Colour and identity
On 31 January 2025 I held a weaving workshop for GCSE and A-Level art and design students at ELIS Villamartin International school. It gave students the opportunity to learn a new skill whilst enabling them to demonstrate application and understanding of the elements of artistic practice, such as composition, and the use of colour and texture to achieve visual effects.
The main activity was to produce individual weavings using a colour palette chosen by the students to express their feelings towards their location.
The extension activity was for the students to work in small groups responding to a 3-dimensional weaving frame. Again the brief was to relate their responses to their locality and feelings towards it.
Audio offers an alternative perspective on cultural expression. As a data source it reflects the natural and built environment as well as cultural activities such as the funfair and the beach.
To visualise the sound recordings, I collaborated with data analyst Tristram Cox, who wrote a program using Google Colaboratory. Using the tool, I was able to analyse sections of each recording breaking down the sounds into different constituents to reveal self similarity and patterns which would otherwise be impossible to discern.
What appeals to me about these images is how they change and develop over time, so I have chosen to display them as a sequenced slideshow overlaid onto the section of sound recording to which they refer.
This is an ongoing line of enquiry and I have also been experimenting with projection of the images onto different textured surfaces.
Below: Sound recording and projections of visualisations of sounds recordings from Playa de los Náufragos.
This project was initiated by artist Julie Bancroft (at the time a fellow student on the textiles degree pathway). Julie provided a scrap of fabric to each of her contributors with the simple instruction to respond to it in any way they wanted.
The salt extraction industry is emblematic of Torrevieja, influencing the geographical and cultural landscape, so I chose to experiment with salt accretion. Indicative of transformation and change. It could be a technique I choose to use in future to communicate the ongoing influence that humans are having on the landscape.
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