Guerrillas in the Mix

Paint the town LED is here!

2007-06-01T19:50:00.000Z

Demo of the LED graffiti in my installation. Hurrah! Thanks Jack!

Installation nearly finished

2007-05-30T21:49:00.000Z

It was all go today in the studio - I finished painting it yesterday and today Callum from Product Design and Jon at Mood of Collapse came and vandalised it! lol. Callum did some great drawings and Jon created some great stencils and stickers. Almost there now - just need to pixelate my tv and finish off a little bit of the graffiti. Never thought I'd get there.

LED graffiti

2007-05-27T16:53:00.000Z

Had a great time last week up at Peacock - Jack had got some nice patches together in jitter and I spent a good half an hour 'drawing' with torches on his office wall! The effect is really looking good and I'm so chuffed he got it to work. I also added the remote interactivity to my website the other day so it's almost complete. The installation gets painted on Monday and hopefully I can get a few people together on Wednesday to do a bit of stencilling within the studio space designated. After that it's a case of tying up some loose ends and making sure it all works nicely for the hand in - aaaarrrgghh!!

Abstractor

2007-05-23T19:05:00.000Z

Oooo - found another idea for the installation for either side of the door. One using the pixelator idea and the other using this - observe....

Click To Play

Abstractor can instantly tansform any television into a beautiful piece of art. Watch and find out how to make your own. Visit Abstractor.tv

Installation

2007-05-23T18:42:00.000Z

So, the viewing rooms started getting built today, and within a matter of hours - mine was complete!Looks a bit shabby just now, but with a bit of paint and some stencilling/street art, weird tv's and of course the interaction it should be alright. I hope.

Word on the sheet is.....

2007-05-18T18:51:00.000Z

Got my image printed up on a large roll of cotton today to use as my projector backdrop. Will see how it turns out once steamed and treated on Monday. Got my interface completed and updating my website properly today. That hopefully just leaves a bit of messing around to get the graffiti stuff doing some interesting things for the installation, and decorating the studio space I've been allocated - oh, and some 3d scanning on Wednesday. This is no minor thing, and especially as I've had an idea for the old tv screens based on the 'pixelator' stuff I saw the other day.

Degree show print work. Sorted.

2007-05-15T17:36:00.000Z

Got our business cards sent to the printers today and finalised my poster for the exhibition stand - need to alter some text and a little bit more fickering about - otherwise, it's all done. I'm also back up to Transition next Wednesday to do a bit of 3d scanning. Pretty interesting idea, and have never seen it take place so I'm intrigued to see how it all turns out. Got back in contact with Jack at Peacock too and hopefully we can get some interesting ideas together with regards to interactive material . Very busy!

Degree show layout

2007-05-15T12:57:00.000Z

Started our degree show layout yesterday. Much in-class moaning and avoidance took place, as was to be expected - but it was done, and eventually reached a compromise for getting a separate area for viewing my work and another student, Martin's. Hurray! Having done it I also realised two other things - one: how small the space we have actually is, and two: the portacabins we have at Grays make it look like some kind of death camp in the photos. I assure you that it is not like this at all, and we are allowed out in the fresh air now and again, with occasional toilet breaks and canteen food..... ;)

Transition

2007-05-11T10:48:00.000Z

Some photos from Transition last night - more to follow and some graffiti footage too.

4 Weeks left.

2007-05-09T16:12:00.000Z

This thought is a scary one - particularly as there is still so much to do. However, I have to meet with Richard Laing tomorrow to see about 3d building scanning and then hopefully have an enjoyable evening projecting stuff at the 'Transition' skatepark. After that I'll have to get my head down and finalise everything for the degree show, including printers etc. Hopefully it will all come together nicely but I have a funny feeling it's going to be hell on earth for the next few weeks. lol!

Productivity has lift off!

2007-05-04T09:18:00.000Z

my word! It has been a productive albeit busy week. Had the promo launch for the website which involved letting balloons off with the address on it written in UV pen, and handing out and leaving flyers with coded messages around the city. Thanks to Nicola Macinally for the loan of her studio for the evening to prepare everything. Then I went to see Jack at Peacock Visual Arts, and he was showing me some great stuff using jiiter-ware that he'd been doing recently - hacking into T.V's and the like to create some brilliant visual and audio effects! He was really helpful and it was great to speak to someone else in Aberdeen who was on a similar wavelength.

Both thought it would be a good idea to keep in contact with ideas etc which will be great. Then, I went to see Neil Stevenson, chief executive of 'Transition' the new skatepark in Aberdeen, and his manager Kenny Macenzie about using my project in a commercial sense and they were great. Really open minded about the whole thing and up for trying it out at a few of their different events, both as external projections and interior ones - so stay tuned for more photos and clips. Off to do a trial run and then hopefully get Jack involved in some of it too once he's back and see how it works out.

If I sold my soul.......

2007-04-24T08:13:00.000Z

......then I'd love to sell my project to big corporations so they could use it to create advertising concepts like below, but no, I must resist ;)

Our survey said....

2007-04-19T18:56:00.000Z

I put together a survey this week to get a general idea of how other student designers feel about their work and also to assist with my research in the notion of public space art and how people view their 'digital' environment - I emailed all four years in product, digital and graphic design, and out of a rough potential of around 250 students I got 25 results back - that's the Gray's spirit! lol , aww well, I should count myself lucky that I got that I suppose. The results were pretty good though and to be fair the majority that were kind enough to do it took time out to fully answer their questions. Particularly liked the person who described their work as 'honest....maybe'!! Anyway, apart from that I 've been working on my thesis. Fingers crossed it goes ok, Dew Harrison had a look through the first part of it and seemed happy enough with the direction it was headed in. Just got to tackle Dave's 'Technical' element to it now too. Once that is complete then I'll be much happier about getting on with the remaining elements to my project. Speaking of which, a meeting was supposed to be set up today for all the students who volunteered to be on the 'degree show committee' from both digital and product. No-one appeared to be around for it, however. Tsk! I've said it before and I'll say it again - 'that's the spirit'......!!

Todays mood: Despair.... ;)

Graphics

2007-04-13T10:38:00.000Z

Starting to pull all the graphics together and get the website finalised for the degree show interface while I wait for one of my lecturers to run the collaborative software (flash media server) from his computer to see if it's going to be ok to then install onto the University one. I've put together some material for Computer Arts too and also got an image together for the degree show catalogue. I also got my flyers printed out, badges made and balloons ready for the launch which should have happened last night but due to pesky 'flu has been postponed until the week after. Also hoping that the collaborative graffiti will be up and running by the end of next week too so that it all coincides with each other. Then the next step is to get the promotional side designed and presented for the deadline date. :(

Also spoke to another of my lecturers who suggested having a look at what some of the vis. comm classes are doing with regards to live video in flash. Sound interesting and will be good to see what other people are up to within this area.

Fundraising and Photos

2007-04-06T12:47:00.000Z

Had another fundraiser last night. Think we did not too bad. Every penny gets our little group of six closer to New blood in the summer.

Also, beforehand, I went out and took tons of pics of Aberdeen and areas that have potential for projecting and also just areas that already have graffiti. Was a beautiful day so got some really nice pictures, below are a few examples. The granite city is not so bad when the sun hits it! 'Smile - you're in Aberdeen'. ;)

Inspiration

2007-04-05T09:37:00.000Z

Love this video I found on youtube - bit of creative thought gone in to this one, and not just boring old graffiti tagging. Inspires me to try out some of this for my project.

Writing is on the wall

2007-03-31T14:22:00.000Z

Had a busy week this week - getting images ready for Computer Arts magazine, the Degree Show catalogue and we also held a fundraiser for New Blood. So in amongst baking, creating graphics visuals and working out what to create for my little degree show area and having a think about the degree show in general I carted the projector, laptop and graphics tablet plus camera, video camera and tripod (I'm going to have to get a shopping trolley methinks!)into the fair city of Aberdeen on Monday night and did another projection trial. This time it took place in Gallowgate and felt a bit more 'guerrilla' like as the college janitors patrolled the building - not quite all out creative warfare but maybe a teensy bit 'edgy'(?). Anyway - here are the results. P.S - thanks to Nicola and Mark for assistance - in particular Mark's help with the photography.

aaaaarrrggghhhh......!! Drawing Blood.

2007-03-21T16:45:00.000Z

New Blood. Will we get organised enough to get down there, and if we do then will we be good enough?.........lol. ;)

Construction Site...

2007-03-18T12:47:00.000Z

Got the fifth column website launched - at last! Currently got the home page up and running - don't want to give away too much yet(!), and have also been working on the idea of how I will present this for the degree show. I've also been thinking about what to enter for the computer arts showcase too. Got some illustrative ideas for stickers, flyers and promo stuff for in a fortnights time when the website launches properly, so might incorporate some of that. I have also found another great location for projecting on so hopefully with my lecturers, Dave Crossen and Lin Shang's help I can get the 'collaborative' element up and running in time to do this project and get some decent footage of it too. Anyone up for a spot of guerrilla graffiti?..... ;)

First Projections

2007-03-14T19:56:00.000Z

First attempt at projecting work in Gray's -

Nice one!.....

2007-03-09T21:01:00.000Z

Organic guerrillas!

2007-03-09T20:05:00.000Z

Finally got a chance to play with the projectors and create some 'organic' graffiti and some manipulative art projections, which was great. Kevin from 360tv came out to help film the experiment, and took some pics too, which you can see here. The organic graffiti actually came out much better than I reckoned, and looked really good contrasting against the concrete. I was also impressed at how the projector performed in the not-quite-as-dark as we would have liked!

One of my tutors also found me some helpful software that will allow for the whiteboard I created a few months back to become interactive, and users can log on to my portal and collaborate with others on line to create 'artistic' graffiti - or something. I'll be interested to see the outcome of this which will also be projected somewhere in the city at some point in the future.The only downside to yesterday was aching muscles this morning, after hanging out the window angling the projector and holding still for half an hour at a time to get decent filming and photos..... :( !

Interactive Architecture

2007-03-06T15:21:00.000Z

Finally got a bit of software to work that creates organic drawings which can then be projected onto buildings. Also located a projector so the filming fun begins on Thursday in Gray's quad! Managed to get some tunes from Mike in product design, and hopefully can apply it to a little promo animation I made for burning onto DVD or CD and being left around the city as 'found' digital media - the end of the animation also shows the web address. The website is finished and now I just need to add further interaction to the site for it to be a fully functioning 'portal'. Once this part is complete then the promo and projection elements can begin, which to be honest are the parts that I am most looking forward to doing, as this is an area I haven't exlpored as much in my four years at Gray's, and I am keen to get going with the challenge.

Seeing the wood for the trees, or projections for projects....

2007-02-26T20:26:00.000Z

I have finally arrived at the final three or four ideas I will use in my project and have also discovered a novel way of displaying this at the degree show. Hallelujah! Chortle chortle, thought I'd never get there. My website is almost complete and I found some great PHP tutorials for creating forums and SMS interaction. My intro animation to my site and any promo stuff is also complete now too, so I am finally seeing the wood for the trees! Kevin from 360tv is coming out to Gray's on Thursday to film some of the projections for documentation, once I get projectors from Morag, and I'm meeting again with Jack from Peacock to look at Jitter_ww software and see what can be done with that as an interactive element too. The promo stuff is all going fine and my friend has offered her studio for setting up the promotional stuff and trying out some of the other graffiti trials. So, so far so good. I'm sure it will all be far more complicated than I'm hoping - but here goes......

films, projectors and motivation

2007-02-15T19:02:00.000Z

Had another meeting with 360 tv the other day and have finally arrived at a date to organise the promo launch for the portal. I also got all the promo stuff in including my LED balloon idea and flyers. Going to film everything now and document it all so that I can include it all in the show and also create a little showreel of what I've been doing. Also going to have a look at a 3d scanner over at Scott Sutherland school of architecture, and hopefully use that for displaying prototypes etc. Nick Clarke, the external examiner, (who turned out to be really helpful and really nice and positive about our work!)also gave me a link to a PhD student doing similar stuff which should be pretty helpful and interesting to see how she got on. Still heaps to do, which is beginning to dawn on me now too. And also get the degree show organised and New Blood show needs thinking about too......

Making an exhibition of ourselves?

2007-01-30T13:42:00.000Z

Started on our interim layout for the exhibition next week. I just used the visuals from the portal and also some of the interactive games that will be used and projected. It's all getting mounted on to A3 foam backed board and then displayed in Gray's foyer. It's all really set to go - just waiting for the big thumbs up from the lecturers and then it can be printed and sorted out. The external examiner will be coming along too so that'll be interesting to see what he has to say about everything and whether he likes the whole idea so far... :(

Result!

2007-01-23T12:04:00.000Z

Got our results in last week and I was surprised to see it all went very well. Which has motivated me and spurred me on to get on with what I'm doing. Got the Interim Show to contend with which involves a lot of attempts at organisation and getting everyone with a similar style of work for the show. Got a few ideas for my 2 pieces of A3. Will see how it goes. off to Station House later, to see what Murray thinks of a collaboration with their community portal and my street art regeneration portal. He suggested a meeting and see what's what. Also meeting with Geraldine one of the 360tv volunteers to start documenting this whole process starting from today. Busy busy! Keeps me warm all this running around though, with all that white stuff about.

New year....new ideas???

2007-01-09T12:41:00.000Z

So, over the holidays, along with some 'festivity' celebrating, I created some interactive whiteboards, some interactive flash work and got all my research and development material done and also tried doing some proper spray paint stencils - woohoo!Got another meeting with a few of the people that have become involved in the project over the next few weeks and will make a start on the promotion - ooo! also made some badges and flyers and ordered some UV paint and a black light, which will assist in the promotion nights. Phew!

Last Day/First Meeting

2006-12-21T15:13:00.000Z

Had the first proper fifth column meeting last week which was great to meet up with the people I had been emailing for the last month or so. Some of the 360tv volunteers turned up and we had a great chat about different ways of utilising the portal and making Aberdeen a giant playground!! I also got some new 'choons' from Mike of Indian Red Lopez that can be used for animation and documentary music. I also looked up Yugo Nakamura's website which was really interesting and inspired me to go and create some flash based interactive stuff for the portal - one possibility being along the lines of the oil industry theme and somehow manipulating the oil to create projected graffiti......anyway - it's Christmas and am hoping to get a few days break before cracking on with the set up of the portal and the flash interactivity before our hand in date of the 15th January. Will be back blogging more about the progress of my project in the New Year, bright eyed and bushy of tail hopefully!

On the hunt

2006-12-12T11:47:00.000Z

This week I have created an interactive whiteboard in Flash, got my Portal set up and the design sorted and also started considering the promo side of things and creating 'special' glasses to view some of the coded messages that will be online and also donloaded some of the senatology material to create more coded pictures and also get some flyers and grafitti style flyers on the go. I found some really great stuff from Eric Deis.Com which had an interactive element to it that allowed for a virtual grafitti whiteboard which was great fun! I also got some great images of Rafael Lozano Hemmers work which is inspiring stuff and a great idea for a mobile phone hide-and-seek game online. I'm also putting my stencils together to start creating different spray-can art this week and maybe some searching questions being created around the art school. heh heh. I'm also on the hunt for areas to display the digital projections in the Aberdeen area so I'm going to take some photos of suitable places. So....I'll get going..

Finally!

2006-12-08T14:58:00.000Z

Finally got my portal set up yesterday and got PHP, MySQL and Apache all installed and BlogCMS installed too which will allow me to create the portal templates quickly. Took quite a bit of time and assistance from our lecturer, Dave but it's all done and now the design work can be set up. I also found some great Flash stuff that can be used as a whiteboard, with a bit of tweaking can all be created on the portal allowing for people to draw and then for their work to be viewed in real-time elsewhere in the city. My lecturer also gave me a great suggestion for where this work can be projected in Aberdeen city so hopefully it feels like it's all starting to come together! .....

Portal

2006-11-30T10:33:00.000Z

Have finally decided on a logo for 'Fifth Column' - barcode type design, and this will be used as a spray paint stencil for distribution around the city (still in early stages of design), and also being used to put on badges and stickers. I have also looked at getting a 'portal' set up with interaction, forums etc and also obtaining some web space to set the portal up on. Through research for my thesis I also looked at some of the history of graffiti and started to look more into how it is a means of communicating whilst engaging with your environment and started to also look at hidden messages and more senatology, and how we don't actually look at our environment and surroundings but take it for granted due to being bombarded with digital visuals from billboards, screens, advertising, branding etc.

Throwies and Text messaging

2006-11-14T16:10:00.000Z

Have started to put together tutorials for creating standard stencilling graffiti but have also thought about using black light pens / ink to create hidden messages and also started looking at digital steganography, hidden pictures and messages within a digital image. This could then also be used within the portal. My main aim this week is to get some ideas together for producing something that will allow me to create an interactive portal. I also want to look at how to start creating interactive projections too.

Inspiration

2006-11-02T11:10:00.000Z

This week along with a nasty does of the 'flu I have been looking at some of Justin Orde's suggestions for areas to project the temporary graffiti, and also looking at other artists creating this kind of stuff including the group fi5e who filmed four local taggers as they used a marker attached to a penlight to write their names on sheets of plexiglass. Then he beamed the footage onto office buildings, hospitals, and the stone arch in Manhattan's Washington Square Park, using a digital projector and a laptop running software he wrote that enables him to manipulate the projected images. The result: graffiti on a monumental scale. The project, titled Graffiti Analysis, recently toured the US as part of the Resfest 2005 film festival, bringing fi5e's tag artists to a wider audience. I also loved Tunnel Visions idea which consisted of three art students who packed a briefcase and headed to graffiti's gallery: the subway. Using suction cups, they fastened the attachtment containing a projector, a Mac mini, and a battery pack - to a train car in Berlin and aimed the projector lens at the tunnel wall. As commuters looked out their windows, they glimpsed an animated aquatic world.

I also looked at the materials I would need for creating 'throwies' to 'bus bomb' or 'train bomb'. Which looks like quite an inexpensive way of starting off. I also met with Stewart Cuthbert to brainstorm and try and get some ideas together for a logo for 'fifth column' and also looked through some of his initial street art that he has created. He also has a sticker making machine and I now have a badge making machine so together we can conquer Aberdeen!!

I have a meeting tonight with Jack & Monika at Peacock to throw some ideas around and I am waiting for Station House to get back to me with a suitable time to go up and vist their premises and see what they do up there after receiving an email from them last week.

Over and over.....

Further Progress

2006-10-26T10:15:00.000Z

Had a 'brainstorming' session earlier on in the week with fellow 'scholars' - lol - and decided that it might be a possibility to project some of the ideas and animations at gigs. One of the guys is currently putting new stuff together with his band Indian Red Lopez and has suggested possibly trying it out at one of their gigs. There's also a possibility of using some of the bands music too for putting into further animation - fingers crossed. I also have further assistance with the music for my own animation which I hope to create as the initial one to get the ball rolling, from 2000llbee Other students and former students have also been a great help so far with giving me links, advice and possibly lending a hand (?) Terry, from my class suggested a couple of cool website links including Stencil Revolution and Graffiti Research Lab.

There was also a great article in Trend Candy magazine on various guerrilla design and arttists trying to raise consumer awareness by ad tagging
I also contacted Iain Connell from Limousine Bull and Aberdeen Art gallery and he gave me some great contacts and links, one being Justin Orde a former Grays student , who has done non-digital but similar projects around the city getting people to think about how they engage with their environment.

And just 'cos I feel like it I will end with a quote from Banksy's website ;)

" A City that felt like a living breathing thing which belonged to everyone, not just the estate agents and barons of big business.
Imagine a city like that and stop leaning against the wall - it's wet".

Over and out.

Contact Made

2006-10-26T09:23:00.000Z

Got some feedback about my idea which is starting to take shape now. Jack and Monika at Peacock Visual Arts have suggested a meeting next Thursday to go over some ideas and also how Jack can possibly include the projects progress on 360tv. Jack also gave me a great link for a similar project - that appeared in The Foyer who is setting up a meeting to discuss with her colleagues how to get involved. The Foyer would be a great collaboration as it helps young people from various backgrounds express themselves and obtain a decent further eduacation and career prospects. Some of these people might have some gret ideas and potential that would be a fantastic opportunity to be able to archive and collect their general opinions creatively.

Fifth Column

2006-10-19T12:30:00.000Z

Got the name for the whole 'movement', now just need to come up with a logo and can start promoting the idea across town. Also managed to contact a few people (ex-Gray's students and people involved in the local council) who appear willing to assist and help formulate ideas and concepts. Fifth Column is a military term used to describe groups who are citizens of enemy countries held or watched because of concerns that they might be a 'fifth column' or enemy of the state.

name for digital archive?

2006-10-11T13:16:00.000Z

Have started to get organised with getting in contact with different collectives and hopefully getting some council backing of my 'digital archive' - the idea is to maybe get some of the young people's work (animation, short films etc or podcasts of them actually doing some 'guerrilla gardening' for instance - lol) and project it onto derelict buildings/walls around the city or possibly burn it onto Cd's and leave them lying around on park benches, phone boxes etc for people to enjoy and then pass on. Feeling a bit more organised with the shape and direction that this is now beginning to take.

Birth of baby guerrilla

2006-10-09T11:55:00.000Z

I'm currently in the process of starting/creating a new project which involves a bit of 'DIY' or 'guerrilla' design/art. My starting point was Banksy, Takashi Murakami etc and a bit of KLF for further inspiration. The projects main focus is on making your mark on a celebrity obsessed Americanised world and providing something a bit more thought provoking than just being a 'WAG' wannabe, or your only answer being 'I'm not sure' when questioned about anything slightly more thought provoking than 'Hollyoaks' latest storyline. If anyone has any further helpful reading info or information/ideas on the subject of 'guerrilla art' then feel free to comment. At the moment the whole thing is at the very early stages, and will initally involve research and putting together some flyers advertising the initial website (all done very mysteriously hopefully...) and getting people to become involved but will hopefully go on to include pod-casts, video, animation, etc etc.