Mood colour chart and meanings

After doing my mood charts, I thought it would be a good idea to start considering colours for the final pieces. I thought it will be necessary to use colours that have the appropriate meaning, as a representation of the word/emotion conveyed on that particular diary entry.
So I went online to find a source for establishing colours to descriptions, and found this website: Mood colour chart

General Mood Ring Color Indications:

• Black is usually associated with negativity but in my own spiritual path, I find it also relates to any time that the Feminine Divine Energies are present. Some attributes of a black mood ring color that are negative would be if you were overworked, nervous about something, physically under par, etc. Be your own best judge. If it turns black during a time when you are feeling extraordinarily connected, benevolent and aware, then I'd say that's the Divine Feminine influence and certainly not negative.
• Red is the color of passion and of anger. It can also represent energized action, an adventuresome spirit or major excitement over something that is happening or about to happen in your life.
• Yellow is the color associated with mental processes, and with the ego self, or personality self as it is sometimes called. Yellow could occur when studying for a test, thinking hard about a problem or struggling with insecurity and/or puffed up pride.
• Green is the color of living plants and is often associated with growth. Green is the color of the heart chakra. A green shade to your mood ring might indicate a healing time, a feeling of love, etc. It is generally considered the "average" color for a mood ring.
• Blue is generally regarding as indicating a relaxed mood, someone who is at ease. As blue is also the color associated with the throat chakra, this shade may appear at a time when you are vocally struggling or vocally asserting yourself.
• White is typically associated with feelings of being frustrated, confused or bored but, in my experience, white is also a color that can indicate very high spiritual energies so if you are not frustrated, confused or bored, don't let the mood ring tell you that it is a negative expression: it could be crown chakra energies expanding or integrating at a spiritual level.
• Other colors generally described are pink (fear, or in cases where spiritual acceleration of the heart chakra are evident, pink can indicate the opening of the spiritual heart chakra center), purple (sensuality), orange (a state of wanting something), etc.

In general, each color has both a negative and positive interpretation. Be sure you tune in, internally, before deciding which one is correct for you. Of course, the more you tune in, internally, the less you will need an external read from a mood ring or any other spiritual tool. Then, the ring will have served it's purpose for you, as a training tool.

I'm glad I mood colours popped into my head because now the colours I choose will represent something meaningful, and it's not just a colour on a page. This is quite an important factor for me. This project is very much about feelings and emotions, and so far everything I am using reflects that; content, mood, colour.


I also will be referring to this website: http://crystal-cure.com/color-meanings.html as it is more descriptive. I know most of these sort of mood colours will be described the same, but there may be more to one than there is to another. So I would like to have a bit of variation in terms of description.

Mood chart

As I have mentioned before, I was really inspired by 'Info graphics' and I still want to incorporate them into my project. Particularly because these diary entries are full of emotion, and I want to convey that emotion in my final pieces. I decided to create a mood chart of sorts; I re-read each entry, and to every word which described an emotion or feeling, I drew a graph. Here are the outcomes;

I think these drawings, as initial ideas, are quite visually appealing. They depict the way I felt, my heartbeat, etc that is why they look like polygraphy - which I like the look of. Obviously I could be a lot more abstract with these, and do lots of variations in terms of design. Not quite sure how to develop this idea... I will do some experiments with the entry itself to see how it looks on paper as a whole. But a mood chart is definitely on the cards.

The L Word; Installation

While watching The L Word, I came across this scene in an episode where one of the characters (Jodi - an artist) created an installation at an art gallery that was based on her break up with her ex, Bette. She had put together video and audio clips of Bette, just simple video of her staring or talking etc, and audio of sentences Bette had said to her like 'I love you' and other things. She had also highlighted certain words by repeating them over and over. Quite a powerful piece actually. And this was all played in one room, across the whole 4 walls, and were a collage of screens so it filled the room pretty much...

I would have loved to have done something like this as a final piece. It would be so interesting and different. But I am still at the beginners stage of my Flash course, and I doubt I will be able to do this by the due date. I may be able to do a very basic animation using words, but i'd rather concentrate on doing something better, that I have more experience in. Plus I did want to steer clear from computers for this project. Anyway, I still thought it would be good to mention this installation. Although it was fictional, it was very inspirational.

PostSecret

I found this AMAZING website... on youtube of all places. Basically, "PostSecret is an ongoing community mail art project, created by Frank Warren, in which people mail their secrets anonymously on a homemade postcard. Select secrets are then posted on the PostSecret website, or used for PostSecret's books or museum exhibits."
This is like my project... it's about anonymous secrets, and the idea that postcards are used is a really great concept, and it had got me thinking about my project and what I could do with it. Maybe I could use this idea and create a set of postcards instead? I'm not sure now where I could go with this, and alter it perhaps... another thing to discuss in the next tutorial. But really keen on this idea. I also like the fact that it is on a blog too.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/PostSecret
http://postsecret.blogspot.com/


People really get into this, here are some examples of secrets that have been sent in;

So as you can see, people send all sorts of things in. Sad, happy, funny etc. This is such a genius idea, wish i'd thought of it first :-)

Questionnaire

I decided to create a short questionnaire about this period in my past, and directed it to the one person who knew about it. The answers were very interesting, though not anything I didn't think myself. It was just a task I thought would be good to do, as a sort of confirmation and reassurance that I wasn't OTT with it, or in some fantasy land, and so on.

Ally Gardiner 08 March at 17:40

1. Do you remember this period in my life?

Oh yes, how could I forget? :D

2. What was I like? How did I act?

Smitten kitten, dream like, emotional, dependent, happy, traumatised, heart broken, hopeful, confused, nervous. It was as if your day was complete as long as you had some kind of connection with her. I made you sound mental, but you were also totally awesome. 

3. What were your views about it then? and what do you think about it now? 

Everyone has crushes right? So it was no big deal. We were in it together as I had a big crush too. With her though, she seemed to almost encourage it in my opinion. I thought she was a bitch, as you know. Total closet case. Now, I think it made up a large portion of our school years! It's funny, but sad in a lot of ways because I know she made a big impact on you and you may have even really loved her. I think she knew this and took advantage.

4. What were your views on her? and the way she acted?

See above. She was mean, and blatantly favouritised you and hated me haha. I thought she was vain and enjoyed the attention you gave her. She wasn't even a very good teacher in my opinion, but you guys shared a connection. There was something definitely different about the way she treated you. At the time I thought maybe she was just being sweet and found you amusing. As an adult looking back, I think there was more going on and she is kidding herself now if she thinks she's a straight settled family woman! My gaydar is off the scale when it comes to her lol.

5. If we were to go back in time, what advice would you give me now if this happened again?

Just corner her in the dark room and have your way. HAH. I don't think there's anything to say or change....these crushes, feelings, first loves...whatever you want to call it...they have to run their course. I would have said more at the end when she gave that "clear the air" speech. I would have told the bitch straight (so to speak) that she's a clit tease at the very least and a full blown dykezilla at worse (or best lol)

6. What would you say to her if you saw her now?

I personally wouldn't want to say anything to her! Maybe I would act all chummy and see if I could get any top secret info out of her. Then I'd raise a fist to the sky, yell "DYKEZILLA!!!" in a japanese accent and run screaming. Hah.

7. Describe the situation in 3 words? and then a couple of sentences?

Super. Duper. Gay.

Just kidding...

Frustrating. Confusing. Painful

It was a learning process that got you prepared for the pain of a broken heart! It was one of those things you look back on and something doesn't seem quite right...

8. How could I express this situation in an art sense? what form should it take? (a book or something, materials and mediums etc etc)

I think it should be an illustrated diary. Much like our awesome English journals, or those art journals that we had to keep. Or you could make it into a dance. HAH.

Creative writing

I have completed the initial part of my content, the 12 diary entries. It took almost a whole day. I had to look back and think about that period, which in fairness, was not difficult. It all came screaming back to me.. as they say. Very vivid indeed. Which is good, it got me into this surreal feeling, and almost completely shredded my soul... it's good to 'bleed' for your art. Makes it raw.

Anyway, after that initial moment... I picked out words from the entries that I could use to tell a further story (a story within a story), and then picked out the main word to describe that particular entry;

The underlined words are the main entry word. I quite like how this is going... each word describes the entire entry, and it flows in a story sense too. 

I then went on to create a short sentence for each entry, because I am not sure I just want to use one word. Personally I don't think it captures the essence of the story enough. So I thought I could do this;

> We met

> We connected

> She enticed me

> I became obsessed

> She fooled me

> It captivated me

> She crushed me

> I concealed my pain

> My world turned blurry

> She left

> I was traumatised

> She haunted me

I like this arrangement, it's short, but tells quite a descriptive story. Really am clinging to this idea more.

I also took sentences from each entry that I could use to create short poems within the poster, but need to discuss this in the next tutorial. 

So I do like the idea of incorporating poems into the posters, but not quite sure how. Really need some advice on how to go ahead with this idea.

Kurt Schwitters

I found this video on Youtube, which is part of a series called Ursonate by Kurt Schwitters, who was a German Painter. Schwitters worked in several genres and media, including Dada, Constructivism, Surrealism, poetry, sound, painting,sculpture, graphic design, typography and what came to be known as installation art. He is most famous for his collages, called Merz Pictures.

His collages are quite interesting, some examples;

They do just come across as Dada collages. which I think is really quite striking. They make not make sense to the viewer, but they just jump out at you, and that is what I want my final piece to do. It may not make sense, but the engage with people, which is the most important thing. Arousing peoples interest.

The List: Part one - Blank

First on the agenda, photography. After the last meeting, I took into account what Mike said, and I tried out the emotion-related word on a 'blank expression face.' Quite like some of the results, and I suppose as I am doing 12 posters which are all different, I don't see the harm on having a poster that is photographic. So anyway, I asked my flatmate to stand still against the wall, and I snapped away...

...then I added an emotion...

...got up close and personal...

...tried it in black and white...

...then I thought I would look at how these photos would look in a sequence of blankness. I tried a different arrangement so it proposed different meanings. Including; 

• Colour on colour
• Black on colour
• Colour on black
• Black on black

Colour on colour - although the expression is blank, the fact that everything is in colour makes the emotion seem dreary, in that it doesn't seem to stand

Black on colour - this is quite interesting because the fact that the text is in black, and relating it to the blank expression gives it a sense of boldness, in a 'look at me and what i've got to say' way. 

Colour on black - this is my favourite one. The colour of the photograph conveys the models expression, and the colour reflects her emotion; and thinking about it, the emotion should be in colour because that is the main theme of the project. It's about a diary, a secret diary. Something that is filled with thoughts and feelings, and therefore, that should be boldly expressed.

Black on black - not sure on this. It's like the colour on colour one. It doesn't really do or say much because it all blends in. Though when I look at it more closely, it could relate to a diary quite well because a diary is one colour most of the time - in terms of the writing... so that's what it makes me think when I look at it. 

I really like what this symbolises. Its like a photographic diary, same person, different day. Which is what a diary is... the same person writes in it, but each day the emotions change. And I love that concept. It's really intriguing I think. I also like the composition, that the word is on her head, therefore it conveys her thoughts, and what she is feeling on the inside.

I want to carry on this idea for some of the posters... but not quite sure where to go with it. Will discuss in tomorrows meeting, and hopefully get some feedback on how to develop this.

Meeting 7: 26/02/2010

Showed Mike my experimentation's to date, and he said I had some nice imagery but now I need to think about the way I apply a technique to the words, in terms of the words meaning. And maybe even think about doing something opposite to that word.
For example; taking the word RAGE, rather than going for the obvious and using red paint, capital letters, and an angry feel to it... why not do something a bit more subtle, like a photograph of someone with a blank expression, with the word rage on their forehead in lowercase. 


Quite an interesting idea, but I didn't really want to use photography for the posters. Though I suppose I can then turn those photos into a traced illustration of some sort? Will have to try that out.
We also spoke about handwriting, and how it might be interesting to use someone else's handwriting... or maybe my left hand because that will be.. erm... more visual and abstract, ha.


So my next few steps are;

• Photograph and apply words to person
• Choose and write the 12 diary entries I want to use (so I have my content ready and waiting)
• Possible info graphics to use - do an emotion chart for each entry
• Choose the words/sentences to use
• Further type experimentation
• Research meanings of each main word, and brainstorm

Secret Type experimentation

After my stream of consciousness list, I tested out the ideas to see how the text looks, and these are the results;

1. The main word describing that piece as a password

2. Using the letters number equivalent

3. Using a typeface that uses symbols for the letter

I think these are quite interesting, and I like the contrast in legibility and no legibility, so it makes the sentence like more of a guessing game. 

This was the word INTRIGUED - the first one eliminates the vowels, the second eliminates the consonants, and the third I placed both together to create a new unreadable word.

Not too sure on this style... I don't really like it, or the way it looks on the page.

Braille - here i traced around the letters with a needle to get the outline...

...and this is how it turned out on the back. I quite like this, and it has a nice effect when I scanned it in too.

Sewing - Here I sewed around the letters...

...and this was the back of it. I purposely didn't want to use the front because then the word would be legible, and that's not the effect I want. I used this technique in college, and I was always impressed with the outcome because something 'normal' turned into a really nice visual piece.

Here is the braille and sewn piece scanned in. Really nice effects, which I think I will be incorporating into some of my final posters.

For these, I used a weird shaped object (a pencil top decoration), and the first one was done by dragging it to create the word, and the second one was done by just printing over the outline of the word. 

I prefer the first one to the second because it has more of an abstract look, so I think I will try out more of these using different shaped objects.

This was just an imprint of the above page to see what it would look like. The second one (which is on top now) looks better this way, I like the way the letters are now formed to be less obvious. And the bottom one is interesting too as you can't see the word, but the residue of the  paint has left a nice visual aspect to it.

This was done using a block of playdough, and where I sliced the letters in using a scalpel, and then I scanned it in. I really like the way this looks. As you can see from the first image, although you can read what the word is, you sort of have to stare at it a bit closer to realise what it is. Especially with the letter E.

This was done using the technique of embossing. I really like this style but it isn't abstract enough. Maybe I can apply this for an illustration instead?!

These were done by stencilling. I cut out each letter from a piece of cardboard, and placed them on a page and spray painted.

The top 2 were done by the letters joining together so that the word became more like one long letter rather than individual ones. The third was an imprint while the paint was still wet... which I like the best. And the fourth image was done by placing all the letters on top of each other, which I also really like because it leaves a nice marking on the page. And you can make out the E letter but its not obvious enough to confirm that it is in fact an E.

This was one of the previous experiments, but it was on my list so I put it in again. And also because this is my favourite technique so far. Done using cardboard letters and acrylic (which dries really fast), so it leaves a ripped effect.

Lastly, this was done using a symbolic text, and the second half of the page was making anagrams from the word. I then realised that I should have made every word possible from that one word because I worked out that in total, there should be 24 - 6 for each letter. So for R that would be:

RAGE

RAEG

REAG

REGA

RGEA

RGAE

Quite interesting... not so much the symbolic type face, but definitely the anagram. Because then those 24 words could form an interesting poster. Especially if I set it out like one of those lit boxes you see when you are having an eye test. And that could relate to 'love/lust driving you crazy', which relates to my secret diary's theme.

Overall, this experimentation was useful for me as another initial process. Now I am thinking more about the words, and how they can be devised to look more effective and secretive. Not sure where to go from here, but I will get some advice in tomorrows meeting.