Day seven

Well today was a busy day to try and get everything done for my part D and some other work that needed doing. I was also meant to be interviewing an artist which I was looking forward to but Vicky told me she was busy and couldn't so I was pretty disappointed at first.

Vicky then showed me the work of a graffiti artist called Casper Carr. I was excited about the possibility of interviewing him and Vicky said she’d look into it. I was looking forward to meeting him.

In the morning I tried my best to get my blogs up to date, I finished the ones I hadn't done when I wasn't here. Then Vicky explained to me what I would be doing in my project assisting Richard and Chris.

After a while Richard and Chris came in so me and Billy went into the studio downstairs because there were too many people in the room for them to explain to just us properly.

Day eight

Day eight: Well today is going to be a busy day for us because we are visiting the Bank Street Gallery and helping out doing a bit of manual work there so we get an idea of other jobs that support galleries. We started out by finishing off things that we hadn't because we had a while before we left. Then Vicky told us we had a little competition to do today, to win two tickets for the showroom cinema. We had to take photos of 'Hidden' Sheffield. I thought it would be hard because we didn't have a lot of time to get to different parts of the city centre. As soon we left though I suddenly had loads of ideas in my head. Especially to do with the Peace Gardens. I managed to capture some good images.

I wondered around for a while to try and find some interesting things to capture or a new place to investigate but I couldn't really find anything that stood out to me. I walked back to the Peace Gardens where Vicky asked us to meet her. I found some of the group and we sat and had a chat whilst we waited. We all get on quite well. When Vicky arrived she said we had another half hour so we could all support with Bethan and josh’s projects. I had to play dead on the floor for Bethan which was a bit embarrassing in the middle of the Peace Gardens with a lot of people around. Everyone walking past was probably thinking 'what the hell?' but it was quite funny to do in a way.

We then walked through the centre of town to help Josh with his project, we met a very strange guy selling joke books. You could tell he was a bit of a joker himself. Vicky encouraged Josh to use him in his project and one of the group selected a card that would work for a good photo.

After taking a few more pictures we walked to Bank Street Gallery which seemed pretty weird from outside, more like a house. Inside though it was very cool and had a quirky set up. It was kind of surreal in the first main room with decorated deer heads on the walls by the exhibiting artist Susanna Gent. One of the deer heads was entirely covered in shells, this was my favorite.

She also had another room full of taxidermy. She skins dead animals herself and makes them part of other things, like a badger with a big glass bowl in its stomach. It’s normally the other way round she told us in the her talk. The most interesting part of the room was the video playing on the television. It was of Susanna skinning a fox whilst casually drinking a can of beer every now and again. I didn't like this much, I'm not a fan of the dead animal part but it was interesting to see.

Oh I almost forgot that we first went into one of the rooms at the front of the gallery to see a guy called Bryan Eccleshall. His work seemed pretty basic to me because he was just copying the work of postcards off the projector. It wasn't even his work it was other famous artists. It looked rushed so it wasn't very good but I liked the fact he kept asking us if he was cheating by copying it. He told us that it wasn't cheating because art isn't a sport which I understood but there is no point in copying art in my opinion, it is better to be original.

Part C

Check out my interview with urban artist Casper Carr

http://www.radiowaves.co.uk/story/151006/title/JessyBusgeethinterviewsgraffitiartistCasperCarr For my interview I will be interviewing a guy called Casper Carr, a graffiti artist that works with youths. The reason I chose him is because I like the urban art background and graffiti is one of the main arts that I'm really into. Also because I found most of his work interesting specially the work he has done locally for youths.

I first researched him on the web but couldn't find much so Vicky showed me his Facebook site and he had a link to his website called The Breakout Kids so I checked it out and looked at the type of graffiti that he and his crew does with the community. I also looked at what types of work they have done and will be doing and the people involved with them.

I found out a lot more than I thought I would because Casper's knowledge on the history of graffiti was really good because he didn't just know about this or the last generations history he knew about the whole background of graffiti but he also explained it with passion in a way that I could understand what he was on about which was really nice. I also found out more because his business partner Lee came with him and I took the opportunity to do a little interview with him too. He informed me on the ‘rules’ of graffiti, kind of like the etiquette, and what it’s like for a graffiti artist to have their work sprayed over by other graffiti artists. The thing that really interested me the most was the fact that they both really thrived off their work and the passion he has for working with youths and his background of being a b-boy.

Overall I think my confidence has got better because the interview went really well I managed to ask some good questions and I think that he enjoyed it because I like his type of work. In future I will be more confident from this experience.

Here are my questions and prepared…


This is Jessy Busgeeth interviewing artist Casper Carr as part of the Site Young Apprentice Scheme…..

How would you describe yourself as an artist and what type of things do you do?

And how did you interest in urban street art all start?

You’ve set up an organisation called ‘break out kids’. Can you tell me what it’s all about and why you set it up?

What do you enjoy about being creative with young people and what do you think creativity can offer young minds?

As part of your teaching work, you explain the history of graffiti and street art. Why is this important do you think?

How do you think the perception of graffiti has changed over the years and what are your thoughts about it?

What are you most proud of that your creativity has led to?

What’s been the most challenging or interesting piece of work you’ve painted and why?

what styles of art do you like, or if it’s easier, which don’t you like? 

In an ideal world, who would you like to commission you to do some work and where and what type of thing would it be?!

What advice do you have for young artists about doing something with their creativity?

Thanks for your time! 

Part B

Part B: Being an audience member

I went to the Millennium Gallery to see the Watercolours in Britain: Tradition and Beyond exhibition because I like the water colour art form. There was also work being displayed at the time by an artist I like, like Chris Ofili. When you first walk in it seems very dark because when you look at the paintings they are darker colours and about war and serious topics. I think the lighting it dark to stop the paint from fading maybe. As you walk in you see Chris Ofili's display on the right. There are five paintings of African women with bright clothing and jewellery. This stood out to me because it made me think about identity and it's importance to us individually and as a society. It was interesting also to see this work which is contemporary, with older pieces and the different themes.

It was quiet in the gallery so easy for me to be able to concentrate on the paintings. I saw that it was dark in one part of the gallery but then as you got into middle part everywhere was red even the walls to separate it from the other paintings. The second painting that I really liked was from an artist I had never heard of before, Edward Burra. The painting was called Soldiers A Rye. I found this painting interesting because it was surreal and you really think about what's happening. But you can't seem to figure it out so it makes you wonder more about it. I was standing there for quite a while trying to work it out with a confused face I realised :) I also liked one by William Blake (see picture). The William Blake who is also a poet and engraver which I didn't know before. His work is kind of spiritual looking and a bit spooky.

The layout of the gallery was separated into three different parts the first part was really dark and gloomy, the middle part was more red and bright it felt rich specially the layout of each paintings with gold boarders and the third bit was kind of simple to me just mixed with different types of paintings and like little table exhibits of watercolor paints, pens and like other equipments.

The things that I found bad was that the writings on the side were really small so couldn't read them whilst sitting down and the good things was that it was well set out and clear to understand the exhibition. Overall I really liked the first part of the gallery best because it was more my type of interest (contemporary) and the others were older and I guess harder for me to relate to. I've learnt about a few different artists and where they are from. The main thing I took from this exhibition is how varied and expressive watercolour painting can be. It also looks hard to create. I real skill.

Part D

For Part D I will be assisting an artist which is Richard Bolam to produce a time lapse film and learn how he does it and help him with setting out the cameras and other creative decisions. I'm also going to choose a piece of music that goes with the final work which I will put together. I chose this project because I'm into music production and film and I’m curious to see how they work together but using loads of photos as a starting point.
So will also be a good opportunity for me to be able to learn more skills and see a background of someone that works in that environment also to understand more about it. I want to be able to achieve a good short time lapse film that works with some background music.

We first went through the different stages on the camera that we would be using and Richard told us a little bit about what he wanted us to do and what we wants from the footage. He also told us about a software that is ‘open source’ which you can download and install into normal cameras like ‘hacking’ the cameras to do things that they weren't built to do. So I’ve learnt that you can hack cameras which I never knew was possible. Even though the weather wasn't great to get a good time lapse film I learn how to pick out small things to make the still compositions more interesting - such as getting shadows in corners or reflections when people, cars or other objects move. When we make the time lapse faster it will create good effects not just a dull boring scene. The main obstacle for me was that it wasn't really a good day for shooting (very dull) and not having the best view without zooming for the cameras.

Richard talked me through some ideas such as mixing parts of the videos together and getting bits and repeating them for example like the bus going round the corner over and over again which makes the video more interesting and he said that it would go with the type of music that I like, like fast tracks and stuff. He also spoke through the frames and made me see how the video would look like in 15 frames per second and 25 frames per second. I learnt TV has 24 frames a second and you can’t see them change!) I decide on more frames per second because it looked better. I was particularly interested to imagine how the grey clouds would move and appear to flow quickly through the air.

While we were putting the videos together, Richard told me about a video by pop music duo, Goodley and Crème, called the mondo video (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0AkaSfoQ92k ) which is a sequence of them making a track by filming different bits of them making a sounds. I liked their video as they’re really experimental. Richard also told me to watch some on the Chris Cunningham’s pop videos to get a few ideas off his stuff. We ended up watching some as a group and they were well crazy!

I really enjoyed today and learnt a great deal both learning to all the ideas and examples that Richard shared and in making my own decisions about the work we made. I now understand a lot more about image and film such as frames per second, composition, editing, sound tracking and how experiencing with how you bring these elements together can make for really interesting creative work.

NEWSFLASH: Here is our final project!

Day six

Day six: I visited the Yorkshire Art Space and had a tour around the artist studios by Rachel Dodd, she told us a bit about the studios and what types of artist are there and what they do. Also how much it costs for them to rent a studio.

We then visited the Emilie Taylor's ceramics exhibition and I found them quite interesting because they were different but had a personal meaning to what she drew on the pots and plates. This is contemporary pottery as the images depicted life now. Like tower blocks and their was ever lads in hoodies on one pot in her studio. She told us a little bit about her background and how she didn't know what to do when she left college and how she started experimenting with her art. She also showed us around her studio and showed us all the things she needed to make the pots. We checked out some of the work she was doing at the moment.

In the afternoon I started to plan out my Arts Awards part A and tried to type it up. I still need to think a bit more on this though. I researched Faunagraphics work (a female mural/graffiti artist) so that I could think of questions to ask the artist (Sarah) if I can interview her for part C of the Arts Award. Mostly about her background and work. After this I went out to the Millennium Gallery to visit a water-colour exhibition and write notes about it to share in a little review on my blog.

Part A

For the challenge I want to learn how to conduct a good interview, record it and edit it for a real online radio station. My challenge will be learning how to prepare for an interview and use an mp3 kit and mic and how to use the software audacity better for voice editing. Some day I hope to be a music producer and I think it’s really important understand all kinds of editing.

THE TASK:

Pretty early on Vicky talked us through what makes a good interview. I made notes and put this into practice when I interviewed graffiti artist Casper Carr. I've learnt that sounding engaged and eye contact and body language are important for getting the interviewee to open up. Asking 'open questions' questions that require more than yes or no answers are the best kind where possible and they usually start with the w's and how or if, like what, where, when, who.

Using the mp3 kit and mic was really easy. Vicky did a demonstration, then we practising by interviewing someone else we didn't know in our group. That was good for practising questions. And making sure we were at the right distance to record and getting used to being an interviewer.

From the experience I've had with audacity I have learnt how to cut out unnecessary spaces, for example when the interviewer asks a question and the other person stops to think or says 'erm' to make sound natural but more immediate. One trick is to take out am ‘uumm’ but to add some sound that is silent so there is still time taken before someone talks.

I’ve also found out that the program is free to download so in the future when I do some interviews or recorded stuff with my diploma group I could always use audacity to improve the quality of them. Plus you can put a number of tracks together and have different sounds on different layers. For example a tune on one track and an MC on another.

You can use audacity for anything really I would like to have a go using it for making backing tracks to go in a video or if I had to edit any types of recorded work that I have done, it can be use to mix two different tracks together like a mixer or it can be use to shred bits out of songs or tracks you can also change people’s voices so that if they don't like their voice in the in the interview you can speed it up a bit (sound younger) or slow a little (which sounds deeper and older!)

I feel really confident about this process now I've done it. If I had to do it again I think I'd jump at the chance. I'm really proud of the way my final interview sounds too. Check it out here:

Day four

ill and wasn't in :(

Day Three

Day three at the site gallery has been alright but today was more chilled out than the last two days. we started off by just finishing off our blogs and went straight on to how to use Photoshop and learn to edit the photographs that we had taken from yesterday in the studio. I found this good because I liked editing the photo's because as Vicky pointed out, it’s a really good skill to have and good for when I do things on my diploma and for the future.

After we did some research on what types of art we might like to choose for our projects and Vicky gave us a quick talk on the things we would have to do and what types of projects we could do, who to interview and where we'd be going to see different gallery's for the arts award we would be receiving when we left work experience.

in the afternoon Vicky tried to get us talking by making us research and finding out different types of ideas we could come up between us for our art projects and to be able to work together. Then I carried on researching artists and different types of photographer's that take picture of landscapes and iconic places. i've found today more chilled out and less to do which were good because we have done quite a bit for the past 3 days.
Posted by Jessy Busgeeth at 07:56 0 comments

Day two

Today is the second day of my work experience, the first day was pretty boring because it was a lot of talking for adults and just getting the hang of everything so I was alright with it but today we’ve started doing more ourselves writing our blogs then had been paired up to do some photography like, face portraits of each other which I found pretty good specially using actual photography equipments. The second part of the day we just worked around things and discussed what images we liked in some books and what the images were like how it made us feel. I learnt quite a bit about composition in photography and look forward to getting the chance to use my new skills.

After dinner a film maker and producer called Rob Speranza came in to tell us a little bit about what he does for example he started the South Yorkshire Film makers Network five years ago. It first started through him meeting a few people in a pub having a chat sharing ideas and creating little films and then more and more people started to get involved so then he soon realised this was what he wanted to do. He also went through his background and told us how he never gave up even after being rejected a fair few times he carried on and tried different things to achieve what he wanted to do.

In the afternoon we met Jeanine Griffiths the Deputy Director at the site gallery who co-curates exhibitions. She showed us around the gallery and told us a little bit about the artist and why they had done that particular layout of the exhibition. She had also talked us through what the artist did to the piece of art which were clips of random things happening like a car dragging a tree and two dogs watching. I found the work a little strange and different to what I as expecting because I didn't quite get how it was art but as Jeanine went through what the artist did it made more sense to me.

Richard Bolam came in after and talked us through his video's and what he likes to film as being an opportunist he likes to have a camera with him everywhere he goes in case he sees something thats interesting or he thinks he might use in future to make a video about something. He also told us what types of jobs he does and the different types of technology skills he has to be able to make good short films. After this I went out with a few others to try and capture good footage of different places in town (reflecting ‘the passing of time’) and take a few photo's.

Day one

For the first day at the site gallery we pretty much got to know everything and what we were about to do for the two weeks and information about the gallery and the people that work there also knowing a little bit about them and their job roles. Then we went on to visit the rooms in the gallery and introduce ourselves.

After we had a break and taking so much information in we had been paired up with a random person in the group to interview them, asking some questions that we came up with after Vicky gave us some training of how to do a good interest. It was a good way to get to know each other a little bit about them which were really good because after I felt like I knew the person I interviewed and it was a good experience.

In the afternoon Leslie Guy an artist Co-director of Bloc Artist Studios introduced herself to us and told us about her background and the subjects that she had studied and done at college and university also carrying on studying now. She gave us a quick brief on what contemporary art was about and how artist expressed themselves in the work they’ve produced, she also showed us some of the types of art that interested her and inspired her to do what she does.

An artist that she spoke to us about was John Stazeker, he combines a portrait and adds a picture on the faces to create a scene and he also collects images. The second artist that we had looked at was Susan Hiller she took very dramatic pictures of waves and bad weather in various places but she also collected story’s off people that thought UFO’s were contacting them through their TV’s.

The third artist was Micheal Borrmans he was a painter and his paintings were about people and what they did with their hands to create an illusion. The other artist that she presented to us was Chris Ofili a young black artist that expresses his feelings about racism and what he went through in his art work. Most of his art work is based on the black culture.

Leslie showed us some of her art work which I found very different, I didn’t like the fact that she drew over people that had died but it was her type of creativity, overall I found the first day good but there was too much to take in! :)