IMAGE CONSUMPTION

“I thought it peculiar that the sun, the quintessential giver of life and warmth, constant in our lives, symbol of enlightenment, spirituality, eternity, all things unreachable and ephemeral, omnipotent provider of optimism and vitamin D… and so ubiquitously photographed, is now subsumed to the internet – this warm singular object made multiple in the electronic space of the web, and viewed within the cool light of the screen.” quoted from Penelo Peumbrico’s personal site discussing her work ‘Suns from Sunsets from Flickr, 2006 - ongoing’ which made me think how even though we understand the sun is an an incredibly beautiful, source of all life, we often take images of it for granted because they are such a commonly posted image and a very common subject to photograph when using a camera. This can be seen as a comment on how everyone is now a photographer due to the advancements in mobile phones with powerful camera, which also seamlessly provide a platform for the user to publish their work

“Perhaps part of the beauty of taking a picture of a sunset is that while you are doing it it’s likely that a million other people are doing it as well” 

http://www.penelopeumbrico.net/index.php/project/suns/

“We live in a digital electronic world, built with images designed to capture

eyeballs, build brand names, create mindshare and produce attractive products

and services.”

“Today’s organizations are faced with the ‘frantic production of images which are circulated; a frantic translation of incoming images into collages of “ideal companies”; less frantic but steady attempts to translate those images into the local practices and vice-versa; and once again a production of self-images to be sent around’“

“I consider photography a cornerstone of visual consumption. Associating visual consumption with the art historical world helps to position and understand photography as a global representational system.”

Visual Consumption in the Image Economy Jonathan E. Schroeder in: Elusive Consumption Karin Ekström and Helene Brembeck, eds, Oxford: Berg (2004),

“Although the concepts of ‘media culture’ and ‘consumer culture’ have been commonly used as labels for contemporary society, they have rarely been explicitly compared”

“Mobile internet consumption increased at an average rate of 44 percent a year between 2010 and 2016 and accounted for 19 percent of all global media consumption last year.”

‘People consume more media than ever’, Rani Molla, 30th May 2017

ARTIE VIERKANT

Artie Vierkant

Vierkant makes art that is centred upon the importance of representation across media. This is evidenced throughout his practice, whether in the documentation or the process of creating his works. The interaction between physical and digital entities propagates debates related to both the development of art in a “post-internet” age and to its contemporaneous Intellectual Property rights.

There is a definite tangible element, communicated through photography, which necessitates the capturing of a physical object. However, by altering the compositions digitally, something fundamentally different and physically nonexistent is created.

http://www.artuner.com/artists/artie-vierkant/

I like Vierkant's work because it's a collage of digitally created works and real life photographic images. She merges the two to create visually stimulating works that make you question what is real and what has been manipulated to look realistic.

After being further inspired by Vierkant's work I have decided instead of creating a video collage of images, I want to create a collage of images smashed together like Stezarkers work of images that hold similar forms and compositions but with a new age digital twist as seen in Vierkants work.

JOHN STEZAKER

I have decided to change the direction of my project after being inspired by John Stezaker's work at the city gallery.

Seeing Stezaker's work made me think about how many images we are exposed to each day, especially through social media apps such as Instagram and Snapchat. By using old images to recreate new images, Stezaker is making a statement about how we are exposed to too many images to properly value them and see them for what they are worth.

This can be seen as a reflection on society, how as a mass we have very little attention span and how everything is now targeted towards this. Pair this with our new social practices surrounding social media and we can see an over saturation of images in our everyday life.

I think I would like to make a comment on this new style of photography (social media based) with ideas of image over saturation, basically that everyone posts the same things but it is from a different perspective.

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Same thing, different perspective - Through the manipulation of brush strokes using a blur tool, I was able to create a textural piece of work inspired by the works of Petra Cortright. I then edited the images further in Photoshop by slightly changing their perspective and adding a drop shadow. This piece is essentially the same thing repeated three times, however literally by looking with a new perspective makes you question whether it is different or basically the same thing. 

 

SOFTWARE EXPERIMENTATION

I have downloaded a free software called KRITA, in which there is a focus on different types of brushes, allowing for lots of experimentation. Originally inspired by Petra Cortright, I wanted to try to create digital art which is relevant to the message I'm trying to communicate and visually pleasing. I have found I like creating a busy canvas and using a blur/smudge brush create textural based works. 

WEEK FIVE

In todays lesson we focused on colour grading, spotting and retouching images and creating panoramic images. 

To colour grade this photo we were shown how to use levels adjustment layer using specifically the RGB layers, I cant quite remember but I believe we took the blue flowers and made them an off white.

These two panoramic images were created using photoshops panoramic feature. In camera raw we batch edited the photographs so they has the same adjustment qualities then selecting them all merged them together using photoshops panoramic feature.

Unfortunately, Shirley has a lazy eye, luckily enough for her, we can fix this for her through photoshop.  We selected her right eye, duplicated it, transformed and flipped it to mirror her right eye and then through using blending brushes and healing brush tool we were able to convincingly blend her skin tones together.  

For this image, we were shown basic ways to beauty touch a portrait of someone. Using the dodge and burn tool and the spot healing brush tool to reduce the bags under her eyes and decreasing the intensity of her wrinkles around her face. We were also introduced to using the liquify filter which allowed us to make adjustments such as increasing the size of her eyes and reducing the size of her nose. 

ARTIST RESEARCH / CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT

Kerry Ann Lee 

Kerry Ann Lee's art explores cultural intersections occurring in the space between private moments and public locations. With a background in graphic arts, she creates work that is both expressive and socially engaged by playfully investigating issues of identity and hybrid cultural formations through hand-made processes. 

http://www.whitespace.co.nz/artists/kerry-ann-lee.aspx 

I like the way lee has convincingly created a false environment using a combination of photography, image sourcing and illustration. Through the use of perspective, shadowing and scale Lee has created a unrecognisable scenario yet familiar  

Stuart Lipponcott

 Visual effects artist and animator Stuart Lippincott creates breathtaking ethereal scenarios in his ongoing “Everyday” series.

Petra Cortright

Shifting between the digital and the physical worlds, she interrogates definitions of painting and nags the boundaries of online/offline existence. Cortright creates her paintings from Internet-sourced imagery, which she digitally manipulates. Lifted from Google Images and Pinterest, colours, patterns, and skin tones are broken down and reintegrated to become the digital ‘paint’ from which Cortright builds slowly-morphing, fluid abstractions, consisting of hundreds of painterly layers and effects.

http://citygallery.org.nz/exhibitions/petra-cortright-running-neo-geo-games-under-mame/

CONCEPT DEVELOPMENT 

For my investigation I am looking into the contemporary concern around social media, especially the rise of Instagram, and how this is changing the way we interact socially the world around us. Due to the fact that most people have access to a smart phone (which is basically a networking multimedia device with internet access at all times) everyone is a photographer now and choose snippets of their life to share with the rest of the world, in other worlds constructing their own virtual reality through social media.

With the rise of social media, ordinary people who have done exceptionally well at constructing their own personal life through Instagram have gained popularity, fame, recognition, opportunities and in some cases wealth. These people who now are social media famous, have a large audience and lots of influence on these people, especially the easily influenced minds of the youth that use Instagram, Where as when I was growing up people who influenced me were famous sports people and celebrities in movies etc.

More specifically I would like to make a comment on how 'Instagram famous' people have a large influence on a younger generation and they often promote many things a traditional celebrity would not.