screens
Types of screens
'Screens' can be both a noun and a verb.
-Phone screens, TV screens, Computer screens etc.
-Windows, Curtains, Mirrors, Camera Lenses.
-Hospital Bed Screens, Walls.
-Clothes, Fashion, Picture Frame.
To Screen- To reveal or to obscure, does it have to be inside a frame with borders? What does it mean to see, could our vision be considered a screen?
The camera screen sees very differently to the human eye, (can see in filters, can zoom in, can focus in or out etc)
'Screens' can be both a noun and a verb.
-Phone screens, TV screens, Computer screens etc.
-Windows, Curtains, Mirrors, Camera Lenses.
-Hospital Bed Screens, Walls.
-Clothes, Fashion, Picture Frame.
To Screen- To reveal or to obscure, does it have to be inside a frame with borders? What does it mean to see, could our vision be considered a screen?
The camera screen sees very differently to the human eye, (can see in filters, can zoom in, can focus in or out etc)
Douglas gordon
Douglas Gourdon is a British born artist who has been using TV screens and monitors in his works because he uses moving image in his art. He usually uses screens to incorporate video, audio, photographic and even text based media. He applies his very fine tuned associative power to his works visual and audiovisual aspects to try and encourage his audience to do the same in their heads whilst viewing his work, to try and pair one sight and sound with another deeper meaning or connotation. His work often includes repetitive elements and some (like his extended version of Psycho) can last up to 24 hours long, especially his audio visual performance pieces where an on screen action or sound will often be played over and over to invoke deeper thought.
For example this work 'Douglas Gordon, The End Of Civilisation, 2012' is a video of two videos, one of a constant burning piano, and the other a slow and calm recording of the environment and surroundings as the sun is setting, as the slow and constant crackle of the fire and embers plays continuously in the background.
For example this work 'Douglas Gordon, The End Of Civilisation, 2012' is a video of two videos, one of a constant burning piano, and the other a slow and calm recording of the environment and surroundings as the sun is setting, as the slow and constant crackle of the fire and embers plays continuously in the background.
Douglas Gordon does not only work with screens as verbs, but also as nouns. He creates other works that aren't in video form on actual screens. In his series of art works called 'Self-Portraits of You + Me (Bong Girls)' He uses found imagery of all the actresses that acted alongside all of the James Bond actors throughout the years as his accomplice/ side kicks, and other male/female actors and music stars. He uses fire and heat to burn out features of the face that make you individual and recognisable, like the eyes, mouth nose etc and roughs up the rest of the image with burn marks for further aesthetics.
He also had a series previously where where he would use found imagery in black and white and very similarly screen out the eyes of actors and actresses who had been famous in their acting career around 1940s- 1980s. He would usually screen out the eyes with either mirrors so you could see your reflection or a plain white background.
The reason that he does this to these images is to explore the idea of excessive adoration, and the accidental mutilation of iconic images.
The result of these two similar styles where Gordon screens out the facial features is one that is quite eerie, and supernatural feeling.
He also had a series previously where where he would use found imagery in black and white and very similarly screen out the eyes of actors and actresses who had been famous in their acting career around 1940s- 1980s. He would usually screen out the eyes with either mirrors so you could see your reflection or a plain white background.
The reason that he does this to these images is to explore the idea of excessive adoration, and the accidental mutilation of iconic images.
The result of these two similar styles where Gordon screens out the facial features is one that is quite eerie, and supernatural feeling.
christo and jeanne-claude
Christo and Jeanne-Claude are artists who have used screens to cover up, and obscure vision. In their series 'Wrapped Objects' they would wrap up everyday objects in materials such as translucent polyethylene and other such fabrics. The reason for this is becuse of Christo's exploration in to the trans-formative effect the fabrics or other materials can have when wrapped around familiar objects. The concealment of the object challenges the viewer to imagine the object underneath. They also argued that obbjects wrapped in such materials gave them a sort of sculptural quality that other objects can lack.
For example the Wrapped Monument to Vittorio Emanuele where they wrapped the Vittorio Emanuele and Leonardo da Vinci monuments in Italy, 1970. They even constructed the fabrics shape itself to allow for 'ample folds' so that the sculpture was just right. The shapes and lines created by such folds and the minds want to see whats underneath the screen that covers the statue is what gives the piece its sculptural value.
For example the Wrapped Monument to Vittorio Emanuele where they wrapped the Vittorio Emanuele and Leonardo da Vinci monuments in Italy, 1970. They even constructed the fabrics shape itself to allow for 'ample folds' so that the sculpture was just right. The shapes and lines created by such folds and the minds want to see whats underneath the screen that covers the statue is what gives the piece its sculptural value.
max cavallari
Max Cavallari is an Italian street photographer who's work links to screens in more of a literal way much like Sugimoto. Cavallari is very concerned with the notion that smart phones although created to improve and enhance social interactions by letting us communicate throughout the world, are actually pulling us away from our immediate social situation and lose those moments and interactions that could be happening around us because were more focused on whats happening across the planet.
Cavallari photograhps people out with their friends, walking or on public transport with their heads hung low as they stare in to their phones. He then uses post production to add the eerie, and surreal effect of morphing the persons face with their phones, making it look like they're literally being sucked in, or absorbed by their phone. This effect is to highlight the worlds simple addiction to phones, social media, and escaping reality.
Cavallari photograhps people out with their friends, walking or on public transport with their heads hung low as they stare in to their phones. He then uses post production to add the eerie, and surreal effect of morphing the persons face with their phones, making it look like they're literally being sucked in, or absorbed by their phone. This effect is to highlight the worlds simple addiction to phones, social media, and escaping reality.
hiroshi sugimoto
Hiroshi Sugimoto is an photographer, artist and architect, who has been photographing screens for near 20 years. He started to shoot his series 'Theatres' because of a photographic vision that he had whilst taking photographs in Americas Natural History Museum, where he questioned what would happen if you chose to expose a frame of film to a cinema screen for the entire length of the movie? He instantly took a medium format camera and set it up in a cinema where his "vision exploded" and he then continued to photograph the cinema screens for nearly 20 years.
The ghostly white, pale screen is cuased by the all of the detail being bled in to a bright white light which seems to partially light up the rest of the theatres empty, grand hall. His images can give of an eerie, post apocalyptic sense of being alone as Sugimoto would only return the cinema to take photos when the entire hall would be empty, he would also visit some old abandoned cinemas to further this sense of loneliness, and being something small, in a big space.
The ghostly white, pale screen is cuased by the all of the detail being bled in to a bright white light which seems to partially light up the rest of the theatres empty, grand hall. His images can give of an eerie, post apocalyptic sense of being alone as Sugimoto would only return the cinema to take photos when the entire hall would be empty, he would also visit some old abandoned cinemas to further this sense of loneliness, and being something small, in a big space.
my response
For my response to Heroshi Sugimoto I had to think for a while how I was going to approach his technique because he usually shoots an entire length movie in one frame, usually in a grand theatre or hall. I struggled with this as there were no cinemas willing to let me shoot the inside of their cinema, or the film, not to mention the entire theatre would have to be empty. I also tried shooting the entire length of a movie in one frame just inside my room, however when keeping the shutter open for this long the screen ended up over exposing the entire image to white. So I decided to stick with the basic concept of shooting a screen in the dark, and allowing the light that emits from the screen illuminate the rest of the room.
I chose to shoot in my basement because it would allow there to be no other light sources other than the phone, and because basements are usually more isolated and unnocupied than other parts of the house to give of a isolated, alone feel similar to Sugimoto's work.
When shooting I was constantly changing up my phones positioning, the way in which the screen was facing and so on to try and experiment with different compositions and concepts. I then played around with my camera's shutter speed settings and found that around three and four seconds of having the shutter open seemed to work quite well, this also depended on the brightness of my screen, and how far away I set up the camera from the phone.
I chose to shoot in my basement because it would allow there to be no other light sources other than the phone, and because basements are usually more isolated and unnocupied than other parts of the house to give of a isolated, alone feel similar to Sugimoto's work.
When shooting I was constantly changing up my phones positioning, the way in which the screen was facing and so on to try and experiment with different compositions and concepts. I then played around with my camera's shutter speed settings and found that around three and four seconds of having the shutter open seemed to work quite well, this also depended on the brightness of my screen, and how far away I set up the camera from the phone.
second more experimental response
favourite images from the shoot
After creating my response I was thinking about screens and all the different types of screens that I could be using, and kept thinking that the word can be interpreted as either a verb, a noun, or both and I wanted to try and incorporate both of these in to my images, And started thinking of ways in which I could screen something out, or in to a photograph. An idea that seemed to work well in my head was the possibility of maybe being able to screen things in using the light from my phone and using the long exposure needed to expose the dark room to screen things in to the image using light. My plan was to return to the basement where I had done the other photoshoot and use my cupboard down there as a sort of projector. This would work because the light from my phone would be able to become concentrated through the finger holes used to open and close it and project a circle of white light on the wall opposite. If I where anywhere in the frame other than in the beam of light I found out that I would be too dark to be seen in the image. This meant that when I moved through the light or stood in it when I clicked the shutter, I wouldn't be visible anywhere but in in the beam.
This gives of quite a surreal effect, especially because of the way my face becomes morphed and changed as I move around in the light. The images can give off quite a ghostly feel as I become quite transparent and smudge and morph in the frame.
This gives of quite a surreal effect, especially because of the way my face becomes morphed and changed as I move around in the light. The images can give off quite a ghostly feel as I become quite transparent and smudge and morph in the frame.
favourite images from the shoot
Another way I could screen things in and out of my images would be to use the same techniques as my previous responses (using a screen to light a space, using light to screen things in) but Include mirrors to reflect these things. A mirror essentially can screen something out of an image, and screen something in at the same time which is an interesting concept that Id like to do some experimentation with.
eileen Quinlan
Eileen Quinlan is a photographer who I have looked at previously whilst I've been on this course, however her work links very strongly to the exam topic of screens that I am looking in to. Quinlan uses screens in a similar way to Christo and Jeane Claude, in the sense that they are screening something, and photographing it. Quinlan uses cameras and mirrors to create abstractions and interest in her kaleidoscopic images by creating a physical set filled with things that could be considered a screen like smoke, mirrors (any reflective surface) and paper towels for texture, which are some of her more popular materials that she rearranges and recombines in different shoots to explore material boundaries in photography, although she uses many more. She uses a medium to large format camera in film too shoot these sets, and her photos usually include bright colours, geometrical shapes, and beautiful textures to catch the eye.
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I think that some of Eileen Quinlan's work with mirrors would work quite nicely with the Hiroshi Sugimoto responses that I created. I think that mirrors would work well as a screen because they can screen out areas behind them, but they can also screen in other sections from around the room through the reflection. Im wondering about things that I can have in the reflection of the mirror, I could even have the phone screen here.
"set put run"- photo book by jaya pelupessy
This book by Jaya Pelupessy is one that is all about the process of screening things in and out of view from the reader. Whilst reading through it for the first time I found myself thoroughly investigating all of the images in great depth, and even checking in-between the interesting folded design of the pages for any clues that might give me more information as to the process being photographed. The main information that I could gather from reading through is that there was some sort of experimentation, or process that was being recorded through photography as photograms, images gone through a scanner on a text setting etc. However the more information I gathered the more I found myself getting closer to an answer and looking harder as a result, despite that there probably isn't a definite answer to what really was going on in the photographs. Jaya Pelupessy's book at first glance doesn't seem to be about anything in particular, the images subject matter can be hard to make out, and photos often seem to be of nothing, or the quality of the image is so bad you can't really make it out. However, from what I can gather, the book is about investigating different mediums, and what status they hold with us. It investigates certain processes, that lead to a final outcome, or image, and uses photography as an examination of to what extent the process itself and the visibility of that process strengthens, invalidates, or delivers new autonomous images. The book appears to be showing a process of experimentation as her experimentation and images evolve, which is why when going through the book you end up experiencing countless loops, (things that you recognise from earlier in the book or have seen before). The publication was produced in collaboration with Hrans Gremmen, who is a graphic designer.
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book cover |
I am planning to use techniques I have acquired through the research I have done for Hiroshi Sugimoto, Eileen Quinlan and Jaya Pelupessy's book "Set Put Run" in my next response. My plan is to set up a studio space where I can play around with different ways that I can use the theme of screens, and experiment with what 'Screens' are in its most formal elements. Whilst experimenting I am also going to photograph things that other artists might not include in their work. For example images of the studio space itself (the tripods, lights, the room I will be in etc) or images of work iv'e photographed in the studio in an exhibition space. I will also be experimenting with different ways I can change the medium of a photograph (screen print, photogram etc). The aim of this is to photograph the entire process of experimentation so that I can create a phonebook that will tell the story of the entire process, where I choose what to reveal and what not to reveal to the reader. In a nutshell, experimenting with revealing and concealing and then experimenting with revealing and concealing images in the presentation in a way that tells a certain story.
jaya pelupessy
Jaya Pelupessy is a photographer who is very interested/ concerned with taking photos where the experiment is utterly important. What this means is that he finds the process of photographing the experimentation a very important part of his work, as well as photographing the experimentations process.
my response to jaya pelupessy's book 'set put run'
images of the studio set up
edited images from the shoot
I think that this response worked out really well. After deciding that I wanted to experiment with mirrors whilst still playing inside of Hiroshi Sugimoto's concept of photographing a space that is only lit up with the light from a screen, and documenting the entire process similarly too inside the book 'Set Put Run'.
Although I think that these images are really successful, I am curious to start using colour in my images instead of using the monochrome setting on my camera. I also want too see how I could add some more physical screens in to the image in the form of more mirrors and possibly multiple coloured acetate sheets for me to experiment with and take photos through. I am going to try and make my images bold in colour and geometrical shapes very similar to Eileen Quinlan's work.
photoshoot using coloured acetate as another screen
Introducing colour to my photoshoot made a really big difference to the outcomes feel. I really like how the mirror that I used was one that magnifies the reflection as it is made to help when putting on make up. This is because it causes a distortion in the reflection which I think creates a really nice effect. I used the reflection of a screen with T.V static on it because I thought that the texture, grain and colour of it would look really nice, especially when distorted in the mirrors reflection. In most of these images I also used different coloured gels/ pieces of acetate to change the colour hue of some of the photographs, and because it adds even more screens in to the mix. I used three different types of T.V static for the photoshoot and in the end my favourite was the static that was made up of the RGB (Red, Green, Blue) T.V colours, where they all blend together, not the one where the colours are in blocks, I didn't like the black and white static because I wanted more colour in these images since I have exclusively only shot in black and white so far while doing 'screens'.
in this photoshoot I was trying a new idea where I use the special concave design of the make up mirror to actually project the reflection from my i pad on to the wall. This effect I think works well because it preserves all of the intense colour from the images being projected while also giving a really nice distorted effect, its also a litteral screen similar to that of my IPad and IPhone screen that I have used in previous photoshoots. This will be my final photoshoot before my 15 hour exam begins, so I will be using some of these and some images from previous photoshoots inside the exam.
Thinking about my final peice
After experimenting with all of the different types of photography to with the notion of screens I am happy with the all of the photoshoots that I have taken, and the way that my photography has developed during this time leading up to the exam. The images that I have ended up taken have come out being quite abstract and experimental which I like because its something new that has likely not been done many times before.
I have now finished all of my experimentation and have reached a place where I have a good idea of what I want to be doing during the time I will have in my 15 hour exam. I want to use my photographs to create photo book/ zine full of images that I have taken throughout my personal investigation part 2 which will explore the experimentation process that I went through to create the book and the images inside, which will beainspired by Jaya Pelupessy's book 'set put run'. To create this book I want to experiment re-photographing my photographs in ways thats change the way that they are perceived by their audience. For example using mirrors, photographing the prints close up with a macro lens, putting the images through a scanner on the 'text' setting etc. After this I might collage the images together, either on the floor or up on a wall similar to an exhibition and then re-photograph them once again. After doing all of this I am going to use all of the re photographed images and some of the originals to create a book which reveals the process.
I have now finished all of my experimentation and have reached a place where I have a good idea of what I want to be doing during the time I will have in my 15 hour exam. I want to use my photographs to create photo book/ zine full of images that I have taken throughout my personal investigation part 2 which will explore the experimentation process that I went through to create the book and the images inside, which will beainspired by Jaya Pelupessy's book 'set put run'. To create this book I want to experiment re-photographing my photographs in ways thats change the way that they are perceived by their audience. For example using mirrors, photographing the prints close up with a macro lens, putting the images through a scanner on the 'text' setting etc. After this I might collage the images together, either on the floor or up on a wall similar to an exhibition and then re-photograph them once again. After doing all of this I am going to use all of the re photographed images and some of the originals to create a book which reveals the process.