City in Flux
David Lynch
The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari
Steve Powers
Eric Drooker
“Minor clashes between my dog’s preferences as to where and how a walk should proceed and my own indicated that I was experiencing almost an entirely different block than my dog. I was paying so little attention to most of what was right before us that I had become a sleepwalker on the sidewalk.” > how do other people see the city? the same streets we walk? what do we miss? > Horowitz takes 11 ‘experts’ along the same street, individually, to get their perspective > her toddler, an exploratory exercise in touching and tasting textures and surfaces, pointing at sights, pausing to absorb the tickling brush of the breeze > infants see everything new, everything is exciting to them, nothing yet distinguished
> artist and reconstructionist Maira Kalman, talk to policemen, movers, a mailman, churchgoers, and the social workers tending to a halfway house. > they cease to simply coexist with their fellow citizens and, for the duration of the walk, live with them instead, attend to them with presence and curiosity, see them > typography nerd Paul Shaw, “dull, tedious words” that bombard us from storefronts, billboards, and computer screens nearly every waking moment have an embedded meaning in each letter, they set a mood > geologist Sidney Horenstein, the city suddenly becomes not a sterile “man-made” object but a thriving ecosystem of living and once-living landscapes > field naturalist and insects advocate Charlie Eiseman, a keen awareness that the negative space of the unseen is itself a source of rich information > senior wildlife scientist John Hadidian, the main distinction in the city’s life is that between day and night, and a remarkable amount of wildlife floods
the seemingly humdrum city streets once the sun averts its gaze — pigeons/sparrows/ squirrels/chipmunks/raccoons
“
Right now, you are missing the vast majority of what is happening around you. You are missing the events unfolding in your body, in the distance, and right in front of you.
“
> fresh look on familiar place > how we only take in what is necessary and dismiss or completely ignore the rest > she talks of taking her dog for a walk and how she and the dog are experiencing a totally different street
Alexandra Horowitz: Art of Looking
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari
Steve Powers
Eric Drooker
Alexandra Horowitz
Lynch’s photographic series ‘The Factory’ all hold a mysterious quality, edging on eery at times, he creates this atmosphere through the use of black and white photography and by shooting from low angles and through objects. The scenes themselves contain an element of strangeness due to the fact that he is photographing an abondoned factory. Perhaps exploring the more derelict side of a city might throw out some interesting designs. In terms of photography skills I’m not exactly a pro, but I think that my novice photos may be improved through the use of photoshop. Lynch’s photographs are all in black and white, a technique that might be useful to use within my photo edits as this may be partly the key to the strange feel to his photographs.
Following on from my research into David Lynch’s photographs, I came across the strange world in which this film is set. Gnarled and twisted buildings are what give this film an eery feel, whilst also creating a false sense of reality and even dreamlike quality. Perhaps this might be an interesting technique to explore within my experimentation, creating a small set might be a low-budget way of achieving some of this technique. Light and shadow play a very strong role in the overall outcome of this set. The sharp, elongated shadows are really what makes the set look so good, without the use of harsh false lighting the design would look like exactly what it is, a lowbudget painted set.
Going in a quite different route to the work of Lynch and the film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, I’ve taken a look at some more fun pieces of design work. Powers work has been purposefully placed in the same spots that graffiti would be seen but his work holds more meaning than graffiti does. The collection of works I’ve researched have been grouped under the header ‘A Love Letter To The City’, a title that really showcases what they are all about. The designs themselves are aesthetically pleasing and often clever, almost infographic styled.
Eric Drooker’s novel ‘FLOOD! A Novel In Pictures’ has a sense of comic book styling whilst not being so true to that title; with far more harrowing scenes and a sense of darkness about the images. The scenes themselves are quite flat, with little in the way of detailing, this is especially done due to the use of the majority of black and slight white contrast. His images actually remind me of lino printing due to this flat kind of appearance. It might be interesting to create some lin printing using images of my chosen city as the basis and see how the prints develop.
I found the idea that Horowitz explores a really interesting and fun way of looking at the city; it’s a different approach that I probably wouldn’t have considered, however, now that I have read her thoughts it has given me some great inspiration to explore the parts of the city that might not normally be focused on by everyday passersby. I would like to explore the beauty in the odd places, perhaps alleyways, doorways, secret spaces, hidden parts of the city and even the colours that make up a city.
Analysis
David Lynch
Primary Research
Skylines
Primary Research
Primary Research
Derelict/Run-down
Textures
Primary Research
Typography
Primary Research
Doorways & Alleyways
This was a really simple stage set up with a box without a lid placed on it’s side and slits cut into the upper section of the box. The little paper cut-outs simply slide through the slits and are held in place by a half centimetre thick sliver of paper. I took the above image and broke down the foreground from the background and those inbetween, to then sketch them out wonkily with elements of Caligari’s set also incorporated. Each layer was cut out and slid into the box to build up a little set. I then took a light and shone it from a few different angles to acentuate certain parts of the design.
Experimentation
Creating a set
Experimentation
Photo Manipulation/Enhancement
Experimentation
Photo Manipulation/Enhancement
Experimentation
Photo Manipulation/Enhancement
Photoshop Tutorials
Kaleidoscope - Simple
Photoshop Tutorials
Kaleidoscope - Complex
Colour Spectrum
Colour Spectrum in Kaleidoscopes
Avant-Garde
Herb Lubalin
Avant-Garde
Non-Format
Avant-Garde
Non-Format
Thumbnails
Kaliedoscope Booklet Cover
Motion Blur
York York York York York York
York York York York York York
York Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, odio forensibus efficiantur id sea, vide dicant et per. Usu te mucius pertinax, at illum nonumes periculis per, nam eu autem offendit. Errem consul in has.
York York York
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, odio forensibus efficiantur id sea, vide dicant et per. Usu te mucius pertinax, at illum nonumes periculis per, nam eu autem offendit. Errem consul in has.
York York York York
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, odio forensibus efficiantur id sea, vide dicant et per. Usu te mucius pertinax, at illum nonumes periculis per, nam eu autem offendit. Errem consul in has.
Kaliedoscope Booklet Cover
York Colour Spectrum in Kaleidoscopes Kaliedoscope Booklet Cover