The Circus as a Parallel Universe

I like the surreal elements of this exhibition, my favorite being the floating elephant. It incorporates the bizarre, unusual aspects of the circus. I’d like to incorporate this into my work.

Belle View Gardens

I attended a lecture about Belle View Gardens, zoological gardens that were founded by John Jennison in 1837. It was a place of family entertainment in Manchester right up until the 1970’s. The lecture made me think about the treatment of the animals in the entertainment industry, which is often a controversial subject. I discovered the poor treatment of animals in these industries still happen today, one of the main examples being circus animals.

http://manchesterhistory.net/bellevue/zoo.html

Elizabeth Jane Winstanley

For part of my research I visited Elizabeth Jane Winstanley’s exhibition ‘Tactile Illusions’ at the Manchester Craft and Design Centre. Her work focuses on the way light and colour interact within her work. I found it inspiring as it showed how everyday objects can be manipulated to create unusual and intriguing results. I took photographs and footage of her work to make this video.

 

Whilst researching fairgrounds I found this image of Chernobyl and Photoshopped it to make the yellow stand out. I want to do more research into the atmosphere funfairs can create under different circumstances.

Experimenting with Sony Vegas Pro

I decided to use some of the footage captured at Blackpool to make a mini video using Sony Vegas. I wanted to play around with the effects to discover what I could create. I used a combination of my own videos and photos and related clips I found on YouTube.

Photos from Blackpool Pier

These are some of the photo’s I took at Blackpool Pier. They have been Photoshopped to give them an old feel.

The Brief

The brief we have been given for this project is ‘to capture and decipher the energy, adornment and motion of the fairground through construction of sculptural forms and surfaces’. I began research for this brief by traveling to Blackpool Pier to collect photos and videos related to the fairground.

Unit X

Unit X is the 3rd unit of my first year studying Fashion Design and we’ve been paired with the Textile in Practice degree students. The unit is designed to encourage collaboration amongst students and allow us to experiment with processes we might not have come across in our own course. The option I have chosen is ‘Low-Tech Hacking’, where I will be working with a combination of low-tech materials and processes in response to the brief.