Monday, January 18, 2010
material girl in a digital world
I've been thinking lately about the impact digital technology has had on the art world and I am most impressed by its ability to create new realities almost magically. Never before has it been so easy to alter visual appearances. The validity of the photographic image can no longer be trusted as artists blur the line between fantasy and reality. Programs such as Photoshop allow for a new and improved kind of hyper-beauty, instantly erasing all flaws and signs of age. Figures can easily be placed in new settings, creating new histories. Filters can transform the photograph's appearance into that of a painting, drawing, or mosaic. It's incredibly liberating to have such power at the tip of your fingers. It's modern magic, allowing for the creation of grand, beautiful illusions. This semester I would like to focus on this idea of altering reality through the use of digital media. I plan to do this through the use of digital photography and Photoshop by taking images of people and objects from the material world and placing them in fabricated or appropriated scenes of a utopian nature to capture that grey area where fantasy and reality blurs, existing together in imperfect harmony.
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Cindy Sherman is someone who comes to mind immediately as an artist who, through photography, depicted a broad range of tableaux featuring herself. I wouldn't consider them self-portraits, and am amazed by her ability to shape-shift in those images... and this was pre-digital. Not sure what she has been up to lately, but could be a great artist for you to check out.
ReplyDeleteI'm glad to see you going in the direction you propose here. Too often I hear people talking/focusing on how technology, digital tools, and man-made objects will be our undoing, et cetera, et cetera. It would be too easy to show some flaw in a digitally-altered image just to express how "the digital world will never be as good as the natural world." However, I also wonder how you might have some hidden flaw/reference to the fact that this is fantasy and not reality - much like how, in dreams, we often notice things that we *know* could not possibly be true, but we accept them anyway. Like if I have a dream where I am speaking fluent Russian, but I don't really speak Russian... or something along those lines. Perhaps there could be something in your image that looks and feels like it exists, but at the same time, just doesn't fit (or *shouldn't* fit).
ReplyDelete;) heh heh.
Your plan sounds Technically interesting; meaning that I am more interested in the techniques you will be using, helped with and learn as you work on these.
ReplyDeleteI remember watching the behind-the-scenes documentary on the movie Oh Brother, Where art Thou ( http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0190590/ ) and in the editing of the movie, they had to do so much to color correct the scenes. Things that we could easily do in Final cut. But what I realized was that I could be doing so much with the videos I make instead of sticking to the raw image.
That being said, I'm sure you will learn a lot of techniques... just make sure to share them with me.
One digital artist I think you should look at is David Ho (http://www.davidho.com/gallery.html). He works both as an artist and as a digital illustrator. He uses a lot of Photoshop and it's not always clear how much of the image is photographed, a lot of textures seem to be photographed and are then used to create objects and environments.
ReplyDeleteOoo I'm excited and I'm really looking forward to seeing what you make! I'm with Nemo, I hope you can share some of the techniques you learn. I'm basically familiar with Photoshop but there are so many possibilities with this program. I can't wait!
ReplyDeletethanks everyone for the great suggestions...i will definately keep them in mind. and of course ill share with you all whatever tricks i learn.
ReplyDelete