MEDI 263: Photographic Narratives : Results

Photographic Narratives.  Credits: 20

Mark: 55.6%

This is a pass of an equivelent 2.2 grade.

MEDI 259: Project Proposal

I intend to produce an installation, working in projection, the size and space that they would take up should however be scaled appropriately to the space given.  The basis of the idea is that using the style I have already developed I intend to use both new and cataloged photos of my own and blend them to create a new ‘pocket’ of reality if you will.

The space these projections would inhabit will be a fusion of multiple spaces since you have not only the places or objects in the image being projected but also the objects and landscape that they will be displayed in. Although they may be very personal to me (as the way I view the world would be conveyed in the images) I would hope the audience would be able to identify some part of their lives or even their dreams in each image.

For the purpose of the installation I aim to produce a collection of different reality pockets, my original intention was to have them tightly themed (for example my originals are all about autumn) but I do feel that it does not reflect the true nature of life and indeed how humans perceive reality. This is proven by the fact that instead of one concrete idea of a space, humans often pull in several images for one space to include things like sounds, scents, feelings and memories, this results in many images blurring in the human mind or similar places being recalled at the same time, so one thing is associated with another and so on.

I would therefore like to attempt to illustrate the complex nature of how human beings deal with reality and space. The aim is to produce something that can at once look both familiar and alien to most people.  I like this style in a lot of fantasy, there are many books, photos and films that use the real to create the surreal but particularly I find the ‘Alice in Wonderland’* series particularly inspiring.

On the technical side of things I would want each ‘environment’ to stay for a reasonable length of time before disappearing so I would have to set up specific time delay on each slide.  It would be reasonable to have approximately a minute so that the viewer can see the entire environment before it changes and then react to that change these would be then cycled through continuously until the exhibition ended.  It would be interesting to see not only the viewers’ reaction to one landscape but also the reaction of the viewer as they changed. Therefore as follow up work or indeed part of the documentation of my project I would like to film peoples reactions to the spaces, this I feel would help to see what was effective and what was not and would also become an experience in itself.

I already have a range of images that I have made whilst practicing and I have expanded on some greatly.  I like the quirks of some of my expanded images and would not need to do a lot with them. I am however toying with the idea of making the colors brighter to reflect the fact that some memories are super clear in your brain. The stock images I have all vary greatly in quality and sharpness as they were taken with different cameras and at different times in different places and this I feel is important as it further reflects memories and how some memories may be clearer or blurry or more colorful than others. The act of blending these further represents how memories work.

I find my inspiration is drawn from the clever installations of Doug Aitken** since he cleverly employs photography and projection into his works to make them truly immersive I am also tempted to like him include sound in my work to make it more well rounded.  I have also drawn inspiration from of the more projection-based works of Christian Boltanski*** since they are very evocative and thought provoking.

I would like if I could to use 360 degrees projection so that each environment would take up the entire room or as much of it as possible. My intended audience is the student body and the general public; I would ideally like everyone to find things they identify with in my landscapes so the target audience in essence is the human psyche.

I am intending to expand on the Photoshop techniques I have already used for my preliminary work but I would still like keep the manipulation as simple as possible so that the images still have a very natural feel to them.  For instance I associate a bright yellow flower with the sun, so in that particular environment the flower would be the sun, this links real to dream and memories to feelings. From a technical standpoint the only programs that I do need to use would be photo manipulation software since I already have the images in back catalog. If I did need to do more shoots I would probably use a Nikon D80 although any camera will do and occasionally you get nice results from using a camera on a mobile phone even though mine is currently three mega-pixels I feel that given I am trying to capture the notion of something like memory and reality that the quality of picture could still be compelling.  In terms of workload I intend to produce the work solo, as it is a personal project so I am the main driving force of its creation. 

Technically I think I am capable of handling setup myself, however given the fact I have not used 360 projection before I am not ruling out the possibility of needing a slight amount of technical assistance.

As an end result I would ideally like to have three environments being: Dartmoor, Plymouth and a Graveyard in London. These are all fairly personal places to me and I would like to showcase them as I see them with all my memories, thoughts and feelings to truly showcase what they are like in my head and create a thought provoking environment for its audience.

*Alice in Wonderland – 1865 – Lewis Carroll

**Doug Aitken  - Born in 1969 - http://www.victoria-miro.com/artists/_2/

***Christian Boltanski - Born in Paris in 1944 -http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/boltanski_christian.html

MEDI 259 Experiment: Expanded Images

MEDI 263: Critical Evaluation

For my final narrative I decided to focus on the story of me learning how to make sushi. My initial idea was originally focused around autumn in the city and the initial shoot for this had some good images but nothing that was very eye popping so I decided to go for the sushi idea. My first sushi shoot was full of fuzzy, ill focused pictures so I had to do a re-shoot. I think the blurriness of the photos may have been due to a few important yet un-obvious settings on the camera I was using. I have since developed a greater understanding of the more intricate settings on the camera being a Nikon D80. I have gained valuable knowledge into how important the very small details on the camera can be and how dramatic a hidden setting can affect a photos quality so much. I set the camera to a large image and on fine detail so that I could capture far more detail and thus have better images. Also on the off chance that the blur may have been due to camera shake I used a tripod for my reshoot thus minimising the risk of having images blurred. I wanted to show a step by step almost comic style story of me making sushi and then I wanted to show an Onigiri being eaten an have a kind of cartoon face on it at various stages of being eaten to show emotion. Both the comic strip theme and the cute personifications of the Onigiri (Rice Ball) reflect the Japanese culture and especially the ‘Manga’ or ‘Anime’ that inspired me to want to learn to make sushi and indeed started my love for the food. Id like to think that it is fairly light-hearted and fun also I do think food is a narrative all in its own. The final images I have taken very great care for them to be in focus and very clear and sharp. I have decided to exhibit them in a series with the comical three pictures in the centre at the bottom as an aside. I really like the warm colours and did not want to normalise the lighting level as yellow light makes people hungry and I feel that the images being food should achieve this. It’s a tactic used in supermarkets to make us buy things and it does also say something about consumerism and the two different cultures merging together.  

I had a lot of problems initially with my project and getting it off the ground, however I feel that I have developed a much stronger technical knowledge and also a much more critical eye in photography. Overall I feel myself that I have dramatically improved. I am overall fairly pleased with the images although I do feel they could be perfect if I did a few more shoots. I am very pleased that all of my final images are in focus as I made every effort to ensure this. I have in myself however made dramatic improvements in my skills.  

To sum it up I would like to think my project is well structured with clean crisp and nicely framed images I wanted to include a lot of influences in my images and I do think that they carry the narrative fairly well.

MEDI 263: Final Images

MEDI 263: Reasearch

With my pictures looking best in a series i have decided to draw inspiration form other artists that work with series such as Sophie Calle: Sophie Calle is a French artist who works with photographs and performances, placing herself in situations almost as if she and the people she encounters were fictional.

I really like the very structured style despite very whimsical topics. This very much appeals to me and I would love to reflect a little of that in my work. 

However the main reason for having my work in a series is from the Japanese background of Manga books and then further out to comic book work. It sounds fairly sad but as a child my ideas of art were very influenced, as I'm sure a fare few children were, by comic books. I love the art and style and the liner manner of presentation. Graphic novels and the like are really a narrative mainly told with pictures and are very sparse on the words.

Obviously though my pictures are about food. So I have also looked at similar photographs and subject matter to mine.

I have noticed that warmer colours for food like the yellow lighting that Sainsbury's uses tend to evoke a homely feel. I am uncertain as to the cause and effect but a more orange glow to pictures of food tend to make me hungry. Maybe it is due to the brainwashing of modern life or the ploy of using yellower lights is well thought out. Not withstanding I have decided to keep the slightly more yellow hues of my pictures intact and to tweak the images not matching so that they now match the set. It personally makes me hungry when I look at the images of my sushi as I feel any picture of food should.   

MEDI 236: Documentary Proposal Two

For my documentary project I am going to focus on paganism sadly my research isn’t going as well as I had hoped due the overwhelming amount of hate, prejudice and general misinformation out there. I have come to the conclusion that I am going to have really dig around to actually find some real and valid facts and figures. I am more than likely going to have stills with either a text accompaniment or an audio track. It has worried me at the moment that this may be quite a flippant subject. I have taken some investigative shots of pagan objects and also a cat (being the traditional familiar) and I am pleased with how they turned out even though one might consider them to look stereotypical.

Definition of paganism: A blanket term used to define earth based and polytheistic religions or belief systems. Central to most if not all is a reverence of nature, which may or may not be represented through Gods or Goddesses. Included in the term pagan most commonly one would think of Wicca, Druidism and Shamanism etc. However even in these subsets individuals differ greatly.

Since paganism is in itself an umbrella term for a LOT of different beliefs so I may eventually just focus in on one aspect or one ‘path’ or one Holiday so that it minimizes confusion and my documentary doesn’t feel to cluttered.  

I would like to approach this from a pro-pagan stance and would like to be able to show that pagans are normal people, not to be feared.  

I have emailed and contacted some pagan groups via the internet to try and gather data and participants so I am waiting to hear back from the various groups.  

I would like ideally like to have my documentary with stills and voiceover in a kind of style of the film ‘La Jetee’ to reflect the subtle and gentle almost artistic feel to most earth based religions. I intend to record the interviews on a Marantz since the sound quality is good.   

I am still wondering if I need to include some video or not as ideally I want something hitting and effective without it but am worried I may need it to link things up if I do have the stills making a movie.

I would like to include images of the natural world and pagan objects as well as maybe people and also animals. I want a wide range of images that explain and showcase paganism in a positive light.

I think I would really like to fade on some kind of sunset shot since that is a very natural close and paganism is all about the natural world.

I am hoping overall to have an artistically beautiful piece as well as to make my statement (that being that pagans are just people too) and I hope it flows coherently.