DIGITAL COLLAGE
"UNTITLED" DIGITAL COLLAGE 60.96x91.44CM MARCH, 2018 EXHIBITION TEXT: This collage, based on the works of Annegret Soltau is meant to capture the chaotic and stitched nature of a disconnected mind. It's a piece based around mental illnesses and their effect on one's mind when things are left to sit and help isn't sought after. |
planning and inspiration
The artists I took inspiration from were German artists Annegret Soltau and Hannah Höch. Both artists work in collage and each had takes on it and connected with myself. Soltau's pieces have a very morbid and haphazard mood that gives me many of the same feelings as artists like Francis Bacon. Her series "N.Y.FACES" focuses on the horrors of the September 11th terrorist attacks. She used photos from her dental appointments and closeups of her passport to show her pain towards the event. Her use of sewing the pieces together was what really intrigued me. The process reminded me of an album's artwork that I am very fond of that uses torn of pieces of paper stapled together in order to create a full image.
Black Ben Carson, 2016, JPEGMAFIA
Hannah Höch's work appealed to me through it's extreme emphasis of the figures she used; specifically in "Fur ein Fest gemacht" the choice to blow up the head of the figure in the piece was interesting to me. Höch's style of using over sized images for portions of her collages gives the image a fun and lighthearted feeling but also a feeling of uneasiness.
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N.Y.FACES - chirurgische Operationen 22.11.2001, 2001, Annegret Soltau
Für ein Fest gemacht, 1936, Hannah Höch
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process
first piece
Beginning my collage I had a completely different idea as to what I wanted it to look like. Originally I had the intention of creating a piece that reflected internet monitoring and for that piece I had a completely different approach to creating the product; however, midway through the process I had decided that I didn't really like the outcome of the piece and decided to completely rework my entire idea.
For my original idea I chose to focus on the theme of internet surveillance, inspired by many of the same artists as my final piece, however for my original piece I also wanted to focus on the two albums: "Government Plates" and "The Money Store" by Death Grips, both of which focus on the act of internet surveillance and the dangers of becoming public on the internet (Government Plates works to express this idea more through it's visual component, a complete visual album that uses bizarre imagery and unconventional video themes to reinforce the theme, instead of focusing on the lyrical content). Because the process of that project was short I decided to include it to see the struggles of the finalization of this piece.
For my original idea I chose to focus on the theme of internet surveillance, inspired by many of the same artists as my final piece, however for my original piece I also wanted to focus on the two albums: "Government Plates" and "The Money Store" by Death Grips, both of which focus on the act of internet surveillance and the dangers of becoming public on the internet (Government Plates works to express this idea more through it's visual component, a complete visual album that uses bizarre imagery and unconventional video themes to reinforce the theme, instead of focusing on the lyrical content). Because the process of that project was short I decided to include it to see the struggles of the finalization of this piece.
With my original plan I wanted to go for a distorted look however I went for the route of digital distortion instead of one with physical objects. To achieve this I took photos of myself using my phone's camera and then uploaded those to my computer. I imported the image into Photoshop CC and removed the background by quick selecting myself and then copying the selection into a new canvas. I saved the image as a .PNG in order to have a transparent background and to layer my images better. I then copied the file four times and moved three of them into the file reading program Notepad++. Inside Notepad++ one is able to directly edit the code that makes up an image. However, because image code is mostly nonsense to someone like me the process of distortion was largely rise and repeat.
An image's code within Notepad++
In order to distort the image I moved into the middle section of the code and began deleting code in order to corrupt the file and create distortions on the image. When deleting code I had to be careful about how much I deleted as too much missing code would end up completely making the image unusable. After getting three images of desired results I imported each image into paint.NET and properly saved them as new images in order to make them usable in Photoshop. After importing each image into Photoshop I began overlaying them onto the original image. After layering them properly I had planned on making a background, however it was also at this time I began to dislike the idea and direction my project was going in and chose to restart despite the work put in.
second piece
My second piece moved away from digital distortions and focused on using many of the tools present in Photoshop and attempted to achieve a different theme using some of the same inspirations. I used many of the same processes to take pieces from photos I took and incorporate them into my collage. Working with the intention of making some aspects of my piece exaggerated and potentially humorous I focused on not focusing too much about making the piece appear aesthetically pleasing.
I used photos of myself that I took using my phone's camera and repeated many of the same processes from the previous piece. When it came to taking the photos for my piece I wasn't sure what to do. I am almost never on camera and found it awkward trying to take photos for my piece that reflected my inspirations. Because of this, perhaps taking the photos I needed was the hardest component of the project.
When working with the photos in Photoshop I wasn't completely sure what I wanted to truly do, as my inspirations both have a feeling of chaos, granted however, Hannah Höch's pieces are more organized chaos while Annegret Soltau has a much more ferocious and gruesome approach to her artworks. I felt like incorporating both of these levels of chaos would have made for a compelling and interesting piece to look at. To do so I decided that all of my organized mayhem would be better suited on the computer where precision is much easier and is expected.
I used photos of myself that I took using my phone's camera and repeated many of the same processes from the previous piece. When it came to taking the photos for my piece I wasn't sure what to do. I am almost never on camera and found it awkward trying to take photos for my piece that reflected my inspirations. Because of this, perhaps taking the photos I needed was the hardest component of the project.
When working with the photos in Photoshop I wasn't completely sure what I wanted to truly do, as my inspirations both have a feeling of chaos, granted however, Hannah Höch's pieces are more organized chaos while Annegret Soltau has a much more ferocious and gruesome approach to her artworks. I felt like incorporating both of these levels of chaos would have made for a compelling and interesting piece to look at. To do so I decided that all of my organized mayhem would be better suited on the computer where precision is much easier and is expected.
To begin I imported my photos into Photoshop and used the quick select tool to choose the portions of each image I wanted to use. With the first image I felt like using the hair and body would be a good base so I selected those and pasted them into the new document. Below are images that do document the process. To alter the hands I used the puppet warp tool which allowed me to alter images I wanted to. That process turned out to look nicer and more natural than I thought and still kept an amount of ridiculousness to fit the imagery of Höch's works.
I stopped here and tried again. |
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final
After two unsuccessful attempts at creating my collage I make one final attempt at creating something I could be happy with. I retook my photos, attempting to better capture the same sorts of posing and expression within Soltau's work. After taking the pictures I converted them into the correct file type and printed them from my mother's PC. I wanted to get the very stitched together and messy look so I opted to rip apart my printed pictures and began to figure out how I'd get the stapling look. I opted to staple only two parts of my piece together in the real world so I took these pieces and stapled them together. |
New photos for the final version
While stapling I ran into some issues, the only stapler my mother owned was a staple gun and I tried to staple on different surfaces in order to try and bend the staples into just the paper however no matter what surface I used my staples always ended up impaled, even into my metal desk. It was only until I had already decided to just staple the pieces into a old notebook then did I realize there was a lower pressure setting.
I used my old shoe box as a contrasting surface to take the photos for my pieces so that smart select would have an easier time identifying what I wanted to select. I only chose to import one of my original photos of myself which was the one with the open mouth in colour. After importing the newly ripped up pieces I took to work stitching the whole thing together. I ripped one of the staples from my image that had the original staples in it and took to fitting the pieces together while adding digitally added staples along the way.
I used my old shoe box as a contrasting surface to take the photos for my pieces so that smart select would have an easier time identifying what I wanted to select. I only chose to import one of my original photos of myself which was the one with the open mouth in colour. After importing the newly ripped up pieces I took to work stitching the whole thing together. I ripped one of the staples from my image that had the original staples in it and took to fitting the pieces together while adding digitally added staples along the way.
Using a piece of paper over a beige shirt of mine I created the foundation for the background of my piece. However because I used an iPhone camera the resolution was not that high so I had to stretch the image's width and height within Photoshop to have it fit the dimensions of the piece. After finishing the positioning of the main portion of the piece I imported the background into the actual project and set it as the background. |
Paper with placed staples and artificial shadow
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To accommodate the background and to add the illusion of making everything look like it was hand-done I chose to add an artificial shadow that mimicked the shadow of the paper over the shirt.
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experimentation
A lot of the experimentation within my piece was just me trying to make things work generally; working with manipulating an image's code, using a staple gun for the job of a common office stapler, and just using Photoshop in general was an experiment in and of itself. However after getting used to many of intricacies of Photoshop I was able to use it as effortlessly as how I use Paint.NET or other programs I grew up with. I believe that the processes of the first and final piece were the ones that involved the most experimentation with my product.
reflection
Overall I suppose I'm pleased with the outcome of the final piece. There is a LOT more I could have changed; I wanted the photos to all come out coloured however my family didn't have coloured ink at the time so I had to adapt to using the black and white images. There is a lot that I could have also done differently, I feel like centering the image better would have allowed me to work outwards and maybe add more pieces to the branching and connected pieces. A lot of my hesitation to go further was because of self esteem and my disliking of pictures of myself there were a lot of pictures I never found use for because I didn't want to look at them longer than I really had to.
act questions
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork?
Annegret Soltau's use of the horrors brought upon with the September 11th attacks were attempted to be translated into a more mental idea within my piece through the use of similar techniques and imagery used in the construction of the collage.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Soltau's topic was not the exact same as mine however it does somewhat connect within the idea of chaos in one's brain after traumatic experiences and the stitched together remains after these sorts of horrors take place.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
When researching for my first idea many of the people and ideas regarding internet privacy were found within music and video instead of traditional mediums. For my final topic I didn't think I'd find something I'd really connect with however Soltau's work really struck a chord with me and connected with my theme well.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My theme was mental illness and the almost stitched together mind that inhabits many people when mental illness becomes a factor.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I approached this project thinking I wouldn't find a collage artist that I would really enjoy. I had assumed that many collage artists were just the run of the mill; cutting different images out and then forming them together to make otherworldly and wacky people. However, after really seeing Soltau's work I saw how an artist can express such distress in a collage using very unique methods such as the stapling and stitching together of images.
Annegret Soltau's use of the horrors brought upon with the September 11th attacks were attempted to be translated into a more mental idea within my piece through the use of similar techniques and imagery used in the construction of the collage.
What is the overall approach the author has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
Soltau's topic was not the exact same as mine however it does somewhat connect within the idea of chaos in one's brain after traumatic experiences and the stitched together remains after these sorts of horrors take place.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
When researching for my first idea many of the people and ideas regarding internet privacy were found within music and video instead of traditional mediums. For my final topic I didn't think I'd find something I'd really connect with however Soltau's work really struck a chord with me and connected with my theme well.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
My theme was mental illness and the almost stitched together mind that inhabits many people when mental illness becomes a factor.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
I approached this project thinking I wouldn't find a collage artist that I would really enjoy. I had assumed that many collage artists were just the run of the mill; cutting different images out and then forming them together to make otherworldly and wacky people. However, after really seeing Soltau's work I saw how an artist can express such distress in a collage using very unique methods such as the stapling and stitching together of images.
image sources
http://www.anothermag.com/art-photography/3318/top-10-collage-artists-hannah-hoch-to-man-ray
http://www.annegret-soltau.de/en/galleries/n-y-faces-2001-02/artworks/n-y-faces-chirurgische-operationen-22-11-2001
https://jpegmafia.bandcamp.com/album/black-ben-carson
http://thirdworlds.net/index.php
http://www.annegret-soltau.de/en/galleries/n-y-faces-2001-02/artworks/n-y-faces-chirurgische-operationen-22-11-2001
https://jpegmafia.bandcamp.com/album/black-ben-carson
http://thirdworlds.net/index.php