CASE STUDY
Context
The work presented here is part of an ongoing exploration into the nature of reproduction and the impact of technology on the way we articulate imagery. I am an artist working with both materials and digital technologies. my interest is the intersection between screen based arts and its physical manifestations.
The work is revolving around creating new ways to realise the possibilities offered by digital image making, by giving it a sensorial dimension. The process is prioritise in this way, rather than looking for a finished result, it is emphasising the many different outcomes, through accidents and trials, taking advantage of the what is inherent in the nature of the digital image – being ‘a model’. The relationships are being redefined, where both the print and the spatial possibilities of the object are posited as part of a continuous dialogue between digital space and its multiple realisations.
This work proposes a record of people in a street environment. It tries to put across something of the feeling that I carry with me when I am outside. The sign is used as a kind of metaphor, ‘how much of oneself can be communicated in this kind of circumstances?’, part artificial, part natural, mechanically produced, digitally printed, and yet..it is also a portrait of the city and the people constrained into what Althusser defined when discussing urban living, as a ‘state of encounter imposed on people’. The carbon structures act as an inverted mobiles where all elements are hanging in the balance.
Digital technologies used were the software to create the image, and digital printing. The software was quite detrimental in that as well as the drawings facilities, Adobe Illustrator allows for extensive use of pattern creation, shape manipulation by algorithm, and custom brushes. This processes were used throughout. The digital printing was used because it permitted for the whole gamut of colours, especially gradients, which would have been difficult to achieve with screen printing for instance.
Other technologies used were photography and carbon structures. Their relationship to digital technology is that of contrast. They are a lot less elaborated and more immediate. In essence, they allow for bot h the capturing and articulation of form, while the reworking and elaboration is left for the digital.
Both surface and objects are extremely important in terms of the final work because it allows the digital artwork to be experienced through a sensorial process that is different to the screen. The plywood for instance imparts both warmth and granulated surface. The same image printed on a white tile for instance, would have a very different sensorial experience. it also allows for different grouping between the images and therefor change their meaning and context.
Specific Issues
The size of the image was a function of the relationship between the carbon structure and the plywood. The tubes that were used, could only support this size of plywood before starting to break-down and losing balance. However, these are vector drawings, and therefore easily scalable. The only adopting required, would be perhaps line thickness and amount of texturing needed to achieve depth. The size was therefor fixed after the choice of structure was decided, very much towards the end of the process.
I tried different textures such as watercolour paper, dyed leather, and tiles, before settling for plywood. The decision was made half way through the series, and influenced quite strongly the creation of the imagery. For instance the choice of close-ups, since detail was being lost on this surface, bolder forms achieved more impact.
What determined the choice of surface was the subject matter. Since it was in essence street portraiture the plywood could function as a ’sign’ similar to a street-sign, and therefor as a metaphor. In addition, its warm colour and texture (and smell) contrasts with its mechanical and cheap origins, again this serves well for a metaphor of the street – part natural, part artificial. The granulated surface is also quite suggestive of the environment, and finally, it is light weight enough to be used in combination with the carbon.
Working digitally allows for several factors in compares to other, more traditional methods, I have used such as painting. First it allows for a distance between the construction of the image and the materials used. It allows also for extensive reworking without the surface giving up. Interpolation, repetition and patterns, are tools that are uniquely suited to digital space, some of which are virtually impossible to reproduce by hand. this is particularly true from a certain level of multiplicity and complexity.
The output is quite unique in that it allows multiple materials and scales. This is particularly true in the case of vectors. The colours and their lack of intensity and depth are probably the greatest obstacle for digital prints. finally, the use of materials allows for thinking in space as well as surface and for the image making to be combined with a consideration of objects and space.
Information
Title: The Forest
Size: tree 1: Overall width: 120 cm
Overall height: 180 cm
3 prints: 25 x 25 cm each
tree 2: Overall width: 130 cm
Overall height: 210 cm
3 prints: 20×30cm, 20×30cm, 30×20cm
tree3: Overall width: 150 cm
Overall height: 145 cm
3 prints: 25 x 25cm, 25 x 25cm, 20 x20 cm
materials: prints: heat transfer digital prints on plywood,
structures: carbon, copper, velcro, wood.
The work is a series of 3 sculptures each consist of 3 different portraits hanging together. The structures are made of carbon, and the prints are digital prints on plywood.
The process for the portraits start with a photographic session, shot on location. The photos are then reworked in different software, mostly Adobe Illustrator, to do the following things. Vectorise – the portraits and location are drawn into vectors and both their appearance and form is changed and this point. colour - the colours are changed and reinforced at this point. Texture – patterns are extensively used to suggest both texture and volume, in addition interpolation and layering are used.
The print process is heat transfer directly unto unprepared plywood using transparent medium.
The carbon structures are assembled together as a kind of minimal trees. The overall shape is predefined but then is adjusted when the plywood is attached, because of the lightness of the carbon, the weight of the print is very important. the structures are dynamic and therefor can be adjusted until a balance is achieved. The result is a kind of mobile that can be lightly touched and will willow while the prints are hanging in the balance.
