Manufactured landscapes, and the secret lives of my friends and I...

During today's creative media production lecture we watched part of the 2006 documentary entitled 'Manufactured Landscapes'. Photographer Edward Burtynsky travels the world and documents massive man-made changes to landscapes. In the picture I have posted here, Burtynsky reveals the mass manufacturing factories of China where products like lighters, Christmas decorations, TVs, toys and tshirts. The documentary opened with a tracking shot that must have gone on for what felt like a mile; row after row of workers assembling parts, performing quality control checks, overseeing procedure etc. The documentary shows one worker who was assembling switches, she told the interviewer that she could put together 400 units in a day without overtime.

The documentary goes on to cover various places that have experienced massive change at the hand of man. This includes E-waste, in the digital age around 90% of North America's recycled computer and electronics end up in China where they are stripped for parts, the workers are exposed to toxins like lead and mercury. Not only are workers affected but the piles of E-waste that sit in the streets are polluting the air, and the water. So much so that water has to be imported into the affected areas.

So, after a very moving documentary, which was supposed to invoke empathy in us and to try and encourage us to use our skills for good in the world. It certainly inspired me that's for sure.

After the lecture, my friends and I had booked the studio for some light painting pictures. Next week is Creative Futures week at uni where we have talks and demonstrations designed to get us thinking about the next steps after graduation. In light of this, the uni was giving out free sparklers. We each took a handful, several torches and some glowsticks into the photostudio.

At first we experimented with a few sparklers and the torches. This is the second time in a few months that I've experimented with light painting, as it is one of my favourite things to do. I was playing with different coloured glowsticks but the light they were giving off wasn't too bright and so I had to hold them right next to the lens.

We moved onto playing with the zoom (barrel roll) where you zoom right into your subject, pause, then zoom out. The effects varied greatly but it was when we started photographing each other that the strange pictures started to come out. Sue also suggested changing the colour tone on monochrome shots. The green picture of Dave looks like something from the Exorcist! We had a lot of fun, even if it was like a workout trying to get the shots!

Tomorrow we're visiting Stoke on Trent, for the moving image festival Stoke Your Fires. More then...