Final Animation

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ue55tYbOu4Q

A Final Reflective Review

When this project started i was very unsure as what to chose to animate as 'The Everyday' is a very broad theme. The reason i chose to base this animation on the building i live in and the deterioration of the Brutalist building was because i remember the feeling i had when i first saw Rowley Way as i had never seen anything like this before. 

The fist thing one notices about the building is the sheer concrete, it almost hits you in the face. The building looks very out of place as it is surrounded by up market real estate so it stands out. Whilst researching the building i looked at some pictures of the building when it was built in the early 70's and the contrast to then and now is astonishing. The main component of change would be the change in colour as it has gone to a bright white to a concrete grey and this has made the building appear monolithic and primitive. 

I wanted to recreate this change that the building has undergone through my animation and to emphasise the aesthetic degradation of this building and of many other council estates.Part of my animation shows concrete creeping down the red brick path that runs the whole way down the estate ending at Abbey Road. I chose to depict this to show how a building like this can interestingly blend into its environment especially in the winter but still simultaneously hold a strange contrast to its environment.

The stairs feature heavily in the animation as to me they characterise Rowley Way as there are so many of them leading to all sorts of strange places around the building. I also wanted to show how the concrete   has slowly weathered on the steps which is reflected by the decline of a set of steps, like a representation.

Throughout this project i have come to understand about Brutalist architecture and the ideologies that the architects held. For me it has been insightful to understand the difference in building estate design and i see the building that i live in in a whole new light and i now have a strange appreciation for Brutalist architecture.

Final Sound Choice, Jrgen Plaetner

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXx_C4E1Ako

Jrgen Plaetner made electronic music from the 1960's. The link isn't the track that i am using for my animation as i couldn't find it but his work has a similar sound to it. As this music was made in the 60's and brutalist architecture occurred at this time i think that this is the right sound to use. I think that the track really reflects brutalism as it sounds solid like brutalist buildings are and it also sounds piercing and clunky which also reflects brutalism architecture.

Experiments

http://www.youtube.com/my_videos?feature=mhum

Here are some experiments which include the deterioration of parts of Rowley Way Estate in particular sets of stairs which are featured all over the estate and are a big characteristic of the building. I have used different techniques for mark making as i want to emphasise the discolouration the building has undergone.

Boards Of Canada, Whitewater. An animation/Film music video featuring brutalist architecture

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6p4HmyVr2Bo

The reference to birds in this animation is very significant, It is a film showing brutalism architecture and i feel that the flight and motion of a bird is the furthest think away from this. I think the makers of this animation are emphasising the brutishness of this style of architecture and the flying birds featured stress this further.

The ocean is featured in this animation contrasted against a brutalist building and i think this must be to force the issue of the artificial. Brutalist architecture is often deemed ugly and uninviting and the animators have played on this by using imagery of the open ocean and a whale swimming freely, the opposite to the inhabitants of the brutalist building maybe?

Laura Oldfield Ford, Drawing

http://departmentart.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2010/09/Slide3.jpg

http://www.loststeps.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/laura_aylesbury.jpg

http://www.blueprintmagazine.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/overgrown-tricorn-abandoned-design-for-e-and-c-shopping-centre-evading-the-gated-city-series-2008-acrylic-and-ballpoint-pen-on-watercolour-paper-297-x-425-cm.jpg

This artists explores social and economic themes within her work such as social housing regeneration and often depicts concrete estates. The estates and various other environments she draws are depicted very negatively and this is emphasised through using the medium of pencil as this can often give the effect of grubbiness.

The splashes of colour that are often featured on many of her drawings for me feel quite sickly and contrasting to the drawing. However i think that this is done intentionally and the colour is used to symbolise what these estates felt like when they were first built, bringing hope to the people who were to live there and a complete change of architecture that occurred in the 1950's onwards.

Manus Walsh, Painter

http://www.irishartpaintings.com/showInventory.asp?iId=4237&title=On%20Cerro%20Mariposa,%20Valparaiso&artist=Manus%20WALSH

I came across this artist and this particular painting caught my eye due to the atmosphere that the painting holds. The way in which the paint seems to slide off of the houses to me makes it seem quite melancholic and the girls walking up the middle of the painting in between the houses seems quite eerie to me. I think that this technique that the painter has used is very good for causing a negative atmosphere despite the bright-ish colours that have been used.