Homework #5: (4.) 2 Artists who use Photography

1. Geoffrey H. Short

Geoffrey H. Short is a photographer based in Auckland, New Zealand. The first two are from his series, Towards another (Big Bang) theory (2009). He stages explosions using a mix of gunpowder and fossil fuels and then captures them on camera giving them an isolated tone that lingers between "terror and sublime." You can read more on his blog.

2. Joschi Herczeg and Daniele Kaehr

Joschi Herczeg and Daniele Kaehr work with pyrotechnics that connect to the camera to capture light explosions - using the explosions as the material of the works and playing with chance. "The explosions take place in a domestic setting to play upon feelings of anxiety and unrest" (We Find Wildness). 

Homework#5: (1.) Digital Artist, Ruud Van Empel

World #36, cibachrome print, 2010.

 Reflection, archival pigment print, 105 x 150 cm, 2010

Theater #2, cibachrome print, 2010

Ruud Van Empel (b. 1958) is a Dutch artist, based in the Netherlands. He has been working with Photoshop since the early 90's; his photographs are composited from many different images he has personally taken both in and out of the studio. In this interview, he talks about the notion of "re-creating a better reality" through his methodical process. By using parts and pieces of photographs in such a way, Van Empel renders a real environment that is slightly off-kilter somehow, eerily imperfect. In terms of photography, he is taking concepts of light and space and making them his own, making his photographs somewhat painterly in how he creates compositions and subjects. He is also interested in innocence, and photographs from his own childhood.

Homework #5: (3.) 4 Creative Ideas

Based on the photograph from class, here are some ideas on how to use the photo creatively.

1. Using photography to explore obscurity and abstraction; taking a space we see everyday and reinventing it by exploring different camera views, zooming in, or even zooming out. Questions could be, what is the space and object usually for? How might you change its purpose through a photograph? Alter its meaning and function?

2. Telephone booth as a space. This could be a collaborative group project where students are asked to reinvent the space knowing they must keep the structure of the telephone booth. In an imaginary scenario, students would be brainstorming and designing a new function for old telephone booths in a public space - what could it be used for? What could you add to it? remove? repurpose?

3. Cut-up: using previous photographs and cutting them up to create new, refracted images; self-portraiture could be interesting. Students could take photos of themselves and divide them up and intersperse within those images textures, colors, objects, etc. that reflect an aspect of themselves (or several aspects).

4.Surfaces: using photography to explore textures that are physical (foliage, material-based) versus those that are visual (2D prints, text, etc); could also use collage as a physical exploration.

Homework #5: (2.) Photograph

I took this photograph at the old telephone booths located downstairs in the basement of Zankel Hall. I thought the booths themselves were interesting as these strange, antiquated spaces that no longer serve a function - even the phones were taken out. I chose this photo because of the infinity quality from the different panels of reflective surface, which then refract the face. Perhaps then the focus changes from the face to the lines that are created, dividing the composition across the photo.

Twitter: Alain de Botton

Despite my annoyances with twitter, certain things work really well. One of those things is Alain de Botton and his tweets about life, success, religion, failure, etc. His short philosophical thoughts are some of the best things I read that's shorter than 140 characters.

(1.) Digital Painting

This "painting" was created using Paintbrush, a program for Macs similar to MS Paint on Windows. It's nostalgic in a way because it is such a basic program but I remember using it when I was in grade school as a way of drawing and experimenting. While the aesthetic is very different from what I would like out of a painting, the process was still layering, playing with textures of brushes (kind of) and densities of color. The only frustrating part was that MS Paint lacks any possibility for transparency and playing with opacity so layers only become covered, and cannot be viewed.

(1.) Digital Drawing

I used the program Pixelmator (a poor man's Photoshop?) to create the drawing. In the process, I thought about the process of my own drawing and how I might be able to translate it digitally. It was difficult to get the energy of charcoal, or the ghost images created by an eraser, but I found similar techniques through the use of white and black; I did not erase any marks but instead "drew" over them using different tones. I did not use a tablet so mark making felt more unnatural but created different effects and marks than I think if I had one. 

OFF/ON Project: Screenshots

Although the post-it visual has everything to do with the analog idea of turning off, I've also thought a lot about how screenshots have become a valid way of tracking funny things we see on the internet or snippets of conversation and communication - perhaps not valid, but a way to remember these "internet" moments nonetheless. I keep an album of them, and it is amusing, but it's also become part of the documentation of our everyday - isn't that strange? a gchat window now functions also as "that time that we..". it is also a nice way to remember stupid things, such as when google is tracking your searches and matches it to interesting ads on facebook or while you are searing for something else. below are a few of my "memories" (perhaps not the most nostalgic or sentimental ones):

Documenting a Process: Video clip

I published still images, but I thought a sped up version of video had interesting sounds for documentation.

Screenshot 1: To learn about adolescence

Just go on tumblr.

This is someone I follow usually. Note the hashtags.

(3.) Documenting a Process

(1.) My "piece of technology"

The piece of technology I brought into class was actually a "seeing" toy - a small trinket which you can look through and see "up" or "down" due to a small mirror which reflects the view.

During class, I started with the question of: what does this object do? it reflects sight from up to down while your eye is still looking "forward" - it creates an interesting disorientation of vision and the "physical" difference of direction and what is actually reflected.

With this in mind, I thought an interested lesson might be for students to create their own gadgetry that would interrupt, enhance, or alter their line of sight, in a hypothetical way.

Question: What is the act of seeing? What do we see?
- Things are backwards in mirrors
- Images can be obstructed by your blindspot
- Colors, refractions of light

If we were to enhance / change / alter our eyesight what could we do?
- see "all around"
- see behind you
- think about your "plane of vision"
-see vivid colors. see only black and white.

Think about:
eyes who see out of the sides of their heads (placement)
cropping (in movies)
carsten holler's upside down glasses
"rose-colored" glasses

Can experiment with:
Black bars (covering, cropping)
Mirrors, titlted
kaleidoscopes (multiplicity)
cellophane (color filters)
eye "extensions" - lens, depth
Magnifying glasses

These experiments could be documented through photography but it could be interesting for students to actually construct objects to "alter vision" or to play with vision (such as boxes to peep through, like nickelodeon animation, etc.

How can we use new media creatively?

still from Sip My Ocean, 1996, audio/video installation, Pipilotti Rist

How can we use new media creatively? I think as with any other material, when first introduced there is both a curiosity and fear. To really understand how one can be "creative" with a material, it's necessary to be able to freely experiment and explore the possibilities for a material - what can it do for you? how might it work with your ideas? Although video, film, audio, the internet even are all technologies that are commonplace to us now, not everyone feels comfortable with the idea of using it for their work, within their work, or as a possible medium for their ideas. The issue may lie within the nature of technology - it requires more skills-based exploration (similar to photography) - as opposed to the simple act of scribbling with a crayon, or color with a marker. It is not to say, however, that it's not possible for new media to have that same effect - that we can continue to build on. The other great news about the internet and about technology is that there is a whole community of people, with tutorials and lessons all of their own that can foster and support new ideas. I think to use new media creatively, we must approach it not with trepidation about our own skills within it, but with the same open-mindedness we have about other materials and mediums. 

(4.) Media Art Teacher: artismessy.org

paper relief, by Petra

While the above work isn't exactly new media, I thought it was too awesome to resist. This instructor (name is unknown!) is an art teacher is Shanghai, China and an alum of the Art Education program at NYU Steinhardt. Her previous background was in graphic design, and she's been keeping a blog of her interests, student work, and other miscellany while teaching. Currently, she teaches a graphic design class, Art 2, and yearbook for high school students. 

Not only does she teach media art, she also has created different websites for each class to display their work on the web, inform them of their assignments, and include other links that might be useful for their projects - for graphic design for example, she has included free font sources, additional add-ons for photoshop and illustrator, as well as other online resources to help out her class. 

On her sites, you can see the different requirements for projects, objectives, and vocabulary. It's a great resource for us teachers and students alike.

Below, please find links to student works in digital media.

CD Cover Project: Graphic Design 1

More Paper Reliefs: Art 2 Class

(3.) Someone who uses technology

Sibel Deren Guler is a maker/doer/artist who incorporates technology with everyday objects to create interactions that inform, interrupt, or create new perspectives of these daily tools - among other things. It's hard to say exactly- Deren studied physics in her undergraduate year and following received a grant from the Sprout Fund to create playground equipment that taught children how energy is created. This is a simplification of her concepts/what she does, but she incorporates "technological" devices such as sensors, motors, and lights to objects like a cutting board (so it can "scream") or using a simple motor/gear system to reflect a biological property. You can see her online portfolio here.

Her projects tend to take something as simple as a light switch and use that interaction to ask us: what happens with the switch? How do we turn a light on, and what is the mechanism that causes it? In her energy playground, children spin a wheel and the faster it goes, the brighter the light. Often, especially now, we take for granted the technology available to us and what we can do with it; Deren uses these mechanisms to nudge us a little and ask, how does it work? How can we change it?

(2.) OFF/ON PROJECT

For the Off/On project, I turned off my computer and cell-phone and used post-it notes to record the things I wanted to do with my computer and phone - while brainstorming analog solutions to those thoughts. Further exploration might be creating physical analog solutions to communication, or documenting how they might be resolved.

(1.) Technology and My Practice

taken from the Google LIFE image archive

In Photography

In the past, I've used negative scanners and photoshop to create digital negatives to make "old technology" prints (i.e. cyanotypes - it's advanced yet backwards cheating!). It makes it easier to enlarge negatives and make larger prints. It's also an interesting way for kids to learn basic print processes - for example, when I was at the Carnegie, I did a workshop with my students where we took a field trip to the natural history museum and posed with different animals in different exhibits - similar to the first travel photographers in the 1800s (well, supposedly anyway). I then printed them as digital negatives (using Photoshop) and we exposed them onto cyanotype paper in the sunlight (old technology) to learn about photography pre-digital. I don't think they understood completely, but it was amazing how amazed they were about cyanotypes and printing in the sun.

Now, I use the internet to inform my image-making process - I like sifting through the LIFE archive on Google Image to find pictures of figures or strange beauty rituals. For a time, I made drawings with figures that were often in "submission" or in positions of in-ability. Old photographs of hair salons and rural life seemed to contain imagery that resonated most with my work. It reminds me of the image archives they have at libraries, but online - still, it can be problematic because the imagery is so recognizable.

I don't feel strongly that either "ways" I use technology are concurrent with new media practices. 

always plenty of fish in the sea, gouache and walnut ink on paper, 26 x 40 inches. 2010.