For "The Visual Metaphor" I want to continue with the concepts that I explored in my dissertation, the effects social and digital media have on society. More specifically on how I can express my views on this subject through the medium of photography.
The driving force behind the idea for my dissertation and this assignment comes from the hypothetical theory known as "The Technological Singularity", where in the development of technology and either our own or artificial intelligence grows to such an extent that they become indistinguishable from each other. For example, machines that think like us and we can think like them- downloading your brain into a computer is one way of describing this.
Here is a video where Ray Kurzweil, one of the leading writers in this field, explains the effects of "The Technological Singularity" http://www.motherboard.tv/2010/6/14/the-singularity-of-ray-kurzweil-he-s-seen-the-future-and-the-machine-is-us-video
Ever since this brief was set I have had one section of text in my mind to use for it. It is from a film called Ghost in the Shell which was released 1995; the premise of the film is that in a not too distant future the entire of humanity is linked up by a global network, race and religion are nearly things of the past in an ever growing digital network. Humans can also be made rather than born, living in cybernetic bodies made of metal and silicon instead of flesh and bone.
https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiKn4YyDzPNoeMA3ojgMhI6voC65Zdo5BNZ9TT_ly7CcTisgJ47e8EK8dO_iA8fUbIbc091pJmLjnoY9NUVSJMhUxz0k01EauQ2mzBKKIklCnUHEe3V3RjeJZJzxMANSOVRKHAOiZMqwus/s1600/ghost-in-the-shell.jpg
The quote I have chosen is by a character known as "The Puppet Master" who is the main focus of the film.
"DNA is nothing more than a program designed to preserve itself. Life has become more complex in the overwhelming sea of information. And life, when organized into species, relies upon genes to be its memory system. So, man is an individual only because of his intangible memory... and memory cannot be defined, but it defines mankind. The advent of computers, and the subsequent accumulation of incalculable data has given rise to a new system of memory and thought parallel to your own. Humanity has underestimated the consequences of computerization.... I am not AI. My codename is project two-five-zero-one. I am a living, thinking entity that was created in the sea of information."
This monologue was written from the point of view that the "Technological Singularity" has already occurred, with artificial intelligence having evolved past the own confides of its name. Rene Descartes philosophical statement "I think, therefore I am" describes this situation very well. The implications of such an event happening and what the world will be like afterwards cannot be predicted at this point in time, as it is impossible to predict the future. All we can look at are trends in current development and the rate at which that development is occurring.
I want to try and make photographs that represent the up and coming singularity, in a way that is descriptive of how modern technology has made its way into our everyday lives over the past 20 years as well as satisfying the source literature. The particular line that stands out to me is "I am a living, thinking entity that was created in the sea of information", because in our society today the majority of people that use digital technology has grown exponentially over the past 20 years and it has been a rapid but subtle increase and we, now, as a society, have become a part of the ever expanding digital network.
Research
Adding mechanical parts to organic forms is one idea I would like to explore.
Panel lines are a simple way of showing that something has been manufactured, they are used extensively in Japanese animation especially on robots and cyborgs. http://img6.imagebanana.com/img/5efggmbc/vlcsnap2011040112h40m07s93.png
A costume design from the film Tron Legacy, the lines on the costume represent the tracks on a circuit board. Again a very subtle but effective way of showing that the subject has been created out of the digital world, in the context of this specific film anyway.
A modern circuit board, the very thing that is enabling every digital device to function on this planet. I want to somehow integrate this into my photos in some form.
Technology has been in the focus of artists for a few years now, especially with the younger generations who have grown up with technology next to them their entire lives. With the internet and social networking sites being widely used by the developed world with millions of users creating a constant flow of traffic on these sites, there has never been a better time for your work to be shared with so many people around the world. And so the sea of digital information grows.
Concept
After thinking about how I could create this speech visually I started to jot down ideas, here are a few that I came up with:
The symbolic image of the egg being a sign of life and evolution seems to be the obvious path to go down. I'll experiment with eggs to see if any useful results can be gained, then try another of my ideas out.
Eggs
I went and bought a box of eggs to see what would be the best way to light them. The shape of an egg makes it quite difficult to position it where you want it to be.
Luckily I found a piece of blu-tak and managed to stand the egg upright.
I also experimented with modifying the eggs, trying to represent how possibly in the future things will be manufactured through science rather than be born naturally.
Continuing on the same trail of thought but this time connecting circuit boards to the shell of the egg. One of the most frustrating things I have ever done, trying to place a screw into an egg without the shell cracking.
I knew that although this concept does work as a visual metaphor, I could produce something that is more appealing to the eye so decided to move on to another of my concepts.
Research- Photo-manipulation
The manipulation of photographs is not a new practice, for more than 100 years photographers have been changing their images to make political statements or for artistic freedom. One of the most prominent photographers who manipulated photographs was Man Ray, specifically his "Le Violon d'Ingres" which depicts a females curves being likened to those of a violin by placing f-holes on to her back.
The f-holes were painted onto a print and then that print was rephotographed to create a bold statement both objectifying and celebrating the female form.
This is what photo-manipulation is all about, bringing skills from other areas into photography to create pieces of work that could not made by just using photographic practices alone. It allows for new genres to be created and for new genres in those, the only limit there is is that of your imagination.
Today photo-manipulation has been taken to a new level, with computer software able to not just manipulate photos but to create entire scenes digitally from a blank canvas or from stitching together hundreds of photos. Websites such as Photosynth.net allow photographers of any skill level to stitch their photographs together, without the need for expensive editing software as it is a completely free service. These kinds of services have opened up a whole new way for people who don't want to fork out hundreds of pounds for software they may only use once in a while, to try out and experiment with new skills that could lead on to bigger and better things. And once you have created you masterpiece you are now able to share it with millions of people around the world through social networking sites or specialist sites such as deviantart.com and flickr.com.
The internet has brought about a myriad of changes to the creative industry, not just the internet though but digital technology as well. The speed from initial concept to finished product has become shorter, but it has also become more complex with options now available to companies that were not possible 20-30 years ago. For example, do you go for traditional still media for billboards etc. or do you go for moving image for digital advertising boards- now a common site in the London Underground stations.
A new technology available on Skype is allowing designers and photographers alike to not just video call each other but to also share screens. Rather than waiting for an empty slot in a busy schedule it is now possible to call your client or vise versa and show them exactly what you are working on at that point in time. This means that a company could contact a designer and see what the designer is working on in real time, meaning that changes can be applied there and then. It also means that more time can be spent working on the product as time to travel to meetings etc. can now be avoided, this is especially helpful is say client and designer are working in different countries, making everything more efficient for both parties.
On the extreme end of photo-manipulation is photographer Andrew Brooks who creates scenes by painting together hundreds of photos to make incredibly high resolution images. Working mainly with Photoshop, Brooks can spend anywhere from 2 weeks to over a year to create each scene using layers to paint in each part of the scene. Creating this kind of image as only been possible through advances in digital manipulation software, I think it would be nearly impossible to create scenes like these using only film based media.
The bottom left scene was for a commission by Urbis, Manchester, the work was displayed at Urbis between December 2008-July 2009. The prints were mounted onto light-boxes which back lit each photo and made them glow, which was really effective in the darkened space in which they were displayed. Here is a video where Andrew Brooks talks about his production process to create these amazing scenes http://vimeo.com/14012293
For this project I would like to try quite basic photo-manipulation as it should work quite well for the look that I am trying to achieve. I'll play around with layers and various imagery and see what kind of things I can come up with.
Photo-manipulation
Here are a few of my attempts at overlaying various images on to my own photos in order to create a visual metaphor for being born in a sea of digital information.
I came up with the idea for this by looking back at what I originally stated for the intentions of this brief in that I want to create an image that represents a metaphor for how we are now a part of an ever expanding digital frontier. But captures this concept in a subtle way that represents how modern technology has worked its way into the fabric of our everyday lives. The egg, a symbol of birth and evolution which I have modified by overlaying a PCB layout over in Photoshop (PCB layout from http://www.pjrc.com/mp3/mp3_pcb_reva_solder.gif). As I used a macro lens to photograph the egg the depth of field is quite shallow, so to make the overlay look like it is a a part of the egg I used the blur tool around the outside of the egg to give the sense of depth of field. The overlay was also trimmed using the eraser tool to the shape of the egg. I do like the effect that overlaying gives, but eggs aren't giving me the impact that I want so I will try these techniques on portraits instead.
Inspired somewhat by Ghost in the Shell and various sci-fi films I have seen over the years, bar coding is a very simple way of storing information in a digital form. These could possibly be the passports of the future, simply scan and away you go. Using the same layering techniques I used for the egg overlay, these photos have a different feel to them as they involve human subjects.
One problem I found whilst trying out these overlays was having the bar codes look natural and not look like they were just placed over the top of the photo. I tried warping them to give the look that they followed the contours of the body and reducing the opacity so the skin underneath was starting to come through but they still looked like overlays.
I need to find a way of putting these kinds of circuit layouts and bar codes on to people's skin and have them follow the contours of the face and body, preferably without resorting to drawing onto them.
Research- Projection
Using projections to create unusual and unique photographs is not a new concept, as all you are doing is manipulating the light source in a different way. However with the introduction of digital projectors onto the consumers market a whole new realm of possibilities has been opened up.
Since 1996 Jenny Holzer has been projecting statements in cities around the world and become known around the world because of them. As an artist projecting statements or art onto buildings is a reasonably cheap way to create art as it doesn't harm or deface the buildings which you are using as screens. Or any other object that you are projecting on to for that matter.
The statements were originally her own, but now they are mostly written by other artists in conjunction with Holzer. The only down side to this kind of art is that it can only be seen at night, which can also be a positive as it makes the piece unique in that you can't see these kind of large scale art works inside- unless it is a photograph of it obviously.
Although, saying you can't see them at art galleries and museums isn't always necessarily true.
This could work as a solution for the portraits I want to do, I need to do research into using projectors in a fashion/ portrait environment.
Eva Mueller is a Bavarian photographer who now works and lives in New York. She uses projections to create very unique and dynamic looking portraits for high end companies such as Yves Saint Laurent.
Mueller's photographs are incredibly stylised and and well polished. Projections are not used that much in commercial photography but when they are done in a very precise way the results are quite amazing.
The stark white background brings all of the focus on to the subject, with nothing else in the frame to draw the viewers attention away.
I really think that this is the way to go with the portraits, projecting in essence should be quite a simple thing to do. What I will project on to my subjects is the main matter of attention now.
I have found another projection photographer called Balint Radoczy who is from Hungary and his work is more in line with what I had in mind for my portraits. They are a lot darker in tonality with the light being the main focus rather than the model. http://www.behance.net/playdog/frame/778006
The colours and tonality of these photos is captivating, the projections are a lot more prominent than with Mueller's photographs. This style of using projections for portraits is more of what I had in mind my own work. I really hope these turn out how I think they will.
Interesting video on using projections, it's called "Architectural Mapping" and the effect is jaw dropping.
Projections
I am a very lucky person because my laptop has a VGA port, meaning that if I can find myself a projector I will be able to attach my laptop to it and use all of the software I am familiar to control the projected image.
I will be projecting a PCB layout (from http://www.pjrc.com/mp3/mp3_pcb_reva_component.gif) which I have cleaned and modified in Photoshop so that I have the ability to change the background colour as I see fit. Here some examples:
To start off I originally had the projector facing directly at myself just to see what effect it would create and what exposure I would need.
The projection itself is just what I was after, the exposure needed some tweaking but the main problem I found was the wall behind where the projection could be seen was taking away from the photographs so after a few adjustments (below) I managed to find a setup that produced what I wanted.
I moved the projector on to an angle so that it fell onto a board which I used as a reflector, leaving the wall behind myself and my subjects blank. Meaning that when I adjusted for the correct exposure the wall came out black, which I wanted.
Contact Sheets:
Whilst taking the photos I wanted a uniformity with the look, because to me this is what we are evolving technology for- to help organise our lives more, bringing all of the things we need to keep control of into one place which can organise and sort them.
In terms of editing the main focus was the background and making sure that it was clear of objects that had caught the light from the projector slightly. Also sorting out the tone of the colour, which seemed different once Lightroom had rendered the images and making slight adjustments to the luminance smoothing.
Before
After
I applied the same setting to all of my final images.
Final Edit
Here is my final edit:
Evaluation
I have enjoyed this assignment, taking inspiration from writing is something I haven't tried before and I don't think that I would have created the work that I have without doing so. I never would have expected to do portraits for my final photographs, as I don't really taking portraits. The journey from eggs to humans was a strange one, although philosophically it isn't that big a leap. If I were to try this assignment again I would have liked to collaborate with a 3D artist and deconstruct my photographs then reconstruct them with CG to make the subjects look truly futuristic. We have become a part of a digital world, a frontier where we are more connected than we ever have been in our entire history on this planet.
