Shadows Of Abandonment

The day has finally come! Today I put up my installation work and I was very pleased with how my project turned out.

I included over 100 images from all three areas photographed, the found photograph from the second visit to the factory complex and I also scattered around general dirt, rubble, rocks and dust and also glass shards within these photos as this is generally what the floors of all the factories looked like. The glass reflected nicely off the spotlight above my piece.

Overall, I am very  pleased with the work I presented.

 

Shadows Of Abandonment

By Noelle Jackson

Hidden amongst the suburbs, you can find abandoned buildings and structures. These neglected, derelict places tell many stories and hold many secrets.

Every abandoned building is a gallery, every wall a canvas.

 

This installation explores the connection between man made structures and collapse. The ample nature of this piece allows for multiple levels of manipulation, viewing and understanding. A lack of human presence within buildings and structures creates human exploration, destruction, creation and connection.

I drew inspiration for this work from artists Kazuko Miyamoto and Artie Vierkant and the #Urbex community.

 

 

 

-noellevslife

Week 12 & 13

The past two weeks have been really successful for my project. I was feeling really unmotivated so I went back to the Bulli factory complex to revisit the space and take in my surroundings.

While exploring through the furthest factories on the property which we didn’t visit before, I came across this amazing burnt ruined image.

This one image gave me such inspiration that I could finally envision the end product of this project.

I have started on my string art after painting each board with three coats of midnight black water-based paint. When looking at the wooden boards I thought they were a little big as both of them were over 1M long and 50CM wide. I cut these down to a smaller size which better suited my piece.

Although I did have a few setbacks, like buying too thin wool that did not look as nice and also was harder to nail into the wooden board.

On a spare piece of wood, I tried out a few different ways I could attach my string by – small thin nails, glue, drilling holes and pulling the string though the boards or using a staple gun. After a few testers and discussions with my dad about what would be best I decided on the staple gun as it was easier to ‘stick’ multiple wool strings down with one large staple.  I also found that using the thickest wool I could find in the craft store best suited my project and gave the string art more dimension and full-ness.

I will continue to work on and finish my project for exam week 2!

 

 

-noellevslife

 

 

Week 10 & 11

During the past two weeks I have been focusing on working and designing my string art boards, and editing my images from the past week.

When editing my photos, I was planning to have my images in black and white behind my string art piece, as I changed my images from colour to black and white I felt they lost their personality and I didn’t like the photos as much. See below the difference in photos:

 

I have also been mapping out my string art design, I have been looking through Kazuko Miyamoto’s designs and other string art artists for inspiration.

In the upcoming week I will continue working on the string art boards, getting my images printed and creating my installation so my piece is ready for the 19^th.

 

-noellevslife

 

Week 8 & 9

During the past two weeks, I have successfully photographed two places within the Wollongong area. Last Saturday I drove up to Helensburg’s old train tunnels and an abandoned factory complex in the quiet suburban streets of Wollongong. During my explorations of these two very different places, it really gave me inspiration and a foundation for my final project.

Arriving at the Helensburg tunnels, my friend and I first visited the North tunnel which was gated off but someone had conveniently cut a gap big enough for people to squeeze through. This first tunnel was very cold and eerie, although we could see through to the end, so it was definitely easier to photograph without using artificial lighting.

Here are some photos below:

 

 

We then moved off to explore the second and main Helensburg train tunnels, where many other people were also hiking and exploring. The train tracks were very muddy, we continued through and walked about 200 metres into the tunnel until it got too muddy and slippery to continue. There were a few glow-worms on the ceilings of the tunnel and graffiti starting to paint the walls.

Here are some photos below:

 

Moving back on down the coast, we drove into the suburban area of Bulli and located the abandoned factory complex. My friend and I parked a few minutes away and walked down the hill and jumped the low fence protecting the property. We explored the old office-like building and two out of the 4 large warehouses. Exploring this factory complex was really amazing, I had never done anything like this and it was such a new experience. Graffiti covering nearly every wall, discarded items on the floor, broken glass shards, dust, clothes and single shoes forgotten behind. The office building was a really interesting space to explore, many rooms that you can see once were function and full of life now destroyed and trashed. Below are some photos I took of this area

 

During the next two weeks I plan to sort through my photos and edit them. I am still planning my string art board designs and will continue these in the upcoming weeks.

 

 

-noellevslife

 

 

 

Week 8 & 9

During the past two weeks, I have successfully photographed two places within the Wollongong area. Last Saturday I drove up to Helensburg’s old train tunnels and an abandoned factory complex in the quiet suburban streets of Wollongong. During my explorations of these two very different places, it really gave me inspiration and a foundation for my final project.

Arriving at the Helensburg tunnels, my friend and I first visited the North tunnel which was gated off but someone had conveniently cut a gap big enough for people to squeeze through. This first tunnel was very cold and eerie, although we could see through to the end, so it was definitely easier to photograph without using artificial lighting.

Here are some photos below:

 

We then moved off to explore the second and main Helensburg train tunnels, where many other people were also hiking and exploring. The train tracks were very muddy, we continued through and walked about 200 metres into the tunnel until it got too muddy and slippery to continue. There were a few glow-worms on the ceilings of the tunnel and graffiti starting to paint the walls.

Here are some photos below:

 

 

Moving back on down the coast, we drove into the suburban area of Bulli and located the abandoned factory complex. My friend and I parked a few minutes away and walked down the hill and jumped the low fence protecting the property. We explored the old office-like building and two out of the 4 large warehouses. Exploring this factory complex was really amazing, I had never done anything like this and it was such a new experience. Graffiti covering nearly every wall, discarded items on the floor, broken glass shards, dust, clothes and single shoes forgotten behind. The office building was a really interesting space to explore, many rooms that you can see once were function and full of life now destroyed and trashed. Below are some photos I took of this area

 

 

During the next two weeks I plan to sort through my photos and edit them. I am still planning my string art board designs and will continue these in the upcoming weeks.

 

 

-noellevslife

 

 

 

Week 12

With this semester coming to a close, we are wrapping up the play testing of our games in class. Today I play tested my card game – ‘Name That Quote!’ with David, Liam and Mel. It was a successful play test with everyone enjoying the game but also giving me constructive feedback.

The main feedback I received was to proof read a few of the cards, I had two spelling mistakes in the cards and they also suggested if ‘Name That Quote’ was further developed to have more categories and cards.

NAME THAT QUOTE!

A fun card game for all ages!

      Recommended players: 3 or more

 

EQUIPMENT:

• 1X ‘Name That Quote’ deck of cards

 CARDS:

• Yellow Cards: World Quotes
• Green Cards: Film Quotes
• Black Cards: Culture Quote

OBJECTIVE:

• To correctly identify the quote on the playing card, read by the ‘Quoter’

HOW TO WIN:

• The first person to reach 10 points

OR

• Until all cards in deck are played – the player with the most cards (points) wins

SETTING UP THE GAME:

• Shuffle all cards and place in the middle of players face down
• The person to the left of the card shuffler is the first ‘Quoter’. This will then continue in a clockwise motion.

RULES:

• Place shuffled cards in centre of playing space
• First ‘Quoter’ picks top card off the pile and begins the round. The ‘Quoter’ reads the quote written on the card out loud to the other players.
• First player to correctly identify the answer wins the quote card thus gaining one point.
• If all players cannot correctly guess the card in play, the card is passed in and no one receives any points.
• First person to reach 10 points or alternatively for a longer (better) game, the person with the most cards (points) overall wins the game and is the champion!

 

 

We also play tested David’s game ‘What’s Trending?’, ‘an interactive based board game utilising Google’s top trending searches’. I really enjoyed playing this game, it was very well made and the different categories made it entertaining. We played the whole game through until David and Mel won (which was totally rigged, Liam and I should’ve won) and I can honestly say I would play this with my friends or family. It was a game that was thought out, researched and developed and created really well.

 

 

-noellevslife

 

Week 10 & 11

I have combined weeks ten and eleven into one blog post as I was away in week eleven! I would’ve loved to play test my game in week eleven as I had it ready to go but unfortunately, I was unable to make it to class.

During these past two weeks I have been working on my game and finalizing all the small details. This experience of creating a card game has been really interesting and although I have had a few downfalls in my research I have been able to successfully finish my card game prototype. While researching and gathering quotes, I definitely had some trial and error moments – from only finding limited quotes that were not well known to having my design for my cards completely fail because of the swap over from one computer to another.

The research and gathering of quotes for this game has been the major part of this game (obviously), I did have a little difficulty thinking of quotes from films, television shows, cultural and world quotes. When googling and sorting through quotes most of the ones I did find were sappy quotes about love, life and bullshit. This meant that I had to research more refined topics. So with this in mind I research particular films, television shows, celebrities and historical figures. I was trying to have a broad and different array of quotes in each category so the game didn’t get boring in the early stages of playing.

Design:

                  Yellow: World                Green: Film                   Black: Culture

 

Rules: 

Since I wasn’t able to play test my game in class in week 11, I showed my game to my family members. They surprisingly loved the game and thought it would be a really good game to play!

One amendment I do need to make in the rules is what happens to the playing card when no player can guess the quote. The card is passed in and no one receives a point. When discussing this with family and friends, I thought that the ‘Quoter’ could receive the point if no one was able to guess, thus having players who are guessing more determined to guess who said the quote. After a small discussion and weighing up the options I decided it was better for my mechanics and the general rules of the game that the card is passed in with no one receiving any points.

Next week I will be doing an extra blog post on my play testing with peers in class and also the final thoughts on this game!

 

-noellevslife

Week 9 – Blog 7

This week I have been developing my card game ‘Name that Quote!’, particularly focusing on the quotes I will be using for my playing cards. I have started researching and gathering quotes from all various categories – films, television, celebrity, world quotes (e.g. Ghandi) and culture quotes (e.g. quotes from the Kardashian’s).  Here are some quotes I will be using in my card game:

1. “You’re gonna need a bigger boat”
   1. JAWS
2. “I’m going to make him an offer he can’t refuse”
   1. THE GODFATHER
3. “I see dead people”
   1. THE SIXTH SENSE
4. “my mama said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get”
   1. FOREST GUMP
5. “Here’s Johnny!”
   1. THE SHINING
6. “Hasta la vista, baby”
   1. TERMINATOR 2 (Judgement day)
7. “My precious”
   1. THE LORD OF THE RINGS
8. “A martini. Shaken, not stirred”
   1. GOLDFINGER
9. “I’m the king of the world”
   1. TITANIC
10. “Hey, careful, man, there’s a beverage here!
    1. The Big Lebowski

 

Focusing on the abstraction involved in my game, I can identify the quotes and different categories of quotes being the abstraction. The theme of my game is very simple and provided players with an easy party game that can be played in any setting. Abstraction is a conceptual process, to abstract something is to reduce its complexity, transforming it to its simplistic and essential foundations.

 

This week Mel and I also play tested another peer’s board game ‘Noun’s and Adjectives’. This board game is a drawing-based game where each player takes turns to draw a noun (Noun card picked from the pile of noun cards), whilst the rest of the players guess what is being drawn. After this, the next player is given an adjective to add and draw on the noun. I found this game fun and interactive but there were definitely a few aspects of this game that could be improved.

Mel and I suggested some constructive feedback to Blake. I suggested for him to make his rules a little clearer as I did have to read over them a few times to understand and grasp what this games objective was. The written rules provided were a bit long-winded, but Blake insisted that everything we needed to know about the game was on the rules sheet. The first few rounds of playing this game was a little confusing but once I understood how the game worked, I got the hang of it and it was actually very fun. This game would be really good for all ages, especially younger children who are still learning the difference between nouns and adjectives. Another suggestion I did make would be having something different to draw on instead of paper because it was a little unorganised. But overall I really enjoyed playing this game and I am excited to see Blake present the final in a few weeks!

You can see the progression of ‘Nouns and Adjectives’ here.

 

Next week I will work on printing my playing cards and refining my game rules. I have already designed my cards and the theme of this game which will be posted in next weeks blog!

 

-noellevslife

Week 6 & 7

During the past few weeks, I have been working on the same concept and idea from my project proposal. You can see my project proposal here.

Continuing my research on Miyamoto’s work and string art, has allowed me to gain a better understanding of string art, how it works and different techniques.

My concept idea for this project is Abandonment, I’m really interested in exploring this topic further and piecing together my installation from this concept.

Abandonment is an issue I am very interested in exploring as it can be seen in many different ways, in different people and causes different reactions. In particular, I will be focusing on abandonment on a larger scale – buildings, areas and ‘the hidden’.

Abandoned Art is probably one of my favourite concepts of art. Below are some images of ‘Abandoned Art’ –

During the past two weeks in class, I have been working with my assigned group and discussing our major projects. My group seemed to like my initial ideas for my work and encouraged me to pursue and go visit abandoned places around the Wollongong and Shellharbour area.

In the next two weeks I plan to visit a handful of places and photograph the scenery and also collect my materials for my string art.

 

-noellevslife

 

Week 8 – Blog 6

Last week  we focused on brainstorming ideas for our individual game. During this time, I have been working on developing one of my ideas from last week: Reverse Memory. During this time trying to develop the game I struggled to come up with a basic theme. While brainstorming ideas this is what I had planned:

Although this game is very similar to Pyramid (beeramid), a card drinking game that requires other players to try and guess what card you have. You can read more about Pyramid here.

It is also similar to the old school original Memory, also known as concentration, match up or pairs. Brainstorming and trying to develop these games into something amazing has been difficult… and that is why I have completely changed my game idea and have decided to prototype my new card game called ‘Name that Quote!’. The aim of the game is to correctly identify the quote on the playing cards to gain points. I will continue to develop this game in the upcoming weeks and I plan to design and create the cards to play test as soon as I can. I have planned a rough draft on different categories and themes I can use for the quotes.

While doing some research on the gaming market, and trying to find games similar to my idea that have already been developed, I did struggle to find anything. When googling quote board games/quote card games only actual quotes from famous board games came up. This made it difficult for me to see if there were any similar games. Doing a deeper dig into google I did find a game called ‘Mad Gab’. You can read more about this game here.

During the tutorial this week, we play tested Mel’s game ‘Draw the Logo’. This games objective is “to correctly identify different brands through drawing their logo as necessary to advance on the board until one team reaches the finish point”. I really enjoyed playing this game as the rules were very straight-forward and Mel had all the equipment to actually play the board game. After playing this game we discussed as a group that changes that could be made to improve this game.

 

Next week I plan to continue researching the gaming market and similar board games and to also develop my card game.

 

-noellevslife