Wednesday, 28 October 2009 Urban Planning

The circuit board I managed to get did not scan properly. However, the photograph I took was large enough to manipulate to my purpose. The tricky step in preparing the circuit boards for use was in getting the image of the circuit board to be aligned in accordance to the layout of the writing. Once I had played with the orientation of the image, I thoroughly enjoyed manipulating the resulting images to create my final choice. I found that in this final image I had a great freedom in being able to use the layers precisely as I wanted. I experienced a greater capacity to be able to erase without unnecessary mistakes and manipulate the blending techniques.

In my final choice, I decided that the image needed a plain strip of pink diagonally behind the top of the image, as well as down the left-side. In order to create this effect I duplicated the circuit board layer and the glove/cloth layer, and pasted them at a different orientation to the original. Then by erasing the unnecessary areas – in some cases most of the image – I was able to create the effect I required. This ability to control my image to create what I desired has proved to me that I have learnt a lot from my struggles during this assignment. I felt as if the “penny had finally dropped”.

Before commencing this course I tried many tutorials on Photoshop; and yet never felt that I had made a breakthrough towards understanding what I was doing. I now feel as if I have gained a greater freedom in being able to explore the creation of digital imagery. What I find particularly thrilling about this image is that I commenced this whole assignment with the desire to express my new appreciation for the urban environment. In a sense I went through a whole circle, eventually moving further and further away from an image related to a cityscape. Through the gift of a t-shirt, I was once again inspired to use the city as a theme for imagery. As Almaty is undergoing a dramatic urban renewal program in preparation for the upcoming Asian Winter Olympics, the image of a distorted, moving pair of scissors is very appropriate. The city is literally being cut up and reorganized at an unprecedented rate. The scissors on top of the simulated overhead view of a city or city planners blue print is an interesting comment on urban planning.

Urban Imaging

I decided to pick a scanned image of a single object which I felt held the greatest potential for exploration. I chose the moving image of a pair of orange scissors. Although an everyday object, the distortion of this tool has an eerie effect. Scissors are predictably similar in shape and appearance, with the idea promoted by le Corbusier that “Form follows function”. However, in this case, the scissors have been removed from their eveyday use as their distortion gives an indication of movement and a morphing in functioning. While playing with ideas, I laid eyes on a Korean t-shirt I had just been given. As the shirt had an image of a city on the front, with metallic sparkles and attractive writing, I decided to scan it. In trying to get as much of the image as possible on the screen I set it at an angle. The resulting image started a spurt of ideas. Its angle worked perfectly with the flow of the lines of the scissors placed on the layer on top of it. The rest of the evening was spent playing with different textures and patterns in the background of the two images – the scissors and the cityscape. In this image I have newspaper, rubber gloves and fabric forming the texture of the background. On seeing this image, my husband suggested using computer circuit boards as a background to correlate with the grid-like arrangement of city streets, as mentioned in the writing on the t-shirt.

A Struggle for Clarity

Tuesday, 27 October 2009 A Struggle for Clarity Today I feel as if I have had a major breakthrough. The image that I have finally settled on not only expresses my grasp of the concepts taught during this chapter, but seems to be more refined and less cluttered than the images that lead up to its creation.

At the outset of this assignment I researched Digital Art images on the internet and was drawn to Shards by Annette Weintraub with her reflections of the cityscape (see previous entry). I was fascinated by the fragments of images she used to create an almost stained glass window effect out of images from a city at night – neon signs, billboards and street lights fracture the surface of her image. I desired to try to celebrate the urban cityscape in my own images. Initially, on moving to Almaty, I detested the high rise apartment blocks and found its sights repulsive. However, over the years I have learnt to see beauty in my surroundings and I wished to show my growing appreciation for urban life. With this in mind I sought to depict images of the people and everyday images that frequent my life. As I relish the diversity of faces I am surrounded by in Central Asia, I decided to take my sketches of people as a starting point. I then chose images that I see every day in my kitchen as the textures and patterns to use in the various layers. As I manipulate these images, however, I became increasingly boxed into a certain way of developing my ideas. In my effort to create a theme to my collage, I found that my composition was predominantly figurative and literal. The images appeared forced and contrived, and did not appear to reflect the topic “collage”. I found it hard to break out of the mode of wanting to illustrate my ideas of city life, as in a storybook style narrative. All of my attempts at arriving at an image resulted in cluttered and overworked images. Each layer I was using was highly complex and the resulting images conflicted with each other. In each case I tried to start with images that I was personally drawn to and which I felt could be thematically linked into a narrative. Interestingly, these images were already too well developed to be able to function as layers without becoming too labored and chaotic. After revisiting the works of fellow students, e.g. the work of “Vixart’s”, and after writing to my tutor, Ayssar Ghassan, I realized that my images were far too crowded to be effective. I needed to stretch myself further to develop a picture which crystallized its use of imagery. I also saw that the blending techniques used here, were applied with greater subtlety. On studying Vixart’s Assignment #3’s image was deceptively simple and yet used layering in a way which I had not yet explored completely. These reflections were to precipitate my “AA-HA” moment, which was to lead to an image which I feel has the clarity and quality I was striving for.

Further steps

After contemplating the need to have a narrative to enable my images to not appear merely random, I revisited the work of Annette Weintraub. What impressed my about her work was the fact that she uses images from the urban environment and yet presents it in such a stunningly beautiful way so that it almost looks like the refections of a stained glass window in a Gothic cathedral. I started to consider where I find my solice and a chance to contemplate. As my week unwinds, it is often standing in my kitchen washing hours of mindless dishes that I find my time to reflect on the day and the path my life is taking. If I were to calculate how long I spend in each area of the apartment, this is the region where my life often centers.

Working with this idea, I realised that I could use images from the kitchen to feature in my next collage project. Some of which I have already scanned. As I started to play with ideas I started to think about that fact that without the chance to centre myself and reflect, I would not have the energy and focus to fulfill the role I play in the expatriate community here. When I hit days which are a furl of activity and stress - it is the time spent in my kitchen, praying through my issues that helps to keep going. To keep in touch with those whose lives I encounter - particulalry the students I teach. I am indebted to the fact that my kitchen is actually a safe-haven.

As I was playing with kitchen images, I decided to try to incorporate a portrait of a child I sketched last year. As I explained, I am able to reach out to children on a continual basis because I have ''down-time" in my kitchen, re-energizing.

What I descovered during the creation of this image was that each layer can be "nudged" to shift it to a more appropriate spot. This can radically effect the image moving images away from positions which are distracting.

I also played with using the eraser function to remove sections of the orginal drawing so that images underneath could show through. What I enjoyed playing with was the fact that the white areas of the boys face and collar are actually alive with other images including teabag labels. I love my cup of tea! So the inclusion of teabags represents how I enjoy the solice of a well brewed cup of tea.

During my expermentaion I found that the warmer appearance of the red - brown colour combinations brought about by

Inspiration needed

Today I have endeavored to get beyond my Digital Art block. I spent a considerable amount of time on the internet researching various sites related to Digital Art. A few artists that caught my attention have works which could be described as Surrealistic.

The work of Kevin Saunders, Flow, is reminiscent of Salivador Dali. I find the way in which the fish is taken to a new dimension through the simple rickety ladder which climbs into its tail section, intriguing. The color combination is also particularly stunning. The apparent erosion of the fish is reminiscent of the way in which metal erodes at the seaside, and yet the fish is propped up out of water - in dry docks as it were.

This exquisite artwork, Blumen by Vanessa Meideros, shows the potential of using layers to highlight the designs found in composite images. The colors seem to indicate that she used color dodge features to create the almost bubble colors of the images.

Digital Art Discoveries

Today while researching Digital Art for my Art History Classes I stumbled across the work of Annette Weintraub. In reading the article explaining how she arrives at her images I was excited to hear that she uses multi-layering techniques, which is the section I am trying to get to understand. Her images are incredibly rich in saturated colors and strong contrast. I really find the image Shards particularly appealing through its inclusion of architectural elements, urban signs and optical illusion of crystal-like shards. Her color balancing within the image is superb in the way that it facitilates movement within the image.

Reference:

Annette Weintraub. "Shards". 1996. Techno Seduction. 25 August 2009