Wednesday, January 13, 2016

The Divine Irreverence of Images - Project One

Quotes Considered in Creative Process:

'It masks the absence of a basic reality - It bears no relation to any reality(Baudrillard, 11).'
'In the fourth, it is no longer in order of appearance at all, but of simulation.

With this project being my first experience with the idea of 'simulation', I decided to take still photo's that touched on different aspects of the words understanding to find my subfield within the term. There is not a consistent theme amongst the photos (perhaps function), besides the fact that they are all attempts at capturing the hyperreal. Considering this, I've decided it would be best to break down the intentions of each photo individually.

Link to Flickr

WhosePhone: This image is meant to stress how simulated our smartphones make things. One can see and learn about most of this world with a handheld device. The picture of a phone within a phone is meant to put perspective on this truth.

Bathroom selfie: A picture of one's reflection is a sight all social media users have seen. It is meant to represent oneself (selfie) but it tends to be a heavily simulated product. The absence of a human and the heavy filtering is meant to bring light to the peculiarity of selfie taking.

Simulacrum: For me an alien represents one of the purest forms of a simulacrum. That is because it bears no reality and is entirely imagined. That said society has taught us to assume certain characteristics of an alien to make it identifiable.

Natural Light: This photo's title and contents aim to bring awareness to the simulated light within the photo. With editing to bring the brightness up and the shine on the can, one could be convinced they're observing natural light. They need only look out the window in the background to tell the time of day.

Function: This picture looks to simulate the action or the appearance of the action a fan creates. With the paper appearing to be blowing one might think that the fan is turned on a caught in a still frame of its twirl. The background shows the unplugged cord.

Simulators: I chose to call this simulators due to the dilemma I saw with the two products. Which of them is more simulated. Is it the headphones, that are in ear and therefore personal but perhaps lack quality of sound. Or is it the loud speaker a lesser simulated device. Never decided.

 Better Roll: This photo agains plays with the idea of function. Had I not included the missing wheels in the photo the viewer would have no reason to believe that the board couldn't roll. It is meant to shed light how easy it is to mislead the viewer, especially on a 2D medium.

1 comment:

  1. I think your photos really get at the heart of the message the book is trying to teach, especially the alien. It's such a perfect example of the hyperreal, and actually helped me understand that concept better.

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