ANIMATION

 As I discussed earlier in the blog and at length in my essay, cinema is of course a fantastic way of creating fictional space not solely through miniatures though, also due to the fact that as you watch a film, no matter how bizarre/impossible the environment it is set in, you still buy into it's location because of the actors on screen interacting with it. This caused me to ask myself if it would be possible to create a print with non static elements in it to further the level of belief I could gain from a constructed space.

 This was not so much something I had researched in my essay, instead it was more of an experiment, I felt like going of track to suit a bit of a whim and the result was actually very promising. The main concern I had going in was that I would not be able to properly use my usual process of photo-engraving to create frames efficiently. However, I think it could work.

 Unfortunately, Blogger does not support the file so I can't upload it here, it is over on my instagram, @Kitchen.Porter.Press. 

 MY ATTEMPTS AT SOMETHING SIMILAR

Waka Poem 2

Print no. 2 in a series of three. Forgive the black block like marks on this image and the last one, they are only registration marks for me when I'm actually printing these as these are only the digital mock ups.

"Like a mariner / Sailing over Yuras strait / With his rudder gone:

Where, over the deep of love / The end lies, I do not know."

- Sone no Yoshitada, 950-1000 AD

 

 MY ATTEMPTS AT SOMETHING SIMILAR

Waka Poem 1

I set to work making prints that tried to visually describe several Waka poems of my choice for a first step toward creating practical work that creates believable space. 

"It is for your sake / That I walk the fields in Spring / Gathering green herbs,

While my garments hanging sleeves / Are speckled with falling snow."

- Emperor Koko, 830-887 AD

 UKIYO-E AND THE EARLY EASTERN SENSE OF SPACE

I described images such as these at length in my essay, so will keep this description brief by only saying that it was classic of early Ukiyo-e and 'Sansui' brush paintings, as the last image is (also what Ukiyo-e developed from), to show an expanse of land and give a real feel for the space described by usually showing a foreground and linking that to a distant background, without much if any attention given to the middle plane.

 ESSAY RESEARCH AND SOURCES

I thought to look into Eastern perspective first as I was previously aware that Linear Perspective had been brought to them quite late. I discovered that in Japan perspective and depth had been brought to the visual arts, through literary tradition, from 'Waka' poetry. This source of descriptive short-form poetry allowed Japanese artists of the time to clearly envision the scene described by the poets and so led to the creation of the first Japanese woodblock prints that are now commonly known as Ukiyo-e.

 From There, I looked at why this sense of space faded in the East and began changing to the more scientific but less descriptive western perspective as Japan moved ebbed to the 1900's. This, I found, was largely due to the open trade of photographic images and therefore a growing interest from the Japanese people into this new form of 'perfect' perspective. 

 From This I looked at how cinema has achieved building fictional space over the century that it has been a predominant form of mass entertainment and discovered the tried and tested method of doing this was in miniature building. With the first serious use of miniatures in films being documented from the very beginning of the cinematic industry over a century ago and the technique still being widely used across multi-million pound productions, I thought this would be an interesting route to take.

 This finally brought me on to the art of miniature making and the worlds that can be built and made to be believable, allowing the artist complete control. At this, I found a good stopping point for my essay and a fantastic starting point for my practical work.

 With so many possibilities in making fictional space I want to try and practice with each process I have learned about and discover what works and can be properly assimilated into my processes of printmaking and what can't.

CREATING FICTIONAL SPACE 

I began research right away on the creation of fictional space and how it can be achieved, to specify I was looking into art which had successfully given a sense of space without Linear Perspective having been the providing force. I found a great deal of sources created across a wide range of processes and medias in art. Ranging from the historical eastern sense of perspective/space through to modern cinema and how fictional landscapes can be made so convincing in certain cinematic genres.

 Researching this topic helped me discover a great personal fascination into works that have been concerned with building fictional space. So I was made up, that I would follow my research on and take what I had learned from the essay and continue the discovery process in practical terms.

 

Through the lockdown over Summer, I had plenty of time to design prints and no way of printing them. This was fairly frustrating, though it did allow for a commonality to show itself through my work.

I realised I was essentially trying to create a sense of space through a use of my own photography coupled with my knowledge of printmaking. When the Summer came to an end and Uni started back this gave me a fantastic 'in' for my Final years essay.