Data Bending (project 3) (fallen kinsmen)

commentary on project 2

For the most part, working on project 2 functioned to improve my photoshop aptitude; namely, I used more technical and intentional techniques to render some of the images I used for the gifs. This was particularly so in relation to segment 2, for I extensively made use of the clone stamp, selection tools, filters, adjustment layers, and drawing tools. As a mode of creating the flowing river of lethe in the aforesaid, I strung together multiple copies of the same image together with slight variations in the passage/placement of the ripple filter. Segment 3, as I'm sure is quite apparent upon cursory inspection, is rather amateurish, but seeing as the content of the gif itself is unnerving, the choppiness of the animation merely serves to continue the theme. Regarding the first segment, traditional stop motion was used to give the effect of one of my wood-sculptures reading an X-files comic. For some reason, although it may not be objectively magnificent, segment 1 is a personal favorite, and I look forward to making more and perhaps more elaborate episodes featuring the wooden elk as the protagonist. Conceptually, there was really no overarching theme or intellectual goal; that is, I was primarily focusing on attaining the hard skills.  

Project 2

stopmotion segment  

collage segment

simple gif segment

grif, indolent ruler of the underworld (drink of the waters of lethe)

first gif attempt

crit response to chapter 3

There is a passage in the book that states, “behind much art extending through the western tradition exists a yearning to break down the psychic and physical barriers between art and living reality”. The aforementioned, as a possible interpretation, presents a central goal of art as accurately representing or getting closer to some metaphysical truth present in what our eyes see. This thesis, though perhaps slightly applicable to observational rendering, grossly seems to miss the point of art; that is, like beautiful literature, the composition and structure of a piece serves to defamiliarize and introduce novelty. There is something, for instance, inherently intriguing in playing with realities physical laws in ways that defy and warp them; it makes one feel almost like a god (creator) free to shape a universe according to whatever fancy is foremost.  The status of godhood, however, isn’t pure, for one is still limited to the perceptual rules that we derive from experiencing the everyday (spatial dimensions, colors, textures).

                  As a somewhat tangent point, the work of Ken Feingold provides an interesting commentary on patterns of human interaction. Specifically, his animatronic heads implanted in packaging peanuts and forever immersed in conversation with one another seem to ominously replicate the way humans converse. Via a mode similar to the way we cling to certain phrases and words to generate formulaic responses (“how was your day”,  “what’s your major”, etc.”, the Ken’s heads use algorithms to cling to certain word/word combinations that elicit preprogrammed responses. In sum, Ken’s work serves to emphasize the point that computers think like humans because they were made by humans that can’t conceive of other thought modalities.

Identity layers commentary

For the identity layers project, I chose to quite literally conform to the name as a conceptual basis; that is to say, I mainly created iterations of a single image. Thus, by adding to the image and making it more dynamic, I was increasing the complexity of its identity, for progression through life entails a process of continuously altering/constructing an identity. In terms of the three alterations of the original "innsmouth" drawing, a situation in which an off-putting/discomfiting evolution of identity is displayed. "Innsmouth altered 3", for instance, is fractured and changed to the point where the original geometry can barely be made out and the colors follow no logic whatsoever. In sum,  the project was an attempt to reflect on the complete dissociation I often feel when considering past selfs and the contexts that engendered them.