On Thursday last week, the 26th of March, I went to see the Spring Show of the MA in Text and Performance Studies students at the RADA / King's College London. The show was titled "The Beginning".
The second part of it, called "The Flood", was most interesting and most daring. As they say in their leaflet:
This is a threefold attempt to respond to the overflow we are experiencing in our daily lives. From within the ubiquitous flood of images, sounds and products, we ask: Where is the line between sexual pleasure and sexual automatism? Do we distinguish between our real and our digital selves, between us and our avatars? Can we still tell play from violence?
At one point all the eight performers were nearly naked, on top of each other, around each other and between each other in a constant flux of apparent pleasure, while the "random" noises of the soundtrack suddenly let us pick up the all too familiar "The next station is King's Cross St. Pancras".
Monday, 30 March 2009
New developments before the Easter break
After the devastating feedback from last week's group tutorial and Daniel's assessment of "borderline fail" to my project so far, I wanted to forget about the whole business. I mean, what kind of motivation is "fail"? I understand that I am supposed to evolve with the project and change it and bring in new images every week. But I don't see why is the emphasize on this kind of change. Obviously I can take the project to different directions, but why do I have to do that just for the sake of it? I did a lot of research into the matter in the previous semester, including visual research and I have already changed my project this way and that way. Anyway, it doesn't matter how sick and tired I am of this project already, I do not want to fail it. So, this is what I have been doing in the past 6 days.
I wanted to explore a little bit further the idea that it is I who is tired of the city life, overcrowded public transport and the mundane daily life. So, I stole a few images of an office and a fake yeti from the interent and created this funny scene.
I'm exploring what it is to become an animal in the modern metropolitan. As it is all about me, I am thinking of places and situations that most annoy me about London. There are many. Oxford Street (too many people!), the crowded public transport, the boring office job where people look the same...
I strated with the last one. To be honest, I am lucky to work in the office where people do not look the same. Similarly to the image I used above, people do not have to wear 'office clothes' and fortunately I only work once a week. But it is the idea, that is important here. So, I have photographed myself over and over again in the office. The figure in the foreground is inspired by Antony Crossfield's Foreign Body series.
I tried the editing trick again at home - multiple bodies edited together into one. On Crossfield's images you can clearly see that there are images of two people combined together to create a new and mixed body, the lines between two bodies are merged but significant. On my images I wanted to create a new creature, the feeling should be that of misjudgement. While I was printing the images, a first year photography student looked at the one below and thought that it looks like I am having sex with myself. Interesting. Perhaps that is how it looks like at first sight. But look closer!
Following on from the previous theme, I am still trying to think of what it means to become animal and how to represent it on a photo. Here are two images that show me "posing as an animal" in a contemporary setting. After a long trial and error photo shoot accompanied by images of different animals for reference, I edited both of the images to emphasize the animal features.
The first one is "an animal at the water source". It could eb a leopard or gepard or somehtng like that.
The second is a gorilla brwsing the picnik area.
I haven't decides what to do with these images, yet. Tomorrow is the next tutorial...
I wanted to explore a little bit further the idea that it is I who is tired of the city life, overcrowded public transport and the mundane daily life. So, I stole a few images of an office and a fake yeti from the interent and created this funny scene.
I'm exploring what it is to become an animal in the modern metropolitan. As it is all about me, I am thinking of places and situations that most annoy me about London. There are many. Oxford Street (too many people!), the crowded public transport, the boring office job where people look the same...I strated with the last one. To be honest, I am lucky to work in the office where people do not look the same. Similarly to the image I used above, people do not have to wear 'office clothes' and fortunately I only work once a week. But it is the idea, that is important here. So, I have photographed myself over and over again in the office. The figure in the foreground is inspired by Antony Crossfield's Foreign Body series.
I tried the editing trick again at home - multiple bodies edited together into one. On Crossfield's images you can clearly see that there are images of two people combined together to create a new and mixed body, the lines between two bodies are merged but significant. On my images I wanted to create a new creature, the feeling should be that of misjudgement. While I was printing the images, a first year photography student looked at the one below and thought that it looks like I am having sex with myself. Interesting. Perhaps that is how it looks like at first sight. But look closer!
Following on from the previous theme, I am still trying to think of what it means to become animal and how to represent it on a photo. Here are two images that show me "posing as an animal" in a contemporary setting. After a long trial and error photo shoot accompanied by images of different animals for reference, I edited both of the images to emphasize the animal features.
The first one is "an animal at the water source". It could eb a leopard or gepard or somehtng like that.
The second is a gorilla brwsing the picnik area.
I haven't decides what to do with these images, yet. Tomorrow is the next tutorial...
Leopards and gepards
Some more inspirational images. It's the posture and body movement I am looking at.
Gorillas and werewolves
I've been looking at animal pictures to get some inspiration for my digital editing on faces. Not that I want to make myself look like an animal, rather animal-like. I would introduce animal features to my own face, but only through digital drawing and using elements of myself from photographs of different angles... Even though I came up with this this myself, it is not my original idea. This is where the dissertation research comes handy. Apparently, both of the photographers/artists I was researching for my dissertation - Danile Lee and Eva Lauterlein - used the same technique to create their Manimals and Chimeres.
Daniel Lee was looking at a lot of animal pictures and found models that had characteristic features already, so it was easier to edit them. Lauterlein did not use animal features at all. Instead she photographed the same person from different angles and edited these faces into one. They look eery and strange after closer examination, and some of them a bit animalistic.Also, there's this new drama series on BBC3 caleld Being Human. It 's about a ghost, a vampire and a werewolf house-sharing. It follows the now established TV drama scheme - extraordinary characters living their "normal" lives, just trying to fit in. Mysterious things happen to common people and in the centre of this is the human tragedy and family drama. Think of Lost, Heroes or any other TV series with similar build-up. Anyway, I thought it might be inspirational, but it hasn't been much...
Sunday, 29 March 2009
Uncanny valley and abject
In the last tutorial I had with Daniel, he thought my project is mostly about the uncanny and the abject. I agreed with the uncanny part and I have thought about it already. Nevertheless, I found a lot of interesting things about the theory behind uncanny and abject. Until lately, 'uncanny' was familiar to me only thanks to the X-Men comics. :)
uncanny
uncanny valley
abjection
The uncanny valley is the most interesting of these three terms. It's used to describe the humanoid robots that look so uncannily human-like that could be mistaken for humans, yet they lack the detail of realness and consequently they seem weird, creepy and repulsive. At least in theory. I should add, that I have seen videos of the latest robot technology a lot already and it's quite common thanks to YouTube. I guess the more familiar we get to these strange human-looking but mechanical creatures, the more used to we get with them. And they don't seems so strange any more. Just like vampires and zombies are so over-used in contemporary culture that we literally grow up with them. Which leads me to my troubling thought - it is very difficult to show somehting truly uncanny and weird on the image.
This Japanese robot looks super ahppy and rigid and a little bit retarded, especially in the end when she waves. But it's a big advance compared to the ones they have made before. I mean the ones with a very child-like voice and huysterically happy gigling woman-robots...
uncanny
uncanny valley
abjection
The uncanny valley is the most interesting of these three terms. It's used to describe the humanoid robots that look so uncannily human-like that could be mistaken for humans, yet they lack the detail of realness and consequently they seem weird, creepy and repulsive. At least in theory. I should add, that I have seen videos of the latest robot technology a lot already and it's quite common thanks to YouTube. I guess the more familiar we get to these strange human-looking but mechanical creatures, the more used to we get with them. And they don't seems so strange any more. Just like vampires and zombies are so over-used in contemporary culture that we literally grow up with them. Which leads me to my troubling thought - it is very difficult to show somehting truly uncanny and weird on the image.
This Japanese robot looks super ahppy and rigid and a little bit retarded, especially in the end when she waves. But it's a big advance compared to the ones they have made before. I mean the ones with a very child-like voice and huysterically happy gigling woman-robots...
The animation test
http://www.karelpolt.com/becoming
Here's a Flash test animation of the image below. I changed the colour of the shirt, so I would 'merge' with the wall, as if I'm part of it. Or something.
At the moment there are three variables - the eyes, the nose and the chin/mouth. They have different degrees of manipulation and different speeds, so theoretically you are never looking at the same image. Or at least not any time soon after starting the animation. All the three elements change individually from each other. This is exactly the kind of randomness I wanted for the animation. Now, if I was to add more variables (ears, top of the head) the resulting monster/human would have even more ways of being.
But, I at the moment I am at a stage, where I am pretty sure that this will not happen. Followed by the very bad feedback from last week's group tutorial, I have no reason to pursue with this. I was told, that the image lacks meaning, is empty, doesn't communicate any (!) ideas, is pretentious, boring, under-developed and not sophisticated enough. Also, the apparently, the animation looks as if it is a loop of me looking normal and turning into a monster and back. :(
I've been taking new photos this week. Will post them here soon.
Here's a Flash test animation of the image below. I changed the colour of the shirt, so I would 'merge' with the wall, as if I'm part of it. Or something.
At the moment there are three variables - the eyes, the nose and the chin/mouth. They have different degrees of manipulation and different speeds, so theoretically you are never looking at the same image. Or at least not any time soon after starting the animation. All the three elements change individually from each other. This is exactly the kind of randomness I wanted for the animation. Now, if I was to add more variables (ears, top of the head) the resulting monster/human would have even more ways of being.
But, I at the moment I am at a stage, where I am pretty sure that this will not happen. Followed by the very bad feedback from last week's group tutorial, I have no reason to pursue with this. I was told, that the image lacks meaning, is empty, doesn't communicate any (!) ideas, is pretentious, boring, under-developed and not sophisticated enough. Also, the apparently, the animation looks as if it is a loop of me looking normal and turning into a monster and back. :(
I've been taking new photos this week. Will post them here soon.
Tuesday, 17 March 2009
Size matters
I realized that the Yuraku flat screen monitor I use for work, might be ok for just that - work, with its 21.6'' diagonal, but it looks tiny from only 2 metres away. Small for displaying my work, that is.
The resolution of this screen is max 1680 x 1050 pixels. I'd love to use a screen four times as big, but will have to do with a double size. This would mean about 29'' diagonal for the monitor.
Here's a list of large screen manufacturers with all the details
http://www.wedgwood-group.com/30_and_above_lcd_desktop.htm
To do:
Go to electronics store to see the actual possible size and brands for the monitor. Best would be a large wall-mountable computer screen.
The resolution of this screen is max 1680 x 1050 pixels. I'd love to use a screen four times as big, but will have to do with a double size. This would mean about 29'' diagonal for the monitor.
Here's a list of large screen manufacturers with all the details
http://www.wedgwood-group.com/30_and_above_lcd_desktop.htm
To do:
Go to electronics store to see the actual possible size and brands for the monitor. Best would be a large wall-mountable computer screen.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
Looking for the background
These are the different locations I tried out the last week. All of the five locations are pretty similar, but also quite different in detail. All of the images are shot outdoors. Though I am looking for 'pretty' aesthetics, I love working with natural light and don't want to over-stylize the look.
This is a very interesting background and the light was amazingly soft, considering that it is under a railway bridge. But the reliefed back doesn't work for this projest as it looks more like an indoors shot, rather than on the street.
This is the background I like the most out of the ones here, because of the little plant pushing itself out of the wall. The struggle of this tree to win back its natural habitat reflects very much the ideas of what is going to happen to me on the foregroound, once I start morping into animal-like creatures.
This is a very interesting background and the light was amazingly soft, considering that it is under a railway bridge. But the reliefed back doesn't work for this projest as it looks more like an indoors shot, rather than on the street.
This is the background I like the most out of the ones here, because of the little plant pushing itself out of the wall. The struggle of this tree to win back its natural habitat reflects very much the ideas of what is going to happen to me on the foregroound, once I start morping into animal-like creatures.
Monday, 2 March 2009
Starting to become
On Friday last week I had another test shoot with the Mamiya and the results are good. The flexibility of the digital negatives is exactly what I need.For the test shoot I tried different backgrounds in the crim urban space around Elephant & Castle in London. The dusty brick walls and patchy concrete are exactly what I am after. I will add more images here soon. I chose this one because of the single plant that tries to take back it's rightful place in nature. I hope this reflects the theme of my project behind the subject, which is me. Perhaps the background should be more in focus, though?
On the image above I have tried creating something towards the final look I am after - becoming an animal. I have moved the eyes further appart and streched the chin down creating the space betweenthe nose and the upper lip. I don't want to make the changes too obiuos (though these ones obviously are) as the final image will be changing constantly anyway. I'm also working on the animated Flash version of this to show in the seminar tomorrow. Will post a link tomorrow here as well.
Here's another photo I took with Mamiya over the weekend. It's the semi-urban landscape around the reservoires in North London. It's still zone 3, but at the same time quite wild, while heavily reshaped by man.
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