Tuesday, 25 September 2007

Work Placement 7

What a glorious Monday morning, such a shame it started so damn early.

I'm kidding although I started early Monday morning, before work walked around the park land taking photos of what happened to be around, briefly that was trees, birds, water and some structures.

When I did start work Enza told me that they had just found a dead possum. I don't know what killed it I think it might have been gravity related (a big fall) but I didn't check and the critter was not in a state to tell. the Joke of the morning was it either hated the installation so much it had to kill itself right there on the spot or liked it so much it had to become one with it.

Time lost most of it's meaning I assumed work progressed swiftly but it may not have too I took my watch off so it wouldn't get in my way. When Sue turned up after returning a few bits and pieces she was surprised at the amount of work that had been done. For the most part I spent my time filling bags with clothes to be sent back to the second hand shops.

Later on as the monumental installation was reduced bags and boxes of clothes, books and assorted oddities my old friend the sticky tape had to be dealt with. In some parts this was a duel layer operation. There as an upper layer of gaffer tape and a lower guide layer of masking tape. The upper layer came away effortlessly the lower layer wasn't so accommodating for the others.

I found that I could remove both layers of tape at once if I lifted it up and pulled in a special way. This reduced my work load and times drastically, all up I only needed to remove a few sections of tape.

Once the tape was removed and everything was packed, we loaded everything into the truck and headed off to the drop off locations. The first was a chaotic store room of a West Footscray op shop and the second was what I would describe as a warehouse operation in Totenham. Everything that the first drop off didn't want which was a few assorted pieces of junk and the clothes the second drop off took.

Shortly after the truck was returned to the depot and I was let off for the day to go about my own devices. I did that so well I've only just got around to doing the blog entry.

Wednesday, 19 September 2007

Lightwave 8

I had a fairly quiet day today.

Class work didn’t start until late because of class numbers fortunately most if not all of the group showed up eventually to do some work.

Today we were learning how to make a 3D image fit into a photo. The 2 things I've kept in mind is that 2 or more lights are needed to help with the blending and you will need to adjust the horizon line in the Lightwave animation program to help keep the balance.

The sort of structure I built resembles a box on a table with some steps leading up to the front. The general shape reminds me of Asian architecture. I think it is because of the shape of the roof and the red support posts.

I personally liked my stairs, 2 cylinders angled and the space filled in with small boxes. I strongly suspect I will have to cut down on my support posts and stairs though to help keep the proportions.

Brendan's house is coming along slowly but he is starting to get a very good handle on the basic use of the tools. If the course went twice as long by the end of it he'd be setting up 3D structures and models in his sleep.

I haven’t seen how any of the others are managing, they seem to be doing fine based on the idea that they aren’t asking for help, or if they are it isn't related to the program.

Leo shared with the group the truth about Mexican beers and the lemons the bar staff try and serve it with. Not that it is related to the class work but it did happen in class.

The housing assignment is due in at the end of next class; with mid term break next week I've got until 2pm 2nd October to get the work done.

Monday, 17 September 2007

Work placement 6

Free booze brings out something in people, something scary and dizzy.

Today was a late start; this was because I was working the exhibition opening.
The early part of the afternoon I spent back on the floor working around the lines finishing up the taping with a new roll of tape.

Time consuming as it was it was very quiet and it didn’t bother strain my body as much as it had the last few days. A short time later I stopped for a meal break and the two second year students who were also called in to work the exhibition showed up.

They did the fine details and tidy up jobs and I did a few other odd jobs like securing valuables, like laptops hard drives and various sorts of cameras and accessories.

My final task for the evening was to serve drinks. This was worse then some of my most awful retail experiences. At least in retail I had authority and completely knew what I was doing and developed ways through and around troublesome customers.

It wasn’t that the people were overly troublesome, everyone was well behaved it was more the attitudes some of the people projected at Zach one of the second year assistants and myself when we didn’t know what they wanted or couldn’t keep up with all the orders. We managed and for the most part people were polite and patient. Just a few unpleasant looks and sly comments ruined it.

On the plus side I was complimented on the way I opened the bottles of sparkly bubbles, it went along the lines of being very professional how when I opened them I never spilled any or sent the cork flying.

I did however make a big noise during the speech marathon. We had just emptied another bottle of the bubbles and a lady wanted some so I opened it and it was rather loud. The guest all looked over at the drinks table and all I could do was say "it was her fault." Pointing to the lady she took it in good humour as did the rest of the guests.

At one point I was worried that we would run out of the champagne (bubbles) I even told Sue that we were running low and it would only be a sort time before we ran out. Silly me, a short time after that as I started moving the other bottles into the other tubs and keeping them close to the drinks table I seen another container. In it was another 8 bottles of the stuff. It was quite fortunate.

I quite like the idea of having more then is needed then not having enough (when practical), and when serving people not to give away how much of anything is left until it is all gone. When they asked for a drink they got a drink eventually, sometimes a fresh bottle of whatever they ordered needed to be opened but no one suffered from dehydration.

No one but Zach or I knew how much of anything was left until the end of the very end of the night, I think it helped keep an illusion going that at this opening what they wanted that could have if they asked there was no one rushing around for fear they might miss out.

I was nice to see a few familiar faces in the crowd, like some of my current and former teachers.

It was a nice learning experience but I don’t think I want that many speeches at any exhibition I have unless it is an exhibition about speeches. 40 minuets of talking got mind numbing very quickly. Maybe I'll have the speech part as a video piece so people can watch them later on and I'll just go down the local pub while everyone else does the exhibition opening thing and come back just before the end of the night when people have seen it and are heading off. That way I miss out on all the brown nosers.

In the end I'll like to say the following;
Champagne for my real friends and real pain for my sham friends!

Wednesday, 12 September 2007

Work placement 5

Another early start today, but this time I was well on top of the situation and all it took was a little planning and preparation.

Officially speaking today was panic day. Sue and Enza had a lot to arrange and organise and only a few hours to do it in as the exhibition opens early tomorrow night.

My duties for today not only got my clothes terribly dirty it also exhausted me physically and mentally. The morning's work was fairly simple move so stands around for the television sets to be placed on, number a collection of paintings and collect the titles and lastly go around the floor and lay out black tape to hide the white masking tape from the dark sections of the installation.

The boxes the televisions are to go on are just coloured chip board so they were light. I moved them into position fairly quickly and moved on to task 2.

Sue had her drawing class come in so I worked away from them covering up the white tape with black tape. It was easy enough, precision work but fairly simple. The down side was that it took a lot out of me having to bend down and shuffle around the floor. Thank goodness for the knee pads.

After I did a few sections I had to leave the job for reasons of the bladder. On my return I was asked to number and title the paintings. The paintings were done by a man named Jack Freeland, who for some reason currently unknown to me he painted with his mouth. Some of the paintings were quite interesting others weren't, but it is like that with most things. I counted 63 paintings of assorted subjects from landscape to animals and seasonal greetings.

I moved back on to my taping task once that painting labelling job was finished. While I had been working else where Enza had been working on the other side of the room doing the black tape work so when I came back down there were only a few sections left to do. I finished the roll of tape off which meant I had to find other work to do.

I spent the rest of the day doing other jobs like arranging the televisions this took a lot of time and energy because it needed to look right for the presentation but it also needed to be set up so the DVD players and televisions were close to the power points.

I finished the day there because it was time to go home.

Working again tomorrow the next post will hopefully more coherent then this one

Tuesday, 11 September 2007

Lightwave 7

After the "delights" of last class I made a return to the lab the following day to have another try at the 3D kitchen assignment.

For the most part it was easy I had to remember to save often and check my point counter ever so often.

The danger of working in demo mode is that you are only allowed 200 points. This restricted some of the possibilities and complexities of my creations, but through the restriction I found creative freedom.

I found thinking in simple shapes to be the best solution and I am most pleased with how my sink turned out. The taps I originally thought were going to be the biggest challenge but with my exceptional mind I was able to make a representation of a sink with taps and it looked convincing. Brendan was very impressed when I showed him.

For today’s class I had a spoon, knife and a grater to finish off. The spoon I thought of as a strangely shaped tiny frypan. the greater resembles something I seen on TV once but could just as easily be mistaken for a flyswatter. The knife was my surprise for the day. I impressed myself with my big mean looking cleaver it may have been a little cartoon-ish but I liked it, in fact I liked it so much I stuck it in the wall.

I surprised Stuart when I asked how to use Lightwave. The Lightwave program comes in 2 sections, the first part Modeller where as the name suggests the models are shaped, next is Lightwave where the animation happens. So what I was really asking was how do I use the animation section of the program suite?

The big change to the other half of the program is that when moving the objects that the coloured arrows have special meanings too. Red is left and right, blue back and forth and lastly green which is up and down. Each relates to a particular axis X,Y and Z.

I found dressing the set to be fairly simple once I got used to adjusting the sizes and figured out how to move everything properly.

As this is an arts course the presentation of the finished work is also important. Handing the works up to be graded in a standard CD or DVD case will earn a pass. I decided to try something a little different. I got some graph paper and wrote out the appropriate information on it like name and the project name and on the back cover reversed what I wrote. Writing backwards is hard I don’t know how I managed to do it so well when I was younger. I finished by decorating the spine with a series of black lines to represent an object in the side view.

When I handed it in I got a laugh which is a good sign especially when there are dozens of other expressions and gestures that could have been used instead.

Next week I need to bring in a picture of a landscape with a lot of flat space because we move on to assignment 2.

Monday, 10 September 2007

Work placement 4

Today got my off with a start.
I awoke to find a message on my phone asking me to get West Footscray station for 7:45 to meet Sue so she could take to the exhibition site.

This sent a panic through my system, I moved faster then I have this morning then I have most mornings for a very long time.

I replied to Sue's message stating that I wouldn’t be able to make it to the station in time. Big mistake the bus I caught not only got me to the station in time, it got me there almost 5 minuets early. After a few change overs I got to the second meeting place, the food court at Highpoint where both Sue and Enza were meeting and discussing the plans for today.

My first job on site was simple enough, sort and arranges the clothes hangers into an interesting pattens and shapes within the designated work space. I made a few interesting shapes and designs. Keeping it symmetrical was tricky as I didn't have as many simple wooden hangers as I would have liked or enough coloured hangers to give the design a visual variety. After a little trial and error the end result turned out looking pretty good.

The next task was a way for me to contribute and create a piece for the exhibition using cardboard boxes and plastic bags. For those who have seen the donation bins or the back rooms of the second hand shops these are common sites. The only 2 directions I had been given were make it high and don’t block out the window. After some creative stacking of the boxes and some gap filling with the various bags task 2 was complete.

In context of the exhibition and the ordered shapes and forms of the most dominating piece, my cardboard and plastic creation is the "unseen" back room chaos.

I was warned though that because of the nature of the installation process if a more practical idea or use for the bags and boxes comes to mind that the work could be partially or completely changed or removed. So it was in my best interest to take some pictures early.

Hopefully it stays for the exhibition.

The guide strings used as preliminary measurements before the sections were outlined in tape were due for removal. It was very physical work and had to be done delicately. I could not disturb the finished sections, or if I did I had to put it back to the original condition as soon as I was done. There was a lot of bending fortunately the ladies had knee pads for that kind of work for me to use. The pads helped a lot, awful to walk in but they made the job more comfortable.

My last few tasks for the day were setting up the television sets with the DVD players. It wasn’t hard for the most of it. A little trouble some with the last set though. As the televisions were all of various makes some needed special plugs so that the DVD players could be plugged in. Unfortunately there wasn't enough to go around. After asking for some help I learned that I had to tune the DVD player into the TV. Once I knew what to do I was fine.

I've had to tune tvs in for a number of personal entertainment reasons. Most of those reasons were video games though and occasionally VCR’s too but not very often.

A side job I had to do was help carry over some of the PA equipment. With the hand trolley it made the job easy. The big wheels rolled up the steps and across the gravel easily.

Well that was my work day how was yours?

Next post some time Wednesday night or later on, it just depends on how I am feeling.

Wednesday, 5 September 2007

Work placement 3

In a strange way I got what I wanted, a very quick reply to a job opportunity. While the position wasn’t what I originally wanted I feel as though I won’t get any where in life if I am fussy and try and pick what help and opportunities I get from people.

Basically if I want help I have to take all of what is offered or none at all, and I see it in the same way for opportunities, until I can effectively read into the future I’ll keep jumping on as many opportunities that come my way as I can possibly manage.

For my placement I am working as an artists assistant, as far as I can tell all this means to me at the moment I do as I am told which doesn’t make it much different to any other job I have had.

Today I was sorting clothes out for the installation piece and stacking them into piles to be part of the arrangement. With so many second hand possessions around it feels kind of strange, all the things were precious to someone and as soon as they stopped being useful they were given the arse (given away). Some things there like the knitted scarves would have taken a lot of time and effort and for them just to end up as second hand shop merchandise is kinda sad.

Still it is better that they be passed on to charity with the potential to be used again then just put into the general garbage.

For the time being I have 3 full days of work Monday, Panic day and second panic day. In normal people terms that is Monday 10, Wednesday 12, Thursday 13 and a few more days later on to be decided possibly including gallery sitting and the de-installation.

Right now the exhibition is looking like a collection of second hand memories.

Tuesday, 4 September 2007

Lightwave 6

What a shit of a day.

Technology, can't work with it, can't pass without it.

Technically speaking today has been one problem after then next.

I came in early to get a start on the kitchen project only to find the computer with my exercises on it has been locked, some illegitimate glow worm (bright bastard) had put a password on the computer, worse then that they made it so that I cannot get in to retrieve my work from other computers on the network. The tech team was not much help, he tried the password combinations I had already tried without any luck and will get around to resetting it later on.

So I've moved to another system this one works at its own pace with the widgets, popping up at will and the windows shrinking down into a group view, the mouse responds poorly and if it wasn’t for the cost of replacement I think I would have ruined it by now.

Now back to the work some of the project tutorials are easy enough to follow others are not. The video started talking about welding without showing where the function is hidden or a shortcut key(s) to use it. Later on I found it in another video as control w.

Some of the software problems encountered are my own fault such as not making enough knife cuts on the polygons to properly control the movements simple objects like bowls and plates are quite nice and easy to make.

A circle shape from the disc or ball tool, some extruding and bevelling and a quick tidy up with the tab key makes something shaped like something you'd eat off.

I am really looking forward to getting back on to MM13 the controls work, my work is there and... Hell I think I'd save myself a headache if I just went and made the project out of Lego I'd use clay but I'm not up to getting grubby right now these issues have sucked the fun right out of me and have left me not feeling my usual self.

On the plus side I'm not as sick as I was and should be back on my feet without a blocked or runny nose or that "delightful" cough.

This project is due next week expect an update then.