Living Planet

With this project I wanted tho show the narrative of life and death in relation to the passing of seasons in plant life. When people think of landscape photography, they think of beautiful, elaborate pictures with colorful flowers in full bloom. I wanted to play off of this and show the plants in their less appealing dormant state. When talking about ideas for my project, I was encouraged to look at the work of William Kentridge. An artist who altered the look of pictures using small changes at a time to show progression from one stage to another. This gave me the idea of making animated gifs to display the progression of life and death using plays on color and growth.

With this image, the colors reminded me of fire so I wanted to emphasize just the raw colors of the plant itself. to do this, I increased the contrast little by little so that at the end of the pulse, all you see is the simplified reds and yellows.

With this Iris, I noticed that the original flower had a lot of natural colors on it's own (because it is a early spring flower in bloom now) so I wanted to emphasize it's color by taking it away. I did this by using a sponge effect to dab away the color little by little until just the flower was black and white.

This dormant rose gave me the idea of how when it blooms the color seems to flow into the plant like water filling a cup. In order to achieve this effect, I used a color replacement tool to add color while making new layers at the same time and then creating a representation of the flower as it would bloom. This one took the longest time to do and I find it to be one of my favorites because, although my drawing skills aren't exactly the best, I feel it still seems really whimsical in it's nature.

Clever Cathedral

The first thing I see in this short story is the narrator's seemingly cynical point of view on life and his Jealousy towards Robert. I liked the character development of the husband because even though you would think the story is mainly about the blind man, it is more about the husband's revelation on life along with the new perspective he has gained.

I felt the beginning of the short story was a bit slow but like any short story, it is difficult to sum up years of peoples' lives and try to develop the basis of their character based on a few short paragraphs. I feel like this is a dislike I have with many short stories because sometimes it's better not knowing the whole character. Sometimes this can leave more to the imagination of the reader.

Tension

For our action word project, I was given the word tension to use. When I first thought of the definition of tension, I thought mainly of surface tension. While walking to classes everyday, it is the tension of the ground below us that holds us firm to the ground. If we were to replace it with another substance, for example water, we would not be able to walk on it. Using this ideology, I put together two images using pictures from the Olentangy River and Woodruff avenue bridge to not only show a competing level for surface tension but to also represent the tension between the wildlife and the cars driving by. I felt that many people can drive by the Olentangy river every day and not see or hear the wildlife that calls it home. I also put together an audio file in which you can hear both the geese and the cars competing to occupy the same space.  

Walking Among Strangers

The approach I took with this micro-project was to go along the lines of making myself invisible in natural surroundings. I used pictures from a recent shopping trip to Easton with my friends and photoshopped myself into the photos but when you look at the photo, you only see clothes where there should be a full body. I felt that my super power of invisibility was almost a double entendre in that I don't want other people to see me and to remain anonymous but to also note that we almost are invisible to the people around us every day. When we are walking to class or shopping in the store, we are walking among strangers who we've never met, will never see again, and will probably never remember their faces. With these pictures I wanted to show that although we may walk by hundreds of people everyday, we never truly see or remember them making them 'invisible'.

I actually ended up making three different photos to combine to make one photo set for this project because I really got into making the images. I felt the first two were quite simple in just rearranging some of the foreground and background layers to position the picture of myself in-between, so I took one of the more candid photos while we were eating and photoshopped my head out of the picture. This actually proved to be a little troublesome and I wish I could have spent more time refining my methods for making images of what wasn't there but I felt that it turned out pretty well. I really liked doing the last photo because it took some effort to align all of the lines that you wouldn't normally notice like the lines of the wall behind my head and the line of the counter behind me. Overall I liked in my pictures how I was able to capture (somewhat candidly) the other people around me going about their normal routine to emphasize that they didn't really notice I was there.

Finding my place...

For this micro-project, I found I struggled a little bit with defining a place I could call my own on campus. Other than class, I spend most of my time in my room on my bed studying. Therefore I actually chose two places to signify as my own on campus: my room and the classroom. I used this idea to blend the idea of both places together resulting in these three images. For my statue I also blurred the lines a bit into what we can define as a statue. Since I sit in my bed most of the time I found it fitting to use that as my focal statue for the images. In the first image I incorporated the bed onto a white projector screen. I used the projector screen as a starting point for this photo set because in a lecture hall it is the first thing your eyes are drawn to and the center of your attention for most of the time. I placed my bed on the screen to show my presence in the room and to provide a vivid connection between my role of studying on my bed and paying attention in class.

For the second image, I repurposed my 'statue' a bit by covering the chairs in the lecture hall with the comforter print from my bed. I felt that this would provide a connection between the roles of where I sit to do my work both in and out of the classroom. To do this, I chose a row of chairs and covered the backs of them with my comforter print.

For my last and final image, I refocused my attention to the front of the room where the lecturer's podium stood. I wanted to make my 'statue' smaller in this picture because I felt this space for me didn't receive a whole lot of my attention. For this image I used the projection camera that lecturer's use to show their work up on the screen similar to how it would be used in a class. This also ties into my first image which portrayed the image on the screen. I especially like how your eye for this picture too is still drawn to the bed because of it's bright red colors against the mainly neutral background.

Connection & Communication

This is the final result of my collection of personal items arranged into a collage. I like how it ended up because I feel that you can use the various items to get a feel for what I enjoy doing. I used the photo of my computer as my base image because as I thought about it, all of these items have interacted with and/or directly/indirectly come from my computer. Using that idea I arranged my items sporadically around my computer and blended them back towards my computer to give the idea of them shooting off of my computer. At the top I used the text connection and communication to portray these items ability to help me interact with people around me and even those far away. One regret I do have though is not altering the background inside the computer screen. I wish I would have moved it around so it didn't look like there was just a hole in my computer.

10

Below I have listed the 10 personal items that I will be using with my collage for micro project 2 along with a brief description of why I chose each item.

Control

I chose my Apple remote control because I feel it has a notable place in my arsenal of electronic gadgetry because of it's ability to control things.

Create

I chose my Bamboo Tablet because I enjoy using it, especially with photoshop, to create new and exciting images.

Color

I used this picture of my Toy Story lunch box that I use to keep my crayons in for those days that I have nothing to do and I just want to color.

Collection

This book is part of my small collection of Doctor Who memorabilia that I enjoy reading to help me with my knowledge for my favorite TV series.

Case

I used this picture of my DS case because I enjoy playing games on my DS and I always want to make sure it is handy and safe.

History

I chose this book that I read a lot over the summer on the history of video games because I enjoy knowing how the gaming industry came to be from simple low graphic games to highly complex graphic puzzles.

Consume

I chose this mug which I use quite often to drink my tea because of its ability to help me consume beverages. I really enjoy this mug because it features one of my favorite TV shows, Doctor Who.

Connect

I do not know what I would do without this item. My computer is my lifeline that helps me to connect to friends and family everywhere and to inform me about worldly happenings.

Calculate

I chose my graphing calculator because I feel that it plays a vital role in my education. I have used it many times to calculate various equations for all of my differing classes.

Entertain

This is my Nintendo DS that I use to play games. It can entertain me whenever I want and because it is portable, It can come with me wherever I go.