28/9/2020 - 19/10/2020 (Week 6 - Week 9)
Naim Zuki, (0346615)
| Bachelor of Design (Hons) in Creative Media
Digital Photography &
Imaging
Project 2A
LECTURES
Lecture 6 | Introduction to Self-Titled
Mr. Fauzi began by introducing us to the long-awaited project that was first brought up at the beginning of the semester. Throughout the module, Mr Fauzi has always focused on our own personal development of skill and individuality and never fails to ask the important question of the intention behind our work. Most importantly, he stresses that "self-titled is an exploration project for students to express their own individuality and reflect their personality through digital art. The main idea is to build up self-confidence and discover their own interests."
Our task is to create a digital collage that reflects what we think of ourselves. We were encouraged to use pictures we've taken ourselves to really make it our own piece. Pictures from the internet are discouraged but allowed.
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INSTRUCTIONS
Module Information Booklet
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PROJECT 2A | Self-Titled
If there's anything that attracts me most in digital surrealism is how it can fully encapsulate the dream state in its full visual form. Something that both fine arts and literary arts lack is where digital art surpasses time and time again. After being overrun with the thought of interpretation of dreams and mental illness along with how they can elevate the fear of a nightmare or the euphoria of fantasy, I want my project to encapsulate the dream state and how it affects my own mental health in facial dysmorphia.
IDEA EXPLORATION
Fig. 1.0 - Fig. 1.05, Inspo (Image courtesies of Ponse Lakiva, unknown, Denis Sheckler, Thomas Girst, Karaska, and Adri)
After some experimentation with these as inspiration, I felt unsatisfied with my work because it felt like they weren't fully representing what my intentions were and it felt like I was at a creative block. As a result, for the next consecutive weeks, I didn't have much to offer for progression to Mr. Fauzi and felt pressured by the advancement my classmates were making. Amidst all other projects at hand, I took a short break and got off this project to clear my mind from the annoyance of being stagnant. After which I started at square one and found these gem from Jesse Draxler's Misophonia photoseries. Thus these became my main inspiration.
Fig. 1.06 - Fig. 1.07, More Inspo (Images Courtesy of Jesse Draxler)I started with idea explorations that are a mix of multiple elements from my idea exploration phase (refer to fig. 1.0 - fig. 1. 05).
Fig. 1.08, Self-Titled Sketch
DEVELOPMENT
For this project to be uniquely mine, I intended to use only pictures that I've taken as the elements for this project. So I went through my past photography folders to find ones that could potentially be useful. Though further down into idea exploration and brainstorming for this project, I realised that I wanted to use a water element and I made the exception of minimising the use of an external source to one picture.
Fig. 1.09 - Fig. 1.11, Pictures Potentially To Be Used
Fig. 1.12, Oceanic Waves, (Image Courtesy of iStock/cookelma)
Then I set up my DLSR and tripod in my backyard one late afternoon to do some self-portraits for this project. It took some effort trying to set the timing right, thinking of poses, experimenting with lighting, and deciding what background to use. After the little photoshoot, I narrowed the pictures that I took to the following images.
Fig. 1.13, Collection of Self-Portraits I've Taken In My Backyard, 13/10/2020After gathering all the pictures for the project, I began by exploring some ideas. I envisioned myself to be floating around among the clouds, alluding to the acclaimed phrase "head in the clouds" that relates back to my mind and body existing in a dream. I then focus on the theme of facial dysmorphia.
Fig. 1.14, ExperimentationGoing into this I had no general visual direction in mind. So I ended up improvising and experimented with as many ideas as I could.
Fig. 1.15 - 1.19, Experimentations
At this point, much like all my other projects at the moment, I've exhausted my creative mind and was stuck with feeling incompetent with my experimentations. After much reconsideration and petty experiments, I've managed to rediscover artwork that would inspire me into a clear direction (refer to fig. 1.06 - fig. 1.07). From that, birthed the solid ideation that would work well with the set theme of this project.
Fig. 1.20, ExperimentationFrom here on out, I tried to apply what I've learned throughout the semester by manipulating the colours to better blend the images together, creating more and more adjustment layers, varied the crops of the "faces", added artificial noise for the vintage style I was going for, and most importantly played around a lot with tone curves.
Fig. 1.21, Closer Inspection On All Layers and Adjustment Layers MadeWith that, comes the final outcome of the
Self-Titled Project.
Fig. 1.22, Self-Titled Project Variation, 24/10/2020
Fig. 1.23, Self-Titled Project Final, 24/10/2020_
FEEDBACK
Week 6
At the idea exploration phase, I showed Mr. Fauzi my main references for this project and explained the rough direction I had in mind for this project. He asked a couple of questions regarding how I'm going to execute this idea, I didn't have much in mind at the time so I improvised my answer. Mr. Fauzi approved of my ideation and said I could carry on.
Week 7
When I presented the rough sketch I made for this project, Mr. Fauzi's reaction was more on the dissatisfied side. He noted that as students of Taylor's Uni, it'll be preferable if I didn't include a destructive element in my project because it reflects poorly on the university. Otherwise, the sketch was a little too ambiguous for more comments and he said I should work on it more.
Week 8
I sent to Mr. Fauzi one of the concepts I've made for this project (refer to Fig. 1.19), he noted that the simplicity of the composition is allowed and I'm headed in the right direction. He noted that the edit was good, thus encouraging me to keep going.
Week 9
For my final submission, Mr. Fauzi said that it was more on the abstract side and said it was a good composition.
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REFLECTION
Experience
Throughout the course of this project, I was having a hard time trying to balance my workload between the modules, so the time spent trying to put meaning in this project surely wasn't as much as I'd hoped. There were loads of stressful nights spent experimenting with different styles and ideas to convey the message of facial dysmorphia; and when that didn't work, I scrolled through Pinterest and Twitter endlessly trying to find something that resonates with me enough to inspire a proper direction for me to head into. There were also loads of conversation that happened between me and my friends where I tried to get their feedback on my experimentations and read their reaction. What stressed me out the most at that time was that my work wasn't impactful enough to get the reaction I wanted from my peers. Though, when I did find a proper inspiration for this project, the process went by much smoother and I managed to come up with something that I am happy with.
Observation
Although my peers' reaction wasn't what I had hoped for, a friend of mine went the extra mile to write down exactly what his thoughts were when viewing my work. He noted the subtle nuances behind the cropping (the heavy feathering that only exists around my body in contrast to the light feathering around my faces) reflects mind and body detachment. A lot of people also question the ambiguity of my work, each of them having different views and opinions that range from saying it looks weird to some having full-on discussions on what they understood from just seeing my work before having heard my own justifications.
Findings
At the end of this project, I realised an important thing when it comes to self-expression through art in general: although the composition is open to interpretation, my own intentions when designing the artworks is what matters most. This realisation ties back to exactly what Mr. Fauzi was explaining at the beginning of the semester. This whole project isn't really about getting approval from anyone, it's entirely about me expressing myself. What idea am I trying to voice out? Who am I when I mention about this idea I'm conveying? These questions are important to address before starting the design because it justifies my decisions in my compositions.
After this realisation, I felt the pressure of making an art piece that is socially acceptable to be completely lifted. I had all the power in the world to create something completely outrageous or completely useless and still be able to feel happy with the end result because above all I am expressing myself honestly and truthfully. Thus I can at least say that I am happy with the end result of this project.
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