ICP: Studio Test 1

 

  

Annotations - Bigwight High vis & Apex Tools

Walker Evans: The beauty of the Common Tool

Walker Evans: The beauty of the Common Tool

What is denoted & Connoted?

The work denotes large tools placed in the centre of the frame and showing huge power. The tools are all presented to look bland but showing detail of the tools showing what they are all about but making them come together. The meaning behind the tools is designed to show that the Pound-land value tools can also look beautiful when being presented and this works for the viewers. The work communicates as basic tools are positioned in a certain way the use of the captions shows the tools in the correct size with the tools official name and the price that it will cost you from the shop at the time of the shoot.

How are you affected as a viewer?

When looking at the work you will automatically look at the oversized tools due to the way the work has been positioned to the viewer. The tools do not make me happy or sad when looking at it normal viewpoint as they are dull and boring as this does not stand out to the viewer normally.

What makes this work significant to the project?

The work is significant to the project as I am planning on using the underlying theme that the tools all have all been presented in a way that they all look dull and boring to the eye. The background has been done to be basic with the tools not coming together to make it look interesting to the eye and that is what he had set out to work on. I like the composition of how the tools are with them all being placed in a vertical aspect ratio with them all being central with what I think he was trying to do is to make the tools look boring.

The text from the tools

Among low-priced, factory-produced goods, none is so ap­pealing to the senses as the ordinary hand tool. Hence, a hardware store is a kind of offbeat museum show for the man who responds to good, clear “undesired” forms. The Swedish steel pliers pictured above, with their somehow swanlike flow, and the objects on the following pages, in all their tough simplicity, illustrate this. Aside from their func­tions-though, they are exclusively wedded to function ­each of these tools lures the eye to follow its curves and angles, and invites the hand to test its balance.

Who would sully the lines of the tin-cutting shears on page 105 with a single added bend or whorl? Or clothe in any, way the fine naked impression of heft and bite in the crescent wrench on page 107? To be sure, some design-happy manufacturers have tampered with certain tool classics; the beautiful plumb bob, which used to come naively and solemnly shaped like a child’s top, now looks suspiciously like a toy space ship and is no longer brassy. But not much can be done to spoil a crate opener, that nobly ferocious state­ment in black steel, as may be seen on page 104. In fact, almost all the basic small tools stand, aesthetically speaking, for elegance, candour, and purity. -W.E...

My View Point on the text

My Viewpoint the text is that it criticises the way people will look at tools and how the manufacturers are wanting to make the tools look sexy to the viewer. The ideology from the tools is that we need to make them interesting and beautiful and the way he has presented the tools. The way he has produced the work is designed to make the tools look boring to put it as F you to the viewer to get to understand the meaning of boring tools. I think the text tells all your need to know to show them together.

What ideas (or visual styles) will you take forward to think about in your work? 

The visual styles that I am planning on taking forward are the way the tools have been presented to the viewers by adding colour to the background for the tools and the high vis jacket. The use of keeping the formatting together they work to stand out. I am not going to keep the boring background but make it stylish for this to stand out to the viewer. My work will be different from this work so I will use the setup and make it fun and contemporary.

Who is the intended audience? 

 The intended audience was for readers of the Frieze magazine and was Evans’s trying to put a middle finger to the fancy commercial industry. The tools are not designed to have the contemporary feel that the work has shown is at is designed to make the tools look boring and basic to make the viewer look at it. 

What context have you seen the work in? 

The context in that I have seen this in is in the essay by David Campany in print and online, and the tools from the internet. The tools are designed to go in a magazine as it has been mentioned before. The tools are shown to be boring and tactile so the viewer might go out and purchase the tools to match it all up so it can stand out and it would make an interesting reaction to the viewer, this would only work at the original size when it was published in the magazine.

Strength’s & Weakness

The strengths of the work have been done to show the tools being big and powerful to the viewer. The work shows the power that you can get from the tools with it being overpowered. The weaknesses of this do not stand out to the viewer in a positive way as they look boring and they do not have any colour which does not have the themes and it allows me to stand out the idea to showing it all. 

Project Proposal

Project Proposal 

Assignment: Out in the World &  Title: Beauty of the High Vis Jacket, Beauty Of The Common Tool revisited

The concept behind the project is based on David Campany’s essay on “Out in the World: Still Life Photography between Art and Commerce.” 

I am planning on taking on the simple idea of turning the unfashionable high vis jacket and turning it into the object that has got flare and it is designed for it to stand out with the diffuser. The objects that are going to be around the side is going to be based around the idea that Walker Evans created in 1955. The idea will be to take the work of the ‘Beauties of the Common Tool’ by using pillars that I have got at home. I am planning on using them to be designed to be for a working-class advert to the middle class with elegance. Unlike how Walker Evans made his work I am planning to turn my work with colour and make the tools be silhouettes so it will stand out to the members of the public at home. 

Mentioned in the essay is how “This is less nostalgia than a sign of how hard it is to develop an artistic relation to the very new. ‘Design just a little dated will interest any artist. Design current is always terrible. Anyone who has tried to find a good contemporary lamp or clock will know what I mean.”. 

I am planning on trying to contradict the statement and take something that it is seen to be contemporary and turn it around to make the current image to look decent. I don’t want to make my work look like it is from the past as it will make the work look terrible and this means I want to try and make it something look different to the viewer. 

“All of which is Art with a capital ‘A’, all of it keen to distance itself from the still life as Commerce (capital ‘C’), even though commerce is often the subject matter.” I am planning on making the work come together and make art come together will the idea of commerce to make the viewer understand how we are simple, and it comes together. This allows me to understand how I can use the simple lighting set up and turn it into something that nobody has made the work that I am planning on producing.  I make my work be a social statement and advertisement to stand out and sell the idea of High vis jacket. Context, as any photographer will tell you, is key.   

I am wanting to highlight how we overlook the humble high vis jacket and make it all look plain and boring. I want to make a statement to say that a humble high vis jacket can look good in any way shape and form when you come to present it. I am also planning on photographing the tools against the diffuser to see what the impact it will have on my work with it done to be simulated to Walker Evans’s tools to highlight the change that we are seeing in life. 


 All of this Section has got direct quotes and paraphrased references from the Essay By David Company (CAMPANY, 2011)

Methodologies 

 I am planning on shooting this project in the Daphne Oram studio Do1.08 with it being done to look formal but have a loving texture and feeling to the jacket. In the frame is going to be a high vis jacket that I will place on a light stand with a coat hanger to make it look formal with a glare to the viewer at home. I will also be placing tools around the diffuser to make it look interesting and be inspired by Walker Evans.  The work will not have any ethical implications once completed due to the fact I am not making a political statement with the high vis jacket. The only ethical implication is that if I am stopped and search they will assume the worst when it comes to the use or the tools that I am photographing. The main specific research that I will need to undertake is the essay by David Campany about in the world. 

Intended Publication/ Audience 

The indented audience is to be done for a gallery or fashion magazine setting when it comes to the high vis jacket to highlight what my jacket has done and to make it stand out to the viewer.   I am also planning on producing two versions a 10x8 version, for example, to be used for a gallery set up and square format image for the images to stand out when uploading to Instagram. Some of the images that I am planning on using will be edited to expand them to square to allow them to stand out. The format will be achieved by expanding the canvas with the crop tool and with the use of the content-aware tool it allows me to keep the tool the same but allows me to show more information to the viewer on Instagram.

Equipment Used
The lighting equipment is going to be 3 Bowen Gemini lights, with two lights placed around the back to give the background the glow and light with an umbrella to place some light on the jacket just enough for it to stand out. I will also be using a light diffuser for my background as it will be able to make the work look contemporary and interesting. The camera I am planning on using is a cannon EOS 60D & 70D this be borrowed from the university. I will also be using a light trigger with a light meter to highlight what needed to be done. The digital equipment will be used with Adobe Lightroom, Bridge, Photoshop.

Writers 

The writers that I am going to be researching is David Campany with the work being based around his essay on Out in the world. This is going to be the main influence when it comes to scholars and writers.