The day before the trip we had a lecture with Ronan Mullen who is a lecturer here in ITB, as well as a member of the Seanad . He gave the few that turned up late in the afternoon the run down of how our Government works (would you call it that?), also a brief history lesson of our country’s politics. This was extremely interesting and I found Ronan to be a character. I was actually going to study arts in NUI Maynooth with history as a module, so naturally I was going to enjoy this whole experience.

After a breakfast roll and 20 minutes looking for Leinster House, we finally met up with the rest of our group outside of the gates. Having been brought into the visitors room for tea and coffee, we met our tour guide soon after. He brought us around each section of the historic building describing how a government sitting works etc. After the Dail we were brought into the Seanad, which was a beautifully decorated room. This was where our very own Ronan works. Other things the tour guide explained was the paintings and the history of the building which used to belong to the RDS, which stands for the Royal Dublin Society.

The tour was very interesting for a history nerd like myself, but the feedback from the others were positive as well. I feel I have a better understanding of how our country is run on a day to day basis. After this we split for lunch and were to meet in Trinity College’s science hub later that day.

The exhibition was about Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef. Which was to make people aware of the damage to the barrier reef, also to combine art with science. Unfortunately, I did not see what these people were trying to achieve by knitting corals together. I wasn’t very impressed. I did appreciate the amount of work that went into this art but again not my thing. I would go back to Leinster house anytime, hopefully I get the chance to do so soon. I found the tour very enjoyable despite not liking the Trinity exhibition, it was a good opportunity to get to know some class mates I may not have known so well before.

“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with
inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films,
music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random
conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, trees, clouds,
bodies of water, light and shadows. Select only things to steal from
that speak directly to your soul. If you do this, your work (and theft)
will be authentic. Authenticity is invaluable; originality is nonexistent.
And don’t bother concealing your thievery
- celebrate it if you feel like it.”

Jim Jarmusch

Fiona gave us examples of websites where she herself would find inspiration. For example; iStockphoto, Twitter, Digg and FFFound. She went on to explain the process of designing. First she would research images for the theme she was looking for where she could draw inspiration for, the first example she gave us was a layout for a company named Scooter Island, who sold vespas. She would find images from the areas of Mod and Ska which are generally associated with scooters. Also, the iconography of pin up girls and other retro things.

The next company she made a logo for was Fat Kitty Films, again she went over the research phase where she would track down fonts and images relevant to the clients needs. In this case it was 1950′s iconography. Having done this arduous task she would select a handful of logos she mad and send them to the client awaiting feedback. The client would pick their favorite one and suggest adjustments etc. Alot of research work goes into this area, which was not something I was quite aware of before. Perhaps I can learn from this to produce better quality work with more relevance.

After this, Fiona showed us some of the web advertisments she had done for various companies. This was absolutly relevant as one of our assignments was to create two flash advertisments. She was very good at her work. Next up was a website she designed where she showed us that some clients can be very difficult to work for, even if you think your work is great, they may not thing the same.

Fiona left us with a very nice quote.

“TALENT… IS THE DESIRE TO PRACTICE”

After her time in New York, Emma was offered a residency in Limerick City Gallery, where she would work with various different artists in the gallery which became their own studio for a time, giving them the freedom to do as they please… sounds like fun.  Emma went on to show is some work she had completed over the past including her piece for her masters. One example was the project “HUGS”. This is a suit Emma helped create which gives the feeling of somebody hugging you, inspired by the Free Hugs movent. Unfortunately I didn’t find this very impressive, but I appreciate her creativity. Here is a picture of her hugging suit.

Emma Wade's Hugs

The next piece, again I wasn’t keen on was called “Rexotrek” which intended to show that animals, or dogs in this case have the ability to be happy as scientists have not proven this yet. To do so, Emma attached video and audio equipment to her parent’s dog in order to get the animal’s point of view. She edited down clips of the dog running on the beach and through parks etc. It was not very effective as I could not make out the clip. This piece was submitted for her masters in NCAD. Here is one example

She displayed this project in a gallery where people would have to crawl into the piece to interact with it, like a dog of course! Overall it was interesting to see the different forms of art people create, unfortunately to be brutally honest. I was not impressed by her work.

After college Ian had a lucky break, having made a fan video for Scottish musician James Yorkston he sent him it through the social networking site myspace. James was so impressed by this he asked Ian to make him an Electronic Press Kit. Ian went to Scotland filmed interviews and other live footage of the artist. He edited this down and sent it off to James Yorkston’s record label. I found this very impressive. Especially finding work like this through the myspace website. From this, Ian has worked for other musicians such as the talented Lisa Hannigan.

Other work Ian has done is with Maeve Higgins, a comedian on RTE. He showed us a video of hers with very impressive stop motion which still I remember vividly. Ian is currently working on a short comedy for the RTE Storyland Competition, he showed us a sneak preview of an episode which was hilarious and of very high standard. After last year’s competition I have become a fan as I was following a show named “Hardy Bucks,” so Ian gets the thumbs up from me. I have been following his show since which is called “We Own the Street.”

Overall, I was extremely impressed by Ian’s work and his attitude. He talked through many areas I’d be interested in working in myself which I found very helpful and I hope next years students get to meet Ian.

Below is a video which he created.

• Online Strategy
• Web Design
• Advertising campaigns
• Search Marketing
• Email Marketing Online
• PR
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Project & Campaign Management
• Multimedia design

ICAN have done serious amounts of work for some of the world’s best known companies and organisations, these include the likes of the World Rally Championship, Eircom and Sony. I found this very impressive. Especially for an Irish company to work with such big clients aside from Eircom.

Edward went on to explain how his company “converted people”. This came accross strange to me at first until he explained it properly. The exact meaning he gave was:

“A sale, a download, a visit, an open, a click, a new member, a cross-sell, an enquiry, a click, a booking, a forwarded email = it depends on the project objectives”

After this he gave us a brief insight into how campaigns are run and gave us examples of creative projects such as video game advertisment.Next, was how a project is run telling us useful information like what typical website project deliverables theree are and what the make up of a project team is, from the project manager to the actual creative team itself. But unfortunately there are challenges involved when doing any project such as “difficult clients”

Following this Edward spoke about his employer ICAN and the type of people a company like this would employ, I just had to decide which one of these I’d like to be. We were told how life working in an agency is, he even showed pictures of a typical work station of his coleagues

ICAN Employs:

1 Managing Director
7 Creative
7 Production
5 Client Services
3 Media
2 Search Marketing
1 Accounting

Finally we were given some words of wisdom for Edward

“Expose yourself to ideas.
Look to innovate and originate.
Or take a concept and make it yours”

This lecture was extremely relevant and useful, even if Edward wasn’t present. I really enjoyed it.

This lecture was about the different types of learning styles and ways people learn differently. We would learn how people take in information and what type of learners we are ourselves. This was relevant to Digital Media students as it is important when designing something, for example a website it is important to be aware of how people recieve information differently. Geraldine explained how a recently publication in the UK compaired 60 different ways of catorgorising how people learn. The following are examples we were given:

We were asked to sketch a portrait of ourselves, then based on the sketch we import it into photoshop copy over our features with text and words. Here is what I came out with.

What I began with.

This is the photo I took in Photobooth to work with, next I would have to sketch this photo.

Aaron?

This is the sketch of the picture above.  I would then take my picture into Photoshop and fill my features with letters.

Typography

I used the pen tool in order to isolate separate parts of my face where I could then add text, I made a colored background and then put in my name and student number, the most difficult part of this project was working around my features such as my eyes, nose and lips. The text in the picture says “Aaron McGrath.”

Today I completed my Semiotics Assignment where I was to choose a celebrity and a particular theme to involve them in. Here is a list of the themes we were given to choose from:

•I am masculine

•I am feminine

•I am wealthy

•I am intelligent

•I am evil

•I am popular

I chose to use the medium of Photoshop to work on the assignment. I was still quite new to the  program so I felt this was the perfect opportunity to learn new skills which I did. I chose Vin Diesel as he has a bald head, as I was new to Photoshop I felt that this would be easier for me to trace and add to other images. The first theme I  completed  is the ”I am evil” one where I used a picture of Adolf Hitler who is perhaps the most recognised  figure of evil due to the atrocities caused by World War II as well as the Holocaust. The problem I had with this picture was the fact it was an oil painting, thankfully in Photoshop the posterize tool made Vin Diesel look slightly pixelated and painting like. I used to clone tool to copy the background over excess parts of Hitler’s head and changed the colour of Vin Diesel’s head to make it blend better with the picture, I achieved this by adjusting the saturation and hue.

First Attempt

The second theme I chose was the “I am intelligent” theme. I had trouble finding a picture to work with and searched Google images, failing to find images I then looked to the idea of a teacher or a professor where I found a picture of a video game named “Gravity” where a professor is on the cover holding an apple. I felt this was suitable to use as it represented intelligence and Newton’s theory. I hadn’t got many problems with the photoshopping of this image. Again I used the handy clone tool to edit out unwanted parts of the original layer. I had to adjust the tilt of Vin Diesel’s head and also the tone of his skin to match the professor’s hand.

Professor Vin Diesel

The third and final theme I chose was “I am masculine” where I already had the idea to use a wrestler or weight lifter of some kind. I used a picture of Brock Lesner which was slightly too big but after resizing it was suitable to be photoshopped. I felt the skin tone worked very well especially around his neck, this was the easiest to complete of all the themes as it fit very well. I cloned out part of the wrestler’s head and changed the colour of my subject’s skin slightly. I added some text to experiment and also to indicate which theme I was insinuating.

Buff Vin Diesel

In the lab we learned some basics in Adobe Photoshop. this included lassoing , copying, pasting, cropping images. We made our own fruit type man using these handy tools here is my effort.

Aaron.

A picture of IMMA I took

Pieces:

The first piece that caught my attention was named “Death Drive,” by Alan Phelan. It consisted, literally of tire marks on a plywood board, varnished over. The artist achieves a great sense of texture through the tire marks which looked very authentic in my opinion. There are many lines criss crossing , inspired by the rubber burns left by “boy racers” during their illegal late night street races which take place on public roads. These busy lines give the feeling of unease and destruction, therefore making the title of the pieces appropriate and leaving the viewer with a good sense of what the piece is about; that being danger and destruction. The artist only uses the one colour on the plywood. The harsh black on the wood stands out and creates the effect of positive and negitive space.

This piece was an edition of 40 pieces and was created in 2009 as part of the IMMA’s  residency programme. The piece is part of Alan Phelan’s collection entitled “Fragile Absolutes” which consists of 16 recent pieces by the Dublin born artist. It was situated in the Lower Eastwing Galleries and will be there from the 22nd of July to  the 1st of November 2009.  “Death Race” is inspired by the wrecklessness of car enthusiasts known as boy racers. He recreated the tire marks left after some of these burnout sessions.

I like this piece, it is very simple and relevant in today’s culture. Unfortunately, road deaths have become more frequent and part of Irish society. Therefore these tire marks represent danger to most of us which is why the piece initially caught my attetion. I completely understand what Alan Phelan was trying to achieve and I think he does so well.

Alan Phelan's Death Drive sketch

The next piece I enjoyed was named “Snowdrop,” by Irish artist William McKeown, this small piece contained a pencil drawn snowdrop in the right hand corner leaving massive amounts of negitive space. This huge space creates the feeling of peace and openess. The detailed drawing is almost translucent in texture, nearly disappearing onto the shocking white background. There is very little shading or pattern in this piece, we are presented with straight, simple lines and slow curves again emphasizing on the calm mood of the piece. McKeown captures the time of year a snowdrop grows in this piece, as the white background and grey of the pencil give a sense of coldness felt in early February.All focus is drawn towards the little snowdrop which is a very detailed drawing, surprisingly leaving plenty to look at.

This piece belongs to an exhibition of about 50 pieces, opened to the public in November 2008 which contains  a selection of abstract paintings, aswell as watercolours on paper and a collection of pencil drawings of botanic subjects in order to caputure the flora of the artist’s home county, Tyrone here McKeown was born in 1962. The exhibition also contains a large number of new works which were only completed soon before the exhibition was opened.

Again, the simplicity of this piece makes it appealing to me. I get a good sense of the time of year the artist was trying to set as the backdrop for this snowdrop, I didn’t find it as interesting as Alan Phelan’s “Death Race,” but the piece wasn’t intended to be exciting. It is a peaceful and tranquil piece where I think the artist succeeds.

Sketch of William McKeown's Snowdrop

The final piece I liked is “Tarot Set” by artist Ula von Brandenburg. This is a collection of 79 different numbered tarot cards created in an old French style with Roman numerals. Each card had a unique image and the French term form the name of the card, for example “L’Hermite” for the hermit card. On each card there is drastic positive and negitive space. This is what makes the images stand out so much, looking almost like shadows which give these unique cards an eery sense of mystery.The colours follow the theme of the rest of her collection, this being vibrant reds,oranges,blues and of course black and white. This vibrance works well on the cards. In terms of line, all of the drawings are quite messy and colour filled. However I think this works better for the cards, as I feel intricate, detailed drawings would look too modern and percise, therefore ruining the theme the artist has gone for.

This piece was created for the German artist’s first exhibition in the IMMA. There is decks of these cards for sale each numbered and signed by the artist herself.They are presented in a special hand made box designed by Ula von Brandenburg.There are only fifty of these unique decks.The intention of this exhibition was to capture historical themes and mix them with the visual arts.

This piece was very different compared to all the others, the main reason being it’s a deck of cards. The display itself stood out as it was the only piece not hung on the wall in the room which instantly caught my attention. I don’t quite understand what the artist was going for, or what message she was trying to pass.I just find the whole piece very interesting and mysterious.

Ula von Brandenburg's Tarot Cards sketch

My experience of the Irish Museum of Modern Art:
My overall experience of the IMMA was generally positive. There was many pieces I didn’t understand or there were pieces that I found fairly pointless. Another criticism would be the fact there were not many exhibitions in the museum. The building itself was brilliant looking and laid out well, during my photography assignment I spent alot of time in the garden area which was very nice. I would not see myself visiting the museum outside of college work but I am glad I have attended the field trip as it was my first visit to a modern art museum and now I know what they consist of. My initial idea of a modern museum was ridiculous art pieces and splashes of paint on canvas, thankfully that was not what I experienced.

Aaron McGrath