A pertinent issue for my generation and the 21st century at large is the rise and popularity of digital technology and consequently the impact on a society dominated by virtual reality. My theme for the digital body of work essentially explores the modern ambiguity surrounding the notion of integrity, specifically in regards to the polarity between online and offline identity and my concerns for virtual dominance within society. There is an undeniable element of the surreal surrounding the nature of online life and the virtual world. I intend to capture this as an aesthetic within my B.O.W, largely through the use of colour correction and manipulation, providing a reference to an almost post-apocalyptic scenario.
WHY IS DIGITAL ART THE BEST WAY OF EXPLORING MY B.O.W THEME?
The rapid development and consumption of digital technology in our post-modern society has significant implications in everyday life and art. The phenomenon of digitalisation, in particular the advent of the Internet and the associated virtual world, life and identity, provides considerable scope when conceptualising ideas for a variety of art making practices. Due to the intrinsic link the theme for my B.O.W and technology it seems only natural to capture this concept through the medium of digital art.
PHOTOGRAPHY – ‘Self Reflections’
The photography component of my B.O.W will be grounded in the tradition of self-portraiture, capturing a series of reflections in public spaces, using my digital camera as the medium for creating the images. The mode of self-portraiture will enable me to make a reference to the self-centric nature synonymous with both the online and offline contemporary world. The images will have a surreal all-most ghost like quality, enhanced in postproduction through the use of a colour photo filter.
COLLAGE – ‘Self Digitalisation’
The collage component of my B.O.W will include direct reference to a virtual reality, with an aesthetic that emanates digitalisation. The central image for the collage will be a self-portrait overlaid and interspersed with stock photos that make reference to the luminosity of the digital realm. The final layering of images will be manipulated in Photoshop to allude to my person and identity being overrun by technology and a virtual reality.
VIDEO – ‘Real Time’
The video production component of my B.O.W will essentially provide a snippet of the everyday interactions between my online and offline selves. The footage will be captured using the webcam imbedded in my laptop, revealing my interactions with my online computer aided life, interspersed with real time video screen capture revealing the websites I engage with. The cohesive surreal aesthetic throughout my B.O.W will be achieved in post-production through the manipulation of the colour correction, projecting an almost video game like environment.
DIGITAL DRAWING AND PAINTING – ‘Avatar Self’
The digital painting component of my B.O.W will reference the epitome of online self-manipulation, through the creation of my own avatar self. The image will essentially represent a self-portrait, however desirable characteristics will be added or enhanced, while undesirable traits will be removed. In keeping with the video component, the digital painting will project an almost video game like environment and aesthetic.
STOP.MOTION.ANIMATION – ‘Self Digitalisation Enacted’
The animation component of my B.O.W will be a synthesis of my collage and video works. The series of images that form the animation, will comprise of a progression of self portraits that articulate the taking over of my physical body by my online digitalised self. The imagery will again make reference to a post apocalyptic scenario, a coherent aesthetic throughout my B.O.W.
PRESENTING MY B.O.W
The five mediums that comprise my B.O.W convey a variety of concerns associated with digitalisation a the virtual realm, which would be most effectively experience, read and interpreted by the audience in correlation to each other. As such I intend to present my B.O.W as a form of installation, with all components interacting. I will require two projectors and two screens to play my video art and stop motion animation, and I will print my photographs, collage and digital painting. It would be ideal to create a partitioned off triangular space that the audience would enter to experience the works. The space would consist of two full walls dedicated to the projection of the video and animation, and one half wall dedicated to the printouts. This concept for presentation, however, may need to be revised due to the limitations of university resources and available space.
ARTISTIC INFLUENCE
An artist who has significantly influenced the concepts for aesthetic within my B.O.W is photographic artist Pat Brassington. A distinctive theme within Brassington's oeuvre is her beguiling surrealistic imagery, which I intend the emulate throughout my B.O.W. The colour palette within Brassington’s series ‘A Perfect Day’ makes reference to a kind of post apocalyptic scenario, with a theatrical staging of figures which evokes both the unconscious and the absurd. Brassington’s work, ‘Radar’, contains haunting juxtapositions that elicit from the audience a desire to construct a narrative surrounding the surreal psychological encounter. In my B.O.W, much like Brassington, I wish to construct narratives and scenarios that provoke and engage the audience to consider the changing nature of integrity in a modern digitalized world.
Pat Brassington Radar, 2009, Pigment print, 80 x 55cm, edition of 8 + 2 AP http://www.stillsgallery.com.au/artists/brassington/index.php?obj_id=folio&image=8&nav=1
Installation concept drawing for the presentation of my B.O.W
