bon mardi

Thursday, August 15, 2013

ccdn 231 | project 1 hand in

toilets

I decided to investigate further the act of going to the toilet. I have made a documentary-style video that depicts five people in the act of going to the toilet. Each individual clip represents one of the five senses. (i.e. five people, five senses). The clues are in the words which are overlaid as 'handwritten' script - taken from their written responses to my interview questions.

None of the clips involved nudity and the identity of each participant was deliberately obscured. One of the greater challenges was therefore to maintain the viewer's interest in the final edited version of the combined clips.

I did this through interesting angles, starting the crawling text at a moment where the viewer might be needing new stimuli and also when the sound of urinating commenced (so as to distract from any discomfort the viewer might be feeling).

The act of making and showing this video has almost become more important than the investigation of the actual activity. Finding willing participants was a little difficult at first but once they had seen how it was to be handled I was able to convince five people to take part.

The process was two part - firstly I asked each person to be filmed in the act of going to the toilet in a variety of locations. I then asked them to answer three questions for each of the five senses. I used this material as content for the crawling text in each of the scenes. I took the best responses for each sense and added it to the scene of the person responsible for writing it. So the words that scrawl across the screen in each room are the words of the person being filmed.

I then took the remaining material and used it for my physical hand-in. This was a piece of toilet wall covered in 'graffiti' about each of the five senses. I have therefore fulfilled the brief requirement of 500 words by submitting about 200 words in the video and the remainder of the 500 on the 'graffitti wall.

For my wall I was inspired by the cubicle on level one at the Vivian Street campus.

Here is my physical submission:

Front

I decided to use a mix of words and drawings to illustrate my board. The coloured words in 'tag' style (which are the headings for the five senses) and the 'tag' lettering is by Nikolai Scott.

And here is my video:

Note: For a short time, my video is watchable on this blog. After 31 August 2013 it will go 'Private'.

Thursday, August 8, 2013

dsdn 144 | panorama

I have recently acquired an app on my iPhone called 360 which produces really amazing 'flat' panoramas as well as giving you the ability to view a space in the round via the web-sharing platform.

Here are a couple of flat ones:

Here is my panorama using Photoshop and the 'place' command...

dsdn 144 | final hand in

Here is my presentation and the series of four images I chose to hand in.

Evaluation

In undertaking the first project for photographics I have, first and foremost, acquired my own digital SLR camera so I have been afforded the luxury of being able to use my own equipment and start really learning how to use the camera.

My first efforts also made me remember how difficult it is to photograph a small and enclosed space in a way that is new and/or interesting. This was always the challenge for me when I owned my business and nothing has really changed. Previously I nearly always resorted to photographing tightly composed images because of this difficulty and by returning to the challenge of focusing on the space aspect rather than the object I have had to confront that issue.

I am satisfied that I have concentrated on portraying the space I was shooting better although there were many unsuccessful attempts as evidenced in my contact sheets.

I found an interesting narrative in choosing the space around the basin to create my theme. I would like to develop that more in my own time. It would make an interesting study as it reveals information about the personality of the owners of the sinks such as their sense of order and need for abundance. There is a psychological study awaiting further exploration in this area.

I tried to shoot at different times of the day and in natural as well as synthetic light and while I had a few issues with white balance settings (and failing to think about that) I was able to produce some interesting final images that required minimal to no further intervention in the way of Photoshop.

One important thing I feel I learnt was to look at all the space in the frame of the image before shooting. I found myself becoming much more conscious of this and it helped improve the quality of my work.

Monday, August 5, 2013

dsdn 144 | fifth shoot

I am finding the older bathrooms more interesting. The best part is that even though I am finding the resulting images much less clean, the idea of glamour and purposeful order is still there. The faux marble in particular is really pleasing to me.

This bathroom is about to be renovated and I have thinking about it including it all along so I managed to get these just in time. I love the faded seventies glamour of this bathroom. It is always very nostalgic for me to enter this space. For some reasons I have always liked its extra long bench top too. I am excited to see the new bathroom but will miss this time machine.

Sunday, August 4, 2013

dsdn 144 | fourth shoot

By now I was keen to photograph some older style bathrooms with a little more history and patina.
There were two bathrooms in this house - I ended up using one of the guest bathroom in my final series of four which is the only one in my series without a mirror behind but I was intrigued by how still this space was (which is exactly how this house feels whenever I visit it) and thought it had a place among the others. It also evokes a powerful feeling of times past for me. The soap on the dish looks as though it may have been there for years. I still experimented a little with my idea of depicting forgotten space but have shelved it for later.

dsdn 144 | third shoot

I asked my friends who own a house overlooking the water if I could shoot their bathroom. I specifically asked them to leave the bathroom untouched - no last minute tidying - so that I could capture their personal touches. It was hard not to feature the view in the shots. But in the end I realised I was heading down a different path with my subject matter and composition so unfortunately the views were wasted for this project... it might be nice to revisit this in the future. Here are the contacts:

The most successful from this shoot in terms of my more narrowed down requirements is this one but I was disappointed with this shoot because i couldn't seem to get the shot I wanted. I do like the little bit of toothpaste in the top right of the basin though.

Saturday, August 3, 2013

dsdn 144 | second shoot

Next shoot is at home. I had to fix my white balance after the first 14 images and then it was OK. I am really liking playing with the reflection in the mirror. It appeals to my sense of order and symmetry. I am exploring the space around the basin since each of these spaces in our house is reflective of its user.