Camille Utterback.

I have attached a video of this installation entitled "Text Rain" by Camille Utterback.

I like the playful and interactive nature of the piece, and even though the piece is relatively dated (1999), the technology is still bafflingly complex to me!

The letters that do not really exist bounce off of the silhouette of a person that stands in front of the screen of which the computerised letters are falling like rain- hence the name. I feel that the playful and interactive nature of the piece is well suited to our own theme and as a group, we could take a leaf from this installation's book.

I think we could add a playful twist to the work that we are creating. There was even talk of the work sitting outside in the public domain, allowing the general public to see and even interact with. I feel as though we could leave something within the reach of people and entrust them not to destroy it.

Anastasia Mastrakouli

I decided to look for an artist in order to progress and gain some inspiration.

I wanted to look for artists that had explored the alphabet or text and my research lead me to look at Anastasia Mastrakouli. The fine art photographer has used the body's silhouette to create the alphabet.

I think it's very innovative and the use of the body to create shapes and structure mirrors the act of interpretive dance.

I like the greys and tonal shades that the lighting has created on the body and I think that it is quite similar to my own photographs of text.

I find the fluid lines that the limbs make in contrast to the sharp points that joints create quite interesting also. The body being nude and behind a screen means that the piece still retains tastefulness and grace.

This idea and concept of using the body to create text could also be used in accordance to the group idea of creating a performance surrounding our ideas and it will be something that I suggest in a future tutorial.

Further use of cut paper

I decided to stick to my minimalist looks for the work I have been creating. I felt that it was important to look at the form of my letters rather than introducing a colour palette immediately. This helped me make the decision of using the pages within a sketchbook as the main basis for a new chapter in my journey through unit X.

The idea was to layer the cut letters over the top, so that nuances of the letters could be seen through other slices in the letters. I feel that this could have been done with a little bit more consideration as you can only see some of the letters from pages one and two, rather than three four and five. I could do this again and layer them up again to see through them, however I think that if I shine a bright light through them it will reveal a soft outline of where the other cut letters are.

This is a progression from the code that I have created, still using the same letters that can be found within the code.

I like the contrast of the stark white paper against the shadows and negative space created by the sliced paper. I also like that within that negative space some of the darkness is divided up by slices of white and other lighter shades of grey (above image)

I have been quite selective in the angle of which my photos have been taken. I feel that it creates an interesting composition and creates a sense of ambiguity, drawing the audience in. Automatically with text, you want to read it and learn to understand it immediately. In some images you can just see a few letters, leaving you wanting to construct whole words or phrases from what is given to you.

Further development using the code

The example of the left shows the code that has been created as a repeat pattern.

I like the fact that I have reduced the size of the already small letters and it makes the pattern more ambiguous. Only on closer inspection can you realise that the marks are actually lettering.

I like the irregularity of the stripes as well. This was created through me only roughly measuring the distance between each of the letters when they were stuck down rather than using my usual style of absolute precision.

When it was shown to the group, everyone that actually turned up to the meeting liked the aesthetics of the pieces that I have made and additionally they liked the processes and concepts that I had used to create my work.

Using the code to create pattern work.

I scanned the newspaper article into the computer and edited the blank cut squares and filled them in with a contrasting colour- bright orange.

This was a quicker process and I began to gain momentum and pick up the pace with the amount of work that I was able to develop. I then used the shape that was created  from filling this in to create a pattern.

I reflected this shape within itself 4 times and then repeated that pattern, which then has allowed me to use the code to create a pattern.

I quite like the fact that the pattern could not automatically be associated with our given theme or the sub-theme that is central to our group of deconstruction.(see print below)

Developing a code from the deconstructed text.

This is the code that I have created using the letters that were cut from the newspaper article on the previous post.

This was such a lengthy process and in a way I do regret spending such a long time on one piece. However it has opened a whole new set of doors and can be used as a springboard to create a whole range of other works- using this code as a starting point.

The tutors in the tutorial had commented saying that I hadn't done enough, which I appreciate but now this will allow me to create work that is much quicker to create, allowing me to develop a decent body of work.

Deconstructing a text

I decided to deconstruct a newspaper article. It was a process in itself deciding on which newspaper article to do. I took a newspaper and went to the thirteenth page and decided to use the thirteenth article from there.

It did not matter to me what the content of the newspaper article was and to be honest I still have not read the content now- it is not relevant to the work that I want to create.

As you can see (left) the letters and the font are TINY. It was a time consuming task that I undertook which involved cutting every 13th letter from the article.

That in itself took hours and this may have seemed unnecessary and laborious and in away I feel as though I could have completed more work had I not undertaken such a lengthy task and maybe the progress of my own work has suffered because of this.

As I cut each letter out, I took a note of the order that I had cut them out in so that then I could stick them down again in that particular order. This would be my own method of developing a code that all leads back to the number 175. I was almost certain that sticking them down would have been an even more time consuming task than the cutting of the letters, but I refused to be beaten by the task that I had set myself.