photography

Playing around with Tables…

In Design Foundation Course we are trying to find new ways to place the ordinary everyday objects in a whole new context. The object we were given to work with for the last week was the table (the type of table in our seminar room). We were allowed to:

  • use as many tables as we want
  • combine them with other objects (mostly things that are in the room anyway)
  • use ourselves (bodies) as models and/or objects 🙂

Going outside was part of the homework, too. So besides doing all kinds of fun stuff inside (building a restroom, treating a table like a therapy patient, turning the perspective and using the tables as a wall and the wall as the floor) we took the white sterile table out on the fresh air, but don’t worry, it didn’t sunburn 😀

This was really a fun homework! The one we got the week before was fairly boring in comparison (that’s why I didn’t share it with you). We were supposed to draw five big images of the seminar room’s corners and other interesting situations with focus on the right perspective…

 

in Design Foundation  by Savina 0 comments

First Photos for Foundation Course Project

In comparison to last year’s Design Foundation Course we are going to work on only one big project the whole semester this time! For our first homework I took around 50 photographs of our seminar room and the garden behind our university building and tried to find some first connections and some interesting points of view. As I promised earlier I’ll focus on images this time:

This assignment is supposed to make us curious and give us first impressions of the subject. Knowing how to work with cameras and optionally photo editing programs is required for the task! But if some students do have any access to appropriate cameras the university’s photography department is offering cameras for free rental! So money issues shouldn’t be an obstacle.

in Design Foundation  by Savina 0 comments

Design Foundation Course and Typography

Time for a short update on DFC and Typography 🙂

This semester the DFC’s main topic will be “Von (Dr)innen nach (Dr)außen“ – Dialog, Kommunikation, Interaktion (From the inside to the outside – Dialogue, Communication, Interaction).  The students are supposed to explore the new seminar room and create a connection to the outside (the building’s back garden etc.) It’s a little bit hard to describe the situation but I’ll post some photos soon.

But talking about photos: The first homework is going to be about capturing the current state of both, the inside and outside space. In order to do so we have been given the task to take photographs and describe the situation in words. All findings are to be collected in a sketchbook. Our results throughout this whole semester will be building the basis for our final big project (final exam).
And this leads us to Typography. All acquired theoretical knowledge during the following months will be of big use for the final project in DFC, which will be a printed medium created in collaboration with the Typography program. What’s also new this time is the possibility to work in groups most of the time.

I asked a few students in the third semester about the workload and I didn’t like what I heard 😀 Everyone warned me it’s going to be hell! It’s going to be the busiest time during the whole bachelor ever (perhaps except the bachelor exam itself…). The third semester was referred to as heaven 😀 That’s where the students are finally allowed to choose their main programs and the workload is considerably smaller.
Considering this info and the fact that I’m already packed with assignments (I’ll try to pull off the illustrator’s drawing class AND one additional sketching excursion class) I’ll probably won’t be able to post a lot, but of course I’ll keep summing up and give tips as much as possible!

Next time I’ll compile this semester’s schedule (only premade for the first semester) and share it with you 😉

in Design Foundation / Typograhy  by Savina 0 comments

Analyzing Cameras Part 1

The past weeks we’ve dealt with product design (example chairs) and graphic design (example print media). This time we learned about the historical and technological development of cameras. As usual the students were overwhelmed with an enormous choice of objects to work with:

all cameras

This is how it looked like 🙂

In this first session we only discussed the history and development of the camera (and what this meant for photography). The professor introduced to us how the process of taking pictures technically changed starting with the camera obscura:

camera obscura

This is it: The camera obscura!

I’m not going to describe everything in detail since there is enough technical know-how on the Internet already! But here are some general points to sum up our findings:

  • cameras were initially invented in Europe and developed over time with some great additional inventions in the USA (Kodak, Polaroid) and Japan (Nikon)
  • new chemical processing methods emerged reducing camera size and prices making photography an everyday experience for many
  • analog cameras (including the camera obscura) are still perfectly able to take pictures (provided the mechanics are working and the chemicals and lab equipment are available) whereas digital technology is developing so fast that some cameras have become useless over a time period of  only one decade

Oh, and some spillovers paved the way for nowadays very popular 3D-effect in movies/photos:

stereoscope

Here is one of the earliest stereoscopes ever. The 3D-effect is nonetheless impressive!

Part 2 follows (and then it’s time for the exams for me!!!)

in Theory  by Savina 0 comments