Silhouette Playing

I had a go at a reallllly basic flash movie of silhouette images on a screen, but i really would like to tween an image where the images of the people changed shape into the following image.. I'm going to have a play with this tomorrow.

But for now here is the first attempt of the flash movie:


Something has happened to the video quality when it was embedded to the blog, although I'll change and update this properly tomorrow!
I think I could quite easily develop this a lot more with a little more practice and more images of females.

Fat: The visuals

I have been collecting the fat from the foods I have been cooking for the past two days now, and this is the result so far:

The container has fat that was released from the food whilst in the cooking process. I then poured it into this container and left to set. Hopefully I will leave this for a week, and by next wednesday will have a substantial amount to work with in other potential experiments.

In the meantime I found another form of 'fat' to work with - the oil used in the deep fat fryers in restaurants. I asked if I would be able to use their discarded, used, oil/ fat for my University project and they let me have the two containers below:

The trouble with this form of fat is that it is in liquid form, so as you can see in the picture below, I have decanted a small amount into a container (with a lid) and placed it in the freezer. I will find out whether this helps to solidify the substance in the morning, or in a couple of days.

Then I guess I will need to see how the substance reacts when left in a room at normal temperature, I could play around with this and show the fat 'melting' off of the Barbie at room temperature in a short film - or something.

If not then I will dip some clothes or material in the substance, soak them and monitor, then Hang on a 'clothes line' and see what happens with this experiment as it's being conducted.

I have another idea for an alternative fat substance to mould with which is quite light in colour; Lard. Animal fat may have a translucent property so that I could silhouette the desirable figure underneath; much like that of the silicone casing around a Wii Remote:

Above: Remote and silicone casing

Above: Wii remote inside casing with light shining behind

- Showing translucent properties

Barbie Manipulation #2

Me and my housemate have been playing around with the Barbies and Play-Doh again and I thought I'd upload some more pictures, the first two are just us messing around with the outfits Barbie might wear, both of which are quite revealing and show off the figure.

Even in this exercise the outfits are a representation of body image and that figure enhancing outfits are important. Interesting...

Above: My housemate is very pleased with her creation!

She wanted to show that "fat" didn't just affect the body, it also affected everywhere else. Below are some pictures of the creation:

Above: Our kids futures?

Above: Fat on the face distorts the facial features. Plumper and less defined.

Above: Showing the fat on the face and double chin.

Barbie Manipulation #1

Following my recent rant regarding the mannequins and the workshop scenario, I went shopping in search of something else to use. Whilst trawling the shops I found two Barbie dolls for £1 each - bargain!

The barbies range in age with a difference of 5 years, the one with the rubber body being the newest and using newer technologies - the other being plastic, with stiff joints.

I aim to use these Barbies as stand-in mannequins for the project so I can experiment with different materials to play around with 'body image' and give me an idea of what materials I'll be able to use for the final piece(s).

First of all I headed to Argos and bought a Play-Doh set for £9.99 and then I started experimenting with it creating different forms on the Barbie dolls. See the pictures below:

 

I then decided to compare the more realistic womanly shape to that of the older Barbie (below, old barbie is on the left, newer on the right) and this picture just shows how ridiculous the Barbie figure is. The mannequins I have been trying to get hold of also use unrealistic measurements in an attempt to make the clothes look nicer and the shape of the mannequin more 'sexy'. 

Above Right: Showing the larger, fuller, more realistic bum of a woman

Above Right: Pregnant / 'fat' 

Above Right: Showing the 'Saddle Bags' most  middle aged women have

Above: Showing the shape of a woman's leg once they are of a larger, fuller figure

I then wondered what it would be like to 'wear' the "fat" on myself. There was a problem with regards to the Play-Doh sticking to my skin, so I put on a pair of basic surgical gloves. Below is the picture of my original hand:

I wondered what it would be like if my hand were to have extra layers of fat, as if I were a larger person or I perceived my body to be larger than it actually is. Below is the picture of this experiment:

The gold areas on the above picture are the Play-Doh manipulated areas and one thing I found from this experiment was that my hand / wrist were so much heavier even with that little amount of "fat" applied to them. 

This has opened doors with respect to weight (as in gravitational weight, kg, lbs etc) that I could explore for another experiment and possible final piece. Though I will have to consider how relevant it will be to design, and that it isn't crossing over into Art territory. 

What learning style am I?

I've taken several of these tests, and have just taken this one [link] because our styles can change as we get older. Apparently I am a combination of visual and kinesthetic, more emphasis on the visual aspect.

Here is a breakdown of the two styles:

Visual Learners

• take numerous detailed notes
• tend to sit in the front
• are usually neat and clean
• often close their eyes to visualize or remember something
• find something to watch if they are bored
• like to see what they are learning
• benefit from illustrations and presentations that use color
• are attracted to written or spoken language rich in imagery
• prefer stimuli to be isolated from auditory and kinesthetic distraction
• find passive surroundings ideal

Kinesthetic Learners

• need to be active and take frequent breaks
• speak with their hands and with gestures
• remember what was done, but have difficulty recalling what was said or seen
• find reasons to tinker or move when bored
• rely on what they can directly experience or perform
• activities such as cooking, construction, engineering and art help them perceive and learn
• enjoy field trips and tasks that involve manipulating materials
• sit near the door or someplace else where they can easily get up and move around
• are uncomfortable in classrooms where they lack opportunities for hands-on experience
• communicate by touching and appreciate physically expressed encouragement, such as a pat on the back

You can find the three learning styles here [link]. I think that these aspects both describe me really well. I often find myself becoming bored and fidgeting, I get frustrated and decide to bake or play with something creative and get bored stiff when I cannot get hands-on on any kind of project. I feel like I've failed if I haven't got a physical element to one of my projects.

Also, I'm forever creating lists and I'm exceptionally tidy and cannot work when the place is a mess, I especially like "this" - the blog - for visually demonstrating my thoughts easily, and they're all linked in one place.

I think this has been productive.

Career Test

I took a free Career Test to see if the job I'm aiming for is suitable for me, and I'm aspiring to be an Art Director, which is in the list! Score! Although, mathematician.. I don't think so!

At least I'm on the right track with regards to my personality and stuffs. :)
Altruism, well.. I'm sure it's correct really, I mean, it is a tough world out there.

Career Inventory Test Results Extroversion |||||||||||||||||| 53% Emotional Stability |||||||||||||||||| 60% Orderliness ||||||||||||||||||||| 70% Altruism |||||||||||| 36% Inquisitiveness |||||||||||||||||| 56% You are a Planner, possible professions include - management consultant, economist, scientist, computer programmer, environmental planner, new business developer, curriculum designer, administrator, mathematician, psychologist, neurologist, biomedical researcher, strategic planner, civil engineer, intellectual properties attorney, designer, editor/art director, inventor, informational-graphics designer, financial planner, judge.

Take Free Career Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Slamming my head against a brick wall.

Okay, so it's been a while since I last posted on here, but there have been many things going on.

First of all I am monitoring how much 'fat' one person creates within a week via cooking. The fat is being poured into a container and left for the duration. I will then photograph this and use it as research. Possibly extending the amount of time, and / or people involved.

Secondly, I have been intending to make a wax model of a shoe this week. There have been several problems here due to staffing, lack of knowledge on how to make the mould, expense issues etc. These have worn me down a little..

I had the idea of using a mannequin in my final piece for the project, recording it and modeling on it. Although, the cheapest mannequins I have seen are £90, ranging all the way up to £300. I'd much rather not spending that ridiculous amount of money on a mannequin so I've been trying to find alternative methods of achieving what I want.

1. Cast myself. This is apparently going to be costly, and if not more costly than the actual mannequin, not to mention dangerous, stressful and complicated.
2. Making the mannequin myself out of [insert various materials]. All the materials i have researched would be very expensive in the quantity i would need them
3. Taking influence from the Thai food artist and making the mannequin out of bread.. This would be very hit and miss, plus it would go stale and probably not react well to the heat of the substance going on the top of it.

AAAHHHH. To say the least.
I now have to come to terms with the fact that I probably wont be able to physically create / acquire a mannequin and search other ideas.

- I could create the shapes of people from plasticine / play dough. Manipulate them, take pictures and then try a form of animation. Possibly stop frame animation / inverse kinematics and animate in 3DS max.


- I could photograph 'normal' people and their bodies, compiling a book, with the ridiculous "ideal" body shape in the book. Acetate sheets so you could see through the pages, or a flip-style book with the ever changing bodies of today. 


- Rotoscope (? I don't know if this is the correct term) a person standing in a film, every few seconds gradually changing their body shape with sounds playing in the background. An animation of the outline of someone looking confident and slim, then sounds of eating and becoming bigger, sounds of being picked on and them shying away, getting even bigger, sounds of it being horrible for them, then them deciding to change, and becoming thinner, getting pregnant, growing old.. etc.

The animation for that I am intending is like the youtube video below, although with the person changing shape and size as years passed by.


These are just a few ideas swimming around at the moment, but I have a gigantic headache with all of the problems I'm currently facing. I didn't realize it would be so hard to source a mannequin for the project. Sigh.

I will try a few of these and write another blog with my findings.