Tuesday, March 13, 2012

Random Access Memory

          I was literally excited when I had the opportunity to integrate the negatives I have been working on all term for another project into a digitally uploaded book. I selected three images from each photo shoot I produced to include in the book. I am very pleased with the visual flow it created. I uploaded the book to blurb, utilizing their Booksmart software. The software is surprisingly easy and foolproof, a welcome relief after learning how to produce images on the computer that are similar to those I produce in the darkroom. I spent the most time scanning each negative into the computer and using photoshop to correct each speck of dust that appeared on the scanned image. This was tedious, but it further expanded my archival abilities gleaned from photoshop. I chose not to order my book until after the critique tomorrow, as I would truly value the feedback from everyone who will be at the critique. As of yet, I have not presented the finished product to anyone, and I feel it would be foolish to order the book without first at least getting one other person's opinion. As it stands, the book has fine image quality and the test prints performed on campus have rendered excellent results. I look forward to ordering a copy after the critique and potentially including it in my works show at the Senior Exhibition.  

 

Monday, March 5, 2012

Handwritten


          After several weeks and several revisions, my video collaboration with Alyssa Herman is finally finished! I have included the video below. I created the video, while Alyssa created the soundscape. We worked very independently, but always kept contact throughout our processes, which I found very helpful. I enjoyed the collaboration experience greatly.


          After seeing all the finished collaborative videos, Bourriaud’s chapter on screen relations in Relational Aesthetics really came full circle. The videos themselves are about relational aesthetics, utilizing found text as the subject. Then, another layer of relational aesthetics becomes apparent when considering how the sound changes and interacts with the images. As mentioned during the introduction at the showing, the soundscapes often referenced subtleties of the video that were not necessarily on screen at any given time. I have a better grasp, after working collaboratively, on how important and utterly transforming sound can be for a video.