Assignment 3/Tutorial 6

Assignment 3, Urban Fantasy, was particularly tricky because it tested our skills for manipulating images and assembling them together in a creative manner. The collage, to my interpretation, must be set within an urban area, and must contain a message, concept, or issue, which cannot be interpreted at face-value. In other words, the collage won't tell viewers its message at the first glance. The requirement of the putting images that altered one's imagination and perception proved challenging to me because, though, abstraction is something I liked, creating something surreal was another thing altogether. How to transfer my imagination into reality? Will I be able to manipulate images to how I see it in my head, given the limited Photoshop skills I have?

I started out by sourcing for images of buildings and skyscrapers online, specifically Google Images. Urban Fantasy means fantasy within an urban area, and hence, buildings must be part of my collage because they are such symbols of progress and urbanisation. As I browsed through the images, one by one, I had an idea for the collage. Some of the buildings really looked like weapons of destruction, so why not imply that with urbanisation, society, nature and the world are steadily - and stealthily - coming to an end? Pollution in land, water and air serve as a constant tug-of-war with the progress that comes with urbanization.

I developed this idea, having in mind to create a point of view in the collage that showed how different types of buildings, or "weapons", were being launched and zooming into a city. A spiraling and burst effect would also be achieved within the collage, signifying how humans experience a schizophrenic feeling of wanting to achieve more with urbanization, and yet the psychological fear of spiraling out of control and the desire to want to break free from it all are also present. And yet the over-reliance on technology and hunger for progress are, again, pulling humans in a downward spiral of destruction. Such a split feeling is what I want to show with the collage.

So I started editing, cropping and basically applying whatever I learnt in the Photoshop tutorials in this module to manipulate buildings like these:

Then I searched for images of swirls and explosions online and found these:

Apply Overlay and Colour Dodge in Photoshop to these two images, and the resulting image would look like this:

Then I looked for some images on cityscapes and added them to my collage. To me, collages have repetitive elements, so instead of using different buildings to create the scene of a city, I just used a single image of a cityscape, copying and reflecting the original image, making it a surreal city. Some more adjustments, and the resulting collage for my third assignment is this:

Class critique: Bringing this draft to class, there were negative and positive feedback received. Every student's work was flashed on screen before the class for critique. The class commended on my use of strong colours and complimenting colour choices to evoke feelings within the viewers. However, they felt that the perspective of the way the collage was presented could be improved. In other words, instead of looking like the buildings at the edges are attacking the city below, they look like they are being launched by the city. And so, Jing suggested approaching the perspective from below or above, by having the city be in the middle of the collage and buildings all around the edges appearing to be "zooming in" towards the city.

Lecture 6/Tutorial 5

This week we learned about Appropriation. The basic concept of appropriation is using existing material, changing its context and even appearance, and creating something "original" out of it. It brings up the issue of originality, and that nothing in this world is ever original, because existing material related to it can always be found. It could even be accidental, that an artist views a piece of artwork, and eventually comes up with an original piece of artwork based on that artwork that he or she viewed. It was in his or her subconscious that she "appropriated" the piece of artwork. Even if it was not subconsciously, if something is created and thought to be original, can it be confirmed that in some other parts of the world, the same thing is not created? Of course, this brings up the issue of copyrights. If one were to gain fame and recognition based on an artwork that originates from another piece of artwork, which piece of artwork, or rather artist, should be credited?

These were the issues mentioned in Lecture 6 this week, and many examples were shown in class, including Marcel Duchamp's Fountain, where the value of Art is questioned, with using a banal, mundane object like a toilet bowl, changing its position, and promoting it as "high art". Dadaism and Surrealism were mentioned again, but the most interesting part (for me) was the topic of Pop Art. Andy Warhol is one of my favourite artists, and his recognition is based on him using recognisable, familiar objects and people like Campbell soup and Marilyn Monroe to create artworks. He duplicates these images in artworks, and addresses issues like mass culture through his works. He is the epitome of Appropriation.

This week's tutorial was about Photoshop! Seeing how my skills were limited, I was excited about class. We learned different adjustments for a picture, non-destructive and destructive photo editing, and the various ways of selecting an area within a picture or photo. The 3 most useful things I have learnt from this week's tutorial are:

Before.

After. (Saturation was adjusted to the minimum, with foreground and background colours swopped to make some parts of the picture in colour, and others being desaturated)

Before.

After. (Hue was adjusted!)

Selection with Magnetic Lasso Tool.

Assignment 2/Tutorial 4

Assignment 2 was about finding a concept related to the Keitai Phenomenon. Concept first, technical aspects second. When Assignment 2 was given out, the first concept that came to mind was voyeurism. With the ubiquity of mobile phones, and their multi-functionality, one can never be sure if his or her privacy is being invaded at any one moment of their lives, especially in public places. Voyeurism describes an intrusive eye into people's real, unguarded lives, and is (at least, to me) a perfect example to describe how mobile phones can be an invasion of privacy.

In order to translate my concept into reality, I thought about how each picture could individually bring out the concept of voyeurism, and yet, could be brought together in sequence and have a common theme as well. I thought about the places people regarded as private, such as the toilet, their rooms, and the various camera positions that would bring out a sense of invasion. Black and white for the photos would be nice, because it brings out a certain emotion, or even creepiness, to the photos. It could even be said to give the photos a sombre mood, addressing the serious issue of voyeurism. I also got some inspiration from Cindy Sherman, an artist who deliberately creates everyday settings for her photo artworks.

I chose to use decanted and low angle shots for the last three photos to give a sense of uneasiness to the photos. Especially for the last photo, by placing a pan in the foreground, I wanted to show how the photographer was "creeping" up on the girl. In all four shots, the girl is not looking or looking away from the camera. This shows how she is 1. unaware of the invading camera, and 2. acting as a voyeur too, looking at something interesting (maybe someone else's life?) beyond the camera.

Class critique: I brought these photos to tutorial. Basically, the feedback was that, though the composition and treatment of the photos were good, the message (or theme) of voyeurism is not that clear. It needs to be stronger, more provocative, especially for the last two photos. Even if the girl was acting as the voyeur, her expressions could be more expressive and vivid to entice the viewers' imagination more.

Lecture 5/Class Exercise 3

Mid-term break is over! Lecture 5 was about digital collages and photomontages, which were very very interesting concepts because each artwork really tests the viewer's eye for detail. Jing spoke about how these digital collages and photomontages challenge the viewer's visual perceptions because, often, people take things they see for granted. Digital collages and photomontages therefore alters these perceptions by co-existing things within an artwork that do not seem to be connected in "real life". This idea of altering people's perception seems to be what I was aiming for in my previous assignment (Assignment 1), just that I chose to achieve this through jarring colours.

The main difference between digital collages and photomontages is that digital collages leave the edges rough and show distinct boundaries between objects that do not seem to relate to one another. On the other hand, photomontages seek to smoothen out the edges, blending the images into a seemingly coherent piece of work. Besides challenging people's perceptions, digital collages and photomontages also seek to address certain issues, be it within society or not.

Jing then showed us many examples of photomontages and digital collages, speaking about Dadaism and Surrealism in the process. Assignment 3 was also handed out, which involved creating either a digital collage or photomontage with the theme "Urban Fantasy". Checking out the meaning of "Urban Fantasy" online gave me a better understanding of what can be done. Basically it involves a work that is located in an urban setting and has aspects of fantasy in it. These works usually addresses psychological aspects of people, like some deep set insecurity of some sort, for example. This ideas made me relate to Inception, where buildings in people's subconscious were altered according to their emotions and such. I could delve deeper into such a concept for Assignment 3.

But before that, Jing also gave us class exercise 3 to do, where we had to look for a photomontage or digital collage online and comment on it. After looking for some time, I found this:

The artist of this piece was not specifically mentioned, but the names Corey Eiseman and Gustavo Romano were mentioned. It is said that this work is like a Blog, where the digital collage is consistently reworked, and everyday the "previous entry" is used as the starting point. The work is consistently updated, like a documentation of current issues and other things. Since it is like a documentation, news from the media can be seen within the artwork. Of course, the artist(s) could be trying to question the value and concept of Art by putting in the text "IS IT ART?" and "OR IS IT SPAM?". Perhaps what the artist is trying to say is that, Art is starting to lose its value, where everything can be made and made to be like Art. In the process, the "purity" of Art is lost, making it become like "spam". Can this digital collage be considered as Art, then? But then, maybe the artist is just trying to fool the eye with these texts; maybe the texts were just placed there, not intended to be read and comprehended at face value?

Lecture 4/Tutorial 3

Keitai Aesthetics continued for another week, with Jing touching on the tension between mobile phone art and the traditional notion of photography art. With IPhone applications like Instagram and Hipstamatic, can anyone become a professional photographer, making these professional photographers appear foolish, as their line of profession seem like one that can be undertaken by anyone with a smart phone. Is the art of photography diluted now? On the other hand, mobile phone art is becoming more and more recognised, with exhibitions of mobile phone photographs being held. Documentaries are also being taken with the video function of smart phones, emphasizing on the whole notion of a "mobile multi-modality era".

Tutorial 3 was hands-on fun as well. We had our second class exercise, where we had to take an extraordinary sighting amongst the mundane, ordinary everyday life. So I walked around school again, looking for inspiration, until I saw, just opposite the bus-stop outside the Central Forum, the row of flowers along the walkway to the Engine canteen. People were walking pass that walkway, minding their own business, but who will stop to look at those flowers, which were in full bloom and vibrantly coloured? So I took a photo of the flowers, highlighting their sense of neglect, and only then were people taking notice. I added some effects from an application of my phone, creating a "sense of loneliness" for the flower.

Assignment 1/Tutorial 2

Arriving at Changi Airport, I was a little disappointed to see that it was more crowded than I had hoped it would be. The last time I was there taking photos, Terminal 3 was not yet open, so it was relatively deserted, and made photo-taking much more enjoyable. People's movements hindered the overall capture of the interior patterns of the terminals, giving less texture to the photo taken. But by the end of the day, after much experimenting with different shutter speeds and aperture values, I got the shots I wanted.

The process of editing the photos were fun, as well. I did not have much experience with Photoshop, so there was much experimentation with the different adjustments I could have with the photos. I prefer photos that speak the word "desolation" to me, so I always prefer my photos to be black and white or in monochrome colours. I believe that colours are often taken for granted by the human eye, so I purposely alter the colours of each shot, in hopes that my photos would sensitize people, forcing them to take into account and pay attention to every detail of the photos. I played around with the Colour Balance, Level of Exposure, Brightness and Contrast, Shadows and Highlights, and even the Hue and Saturation functions of Photoshop to end up with these:

1.

Deep Depth of Field (DDOF): I like how the patterns of the ceiling, floor, and each check-in stall stretch towards a common horizon. I still wished this shot did not have people in it, but I was still satisfied with the overall effect. I desaturated the original photo, edited the contrast, and played around with the colour balance.

Critique: During tutorial 2, we brought our photos to class and had some of our fellow tutorial classmates critique our work. For this photo, the feedback given was that it would have been better if the two black boards were not there on the left side of the photo, and that the photo was not tilted (albeit slightly) to one side. But they liked the composition, and how the "layers" of the photo were very distinct.

2.

Shallow Depth of Field (SDOF): Again, I like how the lines and patterns stretch towards a common point in the photo. There is also a successful balance of blur in the background and focus in the foreground, by putting the clock as the point of reference. I edited the photo by altering its colour balance and contrast.

Critique: It is not obvious that the clock was the point of reference. Also, the background could afford to be more out of focus, to emphasize on the foreground.

3.

Blur Motion: I was stuck on the concept of this photo, unable to find inspiration for a satisfying Blur Motion shot, until I remembered the shot Lionel said he took in Orchard Ion. So, taking inspiration from him, I rode the escalator up and down, with minimal shutter speed, taking photos and trying not to move much, until I got this shot. Aesthetics-wise, I edited the colour balance, shadow and highlight colours, having contrasting colours like blue and red to make the photo jarring and more dynamic.

Critique: They liked the colours and effect, but felt that perhaps having a clear subject somewhere in the photo would make the it seem less flat, because having an entirely blur photo would make the photo appear somewhat flat.

4.

Freeze Action: This was the trickiest shot of them all. I tried taking shots of water dripping onto a plant, but it failed terribly because my camera could not capture the droplets (they were too inconsistent) at the right time, and the background was not flattering for the photo settings. So I resorted to taking water sprouting out from a water cooler, trying to capture the frozen movement of the water.

Critique: The composition is nice, but the subject matter could be better (and I agree). The water movement is also not that in focus.

Reflections for Assignment 1: Definitely had fun playing with the effects of the photos and the overall experience of photo-taking, but it seems I need to re-take some of the photos, especially the one of Freeze Action.

Lecture 3

Keitai Aesthetics!! Somehow this week's lecture was something that I could relate to, possible because I use the mobile phone camera function frequently as well. This week's lecture was about Mobile Imaging; how the mobile phone's camera function and its popularity has evolved throughout the years, and the issues alongside its evolution. Besides statistics showing the growth in camera-phone functions and sales, Jing also spoke about how the camera-phone is becoming ubiquitous and is increasing connection between people. She also talked about the rise of personal photography with such camera-phones, and how the camera-phone is a memory-capturing, communicative and expressive device, all in one.

I could relate to that, because my mobile phone has brought me so much convenience in photo-taking, be it with friends or just my surrounding environment. Looking through the photos in my phone, memories of that day would surface to my mind, reminding me of the people and events of that day. Seeing beautiful or peculiar sightings or objects would urge me to take out my mobile phone and take a picture of it because I bring my phone with me wherever I go. Sometimes, I even take photos of mundane things in life. But with such ubiquity comes issues of privacy and voyeurism, which is the issue I would like to explore for assignment 2. The basic concept I had thinking about the assignment when Jing gave it out, was how with mobile phones, people's privacy are deprived. Is there truly a place where we can feel safe now, a place away from the prying eyes of such technology?