V A R I A T I O N

S I M I L A R I T Y

/sɪməˈlarəti/

Initial Ideas (Starting Points) –

Words that relate to the theme:

Chaotic, Pop Art, Logos, Symbols, Products, Scale, Graphic,  Figures, Colourful (Butterflies, Flowers etc.), Bright, Objects, Abstraction, Layering, Barcodes, Pop culture, Fashion, Text, Sourced imagery, Busy, Manipulation, Collage, Photo-Montage

Artists/Photographers – 

Robert Rauschenberg, Peter Blake, Damien Hirst, Richard Hamilton, Dexter Navy,  Jean-Michel Basquiat, Alice Wielinga, Dan Baldwin, Logo Graphic Designers

Mood Board

Definitions Of Project Title

The title that we have been given for this exam is “variation and similarity”, within this blog post I intend to explore ways in which I can respond to this title and what the meaning of this title is.

Variation

Definition; A different or distinct form or version of something.

Similarity

Definition; A similar feature or aspect.

I decided to begin by brainstorming some initial ideas that came to mind when thinking about variation and similarity, I wanted to create a project with images that were personal to me and my environment and the people around me so I started to think of things that I have in common with people around me and how many aspects of our lives have similarities with slight variations from person to person, I started out with something that is considered one of the variations among people being culture and religion and even though it is a subject considered to have many differences there is often also many similarities, from there I started thinking about how I could compare the similarities and differences of everyday life between different cultures and religions, this is when I then started thinking of the everyday and how most people are stuck in a pattern of everyday doing the same things but different, I then tried to think of things in my own life that I do the same often but still has variations within it, this is when I started thinking about journeys and how travelling to and from school and from home to work, etc, is a big factor of my life and of the lives of others around me. I decided that I wanted to find a way to record the ‘world’ around me, that being Jersey, through travel, I found that something that was a big part of Jersey’s culture and of many people around me including myself was the buses. Buses are a huge factor in many peoples lives in Jersey, wether its travelling everyday to work or school, or it being a huge part of the tourism industry, I decided that by using the bus service a a way of travel i would have a way of capturing Jersey in a way other than sunsets and cows, and make it more about the people and the everyday life of the island.

“‘Seascapes’ is art for the plateau, a group of images that measure time not by growth but in repetition.”

Inspired by Sugimoto’s seascape project, a meditation on time examined through repetition and constancy, I decided to do a photo shoot focusing on the movement of the sea. Throughout this shoot I wanted to capture a sense of the sublime that the ocean entails. With its array of colors and amazing formations it is undoubtedly beautiful however with its immense power and force it can be very dangerous too. The main aim for this shoot was to display a sense of repetition through the representation of the ocean as a rhythmic entity of waves. I also wanted to develop my own style inspired by Sugimoto therefore as well as using his long exposure method i also contrasted this with very fast shutter speed images to capture the waves in motion and gain a bunch of detail that can’t be seen by the naked eye. Changing up the shutter speeds allowed me to capture a whole range of different images which gave variety to this shoot whilst keeping to the similar theme of the ocean.

Contact Sheet

Edited Images

Using a combination of Photoshop and Lightroom I decided to edit some of the best images from this shoot. I used Photoshop to remove some elements of the photograph that were distracting for example the safety barriers that are positioned the hole way along the sea wall. Using Lightroom allowed me to do simple adjustments such as changing particular colors, highlights and shadows. Throughout the editing process I cropped the images to achieve the most aesthetic result and within some images used a black and white filter to replicate the style of Sugimoto.

Geometric Landscapes is a series of landscapes overlaid with geometric shapes. The design is very attention grabbing from a viewers perspective. To make the design effective and look sleek, the editing process needs be be very precises with measurements and relies heavily on symmetry.

I began to experiment with some images that I had previous taken from other shoots and began to experiments with different designs to see which the most effective.

When I was coming back to Jersey through Gatwick airports I saw adverts for HSBC, which gave me inspiration of what I could do in my project.

In the images, there are two images that have been laid on top of each other to create a binary opposition, so in this image it is a Cherry blossom tree in the winter when the tree is bare and then in the spring/summer when the tree is out in full bloom. I thought that this was a very effective photography technique. Which I think is very fitting with the theme of the exam project ‘Variation and Similarity’

The campaign by advertising company Saatchi & Saatchi  aims to bring to life HSBC’s role in “connecting the world”, and boost awareness of its “Together we thrive” brand promise, which launched earlier this year.

Each ad offers a view of a global scene relating to the bank’s business priorities – from trade and education to diversity and sustainability – as seen through the lens of HSBC’s “hexagon” logo. Topics include rooftop farming practices in New York, community cycling in the UK and food markets in Hong Kong.

A series of 79 different creative executions will roll out across 17 airports in nine countries – including Heathrow and Gatwick – covering 1,500 jet bridges and 94km of passenger walkways. HSBC claims the ads will be seen by 900 million passengers this summer alone.

“We do talk about having that intelligent wit, that wry sense of humour. Keeping that tone has been important. You want the consumers to work a little bit, both from a visual perspective and also with what words we might use. [We want] people to stop and say, ‘Oh’, and to get the slight joke,” said by Leanne Cutts, HSBC’s group head of marketing,

Video art is an art form which relies on using video technology as a visual and audio medium.  This form of art emerged during the late 1960s as new technology began to come about such as video tape recorders.  Video art can come in a variety of forms – broadcast recordings, installations in galleries, online streaming or distributed as video tapes or DVDs.  Video art does not need to include actors or dialogue and also does not neet to have any sort of plot – they are often for the purpose of conveying a message.  Some artists have used video to make us think more critically about Hollywood film conventions as well as other social conventions through presenting personal or taboo subjects on the screen as works of art.

Video art can be combined with other forms of art such as performance art; this combination can be referred to as “media and performance art” when artists “break the mold of video and film and broaden the boundaries of art”.  Due to the increased availability of video cameras and technology this form of art can be documented easily and shared widely to reach many viewers.  An example of an artist who combined video art with performance art whilst using the camera as the audience is Kate Gilmore.  In her video ‘Anything’ she films her performance piece as she is constantly trying to reach the camera throughout the 13-minute video in different ways.  This piece of work brings an element of struggle into the genre and a sense of connection with the artist as the camera is performed to as if it was the audience.

Nam June Paik is a Korean-American artist who is widely recognised as a pioneer in video art.  In 1963 Paik showed her work ‘Exposition of Music – Electronic Television’ at the Galerie Parnass.  Video art is said to have begun when Paik used his Sony Portapak to shoot footage of Pope Paul VI’s procession through New York City where he played the tapes to people across town and so supposedly creating the style of art.  TV Cello is an example of June Paik breaking down the barriers between art and technology – it was created specifically for use in performance by the experiemental cellist Charlotte Moorman.  The work consisted of three television sets piled on top of each other and all showing different moveing images (a film of Moorman performing live, a collaged video of other cellists and an intercepted broadcast feed), the whole sculpture was also a fully operational cello which had been designed to be played with a bow to create a series of electronic notes.  Many of the early video artists were those involved with movements in conceptual art, performance and experimental film.

Later on as prices of editing software decreased, the access to technology that allowed people to create video art increase.  The result of this was different themes emerging and being explored.  Artists would begin to combine physical and digital technologies to allow their audience to physically explore the digital work.  A good example of this interactive digital work is Jeffrey Shaw’s “Legible City” in which the audience rides a stationary bicycle through a series of virtual images of Manhattan, Amsterdam and Karlsrule.  The images shown the the audience would change depending on the direction of the bike handles and the speed of the peddler and so creating a unique experience for everyone that took park.

In response to video and performance art I have produced my own 35 second video in which I demonstrate repetition within daily routines.  I recorded a clip of my taking a sip of tea as I sat down for a cup of tea once a day resulting in a 35 second clip that shows repetition and demonstrates the importance of daily routine within human behaviour.  The small video also demonstrates how easy it is for someone in our day and age to perform video art and how accessible the technology for it is.  I produced the video by downloading an app and then ordering the videos which took about two minutes in total – this is a massive contrast to some of the work that went into developing video art in the times of artists such as Nam June Paik as prior to the introduction of consumer video equipment, moving image production was only available non-commercially via 8mm film and 16mm film until the introduction of the Portapak.

Hiroshi Sugimoto is a Japanese photographer and architect. He leads the Tokyo-based architectural firm ‘New Material Research Laboratory’. Sugimoto has spoken of his work as an expression of ‘time exposed’, or photographs serving as a time capsule for a series of events in time. His work also focuses on transience of life, and the conflict between life and death. Sugimoto is also deeply influenced by the writings and works of Marcel Duchamp, as well as the Dadaist and Surrealist movements as a whole. He has also expressed a great deal of interest in late 20th century modern architecture.

I am particularly interested in his project titled ‘seascapes’. In 1980 he began working on an ongoing series of photographs of the sea and its horizon, Seascapes, in locations all over the world, using an old-fashioned large-format camera to make exposures of varying duration (up to three hours). The locations range from the English Channel to the Arctic Ocean, from Italy, to the Tasman Sea and from the Norwegian Sea to the Black Sea in Turkey. The black-and-white pictures are all exactly the same size, bifurcated exactly in half by the horizon line. The systematic nature of Sugimoto’s project recalls the work Sunrise and Sunset at Praiano by Sol LeWitt, in which he photographed sunrises and sunsets over the Italy. Within this project there is a clear attention to the depiction of light and how it shapes the landscape as appose to the traditional landscape images from the romantic genre. 

All the images within this project are rather similar within the way they all consist of exactly half of the ocean and half of the sky. Another similarity is the fact they consist of black and white color tones which also links to my previous two artist references. Tommy ingberg’s images are all in black and white and also Ernst Haekel has works that happen to use the black and white color range. On the other hand, there are also a variety of shutter speeds clearly being used to capture the images with some of the photos being rather clear others are extremely hazy making it almost impossible to work out what the imagery is of. This unique perspective of the sea has elements of time and movement embedded into them as well as a clear interest for nature.

Analysis

This particular image and all the others embedded within the book are all neutral black and white. The image is formatted horizontally and there is a divide directly in the middle distinguishing the sea and the sky. There is no land mass or man made objects within this image, it contains only three elements; light water and air. Having very little features in the image gives a minimalist approach which is visually pleasing. This image has indications of movements on the water surface however mostly is hidden under the fog, haze and light clouds.

Splitting the frame in half, the images are classically balanced and no emphasis has been inferred to either sky or the water. There are no lines within the image that lead us to any part of the image or which emphasize one area or another. Minor pattern or texture on the water or within the sky do not demand our attention but provide some variety within an overall sameness. The affect of the computational structure is that while our eyes may freely wander, they tend to gravitate back to the center of the image and the horizon. Within this image and all the others contained within the project, he places the horizon in the center. I think this is to do with the instinctual human way of seeing. If we stare into the horizon, we stare right into the middle of it. In fact, anything we look at, due to the basic nature of human perception, is put right in the middle of our field of vision. I assume that Sugimoto knows this and has purposely constructed the image in this sense to reflect this.

The elimination of any land mass or man made objetcs means we have no way to determine where or when the images were made. Land mass characteristics allow identification of a place as well as man made structures or even a particular boat. These factors may even give a sense of time frame on when the image was created however with the absence of these we cannot know when or where the image was taken. This gives a sense of mystery and the unknown which is really interesting as it gets the viewer engaged with the image. Another thought that comes to mind when I consider the minimalist approach is a connection to the biblical view of the creation of the earth, being originally covered in water with light introduced before land surfaced.

I think through this particular image and the project as a whole the intent was to create a sense that, regardless of where we are, we could all go to a large body of water and see the same thing. The fact that we would share the same visual experience regardless of if we did that now, in the past or in the future. Our internal experience stimulated by the view will be more individual and vary from person to person. I think that Sugimoto’s view based on the quiet nature of the image is thought provoking. I also think he is expressing the ocean as a place to relax, where the repetitive sounds and beautiful view allow our minds to disconnect with any stress and simply enjoy life.

Ernst Haeckel (February 1834 – 9 August 1919) was a German biologist, naturalist, philosopher, physician, professor, marine biologist, and artist who discovered, described and named thousands of new species, mapped a genealogical tree relating all life forms, and coined many terms in biology including anthropogeny, ecology, phylum, phylogeny and protista. Haeckel promoted and popularised Charles Darwin’s work in Germany and developed the influential but no longer widely held recapitulation theory.

The published artwork of Haeckel includes over 100 detailed, multi-colour illustrations of animals and sea creatures, collected in his Kunstformen der Natur (“Art Forms of Nature”). The book consists of lithographic and halftone prints. Lithography is a method of printing originally based on the immiscibility of oil and water. The printing is from a stone or a metal plate with a smooth surface. Halftone is the reprographic technique that simulates continuous tone imagery through the use of dots, varying either in size or in spacing, thus generating a gradient-like effect.

I decided to study the artwork of Haeckel due to his clear relation to nature and in particular living species. Undeniably there is huge variation within the species however all stemming from only four DNA variants there are some similarities too. I was really inspired by the vibrancy of his artwork along with bold solid colors. His black and white work is also very interesting as it allows us to view the species in much more detail revealing interesting shapes and textures. This use of black and white also links to my previous artist reference which therefore applies to the word ‘similarity’ that was given as part of the exam project. I think it would be interesting to combine inspiration taken from the two artists to produce a series of images that focuses on the thoughts and feelings of humans (Tommy Ingberg inspiration) and the diversity of species (Ernst Haeckel inspiration).

Photo Analysis

The diverse range of colors against the white background makes the image really pop and aesthetically appealing for the audience. The use of predominately orange and teal colors compliment each other contrasting nicely giving an overall effective result. There are a large variety and use of similar textures within this photo from the intertwining tentacles to the soft edges around the top of the species. There is a clear precision and careful shading that has taken place, but they also give a detailed insight into the understanding of organic evolution. Haeckel’s works is the emphasis on the essential symmetries and order of nature; even in the strangest of creatures, he managed to find a sense of biological beauty which to me is what makes his work stand out. Often people would associate a jelly fish as a scary and not so beautiful specie however his art has really transformed how some species are viewed in this case the jelly fish looks magnificent.

The art and science of  Ernst Haeckel outlines the 19th-century artist-biologist’s most important visual works and publications across a hefty 704 pages. The compendium includes 450 drawings, watercolors, and sketches from his research, which was in large support of Darwin’s theory of evolution. Most notably the book contains the Kunstformen der Natur (Art Forms in Nature), a collection of 100 prints of varying organisms originally published between 1899 and 1904. This particular image has come from the book which displays very detailed imagery of what appears to be a collection of jelly fish.

To begin the repetition task we where set with the task of creating a Gif for ourselves

Gif

1. a lossless format for image files that supports both animated and static images.”
2. a file in GIF format.

The Graphics Interchange Format, is a bitmap image format that was developed by a team at the online services provider CompuServe led by American computer scientist Steve Wilhite on June 15, 1987.

To create a GIF within Photoshop is very straightforward. It can be done in three simple steps :

“a file in GIF format.

1. open your chosen images in Photoshop
2. go to: file > scripts > load files into stack
3. select ‘open files’ and ‘ok’