Visual Evaluation

I have selected imagery for my visual evaluation that sums up moments in both the practical and contextual side of my research that were interesting or important to the progress of my project.

1. Learning from Las Vegas by Robert Venturi. Reading this text was important to my contextual research because I found the interpretations of postmodernism to be insightful and clearly explained. It helped me to further understand my subject matter, and provided a lot of effective quotes that explained postmodernist ideologies.

2. Brillo Boxes by Andy Warhol / Arthur Danto's comments - I particularly liked this example because of its relation to appropriation within art, and its importance of making low-art and high-art indistinguishable ('one could no longer tell the difference between an ordinary object and an art object just by looking at it...')

3. The Memphis Group - Massively important in terms of postmodernist design, highly influential, and the focus on design helped me move away from talking strictly about fine art, bringing it closer to illustration. The pattern-based work would go on to influence my sketchbook pages.

4. David Shrigley - Where I began to bring in examples of contemporary practitioners whose work possessed a tone of voice or character that was postmodern in its values, message, or technical execution (or all of these things when it comes to Shrigley)

5. Sketchbook task - drawing together images, quotations, and points. Useful for both my essay and sketchbook work overall. Summarising postmodernist ideas, backed up with examples of relevant work. A po-mo mind-map of sorts.

6. Deconstruction & Sketchbook thinking - using the sketchbook as a way of writing down ideas was definitely helpful to me for getting into the swing of things. One idea that was particularly effective and ended up making my work more process-driven was the deconstruction / simplification of objects.

7. Pattern - patterns were a way of taking my ideas and making them purely visual, introducing these important ideas of simplification and abstraction. The pattern-work also echoes my research on the Memphis Group / Nathalie du Pasquier.

8. Testing & Trials - Media tests and generally just playing around with shape and pattern was helpful to me. This 'experimental' approach embodied the values of Memphis, and it became less about a finished product and more about a process or the making of.

9. Artist research - Constantly revisiting and researching the work of other artists, illustrators, and designers was beneficial because I could stop, review what I've done, gain inspiration from elsewhere, and then try another way of doing something. Also it was something I liked researching anyway, especially Nathalie du Pasquier's work. I tried to emulate her free and playful approach to making.

10. Playing - Playing, arranging, and creating variations is where I created the best images in my opinion. Collage was a process that helped with this because you could move pieces around before committing to a finished placement. Again, process was a dominant part of what I did.