Evaluation.

AIM: To develop a piece of photographic work that would bridge the Physical world with the virtual world and demonstrate the closeness between the two.

I feel this was a challenging topic but I have taken a lot from it and in the end I was pleased with my final pieces This will hopefully also be a foundation for something I will continue working on in a later project as I feel the final images could be fine tuned. For example, better clarity. I also think the project will always look better in the future as video game graphics are constantly improving which could only mean good things for this project if I continue it in the second year of the BA.

I often learn best from creating work and responding to it but for this project I took a slightly different approach. Instead of generating work on a topic I knew nothing about I decided to use something I already knew about and change its context ( eg Video Games) I also used many more obvious sources such as things I am confronted with everyday. I felt the best way to form useful research on such a contemporary theme was to look at things as recent as possible and mix this with the relevant history and then later artists.

I feel my strength throughout this unit was my ability to create what I feel is a piece of unique relevant work and follow through my initial thoughts despite thinking they could fail even up until the last point. Main weakness were that my abilities with certain software were not up to scratch. I knew I had a solid concept that I wanted to portray but found it difficult to execute some of the images due to lack of some specialist equipment. I have also realized that my Photoshop skills need improving.

Frames. No Frames.

Trying to decide whether or not to display my final prints in frames or not. At first I was sure I was going to as it fully breaks all connections with video games if their in a frame and behind a piece of glass. However I did notice that the frames did eat up the image. the expression people used to say to me on the foundation was, ' Don't let a fancy frame eat your image' and that's exactly what it felt like it was doing. I also think they are the complete wrong style of frame and dint realise up until this point how important framing images is.

Instead I positioned the images in the centre of a nice sheet of Glossy 270gsm paper which really made the images come out. I realised straight away that this was the better option, also with the negative space around the image it allowed the viewer to inspect each photograph individually and become drawn in compared to getting lost when they were in frames.

Goodbye Frames!

'So girls do have ears!' and blog titles dont matter.

Originally I wanted the entire project to be archived completely online so that it would have no physicalities. However, displaying my final images and preparing the blog for marking this has come to be a problem.

Firstly the images appear better if they are taken off the screen. After all they are usually viewed on a computer screen so to take them out of context and print them and frame them allows them to be viewed in a different context.

For marking I was asked to print off my blog, but this also defeats the object of not having my research work in a physical form.

After reading Stallabrass's 'Internet Art' It highlighted to me other benefits for creating work only internet based. There are obvious things such as materials but the main factor is the interactive factor of the internet. For example videos can be played on my blog but not in the printed copy also things like live links can be added to the online blog but can obviously not be used on the paper copy.

Deciding on final images

These are all possibles for my final images. It was really useful when I recently took these images to a critique with other people who didn't know about my concept or the nature of the images. People knew something wasnt right but couldn't spot exactly what it was. It was from this reaction that i realised that i was overlooking the key element of these images; If you didn't create them its difficult to figure out how they were created. I guess the magic for me was perhaps lost as I know them inside out, and once I know that their from video games I have a lot of connotations with video games that ruin them for me. After the Critique I was able to get more of an idea of what images should be chosen for final images that contain a strong enough aura of the real.

John Ganis.

In Ganis's series titled, 'Consuming the American Landscape' he allows us to consider the impact of current land use practises on the environment by placing signs of human activity into his shots of vast and beautiful landscapes of America.

Ganis is a good example of a contemporary landscape photographer who uses landscapes as a way of highlighting the physical state of the world. Many other contemporary landscape photographers use landscapes as a way of communicating larger messages than just that of just flaunting natural beauty.

Paul Brill.

Paul Brill: 1554-1626 Flemish Painter

Paul Brill was also an artist from the Baroque Era, again as many painters of the time did Brill also includes people throughout his landscapes.

Although Brill's and Neer's paintings were created around a similar time they both contain very different qualities. Again in terms of similarities in picture composition many landscape photographs today show signs of framing their images in similar ways to Brill.

When creating my own images I am going to refer to Artists such as Brill and Neer as well as modern day photographers as I want my images to stand ground and good landscapes and not just as images to backup a concept. It is also going to be more difficult using computer generated imagery as the area in which i am investigating especially video games tend not to contain connotations of photography or art. Therefore I may have to rethink the context in which the final images are displayed. The images I have printed as a physical copy have worked far better than those displayed on a screen.i think this is because printing them and placing them in a frame then takes away all connections with video games and computers and places then in a fresh field, allowing the viewer to generate their own uninfluenced view on the images.

The Baroque era.

The Baroque Era: An artistic movement developed in Europe around the 1600's against the intricate and well composed movement of mannerism that dominated the Late Renaissance.

Looking back into the history of landscapes I began to look at how landscape photography had evolved from landscape painting. I then began looking at certain movements in detail. One that appealed was the Baroque era. I think my interest lies in Baroque as it is an artistic movement generated as a reaction towards another artistic movement. Looking at the early 20th century art movement Dada for a previous project showed that artistic movements generated to rebel against a cause tend to be very interesting but also short lived and rather noticed.

Aert van der Neer: 1603-1677 Dutch Painter.

What I find really interesting about these landscape paintings compared to the obvious landscape photograph today is the use of people. Modern day landscape photographers barely use people within their shots as they can be distracting to the image. I guess its strange in a way as it wouldn't be wrong to include people within landscape photographs. I suppose its just a thing of our time, just as it was a thing then to include people in the landscapes.

The reason I selected these two images by Aert van der Neer was to highlight the similarities in form. Although two separate paintings the composition of the two are very similar.

There are also some obvious things in these images that occur throughout many landscape shots:

2 thirds sky 1 third land

Tree framing the shot

Central leading lines

Objects within the foreground and the distance

Ansel Adams.

Although my concept for this body of work is about bridging the Physical world with the Virtual, it is also important that I look into the history of landscape photography as I still want my images to withstand ground as aesthetically good images and well composed landscape photographs.

Ansel Adams was my first thought as an essential Landscape photographer and also the founder of Group f64. (A photography group containing 7 San Francisco photographers who shared a style of photography that was best known for its members creating sharp-focused and carefully framed images of natural forms and found objects from a westerners viewpoint.)

A lot of the best landscape photographs contain vast depth (now understanding the meaning of 'Group f64!') and detail up close and at a distance there are also unspoken rules such as straight horizons. As far as photography goes landscapes seem to work well when following simple rules of photography such as the rule of thirds. Of course breaking these rules also create interesting results.

Ansel Adams was an important photographer to look at as he contributed highly towards the recognition to photography as an art form, especially landscapes.

His Images are very beautiful containing an unbelievable amount of detail. His work also reminds me of landscape painters. Of course early landscape photography always strived to mimic the qualities of traditional painting and I think the majority of Adams images do this.

In technical terms things I've picked up on are:

I must keep the cameras plane straight, preferably in line with the horizon.

Exposure is important and difficult to achieve as the sky will often be brighter than the ground so this should be taken into account.

The more interesting shots seem to be either where there is very little in the shot and one main thing to concentrate on or if there is something in the foreground as well as the distance, both in sharp focus.

The image must portray a vast feel for the area.

Book: Half Real by Jesper Juul

In Jesper Juuls book half real he talks of how video games, although a fictional setting still have to contain rules to interweave with the reality we know. For example many games will still contain the element of gravity. Maybe the strength of the gravity will vary but it will usually be there.

This is why the whole experience for me of photographing as an in game photographer was very strange. People kept saying to me 'well, why don't you just go into the game and take a screen shot.' Sounds simple I know, but firstly, just like in reality you have to trek around these vast landscapes to find the shots you want and them frame them with the controller as you would have to with a camera in real life. there are also smaller underlying factors such as: Camera shutter speed = the brightness of your TV. Also just like in real life searching for an image you have to take a step back. Every photographer has done it before. Been in a busy place and just sat down and watched everyone rush past. This is exactly the same in a video game, you take a step back from where the game is trying to direct you and venture somewhere else, video games weren't programmed for you to be walking around taking pictures of the scenery so there are often obstacles.

David Kelley states in 'Half Real' his definition of a game is:

'...a form of recreation constituted by a set of rules that specify an object to be attained and the permissible means of attaining it.'

But if this phrase is broken down isn't this what ones life is about anyway?

'...a set of rules that specify an object.'

We all have to follow a set of rules everyday, at work, at school, in shopping centres, the law.

'...an object to be attained and the permissible means of attaining it.'

We all have goals in life even if they're not obvious to us. Whether it be something large scale like getting a Job or something small like getting the butter out of the fridge we have goals on a daily basis.

What Im trying to say here is that the way games work arn't really far from different from the lives we live. It just tends to be that our lives are far more complicated. The gap between the real and the virtual is probably a lot smaller than a lot of people realise.

Hyper Reality.

Hyper reality: an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from fantasy.

I've decided to look into the movement of hyper reality and how this can be applied within the art world and photography as my work definitely has similarities to the meaning of the movement, with my images resembling real landscapes despite only being fantasy computer generated shots.

A good example of Hyper reality that is often overlooked is DisneyLand with everything resembling reality ( Eg; Disney's High street) looking more desirable than that of real life giving consumers what they want to see and thus preferring this to the real world.

CGI: Architecture.

Looking at other areas of society that use CGI (computer generated imagery) at a realistic level to mimic the physical world:

Architecture: Architects use CGI a lot now days to give an impression of how a building might look before the build process has started.

Kitchen created using CGI. Many Kitchen designers now offer the ability to see what your new fitted kitchen or bathroom will look like minutes after designing it.

Gerhard Richter.

I've chosen to look at Richter's work as he is known for making paintings which contain a certain photographic quality.

The thing that sets his images apart from standard paintings ( and the reason they resemble photographs) is that he is able to create blur using soft brushes and a squeegee. I thought this was a good reference as he is technically making something appear different to what it is. In other words he is creating paintings to appear as photographs as I am creating Virtual images to appear as physical landscapes. Fooling the viewer into thinking that they are viewing something different.

I get the same feel from looking at Richter's paintings as I do from my photographs. The feeling of uncertainty but unable to pinpoint the factor that creates this feeling.

Nice View...

Here is my attempt at the previous sketch idea of including a virtual world outiside of a real enviroment the first image is the original image ( I have underexposed the RAW so that was was previously outside is visible.) and below this is the same image with a virtual forest outside.

This works quite well and Im pleased with it, however the biggest flaw with this image is my photoshop skills! My main difficulty was to equally balance the lighting from the outside image to the inside of the room also creating the edit so that it did not appear as if the forest had been super imposed so the angle of the photograph of the forest had to be at the correct angle. Even if not highly successful, this is still a step in the right direction.

I can definitely see a possibility that this project would be worth working on in the second year of my degree as I feel the only thing holding me back at the moment is my lack of knolege with certain software.

Time based works.

If I had the ability to do so I would love to create a 1st person perspective short time based piece of work showing myself (or a character) walking between the real and virtual world. For example film a real house, then walking out of the front door into a virtual war then hiding in a bunker only to get inside and find out the bunker is my room, run back out of my room and be facing a virtual dragon! But yeah... thats the general idea.

Large companies have done things similar to this when I think about it. Referring back to Avatar is a good example of a film that merges CGI with real-time footage.

Re- think.

Similar to the idea I had previous, (To take a TV and place it into a real environment with a near identical image of the place on the TV screen from a virtual world) I have designed a new idea once again displayed with a poor sketch...

With the previous idea I was finding it difficult to find a virtual landscape that was near identical to a real place I knew, even when trying it with forests the trees were different, the coulour of the ground wasn't the same and so on. these were all things that in the end didn't help with the aesthetics of the work and I felt the concept and physicality of the TV in the forest was to obvious.

The sketch above shows my alternative idea; to take photographs of rooms with windows and then digitally retouch them to super impose a virtual reality world outside of the window. The window will then be symbolic of the gateway between the two worlds with both worlds hopefully merging together to create a subtle image.

DIY.

I was looking at other forms in which computers are used within our society on a daily basis that we may not notice and someone reminded me of this:

SUPERMARKET SELF SERVICE.

I just think its strange that you can even buy food from a computer now... as if vending machines weren't bad enough now there's these crazy self service machines at most large supermarkets around the UK.

I find it scary how often we use computers and have become reliant on them not only in an entertainment sense but also how they have inter weaved themselves into our society. I know I made this sound like a terrible thing but just thinking about that the world would be like if every computer was taken out of this world at this point in time... and theres that 'sorry we cant do that right now, our system is down.'

The Physical Photograph

Looking at the inspirational work from the site, http://www.jeanmarievives.com/ I came across this image in two different contexts,

Firstly the initial image:

It was not the first image that gave me the idea but the second image of dropping the image into another image. This not only allows you to change the context of the image but also allows to to add a different dimension to the image with the whole, 'Image within an image.'

This then sparked of the idea that I could include images of the 'Virtual world' within the physical world to get my point across of the crossing of the two instead of combining the two in one solid image.

Copyright: http://www.jeanmarievives.com/

Gamers.

Here are some images by London born photographer Philip Toledano. I found this relevant as again it displays the crossover way between the virtual world and the physical world. The thing that appeals to me most about Toledano's work is that these, for all we know could just be images lit with a harsh flash below but because Toledano tells us that these are images of people playing video games it creates a new context in which they are viewed. Toledano says himself that his work should be like an 'unfinished sentence' and that there should 'always be space for questions' and Im sure many other artists would agree with this.

I read these images as quite disturbing as for me I can relate to them. My Dad, being a big gamer himself, sits in front of the TV, controller in hand with a similar glazed over look that some of Toledano's photographs display. However as in the previous blog where I displayed the mock up image of Pac-Man running around a Hedge maze I don't feel these images address gaming as an issue in society but as more of a positive light hearted hobby.

http://www.mrtoledano.com/

Pac- Man

Was just looking again for inspiration towards creating some more images for this project when i stumbled across this image.

This is a more light hearted approach to the idea of interweaving video games with reality but for me this also demonstrates how the effect that video games, internet and other virtual based worlds have on our society. This image was probably not created with the intentions to have a deep and meaningful message but on these terms it does demonstrate how the effects of the virtual world on reality is rarely addressed and when it is, is never taken as a serious topic.

Crossrover.

So this drawing dosent do my idea much justice but ive decided to take a slightly different approach to my concept as im not too confident about the way i was trying to present it before.

The picture above roughly illustrates this, A real photograph of a REAL forest mirroring an identical image on the TV screen. This identical image however will be a virtual forest. I am trying to make this crossover between the virtual and the real more apparent and this way of doing so is literally bringing the virtual into the real. So far I have been photographing the virtual and putting it into the context of the real but this way I will be able to still demonstrate this, as this original process will still be used to photograph the virtual forest but I will then go out and find a REAL forest and stage this shot as identical as possible.

Googlabet.

A few days ago I was working using Google Earth to try and create some abstract 'photographs'.

Since then I found work by Austrian artist Rhett Dashwood who used google earth to create his own google earth text type. This required finding a part of google earth that looked like each letter of the alphabet and here it is:

I also recently found this on deviantART by an artist that only appears to go by the name Dr Glass:

He has taken different famous landmarks from around the world and merged them together to create his own piece. I stumbled upon this when searching to see if anyone had used google earth before as a stimulus to create art.

Forest.

Another one of my images. I feel this is the best one so far but it still has a long way to go to be a good image.

Tangents.

So far I Ive learnt a lot about ourselves and the way we are so immersed in technology and escapism but I seem to keep going off in tangents without returning with any images. I im heading in the right direction in terms of concept but still fear I'm not going to have any images at the end of the project unless I change my direction. However I feel this would be a shame to come this far involved with this idea and then to change it. Quality is also still an issue as I am still unable to find a way to directly copy images from a games console.

I need to keep pushing with this idea though. It takes me ages to get settled on ideas and I will dismiss them if I don't think they're good enough but I think this could go somewhere.

Ray Kurzweil - Futurist. youtube

Ray Kurzweil:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QROMNOEI3PQ

This video is an interview with futurist Ray Kurzweil in which he talks about the rise of technology in the last few years. He explains that at the rate of current technological growth by the year 2029 artificial intelligence (AI) will be at the same level and have the same functionalities as the human brain.

Travel the world and the seven seas

Trying a different approach I was having a look at earlier today at creating images of landscapes from a birds eye view on google images and these are a couple of my results:

virtual(a): existing in essence or effect though not in actual fact.

Here is another one of my virtual photographs. Ive been having problems with the quality of the images as currently I am shooting them all on a play station 3 and am yet to find a way of taking direct images and consequently the quality is suffering. I've been looking on internet forums and asking people if they know of ways to get round this problem and have been told that if I link my playstation 3 directly to my TV... and then my TV to my laptop... I can print screen however this will require a lot of interesting cables that would be difficult to get hold of.

I think my problem at the moment is that I feel I have a solid concept but its seems difficult to create images that stand with any meaning at all. Maybe the problem is that im concentrating on landscapes too much.

3D Cinema vs 3D life

I thought it would be relevant to briefly talk about the film Avatar (written and directed by James Cameron.) I saw it the other day at the cinema and it interweaves well with the concept of this project. The film shows this idea that we can transport the human mind into another body ( in the films case the avatar.) The word Avatar itself comes from the religion Hinduism and translates as "incarnation", but more accurately as "appearance" or "manifestation. The point Im trying to make here is that I found it very strange that this film makes this seem so fantasy based as isn't playing a computer game as a character an Avatar?

If thats not enough at the start of every major games console now you are prompted to 'create your Avatar' your virtual self.

Example of a Ps3 Avatar in the 'Playstation Home' Virtual world.

Another thing with cinema at the moment is the idea of making things 3D?

Isn't the world already 3D?

Maybe we should go for a walk in the park instead of watching a film.

I dont know... Just seems strange