Digital Sight Collages:
Seeing,
Looking/ Taking Images, Making Images from Your Environment
The
observer, the observed, the process of observation
Lecture
Topic:
Intuition
and creativity: breaking
out of the ordinary to really see your environment.
The Gaze:
Photomontage: the technique of combining
in a single composition pictorial elements from various sources, as parts of
different photographs or fragments of printing, either to give the illusion
that the elements belonged together originally or to allow each element to
retain its separate identity as a means of adding interest or meaning to the composition.
Collage: a technique of composing a
work of art by pasting on a single surface various materials not normally
associated with one another, as newspaper clippings, parts of photographs,
theater tickets, and fragments of an envelope.
Assemblage:
a sculptural technique of
organizing or composing into a unified whole a group of unrelated and often
fragmentary or discarded objects.
Show:
A Short History of Photomontage/Collage
John
Heartfield http://homepage.ntlworld.com/davepalmer/cutandpaste/heartfield.html
More
photomontage samples:
Saying things with photographs:
Dorothea
Lange
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange
http://www.berkeley.edu/lange/
http://www.gettyimages.com
Dorothea Lange
Jeff Wall
http://www.uweb.ucsb.edu/~mihae_j/jeffwall.html
Photomontage
tutorials:
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/masking-and-montage/photoshop-masks.html
http://www.projectseven.com/tutorials/images/p_montage/index.htm
The
Golden Section: Interrelationship
and harmonic divisibility
http://www.arts.rpi.edu/%7Eruiz/IMAGING/goldensec.html
Bit
Depth
http://www.arts.rpi.edu/~ruiz/Lessons/lesson1bitdepth/bitmap.html
File Formats
Basic Graphics File Formats
intro
Color
scan
basics, scan tips, image resolution
Screenings:
Genius
- Leonardo da Vinci 50 min. especially see his
approach which is both scientific and artistic, his thinking out of the
ordinary (new kinds of perspectives, dissections, etc,) looking at the world
anew. Also check out his journals, some of which went on auction recently at
Christies for millions,
Visiting
artist: no
Readings:
Lev Manovich,
“What is New Media: Eight Propositions”
Create
a short reaction paper
Project:
Create
a series of 3 digital sight collages
of some aspect of your visual environment using a camera and a scanner and
techniques of layering in photoshop. You must use only visuals which you capture
yourself. You may not use visuals downloaded from the net, or from any other
source. (Images on your physical computer or TV can be used if they are
recorded via camera as part of your environment.)
(Exercise
inspired by and adapted from Prof. Neil Rolnick’s
sonic portrait projects.)
Here
are some guidelines and things to consider:
1. Before you begin, take some
time to look at your environment.
Keep a journal. What do your see? Where do you find your gaze going? What is prominent and what is receded to the
background? How do different visual environments make you feel? How many different
things do you see at once? Are some more important or more present in your
consciousness than others? Are there particular objects which stand out from
others? If so bring 3 to 5 small objects to studio and scan them. They can be
part of your collage.
2. Continue looking, but now photograph as well. Do not just
photograph once. Photograph every day for at least a week. Photograph during
the entire course of the day. Anything you feel your eyes going towards.
3. Take a look at what your have
photographed. Look often and take
notes. Do things look familiar or is it different seeing your images than it
did actually being there? Do different images make you feel differently? Can
you describe the differences? Can you describe the feelings?
4. Look through your notes; is
there something which you have photographed which is particularly interesting
or exciting, or terrible or beautiful, which you could use for your piece? Look
at that part, and think about other parts which might be related. Try to focus
on what might make a good visual collage.
5. Please play! Once the
materials are in Photoshop you can try out different combinations of visuals.
This is a visual exploration not just an intellectual exercise. Spend time
exploring what you can do with the different images you have collected.
6. Using the lecture,
screenings, and reading assignments as guides, along with your own experiments
with the images you have collected, use the lessons and skills learned in
studio. Talk with your instructors and student mentors about ideas about ways
to assemble your collage. Try out different ideas. What works best with your
material? Make a sketch which
reflects your ideas for how the materials can work together.
7. Give yourself one week after
you have put all the visuals into Photoshop. Rearrange and play with the images
until they state what you want to say. Use a mouse or stylus to draw or write
on your collage.
8. Submit your 3 digital
collages each as 8 x 10 inch, 150 pixels per inch, Photoshop psd
Studio
skills:
* Basic digital photography
*
Basic Photoshop: the tutorials will be very helpful if you are new to
Photoshop. Also see:
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=332336
http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=414
*
Orientation to the interface and tools, getting started, scaling images,
bitmapped/ object oriented images, size and resolution, overview of basic file
formats: psd, jpg, tiff, png,
etc. , converting modes, calculating the file size/quality of a bit mapped
image, basic color concepts, RGB, CMYK, HSB color space and issues of tone, hue
and saturation, re-sampling, cropping, compositing,
*
Layers
*
Masking
*
Sketches and expressive mark making with mouse, stylus, traditional pen, pencil
etc.
*
Scanning
* cutting and pasting
*
File preparation for upload
(please
see links above.)
Deliverables:
3
digital collages, each as 8 x 10 inch, 150 pixels per inch, Photoshop psd
Grading
Criteria:
1.
Assignment completed on-time.
2.
Adherence to the size and file format specifications
3.
Appropriate use of Photoshop tools. (e.g. if jaggies are intended as an aesthetic, that’s fine, but they
shouldn’t be in the image because you used the wrong image resolution for the
size of the images)
4.
Exploration and application of creative tools in Photoshop.
5.
Quality and clarity of class presentation
6.
Expressiveness and imagination as illustrated in your collages.
7.
Use of original images and scans only.
