Alex Stillson
Professor Billy Friebele
ART314
3/31/14
Project 2: Cyber/Space – Self-Assessment
Start by identifying
the central theme of your work. What drove you to create this image? Speak
about where your inspiration came from and what you intended from the outset.
The central theme of my work is the
subjective passage of time, portrayed through the medium of a GIF file, and
subsequently the work’s presentation as an infinite loop. This image is undoubtedly a product of my impending
due date of graduation, facing an uncertain, large world, where time may shrink
itself down further and further. I’ve
always found the phrase “time flies when you grow older” to be vaguely
disconcerting, and strove to explore the subjectivity of time through this
project. The multiple planes of speed,
motion, and stasis contrast each other, and the longer the viewer concentrates
upon the work, the more may be revealed.
Also present within the work is a certain element of chance and
probability—a snapshot of seemingly random time.
Next talk about how
the process unfolded. In every art project there are surprises and unexpected
results. As you work with the computer (or any set of tools) you end up
compromising to some extent with the limitations you encounter. Reflect on the
things that you learned (both technical and conceptual) as you built this
artwork.
I began by examining my past work,
and questioning my methodology—what do I find interesting? What is my preferred medium? How can I push forward in both intention and
practice, building both my capacity to craft an idea, and physically portray
it? I initially experimented with reversed time in my previous project, beach window, reversing and slowing down
certain areas within the frame. I knew
that I wanted to follow a similar technique with this project, so the first
shoot I embarked upon focused upon a torrent of rocks, falling down a
gorge. The idea behind this was to
create a seamless loop of debris cascading down, but I felt that the idea
lacked direction and exigency—it simply didn’t have the same subtle yet urgent
undertones as my last project. I
uploaded the footage to my laptop, but eventually became discouraged, and left
for Cape Hatteras, which is where I spent my spring break. After break, I knew that I had only a few
days left before the final work was to be critiqued. Armed with my footage from the gorge, I
trudged through the snow on a Tuesday night to work on editing, when it struck
me—the snow was a perfect natural element to create a moving image of the
subjectivity of time.
Examine your process.
What were your work habits? Were they effective? Can you see any way to improve
this in the future? Be honest. Part of this exercise is learning how to get the
best results and how to best budget your time.
Stumbling upon the idea to capture
falling snow in the dead of night was invigorating, as I felt I had finally
found a direction, but also technically challenging. I needed a light source that was powerful
enough to penetrate the darkness, but also without the aid of a recognizable
light source, such as a streetlight—I didn’t want my footage to contain obvious
visual representations of objects present within the world, but rather to
portray abstract images, to drain the artistic conversation from certain
associations once may have with a particular object. For example, the viewer’s knowledge that this
footage was shot on the banks of the St. Mary’s River would cause many of the
viewers, (most of them college students here at SMCM) to immediately cast their
own experiences and associations upon the work.
By working at night, and avoiding recognizable landmarks, I hoped to
minimize this effect. Since I desired
objectivity as much as possible, I knew the light source used to illuminate the
snow falling would need to be behind the camera as well as relatively small and
portable. I ended up using a headlamp
that I had stashed in my backpack.
Actual capturing of the footage was
simple—using a tripod and a Canon 7D, I shot two takes of snow falling sideways
across the path of the lens, and two takes of snow falling into it, as it was
blown by the wind. In all of the takes,
the headlamp was secured to the top of the camera lens, creating a pathway of
light as close to the focal point of the viewfinder as possible, to create the
illusion of a tunnel of illumination. I
captured the footage using the dark distances of the river as a backdrop,
avoiding all visual evidence of the space where the footage was actually gathered. This was done to create a discombobulating
effect where the only measure of space and time was the falling snow, which is
a constantly shifting reference point, making it difficult to judge where
exactly the camera is located in space.
Thusly, there is no sense of distance within the work that can possibly
be completely accurate. Satisfied with
the footage that I had gathered so far, I conducted one more take, this time of
a light source located on the college’s waterfront. However, still wanting to keep associations
to a minimum, I used the shallowest depth of field possible, and focusing upon
a focal point close to the surface lens.
This created an unexpected effect of a sort of glowing, porous disk,
that remains static, while all the other elements within the work are shifting
in constant motion. I wanted to capture
something that would highlight the fluxing nature of the work, a static yet
unrecognizable image that would act as a visual anchor of sorts.
Finally, address the
finished product. Take a step back and pretend that you did not make this
artwork. What would you perceive? Do you think the message is being
communicated clearly that you set out to broadcast? How do the formal elements
(color, rhythm, composition, line, shape etc.) communicate visually? You should
identify areas that seem particularly successful, and others that are less so.
How would you fix the issues that are not working as well? The goal is to
bridge the gap between the visual qualities of the artwork and the meanings
that are being expressed.
Diffusion
1, viewed in the context of a browser, is at once confusing and visually
interesting. The image is presented in
pure black and white, with no compromises made through greyscale. This causes the algorithm used in Photoshop
to make frame-by-frame decisions of what subject matter should be portrayed as
white, and which should be presented as black, causing a rapid strobing effect
in the noise particles which are a result of the high sensitivity the camera
sensor was being implemented at. The
effect, if viewed on a large enough screen, is at once overwhelming and
soothing, as there is a rapid rate of motion, looping and predictable in some
areas, yet seemingly sporadic in others.
This effect gives the viewer a sort of unease, as distance and time seem
to operate at different speeds within the work.
Particles are not only appearing randomly at differing areas of the
frame, but also moving horizontally and vertically across and toward the frame. The larger the particle, the easier it is for
the viewer to detect a pattern and path, as the loop is only about two and a
half seconds. The multiple planes of
motion, in addition to portraying several planes of time simultaneously, create
a sense of distance and a multi-dimensionality that suggests a graphical
representation of planes of probability, distance, and time.
Lastly, give yourself
a grade for this project. What do you feel, in all honesty, you deserve for
your effort and for the outcome.
I feel like I deserve an A for this assignment. I strove to push myself both conceptually and
technically, and although shorter in duration than past works that have led to
its creation, I feel that the artwork I produced is conceptually and
technically strong, as well as visually interesting.
