Year 3 Semester 1 Independent Practice Portfolio by Steven Demeza

STEVEN DEMEZA

Graphic Design Year3 Semester 1

Independent Practice

Practice FMP I initially started looking at the coverage I would get using 5 or 6 pinholes. I did this as I expected some overlapping of the same scenery and wanted to minimise this. After putting together the diagrams I realised that the tin I had in the centre wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t big enough to achieve any overlapping of scenery. The tin I used had a diameter of 10.2cm. The photographic paper I was using would have to be cut in half and taped together to be able to wrap around the tin with a bit of overlap, so I took the maximum circumference this would achieve and made some calculations as to what the diameter would be and made some mock ups with the new value of 11.33cm.

Center tin, 10.2cm Diameter

Main tin, 23cm Diameter

Min focal length, 6.4cm

PROBLEM! 5 rather LARGE blind spots

Center tin, 10.2cm Diameter

Main tin, 23cm Diameter

Min focal length, 6.4cm

PROBLEM! 6 smaller blind spots lots of overlapping exposures

Center tin, 11.33cm Diameter

Main tin, 23cm Diameter

Min focal length, 6.4cm

PROBLEM! 5 rather LARGE blind spots

Center tin, 11.33cm Diameter

Main tin, 23cm Diameter

Min focal length, 6.4cm

PROBLEM! 6 smaller blind spots lots of overlapping exposures

Practice FMP Initially I developed a card shutter than span around the whole tin. Was held in place with stoppers and 3 detachable elastic bands attached to the lid and shutter. It also had 3 pieces of string attached to the shutter at the same locations as the rubber bands in order to keep a smooth even distribution of force upon the shutter. This should have given the shutter a smooth and even motion. It worked rather well in testing, but on the day, it got stuck and in my eagerness to get it to go back up I snapped it. I had to come up with something else and quickly developed a series of replacement shutters to go over each pinhole. These were just tape hinged shutters held down with tape. I also taped around the lid as there seemed to be a rather substantial light leak coming from there. Once I got the camera home I spent a couple of hours working on a more rigid and permanent replacement shutter system. Regardless of the outcomes. I am not happy with any of them. Due to a light leak in the darkroom where I was cutting up my paper and developing my prints. All the results were thrown off, as the paper was being exposed before I had even begun testing my camera. The leak has rendered all the time I have spent developing the camera as rather pointless. All the time I spent fighting with tutors to try and gain access to using the darkroom has been futile. As I gained nothing from its usage. Other than to find out that the darkroom is the very thing that has caused a lot of the unexplained anomalies that I was finding. Even though gaining access to the darkroom is hard enough as it is, one or two days a week at the most. I then had to spend a

day sorting out the majority of light leaks in the darkroom myself with the aid of Charlotte Bryan.

Experiment 1, with the ‘Band shutter’

Experiment 2, with the ‘Taped card shutter’

Experiment 3, with the ‘Taped card shutter’ and taped up lid. (Approx. 1min exposure)

Experiment 1, all 6 pinholes used. Exposures times: 6seconds to 24seconds.

Experiment 2, all 6 pinholes used. Exposure time: 18seconds.

Experiment 3, pinholes 1, 3 and 5 used. Exposure times: 12seconds to 16seconds.

Experiment 4, all 6 pinholes used. Exposure time: 24seconds.

Experiment 5, all 6 pinholes used. Exposure time: 40seconds.

Practice FMP Constructing this camera wasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t really all that difficult. All be it, very primitive in regards to the initial concept. I doubt the results yielded by this particular camera will be very good if I manage to get a photograph out of it that hasnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t already been contaminated by a light leaking darkroom. The initial concept was to create a camera much like one I made last semester, but with 3 pinholes that could work independently or simultaneously. It would have been made out of wood and would have been more compact for ease of transportation and would use 35mm film which is more convenient. The camera I have developed at the moment takes photographic paper which means it can only take one photograph at a time and needs to have a darkroom to load the photographic medium into the camera. This makes taking a photograph with it very cumbersome and slow. On the opposite page is where I plan to take the idea further which will be part of my FMP next semester.

Furthering my Practice With this camera I am hoping to get a smooth 360Â° panoramic, or as close to as possible with a pinhole. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ve purposely tried to avoid doing too much second hand research on how to achieve this as I want to experience that journey of discovery for myself. If I look up how to do the physical aspects online, or in books, then I would be skipping all of the potential happy accidents and tangent discoveries on the way. I am generally quite pleased with what I have found so far, all be it all I have really found out is how to detect faults with equipment. Such as circular patterns on my paper which was because of a leak in the lid of my container, or banding on the paper because of my ruler placed upon the paper when there is a light leak in the darkroom.

Practice FMP Whilst spending some time back in my home village of Lakenheath I spent some time taking photographs of scenery that interested me. This exercise gave me the opportunity to work on my photographing ability as well as helping to bolster my photographic portfolio. The content I am most interested in is rural landscapes and architecture. I was trying to capture interesting textures, lighting, angles and form with this set of images. I think a lot of the photographs were successful although improvements could definitely be made. I used 7 photographs to create a vast panoramic of the large fishing pond that is located not too far from my house. This is also where most of the photographs have been taken although a few were taken on Lakenheath warren.

Time-lapse These are the images of a time-lapse I tried at the start of the semester. I had hoped to capture star trails but the clouds ended up looking orange. I think this is due to how close London is to Epsom and the light pollution that is caused. As my parents live in the countryside I will try and do it again over the Christmas period. The main problem I was having was with the program I was using and how it affected the battery. It enabled me to adjust the camera settings and automating the frequency between photographs. But it also drained the camera battery even without Live View on. The program would show the battery at 100% but within 6 or so photographs the camera would shut down and not turn on. Yet when I placed the battery onto the charger it said it was full within minutes. I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t sort out this problem.

The Apple (Dogme 95) After trying to rigidly stick to the rules of Dogme I found it quite difficult to convey what it is that I like doing. I wanted to try and convey the set ideals that I like to work to. Such as; Intricacy, Precision, Attention to Detail, Realism, Calculated, Humour, etc. I wanted to convey these ideologies by doing things that I enjoy that encapsulate one of these values well. The original idea was to do things like playing intricate parts of songs on guitar, playing football and trying to hit the crossbar with power from 45yards. After realising this would just appear as an eclectic mix of activities edited together into a short 3 minute film and I doubt the audience would understand what it was without explanation. This goes against what the brief was about so I decided to just try and focus on one aspect. This original idea was going to be a parody on the short film ‘The Perfect Human’ by Jørgen Leth. I was hoping this would convey the humorous side of my personality but it was poorly shot and had my cringe voice over. Although the humour did somewhat come across in the work. I ultimately thought it was rather unsuccessful and chose to move on to something else that I would enjoy doing.

The Whale I chose to do a piece on drawing because my original ideas became such a chore to shoot and edit. Originally I was going to do a parody on the short film ‘The Perfect Human’ by Jørgen Leth. Having felt drained of all motivation and ambition I decided to do something that I enjoy doing in a feeble attempt to rekindle some of that motivation and drew a zombie instead. More time passed by and I still couldn’t muster the motivation to do any filming and spent in excess of 50 hours coding a new website in a matter of days, something I haven’t done in quite a while and became engrossed in doing so. Mainly to get away from doing something that I have recently discovered I absolutely detest, but also because it has strong ties with both units, which I don’t see as a waste of time. To summarise, I would much rather be doing the things I am interested in than making a film about the things I am interested in. In the short film I finally managed to produce I was trying to communicate the little things that go on between the moments the pencil is physically on the page while drawing an image and the emotions that flow throughout. Albeit, it would seem frustration has become a reoccurrence during recent workings. Strangely juxtaposed against the seemingly tranquil nature of the subject. Which in this case is a Southern Humpback Whale. I chose not to break any of the Dogme ‘95 rules. Having researched them, they appear to have come about through wanting to create something pure. Which is something I feel I can relate to, and wanted to reflect this in the work. I also thought that taking the Dogme ’95 rules to their extremities would aid me in a disciplined and patient approach.

The Western Black Rhino Throughout the first and second years I didnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t do a lot of detailed drawings as I felt the need to be more experimental, in regards to becoming accustomed with other mediums. This helped to identify other areas that I could branch out into such as typography and photography. So once we began to refine our practice, I felt as though being able to do detailed drawing is something that I should persevere with. The aim of drawing this rhinoceros was to raise awareness because the Western Black Rhinoceros is now extinct. All be it, one drawing from a photograph is not going to change much. But with the addition of the caption and itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s striking nature, it helps to add more meaning to the image and it aids in altering the images perception. The simple addition of words delivers a sincere message and transforms the image and adds function to an attractive drawing.

The Western Black Rhino declared extinct.

This image was drawn from a photograph. The last sighting of this species was in Cameroon pre 2006.

Zombie Walk When deciding what to draw after the Rhinoceros, it was around Halloween and I heard there was going to be a Zombie walk from Marble Arch in London. So I got my pencil out and I had a pretty good idea of what angle I wanted to draw a face from. I got google images open and started scouring the page for the perfect portrait to draw from, when I came across Clint Eastwood, his expression and deteriorated look was perfect. I sketched him out and then began to add the ‘zombification’ I got open some images of the muscles in the face and neck to try and expose some muscles in the neck. I also looked at skulls and the jaw in particular as I wanted the side of the mouth to look as though it was torn open. I had to make sure the teeth lined up with the rest of the face, after my first attempt without references looked very out of place and the perspective was wrong. I also exaggerated features such as the cheekbones and how far the eyebrows protrude, in order to try and make the eyes look sunken. I wanted to try and experiment with the combination of flat vectored graphics and detailed hand drawn imagery. I was hoping the contrast would work well, but so far it hasn’t really worked that great I don’t think. I would quite like the image with the moon to be animated, I looked into using After Effects but I haven’t had the time to explore beyond the basics. I would like to turn the image into a GIF and have some clouds or mist passing across the front of the moon on repeat.

CRAWL OF THE

DEAD

Zombie Walk

Saturday 8th October 2011 - 13:00hrs From Marble Arch to Leicester Square

www.crawlofthedead.com

Photographic Compilation As the year has progressed It has become increasingly noticeable that I have not yet externalised my work enough. I missed out on getting my work exhibited at the rag factory last semester due to changing idea midway through the ‘LAB’ project. Seeing as though I have taken a giant step towards photography year on year, I figured I should put together a small publication from each photographic project I have embarked upon. I intend to use this as a platform from which to strive towards securing a solo exhibition in the near future. The zine is extremely edited down and the photographs are very small in the majority of cases. The reason I have done this is to try and leave the observer wanting to see more, which leaves me with the opportunity to follow this up with an externalisation process on a bigger scale. If it wasn’t overly expensive I would like to print the zine out in one long strip with my Holga 135 panoramic on one side and the whole zine on the other. I would use a concertina fold so that the zine would still operate and function as a zine on one side but once the viewer has finished with it, they can turn it over and place it upon their wall as an attractive and unusual poster.

Initial Concept - Concertina folded, double sided print.

Back S T E V EN DEMEZA

MATCHBOX PINHOLE

BOOK CAM Double exposure, created by exposing 2 different photographs for half of their desired exposure times.

Developer painted onto exposed photographic paper.

H O LG A PINHOLE

WOODEN PINHOLE

Epsom, Surrey, Hook Road, Multi-Storey Car Park

ROSES TIN PANOCAM

Experiment 1, all 6 pinholes used. Exposures times: 6seconds to 24seconds.

Experiment 2, all 6 pinholes used. Exposure time: 18seconds.

Experiment 3, pinholes 1, 3 and 5 used. Exposure times: 12seconds to 16seconds.

Painted developer experiment. Looked too obscure for what I was hoping to achieve.

There is a pull-out poster on how to create your own matchbox pinhole camera in the centre of the zine

Full frame print. Epsom, Surrey, Temple Road

Obscurity Photographic Experimentation

This camera is one of the easiest film cameras to construct by yourself. By going through the process of making a matchbox pinhole camera you learn about the very basics of photography and the way that light travels. The outcomes that are achieved are abstract and provocative. Due to the proximity of the film to the pinhole the images will inherit a vignetted effect. This camera and these images are the first time I had ever experimented with pinhole photography and creating my own cameras. This project served as the perfect platform to explore photography from. I personally found the idea of

creating your own cameras as something beyond my own capability. This project has explicitly been the seed from which all of my work has grown. Whether you enjoy making things, finding out how things work or have an interest in photography I would encourage you to try out the construction and use of a matchbox pinhole camera.

Can a Camera be a Book?

Homely Nostalgia

This project explored the parameters which define a book. I looked at form, content, purpose and usage. To what extent can a book on a subject become the subject? The book consists of a felt casing with a zip attached and a shutter mechanism on the cover with a pinhole beneath it. The contents of the book are the photographic results of experimental development techniques and prints. The negatives that were used in the experiments came from a matchbox pinhole camera from an earlier project. The book cam project seemed like the ideal container to externalise the work I had

All the images taken with this camera are located in the village of Lakenheath in Suffolk, England. The images feature Mill Pond, a place I used to fish in my school years and Lakenheath warren. With these images I tried to focus on form and texture. I tried to take images around the pond in a panorama that I could later scan in and stitch together with the aid of photoshop. Both of which came out really well. I really enjoy the atmospheric nature that a pinhole camera portrays and is why I prefer its usage over the typical DSLR. Another reason why I prefer not to use a DSLR for this type of photography is because of how

done previously while giving me the opportunity to be experimental in the darkroom.

Solarisation experiment, created by exposing the photo paper to bright light while it is in the developing tray.

Falsely ages photograph, placed in developer for 1minute, briefly put in stop and then left in bright light for 20minutes before fixing.

detached it feels when compared to the primitive nature of the pinhole camera, which gives the user a greater sense of involvement.

Scrupulous Construction This wooden camera has been the most time consuming project that I have embarked upon. The design and construction is all of my own work. The most problematic part of the construction was getting it all glued together. I had planned to use a black mastic type glue in order to try and keep it light tight. But it didn’t stick together very well at all. I used normal wood glue and the back panels had to be reglued as they slipped while under pressure. I’m relatively happy with the quality of

the photographs and they’re a little wider than typical photographs which makes it difficult to get them developed in high street stores. The only light leak the camera has is the area where the negative feeds through to be exposed. Overall I would say this is one of the more successful and thorough projects. Epsom, Surrey, Hook Road, Railway Bridge

This is the latest experiment that is still in progress. The main idea behind this camera is to get a 360° panoramic photograph that is slightly distorted where the pinholes provide juxtaposed views over the edges of one another. The problem with these photographs are down to a light leak in the darkroom and began exposing my photographs before I got the paper into the

camera. The banding on the images is where I was measuring the paper up to cut up and wrap around the center container. This camera is the first prototype and is using photographic paper until all the problems have been ironed out. The next step to be taken is to move on from this camera and develop a rotational panoramic camera.

Experiment 5, all 6 pinholes used. Exposure time: 40seconds.

Experiment 4, all 6 pinholes used. Exposure time: 24seconds.

sdemeza@ucreative.ac.uk

Front

ZINE Printed zine photographs

Photos of zine on display

FACES Day Project This is a day project that I initiated in my student accommodation. We placed all of our faces on a scanner and began experimenting. The initial idea was to have a creative series of portraits to place on the wall. Although it may change and get externalised via screen prints or other mediums.

Website Having had a good level of understanding of how to code I have started to create a website after attending the beginner and intermediate HTML5 / CSS3 workshops. Any problems I had could be easily be sorted out using any one of the extensive arrays of online resources available. I believe I have made a fairly decent start with 270 lines of CSS code and several web pages. Which in total took approximately 50 or more hours so far. Although I’m currently looking to change the site to have the majority of information accessible on the front page via sliding panels to make it more interactive. I also want to make the website more dynamic by changing set pixel dimensions to percentages to accommodate different screens while using all of the same code which would contain ‘hooks’ to detect the size of the screen it’s being viewed on. I still have a lot to learn in regards to web display and making my coding lighter, cleaner and more intricate.

UNDER CONSTRUCTION Adaptability & Accommodation The latest HTML5 / CSS3 workshop made me realise I had not thought about the wider range of media that could, and would hopefully access my website. Most modern monitors would have an approximate width of 1400 pixels or above, older monitors use a width of roughly 800 pixels, and modern touchscreen phones have an approximate screen width of 480 pixels. By using the same piece of code, I can accommodate all potential screen sizes by detecting the screen width and then resizing the website accordingly. I also want to minimise the amount of pages the website has in total by moving much of the media onto the front page and making it more interactive. I plan to introduce links which move panels vertically to reveal imagery which can be scrolled through horizontally. The reason for this change is to make the website more user friendly and it will accommodate a greater audience. The only problem that I have left that I have yet to solve is the Windows XP market, as the latest version of Inter Explorer that works with this operating system is IE8, which doesnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t support the latest HTML and CSS versions.

Exploded diagram of how I intend to restructure the website.

Adaptability & Accommodation All of these screenshots demonstrate how an adaptive website should react to resizing of the internet browser. This means that no information should be hanging off the edge of the screen and the user can simply scroll down the page, rather than having to scroll up down and left to right. This simplistic approach enables easier readability of the website. All screenshots featured on this page are from http:// mediaqueri.es/

http://www.forskningsradet.no/

http://www.w3conf.org/

http://elliotjaystocks.com/

Bibliography URLâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Practice FMP http://the-impossible-project.com/ http://www.markpattenden.co.uk/Mark_Pattenden/Home. html http://www.dezeen.com/ http://www.bjp-online.com/british-journal-of-photography/ report/1940459/self-building-cameras http://www.pinholephotography.com.au/Theory/theory.html http://www.blurb.com/books/1239298 http://www.f295.org/Pinholeforum/forum/Blah.pl? http://chriskeeney.com/ck-pinhole-photography-resources http://www.alternativephotography.com/wp/processes/ pinholes/multi-pinhole-cameras

Time Lapse http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e--F4IoIDpY

Self-coded Website http://www.swe.se/index.php http://www.mediovski.com/#home http://www.thrivesolo.com/ http://www.awwwards.com/gallery/41251/5 http://www.brandify.co.uk/portfolio/ http://www.underconsideration.com/quipsologies/ http://hellofisher.com/ http://www.css3.info/ http://www.tobypitman.com/dynamic-css3-animatedaccordian-menu/ http://css3.bradshawenterprises.com/ http://www.admixweb.com/2010/06/22/css3animations-the-power-back-to-css-part-1-transitions/ https://developer.mozilla.org/en/CSS/CSS_animations http://css-tricks.com/ http://simplicitycollective.com/the-battle-of-city-squarethis-is-what-democracy-looks-like http://matthewlein.com/ceaser/ http://gradients.glrzad.com/ http://www.google.com http://mediaqueri.es/ https://github.com/ http://elliotjaystocks.com/ http://www.forskningsradet.no/ http://www.w3conf.org/

Western Rhino http://io9.com/5858564/africas-western-black-rhino-hasbeen-declared-extinct http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/45236688/ns/world_ news-world_environment/t/africas-western-black-rhinodeclared-extinct/#.TuVs65jC-cc http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/scienceenvironment-15663982

Zombie Walk http://www.crawlofthedead.com/crawls/info/world_ zombie_day_london1/ http://www.eventility.co.uk/cgc/summary/335 ht t p://ve m f a ne l au r ap a l me r.f i le s .wordpre ss . com/2008/12/1218430832jyep4s3.jpg

Books and Magazines Practice FMP Ruscha, E. (1965). Every Building on the Sunset Strip Dean, T. (2006). Analogue: Drawings 1991-2006 Rees, A. L. (2008). A History of Experimental Film and Video

Atget, E. (2001). 55 Bailey, D. (1983). Black and White Memories 1948 - 1969

Exhibitions Practice FMP Tate Modern - Special Exhibition, The Unilever Series: Tacita Dean

Evaluation Before the semester had began I tried to do some timelapse videos. I wanted to capture star trails and other astronomical occurrences. The problem I found was that the lens I was using couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t get enough light in regardless of how wide the aperture was set and there was too much ambient light pollution due to the proximity of London. I tried to compensate for this by increasing the ISO on the camera but that only resulted in the images being extremely grainy. The other problem I had was the camera shutting down indicating the battery was flat, yet once I got the camera battery placed on the charger it was full within minutes. Which was a problem I couldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t figure out, but seemed to be an issue with the software I was using. This is an area of practice that I will definitely like to experiment with in the future. I shall also be purchasing an astronomical telescope, which I am hoping will inform this area of practice. This semester has been useful in some ways. It has shown me that I do not particularly enjoy creating film, or that I do not enjoy trying to create a piece of film while conforming to very restrictive guidelines. I believe that with a better understanding of film and film structure through further unrestricted practice, I may then be able to try again and result in a more enjoyable and successful piece. This semester has also shown me that I need to return to drawing and focus on that, as it is possibly my strongest ability. With the addition of type I could potentially steer my practice towards illustration. Although I struggle to draw with great detail solely from imagination, it is something that I would like to be able to do. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not sure if that is something that can be taught or whether I can become able to do this through practice, as I have only really ever drawn from visual material. The most enjoyable area of this semester has been my practice final major project. Creating a camera that has multiple pinholes and has the ability to take panoramic photographs is something that I have been thinking about for quite some time. Creating my own cameras and generating my own photographic prints is something that I am getting very comfortable with. This is something I see as a great position to be in for the final semester. The only thing that has been frustrating about this is the fact that we have so many other units that demand our attention simultaneously. I find this to be a struggle to focus on getting one thing done with 2 or more other projects pulling from all directions. The darkroom at the university has been nothing but hassle all this semester. With it being used as a classroom for the majority of the time, this therefore renders it unusable as a darkroom. Not only that but it has suffered from light leaks and caused my prints to be ruined and my tests to be useless.

FMP Proposal I plan to follow the entire photographic process from start to finish. To enable me to do this I will need to: • Construct my own darkroom. • Build my own camera. • Process the film in the darkroom. • Generate my own photographic prints in the darkroom. • Locate somewhere to exhibit. Process Depending on cost, I plan to build my own darkroom in the back garden, 8' deep x 10' wide with an angled 7' to 6'6'' high roof. I will also build a rotary camera to capture 360° panoramic photographs. I would also like to find somewhere to exhibit the work produced. Resources For the darkroom I will need: Wooden 2'' x 2'' to build the frame. Weather proof cladding for the outer wall. Planks for the floor. Felt for the roof. MDF or Hardboard for the internal wall. Two or three light fixtures for red lights. A photographic enlarger. Washing up bowl to fill with water for washing prints. Developing trays, could use cat litter trays. Multi-socket extension lead. For the camera I will need: A pair of bearings. Three cylindrical containers. Aluminium plate with pinhole. Insulation tape. Pole with the same diameter as the inside of the bearing. Shutter, shutter release cable. The photographic prints that I want to develop initially will be regular black and white photographic prints. I would also like to investigate the link between landscape photography and the photographic print by using chlorophyll and other experimental / old techniques to generate the images. Content Once the camera and darkroom have been built. The photographs that I want to focus on taking will utilise the panoramic aspects that the camera can capture. The main areas I want to focus on capturing will be architecture and rural landscapes. I want to focus on these areas because the area where I grew up was extremely rural, surrounded by farmland, fields, woodland, rivers and a warren. I wanted to move to somewhere that contrasted with the area I came from. We spend most of our lifetime in an area that is defined by an architect’s imagination.

sdemeza@ucreative.ac.uk