PRE-PRESS

Alright! The rhythms booklets are nearly complete. I just spoke to the printers to see what my options for printing would be, so I'm heading over there now to get the first draft printed! Here they are pre-printed.




I know there's going to be some spacing adjustment necessary afterward, but at least I will have an idea what it's going to look like. The max paper thickness they can do is 100 GSM. I was aiming for thicker, so I shall reassess once it's printed.

THE RARITY THAT IS CUTE VEGAN SHOES!

I've been on the hunt for vegan moccasins for a while now. I found these from MANIMAL and have been lusting after them ever since. As per their website, this teeny New York company is all about craftsmanship. If the funds become available, I shall certainly be ordering myself a pair!

DAILY PROGRESS (SUCCESS!)

To ensure I'm sticking to my schedule, it's time to post what I've accomplished today. I have mostly finished the composite image of nature from Canada. I still need to decide in what format to present it. Initially I was thinking of large posters, but with the music publication becoming a series of posters, I will have to approach it a different way.



Next I worked on the drumming transcription system to make it easy to comprehend.
These are some of the outcomes. These are geared towards those familiar with the drums, so I used the notations found in tablature to represent which piece of the kit needs to be hit. I realized that it wouldn't make sense to anyone who doesn't know how to read tab.




So I chose to try out the last version, which is simply a symbol of each of the pieces of the kit that corresponds to each component of speech. Does it work? Any thoughts/feedback? The dashed line is just to show where the booklet is folded.

THE PEN TO THE RESCUE!

Okay, I absolutely love the Olympus Pen. It has single-handedly saved my photos from Coachella since the Ricoh was a failure. You can always count on film to save the day. I am writing this with the assumption that the proper scans will look as nice as the crappily scanned versions. Please let me be correct. I'm not sure how they were cut at snappy snaps, but I fear they might be all out of whack, since I photographed ensuring they were taken in sets.

Now that I've been able to see the negs, I feel relatively happier and prepared to engage with projects that require completion.

TASKS FOR TODAY:
Create WHAT IF Canadian nature composite image
Revise RHYTHMS project drum transcribing system
Gather Documentary footage

IMPATIENT FILM SCANNING

I have been considering THE FUTURE non-stop since I returned from California. It's sending me into a bit of a panic. I'm worrying about my work (will I have enough? Is it good enough? Will anyone hire me? Will I even be able to attain a post-study visa? Can I survive financially on my own so I can stay in London?). These impeding questions are hindering me from getting started on the process of project completion - and instead doing other things that I enjoy, like discovering what the negatives from California might possibly look like.

And on that note...

It is kind of a bummer to excitedly receive your freshly developed negatives, only to have to wait until Uni opens to properly scan and see them!

I have just briskly scanned the 120 negs at home to get a VERY vague idea of how they turned out. Some strange light streaks in there but for the most part, I think they're okay!

The Palm Springs 'nature' photos I took as a part of the WHAT IF brief (for a comparison of green spaces between 3 countries) also came out.

COACHELLA 2011 > PART l

This trip was phenomenal. I had high expectations, but they really were exceeded. It was definitely too short to cram in everything. We didn't have the luxury of having time to stop for photos, more like running from point A to B, with certainty that we were going to be late. We landed at nearly 3 pm in the afternoon in Palm Springs after an 8hr flight to Chicago with a 2hr stopover. Picked up our rental car, checked into our hotel and had until 9pm to make a 1-2hr drive to Salvation Mountain, which Emilia really wanted to see. The speed sign postings were infrequent so most of the time I was paranoid and unsure how fast I could drive on this one lane highway through the desert. Turns out I was driving 10 MPH under the speed limit. It took forever to reach the mountain and we got there around 7pm, just as the sun was going down.
There wasn't much time to shoot before we had to hurry back to retrieve our new camping friends James and Almanita from the bus station in Palm Springs. We got lost on the way back (no directions) and ended up somewhere called Grapefruit. James and Almanita arrived early and we had no idea where we were, but nowhere near. They shared a taxi with some other Coachellers so we collected them in the morning.

I won't go into all the details of the adventure, because I would be here for eons.
So just a quick summary of my reflections..

The festival didn't allow us to take in 'professional' cameras (aka ones with removable lenses), so we were restricted with the equipment we could use. I purchased a fairly reputable digital compact for the festival, but either I don't know how to use it properly yet or it's rubbish. I did see some SLRs around the grounds, and should have attempted to get mine through security because the photos would have been DRASTICALLY better. Overall though, it was our first priority to fully experience the event. It was too damn hot to do anything most of the time, so we spent a great deal of the 4 days there desperately scrambling for shade and hiding in it.

It was pretty surreal to be there. The music was incredible, all of the bands we saw were great - hardly any complaints from others we spoke to also. I didn't think about projects at all, I think I was too jet-lagged/in awe. Although every once in awhile a few thoughts would creep into my head - ideas for the Coachella publication (using our journal contents, bits and bobs we collected, lists of lessons learned - i.e canopies are essential, don't leave your solar shower in the sun for long, warm clothes for the evenings).

I also had this nagging thought about the thread in my projects and how I want to represent myself as a designer. I just kept thinking that music seems to be my passion and most of my projects this term have been music related (or nature). But I feel as though my work should all be focused around music. I don't want to go against what I've been told, but when it comes down to it, I want to be proud of what I put in my portfolio and create things related to what I want to do in my practice.

Anyway, enough mental sifting. Here are some digital photos from the beginning of the trip. Film to come later.