Direction

This project has now got to a point where I need to decide on one strong direction to have this project to carry on with at the start of the new year. So far I've now really looked at much however what I have looked at is pretty telling. First of, the video I was trying to create doesn't seem like it will be worth the effort, I feel that the strongest areas that I'll be able to push this project forward will be photography. Also the whole of this project is suppose to be to work towards a competition and the one that I feel would be best suited for me is one that is only photography. With this in mind I'm going to carry on with the lenticular portraits as with it being a competition I need to create a set of images that follow a certain, which, will be 'Portraits with a twist'. There will still be a lot to take into consideration, for example to I have it with or with out the lenticular plastic, or do I use the plastic but not align it properly. Also exactly how will I take the photos, do I want it just a passport portrait, or the whole body. Also how what will I then do to the pictures, the two Images I've made have very different looks even though they aren't very different. There will be much to contemplate in the new year, however until then I have written work to be produced so this project will take a short break.

My Magic Trick New

Here is my edited version of 'My Magic Trick'. Unfortunately for some reason the quality isn't amazing however going through photoshop and being made into a jpeg and then being pushed through final cut and has lowered the quality heavily. I'm not sure exactly what to think of it. I know it looks better in the way that it's all in focus and if and if it was the same quality as the RAW files it would have looks much better however I'm not completely sure. When I compare the two I do kind of prefer the original version. The way I'm seeing is that the original could be kind of be real, the girl removing her facial features however the new one is almost too staged. I think this project could go in a way that I create work that doesn't look amazing. Out of focus stuff, messy but almost 'real'. Also, combined with the lenticular style in it's raw format it could become a really interesting project. Going to have to create some more videos and pictures however I think that this project could go into a good direction from here!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH7uEmgKXhQ

Erik Johanson Part 2 - Rant

After looking at Man Ray I decided to look at the other end of the scale. I've seen a far bit of Johanson's work over the last couple of years as he in one of the best digital image manipulators around. Looking at his portfolio his work is amazing. Some of it is out of this world and with the modern advances in digital software the work that he does is realistic, in some pictures it's hard to distinguish what is real from fake and really is great. It's funny looking at the two photographers (Ray & Johanson) as I would say that they where/are the top of the era, film and digital. I honestly couldn't say who's I prefer, Johanson's work is brilliant and there's no denying that, however there is work like it and anyone with a good camera and photoshop could produce the same level of work. Man Ray on the other hand is as striking however will never get old, it's got such a huge level of age that people will still be idealisn his work in decades to come when there will be a new form of digital photography in the next year or two (3-D, lenticular and what ever CS6 will have to offer)

Erik Johanson

After looking at Man Ray I decided to look at the other end of the scale. I've seen a far bit of Johanson's work over the last couple of years as he in one of the best digital image manipulators around. Looking at his portfolio his work is amazing. Some of it is out of this world and with the modern advances in digital software the work that he does is realistic, in some pictures it's hard to distinguish what is real from fake and really is great. It's funny looking at the two photographers (Ray & Johanson) as I would say that they where/are the top of the era, film and digital. I honestly couldn't say who's I prefer, Johanson's work is brilliant and there's no denying that, however there is work like it and anyone with a good camera and photoshop could produce the same level of work. Man Ray on the other hand is as striking however will never get old, it's got such a huge level of age that people will still be idealisn his work in decades to come when there will be a new form of digital photography in the next year or two (3-D, lenticular and what ever CS6 will have to offer)

What I am thinking is combining the two working methods of Erik Johanson and Aziz & Cucher. The photoshop look from Johanson and the skin work from A&C. I think that it will hopefully work really well, will take some experimenting and maybe play with some lenticular however I do see potential

Staudinher and Frankie

The work of 'Staudinher and Frankie' is pretty much all contemporary advertisement however nearly all of it is all heavily photoshopped. This one is just one example however the bit of work that relates most to my work and the work that I want to achieve. Now, they are two professional that have much experience in the photoshop however if I can come anywhere close to the work below I'll be very pleased.
Now the picture above I really enjoy. It's pretty hard to see what exactly it is which I like however you can see it kind of resembles some kind of insect and it does look like something that could scare someone which is something that I'm certainly wanting to achieve.

Lenticular Raw

The below image is of the raw stage of the lenticular process. At this stage the four original images have been cut up and layered into a single image. The thing is, I really like it, somehow I like it more then just a the Raw photoshop file of the girl without a face. What I'm thinking is that I could create this style of image but with laying different things. So instead of having my model moving her head, have the model layered with a certain object which would be an object that would make the final image a bit more striking. Something to play about with as I think it could have a strong outcome.

Lenticular

Here is the layered and edited version of the Lenticular I created with the help of Stuart in the Uni Mac Lab. It's the four images that I took when doing my photo shoot cut up and processed in lenticular software.

Unfortunately the printer at the uni has some new paper and for some reason the plastic card that you put over the top the top to create the lenticular doesn't align properly and the end product isn't completely all together. It still kind of works as you can see from the video above, it's still moving but not correctly however I'm told that it should be able to be done next week sometime.

Man Ray

Even though my work is going to nearly entirely be digital based is almost impossible to ignore the work of Man Ray. One of the main starters of Avant-garde his work has inspired so much work in the modern era it's fantastic. Just take the photo below, created doing double exposures on 35mm film it's has a very interesting look which is great. I really prefer this single picture far more then most of the modern, extremely average digital manipulation photography that I see being created day-in day-out. I think the thing with Man Ray's photography is that it has a endless age, with digital photography there is newer software out and people are always getting better but with manipulation photography on 35mm is that it's hard to get that much better and some of the results, however simple it is it will still have a strong look.

David Hockney

A technique that has court my interest over the last few weeks is photomontage, especially the work by 'David Hockney'. Even though his work has a deep meaning to it I think that I could experiment strongly with this the technique. The picture below is simply of the face however I think that I could take this into my own style and create something pretty weird.
I really like the work of Hockney, their's something really interesting about the look, from landscapes to portraits it's a look that really intrigues me, differently something I would like to incorporate into my work.

Aziz and Cucher

One of my main inspirations for this project is the work of 'Aziz and Cucher' (Anthony Aziz & Sammy Cucher). I'm not always a large fan of portrait photography but this work really is intriguing to me. It's almost kind of hard to say what it is. A&C themselves say that it's photography however the work hasn't been created in photoshop and therefor it's almost sculptural. I like it, it's odd, and it's something that I've copied in a different medium and I kind of prefer my work then theirs. Even though it looks good I prefer it look a tad more disturbing and I feel this work it more arty, that's not to say that it's bad just I would have preferred something a bit different.
Looking at this work I know that I want to create something that has a much stronger look, something that hopefully provokes a emotion or work that a viewer looks at and isn't completely sure what it is. I might have to play around with some techniques and not sure if I'll only do studio work or if I can take it into the street or even bring something else into the picture, something none human.

Joseba Elorza

Just browsing the internet I came across the work by 'Joseba Elorza'. Now it would call the graphic design however it could arguably be called photography as all of the images are photographical. I really like it, good colours, strong imagery and a overall good look about it. It's not exactly work that I can really incorporate into my own working style however it's still something that is good to look at.
Out of the two images here the one below is my favourite. The combination of the vivid colours and the depth of the image really works well. Also the man with the tree combining thing is also a really good look. It's not grotesque like what I want achieve however it's still really got a really good look. One thing I could take into my own work is have the items that I'm going to create and have them in a normal surroundings, something maybe too consider.

My Magic Trick Shoot

Here are the Images of the photo-shoot for the 'My Magic Trick' video that I'm planning to create. As you can see the girl moves her hands over her face and at those points I'll erase her eyes, then her mouth, then her nose and then at the end she'll put them back on. It worked well the first time so hopefully this will look great.

!Photoshoot!

Yesterday I had my first major photo-shoot for this project. Completely studio based I took shot the images that I will be using to create 'My Magic Trick' and hopefully the pictures that I will be able to make into a lenticular image. I also took a few experimental pieces that I might be able to make into a 3D image but not that sure.

From what I am looking at it was a successful shoot, I just shot on a basic white backdrop and strong lighting that should hopefully allow my life to be easier when it comes down to editing all of the photos in photoshop. I've kept it pretty simple and only did the same as my original pieces of work as a starting point with the aim to go bigger in the coming months. Also I shot the photos for a lenticular image. Keeping it as simple as possible I'm going to make it a four frame image where my models face will disappear in each frame, fingers crossed that It will come out with a strong look so it will be a technique that I will be able to play with in the future.

Nottingham Art Exchange

Whilst we where in Nottingham we decided that we should go and check one of the other galleries in the City. We decided to go to the Exchange and thankfully we choose well. It was much smaller then the Contemporary and only have 3 films showing but they where truly worth it. One of them was a docudrama which didn't take my interest but the other two where pretty special. The first was called 'User group disco' which was a very arty modern piece by "Elizabeth Price'. It's a bit hard to explain in text however it was something that got me to watch for a good while.

The second film that court my attention was a piece called "The Clock' by 'Christian Marcaly' which has to be one of the most mesmerising films I've ever seen and ranks up with 'Steve McQueen'. The idea of it is extermely simple but as a over piece it's very good. It's a 24hour video which explained simply thousands of shots of clocks and people telling the time from clips from films which corresponds with the actual. So if you played the film at 00:00 then by watching the film at any part of the day you would be able to tell the time. A really thought bit of work which must have taken many years to gather the footage to create.

Trip to Nottingham

For a bit of motivation myself and a friend decided to go to the Contemporary Art Gallery in Nottingham to go and see the British Art Show. It wasn't quit what we expected as there was no Photography and one Video piece. Thankfully though I enjoy art work and we did see some really good sculptures and paintings including a interesting piece by Brian Griffins.

One thing we did see though was that in the new year they have the Work of 'Anne Collier' & 'Jack Goldstein' Which should be very good to see and something to look foreword too.

Proposal feedback

Had a quick feedback session for the Proposal l handed in last week, pretty basic stuff, need to create a proper timetable and fully organise my time management for the entire year. This will be research, development and experimentation, creating and then I'll need to set a couple of weeks at the ends of the project to make the final work pieces. Also I'll need to find a lot more artists and photographers that I can look at as my starting points,

The other thing that I'll need to do is create a DVD that showcase my work that relates to this project. It shouldn't be that difficult, I have a hard copy of 'My Magic Trick' and also I have a good amount of images that I took in my year a college which I can show and give examples of the ideas.

One of the ideas that I was thinking about and a technique that I am really interested in trying is Lenticular. looking at the idea of manipulation what I'm thinking about doing is creating a image of a person's face and in each frame a part of their face disappearing. Much like what I'm planning to with my stop frame piece just using a difference medium.

Talking to Stuart:
I know the concept of Lenticular printing but wasn't hundred percent on the creation so I spoke to the main person who deals with printing at the University. He told me that was Lenticular printing involves is have a set of images, 4, 6, or 8 and then layering them over each other then when you put the plastic over the images you will see frame but frame. There are other bits to it but until I actually take the pictures and manipulate them then I can't really put more now. This means that over the next week or two I'll have to find a model to go into the studio with and shoot my stop frame and the images for this Lenticular in one shoot. Fingers crossed that both will give good outcomes.

Lenticular Idea

One of the ideas that I was thinking about and a technique that I am really interested in trying is Lenticular. looking at the idea of manipulation what I'm thinking about doing is creating a image of a person's face and in each frame a part of their face disappearing. Much like what I'm planning to with my stop frame piece just using a difference medium.

Project Proposal rough

Project Proposal - Manipulation


Manipulating everyday objects that one doesn’t pay much attention to and dramatically change it, for better or for worse.

For my project I am planning to create a group of pieces that will play on people’s senses, what I will set out to achieve to create work that will trick people, distort people’s senses and hopefully confuse people. To do this I will use multiple techniques, which will include sound, video, photography and possibly even holograms to complete my aim.

The time scale for this project will break down into two main areas, the first being research and experimentation and then development and production. For the first two months I will be aiming to find which of the techniques I listed above I can realistically produce whilst looking into different photographers and film makers that can influence my work and push everything forward. The second stage will be refining this work that I will start in stage one and then to start to produce the final pieces of work. I imagine that the research will also have to go all through the project however it is likely to take a bit of a back peddle when I’m going though the main part of my development.

When it comes to research and influences I will have to look at photographer, video artist, sound artist and I will also look at fine artist and I believe that looking at sculptures will be a stage of interest. This whole body of work has already been heavily influenced by the works of ‘Aziz and Cucher’ whose sculptural pieces have had my interest for a long time now and I believe and their work will help push my project to newer ground

Second tutorial

Today I had my second tutorial of the year where I had to hand in my project proposal. The main point was that I need to start thinning down the amount of ideas that I have for this project and only focus on a couple of roots instead of mass that I have. One idea that is going around is looking into perfectionism as that's something that kind of interests me as I'm a larger then average person and look at the gym as the mountain the climb where the people close to perfect hang. The only problem with perfectionism is that it could and would likely send me down a route that I'm not really that interested in. This being looking at advertisement and how that portraits what a perfect person 'should' look like. Not only that but it would also send me going at looking at other people, one idea that came out of the tutorial was going and interviewing people in the public and asking them what they would change about themselves and also what their idea of perfection would be. This idea could work, and could work well at that but I don't really see it as something that interests me that much, also its something that is always in the media and something that real have looked at probably a bit too much.

What's going to interest me more in just looking at more subtle manipulations, like just removing something that you wouldn't see straight away. This I think has much more potential and is something that I can see myself getting more interested in which I feel is the more important thing that this early stage of the project.

Examples of old work

This project does come from a project that I did in my year at college where I a did a more basic version of the stuff that I'm planning to do this year. Nothing amazing just removing peoples facial features which even at a early stage got people's attention which is a good starting point.

This body of work was very experimental and something that I was doing to play about with photoshop but gave a good outcome and for that reason I feel that it would be something that I would be able to push forward in many ways and something that would have value in a competition as it has a shock value but then also is pretty intriguing to look at which should be good for this project.

Start

To start things of I want to remake the video piece I created in my first year.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9qK39xH3Fg

It's a short that I made for experimental purposes which turned out to be a really good bit work which I think would be good for this project. This video I created doing stop frame but I didn't use a tripod and it was pretty rushed. I also did it in my Halls and you can see the light turn on half way through. What I think will be good will be to re-create this film but make it more professional. What I am planning to do is the exact same thing however this time I will go into a studio, use a better camera, set everything up properly with a tripod and pretty much do the exact same thing as I think it will look really good and also I feel that it should be effective when shown to an audience.

Notes from tutorial

First Tutorial

On Thursday this week I had my first Tutorial for this project. It went well, positive feedback and my classmates gave me some good recommendations which is a really positive for a first tutorial.

Manipulation:

Manipulation everyday objects that one doesn't pay much attention to and dramatically changing in for better or for worse.

• Photography based
• Lots of flash
• Transformation
• Trick and Distort
• Grotesque
• Body Manipulation
• Over the top
• Disorientating
• LESS IS MORE

Idea: Dissembling objects objects then re-assembling them in something new.

Techniques: Stop frame, Lenticular, 3-D, Sound

Artists and photographers of interest: Aziz & Cucher, Chris Cunningham, I am Legend, Silent Hill, Matt Collishaw.

Nation Portrait Gallery.

With all these ideas it will take me a month or two to actually come up with a single focal point to this project as there are a good few possibilities to where it can go to.

Idea changing

Idea 1 is now gone, pointless and something that I can see no point is pushing forward - End

Idea 2, this project is now something that I'm going to do for my other project this year - PHVP 3409 just because I don't really think that It would really be material to get into a exhibition or funding so therefor feeling is wouldn't work.

Idea 3 & 4 I think will be pushed into one project, looking at all forms of manipulation, both the human body and artificial items, maybe combining the two into one. I think this will work well, it's something that I've looked into before and I think it will be something that can be pushed forward effectively. It will deferentially be something that would be material that would be able to be put into a gallery space and I believe it could be something that could be able get funding. Also for me it should hopefully be something that I will be able to get behind and be motivated to push it forward.

Summer thinking...Ideas

So over the last couple of weeks I've been starting to brainstorm a few ideas that I would want to do for the final year. Over the past two years I've come to discovered that I'm really going to need a strong idea that will allow me to push forward for the whole year as in previous projects I've really struggled to get going and certainly after the Christmas break. So due to that knowledge I really to think of a project that will motivate me and something that I'll really get behind.

Idea 1

The ideas that I'm contemplating mainly resolve around three main focal points. The first is nature, something that I've been interested in for all my life and something that I know I would be motivated to work behind. The main problem with looking at nature is where to start and what exactly to do. I would be interested in doing wildlife photography however I know that would be too hard to be creative and just generally achieve. The main problem with wildlife photography is exactly what to do, everything that I would be able to achieve is such a short amount of time would almost certainly have been done, published and also would be pretty boring.

Idea 2

The other part of nature that I would like to look at is nature and man's interaction. Now this would be far more creative and productive then looking into wildlife photography. I also think there would be far more roots that I can go down. I could go at Leicester race course and look at the interactive between punters and the racing itself with I think would work well. I think I would also be able to contact several zoos and other places along those lines and document the places inside and out.

Idea 3

The other point that I would be interesting into looking into is manipulation. In my second year I did a piece of work (http://hursty02.blogspot.com/) which looked at manipulating objects that you wouldn't pay much attention and changing them dramatically. What I primarily looked at last year where bridges, taking a picture of the bridge from the side and changing it in photoshop to make it circular. The project went from strength to strength and it proved to be a generally exciting project that I think would be good to carry on. I would have to find a new item to look at, or several items to look at but I do think it could work.

Idea 4

Kind of the same line as manipulating but looking at the human body. I made a short film in my first year which was a complete experimental piece but its still one of the strongest things I've made in my years at University.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D9qK39xH3Fg) If I carry this on then I would work mainly with the human body but manipulating it strongly. Making more work like the one above and maybe looking size and perfection. The only problem with this is that I'm not that happy with working with people, unfortunately I don't trust people sometimes to turn up for shoots and even then trying to actually get people to do it is not always easy, certainly if I need to get people to be topless or more.

Maybe a combination between Ideas 3 and 4 could be a good way of working.