Installation Feedback

Overall the feedback from my peers was very positive, the points that they enjoyed were how the clips had all blended together and that there was a sense of conversations. They had also enjoyed how the films were all of the same genre and how the installation was very unique.
They also liked several parts, such as how I decided to use the white dividers not only to separate clips, but also as cross hairs halfway through the video, along with how it constantly changes and how they could see the amount of work I had put into the project.

Video Installation

Pre - Production Mind Map

Screening Locations

Tate Britain Notes

    Artist: Harun Farocki

    Title: Workers leaving the factory.

In this video installation there are several 12 televisions  placed side by side, in each television there is a different year in which a video plays of workers leaving factories. As the years progress from left to right the footage begins from being black and white and then eventually becomes coloured. 

To fully engage yourself with the installation you had to sit down and wear headphones that were part of the installation. Watching all 12 televisions took some as you would have watch them one by one until they ended their loop.

Artist: Rebecca Horn

Title: Movable Shoulder Extensions

• The video installation shows a man, carrying two large spikes on his shoulders and he walks through various scenery. 
• The installation itself was played through a television on a loop. 

The video was very lengthy, as it begins with the man walking from a considerable distance, and in the time it leaves the audience trying to figure what the man is carrying, and as the closer he gets, the more clearer it gets as to what he is carrying.

Artist: Rebecca Horn

Title: Black Cockfeathers

• A hand repeatedly ruffles feathers
• Continuous loop
• The installation was played through a television

Video Installation Pre-Production

Screen Type: Fixed (Mac)

Room: 2SW8

Theme: Order and autonomy, everyone one the screens are all doing the same thing just like machines. The audience is then asked to walk around the room and observe if any of the screens are behaving differently even though none are.

Screen Type: Projection

Room: 2SW6

Theme: Order and autonomy. A dummy is placed in front of the table and sat on a chair, and a face will then be projected on the face of the dummy, in the projection the video will be telling the audience i.e the person sat opposite the desk on how to behave and how to act.

Screen Type: Fixed (Floor)

Room:

Theme: Calm and Panic. The video will be projected towards the floor. In that video is two segments, the first part is a person in water, however they appear calm and not in panic, the video will then cut to another video but this time the person is panicking in the water, and this continues.

Screen Type: Fixed (Television/Monitor)

Room: 2SW8

Theme: Calm and Panic. The video will be player on a television. The video itself will be a recording as if it looks like surveillance footage, and within the video an interview is being conducted, throughout it the interviewee is killed exactly where the audience is sat.

Screen Type: Projection

Room:

Theme: Identity. The room will be filled with several dummies all wearing different clothes, however the faces will be projected with tv static to show the lack of identity

Screen Type: Fixed (Television)

Room:

Theme: Order. The video will contain clips from various films related to military e.g. Full Metal Jacket, and within those clips are orders given and the clips shall all be mixed and jumbled.

Films that could be included:

Full Metal Jacket

Good Morning Vietnam

Apocalypse Now

Platoon

Hamburger Hill

Research on Video Installation

Artist: Sam Taylor Wood
Title:  A Little Death

Sam Taylor Woods' 'A Little Death' is a video which runs approximately 4 minutes long and shows a deceased hare and a peach on a table. The video is sped up and over time the hare begins to decompose and is slowly eaten away by maggots and flies until the hare is longer recognisable, meanwhile during this process the peach is left untouched.
The video explores the process of what happens to when a living thing dies, and in the video we see that it is a very slow and steady process, however by speeding the video we are able to appreciate the stages of what happens when something dies.
The hare, along with how it is positioned, is similar to the traditional Vanitas paintings of the 16th/17th century. The Latin noun 'Vanitas -atis' can be roughly translated to the word empty or emptiness, and this can be clearly seen in Wood's work when the hare is slowly eaten away from the inside until there is nothing left and along with its single lighting we can clearly understand with what is being presented to us.

Artist - Christian Marclay
Title - The Clock

The work of Christian Marclay and video installation is a very unique one. The overall video runs for 24 hours. However what makes this piece unique is that the video consists of carefully assembled clips from various movies which feature clocks and watches, the overall video is then synced in real time.
Marclay took 2 years to complete the video and all the clips blend together in a smooth motion, just like time. The video explores the human obsession with time and how this is very important and valuable in our lives. Ironically people are coming to watch a video literally about time and this leads to the audience response, that many people, whilst watching the video, actually lose a sense of time.

Artist - Tony Oursler
Title - Influence Machine

Tony Ousler's Influence Machine takes advantage of landscape and architecture within London. The footage projects various characters and what makes the work stand out is that it is projected on various areas, such as buildings, trees, landscape, smoke etc.
Spending 2 years researching the 'virtual image'. This involved him going through history such as when the first camera was introduced along with the progression and development of media and technology such as film, television and the internet. Whilst exploring different mediums he questioned whether or not the technology available in the present day had been already used, surely enough it was and this was his linking structure to developing and completing the influence machine.
The aim is get people to notice what is being projected. Since this is not the standard projection on a white board it gets peoples' attention immediately.

Portraits

Unit 57 Evaluation

Unit 57 Evaluation

Task 3 in Unit 57 involved creating your final set of photographs that would be able to be published in a magazine. Your chosen photographs would have to be suitable with what the magazine covers e.g. Street Photography or Fashion.

Prior to having my final set of images there was research done in order for me to have a sense of what I wanted in my final set. Majority of the research involved was around street photographers as this was an area of photography that I had wanted to explore, as this was an interesting and challenging area to cover. After looking through several photographers and their’ works, I had come across a street photographer by the name of Lukasz Palka who was a street photographer in Japan, his photographs were able to capture private moments of people around the city of Tokyo and his subjects were interestingly framed. Furthermore his shots are very wide, allowing his entire subject to be within the frame from head to toe. Looking through his works had then led me to the decision of doing the same around London.

For equipment I had decided to use my reliable Nikon D5200, and for the lens I had decided to use a 35mm f/1.8. The reason I had chosen this particular lens was that it was a fixed prime lens, meaning that you are unable to zoom in out or out, which in turn forces you to get close to your subjects, and this was a habit I knew I would rely on if I had chosen to use a 18-55mm kit lens. Another reason as to why I had chosen the 35mm is because of its very wide aperture of f/1.8. A wider aperture means you are able to hold your ground in low light situations, and this was what I needed as I had planned to do most of my set in the evening. With its wide aperture it then meant this would have an impact on my depth of field. By having a lower number such as f/1.8 you are then able to have your subject stand out in the photograph, as by using a low f stop number you are then able to the background very blurry whilst maintaining your subject in focus.

I had decided to go with 64gb SDXC card as I knew I would be taking plenty of photographs, furthermore I was shooting in RAW which meant it took up more memory in comparison to a JPEG file and by shooting RAW his meant the photographs would be the highest of quality and this also meant I could edit the photos with minimal loss of quality.  

Editing was done in Photoshop and it was very minimal, as I did not want to heavily change the image from its original, the usual procedure done to edit the photos was mostly adjusting the brightness, exposure, saturation, curves and clarity to give it a more balanced look.

The overall response towards my set were very positive, some comments towards some of the photographs were that they enjoyed the ‘vibrant colours’ or how they liked the use of ‘rule of thirds’ in the majority of the photos. The constructive criticism feedback given was something that I had agreed on. Some comments were that there were issues in terms of cropping and that some of my subjects in the photos were not fully within the frame, e.g. their feet were missing. During the project this was an issue I began to face when attempting to take several photographs. Though I had a 35mm lens this did not grant me an ultra wide look, and in several photos within the set I had to distance myself from my subject, but however this meant I was losing time to capture the moment, which in turn then forced me to take the picture early which resulted with them not being fully within the frame. Another comment was how a couple of images did not entirely match the set as their actions did not truly flow within the set. Looking back at the images I understood what they meant. The set was meant to be focused on capturing private moments, such as a couple holding hands or a girl having a snack in an awkward area, however some of the images did not display that and instead showed normal everyday actions such as a woman unlocking her bike.

In terms of how appropriate my photos would be in my chosen magazine I feel that the majority of the set would fit their theme as I had managed to capture moments that shows an interesting story behind them, and with the magazine I had chosen the majority of their images always have some of story behind them.

For improvement there would have been several changes I would make. Firstly is the lens, 35mm was a very useful lens in terms of capturing people, along with its wide aperture it was very useful to shoot at night. However the issue I came across was that it cropped my subjects, and this is because my camera is not a full frame camera, so even from a relatively distant vantage point it still did not have my subject within frame, and so to overcome that problem I would mostly like go for a 14mm lens which can offer me a wide photograph without my subject being cropped. The benefits of a 14mm means that I can take a picture of my subject from a much closer position in comparison to the 35mm in which I had to distance myself which resulted in rushed photographs. Another improvement I would make is my approach towards my set, during the days I went out to shoot I felt as if I was rushing to get a picture which resulted in photos that did not match the set. For next time I will take much more time on it, have more patience whilst doing a shoot and produce better images.

Project Photos [People & London]

[Exploration Date]

[Locked]

[Active Camo]

[Fleek]

[Peaceful Protest]

[Drag]

[Open Roads]

[Revision]

[Waiting/Working]

[Temporary Seating]

[Visibly Hidden]

Moodboard/Mindmap/Video Pitch

Recreating an Image

Exposure (1/80 sec.)    ISO-320    F-stop-f/1.8

Body: Nikon D5200

Lens: 35mm f/1.8g

Above is the original photograph taken by Lukasz Palka and below is my attempt at replicating

the image. 

The main difference you can see is that my image is much more zoomed in comparison images and this is because the lens that Palka uses is and ultra wide lens, which then means he is able to capture more of the subject.

When editing on Photoshop I decided to increase the exposure, however in comparison to the original it is still much darker as my photo was shot in an alley way unlike the original which was taken in an open street. Another change I made was adjusting the curves, along with the sliders for whites and blacks as I wanted the whites to appear much more in contrast to the blacks, and this is why the blacks are much more darker in the image.

Similar to the original image I wanted to frame my subject to either left or right, as this would make the image more interesting thus using the rule of thirds, by having the entire subject completely in focus it separates the foreground and the background, which is completely out of focus.

Rule of Thirds

Camera Settings

ISO: Various

Aperture: Various

Shutter Speed: Various

Body: Nikon D5200

Lens: 18-55mm/35mm

Rule of Thirds is breaking down the image into thirds both horizontally and vertically totalling in 9 boxes, as shown in the image below. When it comes to taking photographs bare in mind you should place your subjects within interesting areas within the grid, try avoiding taking pictures with your subject down the centre as this makes for boring images.

Some examples below are photos applying the rule of thirds, and note how the subjects are never centred in frame. 

Exposure (1/80 sec.)    ISO-320    F-stop-f/1.8

Exposure (1/200 sec.)    ISO-320    F-stop-f/5.6

Exposure (1/200 sec.)    ISO-250    F-stop-f/6.3

Interesting Framing

Camera Settings

ISO: Various

Aperture Various

Shutter Speed: Various

Body: Nikon D5200

Lens: 18-55mm/35mm

For this Task I had decided to focus on having subjects within some sort of frame, this makes it more interesting as by adding a frame in your picture it makes the subject stand out more clearly along with giving the photo more clarity which gives it a unique feel.

When looking for subjects which were within a frame I had to either look around or create my own, for example the first picture below I had my subject create  a frame with his hands and place it in front of the camera just close enough to fit within the frame.

The second image was taken on a bridge which had designs on the handrails and in the centre it perfectly aligned with the river. What I had done use an 18-55mm lens and zoom in towards the hole and focus on the river and its surroundings.

The final image was taken on a beach on my recent holiday abroad, as you can see the frame are the palm trees which are at the very left and right of the frame, and in the centre are small islands which you can see in the distance. 

Exposure (1/125 sec.)    ISO-100    F-stop-f/1.8

Exposure (1/250 sec.)    ISO-320    F-stop-f/5.6

Exposure (1/60 sec.)    ISO-500    F-stop-f/1.8