Practicing Paths

To help me create animations for my Sense of Place project I had to learn a few new skills to get the animation process I desire so I did a test run on creating motion paths. I tried two different methods before implimenting the method into my own work of an animated map. 

hello from Sophie Wales on Vimeo.

Semiotics - this is just the basics.

Semiotics is a way of how we interpret signs and symbols. This idea can be related to a physical and theoretical being, for example how words as a collection of letters and sounds can relate to a physical object. These signs can be abstract indictors or concepts like sounds, letters and actions and they can work as signifiers as they can in some way be attached or relate to concepts or properties such as colours, shapes memories and patterns.

"There are three main areas that form what we understand as semiotics: signs the way they are organised into systems, and the context in which they appear." - Crow, D. (2016). Visible Signs An introduction to Semiotics in the Visual Arts (3rd ed.). London: Bloomsbury Publishing.

Historically, linguists observed that meanings could be found in language and by that logic, the nature of thought could be inferred through observing the origins of a language. They attempted to explain signs as gestures or sensations. By contrast, linguistics scholar and professor Ferdinand de Saussure took a unique approach to the study of this in what is now known as semiotics, undertaking a study in language and how it can be seen as a system of signs and signifiers which relate to one another within contexts of experience, cultural norms and personal relation.

Saussure's language theory is a system of representation. E.g. The letter 'd' in 'dog' represents a sound and in isolation doesn't evoke any connection to the word 'dog' as a concept. A collection of letters (a word) represents a more fully realised concept. That is to say, the word 'dog' is a signifier and the physical being (tangable dog) is that which is signified (visualised). These two elements are both needed to create what Saussure considers a sign.

 

the arbitrariness of language

How to say dog in different languages:

1. Dutch = hond
2. Finnish = koira
3. German = Hund
4. Hawaiian = ilio, 'iilio
5. Hebrew = kelev
6. Hindi = kuttA or shvAna
7. Hungarian = kutya
8. Icelandic = hundur
9. Italian = cane
10. Japanese = inu

The word 'dog' does not mean the same thing in different languages, even though the signified object or being is a constant. The signifier (the word) can be different, but still retain the common sigified concept, as words are abstract variables and their meanings and values are assigned according to individuals, collectives and societies as the meanings are assigned through both individual and shared experiences.

A good example of how signifiers work is the following painting by René Magritte, with the image of a pipe with text underneath. Our brain sees a juxtaposition when we are presented with a pipe and the phrase "This is not a pipe" in french. This provokes the arbitrary nature of human perception as this is indeed not a pipe. This is a painting of a pipe that is presented as a digital photo of a painting of a pipe. Suddenly the idea that we subconsciously pick up the information of what the object is and not the delivery method of which we see it becomes more apparent. We see the signified object before the signifier that delivers us to the result.

meanings of signs can be interpreted into three different catagories of type:

icon - Actual image. This resembles the sign. Onomatopoeic words could be put into this catagory as it is considered as iconic language such as "meow" or "swoosh".

index - Cat paw print. It is a factual reference to the signified item that links the print to the physical cat.

symbol - the word cat. It is an arbitrary relation to the signified 'thing' as there is no connection between the sign and its meaning. Signifiers in different places could mean different things. 

With the idea that different signifiers mean different things to different locations,  something we consider to be culturally positive could be considered to have a negative connotation in other areas of the world. A popular example of this would be Richard Nixon in the 1950's visited Brazil, upon arrival he gave the "ok" hand gesture we are all too familiar with to the crowd greeting him, unaware that it is considered a rude gesture on par with flipping someone off. His welcome was short lived.

In most of the English-speaking world, as well as in several other countries, this hand gesture means that everything is fine, great, okay and/or perfect. In Brazil, however, it is considered a rude gesture. The most famous example of this was in the 1950s when Richard Nixon visited Brazil and flashed the “Ok sign” to a waiting crowd upon arriving in Rio de Janeiro, who responded with boos!

Context Changes meaning

The more common example would be a cross. A cross can have a different meaning depending on the context it is given.

From left to right: The cross of St. Sebastian. Hazardous chemical.  

 

Current Semiotics

Meanings can also change over time due to social construct. The dictionary has annual new words added as they become more relevent in the modern age. Used commonly by millenials in memes and social culture common words find their way into the online dictionary such as the words fleek, doge and feels. All made popular through culutural exposure. The way words are pecieved also changes through social and political means such as the word 'feminist'. 

Due to the mass ammount of negative media coverage around extremeist feminist behaviour or 'feminazi' events and exposure, the word feminist can bring negative connotations to it. Some believe that the act of womens rights to equality is becoming extremist and becoming biased and unfair. This words meaning is not the same as when it was initially used during the initial wave of feminism in the 19th and early 20th century to fight for the right of female voting. Given the way the words meaning has changed can also give people a different opinion on you if you are labelled within' that catagory. The word signifies what the individuals views, outlook and potentially personality may be through stereotype the same way extremist fashion or political views may do.

Still Life Sketching

It is important as an artist to have the fundamentals down before anything else. One good way to practice drawing is from life, the perspective and depth will be different than taking a photo to draw from. This task was focusing on doing just that while taking the time to look at lines curves and overall shape. This is a skill that could transfer into logo design, font and illustrative works. I used a variety of materials such as pens, crayon pencil and coal.

Graphic Games and restrictions

Throughout history graphic design,writers and other creatives have explored different approaches and ideas in a visual manner and once the fundementals were explored they delved into avant-garde or oscure methods of altering their media form.

'Oulipo' was a group of french writers and mathemeticians who wished to create restrained techniques to encourage a more creative ands alternative outcome to a problem. It is through formalism, automated and rule monitored process that new surreal outcomes can form. The Oulipo created a variety of techniques and some unique works from them:

Avoid lipogram - Georges perec wrote a whole novel without the letter 'E' called Avoid. He finds alternative words to avoid using the letter 'E' in his work making for creative language.

The prisoners constraint - A member of the Oulipo Jono Lewarne created this as a way to write a lot on a small ammount of paper. To do this you have to remove acending and decending letters 'b' 'd' 'f'' 'g' 'h' 'j' 'k' 'l' 'p' 'q' 't' 'y'.

Palindrome - words that looks the same forwards and backwards; level, boob, madam and refer.

s=+7{N+7} - everytime you find a noun in the text, find it in the dictionary. count down 7 nouns and substitute the word for the new word. unexpected and fun method of substituting. ( try it myself )

These kind of practices went on to influence future writers and graphic designers to create more interesting techniques:

tree of codes - Jonathan safran created a new book ontop of an existing text. He removed words he didnt want to keep or found arbitrary and from this produced a new text from the pieces missing and therefore gave a new context to the overall message in the book.

Personal Task 

Morpholo is a visual game created in 1985 as part of the oupeinpo which is exploring restaints to make a creativite image collage on tiles. The game is of making the pieces of a giant image that follows a set of constraints. You made 256 tiles. Once you have got them you can play the game. Creates unexpected visual outcomes. Part of a 3D space.

The anatomy of a morpholo tile: 4 equal sided. 8 half edges 2 pers edge of the side. Each of the 8 half edges is coloured either black or white - represented as on/off yes/no true/false 0/1 comparable to booleans. Once you have made 256 tiles with the correct variables you can then have the fun of making your own connected images facing blacks to blacks.

I was tasked to find and copy fonts I liked looking at serif, thickness, shapes and curves and from those I would get details from these fonts to create my own version of the morpholo tiles.

I started by replicating standard fonts as a way to get used to drawing fonts and cursive. I then got an algorithm of codes for the tile shapes and proceeded to make as many fonts as I could fit the rules of the morpholo.

This task is a fun way at looking at alternative approaches to text. Sometimes a methodical and numerical system of order can create a suprising and fun new concept/result. This is something to keep in mind in my own work as I can use algorithms or data on work pieces to create a contextual, craft.

First Puppet Animation

To familiarise myself with the Adobe After Effects I was tasked to create a puppet that can be animated. To do this I had to create a piece of graphics in Illustrator with consideration of joints and limbs. Each joint should be considered a seperate aspect of a characters body and therefore created on a seperate layer. This is done so that I am able to import this character and its seperate limbs into the Adobe After Effects with no issues.

This was the first time I attempted to use Adobe Illustrator so I made sure to make a sketch of the character to work as lineart for my final image. The character design was vaguely inspired by the artwork featured in a videogame "Don't Starve".

In this sketch I pinpointed which aspects of my character I wished to make moveable so that I knew ahead of time what I was going to do for a smoother process. 

left: Finished mode Right: Deconstructed puppet

When it came to creating my puppet animation I felt compelled to have the character enter the 'stage' for a more fluid story to the animation. This animation is short so I felt it best to impliment as much movement as I could in the ammount of time given. Keeping note of smaller details such as hair and eyebrow movement. Adding hair motion is a simple and very effective way to show speed and movement in a 2D animation.

In animating my puppet I came across an issue; I initially intended to draw a walk cycle however deemed this task a little too great for my first attempt of this method so I worked with what I had. I wish to attempt to create a walking cycle at a later point when more comfortable with the software.

 Overall I deem this a fluid first piece of animated puppet work and would love to expand and add more characters at a later date.

ginger puppet girl from Sophie Wales on Vimeo.