Ink blots and Self-portraits

Thursday 12th November 2020

Firstly, we have gotten our self-portraits. I will only show and talk about mine since I never asked for the consent of the others in my group. Explaining the meanings behind each picture is such a task. I didn't take the pictures but I did position myself in them and therefore choose how I wanted to be represented and seen.

Here are the series of pictures, I don't really see them as self-portraits because they weren't taken my me but it's close enough and I should just change my definition of self-portrait. I chose, every time, what I wanted the background to be, what prop I wanted to incorporate to represent myself and what the camera setting were.

These were the first pictures taken as a group. It was taken by using digital projection. You can see the immediate progression from the first picture to the second picture. We had to reposition where, I was change the lighting, change the placement of the camera and zoom in. I look like I was looking at the camera but both times I wasn't. I also changed my outfit a little. Party in the USA.

The picture tells the story of someone who is already used to the life and is numb to the changes. Whether happy or sad it's all the same. They and the city are there for each other. Sometimes I don't know why I say the things I do. Anyway they are no strangers to each other.

I feel like this really reminds me of Cindy Sherman's Untitled Film Still #21 (1978).

I did some research on it and found some information from : https://www.moma.org/collection/works/56618

"Cindy Sherman’s Untitled Film Stills is a suite of seventy black-and-white photographs in which the artist posed in the guises of various generic female film characters, the printed images mimic in format, scale, and quality the often-staged “stills” used to promote films. Each of Sherman's sixty-nine Untitled Film Stills (1977–80), presents a female heroine from a movie we feel we must have seen. Here, she is the pert young career girl in a trim new suit on her first day in the big city."

"The series is a fiction about a fiction, a deft encapsulation of the image of feminity that, through the movies, took hold of the collective imagination in post-war America—the period of Sherman's youth, and the crucible of our contemporary culture. By photographing herself in such roles, Sherman inserts herself into a dialogue about stereotypical portrayals of women. Whether she was the one to release the camera’s shutter or not, she is considered the author of the photographs.

It tells us that, knowingly or not, we have absorbed the movie culture that Sherman invites us to examine as a powerful force in our lives."

I like the message that Sherman's series shows but mine doesn't really have a deep meaning or anything. What you see is what there is. I don't think there is much depth about me but there are two sides as shown by the next image which was taken while using acetate as an overlay in the background.

I mean, this image has the same sort of message as the other one but it is presented differently. Even though I am out in the open I am still indifferent to what is going on around me and am living in my own world. This reminds of the song 'My World' by Avril Lavigne.

"Can't help if I space in a daze

My eyes tune out the other way

I may switch off and go in a daydream

In this head my thoughts are deep

But sometimes I can't even speak

Would someone be and not pretend? I'm off again in my World."

They both sort of remind me of a Martin Parr self-portrait. Where he is in his own 'world'.

The quality of this picture isn't too great but you can see what the image is trying to convey. Parr assumes a staid and unsmiling pose. It is part of a series of self-portraits. "For the last 30 years, Magnum photographer Martin Parr celebrated these gimmicky, cheesy portrait shots — while traveling around the world on assignments for global media, he would often make side trips to take advantage of goofy set-ups and funky photo studios in diverse and far-flung cultures. This long-term project became a very popular photobook in the year 2000, and in 2015, an updated and expanded versions was re-published — because Parr didn’t stop his project, and people loved the book."

For some background you can look at:

https://www.lensculture.com/articles/martin-parr-martin-parr-s-hilarious-self-portraits

I am terrible at posing so I am grateful to my group members for still being able to capture something not awful. I feel this picture nearly looks real but we didn't quite get the lighting and the picture quality is not quite right. The picture doesn't really have a meaning behind it but I thought it would be nice to do. It's nice. It is the last digital projection image I took; there were only two.

I decided to put these two shutter speed experimentation images together so that I can explain them at the same time. The first picture is, in my opinion, beautiful. It says a lot. First I will give information on the meaning of an infinity sign. From: https://gyllenwatches.com/blogs/journal/infinity-symbol-meaning

"The history of infinity is a beautiful look into the curious mind of a human being. How we have pondered this idea for thousands of years and we’re no closer to the answer now as we were a millennia ago. And yet we are still fascinated by the idea and symbolism of infinity.

Infinity is eternal. Infinity cannot be measured. If you could, it would cease to be infinite. In a finite world, where almost everything has a pre-determined end, the concept of something lasting forever is almost magical.

Our time on earth may be finite but our souls exist forever. In meditation, the symbol of infinity is used to remind us of balance, focus, harmony, peace, and oneness.

The double infinity symbolizes an eternal bond between two people. The two symbols are intertwined representing togetherness and commitment.

In fashion, the symbol for infinity is often aligned with elegance and simplicity. The beauty of the symbol lies in its minimalism. The infinity symbol adds an accent of sophistication and can be worn with any outfit or look."

Even though things are clear, the luminescent (double) infinity sign still brings a sense of calmness.

The second one shows that greed can make you unstable and you can't really get anything positive from it.

At this point I realise that I should probably have split up the self-portraits and the ink blots but whatever, so be it. There are a lot that can be changed and improved upon from the self-portraits. Our lighting ability, my creative ability, my explaining ability my descriptions and evaluations ability and many more, but it all turned out passable to me.

There is also a lot to say about ink blots but I probably won't say a lot.

During the ink blot workshop we were told that you need to know a lot about composition, movement and sound for CMPT but I don't believe that I could so. I need to think about documentary image making and refer back to my research from last year but that's not relevant right now.

Ink blots are a way into the imagination and they allow us to explore the relationship between happy accidents and mark making, they also allow us to realise that there are unhappy accidents a.k.a mistakes. We looked at many examples.

The Barbarians, The Petrified City, Dreamscape Max Ernst

Poison and Antidote Drawing, Pornographic Drawing Cornelia Parker

Rorscharch Ink Blot test

Klecksography Inkblots Justinus Kerner

Ink Blot Drawings Victor Hugo

Blot Landscapes Alexander Cozens

Alex Hubbard

Fiona Rae

Margaret Peot

ICO, The Lat Guardian Fumito Ueda

Botanicula, Samorost 3 Amanita Design

You will have to understand if anything is slightly off, the projector was not fully showing the names but I did try and use Google to fact check.

During the workshop our tasks were as follows

• Explore the Ink Blots as a way of creating Form and Character

• Explore Frottage as a way of creating texture and surface

• Use Collage as a way of adding Character detail

• Photograph/Scan Ink Blots

• Film Ink Blots in water

• Complete image of ink blot character either digitally or by analogue

I did most of the the tasks except I only created one ink blot as opposed to multiple. I did explore ink blots and a made a rather peculiar character.

I also explored frottage but it didn't work so well for me so I didn't use it for my character but I believe that if I had used leaves for frottage with my character it probably would have gone quite well.

I used collage for the face and the sort of chest but the latter is not important. I tried to blend in the faces and I think it went okay. I did all my work analogue and I really enjoyed it. I think I like analogue because it helps when I'm trying to imagine things and I know better how to make things become the things I want them to, it is also very physical but I find it hard to transfer analogue to digital.

I feel like I may have unconsciously gotten inspiration from some of Fumito Ueda's work. "Fumito Ueda is a Japanese video game designer. Ueda is best known as the director and lead designer of Ico and Shadow of the Colossus while leading Team Ico at SCE Japan Studio, and The Last Guardian through his own development company GenDesign."

I filmed ink blots in water. The first one had already been poured in but it still moved around and some parts were more concentrated than others, it looked a bit like watered down blood. The second video was me pouring some ink into water and I think the effect is really nice. It reminds me a bit of Albert Seveso's work and his work is something that I admire and I think I would like to recreate. "Alberto Seveso is a self-taught Italian graphic artist and illustrator, who was first inspired by artwork on skate decks and music album artwork."