Week 7 - Photoshop & Animated GIF

Previously i have never had Photoshop to play around with photographs and resulted to using the limited manipulation tools available in most image previewing programs. The past month i have been playing around with photoshop to edit and manipulate images and also to create animations - which are all really easy.

The two photographs below i have manipulated using Photoshop. One i took in Italy and the other at my work, the Arthouse.
I took a sequence of photographs at the Arthouse to create an animated GIF in photoshop. These photographs were taken of a friends band called The Abandonment. Originally i created the animation with the original images in colour, but found it was not effective in creating the intensive effect of watching a band. I desaturated the image, applied High Pass then Threshold to create the sketch/comic effect. This created the impression you were watching the band from someones diary or a poster you viewed. As if someone had drawn the images from their memory of watching them, incorporating the raw, intensity and powerful display of the music and the musicians.

I have applied all the same effects (desaturate, high pass and threshold) on every image/layer and added the different layers to the animation frames. As i was not using a tripod, the images are slightly from a different angle, which is effective in creating movement with the animation. I had to edit some of the images as the lines did not meet up and stretch them. I started with 8 frames and cut them down to 4 as the movement became too erratic. It took me a while to find the correct sequence in frames so the movement was natural but intense to create the feeling of watching a band live.

Week 6 PROPOSAL and Corel Painter introduction

Today i presented my text artwork as an introduction to my key themes and ideas. The purpose for this style of text art is to determine these main ideas (that are a response from a number of different people and not just my interpretation) that will be portrayed in the sequential artworks. I surveyed around 45 people and used their words to create the Wordle, this then served as a means of brainstorming and collaboration of ideas of the common theme. I like the idea that the artwork is created with the contribution of others and they take part ownership in it.
It was unfortunate i wasn't able to get the photos to create the animated GIF - which is the second part to the text artwork, as these compliment each. Although i can show it next week in class if people are interested - not sure id i can upload it on the blog. I was really interested in the effect Ken used in his presentation of the train. He used a plug-in called Alien skin which blurs everything except the central focus, i will play around with this effect and may use in my final folio if it compliments my intentions and artwork.
First attempt at Corel Painter with the pad was extremely tedious. Mainly due to the fact that the tablet was too small and to get to the other side of the page requires three attempts just to get the mouse to move. Other than than i really enjoy the nature of it, as it feels natural (as if im creating artwork on paper) and provides more control with pressure and accuracy.


Proposal:
The five artworks I intend to create will be based on the Arthouse Hotel, a long-standing live music venue. The closure of the Arthouse is of no surprise, as they have been fighting a 20-year lease that ends in May 2011. Recently the Arthouse has been subject to new liquor licensing fees and regulations, which have put pressure on management to keep both the live music and the bar operating. Of the 19years that the Arthouse has been established I have spent majority of my weekends watching bands and working there for 5 years now. This is only a quarter of the time it has been established, so you can imagine how the Arthouse has impacted many musicians, punters, family and friends for the 19 years it has been supporting live music. The Arthouse to me has been a; live music venue, local pub, friend, home, family, work, an institution, recording studio, community and an art space. So the countdown has begun until this establishment closes and apart of me does as well, and for this reason I intend to capture all these attributes of the Arthouse through my 5 digital artworks.

For one of my artworks I will be focusing on text to communicate my theme and message. Miguel Sanchez’s interactive instillation has inspired me to follow a similar direction to the digital artwork: The only Certainty, Death and TXT’s . This digital artwork is a projection of a skeleton with a speech bubble. An mobile number is displayed underneath which allows viewers to text whatever they like into the speech bubble, therefore taking part ownership in creating the artwork. With this idea I though I could use some digital means to find comments and thoughts, such as text, email, blog or online survey to find out what the Arthouse Hotel means to a lot of people and how they connect with it. I would then set up a digital projection with all the responses sequentially displayed on the wall at the Arthouse’s last birthday in May.
Another Artwork I will use my camera and mobile phone in a similar ways to sleepyurbanite to capture random images and video footage that represent the themes. The images will be manipulated and edited using Photoshop and Bluetooth to every computer or mobile in the class. For another artwork I am looking at making a digital drawing using Corel Painter Essentials and Wacom tablet. Images will be imported into the digital drawing I create and will then be projected into the wall. Looking at the portable worlds website, I was inspired by this form of digital art. Images and words can interpret the themes and messages I have for the artworks, but does not allow the viewer to experience the themes. Therefore I was looking at making a video and to a degree virtual tour of the Arthouse for the viewers to fully comprehend and experience the themes. This will be created using a video camera then edited using imovie. The artwork will then be uploaded onto my ipod for presentation.