Gallery Installation

Fabrication/Imagination

 

Panorama

And this is what happens when photoshop tries to make a horizontal-aligned panorama with vertical-aligned images.
Just in case anyone was curious.

In Transit

Image Interpretation

In this image, the viewer sees a very close-up image of the lower half of a human face sporting a wide grin that showcases a full set of fairly straight and very bright teeth. The lips are painted with bright red lipstick--some of which has rubbed off onto some of the teeth--and there is a noticeable bit of food stuck to one of the front teeth. The colors are very bright and vibrant--though what little of the background can be seen is quite dark--and the depth of field is quite shallow.

The first word of interpretation that comes up in my mind for this image is “uncomfortable.” Whether I mean that solely for my own feelings or as applied to the photographed subject as well, I’m not entirely sure. Based on the lipstick and lack of prominent facial hair, I’m assuming that the subject is a woman, since those are culturally feminine traits. The fact that the camera is so close to her face that you can barely see anything else except for the mouth is very discomforting and disconcerting to me. In my personal opinion and in our society as a whole, personal space is something that is normally enforced and something that individuals typically want to protect (with exceptions, of course), but this picture completely shatters that “personal bubble” by zooming right up close to her skin. And being so close even exposes certain flaws that the normal person probably wouldn’t have noticed at a regular distance, say, during a conversation, but those small details are blown up in large proportion because of how the image is framed. However, the subject is smiling, which makes me feel as if she is completely fine with such a situation--or doesn’t know that it’s happening, which adds another layer to the “uncomfortable” interpretation and even adds a (I don’t want to say “sinister” because that feels too strong and dramatic of a word) different angle to a possible backstory for the image. But that almost feels on the verge of trying to dig too deep into a meaning/interpretation to the point of going overboard, so I’ll stop here.

(Also, I’m certain none of these interpretations are biased at all by my own anxieties, surely.)

The Photographer's Eye

Part 1: Frame

I chose this picture because I really like how the curved branches make a more rounded, softer frame inside the frame of the picture itself. Out back garden is full of trees and bushes that my dad has manipulated into swirls and spirals and other shapes/forms that would not occur naturally, and I felt like some of them would make good for photos.

Part 2: Vantage Point

This photo was one that I was torn between posting for Vantage Point or Frame, but I ultimately decided on the former. For all of the other pictures I took for this assignment, I was looking through my glasses at my camera screen as I chose my subjects and judged if I liked how they looked or not. So, I decided, why not switch it around and snap a photo or two from behind my glasses instead?

Part 3: Detail

This is one of my favourite pictures from this assignment. It's actually an aging grape leaf that was folded over itself on my back deck, but when I zoomed in really close to it with a shallow depth of field it almost looked more like leather (or at least some kind of warm-blooded animal skin) and I really thought that was neat. By just zooming in on the details of the veining, it almost doesn't even look like a leaf at all. (And I put it under the Tungsten white balance just because I like that kind of more mysterious vibe that the blue tones give off.)

Part 4: Time

I had fun with this one. The rain was making all of these bubbles pop up on this giant puddle, and I was able to get my shutter speed down quick enough to catch some of the bubbles when they were in the midst of being popped, and I just thought it was cool and interesting to be able to see that part of a process that's too quick for a human eye to really see on its own.

Part 5: The Thing Itself

And, finally, we get to the image that is probably my top favourite from this whole assignment. My legs went numb from crouching so long in front of this Lamb's Ear plant trying to get a good enough picture of the ants that really seemed to love it, but eventually I managed this one of a single ant perched on the point of one of the leaves. He skittered away out of sight in the next instant, but I was still able to capture this one moment when it had paused in the sunlight at the leaftip, 

Untitled (for now)

I didn't even notice the plane above the tree until I saw it on the computer screen & it was such a happy little surprise.

Mailey's Close-Up

To be honest, I'm still baffled that she sat still long enough for me to get such a clear picture of her.

A Particular Photo

The first photograph that popped into my mind at the prompt of "standing out" to me is actually one that I took myself. The fact that it's my own picture might be a large part of why it stands out (since I know the story behind it; Hello, Bias), but I do believe that the picture itself is interesting on its own. The right-side foreground is taken up by a wooden fence crossbar and the legs and feet of an otherwise-unseen person; the midground contains various green, fern-like leafy plants of different sizes and shapes; and, most interestingly, the far background, seen most in the upper left corner... fades into an empty, grey-white nothingness. Now, that white backdrop isn't some kind of photo-editing--my digital camera captured exactly what I saw that day back in 2012. Because this picture was actually taken on the summit of the Poás Volcano in Costa Rica. A boiling-hot and extremely-acidic lake nestled deep in the volcano's crater pours out a near-constant column of steam--such as the cloud I photographed as it drifted up towards the tourist viewing platform. The leg of the girl in the picture was actually someone I didn't know. But when she hopped up and sat on the rickety wooden fence overlooking the crater, the plume of steam making it look like the world ended just beyond the narrow cliff she was perched on... That was an image I simply could not pass up.

Also, included here for coming in second place for Most Memorable and still a very, very cool shot: a panorama I took of the crater when the steam had cleared a little, to give the first pic a little perspective beyond the Emptiness cloud:

Exploring Color Dynamics within Steven Universe

For my final project, I decided to expand on my previous project of exploring how color is used to express mood in the cartoon Steven Universe, this time across the entirety of the current series instead of just the first StevenBomb.

Nature in Movement

Mapping the first "Steven Bomb"

For this assignment, I took screenshots at 30-second intervals of the Cartoon Network show Steven Universe, one of my favourite shows of all-time. Almost exactly one year ago today, Cartoon Network released a week-long event of episodes called a "Steven Bomb," so in honor of the occasion that got me into the show, I decided to map the six episodes of the Bomb and how the color of the episodes changes and relates to one another.

Nichola Kinch - Love Stories

When I walk into the gallery, the first things that my eyes are drawn to are (quite obviously) the trees. Several 2-dimensional, photo-realistic cutouts of trees hang suspended from the ceiling, so tall that they nearly touch the floor. Immediately after, I notice that the gallery walls are bare; the only other element to the installation is a phenakistoscope that shows the phases of the moon when spun.  
So, the show might not have an incredible amount of things to actually look at in terms of artwork, but, as Kinch explained in her talk, a big part of experiencing the installation is the viewer's perspective: "You are a player in the set." Not only does perspective change the appearance of the 2-dimensional, Photoshop-cloned/manufactured trees in the gallery, but also how they interact with the very real woods stretching beyond the other side of the Pearl Conard Art Gallery's expanse of windows. Kinch described it as a "mediated experience," walking the line between believing a fantasy and being aware that it is only a fantasy--kind of like the way love can sometimes distort reality. 
Kinch's talk was absolutely beneficial to be, because I definitely appreciate the installation more now than I had without the talk. My immediate reaction had been, "...This is literally nothing but a bunch of the same tree over and over again. What is this??" But after hearing Kinch speak and explain her thought process, I understand that the installation requires the viewers to put in a little effort on their own part, the same way the phenakistoscope has to be manually turned in order to animate the phases of the moon. This isn't a show that can simply be looked at; this is a show that must be experienced.

Dysphoria

Shepherd Fairey vs. the Associated Press

The Shepherd Fairey vs. the Associated Press case is definitely one that requires close inspection to decide whether or not Copyright Law was violated. Photographs are automatically protected by copyright, so the copyright for the photo Fairey used for his work would have belonged to the photographer Mannie Garcia and in part to Associated Press as his employer (x). Fairey claimed that his use of the photo fell under Fair Use, but I'm not so certain that it did, especially when considering the fourth deciding factor of determining Fair Use as stated in the FAQ. Fairey's work was spread so widely and used so much that became an iconic image, but I had never even seen Garcia's original photo before this assignment. This instance is a perfect example of the copied work "substitut[ing] for the original in the market" and therefore not falling under the protection of Fair Use. If Fairey had planned on or assumed his poster design would be as widely proliferated as it ended up becoming, he should have asked permission and worked something out with Garcia/the Associated Press before putting his largely-copied work out in the public.

The Inner Psyche of an Introverted Pollywog*

[*"Pollywog" is an inside joke between my dad & me referring to the awkward/stressful transition stage between child/teen and "real" adult--like the awkward transition from tadpole to frog.]

Conveying Emotion

Jared Thorne - "Black and Blue" Exhibition

When I walked into the gallery to get a glimpse of Jared Thorne's "Black and Blue" exhibition, the first thing I noticed was how bare it seemed to be compared to previous exhibitions. There were only two 3-dimensional segments, and the rest of the installment consisted of very similar-looking photographs lining the walls. In the few minutes before Jared was set to begin his talk, I circled the gallery once and found myself mildly confused, but also intrigued.

Jared explained that, as a Black artist, he wants to explore the idea of "Black identity" in the U.S. and how certain experiences are shared by most or all of the Black community. The pictures, he explained, stemmed from his own childhood experience of being the only non-white student in his class. His parents had decided to move to a predominantly White neighborhood and school with the intentions of "betterment," but in reality Jared only ended up feeling alienated among his White classmates, experiencing what he called "privileged isolation" and "access without belonging."

The photographs lining the gallery walls all present the same general image: a White class with only one or a maximum of two Black students. And since the photographs span several classes and schools, it is obvious that this phenomenon was not an experience singular to Jared, but something that many other Black Americans faced as well. The 3-D portions of the exhibition--a suspended afro-like sculpture and a recreation of a 1980s living room with a Malcolm X speech playing on repeat--continue Jared's theme of connecting to what he referred to as the "collective unconscious" of Black Americans.

Circling back to the main entrance after the talk and seeing the title, "Black and Blue" in big black letters against the white wall, I felt everything sort of click into place. The phrase "black and blue" usually refers to being bruised, but Jared meant it in a different sense, as in being Black and feeling blue. I thought that the wordplay was very clever, and it fit into the installation perfectly. I definitely felt that I understood the exhibition much more than I had before the talk. Jared's works carry a lot of social commentary, as art often does, and I might have grasped the concept better from the start if I had the same experience of growing up as a Black American. However, while my experiences don't match Jared's, his idea is still clearly showcased in his art in a way that can be understood by anyone from any background.