Manchester Art Gallery Paper Cut Exhibition

I had already been to visit the Paper Cut exhibition on multiple occasions, but it was only on this particular visit that I began to notice the shadows that the work created. It seemed to perfectly tie in with this idea of recording light which I have been exploring, and made me begin to think about using paper cutting in my own project.



Papercuts

It was whilst discussing what had worked well within my data drawings that Mary prompted that I should use techniques and materials that I enjoy - leading me towards paper cutting. I love the graphic way it portrays an image, but I'm not sure whether it is too heavy and solid a technique to reflect my theme of recording light.



Data drawing

I really enjoyed the challenge of doing at least one drawing everyday for such a long period. My first few drawing were very rigid and straightforward, but it was interesting to see how my drawing style became more fluid with frequent practice. My ideas also began to develop so that by the end of the project I had opened up lots of interesting ideas.

Picking only 8 drawings from over 40 was a tricky matter though.....

Here I tried to pick drawing that reflected the variety of styles and themes within my work.

Primary research

Over the holidays I took a lot of photographs of varying subjects to try and explore the data theme. Here are some of the most interesting and intriguing images that I thought would be good starting points in my project.

I liked the swirling patterns of the steam,

and the way the light captures all the colours.

These images were taken at night using a slow shutter speed

- I liked the idea of recording how the light travels.

Above and below are a collection of images that I found inspiring

but haven't quite decided how they fit into my project at this point.

Chinese Arts Centre exhibition opening



Manchester Arts and Crafts Centre



Chinese Art Centre



What is design?

In the dictionary, the definition of ‘design’ is largely limited to drawing, used either by the designer to plan and ‘decide upon the look and function’ of an object, or used to demonstrate to others how an object will look before it is made. The Design Council, however, have a much more open and conceptual view of what can be defined as design, and was described quite eloquently by their former chairman as ‘creativity deployed to a specific end’. I found their discussion of what design is extremely interesting; how it is seen as a process that ‘takes abstract thoughts and inspirations and makes something concrete’ and this idea that the designing and making processes are not separate, but instead design is included all the way through the process of creation. I personally agree with the statements made on the Design Council’s website, that design links together all areas of the creative process and is key to creating work. Every piece of artwork is designed to an extent, even if this is not plotted down on paper before hand. And although design encompasses all areas of my work, design in terms of drawing is very relevant in my specialism of textiles design for fashion as it forms the entire basis to the end product - through the process of designing and altering and redesigning we are brought towards a final idea which is then created into a physical object.