Moorland landscape

This moorland scene evolved from a very different image - a close up photo of a hanging basket outside my house. I really liked the the line and texture of the image and wanted to explore it further:




I used a wide range of techniques and apps to explore the image and I feel that it began to change and evolve into a Scottish landscape as I worked. Eventually I got a sense of the moorland scene emerging from my explorations and then I used an actual painting app to blend some of the areas and paint in some details. Here are some images showing the development of the original image as it transforms into the moorland landscape:
































The final image:

Flowers

I found this image that I had previously taken of some flowers in my garden:




I began to explore and develop the image as follows:

Further reflections on Jokela's work

Further to my previous post, there are other important principles that the Northern’ Arts Based Research Methodology as outlined by Jokela (2008) that have relevance for my own practice as an Artist Teacher. Jokela’s emphasis on the concept of wandering: “it is the constant change of place that is crucial, not the destination (p. 21) is very significant to my own aspirations for my VAP this year in that this idea of wandering and discovery rather than destination is at the core of what I want to do. 

Jokela’s work also serves as a guide and justification for the possibilities opened up through this research methodology. This value of this approach is further advocated by Ingold (2007) in his discussion of the concept of traveling as either a ‘wayfaring’ journey of discovery or ‘transport’ to a specific destination. The wayfaring approach has, as Ingold (2007, p. 81) describes, “no ultimate destination, no final point with which they are seeking to link up” rather “there is always somewhere further one can go [and] it is in the movement from place to place that knowledge is integrated” (p91). Knowledge and understanding can be discovered, cumulatively built upon and thus integrated into our existing schemata as we progress “along a path of movement” (Ingold, 2007, p. 91)

Dr. Ella Chimielewska in her introductory remarks to the study “Zonzo” defines this approach as "A mode of mobile wondering, of walking as thinking" (p. 9). It is as though “research becomes a process of exchange that is not separated from the body but emerges through an intertwining of mind and body, self and other, and through our interactions with the world” (Irwin and Springgay, 2008, p. xxii).

Ingold, T., 2007. Lines, A Brief History. Abingdon, Oxon: Routledge

Irwin, R. and Springgay, S., 2008. A/r/tography as Practice-Based Research. In: Springgay, S., Irwin, R., Leggo, C.,  and Gouzouasis, P. eds. 2008. Being with A/r/tography. Rotterdam: Sense. (pp. xix-xxxiii).

Jokela, T., 2008. A Wandering Landscape: Reflections on the Relationship between Art and the Northern Environment. In: Coutts, G., and Jokela, T. eds., 2008. Art, Community and Environment. Bristol: Intellect. Ch 1.

Chimielewska, E., 2009. Forward. In: Urbanstudio. 2009. Zonzo. Edinburgh: University of Edinburgh.

Reflections on the 'North'

What is a ‘Northern’ Arts Based Research Methodology and is it useful to us as Artist Teachers who do not reside in the ‘North’?

A Northern’ Arts Based Research Methodology as outlined by Jokela (2008) when discussing his own artistic practice is concerned with “the relationship between the work that human being’s do and aesthetic experience” (p.9). It is developed in situ and is closely linked with the physical environment and the culture of the local people as well as the ways in which these interact together. This methodology uses traditional methods and materials to create artwork that grows from a collaborative understanding of the local culture. It fuses “traditional work amid the landscape rather than an external aesthetic approval of it. In this way [the] art stimulates, transmits and brings an awareness of the culture’s own way of looking at the landscape and experiencing it” (Jokela, 2008, p. 21). This way of working could be applied in many different localities and as such is not simply confined to the relative concept of ‘north’.

Although I do not agree with all of the fundamental principles underpinning what Jokela describes as “the new paradigm of art and the environment” (p. 9) and his dismissal of Kantian aesthetics, I think there a number of important principles within this paradigm that have relevance for the Artist Teacher.

In particular Jokela emphasises the importance of discovery and inquiry as the fundamental basis for arts practice. He describes trying to “discover the landscape from within, using all the senses that enable [him] to experience it” (p. 11). This discovery based methodology, where the process and the end are not known at the beginning and the materials and methods have not yet been explored, is very much in line with the Artist Teacher and A/r/tography principles of ‘living inquiry’ as research (Irwin and Springgay, 2008, p. xxix). This allows the research to evolve and lead itself rather than be directed by predefined aims or hypotheses, what Irwin and Springgay (2008) describe as an exegesis rather than a thesis (p. xxix).

Irwin, R. and Springgay, S., 2008. A/r/tography as Practice-Based Research. In: Springgay, S., Irwin, R., Leggo, C.,  and Gouzouasis, P. eds. 2008. Being with A/r/tography. Rotterdam: Sense. (pp. xix-xxxiii).

Jokela, T., 2008. A Wandering Landscape: Reflections on the Relationship between Art and the Northern Environment. In: Coutts, G., and Jokela, T. eds., 2008. Art, Community and Environment. Bristol: Intellect. Ch 1.

Drift photos 2

I continued to develop the drain photo from my previous post to create this image.

I became very interested in the effect I could create using an image manipulation application which allows you to warp, shatter and dissolve parts of an image in a wide range of ways. I spent some time experimenting with the image:






















I particularly liked the shapes I created in this 'shattering' of the image:




I continued to develop this image:

Drift photos

I took a short 'drift' around the area in which I live. I had no particular task to accomplish or destination. My aim was to discover colours, shapes, contasts, patterns and lines in unexpected places. I let my route unfold according to the first colour, shape, contast, pattern or line that caught my attention whilst looking at the route options. This made it much more like a journey of discovery with this as its function rather than than simply the mode by which I get from A to B.

I was particularly struck by the contrasts of this drain surrounded by leaves - a drain is so often a horrible thing but, taken out of context and viewed as a visual image separate from its function, the strong geometric shapes smothered by the wild array of decaying organic material creates a very interesting image:




I began to edit, develop, manipulate and transform the image, led in the same way as when I had taken the original walk - simply by what colours, shapes, patterns, lines and contrasts caught my attention. Here are some of the stages of development:






















This was the final piece I developed:

Further development

I spent some more time developing the sunburst image that I worked on last week. I wanted to further simplify it and explore what I felt what the essence of the image.

This was the original image:




This was the result of my further work:

Indoor studies

Due to weather I was unable to get out and about to take some more photos. I began to look around my indoor surroundings and I was struck by some of the shapes and shadows that were created in the occasional bursts of sunlight.

I look this image of the changing shadows on the wall. I loved the warm colours and the ephemeral texture of the shadows:




I cropped and rotated the image to focus on these aspects:




I then began to further develop the image as follows:






It began to develop into a sky scene with layers of clouds and perhaps a storm approaching: