Interdisciplinary Actions - Drawing and Painting

The second day of classes involved going to Painting/Interdisciplinary Actions in the morning and Drawing/Interdisciplinary Actions in the afternoon. As stated on the timetable, we arrived at university for the first class at 8.50am. The door was locked, so we sat down for a little while to see whether the tutor and other students were just late (it is a relaxed study environment). After waiting for about 25 minutes, we decided to go down to the art shop to see the materials they sell. We didn't buy any but it was useful to see what was available. 

The studio was situated on the third floor -
I like this use of bold, flowing typography

We went back up to the studio hoping it would now be open but it still wasn't. Walking along the rest of the third floor, we tried to find someone to talk to, a tutor and student directed us to the room that we had already found for ourselves, they didn't know where the tutor was and when/if they were going to be arriving anytime soon.
I remember the tutor saying, "the first week is always difficult". This is definitely true so we tried not to worry too much although we were slightly anxious about the time we had wasted waiting. We both tried to plan some blog posts so at least we were doing something productive. We decided after a while to go to the Drawing studio we had visited yesterday as part of the Graphic Design study programme. They have studios from 10am-1pm on Thursdays anyway and we knew they would be friendly and helpful. The lady assistant advised us to go back to the studio and wait as the tutors would come eventually. She also told us "don't worry, go to the bar and get yourself a tea or coffee and I hope you have a beautiful day!"

As the last resort, we went down to the Reception and asked the lady if we were in fact in the right place. She directed us to the room again and shortly after came up behind us to unlock the studio. This was at 10am, the time it seems that the studios are actually open so the timetable is wrong. We went in and of course it was empty because it had been locked but we thought we wouldn't be waiting long for others to arrive.

The painting studio

Interdisciplinary Actions (Graphic Art)

We were waiting for around 30 minutes before the Interdisciplinary assistant came in and we explained who we were. She told us one of the professor's assistants of Interdisciplinary was having a meeting in another building but would arrive in the studio in about an hour's time. The professor's assistant arrived about an hour and a quarter later, thankfully the assistant had briefed her already so she knew who we were. She explained what the 'Interdisciplinary Actions' class is and how it could benefit us.

The assistant professor, Asha, told us that they like students to use the medium they work best in when creating work. They give interesting subjects such as the current project, 'Simulacra' - an image or representation of someone or something. They expect students to prepare their own research and showcase a different layer of life. She suggested we create a map of thinking, portraying our own impressions of the world. Most importantly, media experimentation should be undertaken, she encouraged us to 'mix everything'. A former Erasmus student created a series of postcards of Katowice as her final piece so we could create something similar that showcases our experiences.

2 sculptural masks situated in a little separate room next to the painting studio
I like the emotions conveyed by the facial expressions and the careful way the hair has been positioned so it looks realisitc

I think this unit sounds interesting. I like to experiment with a wide range of media and I enjoy the process of research and development, leading into a final piece. Alongside this studio practice, we also need to choose either the drawing or painting unit. I am unsure in the present moment as to which I will choose because unfortunately we were unable to speak to any other tutors about these disciplines. These same classes are also run tomorrow so hopefully we can speak to someone then.

Day 1 of Classes

In order to decide which units we would like to complete whilst we study here at ASP Katowice, we needed to begin to go to our first classes. As I mentioned in my previous blog post, we can choose between both the Graphic Art and Graphic Design units to make up a full study programme.

Editorial Graphics (Graphic Art)

The day started with Editorial Graphics of the Graphic Art study programme. The class started nearly an hour later than the time stated on the timetable, the tutors arrived earlier than this but spent quite a long time having a discussion whilst sat in a separate room next to the classroom. When we went into the room, we explained who we were and one of the tutors gave us an introduction into the type of work produced in the class.

Editorial Graphics is focused on using Adobe InDesign to create books, posters and leaflets. Being proficient in using the digital programme is a must as well as having a good knowledge of layouts, composition and typography. Projects include recreating a given book using InDesign to change layouts and creating a graphic identity of an event in the form of 2 posters. Event posters include creating editorial design for festivals, one poster would feature a main image with title text and the second poster would feature a programme of events. Both of these are large tasks that would be expected to be completed over the 4 months of the summer semester. We were also given the name of an important book on the reading list, 'The Elements of Typographic Style' by Robert Bringhurst. I found a PDF of the book online so intend to have a read to improve my knowledge of typography.

Editorial Graphics example work

A1 festival poster designs

My first impression was that the class seemed to be very formal, we were all sat around an 'L' shaped table. The tutors were sat one side and the students the other. The critique workshop was delivered in Polish, we were welcome to look at the book design work the other students had produced but couldn't join in with the discussion. We believe it was about layouts and typography as example books were being pointed at and passed around the students. It was a little stressful not to be able to understand what was being said but obviously I expected this and it was useful that the tutors were able to speak to us in English before and after the discussion.

Drawing (Graphic Design)

We then found the studio for the Drawing unit of the Graphic Design study programme. We had a brief chat with two of the tutors, a man and a woman who were very friendly and enthusiastic about their subject area. The woman described the room as an 'art, poster and rock 'n' roll studio'.
We asked about the topics taught and the main focus is Poster Design, this is a key part of Polish art education. We were shown example work and books, as well as being asked to create 3 poster design ideas for our favourite British films.

This studio felt a lot more relaxed than Editorial Graphics. The room was larger and they encourage students to be free and experiment widely with both hand drawing and digital drawing. They like the posters that are produced by students to be artistic rather than design based as they really appreciate art. This unit excites me alot. I like being able to experiment with different mediums and haven't created many posters before so I'm sure it would be enticing and enjoyable. I hope we are able to choose this unit, we will find out once we have talked to Agnieszka from the International Office.

Artwork displayed along the wall next to the staircase

To summarise, I am most interested in the Drawing unit so far and am going to create some thumbnail ideas for possible film posters. The classes are on Wednesdays and Thursdays, they are quite free to drop in and out off but I hope to make the most of the time we have to study at this uni.