to find a solution to the printing of the valves.
Chronophotography footage
Presenting the different pieces of recorded footage and the thoughts about the final display of the piece.
Inking and Printing – part 2
Second time of inking and trying to print. Evaluation of the results and thoughts on how to improve on this outcome.
‘Is it over’ exhibition
An external exhibition with MA students from MADA and from the RCA. A very good rehearsal for the show build.
Inking and Printing
A recount of the first time of inking, a lot of considerations had to be taken into account, a long time of preparation, but unfortunately the results were not good enough.
Valve evolution
A recount on the technique followed to produce the valves digital images, using bracketing to capture the images and then treat them in post-production using Photoshop and Photomatix.
Printing the first plate
Where I describe the method of printing my first good plate. It was a key moment, when I got the print I was very pleased and decided that this was going to be the methodology I would follow for my final output.
Digital Negatives
A second alternative to Photo Intaglio. Once you have the negative then it can be used in the darkroom as a ‘contact negative’. This is a process that follows traditional processes from the 19th century such as salt printing, lith printing and platino printing. The only problem with this method is that it needs extensive research.
Print making
Initial attempt on Photo Intaglio. I used a positive that was of 45 lpi and I etched a vaporjet plate and a solar plate. The results were quite coarse so I knew I needed a better positive. Also the solar plate didn’t work as I didn’t use an aquatint screen on the exposure. It was a good investigation that led me to refine my technique.
The exhibition build is almost over. It has been a lot of ‘hard graft’ but we are almost there. My plinth has taking quite a bit longer to build than I expected. I have never built one before so I wasn’t completely sure of the process and it was something of a learning curve. I’m glad I allocated enough time for it as it needed a lot of coats of paint. I should have coated it with PVA glue first, but I only learned that when it was too late. Also, because the wall which it was going to rest against was covered with wood, I couldn’t see that instead of a skirting board there was a deep step. So I had to alter the base to fit the wall. After the necessary alterations it was finished. Here is a picture of the finished article:
I spent a couple of days painting and cleaning the ‘Light Space’ room where my work is going to be shown. I also spent a good amount of time looking for a list of things for other people (plinths, extension leads, screws, etc.) as well as trying to help sort out some people’s problems with the look of the space to ensure their work is best presented without affecting the work of others. I must thank the staff from the Media and the Photography resource centers for their help with the installation of work, as well as the 3D resource center for their help with the building of plinths. These are a few photos of the space (notice my plinth and iMacs on the right 
) :
These are a couple of photos of the week before the exhibition. Still some work to do in the room. My movie can’t be shown full screen as there is a lot of light reflection on the iMac’s screens. To solve this problem I have reduced the size of the movie and I have introduced a white border around my movie that minimizes the reflections.
After deliberating on what kind of plinth to build to house my moving image piece, the fact that I am going to have access to three iMacs has made me come to a decision. I am going to build a simple long plinth upon which the computers will sit.
Before I came to this conclusion I researched the possibility of mounting the iMacs on the wall. I found out that there was a wall mount that was compliant with VESA (Video Electronics Standards Association) standards and it seemed like a great simple solution. The problem was that it only worked on 24″ screens and the ones at college are 20″. There were some adapters for the smaller screens that would mount them without removing the stand and it involved being attached to a long bracket…a little unsightly.
VESA compliant wall mount
So, this is the sketch of my plinth with the measurements:
To represent my work within publicity for the show I have chosen an extract from the final version of the video and a few of the valves. The reason why I haven’t chosen the full typology is because its orientation is portrait and it will look too small on the projection. For the same reason I choose just one of the valves to represent my work on the postcard and to have continuity I have done the same for the catalog and website. I look forward to seeing all of it.
MADA10 website: http://www.mada2010.co.uk
MADA10 Facebook: http://en-gb.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=216061&id=123235641039024
Short Artist Statement:
This project observes functional architecture from the industrial era and its environment, exploring this study through methodical photographic documentation. It comprises the mixing of digital and analogue technologies and engages with the materiality of the output surfaces to effectively capture the suspended and timeless state of its primal subjects.
1. Show reel
2. Postcard
Finally I have finished printing the second lot of six valves. These six plates had to be inked twice as after the first day of inking the resulting print was not satisfactory. The pressure of the press was equal but it seemed that it needed to be a little tighter. Also, as another factor, the plates may have been rubbed too much, so the result was quite light.
The second day of inking the plates I made sure that Paul Atkins (Print Making Resource’s manager) double checked the plates before inking and he also put more pressure on the press. This time the press was so tight that two technicians had to turn the wheel. The print came out well. Finlay Taylor (MA Print Making tutor) was there and he was very complementary of the result. Paul Atkins has requested an edition to be part of their archive. I’ll probably do this during the assessment week.
I have now photographed the two sheets of valves and taken them to the framers. I have chosen a hand made and painted white box frame with no mount board so the print will be floating. This style is quite minimal, modern and extremely good quality, which is something I was looking to achieve as again I am trying to encapsulate the industrial era feeling of the images and make a parallel with our contemporary times.
Elements of the frame
Frame detail
Floating mount detail
After all this work I am really looking forward to seeing them hang on the wall.
This piece started as two series photographs. The first one, Black Water, was composed of 1,045 photographs and the second one, Two Gasometers, was composed of 873 photographs. These digital photographs were taken on a small fine quality, as I had to think about the output before the input. Small Fine quality on a Canon D20 camera means 1.2 Mb per picture at a resolution of 1728 x 1152 pixels. The maximum output quality – HDTV wide screen – is 1920 x 1080 and on an Imac screen is 1680 x 1050. This means that the Small Fine quality of the pictures is more than enough for the chosen output.
Once I composed the two footage together I encounter the problem that my film was 56.27 GB for a duration of 9 minutes. The settings of the sequence were Animation compressor and exported as a Quick Time movie. This massive size was quite difficult for the computers to reproduce smoothly. I had to drastically reduce the size if I wanted the movie to work.
I tried different compressions. On the first one the settings of the sequence were DV-PAL (720 x 576)with Animation compressor, this gave me a small film size but the resolution quality of the Quick Time movie (H 264) wasn’t good and the pixel size was reduced. I thought this could be still OK if I were to show it as a projection. But I really wanted to use a better quality display. By recommendation I also tried to change the settings of the sequence to HDV 1440 x 1080 the result was better but the file size was still quite big.
The next step was to find a good compressor for Quick Time. I tried Apple Pro Res and this gave me a better result, at HDV 1440 x 1080 I got 13.6 GB. To try to compress it a little further and still keep the same good quality I used Apple Pro Res 1080 x 720 and this has given me a file size of 6. 81GB which is a big difference from the initial 56.27 GB. The resolution of the movie is still good so I am quite happy to be able to show it without technical glitches.
A successful attempt! After inking the 6 the plates (the explanation of technique, previous attempts and progress can be followed in part1 and part2 and part3) this time I went back to the original printing press which has the correct measures for my print. The paper was soaked for 3 hours and the plates were padded by a 6mm stiff metal sheet. The plates inking was double checked and then was run through the press… and a beautiful first good print came out. Now I need to print my second lot of 6 valves.
First 6 inked plates on table:
Harry F Rochat Printing Press
I have been attempting to print six plates featuring my images of valves in one piece of Somerset satin. My attempts can be seen in blogs part1 and part2. I tried to solve it by using different wetness of paper but that didn’t seem to be the problem and also by packing the bed with print paper the same size as my output print to increase the pressure. Evaluating the print, there seems to be a lack of contact between the plate and the paper. The brand of paper used, soaking time, and pressure settings of the press are all factors that will greatly affect how the print will look. A considerable amount of pressure is required to get good prints using a fine aquatint screen. A solution to even the amount of pressure from the printing press could be to cut irregular concentric shape out of print paper to prop up the problematic areas.
So this time the paper was soaked for 3 hours but very well blotted so there were no wet patches. I actually moved the printing to a different press. This printing press was quite tight for the size of the paper, the edges where slightly hanging out of the bed and I had to trim my registration sheet to fit it. Still, I wanted to see if the pressure of this press was working on my plates before doing all the irregular concentric shape padding. I run the press again and…unfortunately there were still a few white patches which meant that this press although not as worn out it was still a bit worn out and the pressure wasn’t even or I just didn’t add enough pressure. I’ll have to try again.
Different stages of inking the Toyobo Printight Solar Plate (KM73):
These are the different sequences of footage composed in Final Cut Pro. The average number of photographs per footage is 800, the frame rate is 8fps.
Dark Canal Water
Blue Canal Water
Close-up Reflection of gasometer
Reflection of gasometers
The next one is a composite of two sequences overlayed, as I said in the symposium, to mirror the process used on the valve images where I merged two different exposures I am exploring the merging of two different footages into one. This presents to the viewer a double set of information of exactly the same location captured at different times, bringing the concept of time capture closer to mind.
The sequence shown below is just the basis for the final piece where the pace of the sequence will slow down at random intervals reminding us of the static nature of the footage and bringing back the pensive quality of photography.
The following are two rough sketches for the proposed installation of the screens that will show the final footage. The idea is to show the same footage on three screens sequentially so the water movement is emphasized, traveling from one screen to the next one (past-present-future), showing the time line and narrative by using the vertical spatial display. I think that the formalism of this display ties in with the formality of the valve typology displayed on a frame. It makes a connection in between the two pieces of work strengthening their viewing context.
Front view
Back view
A previous idea was to have it in a low rectangular box, with the monitors looking up, simulating the way I took the footage of the water.
and this was a former idea of having 3 plasma screens on a corner set, it has an inclusive feeling but it is very different from the way in which I am displaying my valve piece, if I were to have a room just for the displaying of this piece, this shape could have been a good proposal but with large x large scale screens instead.
Second time inking. I followed the same process to ink the six Solar plates. When the time came for printing I used Somerset satin paper again, but this time it was a little wetter than the first time. Another variation was that the bed of the press was packed with 7 print paper sheets, the same size as my Somerset paper, to make the pressure greater. After running the press the result wasn’t too dissimilar to the first attempt. I believe that the paper being a little dryer with no visible wetness works better. It seems that I the problem lies with the pressure applied onto the plates and the amount of print paper sheets underneath wasn’t enough. The press that I am using is a very old machine and it is a bit worn down which explains an uneven pressure. Saying this I also have to take into account that I am trying to print six plates on the same paper so that makes the possibility of uneven pressure more likely to happen as well as pulling the paper down with different tensions. I know it is a complicated process, but I will keep on trying.
The beautiful press I am using
