Open Crit. Friday 25th April 2014.

In our recent open crits, we have been experimenting with how we document the discussion which takes place. One of the ways in which we have been doing this is by inviting the 3 members who have presented work to write something about their particular experience of the crit, if and how they found it useful, and what they intended to do as a result..

Beanbag:Balloon:Pie is a body of work devised to tour round different sites, with the attributes of each environment affecting the viewer’s reading of the work. The attic space at the top of Islington Mill was the 3rd host site and we assembled up there to look at the work, bringing Jenny with us on the laptop. One of the features of this body of work is the use of text as a feature to be seen visually, rather than being ‘read’ in the accustomed way of written matter. This generated a discussion of how differently work might be read in a non-art environment. As a result, I have resolved to find new non-art sites to host the last legs of the tour of this work, which is also on its last legs. The timescale from the outset has been that the helium finally leaving the foil balloons will signify the end of the work, which is likely to be at least two months. The pieces are 12 slowly deflating helium-filled foil balloons, a beanbag filled with balloons - not beans - and a decomposing tin-foil-filled pie.

Any suggestions for possible indoor non-art sites where the work could be viewed would be gratefully received - images can be provided on request. 

Following this we went back down to the 1st floor and talked about how the research and outcomes of this work might lead on to ideas for my MA Show this September. After outlining initial ideas, the nature of site-responsive work was discussed. An indication that the ideas were responding to the institution (MMU) rather than the site has set off a train of thought that the work operates within a system by which the institution operates, with the site as host.

Useful ideas came up for thinking about how the proposed three sites of the work could be successfully negotiated by visitors to the MA Show, including a QR code and an estate agent-style performative tour.

Jackie Haynes

I presented a pair of films that I had made for a recent online commission for The Orangery building in Wakefield. As the work had been for an online context. I hadn't had the chance to explore how the films could be shown in a physical space. For the crit, I set them up on 2 monitors placed at either end of a long table. I set them playing at the same time in order to manually sync them. The first film is set in the grounds of The Orangery building after dark, and features frames of blue light picking out details of surfaces including headstones, tree bark and ground surfaces. This film was then used as the basis for the second film, where I invited a series of youtube subscribers who regularly make 'reaction videos' to produce a reaction video to this film. The blue frames of light I used were drawn from the internet - and were what is called 'Blue Screens of Death' (BSOD)- where people post images of their frozen computer screens online to ask for advice on what the problem might be. There was a suggestion was that the monitors could be turned around to face each other to invoke further the sense of them being in dialogue with each other. Another suggestion was that the films had a sense of gothic horror about them - linked to the idea of the BSOD as a symbol of a crisis in our faith in digital technologies - but also in their overall mood - being set after dark with the potentially eerie sounds of the area in which the Orangery is in the background. I hadn't really set out to evoke this kind of mood in the film, rather the choice to film after dark was a practical one so that the light of the projector could be seen. My interest in combining elements from the internet (reaction video's, BSOD) with public space is in coercing these different kinds of public space into a sometimes awkward overlapping scenario. 

Maurice Carlin

Sports Graphics Research Blog

I presented a collection of research material that I have been working on in my design job at BBC Sport. The research is an investigation into the graphical language of the sports presented on television, exploring the use of typography, colour, design motifs and other visuals.

The intention has been to investigate whether each sport, or in fact sport in general, could be seen to be branded in the same way as other products or services. At the crit I presented visuals associated with rugby and with football.

In the group we spoke in particular about the relationship between Guinness advertising and rugby graphics on TV. There was lots of discussion about the cultural associations of the sport, and the meaning that it has for different groups of people. We spoke about the importance of the fans, and ways to connect with audiences in contemporary ways. Lots of ideas were given about ways to develop the visual material, including historical uses of football kits, and how colour is used within football.

Sara Nesteruk