Photos from my final piece

I found the individual objects within my office scene very intriguing and so decided to photograph them individually, capturing the remnant chaos left by the blowtorch.

I feel the photos within these first two pages were most successful as they most effectively capture the chaos they endured through their burnt out appearance and texture. I also like the contrast between the remaining bright colours and the blackened and burnt browns and shades of black. This shows a small part of the initial order through the chaos that remains, maybe making the statement that there is always a small amount of remaining order within chaos, or that beauty can still shine through chaos.

The objects come from a typically ordered place, where they are used to create order (e.g. a ruler makes straight lines and measures things, therefore giving order to the work). The items are also used in professions that are considered ordered such as architecture and bussiness, adding to the  order they represent. Through the chaotic process of melting the objects I have destroyed this order; I have removed the purpose of the items preventing them from bringing order into peoples lives; I have altered their properties; and transormed their initial appearance giving them a more interesting, engaging, and eye catching aesthetic.

 I feel that as photos these were less successful than the ones above however as 3d objects they are very intriguing and visually interesting. They are better being explored on a three dimensional level as the photos don't quite capture the texture and forms of the objects.

The making of the final piece

For my final piece i decided i was going to create a before and after desk scene; the before being a regular ordered desk, and the after being a desk full of melted contents that had endured the chaos of a blowtorch.

 If I were to do this again I would have placed a burnt sketchbook into the melted scene for a greater juxtaposition. However I like how the desk and sketchbook remain untouched, as this adds a sense of confusion to the scene. It provokes questions such as 'When/how did this chaos occur?' and 'Why have only the objects been subjected to the chaos?'

It also makes me wonder whether the outcome should be considered chaotic or ordered? The contents have endured chaos, yet have been placed back into their ordered scene where they exist in a still yet enigmatic state.

Developed Crisp Packet Experiment

 

This is the development from my first experiment with crisp packets, which  I found successful and so proposed to explore the idea further.

I collected crisp packets over the duration of a week and ordered them into sets of four to ensure they would fit into the oven. I melted each set together at the end with matches. 

With each set I left them in the oven for a different amount of time to give different effects. On the flatter looking sets, I sandwiched the packets between two oven trays to prevent the packets from crinkling and curling up. This was because I wanted to create a contrast between the sets of packets that would portray the varied degree of chaos they have endured.

I feel this has been successful. The contrast in texture and appearance between the packets makes the piece eye catching and engaging. I don't think a purely flat piece or vice versa would of had this effect, as it may have appeared slightly dull and boring.

The fact that each set has been melted to a different degree draws the viewer in encouraging them to explore the whole piece.

The initial order of the packets has been removed and taken over by the chaos of melting them into each other. The outcome was beyond my control therefore adding to the chaos of the process. However the outcome could be considered ordered as the packets have created a beautiful piece of artwork that was planned to a certain extent. On the other hand the outcome could be considered chaotic due to the transformation in the crisp packets' appearance, texture, and all round properties.

If I were to do this again I would collect a larger amount of crisp packets, leaving each set in for a recorded time to make the process more ordered. I would then be able to record the whole process in my sketchbook and contrast/analyse each set in more detail, further exploring the effects of the chaos within the oven.

 

 

 

Stop frame video

This is the stop frame film I created to record the process of melting an object, instead of just showing the before and after.

One of the contact sheets...

I feel this has been a successful experiment and outcome. The photos/video effectively show each stage of the melting process to enable the viewer to see exactly what is happening. The video and series of photos both portray this in a slightly different way which is why I chose to present each of them. The video, paired with the music makes the series of photos more engaging and allows the viewer to see the process happening at different speeds, but without being too fast like a normal video would be. They can also revisit the bits they missed to fully explore the process.

The photos show the process in a more ordered way which contrasts the chaos of what is actually happening (the bottle being melted). I decided to present the photos as contact sheet as I found this method effective when presenting my melted cup photos.

The contact sheets give a scientific look to the experiment making it look clean, clear, and professional.

Melting Haribo

Crisp packets

For this experiment I put crisp packets in the oven using instructions I found on the internet.

I feel this experiment was successful as I found it thought provoking and it led me onto some ideas that I could experiment with and develop further. I also find it to be aesthetically pleasing and visually interesting, as it makes the viewer wonder what is going on and what the shrunken object signifies or is trying to communicate. I feel it effectively communicates a sense of chaos through its change of properties and appearance.

 

 

 

 

 

Melting office equipment

These are some of my most successful experiments.

 

 

I feel this was successful as the burnt holes and unusual sculptural form of the outcome reflects the chaos it endured under the blowtorch. I would like to have melted the lid more to make it less recognisable as a bottle, maybe even meting it all the way down to a liquid. However this could release more harmful fumes. I also like the way the holes are browned around the edges as this adds tone to the object.

 

 

I had intended to melt the pen further than this however large amounts of black smoke came from it whilst it burnt, and so I didn't want to produce too much of this smoke. I am going to experiment with this idea further by exploring how coloured pens react and melt, especially when grouped together.

I found melting these scissors intriguing as I let them burn on their own after they had caught fire. I then blew out the fire before the scissors had fully melted/burnt, leaving part of them still untouched. I feel this was successful as you can see the transition on the scissors between the original object and the melted outcome, and so it shows all the stages between and not just the result. I was also interested in how the melted plastic still had an orange tint to it where it hadn't fully burnt black. This was accentuated by light, as you can see in the photo.

 

 The first things that melted on these glasses were the plastic lenses, which immediately crackled, bubbled and curled up. The glasses then set light and so I took away the blow torch and let them burn out alone. The black plastic bubbled up and melted together, as you can see in the photo. The fire grew quite big and chaotic on this object and had to be put out with water, which may have effected the outcome as it was cooled very quickly compared to the other objects. However the water restored immediate order to the chaotic fire.


Once I turned the glasses around I found the back very interesting as the original text could still be clearly seen, and appeared to be the most untouched part of the glasses (which was purely a coincidence). I also like the differing textures that can be found on the back, as some parts remain smooth from only being slightly melted, whereas other areas contrast this with a rough bubbly, distorted texture and aesthetic.

Melting a ruler

This video shows me melting a plastic ruler with a blow torch...

 Before...                                                                        After...

Cup melting

After my previous plate smashing experiment I found the technique would not be successful and so I needed to think of a new idea. After mind mapping ideas that came from my experiments this led to me wanting to experiment with melting office/classroom equipment. I had previously ordered this theme of equipment for my Ursus Wehrli styled photos, and offices can be considered quite ordered places as they need to be ordered to function effectively. I felt that by manipulating office equipment this would create chaos within this environment. Melting the equipment seemed a very intriguing idea to me and so I decided to explore this.

 
I started simply with just a plastic cup (video yet to be added). I then developed this idea by exploring how different amounts of time under the blowtorch would effect the cup.

 

 

There was quite a big change in the appearance of the cup between each time frame, and so I feel reducing the time between each photo would have been more successful as it would have shown a more detailed, gradual change.

This led me on to videoing a cup being melted as this shows the process more clearly.

 

 

 

 

Observational drawings

This is one of my observational drawings (shown at 2 stages) that i felt was successful. I sat at my living room window and recorded every person that walked past my house within an hour. I found it interesting to see how the weather conditions changed within this time and how that effected the appearance, stance, speed, etc. of the people walking past. I tried to capture this within the drawing, which forced me to descriptively draw at a fast pace, and sometimes use my memory to record important features.I recorded each person at the place they had caught my eye or stood out the most.

However as i live almost opposite a school i feel this would have worked better if i had started drawing at the beginning or end of the school day, as there would be much more information the capture at a much faster pace, which may have created an interesting and different result.

I chose to use blue biro as it gives a blue-print style appearance to the drawing, as if it is a sketched out plan of the roads happenings.

I particularly like how the memory of each person has created a chaotic drawing consisting of so many different lives and individual stories. I feel there is a lot of hidden depth within such a simple portrayal of this every day life, that we cant even begin to imagine.

Part way through...

  

Finished drawing... 

Plate smashing

Developing my previous ideas i decided to create chaos by smashing a plate, and then creating order once again by creating a new object.

 
I put the plate into a tied up plastic bag and then threw it out my backdoor, as i felt breaking it myself would give the process a sense of order, whereas throwing the plate would allow the concrete ground to randomly and chaotically break the plate into small fragments. 

This is the process of making something new. I decided to keep to the ceramics theme and make a mug/cup. I tried many different adhesives however struggled to find something that would be neat yet strong. The 2 that worked best were the hot glue gun and super glue. The above example was made using the hot glue gun, which i found to be messy and weak.


This piece was stuck together using super glue. This was a much neater method however the glue took a long time to dry and didn't create a strong enough bond, leaving the outcome very fragile (much like the previous one).

I feel the outcomes were unsuccessful. The process of fitting and gluing together the fragments was very time consuming, and i found hard to fit the fragments together neatly and effectively. This created a much messier look than i intended, which could now be considered chaotic. It was also difficult to create something that looked like a certain object and not just smashed pieces of plate glued together.
The positive point that comes from these outcomes is they spark the debate of whether they are ordered because of the way they were put together, or chaotic because of the smashed pieces and messy appearance.

Experiment: Chaos and Order with paint

I decided to explore how i could create chaos and order with paint. Whilst safely in its container paint is nice and ordered, however once unleashed it can cause all sorts of chaos. I set up a small scenario of paint being splattered over a sheet of paper as messes like this can often happen accidentally, transforming the paint from ordered to chaotic. I then gave myself 2 (chaotic) minutes to use only a sharpened stick to create something out of this chaos. I linked my outcome with the subject matter that was initially causing the chaos as i felt this would make it a smoother journey with more of a theme to it.

After the two minutes i reflected upon the outcome, which begged the question: Have i created more chaos with this painting, or should the painting be considered ordered as its subject was planned?

In my opinion the outcome can be viewed from both perspectives, it is a quick, chaotic, expressive painting, however what i intended to paint was planned and so my intentions were quite ordered.
This also made me wonder whether sometimes we can fix chaos with a different form of chaos, such as a more beautiful, planned, and less destructive form of it. But then if its planned, should it be considered chaotic?




Here is my next experiment. This time i decided to use different colours to create something that was unrelated to the paint to explore the effect this would have. I once again gave myself 2 minutes. I looked at the way the paint had fallen onto the page and tried to interpret it and create an image from it. The way the colours were set out made me imagine a sunset and so this is the direction i took the painting in. 
I feel this has been successful as it creates the same questions as before, however with a sense of mystery this time. There is no obvious reason why i have created a sunset apart from the initial layout of the colours, and so this provokes the viewer to think about the painting and allows them to make their own personal links and have their own individual views.



Next i experimented with using ink, as this is another easily splashed and spilled material that causes a lot of chaos. I set myself the same challenge, however i found that the ink stayed on the stick more and so the result was very much like drawing with ink normally. To keep it simple i stuck to the theme again. I feel this is less effective than the previous experiments as the outcome inst as visually interesting or thought provoking, it just looks as if i have drawn something with ink and splashed the ink about a bit.

Ordered Paper Clips

Once again, i have stuck to a colourful subject matter as this was found to be successful.
I have taken something that is nearly always chaotic to show a broader transition from chaos to order.
Paper clips are also associated with an office, where organization and order is very important.

I have picked out the two most successful photos, which show a slightly differing arrangements. Although these photos aren't as engaging as the chalk photo, i feel they are still open to interpretation and could make statements about subjects such as office life, depending on how the photos are perceived. Like the chalk photo they also show the popularity of each colour in a graph like format (particularly the photo on the right).
If i am to take more photos in this style i feel i need to chose a more complicated subject matter that will be more visually interesting and thought provoking. I will need to set a side enough time to do this, and plan the time i spend on it carefully to ensure i stick to my aims of each week.

Ordered Pencils

Following from my previous experiments i decided to use a more colourful subject matter as i had already found that this was more effective and engaging.
I arranged the pencils into order of colour using the colour spectrum. I took a series of photos of the pencils arranged slightly differently, but found the two below were the most successful. 
I feel they were successful as they show the pencils looking intentionally ordered and aesthetically pleasing. The function of the pencils has not been taken away and the order wouldn't be massively disturbed if a pencil were to be removed, therefore order here has had a positive effect in this sense. However this ordered arrangement may not be very practical.

Tub Wehrli experiment

The process...

I felt this wasn't as successful as my chalk piece as it appears slightly bland and is a lot less engaging

Chalk Wehrli experiment

I found a box of chalk/pastels in my art classroom and decided to order it Wehrli style. 

The chalk/pastels are arranged in the order of the spectrum of colours and order of height.

I am very pleased with the outcome as it is visually interesting, engaging, and aesthetically pleasing. The basic point of the piece was to order the subject matter, however what the set up shows/represents is open to interpretation. This can make it personal to each individual person. Members of my group have commented that it looks like waves, sound waves, and a graph.

I also found it interesting to see what colour chalks there were the highest and lowest quantity of, as this could be a reflection on the popularity/ demand of/ for these colours, and so this is similar to a graph representation of this data.

Clock Experiment

This experiment was inspired by Ursus Wehrli, a Swiss artist that takes normal yet slightly chaotic subject matter, and orders it.

I previously experimented with turning something slightly chaotic into something ordered, however I found the subject matter that I started with wasn't particularly chaotic, and it could be argued that it was ordered in a sense. Therefore I took something that could be considered ordered (a clock), and made it chaotic myself (dismantled it).

I could then order the components like Wehrli does.
  

As you can see once i had opened it up there was an array of wires and components. I took apart each piece of the clock, and arranged it in an ordered way. This may look aesthetically pleasing, however the clock no longer works, its purpose has been diminished. Therefore there was never any point to ordering this object except for visual satisfaction.
This poses the question: Why are we always so keen to turn chaos into order?And Is it always necessary?





Once i had finished ordering i decided to take the experiment further. I started playing around with the disassembled parts to create a new ordered object, rather than a plain arrangement of ordered parts. I found this was a more engaging way of representing order evolving from chaos, however it could be seen as creating chaos once again.
I used a hot glue gun to stick the pieces together as it is effective at gluing each material used within the clock.

    Front                                                                                  Back

 I am pleased with the journey and outcome of this experiment as my ideas developed as i went along, and i was able to raise questions and challenge preconceptions. I aim to continue doing this.