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Final Project

Initially when I was making my pieces, I was trying to stick with a general surrealism theme where there is meaning, but everything is in a way there would be meaning. My inspiration was Hannah Hoch’s work to create something that seemed like a collage of images, but if you looked closer there would be meaning. That’s why I tried to get everything that would give an idea to what was going on and since a memory could be fuzzy, it worked for me.  This memory was of me and my sibling going to the pool at night and being caught by an employee. Of course, that inspiration only went to the first image I did.

The last series of images, despite being surrealist pieces, were all inspired by Mary Frey. All of her works were based on the mundane of average middle-class life and I considered making my pieces keep a surrealist theme, but making it appear like things are happening in normal situations. Like a man looking at a glowing book in a living room, but there being clearly more going on, representing memories. Each book in the image is a memory and I wanted to include the TV in the background with it playing a memory of looking at the clouds. The second image is a wet room with pigeons and clouds in it, another memory of a stormy day. I wanted to keep with mundane theme but add surrealism by putting clouds and pigeons in the room.

Lastly, a library with a strange radio glowing with a shadowed person walking away in the background, another representation of memories. I always consider books as an opening to different worlds and stories so a library could easily represent an archive of memories. As for the radio, it can also be a vessel for memories, broadcasting sounds or music you remember. Overall, all of these images represent memories I have or what memories feel like to me.

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Final Project - Work In Progress

I'm doing a series of surrealism pieces for the final project involving my memories or the concept of memory. The first piece is about something that happened when I was younger and I had forgotten about until I dreamed about it. Basically, the memory is of my sibling and I breaking out of the house in the middle of the night or close to night and trying to get to the pool. One of the maintenance workers were there though and took us back home. Since the memory is kind of fuzzy, I figured it would work for the first piece. The other two pieces will be about my concept of memories and another memory.

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Blog - Photography and AI

I probably say this a lot, but it is a tough call. When people started using AI and it started improving, admittedly, I was concerned. There was talk about how different business potentially could replace artists by paying for AI services and I saw some company considering it. However, my fear has lessen now that I've had time to consider how AI can be used when it comes to making art or coming up with ideas for the next project.

When it comes to photography, there are many artforms behind it. As we recently studied, we even disrupt our images on purpose to create new meanings and stories. In a way, AI can be new tool to use in art and photography. As demonstrated in some of the articles read, it is being considered another form of art using text prompts. I like the term that Boris Elgadsen coined after he had won the Photography Awards with his AI generated photograph: promptograph. He didn't accept the award, but he had made his point. He also makes a good point when asked about how AI could lead to misinformation with actual photos and the AI photo he provided having so little visual difference.

Elgadsen's suggestion is that when it comes to photographs, we might have to start asking for proof that the photo was actually taken or the image was edited. Like for photos, provide the device the photo was taken on or the negatives and for editing, screenshots of the photo being edited. If anything, AI causes photography to have a wider range in what you can do. If AI is to be added, I do agree with calling any image made by AI promptography.

I think this new technology will have positive and negative effects as we get it and use it. After all, we already have people making deep fakes of images and some social media platforms have AI generated images already that people are claiming something they did or took a picture of, but there are clear discrepancies in the image that give it away. Also, already a couple of art competitions have been derailed because the judges didn't notice at first that some contestants had entered AI art or photos. The positive, however, it that artists do use it as a tool to create different art or to provide them with ideas for their next projects. Then we also potentially could make this another field, promptography, for people who who want to create AI art.

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Blog - Passage

Passage can be a lot of things, but for this one, I chose the passage of time. The way I expressed the passage of time is by walking around different areas in the daytime and when it got dark, I went back outside to similar areas to where I was in the beginning, showing time had passed with the opening of a door.

What passage means to mean is a door to something or somewhere which is the reason I used a door in the video when I was showing a change in time. When I was filming, I wanted to use the door to be the way to these changes in times instead of just an abrupt change. I also was struggling with the lightning on my video because when I was filming, the slightest light brighten the footage so I had to adjust where I was pointing the camera. Lighting was important because I wanted the difference between night and day to be obvious to show time has passed.

As for ideas I went over, I did have an idea of a opening door to reveal different things every time the door was opened, a portal to different things, but I didn't have the right building or area to pull it off.

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Glitch in Photography

I choose to do an RGB glitch for this one. When it comes to an image, I usually expect there to be a clear cut meaning or story behind it. Of course, sometimes, there might be no meaning and the person behind the image has it open to interpretation. When a disruption is added to an image, it can change the overall message or story that is being told or add to it. In my glitch photo, the meaning is how old memories feel like overtime. You can kind of remember them, but they can warped over time to where it's not as clear, but you can still remember it.

Glitch Photography Artists:

The first artist I chose is Heitor Magno. He is a visual artist who's work was influenced by Matt Wisniewski's My Home is the Sea or Landscape series. Magno does glitch photography by taking images of people and filling their silhouettes with images of nature. He also does double exposure photo that give a the photo an 'ethereal' feel to them that I like.

The second artist I chose is John Pomara. Pomara is a abstract artist who uses disruptions in his works. He sees digital manipulation and glitches as a creative form of disruption that has been around since the 90's. Pomara says even if the Internet went down, there was different ways he can create glitches in his photos by using different applications and methods. A disruption doesn't always have to be a glitch. It can be anything that can disrupt an image. In some of Pomara's works, he places ink on a glossy paper photo of a glitched image to disrupt the images.

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Joiners, Triptych, Grid

For this, I decided to do a triptych since I had a set of photos that I wanted to use for this. All these photos were taken with a moto phone using the natural lighting while I was in a moving car. These photos were taken in similar areas and angles as we were driving on the bridge. I was just snapping shot after shot as we drove by. When I was putting it together, I notice though they were similar, there were uneven so I used the clone tool to try to make the bottom left and top left match up.

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Blog - What is Video Art?

After watching the videos, moving imagery differs from still imagery is that the images are moving, and that movement can provide further meaning or different meaning than what the still image provides. Video Art to me is video and moving images that are moving and can have audio that adds to the moving visuals. It can differ from a still image because a different story can be told when an image is moving. An example would be if you saw a photo of a group of people or objects. By looking at it, you can get a few ideas of what is being told through the still imagery, however, the story can change once movement is added. Like, if people were coming or going, or if they were just standing there and you could visibly see them moving and breathing. Adding movement can enhance the story or meaning that is in the still image or turning it into a different meaning or story entirely.  

One video artist I want to point out as one who changed art was Valie Export who made the Video Art of a family sitting a table and staring back at the viewer as the viewer stares at them for about five minutes. The footage was broadcasted on Australian TV back in 1971 and Export’s goal was to have the viewer reflect on their passive role of watching TV which would not have the same effect if it was a still image. The movement of a family actively blinking, breathing, and movement while they stare back at you sends a different feeling and meaning that changes a normal image of a person staring back at you. Or, at least, gives more to it. I like it because it’s interesting that Video Art could subtly affect the meaning of what something could be as a still image. Would the same effect ring true if it was a still image of the family? I think at best, the feeling would be similar, but the added movement of the family actually moving as if they are actually looking back at you versus you knowing they aren’t because it’s a still image just creates at different feeling altogether. I’m not sure there was an artist that I did not like since they all had an interesting take on Video Art that just tells different meanings or stories in a their unique way.

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Alternate Reality - Surrealism and Photography

This first image I made using a photo of a boat as the base of the image. I used a starry sky image from Unsplashed and the squirrel from another photo I took. The squirrel had the nearly the same quality as the base photo since they were taken with the same moto phone so I decided it would work with the image.

The second photo was difficult. The base photo is of two geese walking across an area. I had a photo of a pigeon that was similar quality so I made it bigger and placed it between them. Lastly, I pulled a skeleton dog from another picture and placed it in front of the birds. I had to adjust it because it wasn't the same quality as the rest of the image. Despite that, all photos used were taken using a moto phone.

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Blog EX - All About Light

It's kind of hard to tell the light difference since I choose a bright red suitcase for the subject, but the different lightning during the parts of the day is noticeable. For the morning shot, which is the first picture, the light makes for a bright scene and brings out the red in the case. Things tone down in the evening and the sun wasn't out, but it was still light out enough to not completely change the color of the case. Though, the grass is a bit dim and not a cheery green like it was in the morning. Finally, as it late and near sundown, there wasn't much light and it made the colors of the red more dusty and dim than the previous pictures.

The first two pictures did not change the setting much since the sun was still shining bright and adding enough light to the photo to make it cheery, but the final photo's setting became a bit dimmer, appearing like a scene of someone leaving something behind versus the previous that just feel more hopeful.

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Blog 4 - Photomontage

I created this photomontage by using the photos from previous blogs. All photos pieces and photo in the photomontage were taken with a moto phone in natural lighting.

I choose the tree that represents my connections from the Visual Identity Blog as the base and, to start, the car represent me moving from Mississippi to Texas, which lead to me meeting the friends I have today. The water is two-fold, representing Hurricane Katrina, which is what caused me and my family to come to Texas, and how I feel when I meet new people. The squirrel at the bottom of the tree represent my introversion where I want to be around and met others, but it can be a struggle sometimes to put myself out there. Then finally, the bright transparent suns represents the friendships I have made that stand out in my mind. With all this, I view my identity as someone that values the friendships I make and the family I have despite my introversion and anxiety bothering me.

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Reading 2 - DADA & Photomontage

What is DADA?

DADA is an art movement of the European avant-garde that began in 1916 in a night club after a group of fleeing artists came to Switzerland escaping a war and founded the art movement. They united under the shared desire to oppose war and found alternative art practices to help communicate their feelings. The point of the art movement was there were no rules when it came to DADA art. The point was to evoke an emotional reaction from their audience and use any medium they wished for their artworks. Though, in a way, it ended once it became accepted as actual art by society since its purpose was to be anti-art.

What was at the core of DADA artists beliefs or motivations? How did they express these ideas?

The core beliefs of the DADA artists is to go against the grain and go against the ideas of society and what was considered art. They were seemingly anti-nearly everything at the time in their beliefs because they were against anything that could be contributing to the war. They used Dadaism to present their views of the world and situations. During the time after the war ended, there was a political chaos that ensued that Hannah Hoch captured in her DADA artwork, Cut with a Kitchen Knife - Dada through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch in Germany, captures that chaos. The piece not only covers the political chaos, but also Hoch's protest for women rights as well as her other pieces. In 1920, two DADA artist created a doll soldier with a pig head that was hung in museum as their own form of protests against the war. Finally, Marcel Duchamp challenging what people saw as art by presenting signed urinal, proving anything could be art if others saw it as such.

How do you see DADA's influence today?

I see it made room for art forms like surrealism to exist today. What was especially influenced was how we view art due Duchamp challenging the art world by presenting his DADA art, showing that anything can be art. Due to that, it made room for people to experiment with new art forms and see what they could turn into art. A good example would be the woman who taped a banana to a wall and it was considered art. If Duchamp had not shown his work as art, no one would have even consider a banana being taped to a white wall art.

Discuss a few of the DADA artists presented. How did they push boundaries in art, break rules? How did they question and redefine what a photograph could be or do?

As mentioned, Dadaism was an art movement that was considered anti-art at the time. For instance, Duchamp's signed urinal was not considered art or placed in a museum at first. Intially, it was denied entry into the museum gallery. However, the rejection gave the item fame and Duchamp had his friends photograph the urinal and pen a letter, helping make people see the urinal called The Fountain as an art piece. He pushed the boundaries of what is considered art and, in a way, his friend, Stieglitz, photography skills helped people see the signed urinal in a different light, leading to it being accepted as art. Due to Duchamp's actions and Stieglitz's assistance, this helped changed how people saw art as well as photography in this case helping people see the urinal in a different light.

Another artist was Hoch who made artwork in Dadaism that protested the war and protested for women rights. Her work pushed the boundaries by creating meaning by cutting up pictures and she was one of the DADA artist who brought in college and photomerge. This causes people to view different photographs differently because it wasn't just about what image you could capture. Now, there was the concept that they could either merge two photographs or cut different media to create a new image.

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Reading 1 - Nature of Photographs - S. Shore

A physical print of a photo differs from a virtual photo because you cannot tangibly hold a digital photo. While both physical and digital photographs have the same effect in appearance, it changes the experience when you can actually touch the photo and the photo is actual there and not in a screen. Especially if the photo is of something or someone personal to the person holding it.

I think it is important to pay attention to your surroundings when it comes to photography. Shore, for example, got his start when he was looking in Andy Warhol’s studio and found different areas and scenes of interest he wanted to photograph. There is always an opportunity to take a photo and actually look at your surroundings makes them easier to spot. The way I see is that I look for photo opportunities that make me feel certain things. Like a picture of sunset, nature, and sometimes things I spot while driving around. There are lot of things that I could take a picture of when I’m just going around, and it is always fun to see what new photo opportunity I’ll find.

As for how what is in and out of frame affects the descriptive qualities of the photo, an example would be a photo where the subject matter is within frame, but there is clearly something going on off-frame that adds to the photo. It makes the photo more than just the subject in the photo, what’s off-frame getting people to wonder what else could be happening or what is there beyond the frame.

Taking Shore’s approach, that would open story opportunities, in my opinion, as well as thinking what a scene you take a photo of can mean. When I take photos, I rarely take them with this mindset, usually just focusing on taking a shot than how everything works into relations to each other in the shot. For example, there are some random photos I have taken that don’t take the approach Shore explains and while they aren’t bad photos, had I taken time to set up the photo to frame the scene a certain way, the photo would have been more descriptive. The challenge would be seeing how everything works when you take a shot. A part of me wants to say that it wouldn’t be hard, but there is so much to consider before you take the shot, like how to frame the shot, the lighting, and what is occurring before you take the photo, as well as anything else I may be missing. I agree with this approach when it comes to telling a story with a photo.

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Blog EX - Editing

I took this picture a couple of years back when I was walking home. It was taken with my moto phone and the lighting was natural. The first picture is the original image and the second is the one that was edited.

Since I couldn't get Photoshop at the moment, I used Photopea to make the edits. I lowered the brightness of the image to make it appear more like it was getting close to nighttime and to make the sun stand out more in the picture. I also used the saturation and vibrance slider to change hue of the sun. The last edit I did was crop the sides of the pictures to make the sun a bit more centered. This edit changes to me because while the original picture is fine, the edited one as a more calming and relaxed feeling to it for me.

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Blog Prompt 3 - Visualizing Identity

This a tough one since I never really think about what represents me as a person. However, there are two things that I can think of that make me who I am.

The teetering stack of books in the first photograph symbolizes my anxiety. I'm usually anxious about a lot of things that happen in my life, but that's not a bad thing. Knowing that I'm anxious helps me address it better so when I start to overthink or get worked up over a situation I can either go somewhere to calm down or talk to someone I'm close to. The photo was taken with my Polaroid camera and it was taken using natural lighting.

The second photo of a tree with blooming flowers symbolizes my ties with my family. I'm grateful I have them in my life and a lot of what I do for them, family, extended family, and found family, is so I can better help them in the future. The photo was taken with my moto phone with natural lighting.

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Blog Prompt 2 - Composition

For the four corner photo, I remembered I took this picture during Halloween while I was at a store using my moto phone, though I think it was an older moto phone. I think this fits what a four corner photo is because it has something interesting happening in the corner outside of the frame. I used natural lighting for the photo.

For the divided photo, I decided to use the cord of my DS to imply a divide. This time, I used a Polaroid 4k digital camera to take the picture. I used natural lighting, but any lighting with this camera makes everything brighter.

For my two different shots of the same subject, the subject was a squirrel that was hanging out on the windowsill at a college I was going to. I used an old moto phone to take the picture and I took a front shot of it before taking a side shot of the squirrel. I used natural lighting for the shot.

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Blog Prompt 1: Boat Photo - Amanda P.

I like photography because it's fun to capture moments in time and sometimes even create scenes that can shared over time. Admittedly, I haven't taken a lot of pictures except for event pictures, but I'm hoping to get in the habit to practice. I like this photo because I managed to capture the movement of the boat while in a moving car. I was using my phone camera at the time which was moto phone and I was using the natural lighting. I also like to take photos of natures or moments like this.