Some more ideas?

Working with paper?....Fold, Crease, Stencil, Cut, Crumple, Paste.

After seeing these works I was inspired by hand generated work such as by working with paper such as Origami or to create a collage, Stenciling or by creating something three dimensional and interactive like a book such as a Pop-up Book or package. I suppose I could explore "New direction" in this way, Experiment with drawing different arrow shapes and play with concept of how a book is interacted with. It will be important that the objects I create will communicate the message effectively. Initially, I like the idea of working with paper by manipulating it with folds and cutting into it to create objects which could then be arranged and photographed to form the final image. As some of the images I found were inspired by nature and the environment I feel this could be an area for development. However, I really need to define my concept and present the idea more clearly. As one of the keywords is "Caring for the environment" I thought of using recycled paper to create my object by photocopying onto the paper to provide some detail, or made by materials that are biodegradable? Still not sure though. Maybe produce a landscape scene? or create a scene where the objects inside can move. I could look at endangered species? However, I would like to work with flower designs, Creating a selection of flowers? Maybe by tracing the growth of a flower from seed to Bloom? I think the concept of growth is optimistic which could represent Orange as a developing company which envelops its customers in a positive way. Stenciling and working with light and shadow? I like the idea of studying the Chinese Lantern, A symbol of Hope and Optimism. I could also create a hanging mobile to display them? I think working with the colour's of Orange, Black and Grey will help communicate this idea more effectively. I also like the idea of incorporating pattern, Maybe by drawing onto them with my own designs?

I still feel that these ideas are still just preliminary and may change, I still feel they could be developed further or too even explore another idea completely.

In The Library.







"New Direction"?

Whilst in the library I came across some images representing the different ways arrows and scribbles seemed to illustrate the concept of a "New Direction" through either a photographic collection of signposts and arrows or by creating new arrow forms by using a range of materials such as Collage, Photography, Charcoal or in Three dimensional form's such as a book. I found that each image represented a simplistic yet detailed approach according to how visually an arrow can change our own sense of direction.

Some Ideas.....

I took some pictures whilst out and about which could help develop my ideas. The great thing was that most of the thing's I saw where orange! However, I feel that I need to start to define what keyword I wish to pursue so that I can start to experiment by using some of the influences I have seen which have inspired me. I still feel that I need to simplify the approach and think about what it is I am really trying communicate in the most effective way. After seeing the stencil image I really like the idea of working with paper....Folding, Cutting, Stenciling and Creasing etc and then creating effects with light and shadow. I like the idea of creating and using something that was primarily ordinary, disregarded and mundane such as a piece of paper or found object and turn it into something visually and aesthetically pleasing to the eye, In order "To see it in a new way, a new light".

I love this Orange Advert...

The Orange Store.






I decided to visit an Orange store to see how they use their current promotional campaigns as an influence to design the interior of each store. In doing so, I thought this would provide a better understanding of how Orange communicate to their customers.

Wolff Olins For Orange.

About Wolff Olins:

After searching the net for some info on Orange as a company I came across Wolff Olins which I thought may help in defining the ideas behind how Orange is promoted as a brand. Orange enlisted the influential brand consultancy Wolff Olins for help in producing a brand identity, name and visual style that would create high awareness … and attract customers. After finding this on the net, I thought it would be interesting to research into this further as it may provide details behind the design principles of Orange as a unique and successful brand which I may apply to my own work.

Facts:

• Wolff Olins provided research, devised the brand’s strategy, and developed the name and visual identity of Orange.

• The aim was to reinforce the values of the new brand through a distinctive visual style. Orange communications are almost entirely white, black and orange.

• Colour was used simply and confidently, complemented by simple language, short sentences and an easy to read typeface. Words spelt out the customer benefit rather than the technical specification of a product.

• Wolf Ollins developed a style of short sentences, simple language and two easy-to-read typefaces.

• Wolf Ollins also created the Orange web site and In 1996 the site won the New Media Age Award for best use of new media in consumer products; and the British Interactive Multimedia Association Award for best corporate web site.

• Orange won the Marketing Award for best design in retail marketing for the Orange shops.( It might be interesting to visit one of the Orange Stores to see how the interior is designed around Orange's current promotional campaigns).

• After designing most of the packaging of tier products Wolf Olins encouraged this theme to be reflected throughout the interiors of most Orange store's.

‘Orange is an outstanding example of the launch of a brand using all the design elements strategically to take it from a standing start to a dramatic level of performance’.

It seems that a key concept of Orange's promotional campaigns is that they are are direct and effective by using simple language to communicate their message even though at times promtional work can be visually intricate and highly detailed.

Orange Research.


Brief Thoughts:

I am pleased at how the brief encourages an experimental approach. To begin with I'm going to research and brainstorm some ideas which may have some potential to be developed further.

Keywords and Concepts:

Here are the one's I am initially interested in researching:

• Fast
• New Direction
• Bigger Networks
• Your Group
• Books

These are the keywords/concepts from the brief that I am the most interested in choosing as a basis for researching and developing into some initial ideas. So I think the the best way would be to research into each idea and see what happens. As a starting point, I'm going to search the net as I would like to find examples of how Orange have been promoted as a network which in-turn could provide me with some visuals as too how to develop and apply it to my own work. I'm really interested in some of their advertisements on film where each campaign communicates a clearly defined message. It will also be interesting to discover how each campaign has been designed around promoting Orange as an "optimistic" mobile network.


Orange Facts:

Here are some fact's on Orange I found on the orange website:

• Orange is the billion dollar brand that re-wrote the rulebook, disadvantaged its competitors and is worth double its nearest rival.

• Orange offer seamless network reach in 220 countries and territories, with service support in 166.
  

• Orange has 1 million mobile business customers and 8 million end users.

• Orange is a truly global brand. It has licensed itself in Belgium, Switzerland, Israel, India, Hong Kong and Australia and plans to be in 50 countries worldwide by 2005.
  
  
• The Orange brand was built on being the customer champion and has challenged convention with its distinctive customer approach since 1994. Its renowned for it's quality customer services.
  

• The Orange brand wanted to be distinctive in providing its services against other mobile networks.

• Orange believe clarity comes from simplicity.

"We feel that we are people communicating with other people.
We are always direct and easy to understand".

• Orange expresses all the qualities of the brand: Warmth, Friendliness, Energy and Optimism.

Final Idea : How Did "The Eroica" Symphony No 5 Make You Feel?

Ok, So today I started to interview people about what emotions they felt after they listened to Eroica Symphony by Beethoven. My aim was to interview as many people as possible so that I could obtain a variety of responses that I could then record by eithar filming them or by taking some pics. I was able to get about twenty poeple to take part.....and even that turned out to be a bit of a mission. Some people just weren't interested as they thought I was trying to sell a product....or too get them to sign up to a charity or something ! However, Those that were willing were really co-operative and friendly. After moving about from place to place I decided that the best place was probably going to be around Soho/Covent Garden and the galleries. I just think people have more time for each other around there as lots of tourists often stop to watch the Public performances and to take a break etc. After finding someone that would take part I got them to listen to the Symphony. I then asked them to explain how they felt whilst listening to the track which I filmed. If they had some more time to spare afterwards, I asked them if they could choose one emotion to write down whilst I took a photo. I found the different responses really interesting as each person had something different to say. It also seemed that what they wrote and how they wrote it represented something about them. I think this clearly illustrates that people feeling's vary when they listen to Music. So what's up next?......Editing down the photo's and film clips by choosing which ones are the best for the presentation.

Here is the link to the "Eroica" Symphony No5:

"The Eroica", Symphony No5

Here is the link to a picture slideshow:

My Picture Slideshow

Here is the link some film clip's:

Movie_01.mov
Movie_02.html
Movie_03.html

Deconstructing the Moonlight Sonata On Garageband:

After viewing Rebbeca Horns sculpture " Concert For Anarchy" I was inspired by the way in which such an iconic instrument such as the Grand Piano can be deconstructed to an extent where its contextual meaning can be viewed in different ways. As Beethoven constructed many of his most famous on a Grand Piano I started to wonder if there was a way in which to deconstruct one of Beethoven's symphony to an extent whereby it could be appretiated in other ways. Beethoven had a unique method in composing many of his works by writing and constructing a composition for each instrument in seperate layes.....It would be interesting to see if this works out.

After searching the net for MIDI soundfile's I decided to choose to deconstruct the Moonlight Sonanta. This is one of Beethoven's most famous and emotionally driven pieces of work. I was inspired by the way in which Beethoven composed music in layers and wanted to represent this more evidently. So here's a screenshot taken when I was working in Garageband by seperating each layer individually which I woud then save and export as an MP3 file format. I had to originally work with MIDI files which is a shame for such a complex piece of music as the soundfiles aren't great for quality in comparison to MP3 files.

So here are the links to the finished files: There is one file of the original version and the others are the deconstructed layers.

Moonlight Sonata 01.mp3
Moonlight Sonata 02.mp3
Moonlight Sonata 03.mp3
Moonlight Sonata 04.mp3

Some Initial Outcome Ideas:

Ive started to become interested in the way in which Beethoven evoked a sense of emotion through his writing and the delivery of his performances. I find it interesting how poeple are emotionally affected by Beethoven's symphony's in different ways. Beethoven's intention was to interact and evoke the emotional senses of his audience during a performance.

After conducting my Research on Beethovens life I found out that during the Premiere of the Eroica Beethoven's his deafness was so bad that it resulted in him not being able to hear the applause of his own audience. As his disability worsened the only way poeple could communicate with the composer was by writing thing's down. I think it might be interesting to take this concept further and look into ways of representing music and how an audience feels about the music they are listening too in visual term's.

As music communicates different messages and emotions to different people I think it is will be important to interact with the audience by going outside and interviewing as many people as poss. I might be interesting to play them the Eroica Symphony by recording how people feel about the music today.

Beethoven and his Power to Evoke Emotion:

A picture showing Beethoven's audience felt different emotions whilst listening to him play one of his many Piano Cincerto's .

An Interesting Article:

Professor Robert Greenberg Writes:

"Beethoven possessed a unique gift for communication. He radiated an absolute directness that makes his music totally accessible. The sheer emotional power of his music is readily understood. His revolutionary compositional ideas are easily appreciated and his nine symphonies are among the greatest achievements of the human spirit. They were revolutionary on every level: harmonic, melodic, rhythmic, formal, dramatic, self-expressive, and emotional. Beethoven led the charge to a totally new era. He threw out the restraint of 18th-century classicism and ushered in romantic self-expression. His symphonic offspring were the first statesmen of this new, musical democracy."

I also came across some Beethoven quote's:

"My heart is full of many things.....There are moments when I feel that speech is nothing after all"

" I wish you music to help with the burdens life, and to help you release your happiness to others"

" I have thought of writing for reputation and honor. What I have in my heart must come out: That is the reason why I compose"

The Dictionary Meaning of Emotion:

• An affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive and volitional states of consciousness.

• Any of the feelings of joy, sorrow, fear, hate, love, etc.

• Any strong agitation of the feelings actuated by experiencing love, hate, fear, etc., and usually accompanied by certain physiological changes, as increased heartbeat or respiration, and often overt manifestation, as crying or shaking.

• An instance of this.

• Something that causes such a reaction: The powerful emotion of a great symphony.

Beethoven and the 21st Century: Download Sales.

I came across an article on the net relating to the internet download sales of Beethoven's music which were recorded after the BBC played all of his complete symphonies during Beethoven week in June. The final figures realised by the BBC show that the complete Beethoven symphonies were downloaded from the website 1.4m times, with individual works downloaded between 89,000 and 220,000 times. After coming across this article I started to become interested in the ways in which Beethoven formed a direct relationship between his audience and the music he composed. This maybe an interesting area to research and develop ? When studying the statistics it is clear that Beethoven's music still remains popular indicating that his music has become a set of timeless masterpieces which still connect and communicate to different people in different ways. It would be interesting to investigate these stats further by collecting some primary research maybe through eithar a questionnaire or a set of interviews, It might even require finding out whether poeple still recognise his music when it is played to them and then filming thier answers or reactions, All I know is that it requires going out and interacting with the public......Im not sure quite how Im going to develop this just yet.

Here are the stats based on Beethoven's download sales.....Im suprised to find the Eroica (Symphony No 3) is in at No 8 considering this was one of his most recognisable work's, Its wasn't all that popular at the time of it's premiere but deos these stats prove that it seems to remain that way even today? :

Symphony No 7

185,718

Symphony No 1

164,662

Symphony No 9 (Choral)

157,822

Symphony No 2

154,496

Symphony No 8

148,553

Symphony No 5

139,905

Symphony No 4

108,958

Symphony No 3 (Eroica)

89,318

Total

1,369,893

Weblinks:

Here are some weblinks I found really useful throughout
my research into Beethoven, I will definately use these links for future referencing:

www.beethovenshair.ca
www.lvbeethoven.com
www.raptusassociation.org
www.beethoven-haus-bonn.de
www.madaboutbeethoven.com
www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/beethoven

Rebecca Horn's Concert For Anarchy, 1990:

Concert For Anarchy, 1990.

Painted wood, metal and electronic components
sculpture.

After visiting the Tate Modern I discovered this scultpture by Rebbecca Horn called "Concert For Anarchy". The Sculpture has a mechanism within the piano which is timed to go off every two to three minutes, thrusting the keys out of the keyboard in a cacophonous shudder. The keys, ordinarily the point of tactile contact with the instrument, fan disarmingly out into space. At the same time, the piano’s lid falls open to reveal the instrument’s harp-like interior, the strings reverberating at random. This unexpected, violent act is followed between one and two minutes later by a retraction as the lid closes and the keys slide back into place, tunelessly creaking as they go.

More on Beethoven's Loss of Hearing :


After researching into the loss of Beethoven's hearing I came across a number of quotes taken from Beethoven's letter's in which he described his own most inner thoughts and feelings relating to his developing illness. It is these letters which provide an insight into the area of his life that affected the work of the young composer the most. As his hearing loss progressively got worse as he aged he could no longer hear the audience's reception and thier applause at the premiere of some of his most famous work's such as at the opening of the Eroica (Symphony No3).

Beethoven expressed how he felt about the loss of his hearing in many of his letter's.

I found out that he often kept conversation books in which visitors would communicate thier thoughts through writing. Beethoven wanted to communicate his inner most feelings to his audience by expressing them through his compositions whereby his music became an outlet of his own emotions.

An extract taken from a letter that Ludwig van Beethoven sent his brothers Carl and Johann Beethoven, expressing his feelings about his experiences with his hearing loss.

• "If at times I tried to forget all this, oh how harshly was I flung back by the doubly sad experience of my bad hearing. Yet it was impossible for me to say to people, "Speak louder, shout, for I am deaf." Ah, how could I possibly admit an infirmity in the one sense which ought to be more perfect in me than others, a sense which I once possessed in the highest perfection, a perfection such as few in my profession enjoy or ever have enjoyed."

It is claimed that Beethoven suffered from tinnitus, In a letter he wrote in 1801 he complained:

• "My ears whistle and buzz continually, day and night...such a condition is trulyfrightful."

On June 29, 1801, he writes about the loss of his hearing to Dr. Franz Wegeler in Bonn:

• "My hearing has grown steadily worse for three years...I was often in despair. To give you some idea of my extraordinary deafness, I must tell you that in the the theater I am obliged to lean up close against the orchestra in order to understand the actors, and when a little way off I hear none of the high notes...Frequently,I can hear the sounds of a low conversation, but cannot make out the words" .

The Journey of Beethoven's Hair (In Brief):

A picture of Beethoven on his Deathbed. Many people paid the composer a last honour, when he was laid out in state - they took a lock of his hair as a souvenir. Afterwards, Beethoven's head was completely bald!!!

During this time Ferdinand Hillier snipped a lock of Beethovens hair as a keepsake which was treasured as a Hillier relic in Vienna for more than a century. The lock was then given to Danish doctor Kay Alexander Fremming who kept it throughout the war. When Fremming died, his daughter sent the lock of hair to Sotherby's for auction in 1994. It was then sent to America for Forensic Testing. It was discovered that Beethoven quite possibly died of lead poisoning due to the high lead content that the hair contained although this hasn't officially been proven.

The original lock of hair sold at auction seen here before its refurbishment in 1971.

Only several other locks of hair remain in the world. There are two locks of hair
on display in the Beethoven-Haus together with a certificate of authentication from the Viennese art expert Anton Gräffer.

Forensic Testing: An Examination taken from sample's of Beethoven hair revealed he may have died from lead poisoning.

Here are link's to some of Beethoven's most famous work's:

"The Eroica" Symphony No 5
"The FurElise"

Beethoven as a Composer: