This week’s Photo Challenge was forks. To get out of my comfort zone, I thought I’d have a go at some landscape photography, with a nice panorama of the fork wolds…

John Cheesman

Today we wandered over to the Loughborough University School of Art and Design Degree Show. We went last year, and knackered ourselves out by taking the whole thing in. This year we decided to miss the foundation studies and 3D design sections. Foundation studies are interesting – there are some brilliant sparks of ideas, but nothing has the final polish on it. There is a bit of everything – textile, graphic communication, fine art, 3d design – and I’m not knocking the artists, but with limited time and energy, we decided to concentrate on the final-year work. 3D design (pots, chairs and stuff) don’t hit the spot like paintings, photos and sculptures do, so we missed that also for similar reasons of time and energy.

So, did a round of the textiles (woven, multimedia and printed) then on to the main event – the fine art.

I have to say, the standard was absolutely excellent, with some incredibly talented people displaying their work. Certainly some names that we should be hearing more of in the future. I was particularly impressed with Vanessa Raw who showed some absolutely huge portraits. She has fitted in a degree in Fine Art whilst also being a professional triathlete.

Other notable entries include an assortment of used toothbrushes arranged around the gallery space with a little story about each one. We’re assuming they’re fictional, but you can’t quite tell. Unfortunately, the artist’s name badge was missing – I will try to find out.

(Artist name TBC)

There was an installation by Lara Owden with interesting objects in wooden boxes. It doesn’t sound so exciting, but you could watch people’s reactions from the mezzanine gallery for possibly more fun than looking in the boxes yourself.

Lara Owden

Then how about some of Christopher Bassford’s videos, mimicking abstract sculptures. Most amusing indeed – the sculpture would be pictured alone first, then he would come into the scene and set himself up as the sculpture. This one involved shoes which were attached to their base board making the entrance quite clumsy.

Christopher Bassford

Next, how about “Hornby Double Oh?”, or as I like to call it – death by train set. Scott Illingworth’s kinetic sculptures were a little alarming, especially with their setting in a dark room. The one pictured was the least surprising of the bunch.

Scott Illingworth

There are far too many others to mention, it’s well worth a visit if you’re around – running until Thursday 17th June.

See if you can guess which was H’s (who has been quoted saying “that’s not art it’s just stupid”) favourite. I will give you a clue…

That IS art.

Well done to all of this year’s graduates. Once again a fantastic show, and some great accomplishments.

Here’s a little video (an advert, actually) that I thought was a work of genius. I’ll let you decide. But I found I had to watch the whole thing again after the first viewing.

The Cabbie - Introductory Still

I’m a great fan of film shorts. I think to tell a story in a minimum amount of space takes real skill – unlike some of today’s three hour “blockbuster” films which actually have no story. Vincent Laforet has been shooting shorts with the Canon EOS 5D Mark II and I think he really has a good vision.

Sometimes you can see a hint of actor wooden-ness, but on the whole, the storytelling is good and the visuals are – in my opinion – stunning. Try out “The Cabbie” which was filmed as the introduction to a competition called “Beyond the Still”. It is each contestant’s job to interpret the still frame at the end of each winning entry and begin the next chapter from there…

The Digital Economy Bill is on the cards in parliament at the moment. They’re hoping to rush it through while there’s the excitement of general election in the air. However, it’s a very dangerous bill.

Firstly, it allows your ISP to disconnect you if they think you’re illegally downloading copyright works. That’s a little harsh, but fair enough.

BUT and it’s a big BUT… it also introduces powers to steal your photos from you. If someone finds your photo and likes it, and can’t trace you through a “diligent search”, they can pay the government a licensing fee and use the photo. Worse than that, even if they can find you, they can opt to go to the government’s licensing board instead of finding out what your fee would have been – pay that fee and it’s theirs to use.

So they’re protecting the copyright of the massive media corporations, while taking a bite of the money that independent media creators could be earning in license fees (for their hard work, I should add – a license fee for usage isn’t free money).

This bill has to be stopped. Seriously. Or at the very least given due debate and consideration in parliament instead of being rushed through.

Full details here.

And 38 degrees has made it simple to write to your MP right here.

If you’re not aware of Ignite, it’s a series of very short talks on a whole range of topics – each speaker is given 5 minutes with 20 slides (which auto-advance every 15 seconds). There was recently held a Photographer’s Ignite, and the videos have just been released. I watched Scott Bourne’s presentation on Previsualisation as I know this is an area I have to work on. Or do I? Read on…

What I learnt from Scott’s talk is that Previsualisation and Patience can pay off. It took him over 12 years to turn his visualisation into a finished photo, requiring weather conditions, location, the whim of two particular birds, along with thousands of others to fall into place. Amazing stuff.

Go see!

If you have $395 spare, I strongly recommend you go and buy that print. If you don’t like it, I will very gladly take it off your hands as a favour.

Anyway… what I have realised, is that my previsualisation is not lacking – it’s just too ambitious for my current resources. I have an idea and then say to myself “Where am I going to find a water buffalo, wooded area, mist and a naked young lady at this time of day?” (* go check Drew Gardner’s “Epic Fashion” work if you have no idea what I’m on about).

What I should be doing, instead of rejecting the idea as impossible, is writing the ideas down in a Big Book of Inspiration™

And that is what I shall do henceforth. Maybe in 12 years, I’ll have some suitable results!

I know it’s old news, but isn’t the London 2012 logo just attrocious?

Fortunately, after widespread public criticism in 2007 including a 25,000 signature petition and other cries for it to be changed, a London 2012 spokesman allayed our fears, saying “The emblem is flexible and will evolve over the next five years.”

So… how’s it doing after three?

It’s lost the yellow and the shade of pink has changed slightly. Granted that’s an improvement, but I still think that pretty much anyone armed with a pack of crayola could do better.

Sorry… I was just looking at a 2012 site and reminded how completely awful the thing is!

These really are fantastic pieces of art… you’ve seen those optical illusions where there is both a vase and two faces looking at each other? Well, Tom Beshara makes them in real life, using a profile of your own face.

Site: Turn Your Head!