MAS110: SIGNS: ROAD RULES AND SAFETY/REBELLION

SIGNS: ROAD RULES AND SAFETY/REBELLION

Better a thousand times careful than once dead - Proverb

The discipline of aesthetics has tended, especially for the past century, to focus on encounters with the fine arts and, to a lesser extent, with nature. 
Signs act as a safety mechanism for drivers, in this case, in which rules and regulations are enforced by such simple inanimate objects. Signs act as a precaution by the state and throughout world as a way to make drivers and individuals obey limits and conduct. Without signs there would chaos on our streets as there would be nothing to follow or to rebel against. My sub theme being Road Rules, Safety and Rebellion shines through in this video as signs offer the choice to neglect and rebel from societal laws of conduct and driving. Signs also remind drivers to act responsibly. 
Rebellion is present in todays society amongst the roads and without obeying signs, an individual could be fined or worse, killed. Signs are a mundane subject but also show true aesthetic beauty, as shown in my video, as their colours differentiate and also act as a law enforcer to every individual and especially those on the road.

Jacob and Urban Decay

Theme: Urban structures

Sub theme: Decay

“I have always looked upon decay as being just as wonderful and rich an expression of life as growth.” – Henry Miller

In my photo essay, I sought to express the idea of everyday aesthetics in the subtle beauty of decaying buildings. The photos in my presentation attempt to shed light on just how close to new buildings these decaying, older structures are. 

It is easy to forget that the decrepit ruins of abandoned buildings we  see every day were once inhabited – In a way, all occupied buildings are future ruins. The beauty of the decay on these old buildings tells the history of the area and the people who once occupied them and preserves the memories and stories that once were.

The startling thing about all of these dwellings is that they are amazingly close to currently occupied buildings, the abandoned, graffiti’d factories in lower Brooklyn are less than 100 metres from apartment buildings in which people live.

In creating the photo montage, the main thing that I wanted to display is the effect that time has on these buildings. Through creating the montage it became pretty apparent just how many of these uninhabited buildings there are around the place and it strung a chord with me that these buildings were created by people, just as we write stories or create music. The melancholy of it all ties in well with the Bluegrass influenced acoustic song that I’ve embedded into the video – it too tells a transformative story and really resonates the needlessness of it all.

"Chain Smoke Days" by Mr. and Mrs. Smith is licensed under Attribution, Share-alike and Non-commercial Creative Commons licenses

<div xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" about="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Mr__Mrs_Smith/Porch_Recordins/Mr__Mrs_Smith_-_Porch_Recordins_-_04_ChainSmoke_Days_1564"><span property="dct:title">ChainSmoke Days</span> (<a rel="cc:attributionURL" property="cc:attributionName" href="http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Mr__Mrs_Smith/">Mr. & Mrs. Smith</a>) / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us/">CC BY-NC-SA 3.0</a></div>

 

Jacob and Daniel's Shapes

Behold!

                               http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X55jjBQetWM&feature=plcp

                               'Last runaway' frirst rebirth - 2009. Attribution, non commecial, share                     alike.http://soundcloud.com/first-rebirth/last-runaway

Daniel and Jacob have made a photo essay on /City Shapes - Shapes in Black and White'. As a theme we both thought it could be quite interesting to see our everyday landscape through different perspectives. As both of us live in urban parts of Sydney, we are acutely aware of the constantly changing landscape of the buildings, construction sites, and urban objects that we walk past everyday. By looking through the sight of a camera (or viewfinder) and by taking photos of these spaces and objects, We discoverd unique and beautiful shapes, forms and patterns we go past on a daily basis, but miss with the naked eye. We have chosen the sub-theme of black and white, which not only helps to show the relationship between negative space and light, but also offers great flexibility at the post production stage

MAS110 Photo Essay - Jacqueline Green and Claudia Werner

MAS110 Photo Essay: Lines and Signs (Transport)

Jacqueline Green (42870534) and Claudia Werner (42872944) LAB 15


Theme: Lines and Signs

Subtheme: Transport

Media convergence and the increasing social use of digital photography has caused a shift in the notion of everyday aesthetics. Amateur photography is extremely popular and involves the capturing and sharing of the moment that is more instant and less about those moments that are rare and special. With this idea in mind, our photo assessment is about capturing the beauty of lines and signs that in everyday life may be overlooked. With a sub-theme of transportation, the lines and signs featured near or on roads have an exquisiteness that could have be ignored. Objects and shapes as simple as lines and signs can be considered mundane and therefore not much attention is granted. This photo essay that we have created demonstrates within the sub-theme of transportation , the magnificence of straight lines and the symmetry it can create, as well as the colours and irregular shapes of the regulation signs.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oxL40F9XuqU&feature=plcp

Photo Essay - Thomas Meehan 42886384

Theme: Letterbox's
Sub-theme: Overcast

When questioning myself on what themes to choose for "Everyday Aesthetics",  I couldn't look past letterbox's as something that we all use everyday, and regardless of whether we live in a house or an apartment, we have one. We also tend to notice when somebody's letter box is unpleasant looking or when it is pleasing and beautified. I felt that letterbox's would offer a variety of different subjects to shoot and I could use that as my main theme. After choosing my theme, I was having trouble finding a sub-theme to my idea of letterbox's. . I then noticed that taking the photo's on an overcast day, just after it had rained, added a new element to the shot. The damp newspaper hanging out of boxes, or the rain adding that moisture to the moss that grew on others; the new perspective on letterbox's was interesting to capture. I made sure I was taking photos of a range of letterbox's, one's that were old and decaying, as well as new one's that were still aesthetically pleasing. This illustrated the affect of rain and the the overcast lighting on a variety of letterbox's when taking the photos. I thought the appropriately titled song, "Fancy Jacket Weather" also fit for its musical appropriateness. The sounds in the song can be likened to water dripping and the song can also be considered dull which compliments my overcast sub-theme.

"Fancy Jacket Weather" by Dj CUTMAN is licensed under a Creative Commons License

<div xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" xmlns:dct="http://purl.org/dc/terms/" about="http://soundcloud.com/djcutman/fancy-jacket-weather"><span property="dct:title">"Fancy Jacket Weather"</span> (<a rel="cc:attributionURL" property="cc:attributionName" href="http://soundcloud.com/djcutman">Dj CUTMAN</a>) / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/">CC BY-NC-SA 3.0</a></div>

Photo Essay: 'Everyday Aesthetics'

By   Daniel Hawkes - 42818702

                  &

        Daniel Bourke - 42852579

Theme           Dwellings
Sub-Theme   Decay

Music             "Mono Dry acoustic guitars Riff 1"
                         by ANTIQCOOL (2012) - Licensed under Creative Commons
                        Attribution Noncommercial (3.0)
<div xmlns:cc="http://creativecommons.org/ns#" about="urn:sha1:7FVX5IJGJFYLRC3PEA2HNZUWD42FH54M"><a rel="cc:attributionURL" property="cc:attributionName" href="http://ccmixter.org/files/ANTIQCOOL/39460"> ANTIQCOOL</a> / <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/">CC BY-NC 3.0</a></div>
                     

Rationale

In order to capture the essence of an ‘everyday aesthetic’ we decided to first brainstorm various everyday objects that people would commonly label according their external beauty. In the end the main theme we chose was ‘dwellings’; centering on the idea that a person’s home is frequently being judged according to its aesthetic beauty, not only by its owner, but all those who view it from the outside. We decided however to subvert this concept somewhat, focusing on the beauty that can be revealed through an external view of a dwelling that does not fit these standard public notions of attractiveness. We used the sub-theme of ‘decay’ to frame our photo essay in this way, ultimately ending up with 24 images of abandoned, derelict property’s that showcase an inherent sense of suburban decay. Viewing the cracked wooden walls of the houses, the rusted tin roofs and broken down doors it is obvious that these dwellings have not been considered somebody’s ‘home’ in quite some time. Whilst we all notice at some point or another run-down property’s such as the ones pictured in this essay, we never stop to think that at some stage somebody would have called these dilapidated dwellings their home. Adding a slow, acoustic soundtrack to accompany the photo’s finally gives the audience this chance to stop and reflect on such dwellings for once in their lives; focusing on the beauty of an everyday structure that is far from what society may perceive as ‘perfect’, and yet, perfect in its own right.

MAS110 Everyday Aesthetics Photo Essay - Blake Antrobus and Priyanka Kissondoyal

Blake Antrobus

42464080

Priyanka Kissondoyal
42840988

Theme: Urban Landscape
Sub-theme: Light and Shadow

Music: Exist Strategy (2012) 'Autumn Breeze'

http://snd.sc/W74Dp6

Everyday Aesthetics refers to the artistic aspects of daily lives that are more often than not ignored or go unnoticed. Murray (2008) mentions that this new concept is “dedicated to the exploration of the urban eye and its relation to decay, alienation, kitsch, and its ability to locate beauty in the mundane” (p.155). With this in mind, our photo essay is dedicated to exploring a new perspective on the ‘ordinary’ aspects of the urban landscape, exposing the beauty and architectural significance of modern Sydney. We chose to place an emphasis on light and shadow, showcasing the subtle touches throughout the city (primarily by slightly altering the saturation, contrast and highlight elements of each photo), however we additionally experimented with elements of colour and texture in the composition. Finally, the arrangement of the photos within the essay demonstrates the consistent exploration of our sub-theme; the essay progresses from showcasing heavier shadows and brighter touches of colours within the landscape to the darker, monochrome aspects of the city and urban area. 

References:

Murray, S (2008) Digital Images, Photo-Sharing, and Our Shifting Notions of Everyday Aesthetics. Journal of Visual Culture August 2008 vol. 7(2). 147-163.

Photo Essay - Dominique Essey & Mark Girling

Dominique Essey - 42855861
Mark Girling - 42601150


Theme: Doors
Sub-theme: Shadows

Enjoy!

Or click here to watch on YouTube.

RATIONALE

Our task was to create a photo essay involving the photos falling under the idea of “everyday aesthetics”. We decided our theme of choice would be doors because on any single day one has a high chance of entering/exiting a door without given thought about its looks or individuality. Society does not consider doors to be a thing of art, merely a dull necessity in our lives. Since doors are so common it also made sense for us as we could photograph many different ones, and after a short while we further noticed the variety of doors did not simply include your typical house doors but car, garage and elevator doors etc. The theme of shadows is also an everyday aesthetic because even more so than doors, shadows are overlooked and not likely to be noticed by the everyday person. Most shadows are created by a difference in lighting and it wasn't until we took our photos that we noticed how common shadows were.

Our photos were taking using the cameras on our mobile devices. All photos were taking in landscape to ensure we got photos with a 16:9 aspect ratio, and on the phones highest quality mode. When using iPhoto we mainly focused on fixing up the lighting and cropping of the image to make the door base parallel to base of the image. Drastic editing we believed would take away the idea of everyday aesthetics as the image would become unrealistic. Uploading the 24 images to iMovie we knew the time per photo would be small so we chose only to have transitions to and from title pages to allow more time to be spent on the pictures themselves. We picked music that was simple beat so it was concurrent with the idea of everyday aesthetics as it is just a plain repetitive beat.

    PHOTO ESSAY (Taaruk Raina & Tom Atkinson)
 

   Assessment 2 : Everyday Aesthetics
   Main Theme : Paths
   Sub Theme : Lights and Shadows

The photo essay is a combination of 24 images out of 48 taken by Taaruk and Tom of the 

mundane sights of pathways leading to a certain destination. On this journey roads, 

pathways, staircases and doorways were captured. The idea of paths is well illustrated in 

this series of pictures and the music was composed using garage band as it brings a little 

more excitement to the everyday aesthetics that people would usually look at while on 

their way to work or school etc. The light was also another sub theme enhanced using 

editorial tools on iphoto and also the natural light while taking the pictures.


                                                                                                                   

Photo Essay, Everyday Aesthetics

Assessment 2: Everyday Aesthetics

By: Nadine Roffaell (42911494) & Shady Saada (42098165)

Music By: CNoh433 "Air" http://snd.sc/OEbeb9

Theme: Sydney Bus Transport

Sub-Theme: Colour

Every day Aesthetic

Everyday Aesthetic Experiences occupy our every daily life almost constantly, but due to the fact that they are so common, as well as the fact they have such a mundane nature, we tend not to pay to much attention to them or notice them. The photo essay we have provided shows exactly this. Nearly everyone has been on a bus at least once in there life, so it would be easy to sub consciously ignore the Aesthetics in something so common. But by looking at the Photo Essay which we have put together the photos clearly portray the clear cut beauty of the bright colorful elements given in something as simple as a bus trip, The contrast between the bright Yellows, Blues and Reds along with the green foliage and blue skies of nature often portrayed in the background of a lot of the shots create a dizzying array of colourful clashes which form together to create an eye catching effect which emphasizes the true beauty of something so simple and everyday as a bus trip.