FINAL PRINT + RATIONALE

CONSUMED BY CONSUMERISM, BI-PRODUCTS OF OBSESSION

The issue I have chosen to communicate is the popular culture surrounding social media and how forced the consumption of media has become within society, ultimately putting a filter over the way humans interact with images and media, permanently changing how we consume images and photography forever. Specifically I am making a comment on our endless consumption of media and how new age technology such as social media data analytics is tailoring our social media experiences specifically for yourself. To create this images I used a mixture of photographic elements, scanned in textures, sourced imagery and photoshop tools. Through my collage of imagery I have represented a sinister artificial environment using dark tones, a monochromatic colour palette and rough, man made textures, paired with visual symbols that represent operating in a virtual space as a human being.

PHOTOSHOP PROCESS

To create this image through photoshop I first cut out the image of the body from an image I took in the studio, I then added a linear light blending mode to make the silhouette white but still receptive to other elements. I then added an outer glow to the device he is holding to visually represent the glow from the screen. I then added a flat grid, firstly I warped the perspective through the transform tool and then created a wave-like shape using the liquify tool, I then selected a square from the grid, created a new layer and filled it in to create a platform. I then drew the scribble using the paintbrush tool with a linear dodge (add) blending mode with a soft round pressure sized brush to look like a line from a spray can. I then added an image I had previously taken of a plastic bag as a textural background and added a darker colour blending mode. I then added the wifi symbol with an exclusion bending mode, scribbled behind it with the brush tool, and then added two strips of tape behind it to help it stick out. I then added an image of a mouse cursor and overlayed bits of tape over top to make it look like it is stuck on. Then by using the brush tool at 5000pt, I created a soft gradient from the very left of the image fading to the right. I then added a border around the edge to crop in the images and placed a large piece of duct tape over the image and border. Finally, I made a new layer, flooded with white and changed the blending mode to difference to invert all the colours. 

For this image I started with the image of the face I captured in the studio and had then added a black and white filter, I then sliced his face in half through the eyes using the polygonal lasso tool and separated the top half from the bottom half of the face. I then added the image of the plastic texture with subtract and pin light blending modes to create a subtle texture over the face. I then added a white rectangle with a pass through blending mode with the plastic behind to create a subtle texture through the rectangle. I then drew the scribble using the paintbrush tool with a pass through blending mode with a soft round pressure sized brush to look like a line from a spray can. Then by using the brush tool at 5000pt, I created a soft gradient from the very left of the image fading to the right. I then created an 'x' shape from two pieces of duct tape I scanned in and placed over where the eye would be. Finally, I added two pieces of duct tape to the top and bottom of the composition with a pass through and a difference blending mode to create inversion over the multiple layers it overlapped.

To create this image I first cut out the image of the body from an image I took in the studio, I then added a linear light blending mode to make the silhouette white but still receptive to other elements. I  then added an outer glow to the device he is holding to visually represent the glow from the screen. I then added a plastic texture to the background and use a darken blending mode. I then drew the scribble using the paintbrush tool with a pass through blending mode with a soft round pressure sized brush to look like a line from a spray can. I then added a human verification test with a difference blending mode, attached by two small pieces of duct tape placed in a group with a pass through blending mode applied to the group. Next I added the image I scanned in of duct tape. Then I added three warning signs with a exclusion blending mode, followed by creating a boarder and a white fill layer overtop with a difference blending mode.

DEVELOPMENT

After the photo shoot, I reworked in the images I had edited added in some new elements and made some slight tweaks to make the photo work in the composition and also made some other general improvements. I was inspired after reading the book 'Fear & Love: Reactions to a Complex World' which explores a spectrum of issues that define our time focused around developments developments in technology 

DEVELOPMENT

After deciding on a style that I like and felt best represented the points I was trying to make, I created three pieces of work which each speaks to different points I'm trying to communicate in individual ways. I felt it was important to carry on a specific style across all three pieces to make the pieces fluid and easily recognisable as a series. I will continue to refine these works to make them as visually pleasing and communicate my message as best as possible .

This work is in response to how consumed by technology we are as a collective, prompting the phrase in my head 'bi-products of obsession, consumed by consumerism'. It is representative of human beings operating in a virtual reality and how obsessed we have become with new age technology such as smart phones and social media. I decided to have a person on there phone standing on the virtual space to represent being consumed by virtual reality and detaching oneself from reality, I then chose to make the part of the grid where the figure is standing filled in with noise to represent the consuming nature of being on a phone and represent a disconnection with the world around them. The wifi symbol covering part of the head of the figure is representative of being connected to a virtual reality. Lastly the mouse is also a representative symbol of human being operating in a virtual space. 

My thinking behind this work was based around data analytics guessing what we want to see when we are searching on the internet and how most people are unaware of this happening. I tried to represent this by taking a portrait of someones face and duplicating the image and by using screen and darker colour blending modes to make them layer transparently on top of each other, I then put two x's over the eyes, but not actually covering the pupil to suggest that they can still see but only what data analytics want us to see. I then covered the left side of the face with a plastic texture to suggest the disconnect with understand how little we control we really have when browsing the internet and how most people are actually blind to the face that we are being shown what analytics want us to see. 

I made this work in response to John Stezakers comment "we are made unconscious through a bombardment of images" And in response to my research about image consumption. Through this work I am trying to make this blindness visible and confront the blindness in which we consume images on a everyday basis. The small transparent squares are representative of the amount of time we spend looking at screen. I included a human verification test box to make a comment that we are human beings capable of thinking for ourself's yet many people are too lazy to do so. Finally I added the three warning symbols to make a similar comment around thinking for yourself and not just mindlessly consuming in a sense that i believe because human put so much trust in things they see like symbols we see, we are susceptible to simply believe something just because its in front of our face rather than question what purpose it serves.  

TEXTURES

These are the images of textures I have applied to my series. I have chosen, synthetic, plastic, man-made material to use as my textures as these synthetic materials are representative of being a disconnect from reality by being artificial yet also connected in a sense that on a daily basis one cant escape consuming these man made products. Much like the forced consumption of media through society, these man made textures are extremely prevalent in our day to day lives,  and we are forced to consume these products.

PHOTO SHOOT

Photoshoot to replace the found an image of the face in my series. Shot in the studio, I used a snoot to direct the light on the front of the face to create a dramatic effect. My aim was to create dramatic shadows on the side of the face. I then edited three of the images I think would work best and made the photos black and white.

FINAL OUTPUT

For the presentation of my three works I want to have them printed on the same piece of paper (like below) making the three works one big piece.  Through doing so each of the pieces looks like its in its own space and I can add text and effects not normally seen on a final print series like the white gradient blobs. Currently this is what I am experimenting with..

3 PART SERIES

For my final presentation I am planning on producing a three part series of work presented on one single print. I am planning on creating a another  two pieces of work - one a close up portrait of someones face, duplicated like John Stezakers work showing multiple sets of eyes but half covered up with something (maybe tape, plaster or a phone) to represent how analytics control what we see with out us really understanding, giving a highly filtered version of the internet, yet we know no difference. And for my other piece of work I want to make something commenting on the amount of images we consume on a daily basis and how once original content has been repeated so many times, that even though something like a sunset which has extreme natural beauty is seen as a boring photo.

John Stezaker Blind II, 2006 Collage

Suns (from Sunsets) from Flickr, by Penelope Umbrico

DEVELOPMENT

I have continued developing my style, taking away colour, playing with composition, but mostly playing with the blending modes of my layers on photoshop to see what effects suit best for the message I'm trying to communicate. I feel like having a black background helps communicate being in a virtual space and also the darker tones of being consumed by our smart phones. I personally like the third one down with the white plastic texture and black boarder, as I think it works the best and has a style i would like to continue to my other 2 pieces of work in the series.

DEVELOPMENT

I have continued developing a style heavily influenced by a post-internet style of art, specifically artist such as Petra Cortright and Artie Vierkant. I wanted to make my work more texturalised and stylised while still conveying meaning and relevance to the topics I am speaking too such as obsession with our phones, data analytics and our over consumption of images.

At the moment I am experimenting with lots of different compositions, textures and colours trying to find a style that I feel best represents the tone of my works and the messages i am trying to communicate

STUDIO SHOOT #1

Images I took of my friends on their phones, I wasn't too concerned with how great the lighting quality was as I knew I was using them for the silhouette and not a hyper realistic, high def image. After doing the shoot and developing my ideas with these images I have decided I need to go back to the studio and take some more photos of different positions and maybe some close up shots.

DEVELOPMENT

I have gone for a stylistic change, making my work more grungy and rough than soft and pretty. I have done this by using limited colours and mainly using black and white. I warped the perspective of a flat grid to make it seem like a three dimensional space and overlaid a gradient. I then cut out an image in took of my friend and added a noise filter over him because I feel like this texture represents white noise and in ways, transitioning between reality and a virtual space. I chose to make the part of the grid where the figure is standing filled in with noise to represent the consuming nature of being on a phone and represent a disconnection with the world around them.

CORY ARCANGEL

Arcangel is a post-conceptual artist who makes work in many different media, including drawing, music, video, performance art, and video game modifications, for which he is perhaps best known. Arcangel often uses the artistic strategy of appropriation, creatively re-using existing materials such as dancing stands, Photoshop gradients and YouTube videos to create new works of art. His work explores the relationship between digital technology and pop culture. 

PAMELA ROSENKRANZ

Rosenkranz has received such wide attention in part because her work raises fundamental and potentially troubling questions about what it means to be human in the contemporary world. She refers unsentimentally to her body as “material” and has spoken of a “human-indifferent universe.”

Rosenkranz’s paintings, sculptures and installations are informed by her extensive research into fields ranging from marketing and medicine to philosophy and religion.

http://www.artinamericamagazine.com/news-features/magazine/in-the-studio-pamela-rosenkranz/

POST-INTERNET ART

Post-internet denotes an idea in arts and criticism that refers to society and modes of interaction following the widespread adoption of the internet. The term originated from discussions about works produced by Maria Olson, Gene Mchugh and Artie Vierkant however, it is generally described as art that is about the internet's effects on aesthetics, culture and society.

Works created within the post-internet description often share similar, distinctive aesthetics. However, interent art does not use the internet only as a tool to produce art but addresses the internet as a force that has altered social structures in both digital and physical spaces. Post-internet art is not necessarily art produced on the internet, but art that reflects the internet and the internet's effects on culture and society.

CONTINUED EXPERIMENTATION

These works are making a comment on original content, scrolling social media, and repetition of images. The square on the top of the pages are meant to represent original content while the square of blank colour represents the original content getting repeated and copied until the point where they mean nothing to anyone and don't resonate with any viewer as it is regurgitated content. I chose to float the squares in space to represent a virtual reality, white the scribbles and dots are supposed to make it appealing to look at.