Title: Welcome to the Internet
Size: 60.96 cm x 91.44 cm Medium: Digital Collage Completed: October 2022 |
- Exhibition Text -This art represents the eerie and unsettling feeling of someone's first interaction with the internet. When I first went on the internet it was an interesting experience, seeing things that I've never seen before. But the internet was never all positive, a lot of it wasn't something a young kid should be experience or something no one should be exposed too.
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-Background Essay-
When I was younger I never realized it but I didn't really have much to do, I pretty much stayed in my room most of my time. My parents didn't have much time to hang out with me, and I was only able to see my friends at school. I had a lot of toys so I was able to play with them for a while, but after a bit I just didn't really feel like playing with them anymore. For a while I just spent most of my time sleeping and just watching random shows on tv to pass the time. But after a while my parents randomly brought home a laptop. I clearly remember that day because it was a really exciting moment since we didn't have much technology in the house. The laptop was originally supposed to only be for my parents to work on important work, but after a while of begging my brother and me were able to convince them to let us use it. Using the internet blew my little mind out of this world, I mean I was able to search up my kid heart wanted. But after a while I wandered off to the wrong side of the internet, with the lack of supervision I had as a kid things were bound to go wrong quickly. I somehow got my hand on not very appropriate things, definitely not something a kid should be seeing. Those things really stuck with me, I found out at a young age that the internet was a terrible place if your not careful. I've learnt how to be more careful while browsing, but those first experiences are some that ill never forget.
- Inspiration -
For my collage it was really hard for me to find inspiration from art that I usually look at. I decided to look through some of the most popular art movements that I could trying to get an idea of what I wanted. I ended up looking through many art works from the Baroque period, and I instantly had an idea. I specifically looked at art work that used a certain technique called tenebrism, this technique only has light bouncing off objects while the background is completely black.
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- Planning-
The first thing I decided to do was to just draw out the first ideas that I was able to come up with. All of them had a similar theme or idea attached to it. After taking some time to think it over I decided to go with my second idea. The reason I decided against the other ideas was that I believed that they didn't connect to me as much. I felt like I wouldn't have much interest in the other drafts and I wouldn't be able to really get my point across.
Now that I have my idea I when in to plan crucial parts in the collage. the person that would be in the computer would be the main focus of the piece so it made me spend more time drafting and coming up with how I want to pose them. I was thinking about other poses that I could possibly use but in the end I liked the original the most. Since the person would need to be me I decided on things like hair and was considering clothes options.
After a while of planning I really didn't want the person to be me because It wouldn't fit in. So I decided to replace the head of the figure in place of an eye, this would be fitting for this collage as it deals with the internet being a weird place. After the first sketch of the eye I didn't like how the emotion that would have been there was gone. I decided to mess with the eye and pose it in different ways to try to imitate the emotion it would have had with a normal head.
- My Process -
When taking the original pictures I took them in 3 different perspectives, after choosing the perspective I decided that was best for my Collage I started editing.
The next thing I wanted to focus on was what the computer should look like, I decided to test a few things out trying to find something that I would like. For the first test I just decided to add squares and rectangles in random order and adding them anywhere around the border or the laptop screen. I wasn't quite sure how I felt about it so I just decided to try something else, I deiced to draw a bunch of swirls in the laptop screen trying to recreate the hypnotizing swirls. Again I wasn't too sure how I felt about using it as my final product but I did like how it looked and felt. When trying to pick one of the screens I got curious and wanted to see how it would look if I put both of them on top of each other. I really didn't like how it looked so I knew that I wouldn't be choosing it but it was worth a shot.
Once I had everything ready I started putting everything in place, moving the hands multiple times trying to get the right position. After a while of trying to deciding and finally picking the pose of the hands I decided to give each background that I made a chance. After looking at how each one I ended up choosing the last one, it surprised me that I ended up enjoying it way more then the others.
Once I was finished with everything else I realized that I forgot to take a picture of an eye and to cut it out. I quickly did that and was able to place the eye in the collage. After a few attempts I tried adding the body but nothing that I did never ended up looking good. I instead tried putting the eye in the middle looking straight at the viewer. I really liked this idea because it added another layer of creepiness.
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- Critique -
Similarities-
You can see a clear similarities between Judith Beheading Holofernes and my piece of work. We both used a completely black background while there still is a beaming light source. Both of these works also are a bit unsettling with the viloence in Judith Beheading Holofernes and the floating eye in my work.
Differences-
In Judith Beheading Holofernes you can see that there still are shadows being used while in my work I didn't really add in any shadows. Also in my work its not realistic while Judith Beheading Holofernes is very realistic.
You can see a clear similarities between Judith Beheading Holofernes and my piece of work. We both used a completely black background while there still is a beaming light source. Both of these works also are a bit unsettling with the viloence in Judith Beheading Holofernes and the floating eye in my work.
Differences-
In Judith Beheading Holofernes you can see that there still are shadows being used while in my work I didn't really add in any shadows. Also in my work its not realistic while Judith Beheading Holofernes is very realistic.
- Reflection -
While working on this work I had a lot of fun moving and editing things to my liking and just messing with things in general. I feel really proud of my final product feeling like it came out really well especially since I didn't know anything about digital editing before this. I truly feel like my end product ended out exactly how I wanted it to and it shows off the story that I wanted to tell. Although I really had a hard time taking the pictures that I needed, I was especially annoyed when I needed to hold and take a picture of my right hand with my left since my right is my dominant hand. But even after a good few minuets of struggling I was able to take a good enough picture of the collage.
- Act Questions -
1. Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause effect relationship between your inspiration and its effect on your artwork?
In my art work you can see that I have a background that's all black, and you can see my inspiration also has a black background where I got the idea from.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
He would notice that I used the same technique as him of the black background.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The internet and how it a weird place to be in.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
That the dark background makes the main part of the artwork pop out more.
In my art work you can see that I have a background that's all black, and you can see my inspiration also has a black background where I got the idea from.
2. What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
He would notice that I used the same technique as him of the black background.
3. What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, culture, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
4. What is the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The internet and how it a weird place to be in.
5. What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
That the dark background makes the main part of the artwork pop out more.
- Citations -
Judith Beheading Holofernes, 1599 by Caravaggio, https://www.caravaggio.org/judith-beheading-holofernes.jsp.