Environmental Landscape 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 Border” c. Natt Phenjati 2009
Landscape
today and tomorrow: digital landscape today, ideation
of the future of tomorrow
Tom Bamburger
http://www.tonkonow.com/bamberger.html
http://www.mocp.org/exhibitions/2003/12/midwest_photogr_10.php
Center
for Land Use Interpretation http://www.clui.org/
Garbage:
The United States is the number one
producer of garbage on the planet; with just 5 percent of the global population
we generate 30 percent of the world's trash. The average American throws away a
staggering 4.5 pounds of rubbish daily -- that's 1,600 pounds each year. What
does the landscape of today and the planet look like in 20 years?
Open
Dumps
http://www.epa.state.il.us/land/open-dumps/index.html
Waste
around the world
http://greenpack.rec.org/waste/solutions_to_the_waste_problem/07-04-03.shtml
http://static.flickr.com/4/5004958_12b5ff6458.jpg
Sad
truth
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~namettle/classweb/effects.html
Add
to this the toxic effects of acid rain and global warming…..
And
overpopulation…………………..
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Making
things with refuse: Artists’ response:
Esteban Alvarez
http://www.mmproyectos.com/pr04/artistas/esteban.htm
Clayton
Bailey
http://www.claytonbailey.com/STU0728.JPG
Art responding to environmental issues:
D.U.M.P.
(Design Understanding Many
Perspectives)
LAR 801 LANDSCAPES OF WASTE http://cti.itc.virginia.edu/~arc-dump/index.html
Bradley
Castellanos http://www.carengoldenfineart.com/artist/view/992
VERTICAL
GARDENS
Exit Art Underground http://www.exitart.org/site/pub/exhibition_programs/SEA/vertical_gardens.html
A project of SEA (Social
Environmental Aesthetics), Vertical Gardens is an exhibition of architectural
models, renderings, drawings, photographs and ephemera that depict or imagine a
vertical farm, urban garden or green roof. It features over 20 projects, both
imaginary and real, by artists and architects that envision solutions for
building greener urban environments. The past decade has seen a greater
emergence of green roofs and vertical gardens created by artists, designers,
architects and urban gardeners to combat the lack of flora in the city.
Buildings around the world — from the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, to the
Queens Botanical Garden in New York — have embraced green walls or roofs for
all their economical, environmental, and aesthetic values. Vertical farms and
gardens are also being envisioned as new ways to feed local and organic foods
to city dwellers. Largely based on the principles of hydroponics, vertical
gardens would also be mostly self-sustaining because they would capture large
amounts of natural sunlight and water, and could use wind as an energy source.
In a country where cities are suffocated by high rises, cement and industrial
materials, where can green space exist? As this exhibition demonstrates, one
possible answer is “up.”These and other urban parks and gardens provide areas
for socialization and recreation; a location for a city farm or community
land-trust; an outlet through which hundreds of people can learn about farming
and agriculture; and the addition of much needed plant and animal life to the
otherwise concrete jungle.
Concept for SEA and Vertical Gardens conceived by Papo Colo.
Screenings:
"Gone Tomorrow: The Hidden Life
of Garbage" by Heather Rogers
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=5934530156227758850#
Every
day a phantasmagoric rush of spent, used and broken riches flows through our
homes, offices, and cars. This torrent of trash is not primarily the
responsibility of the individual consumer, instead it's the outcome of a free
market system that needs waste to maintain high consumption levels. To
understand the roots of today's waste-addicted culture, Rogers examines the
grisly, oddly fascinating underworld of trash.
For more information, visit http://www.gonetomorrow.org/
The Gaze:
Systems of Observation:
Physical
Intellectual
Emotional
Spiritual
Aesthetic
Scientific
others
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.
A Short History of Photomontage/Collage
John
Heartfield http://homepage.ntlworld.com/davepalmer/cutandpaste/heartfield.html
Assemblage:
a
sculptural technique of organizing or composing into a unified whole a group of
unrelated and often fragmentary or discarded objects. http://www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/auth/cornell/
http://www.guggenheimcollection.org/site/artist_works_32_0.html
Digital
Photomontage Samples:
Oliver Wasaw
Jeff Wall
http://nymag.com/arts/art/reviews/jeffwall070305_560.jpg
Carole Condé
and Karl Beveridge
Saying
things with photographs:
Dorothea
Lange
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dorothea_Lange
http://www.berkeley.edu/lange/
Dorothea
Lange
Bit
Depth
http://www.arts.rpi.edu/~ruiz/Lessons/lesson1bitdepth/bitmap.html
File Formats
Basic Graphics File Formats
intro
From
Adobe:
http://help.adobe.com/en_US/Photoshop/11.0/WSfd1234e1c4b69f30ea53e41001031ab64-7758a.html
Color
Scanning
Image Resolution
Composition
again
Compositional
elements for the image
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Readings:
Global
Warming: The Heat is On: Issues, Ideas, What YOU Can Do
and
Curt
Cloninger A Process
Primer
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Studio
skills:
-
Basic digital photography: taking good photographs, depth
of field, light, uploading images to your computer, challenging yourself
(starters use automatic/ more advanced students go off automatic camera
settings)
Digital
Photographic Techniques:
(check your camera’s info online or in the manual)
* Rensselaer
Dept of the Arts hardware manuals
Important Basic Photography Tips
* the gaze
* framing the picture, pov: heroic, cu, ecu, etc.,
* camera angles,
* Preliminary Depth
of Field Control
* Going off
Automatic by Oliva Robinson
* Getting good photos out of your camera means
taking control of the flash:
Video
Library Player: Yo Jude: Camera Flash Settings
Photomontage
tutorials:
http://www.photoshopsupport.com/tutorials/masking-and-montage/photoshop-masks.html
http://www.projectseven.com/tutorials/images/p_montage/index.htm
- Photoshop: next level
*
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
*
Basic Photoshop: the tutorials will
be very helpful if you are new to Photoshop. Also see:
selections,
layers, copy paste and adjustments
http://movielibrary.lynda.com/html/modPage.asp?ID=414
(also in dvd in library under class reserve)
http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalId=332336
for
more advanced students:
* Make your finished photos look the way
Nature intended. Back to Nature:
by Debbie Grossman
*
Vanishing Point tool http://www.ephotozine.tv/video/vanishing-point-clone-tool-in-photoshop-1381
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Project:
Landscape today/ Landscape tomorrow (in 20 years)
Create
a series of 3 digital sight collages
of some aspect of your visual environment using a camera, 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.)
Then envision what one landscape would be like in 20 years.
(Exercise
inspired by and adapted from Prof. Neil Rolnick’s sonic portrait projects.)
c. 2008 R. Perleman
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 you 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 time 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 (with all
layers intact NOT flattened), and also in jpg file format (flattened). Plus
your envisionment of what one of the areas will look like in 20 years.
Deliverables:
*
3 digital collages from your environment
*
1 collage of the future of one of the above collages (you can use appropriated
images for this part of the study if needed in addition to your original image)
each as 8 x 10 inch, 150 pixels per inch,
Photoshop psd (with all layers intact< NOT flattened), and also in jpg file
format (flattened).
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.