THE RUTH TALK ! (AND FLUID ROCK !)

This week Ruth McPartlin from Fluid Rock came in to apeak to us ! She worked in the business end of digital media.

She entered digital Media and wnated to become a Graphic Designer but after a while she was told she was not very good at it and that it was not her niche !  She was working with Windmill Lane at the time the .com bubble burst. This led to her a a feew others creating their own company and taking on some of Windmill Lnaes clients.  This was the formation of Fluid Rock ! Ruth told us that she has worked around the world in places like London and San Fransisco. She said shew worked in Silicon Valley which is the place where all the major computers are made and tested ! It is a very smart and silicony place ! She also told us that we should all begin to make little projects now even in  our first year of college ! She said that we should build up a portfolio now because when people in that industry are hiring they look at youir previous work ! She told us thta it is difficult in the digital, media sector but that we should just take chances and see what happens, its what she did ! At one stage she said that she was working 18 hours a day !  While she was also  doing a course in Arthouse. Ruth is more involved in dealing with customers and with her own staff than with actually producing pieces of work. She is the link between what the customers says and wants and what the designers and programmers and making ! And that is an area were atot of us in this course could end up working. If you arent the best at progrmming etc, then you could deal with customers !

Guide Dogs Talk !!!!!

2 people from Irish Guide dogs came in to talk to us about their organisation and the project that we have to produce a piece of work to help raise awareness of the organisation ! The talk was just swell ! The y also had one dog with them . She was about 1 year old and she liked very much to lick Manus’s shoe ! I reckon if he was blind she would have benen much more helpful ! The talk we were gven was very informative and also good. We learned all kinds of things that i did not know ! A guidedog can be ny kind of dog, i always thought they had to be a specific breed. We learned that it cost 38,000 to raise a guide dog and look after it its entire life . Denise looks after the dogs when they are still young and she begins their training. She teaches them orders and takes them on busses etc to get them used to it. We also got a very nice calender ! It was a fantastic day ! I really like the dog that they brought ! They also spoke to us aboot assistance dog which start off as guide dogs in their training but they are cosen tio become assisstance dogs instead for no apparent reason ! Assisstance dogs are dogs that help children that suffer with autism cope with everyday life. They are give to the child when he is young and grow up with the dog. Eventually the child becomes so comfortable with the dog that he can go out like a normal person ! They get most of their funding from donations fron the public ! That is why they have fundraisers etc throughout the year. They do not do this stuff for fun ! They raise the puppies in Cork and then move them around the country to treainers like Denise for the begining of their training ! They really were very nice calenders ! I wounld absolutely tell peoiple to get one as the dogs were amazingly cute and cuddly ! I particularly like September ! Model dogs ! They can do all kinds of thing in they Irish Guide Dogs organisation !

Bodies and Hugh Lane Gallery !

BODIES !

On wedneday our entire class went to the Bodies exhibition in the Ambassador Theatre ! This is were real bodies have been frozen and you can see all the inner workings of your body ! It was thought up by a German ! This thing cost me €14 ,that Ill never get back ! Didn’t eat anything there ! I thought it was a very weird thing to go to ! This man had gotten dead bodies and peeled off the skin to show us their muscles and bones and veins ! He had taken out vital organs such as lungs and kidneys and showed us what they looked like ! I kinda already knew what they looked like ! There was a set of lungs that belonged to a smoker right beside a set belonging to a healthy person ! The smokers lungs were black ! The other lungs were white and they looked cleaner.There was also this big box right beside the black lungs where people were throwing away their cigarettes ! I thpught this was ridiculous ! People threw them away for show and then went right across the street to Londis to buy more !

I also thought that the shop were you could buy things was a little strange ! Who would buy a t-shirt with a dead, frozen, skinned Chinese man on it ! I didnt really learn anything that I didnt already learn in Junior Cert.    science ! There was also these displays of your nervous system which I thought was the most interesting thing ! You can see muscles and veins on heath show but you never really see the central nervous system ! Its really hare to understand. The bits were the man was sliced up into these little bits that looked like bacon, I thought wqas a little unnessesary and I got the feeling that the man behid this exhibition was having too much fun by that stage !

There was a big crowd there though and I thought that that took away from the exprience a little bit ! You would be reading somethng and there would be kids running around and a big  group (of tourist !!!)would arrive and suddenly you were 5 foot away from the thing you were reading and they are reding it out loud for everyone elso to hear !

Overall i thought that it was interesting but I’d never want to go again and I wouldn’t desribe it to my friens with great optimism !!!!!

Hugh Lane Gallery !

This was even wiorse than the Bodies exhibition ! I hate Art ! I’m just one of those people that dont get it ! To me its a lot of poncy idiots looking at a picture and trying to show off with these ridiculous notions of things that they see in the picture ! A plain blue picture was in the gallery ! 8 foot by 6 foot maybe and a security guard toikld us it cost €50,000 ! IT WAS PLAIN BLUE ! He said that hed seen people look at this plain blue canvas and see people tell other people that they could see lanndsapes and designs and there was nothing there !!! Even the security guard told us that he “would need to be on some really good acid to look at this pictue and see anything !!” There was a tiny pink canvas the size of an A4 sheet and that cost €15,000 ! If you bought one of these picture you would have to wait 5 years before you got it !!! These are people who could use this money for better thinbgs in a recession ! I thought alot of the picture looked very similar aswell.

The admission was free but they did ask you do make a donation of at least €2 ! I did not make this donation ! The gift shop was a little interesting though ! we found this adorable little book full of poemsa and wonderful images, that all the world should see ! I couldnt buy anything in the shop though as I am amazingly broke ! There wasnt actually alot in the gallery though ! We were in and out ihn a half an hour and spent more time in the Gift Shop ! i dont know if anyone bought anything in the Gift shop at either places ! I never even tried the cafe ! It was a very nice building though !

One of the famous artist there was Francis Bacon ! He had this little video aboot him talkin aboot his art and he did not look like an artsit ! He looked like he was on the dole ! He had a few paintings there but i didnt like them either ! Overall I didnt enjoy the gallery as much as the Bodies exhibition but I knew that I wouldnt because I hate art and I find it a complete waste of time and money !

Week 11

Week  11

This week we learned about interacting with visual using typography and other ways tyo do this! images can be used all around the world and mean the same thig E.g. Shopping Cart on certain means that you want to buy things !

Week 10

This week we learned about semiotics and the meaning of signs

We also used photoshop to make two images one good one evil.

week 9

This week we showed our storyboards(in a group with Adnan and Shane) in class and we also started on Gestalt Theory.

We also worked in photoshop using the Louis Walsh images !

Week 7

This week we learned about the Golden rule and the rule of thirds.

WE also learned about theories such as unity, simplicity, balance, proportion, negative and positive space

Week 5

This week we started using Photoshop. We learned about diffeerent files e.g .jpg, .gif, etc.

We also started our first photoshop excersise. Learned about the basic tools of photoshop e.g. filters.

Week 4

This week we went on a field trip to the botanic gardens. We had to draw using oil pastels. We had to show patterns in nature, texture, outline negative space and draw everything around us.

Week 3

This week we learned about colors e.g. primary and complimentary colors. We also cut out a stencil and painted showing monotone, complimentary colors etc.