Core studies week 1

Critical studies, the morning part of the day, was about semiotics - signifiers and signified, that sort of thing. The exercise of drawing what "home" meant to us produced new signs in response to signifiers - It can be about the feelings of comfort and warmth that are triggered; about pets, family, meals; about a particular space or an individual experience (tea & biscuits); a cultural understanding (the "stereotypical" picture); or even a map ("this country is home to me").

Some important words are iconic (it looks like what it represents); indexical (bears a visual relationship to the thing it represents) and symbolic (the relationship has to be learnt). Also paradigm (a set of related signs) and syntagm (a message made up of chosen signs).

We looked closely at two artworks - Anselm Kiefer's Jericho, shown at the Royal Academy
and Bombers by Gilbert & George, which was in their show at the Tate
Out into the world at lunchtime, to see this bit of deconstruction at the end of the street -
Here's the bigger picture -
Coming across this little scenario (a syntagm?) immediately afterward made me suspect the art installers have been very busy along Southampton Row -
In the afternoon, a demonstration of getting a balance of colours -
and then we painted lots of squares made up of lots of squares - top row, balance; 2nd row, contrast (tone, temperature, hue, etc); 3rd row was supposed to be harmony but the 4th row is more harmonious, so I'm calling the 3rd row "discord" -
Not sure where that is going ... let's check the info sheet - "to introduce the concept of using colour constructively" is the rationale. The assessment criteria, which I must admit have slipped past unnoticed till now, include this:

To take into account and demonstrate the use of the following concepts:
-composition: positioning, arrangement, placement of coloured squares (horizontal/vertical/diagonal)
-proportion: the amount of a particular colour in relation to others (particularly important in the first exercise, Balance)
- movement and rhythm; see Mondrian
- pattern; see Bridget Riley

OK let's have a look at Mondrian -and Bridget Riley (from this interesting site) -Next week: contexts and modes of display in the morning, more colour in the afternoon.