Sweepstakes

And here we have another completed addition to the Plastic Beach series, I present to you: Sweepstakes. After hearing all the various noises and sounds that are featured in the song, my mind created a sort of image that is created with several parts acting as one. This is much like the same logic used to create Some Kind Of Nature, multiple pieces acting together. I have thought to present this piece much like that of my Speech series, incorporating various layers, one over the other, to create a full image.

I also thought about the idea of a Sweepstakes acting sort of like an analogy for life and death, which is why I placed the skull in the middle. When we die, is it like our number has been drawn and we run on up to the front? Is death the ultimate prize we wait and wait to win in life or perhaps is there something after all that? Clearly you can imagine that my musings of life and the afterlife have heavily inspired this idea for Sweepstakes.

Unlike the other pieces, which have been graffiti/grunge, I decided to go with something a little more precise and cleaned up, although it carries that same chaotic theme with the repetition of numbers and lines. I've been told it resembles the designs of the 90's film, The Matrix, and I suppose they have a point. With the numbers, the greens, the transparent digital appeal. It's sort of odd that it turned out that way to be honest, I was thinking of doing this piece as an old stock ticker rather than an analog clock. Although I have to say I am happy that I chose the clock over the ticker.

Another influence for this piece is the concrete poetry of Ferdinand Kriwet, whose work I discovered in y Design Stories class last year. That is what inspired the circle of numbers floating out in the middle of the piece, a sort of rhythm and repetition that creatures the illusion of motion. I'll show you a sample of his work below:


This makes 5 out of 15 down! It's been a long way from March when I started all this but I'm finally a third done! Sweepstakes definately help break up some of the mental barriers in my head and I've concocted new ideas for the remainder of the series. I should be able to make at least one more piece for Plastic Beach by the end of the summer.

Some Kind Of Nature

The latest addition to the Plastic Beach Series, "Some Kind Of Nature". This was a fun one to do, but the idea was hard to grasp. There were a lot of ways to do this but I didn't want to make this play off the words too much by using a scene in nature (grass and trees) or personalities (happy, sad, etc.) which left me with using abstract imagery. Each different piece of the image incorporates a visualization of a different sound or beat used in the song. Everything save for Lou Reed's face that I repeated over and over. No, that's just show that this image is the song he guest-sang on for the album. Not the easiest thing to grasp from just looking at it, that's why I'm explaining it.

So, four out of fifteen out of the way, not too bad. Although ideas are getting harder and harder to come by for some reason. Hopefully my previous sketches can give me a hand of what to do next. On this note, I feel that I've run into a creative snag with everything I've been working on. Ugh. Here's for creative solutions in the future.