Friday, 26 October 2012
Decoys and Disruptions
I cannot think of another book that is such a
catalogue of the dullest articles ever written. I am always amused by how Americans
talk up their talents - but Martha Rosler has none. The design of the book
itself is appallingly uncomfortable, the margins are too big; the text is in
the wrong proportions, and the notes are space fillers. In the writing there is
no contrast and little interesting material, and I found it difficult to read
much before falling asleep. There are more words than necessary, which is always
an abuse of the English language and a feature of poor writing. If it was not
for my marking the very few points made in the book, I would have gleaned
nothing from this gnomic tome. There is little that is memorable: I do not rate
her photographs and her artistic skills are limited, in my opinion, and if it was
not for the support of photography students, it would not survive, and it
still may not. That the book is rated in the US is an interesting statement
about American inabilities. If there has been a sea change from the postmodern,
it is the lack of tolerance for the inveterately boring; if you can’t say it briefly and succinctly, don’t waste my time, I don’t
have any.
Wednesday, 3 October 2012
Exhibition Considerations
Exhibition Considerations
A useful site in on the web provided fine guidelines for exhibitions[1].
·
Logical
groupings
o
Chronological
o
Like with
like
§ Medium
§ Treatment
§ Scale
§ Colour-monochrome might be together
§ Genre
§ Theme
·
Use of
space
o
Best spaces
o
Dark areas/dead
zones
o
Areas better
suited to display or a/work types
§ Small walls, small work
§ Large walls, large work
·
Lighting
o
Sources
o
Quality,
warm/cold
o
Controllable
or changeable
o
Sufficient?
·
Flow
o
Entry
point
o
Movement
usually clockwise
o
Exhibition
information at entrance as people arrive
o
First wall
is a feature, strong work
o
Images
left to right
·
Layout
o
a/work
placed in front of proposed position
§ visualise how exhibition will look
§ move a/work around, try different groupings, positions
o
May need
to edit exhibition
§ If too much or fussy
§ Place in clusters or sets
·
Seen as a
group
·
12 pix in
a row looks bigger than 3 grids of 4 pix
·
Placement
o
Comfortable
height, 150cm for adults, 120cm for children
o
If
relatively close together, seen as a pair
o
Consider
groups as one artwork
o
Measure
wall
§ Sum widths of pix and subtract from wall
measurement
·
Equals space
measurement
·
Divide space
measurement by n+1 spaces required
·
Stop and
think!
o
Is it
successful?
o
Can it be
improved?
o
Is the
wors level and equally spaced?
o
Is there
good flow and rhythm?
o
Does one piece
lead to the next?
Now the other stuff
The one metre images I am planning to print are to fit Alliance Francais, or another 10 x 25 m location. This is large, but then so are the large colourful hoarding boards all over the country; it seems to me A3 would not be spectacular enough. If I use A3 prints, the room size would be 10.5 x 4.14 m, the smallest conference room at the Southern Sun.
The simplest printing option for one metre prints is Correx, which is corrugated plastic and very light, and designed for exhibitions. The advantages are the numbering and titling can all be done on printing, and there is no frame. The surface and price may challenges. A1, A2 and A3 can be photographic poster-type prints, and A3 can be quality printed from .pdf at a much reduced price.
The layout for the exhibition is easily designed on Google SketchUp and can be readily re-scaled, with only the scenes for the .avi being tiresome for the 420mm prints.
From my own experience of exhibitions, somewhere to sit is essential.
The other option is simply to have a slideshow and some chairs, because it achieves the same outcome and is significantly better use of resources.
Now the other stuff
Other stuff
Some other sensible information was found on the internet: do not mix black and white, duotone or colour. The implication is you could not do the job in one type, for whatever reason. There is no particular issue about size, other than probably consistency and price.The one metre images I am planning to print are to fit Alliance Francais, or another 10 x 25 m location. This is large, but then so are the large colourful hoarding boards all over the country; it seems to me A3 would not be spectacular enough. If I use A3 prints, the room size would be 10.5 x 4.14 m, the smallest conference room at the Southern Sun.
The simplest printing option for one metre prints is Correx, which is corrugated plastic and very light, and designed for exhibitions. The advantages are the numbering and titling can all be done on printing, and there is no frame. The surface and price may challenges. A1, A2 and A3 can be photographic poster-type prints, and A3 can be quality printed from .pdf at a much reduced price.
The layout for the exhibition is easily designed on Google SketchUp and can be readily re-scaled, with only the scenes for the .avi being tiresome for the 420mm prints.
From my own experience of exhibitions, somewhere to sit is essential.
The other option is simply to have a slideshow and some chairs, because it achieves the same outcome and is significantly better use of resources.
Photographic and printing considerations
Photographic and Printing Considerations
I discovered Silver
Efex Pro 2 from the Leica M monochrome camera, which provides a free edition of
the programme, but not by buying one! I found this programme gives considerable
latitude to black and white digital processing and can substantially enhance black
and white images.
Langmead & Baker Ltd has experience in magazine and book publishing, with InDesign, Illustrator, Photoshop, Lightroom etc; however, this does not mean there was nothing to learn. The hint came from John Swarkowski ‘s The Photographic Eye… ‘172 duotone images’, back cover. I had already made the decision to do the book in black and white, which is not uncommon, but many photographic books are only printed in black. The difference using duotone is enhanced contrast: I have used mustard yellow as the second colour, which is also on the back cover. The method is simple enough in Photoshop, converting the 8 bit image to grayscale first and then to duotone, which gives a facility up to quadtone. The separations are produced by cancelling CYM and leaving process black and panatone 117c, in this case, which is now a two-colour lithographic printing process. Utility is not increased for me by using tri- or quadtone.
The first time I did this, I followed the consensus of advice on the web, using .eps files. Not only are these are very big files, .eps is an outdated file type and the general consensus is now tif or .psd; before I used .jpg. Another c-change is I now use .dng exclusively. So my duotone sequence is
- .dng
- silver efex to .tif
- photoshop duotone, not rastered, because the photographs are also to be used large
- saved as .psd for Indesign
I have three books planned directly, four actually, because the first one has technical and production errors, which I will learn on reflection.
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