Updated project proposals SB2&3

Adele Pierce

STUDIO BRIEF 3 – PROJECT PROPOSAL: Printed Pictures

I intend to produce:

A series of etchings based on William Burroughs’ upbringing as a child. They will be formed from interesting facts found that I feel trigger his interesting personality and were the foundation to which drove him to the person he was.  I chose facts that weren’t immediately obvious about him. After experimenting with monoprint, I decided on etching as this best suited the aesthetic I was going for and my drawing style. It also allowed for me to add as much detail and tone as possible; ensuring enough time is spent on each piece.

This content will focus on (identify 3 specific themes, texts or concepts):

Themes of his childhood that seem out of the ordinary – for example having his first gun at the age of 8. Themes of struggle, selling his valued belongings for heroin. Themes of the bizarre such as cutting off his little finger and giving it to his psychiatrist – hints of mental illness. I did not want to base it on his writing because I feel that is too obvious and already been done. As printed images I feel they would work best being things that are unrecognizable about him to catch the audience’s attention and want to know more about who he was. When researching into his books I just wanted to know more about Burroughs as a person which this I feel conveys.

I will be aiming to communicate (identify 3 specific moods, ideas, messages):

I will be aiming to communicate images that seem playful but dark at the same time. I will be using a limited color palette of black with one block of red on each. I think etching will work well for this as a media because it will come across pretty dark. I still want to convey a bit of humor to my work and this will come through the characters I involve and the objects I choose to draw. For example, a playful scene of a toy box but a child holding out a gun instead. Or for a drug addiction of a young age, have him sniffing coca cola (something recognizable). I wish to convey his personality by drawing pretty crazy things that you would not expect to see in an etching.

To an audience of (name 3 characteristics):

I think this will be aimed at adults. If I was aiming my prints at drug addicts I would create either something really dark or something bright and wacky but for these prints I am hoping to just show a bit of background to Burroughs that aren’t apparent but equally important. I am not trying to persuade people not to take drugs, or tell a story. I think this is aimed to be quite light hearted and more informing an audience that your childhood can really affect the person you become and the route you wish to take. I wish to make people want to find out more about the inside of Burroughs’ mind because to me that is more interesting than his writing. The only downfall of this is that it may become too unrecognizable especially for those who have never heard of Burroughs, as I hadn’t until this project. However, I do feel it has a strong enough concept to suit a wide audience.

Adele Pierce

STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PROJECT PROPOSAL: Moving Pictures

I intend to produce:

An 30-60 second animation using Dragon Frame and After Effects advertising a documentary on the life of William Burroughs. It will highlight in particular heroin, showing the affect it has. This will stem from my research into the tangible and intangible themes of Burrough’s work.  This will be a combination of hand-generated images with digital collage of backgrounds. It will also include hand written text and sound overlays. The sound will be either a voice quote from Burroughs or music to suit the tone. That is yet to be decided.

This content will focus on (identify 3 specific themes, texts or concepts):

It will focus on the physical act of drug taking through heroin in a syringe going through our veins. Syringes, arms, veins and hands were motifs that I have explored vastly and so feel that I would be confident using these within my animation. As I want to show the effect drugs had on Burroughs, taking over his life, I want to show the heroin coming out of the veins and creating a pool in which there will be figures drowning. The drowning will symbolize getting caught up in drugs with no escape. The heroin running through the veins is something I explored in my hand drawn animation so this will be a continuation of that. In order to identify that it is a documentary, I will use text stating the time date and channel of the show. I will use quotations from Burroughs at the beginning to keep it linked to him. It will also include the motif of a centipede - a theme throughout his novel.

I will be aiming to communicate (identify 3 specific moods, ideas, messages):

I wish to convey quite a dark mood with this piece to contrast the printed pictures. As it is about drugs on a whole I think there are dark and light moments, highs and lows of drugs, which I wish to convey through color. I will use a limited color palette trying to keep to dull yellow, browns and black tones. I want there to be an over-arching shadow of darkness on everything though, which I will convey through the background. The idea is that drugs run through our veins, into our body then explode out and create a world in which we drown in – taking over.  I think this is quite a strong concept to explore for drug addiction because it is almost saying that drugs become us, we become the drugs and we become immersed in them as Burroughs did with his writing.

To an audience of (name 3 characteristics):

For this piece I think the documentary could possibly be aimed at drug users to show the effects of drugs. I think once again it will be aimed at adults, as it is a pretty serious subject matter not suitable for children. I think that this piece will be suitable for those who have never heard of Burroughs’ too because it is an open subject about addiction as a whole that people may relate to.

SB2 Peer review & progress tutorial

We had a crit of the work we've done so far for Moving Pictures and it was really helpful for me. I feel that I had a bit of a breakthrough in terms of my ideas and whether they were working or not. I got some really good feedback from my peers. They loved the visual experimentation I'd undertaken, but felt it needed to be blogged more. They were constructive in saying that perhaps my concept doesn't reflect Burroughs enough as a person, and more about heroin in general which is very true. However, I later had to explain to them that the concept would be shown through quotes I would use and the sound. They wouldn't have known this because I haven't blogged it which is a downfall. Sometimes I have really good ideas about where I want to take it but don't write it down on my blog or in my sketchbook so others may not understand where I wish to go with things. They said I could maybe do a tester of how my animation will look to get an idea of what it will look like and how long it will take. They also helped me to understand how else I could upload my videos to my blog as it wasn't working on vimeo for me previously. It was nice to see that another member of the group was also researching Burroughs and his take on things. I was quite jealous actually he had came up with a really good idea but nevertheless was nice to see how we both took a different spin on it, despite having very similar motifs originally.

Progress tutorial

See moving pictures blog for my plan of what I need to do next

Project proposal SB2&3

Adele Pierce
STUDIO BRIEF 3 – PROJECT PROPOSAL: Printed Pictures

I intend to produce:
A series of etchings/monoprints (media not decided yet) based on William Burroughs’ upbringing as a child. They will be formed from interesting facts found that I feel trigger his interesting personality and were the foundation to which drove him to the person he was.  I chose facts that weren’t immediately obvious about him.  I have not decided on the media yet as I wish to explore these further but from my drawing style I think etching may suit me best.

This content will focus on (identify 3 specific themes, texts or concepts):
Themes of his childhood that seem out of the ordinary – for example having his first gun at the age of 8. Themes of struggle, selling his valued belongings for heroin. Themes of the bizarre such as cutting off his little finger and giving it to his psychiatrist – hints of mental illness. I did not want to base it on his writing because I feel that is too obvious and already been done. As printed images I feel they would work best being things that are unrecognisable about him to catch the audience’s attention and want to know more about who he was. When researching into his books I just wanted to know more about Burroughs as a person which this I feel conveys.

I will be aiming to communicate (identify 3 specific moods, ideas, messages):
I will be aiming to communicate images that seem playful but dark at the same time. I think etching will work well for this as a media because it will come across pretty dark. I still want to convey a bit of humour to my work and this will come through the characters I involve and the objects I choose to draw. For example, a playful scene of a toy box but a child holding out a gun instead. Or for a drug addiction of a young age, have him sniffing coca cola. I want to show the craziness by drawing pretty crazy things that you would not expect to see in an etching.

To an audience of (name 3 characteristics):
I think the audience is difficult for this because it is based on his childhood but Burroughs has done things that we would never expect children to do or go through in their life. Therefore it is not aimed at children, and I certainly don’t want to influence them into thinking his behaviour was acceptable. I think this will be aimed at adults. If I was aiming my prints at drug addicts I would create either something really dark or something bright and wacky but for these prints I am hoping to just show a bit of background to Burroughs that aren’t apparent but equally important. I am not trying to persuade people not to take drugs, or tell a story. I think this is aimed to be quite light hearted and more informing an audience that your childhood can really affect the person you become and the route you wish to take. I wish to make people want to find out more about the inside of Burroughs’ mind because to me that is more interesting than his writing. The only downfall of this is that it may become too unrecognisable especially for those who have never heard of Burroughs as I hadn’t until this project.





Adele Pierce
STUDIO BRIEF 2 - PROJECT PROPOSAL: Moving Pictures

I intend to produce:
An animation using Dragon Frame and After Effects based on drug addiction through influence of Burroughs’ life and works. In particular heroin, and show the affect it has. This will stem from my research into the tangible and intangible themes of Burrough’s work.  This will be a combination of hand generated images with digital collage of backgrounds.

This content will focus on (identify 3 specific themes, texts or concepts):
It will focus on the physical act of drug taking through heroin in a syringe going through our veins. Syringes, arms, veins and hands were motifs that I have explored vastly and so feel that I would be confident using these within my animation. As I want to show the effect drugs have on us, I want to show the heroin coming out of the veins and creating a pool in which there will be figures drowning. The drowning will symbolise getting caught up in drugs with no escape. The heroin running through our veins is something I explored in my hand drawn animation so this will be a continuation of that.

I will be aiming to communicate (identify 3 specific moods, ideas, messages):

I wish to convey quite a dark mood with this piece to contrast the printed pictures. As it is about drugs on a whole I think there are dark and light moments, highs and lows of drugs which I wish to convey through colour. I want there to be an over-arching shadow of darkness on everything though which I will convey through the background. The idea is that drugs run through our veins, into our body then explode out and create a world in which we drown in – taking over.  I think this is quite a strong concept to explore for drug addiction because it is almost saying that drugs become us, we become the drugs and we become immersed in them as Burroughs did with his writing.

To an audience of (name 3 characteristics):

For this piece I think this could possibly be aimed at drug users to show the effects of drugs. It can also be a warning to those who have not experienced drugs to stay away. However, it will be a journey none the less of highs and lows, ending on a low. I think once again it will be aimed at adults as it is a pretty serious subject matter not suitable for children. I think that this piece will be suitable for those who have never heard of Burroughs’ because it is an open subject about addiction as a whole that people may relate to.