S&S W5 Coming together; overview transformations

These passing 4 weeks we did a lot to push boundaries an to exceed them with the goal to change perspective. We had four assignments. I will review them here and discuss them.

Week 1. Retake images 5 weeks long

I did a project using the scanner not really a place but in the end it triggered an awesome project to transform images into sound and off course the next step will be to do it the other way around. The sound I got is far from beautiful but the waves created are amazing. Might try to mix it to see what it gives. I am far from finished. For the scanning part it selves. I tried varies ways. Moving the flower while scanning, Yogurt on the scanner and moving. I also placed parts of the flower next to each other to scan and I bought a mobile scanner and took it outside to scan flowers "in teh wild". I really like a lot of the images I made this way. I wouldn’t have thought before that there was that much to explore just using a scanner. This is something I might return to later.

The question is of course how to combine this with my project for screaming landscapes. That is certainly something to investigate in the coming weeks. Visually there is a similarity in the waveforms. Symbolically, I chose white flowers because of the color that stands for innocence. Innocence can also be a kind of denial. The way in which we have dealt with global warming up to now.

2. A two minutes Trailer

This assignment took me the most time and because I wanted to make the 3D part literally come out of the ground. For this I needed my son; his knowledge of animating 3D, his software and his computer that can handle that. What I wanted was not exactly possible, so I had to adjust the idea a few times. I also had the idea of ​​making a movie somehow with talking sand and, after trying various things, I came up with the solution to use Adobe Character animator for it. I have written about this before. The sound in the trailer is the sound that comes from the photo. To that end, I exported line by line and converted to a sound clip. My daughter left the trailer for me because her accent is better. Considering this well, this trailer has been a great experience. It was the first time for me to have made a trailer. At events, speakers often start with a showreal. This often works very well for me to be able to place the speaker and his or her work quickly. This trailer is not something like that, but it is an idea to make a show-real once. The link to the trailer: https://vimeo.com/346244196

I think the 3d part is very successful. I would resolve the sound waves differently the next time they are now very dominant so left and right of the image.

The script that I made somewhere on the way to communicate with my daugter and son:

3. Collaboration Zine

When we received this assignment, everyone was a little panicked. We already had two fairly intensive assignments and now this one was added. I had a skype conversation with Len, Chris and James to help each other with the overview for this block. We came up with the idea of ​​creating a photo chain. The idea was born because James told us that something reminded him of the ongoing drawings that children make like a game of folding paper where you don't know what the person did for you and draw on so that you can finally see what the completed results are. An interesting idea to give someone an image and he has to respond to it by only seeing the image of the person. 4 others were added to the group via the forum. Me being the only woman. We started very quickly and were so excited that we thought we could do a few laps, but that was too ambitious. Normally I often take the lead on projects like this and I decided to see what would happen if I didn't. Especially when I ruined the order because there were a number of people who asked for a change and 2 people were added at a later date. I was too busy with my daily work, the trailer and flower project. What was interesting in the progress was that others took over. I thought it was great and the result is amazing, also thanks to Len wo published the Chain on Issuu. The link: https://issuu.com/lenandtheowl/docs/zine_ca8d785be4a42f

I made also a printed version. Still have to sent it to everybody. The images here show some parts of the process.

This year seems to be the year of the cooperation projects. At work (I teach) I had 3 projects with multiple departments. I had three involved students for each project. Where I used to be very decisive, I notice that I can take more and more distance; can be more relaxed and assume that things will turn out fine. I give the students the confidence that they can do it and they take on responsibility more tahn before because of my new approach.

4. Hands-off and stragegies of freedom

A day's assignment to do something that I had never done before. Difficult because I have done so very much before. Of course I have been busy with sound the last week and that's why I came up with the idea of ​​using a sound trigger that activated my camera every time a sound was loud enough. It worked extremely well, actually well. Not only did I come home with over 400 photos after a 1-hour walk with the dog at 6 in the morning, but I still hear every sound. Walking the dog was always a moment to relax. I can organize my thoughts and prepare myself for the day ahead. Now I walk around and hear every loud noise even though I don't have my camera with me. This was not at all peaceful; it sounded like shooting after a while. And now a week later I still can't filter out the sound that surrounds me. I hope this will succeed soon. I also did a small second project where I took the lens from the camera and turned it around to use it as a macro lens. By tilting the lens a bit, I get a tilt / shift effect. I have set the camera so that it takes 50 consecutive photos because if I also have to press the shutter release button, I will fall short of my hands. I find macro photography usually a very easy form of photography. You register something that is already there. The average macro photo cannot be called creative. Still I am happy with a few of the photos. The ones where it is nog obvious what you see; the kind of monsters.

Will I use one of the two tried-and-tested techniques more often? Who knows. I will probably need to turn the lens one more time in my life. I can think of applications for the sound experiment.

Landings

Two of my images were selected for the CIP; Chania International Photo festival from 16 until 24 August 2019. Chiana is a city on Crete, Greece. Via this link you see all the images and participants. https://www.cipfestival.com/participating-artists-2019/

I now have to find a way to make them bigger. For he festival I sent my images and they print and frame them.

Conclusion

These four weeks were, in combination with my day job and 4 events I visited, very hard. The events all had inspiring speakers and especially at Bump I came back with lots op inspiration and pages of ideas especially for the trailer. The rephotography idea I didn’t like took me some time to change it to my likings. The trailer kept my mind occupied during the other weeks. I think, looking back that I gave to much importance on the Ed Ruscha project but in the end it worked out. I have discovered other approach routes for my project that give it more layers. I still have to think about how that can come together but time will show.

What can I say with regard to methods for my project. I find it very interesting to use multiple methods together. they certainly influence each other. It keeps me fresh and keeps it interesting. I love to give hapy accidents a chance. I come to the conclusion that everything I have done so far is also about transformation.

Do I consider my audience when making my work?

Previously I did not take my audience in account at all. Of course I want to make work that people like or appreciate, but it is especially important for me to be able to put my own creativity and thought into work. But having a project with a message it becomes more important that that is recieved. I started with an instagram account. Every day I look at the number of hearts I get. That is quite addictive. I'm still discovering how istagram works. I do have a pdf about that and have read documents from it. It is now clear to me how hashtacks work and an acquaintance has told me that I really have to give each photo a title and a piece of text. That is something to delve further into.

https://www.instagram.com/hildesmmmm/?hl=en

Sound:

Making images into sound is quit a long process the way I do it. I am not finished with one image yet but taking the slow way builds anticipation.

The first time I did it I just took a whole image and exported it to be a raw file. Opened it In Audition and had a sound.

The steps I take now:

1. Select one row/line of the in Photoshop and place that in another file of the same size.

2. Flatten the document and save the file as a Photoshop RAW

3. Go to Adobe Audition and import the RAW files

4. Double click on each file to export it one by one to MP3

5. Import all the sounds in Premiere and place In the timeline and decrease the DB’s

6. Export the result to mp3

7. Open in AfterEffects and place on the timeline use the plugin to show the waves. (See how it looks in the trailer).

The first almost 600 lines are transformed and made into five and a half minutes of sound. I need over 100 lines to get a minute. The sound itself is not a beautiful one but after a while it is definitely disturbing. That feeling is what I want to accomplish with my work. I am really curious to explore the differences with other images. https://static.wixstatic.com/mp3/c97be1_fd12eeeeea5a49b5a57c41e7324dde2d.mp3