The Postcard

After having taken a trip down to Union Street during the night I decided to use 1 of the images i had captured with a van driving past, causing the lights from the vehicle to be distorted and give an effect i was looking for. Another reason I chose this particular photo is because to the left the Dance Academy is clearly visible and I wanted to make it appear as though this wasted place was reaching out to passes by for help. Due to the great potential I have already researched in I definitely wanted to involve this area in my postcard.
Like I have previously discussed I wasn't happy with the lack of stretched car lights I managed to capture due to the excess street lighting. To achieve the look I wanted I simply opened the photo into Photoshop and drew lines in suitable colours that matched the colours that would have been produced by traffic passing had there been less street lighting.
To modify the picture more, I used different shades of reds and whites to give the effect of time that the traffic had passed. The light bright reds and whites shows vehicles that have recently passed and the light left behind is still fresh. The dark and dull reds and whites show the light that is fading due to it getting old and soon becoming nothing.
I make the Dance Academy stand out, and look as though it was reaching out to passers by, almost for help or to be saved of being a mess. I wasn't sure how to achieve this, but decided to use the idea of light coming off of the building. And the rays of the light pointing to the traffic and the pavement along side it. This would act like arms trying to connect with the drivers of vehicles passing, as well as pedestrians walking past. I also made the rays coming off of the Dance Academy fairly strong, this was to exaggerate the fact that the building is reaching out and desperate for help.

The Postcard:

Mind Mapping:

As the idea is that we are beginning to create a blog to present ourselves and the work we are making our own mind maps. These maps have 'us' in the middle and branching out are all the different factors that we are influenced by and have been determining points in who we are today.

My mind map: ( to be scanned in)


Freemind:
Freemind is software that allows the user to create a mind map using a computer. It helps keep the structure and layout very neat and presents it in a way that is much more easier to read.
This is my mind map made using Freemind.

A Media Map:

To become better aware of a true and more clear understanding of what exactly the term 'media' actually mean, we were assigned to groups to discuss and form a group mind map of how we portray media. Including all forms, uses and intended audience. Once we had begun to create a mind map we were to complete the map broadening each area we had discussed.
Below is the mind map I have created for MEDIA.

Examples Of Such Uses

We have been told throughout all the modules to link subjects to what we know. During this module I linked these terms to music. Being a fan of Hop Hop I was able to easily find examples of these in lyrics to tracks I liked.

For example: Phy Life Cypher



Lyrics To This Song:

I'm advocating alphabetic assaults on a mans amazement
absorbing any amount of attacks from any assailant
assassinating adversaries amputating their arms
and astronomic amounts of amateurs up in my abattoir

I blast your brain with bazooka type ballistics breaking bones
Beat you like Bruce lee with big bats or badboy black boy busting bushido
I battle battalions with a baseball bat beat their bumberarse
with the breathtaking bulletproof bubble burst in a block busting broadcast
braveheart buffalo soldier with another bible basher burning like a blazing bonfire
I'll bludgeon and bodybag you

I make curiosity kill the cat then creep just like a cougar
Cripple your coalition with critical cool maneuvers
Crack your cranium with a crowbar
Captivating you with my coma,
Causing a cataclysmic impact like a cobra

Dusk till dawn I deliver a deadly dose of dark dialect
Destroy like delahoy with dynamic dialogue that dissects
Discipline disciple with dramatic dynamic displays
Desert storm and disrespect distress your DNA
Download your disc drive decipher decode and demolish your data
Dazzle you with death defying deliveries
Too dark for Darth Vader

Evidently excellency engulfs my entire entity
Mcs evacuate when I make my entry
It's elementary I'm eradicating my enemies with ease
Exaggerating emotions with an overdose of Es

I'm the futuristic fist of fury fabulous freestyle fashion
Faster than a Ferrari F1 my faculties you couldn't fathom
My fiery ferocious force like forest fires flash floods and freakstorms
Fantastic like the four I fortune tell and verbally freefall

I grind you down to a gradual granual when I be grafting
My graphical gamma grammar be leaving you niggers gasping
With more grip than a Goodyear when I shift gear with the gift here
Goodness gracious the greatest galactic rappers have stood here

I hypnotize a hypnotist giving a hologram hallucinations
Plus my heat seeking high explosive hip-hop causes hyper-ventilation

Intervening like intravenous injections inside your intestines
Interesting like an inquest and leave you impressed and
I and I is instantaning your simpusle is impaling yo
insert it in my ears and my ism start inhaling yo.

From ju-jitsu to judo I put your jugular in jeopardy
Jab like Joes junior to the jaw I make you jerk and jump like jet-li

I'm killing the Ku Klux Klan round some ka kani khakis
Kung-fu kicking your kidneys and then I'm caning your car keys.
Keep a kalashnikov in a karan inside my kitbag
Kidnapping and craning the KGB and make you kick back

Most laser guided literature it literally makes you lose limbs
Left in the land of the lasra larynx lapped down in my labyrinth
I leave a legendary legacy as a legitimate lyrical lyricist
I defy levitation laws my lateral thinking leaves you lyric less

My miraculous murder methods are madness I'm causing malice
With a mind of a million mathematicians I murder masses
Masquerading mayhem in your manor like Mafiosos
Maxing from Montreal to Manhattan like Motorola's

I'm nasty like Nas naughty by nature but never say never
Navigate at night I'm the narcotic nuclear nemesis making you nosedive

I obliterate my opponents with an ordeal of oral onslaughts
Your overwrought with an oratorical orgy when I'm on course
I'm in and out of the ordinary ordinance from my orifice
I'm out of order with orders to boot you out of your offices

I'm a paranormal paradox portraying pyrotechnic prophecy
Panoramic philosophies like pharaohs and pyramid properties
I paralyze a parasite with pen and paper perception
The power of a Porsche at performing phenomenal perfection

Don't query our quest or question my quadrophonics
I'm quicker than Audi Quatros with quality supersonics
Highly qualified quotes will leave ya hung drawn and quartered
And queens lyrically captured be catching the quarantine

I'm a rampant radical renegade who'll rapidly rupture your ribcage
Rip up your rastclart like a rabid rottweiler on the rampage
I reckon my rawriding riddims will give the risible rheumatism
Representing reality rhymes we need some righteous realism

Suffering suckatash I stash a smash and snatch a stash
I'm spitting science or sharpen decieving shaving your stash
Schizophrenic schematics we're static and cypher stuns
And super sporadic savages scavenge around my sermon

My triple tongue tied technique attain the turbulence of a typhoon
With torpedo trajectory I titanically testify me tune
With a thunderous thesis I think with a thousand tortuous thoughts
With the tortion of a tornado I travel like a tomahawk
I make time warp when I talk like a telekinetic taskforce
Travelling in a time machine towards the twilight zone when I'm on tour

I'm an undefeated, unseeded lyrical ultra-sonical wheat kid
With the universal dispersal rehearsals don't mean I need it
I natural unilateral Phi-Life remain the uncatchable
With magical mindchart minds and limbs that are un-detachable

My vocal volcanic verses cause invisible vacuum vortex
My visceral vocabulary
Venomous viper vigilante vapourising your vibe
Verbally I'll murder thee and vocally vandalise

I walk from Wales to Washington D.C on the warpath of an MC
We're surfing the world wide web and nobody is willing to --- we
We're causing the worst water works to the worlds wackest of wordsworth
The wickedist wizard in time with the vines time in Wandsworth

I went to the X games with my ex-girl in an extra-large T-shirt
Cos I'm an extremist and no-one can play the xylophone with my penis

Rising like yeast this verbal beast is big just like a yeti
Yoga floating my boat and leave it tangled just like spaghetti
Yanking your ladies yashmak stabbing your back like Yitsak
Shaggy just like a yak when attacking you with my shitsack

From Zambia to Zanzibar this zany Zulu from Zen will
Cross the Zodiac when lyrics are zooming like a lens

I chose this particular song as not only does it use a great deal of alliteration from all letters in the alphabet, but it also rhymes, making a perfect example of the effect these terms can be used.

More Blog Writing

Rhetoric, Argument and Persuasion

Some Lecture notes continued:

Rhetoric: one of the three original liberal arts in western culture. (Others - Grammar and Logic) Rhetoric is an effective in the presentation of ideas.
Grammar: Correct language use
Logic: Dialect is testing and testing through interview new knowledge through question and answer.

Why? Rhetor: Greek for orator, important art in persuasion and argument, essential in law, speaking in public and politics. Not just manipulation, but a means of seeking the truth.

Who? Rhetoricians:

Aristotle: identified 3 types of rhetoric proof:

• Ethos - How credibility of character influences beliefs
  
• Pathos - Use of emotional appeal to audiences arguments
• Logos - Use of reasoning to construct an argument

Quintilian: codified 5 canons of how to make an argument:

• Invention - Process leads to development and refinement of an argument
• Arrangement - How it is organised for greatest effect
• Style and Presentation
• Memory - As speaker recalls each even in their speech
• Delivery - In the way and grand style is appealing

McLuhan: Mechanical Bride
Foucault: Power and Knowledge

Rhetorical Techniques:

- Contrasts, example: I came to bury you, not to praise you.

- 3 part lists, example: I was late because a..., b.... and c.... , programmed in humans.
- Imagery and Anecdotes: creates strong messages.

Alliteration: Repetition of consonants in beginning of word. (right as rain)
Anthropomorphism: Non human described in human term. (the legs of a table)
Antithesis: Contrasting words with each other - create a balanced effect. (rose between 2 thorns)
Climax: Climb from low matters to high, consequence is satisfying from raised expectations.
Hyperbole: Exaggeration excess extravagance to achieve intensity.
Oxymoron: Contradictory. (bitter sweet)
Simile: Use of like or as. (as big as a house)
Symbol: Kind of metaphor where 1 object is described as another. (scales of justice)
Irony: Saying 1 thing and meaning another.
Metaphor: Word/phrase not meant literally, but to make a comparison. (she flew into his arms)
Metonyn: Attribute of something used to stand out for the thing itself. (the pen is mightier than the sword)
Parallelism: Repetition of words for effect
Rhyme: Verbal musical made in words sounding similar

Send Me A Postcard

Postcard Brainstorming:

After thinking more about whether to take the postcard photo from within a vehicle or from out I still couldn't make up my mind, so I decided to look on the web for more examples of such pictures that already existed to help me spark an idea about my own project.
The first photo I came across was this 1 above. Clearly taken at night, we can see the long stretch of light that is being caught in the shot. The windscreen is also blurred, but does not look like the effect rain has. This could show that maybe in the future, the drivers are taken over by the vehicles. humans are no longer required to drive, as technology and intelligence has greatly increased. Concepts like this will have a great influence in the making of my postcard.
I decided to chose New York's Times Square as a place to start comparing and generating ideas from becuase its certainly a busy street and is also widely recognized by people worldwide.

Here are some more example photos found online, showing the sort of results I was aiming to capture tonight:

Times Square, New York:

Traffic passing the camera causing a long stream of break lights to be left behind.

Times Square, New York:


Traffic that was heading towards the camera and passed leaving behind the trail of headlights.

These photos are perfect examples of the kind of images I had planned on capturing to produce my own postcard.
I also found a photo of Times Square that had blurred light, but was not created by the movement of traffic, but the camera had actually been moved, which gave the effect the the buildings were moving. This was an idea that I had not originally thought of, but definitely worked well in this photo, shown below:

Times Square, New York:

Getting More Specific:

Now that I have a clear idea of where I am going with this, I decided to search online for photos of Union Street that had been taken at night to see if there were any existing images already.
There wasn't an awful amount, in fact when 'Union Street Plymouth' is typed into Google images, the majority consists of the Dance Academy. Which again goes to show that this building was the highlight of this street once upon a time.
However, I did manage to find 1. This photo is very nearly a perfect way to show the kind of idea I had when I imagined creating a postcard picture of Union Street. This image was from high above the street, allowing the whole stretch of the street to be captured, as well as all the traffic below. It was also taken at night and in the distance the smudge and blurred blend of light due to traffic is visible.

The funny thing about this image, is the fact that it was actually taken from the roof of the Dance Academy looking down the street towards the city.

I now feel I have looked at enough examples and general ideas of images to be ready to take a mish down to Union Street and see what sort of pictures I can snap myself, it is now 23:00 hours which means it is plenty dark outside and should prove to be a good start in getting photos that display the desired effects.

... Some Time Later...

I have just got back from my trek down to Union Street to try and take photos that could be used for my postcard to Shaun. Unfortunately, I didn't manage to take the 'ideal' photo I was hoping for as what I had visioned in my head was a photo taken from a level that is higher than the traffic. This meant the snap would capture a long stream of the traffics lights all blended together. This would help me in editing the photo as there is a much broader view of the space around the traffic such as including the shops and clubs that stretch along the side of the street.

These are some of the photos I managed to capture this evening:

This photos was taken on the bench that I have previously discussed. I tried to involve the Dance Academy as it definitely does seem to be the focal point of the street, even though it is completely unused and has been for years. I tried to achieve this with the vision of the traffic moving quickly past by using the slow shutter speed to blend/blur the light and traveling vehicles. It also could show the fact that people travel past this building everyday, completely regardless of the potential this massive space has and is left behind.

Other trouble I had was the fact that I was forced to take pictures from ground level it meant that a lot of the pictures I took didn't give the desired effect I was after due the the photos being taken under the very many street lamps there are in the area. The large amount of light coming from the lamps and car lights meant the camera had sufficient light to take an image that was clearer and wasn't as blurred as I would have liked.

Now that I have done some research and gathered some of my own images, its time to make my postcard.

The Dance Academy: What Went Wrong?

To research into how the Dance Academy ended up in the state it is today, I searched plymouth Dance Academy on Google and found quite a lot of information.

A Bit Of History:
The Dance Academy was originally called the New Palace Theater, built for the Livermore brothers in 1898 as a musical hall and a variety theatre. It opened on the same year on Monday the 5th of September with a variety show and had a capacity holding a massive 2500 people.
Unfortunately, there was a serious fire that spread inside on December 23rd 1989. The fire seriously damaged the interior and completely destroying the stage, gallery, changing rooms and the auditorium on the ground floor.
The fire was said to have been sparked by combustibles left from the show that evening and the fireproof curtain had not been shut, allowing the fire the spread rapidly. It was closed from Friday 23rd December 1989 up until Monday 22nd May 1899, the remarkable quick time it took to refurbish the building was due to the fires damage only being internal, making it much easier to restore.

After many years the building was then converted for Bingo in 1961, and was used for this in many years, but was then again refurbished and reopened as a live theatre in 1978.
In 1982 however, the new Theatre Royal opened in Plymouth, which was major blow for the Palace and the revival of live Theatre and closed in 1983.
It was then converted for night club use known as the Academy.
Information found from this website: Theatre's and Halls in Plymouth

End Of The Night Club:
The reason the Dance Academy had to be closed was due to a police raid on 6th May 2006. The raid took place at and about 10 past 1 in the morning when the club was extremely busy on Saturday night. 10 police riot vans were siting in streets surrounding the venue and within no time at all, 140 police officers stormed into the club from every angle to round up the party goers on the dance floor. The police then allowed people to leave and everyone who had drugs on them were allowed to walk free if they put the drugs they had on them in amnesty boxes.
The club promoter Tom Costelloe and venue owner Manoucehr Bahmanzade were both arrested and sentenced 2 years later.

More detailed information can be found here

This is the reason the Dance Academy closed and has been closed since. This seems like such a shame as it could be a great venue and definitely has been that in the past. It used to be one of the grandest buildings in Plymouth and to see it in the state it is now is such a waste.

Potential:
These photos shown below I found by searching Plymouth Dance Academy. The show the great amount of space the building has and how easily it could be transformed back into a place that can be used.

From website: Images

From Website: Images

Shauns Message

To give us help with the project Shaun emailed us all a link to a youtube video. The video used LA as an example of a place that had been destroyed, being completely inhabitable, but as a result a new place was born...Chlorafillia. Chlorafillia was created in the absence and loss of LA in 2106.
This video would have been extremely weird to have stumbled across had I not have been in this module, but having started on similar work and beginning to look at Stonehouse, particularly Union Street and how it may look in the future, I definitely understood the video and the task of transforming the Stonehouse are made much more sense.



I think now that we have this video to look at and compare it to the different kinds of projects we're all trying to achieve, this will come in handy for seeing the kind of end result Shaun is looking for from us.