maps and tree rings

Experimenting with different thicknesses of fine liner pens and types of markings. Markings obtained from a book on graphic and map symbols.

Here I have illustrated four of the 7 stages of Alzheimer's disease, using the idea from the quote relating it to dutch elm disease. All four were done using a 0.3 fine liner on plain white paper and using a lightbox.

Experimenting more with showing the idea of the image dying from the inside out, memories being taken away from the subject. Shape created by tracing around a photograph of an actual tree stump with a hole in the middle....>

Looked back at old research on memories and Alzheimer's disease. Found the quote "Alzheimer's is like a tree with dutch elm disease. Dying from the inside out." Since my work is using tree rings as a metaphor for displaying the memories of a persons life, then this quote gave me an idea to produce the image above, where I am conveying Alzheimer's in a way that should appear beautiful and delicate. Therefore aim is to make it a subject to be talked about and the stigma about the disease removed.

This image was produced using a 0.3 fine liner and using the American road map symbols.
After looking at contours and maps, this lead me to look at the line and dash types used on different maps. I felt this was a good way of showing these rings since it related more to the idea of mapping the brain and memories, but also the journey of life in memories. These line markings above are from the UK ordnance survey map symbols.

Further work for EMP

These three photographs above I took with my macro lens, the idea stemmed from the tree rings, and the concept was that the typography on the paper was the memories (in this case I wrote out numbers in a sequential order to represent the memories of birthdays) and by curly the paper up when looked at from a birds eye view it resembled quite like the rings from tree rings.



These four illustrations above are demonstrating a humans life span in a way similar to tree rings. The average age that a female in the UK will live to is 82 years. So in this illstrations I have produced 82 rings of different strokes and distances to represent the memories in an individuals life.

This image above, is using a similar idea as the previous tree ring illustrations but I have tried to set it out in a more graphical way where it might be easier to understand the idea.

Looking at tree rings as a way of showing memories. How they resemble a human's life span of a memory. This image above is meant to represent the idea that recent memories are more vivid and you remember a larger context of the memory. Rather than a memory from a long time ago where you hardly remember anything about it.

From my scanning of diana prints my idea led on to taking photographs in a way that would produce effects portraying a memory fading away. Here in this photograph above, I used a long shutter speed and f22, to achieve a blurred, fading away content.

Using memories as a basis for my work and ideas. Decided to play with photography as a medium, since photographs hold all our memories. Exploring ways in which I can illustrate a memory fading, I used my old diana prints and the scanner to give interesting outcomes.

4 Experiments

First week of our EMP brief was to spend 4 days doing 4 different and new experiences.

1. Learning to play the Ukulele.

2. Being in an Austrian bar and not understanding anything being said.

3. Experiencing skiing down a mountain in the dark, feeling scared and confused.

4. Watching a documentary I know nothing about.

'The Brain: a secret history' watched on BBC iplayer. Though the most interesting part of the program that I found was this clip:

This led me to think about human testing, psychology and ethics. My response to watching this was very simply this:

Deadline

I haven't updated this for awhile, but I had my Specialist Project hand-in yesterday so now I have a bit more time! My last post was about flowers, pixels and numbers. The brief was an ISTD competition brief called 'Not Just Fleurons'.

On November 26th I started my final piece and approximately 163 hours later on January 3rd 2011 I finished it.

This typographic piece is made up of approximately 130,572 numbers. The flower (a marigold) is made from 14,508 (approximately) pixels, in the form of RGB numbers.

Since climate change is a very topical theme in the current environment, this typographic piece portrays to the public the severity of climate change. Since each pixel of type represents a plant in the world that is under threat from extinction. Keeping the numbers as RGB with the relevance into that it is how humans essentially see relates to the idea of extinction. Since how we see the world and climate change is very important, and perhaps it is only when we are shocked with the facts and figures that we understand the truth and damage we are causing: It is in the detail that we realise the truth.

With the font at 10pt, the piece fits nicely onto A0. I think I would quite like to sell this piece. It would be a one off, and I would give half the money to a chosen charity (most probably Alzheimer's Society). If you think you would like to buy then please get in contact with me. Thanks

Flowers and numbers

My current development with the ISTD brief... below are my images from the flowers I flower pressed.

After inspiration from looking into Fibonacci and the Mandelbrot set I decided to magnify one of my photographs of a flower. In photoshop the maximum zoom is 3200% and this is what that looks like:

I decided to write down the RGB of each and every pixel from the selected area shown above. I did this to relate to the idea of numbers and sequences I've research about. I then made the colour of each written RGB numbers correspond to the actual colour.

This progressed to this image below (which shows what the image would look like if I was to repeat this process over and over):

This is another idea, inspired from an image in a typographic book:

Cardiff poster competition

This coming thursday, all of third year graphics are going to Cardiff for a poster competition. The posters we have produced are in preparation for our dissertation. My essay this year is following on from last years as I really enjoyed the topic. My essay title is "How does Orange advertising communicate the brand?" This poster explains what my essay will be investigating and how.

ISTD brief

First brief of third year: We were asked to choose either an RSA or ISTD brief. I decided to explore the ISTD 'Not Just Fleurons' one. Below are two posters designed to show my current research and how I have taken elements from the brief that interested me and broadened my knowledge around the topic.

Text, Sequence and Interaction

The Miner's Strike: I produced a flipbook that conveyed the battle between the police and strikers at the Battle of Orgreave in 1984. Here are a few photos of the final product.

Here is the video of the individual pages so as if to give the effect of the flipbook.

The Miner's Strike of 1984 flipbook from Kate Rutledge on Vimeo.

Little Red Riding Hood: In groups this section of the project was to take an existing story and illustrate it in our own way.

Little Red Riding Hood from Kate Rutledge on Vimeo.