My Panel Two Layout

During class, we were given a form to fill out for the planning of our panel two board. First, I drew a rough plan of my layout so I could see how many series of work I am doing and also the whole view of what my panel two would look like relating to my kaupapa (mental health)  and how it will be done.

This panel board, it portrays the coping part of having mental health by using different angles to show different perspectives of each set.

How many series of works are you planning?

- I am planning to put five (5) series of works for panel two.

What can you tell me about how they extend upon your kaupapa?

- The series of work that I planned would give different perspectives of coping or dealing with mental health.

How?

- By shooting different angles or have a similar set of a specific photo.

What links can you tell me you are making to your artist models?

- Most of the photographs that I will be taking would have a voyeurism construct.

- Also some of it will be inspired by cinematography artists and their films.

What are your next steps?

- Shoot and edit photos for my panel one board.

- Plan my panel three board.

Subject Matter and Kaupapa

In Art, the subject matter and kaupapa are an important foundation to start creating amazing artwork. A subject matter is what you see in the artwork (objects, incidents, people, or places) whereas a kaupapa (theme) is the content and meaning of the artwork. Artists make their artwork by expressing their kaupapa (theme) through subject matter.

In class, we were given a google slide with the artworks below. We were tasked to answer the questions written on the slides with the artworks. This is a good practice to enhance our knowledge about subject matter and kaupapa in art.

The artworks above express different themes of how they are represented and explained by the artwork itself. Referring to these subject matter that expresses a meaning, the term denotation and connotation are used. It is a figure of speech where a word has both. Denotation gives the exact meaning of a word while connotation gives the word's emotional meaning. 

Series and Sequences

We were given a printed folio and were asked to find the series of photographs that sequence together.

I think that this folio was inspired by how suffocating this world is. It portrays the harmful effects of the use of plastic on the environment and the people. 

This series of photographs, helped me understand what series really is in the field of art and how it leads into a sequence of work. It gave me an idea of how to connect each photograph by mixing the raw and edited pieces to create a story. Also, in reality, it gave me an awareness of the effects of the use of plastics.

3.1 Mood board (Cityscape/Urban world)

 Mood board

The photo above is a mood board. It is like a student guide of what their artwork would be like and it is for students to get ideas from.

To start off with L3Art Photography, we were to decide on a theme, choose at least an artist from each section (Traditional, Contemporary, Aotearoa) of the matrix given, and collect an example of their work related to our theme. 

The theme I decided to work on was cityscape/urban world and the artists I chose were Walker Evans, William Eggleston, David Hockney, Duane Michals, Larry Sultan, and Ans Westra.

My Very Important Presentation

For NCEA Level One, students who took ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages) are required to do the presentation assessment. As I am one of the students who took the subject, I had to do it.

At the start of Term 3, we students were given the overview of the assessment. Before the presentation weeks, we were given the chance to learn and practice on how our presentation should look like. We learned some presentation skills and practiced several times. We did this for four weeks to improve our confidence in speaking in front of a group of people. After the senior assessment week, I decided to present on Friday, the 6th of September.

My presentation was about my best friends. I presented in front of the teacher and some of my classmates, who are also my friends. I chose to present in front of them rather than in front of the whole class because I was too nervous. Even though I practised and memorised my presentation, I still had the nervous feeling inside me. Among all the presentation that I have done, this was the first since I came here, that is why I felt nervous. However, I felt proud of myself knowing that I somehow overcome presenting by myself. Despite my nervousness, I stood in front and presented my best friends and their importance to me. 

The South Island Robin

For my research, I needed to find out some facts or information about the South Island Robin. To organise my research, I made a list of K - What I already know, W - What I want to know, and L - What I have learnt.

What I already know:

• It is a small bird with white patch on its chest.
• It is only found in New Zealand.

What I want to know:

• What they eat
• When they breed
• What they look like
• How small/big they are
• What behaviour they have
• Where they live (particular place)
• What conservation and threats they have

What I have learned: (Information from this websites: NZBirdsOnline and RareSpecies)

What they eat

• They are insectivorous and they eat invertebrates when drought.
• They also eat ripe fruit in summer and autumn.

When they breed

• They start nesting in July, with the last clutches laid in December.
• Only 2-4 eggs are incubated.
• Nestlings leave the nest about 3 weeks old.

What they look like

• Light grey to dark grey with a white patch on its lower chest area. 
• They have long, thin legs.

How small/big they are

• They are 10-18cm in length and they weigh about 35g.

What behaviour they have

• Male robins are territorial year-round, although their aggression towards intruders is subdued during the moult. Pairs remain in their territories most of the time, occasionally sneaking elsewhere to feed, drink or bathe. Males dominate their mates during the non-breeding season, such that pair members are occasionally found apart.
• Robins use a variety of activities to flush hidden or camouflaged prey, such as foot trembling, wing-flicking and tail-flicking. 
• Other activities of South Island robins include anting, sunbathing and pellet casting.

Where they live (particular place)

• They are found in the South Island and Stewart Islands.
• They live in a mature forest, scrub, and exotic plantation.

What conservation and threats they have

• While forest clearance for farmland during the 19th and 20th centuries resulted in loss of habitat for the South Island robin, today the main threat to its conservation is predation by introduced mammalian predators, such as feral cats, stoats, possums and ship rats. Eggs, nestlings and adult females (which carry out all incubation and brooding of young) are frequently taken during the breeding season where predators are not controlled. As a result populations become male biased. Where pest control is carried out, populations increase rapidly, and the sex ratio returns to almost 1:1 within a few years – there are usually a few more males than females.  

My experience of researching the topic 'South Island Robin' became exciting yet challenging at the same time. South Island Robin was an unfamiliar subject or topic for me. I had a vague knowledge about it because I heard it before. What I found the most challenging aspect of my research was the similarity of information that different websites had. I did not know which was the reliable or unreliable website I need to look out for. 

I had 6 questions that can widen my knowledge about researching. 

1. Why do you think some of these websites introduce/recommend other websites that are similar to their topic?
2. Where did they get their information from? Was it their own investigation or they got the original information from other websites?
3. Why do different sites have the same topic but reported it in different ways?
4. Which part of their report or investigation showed contrast?
5. What does some of the websites mean by ‘references’?
6. How are these sites contrasting each other?

Understanding Features of Publishers (C.R.A.S.P)

Understanding Contrast
In its simplest from, contrast means making things different. This could include:

• Using small and large fonts.
• Using colors from opposite sides of the color wheel.
• Having dark colored text on a light colored background and light colored text on a dark colored background.
• Dark and light colors include black and white.

Understanding Repetition

There are two types of repetition:

• The first is repeating the same word a number of time "Sale Sale Sale" uses repetition to get the message across. In this case that there is a sale on.
• The second repetition is the same as consistency. If you choose a particular font/size/color for a heading or body text you should stick to it.

Understanding Alignment

• Alignment is a big word that basically means make sure things line up. None of the examples we have done so far have had any sort of alignment needed.
• Alignment is needed when you have blocks of images or text. It also means not mixing left, right. center and justified alignment when blocks are close to each other. 

A few tricks you can use to help with alignment include:

• Using the arrow keys to move objects around one pixel at a time.
• Increasing or reducing the size of the space between words to help get the size to match.
• Using separate text boxes for each block of text and making use of the alignment options.
• To get more precise font size types in the font size such as 10.5.

Understanding Similarity and Proximity

Similarity when things look similar - but they are not necessary similar at all.

Proximity is another word for close. It just means keeping things that are similar/related close to each other.

• You should not put half of a person's address at the top of a document and the other half at the bottom.