Surrealism was a movement begun in the early 20s, it focused around experimentation of the abilities of the subconscious mind. Thought to have been led by Andre Breton the movement created visual and audible works from writing to film which explored at least one aspect such as chance, pure automatism and dreams.
Photography was central in the works of many surrealist such as that of Man Ray and Maurice Tabard both of whom experimented with double exposures and combination printing to produce images which seemed to erase the line segregating reality and dreams. |
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Roger Livet was a film maker yet is often considered surrealist photographer due to a series of 19 stills from his film released under the title Une regrettable affaire. The still on the right relates to the title of the set in presenting multiple objects not usually seen together- a practice surrealists such as Salvador Dali (Lobster Telephone) carried out. Featuring a hammer, revolver, pipe and what appears to be a swan the photo provokes the viewer to question why such objects are in the even in the same frame and how they could possibly be linked together.
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Surrealist artist incorporated an aspect of chance into their works, I did the same resulting in a series of various results.
Playing the nostalgic game an Exquisite Corpse which incorporates the idea of chance, in groups of 4 we were able to create 4 very unique characters, although not necessary appealing this proves that taking a chance when creating enables us to produce an images like no other.
Playing the nostalgic game an Exquisite Corpse which incorporates the idea of chance, in groups of 4 we were able to create 4 very unique characters, although not necessary appealing this proves that taking a chance when creating enables us to produce an images like no other.
Following the concept of the Exquisite Corpse game using an ios app we created what could be considered an 'Exquisite picture'.The app enabled us to take an image, pass on the device and take another, and so on until we had taken the limit we had set. Each image was hidden after being taken resulting in the final image being a surprise to all of those who took part. Below are 6 of the images taken, despite not seamlessly flowing the unusual images created when put together is captivating in some cases.
The process below created an image left purely to chance. I gave a classmate vague instructions while their eyes were closed resulting in her taking 6 pictures one of these instructions was 'Spin around and stop when you feel dizzy' meaning neither of us had control over that image taken. These 6 images were then printed in A3 cut into squares and scattered on the floor face down, we then arranged them into a grid and turned them over revealing our final mismatched image.
Another activity carried out was something I had often done as a child while bored- automatic drawing. The process involved scribbling on a piece of paper then drawing a darker line over these scribbles to create a random image.
I feel this process proves that there is beauty in chaos, when uninspired as a child I found this method would always help me feel somewhat creative as I could create images I had never though of before. |
The final activity involved using a random word generator to gather some words then stringing them together to create sentences or paragraphs. As with all the other activities this one enables you to be creative when you are unsure of what to create, I found with some combinations of words I became instantly inspired and had already formed a scenario in my head before even noting the words down.
Below are some of my results:
FREAKISH, GENERATION, VACANT, PAGEANT, CRAZY, WISDOM
We were born in a freakish generation where library seats are vacant yet pageants are crowded with crazy audiences lacking wisdom.
INITIAL, COMPLETELY, SLIPS, OFFICER, DIAMOND, BRING
From his initial viewing the road appeared completely covered in salt. There would be surely be no slips tomorrow, the officer looked over the road once again to his surprise he found what appeared to be a diamond embedded in the road amongst the rock salt. Should he bring it home or into the station for analysis?
BLOODY, ERASER, POLAR, HONEST, DEMON, INDUSTRY
“Bloody eraser doesn’t even work!” he screamed. “I’m sure he’s bipolar” I whispered to John. He looked at me disappointed, “What? I’m just being honest! It’s not as if I called him a demon” I chuckled. It’s times like this when I wonder why I took this corporate job, the people in this industry don’t get my humour at all.
CONDITION, STALLION, CLEAR, CORPSE, DAYDREAMER, BRUTAL
The condition of the stallion was clear; he would soon be nothing but a corpse. Although it was guaranteed this daydreamer would have nothing close to a brutal death.
FESTIVAL, QUEEN, FELLOW, HEARTLESS, AGE, GLARED
“LET THE FESTIVAL COMMENCE” blared the intercom. The queen and her fellow heartless drones made their presence on the floor known. Their age stricken faces turned, their mouths maintaining a scowl as they gazed over the other dancers in disgust.
Below are some of my results:
FREAKISH, GENERATION, VACANT, PAGEANT, CRAZY, WISDOM
We were born in a freakish generation where library seats are vacant yet pageants are crowded with crazy audiences lacking wisdom.
INITIAL, COMPLETELY, SLIPS, OFFICER, DIAMOND, BRING
From his initial viewing the road appeared completely covered in salt. There would be surely be no slips tomorrow, the officer looked over the road once again to his surprise he found what appeared to be a diamond embedded in the road amongst the rock salt. Should he bring it home or into the station for analysis?
BLOODY, ERASER, POLAR, HONEST, DEMON, INDUSTRY
“Bloody eraser doesn’t even work!” he screamed. “I’m sure he’s bipolar” I whispered to John. He looked at me disappointed, “What? I’m just being honest! It’s not as if I called him a demon” I chuckled. It’s times like this when I wonder why I took this corporate job, the people in this industry don’t get my humour at all.
CONDITION, STALLION, CLEAR, CORPSE, DAYDREAMER, BRUTAL
The condition of the stallion was clear; he would soon be nothing but a corpse. Although it was guaranteed this daydreamer would have nothing close to a brutal death.
FESTIVAL, QUEEN, FELLOW, HEARTLESS, AGE, GLARED
“LET THE FESTIVAL COMMENCE” blared the intercom. The queen and her fellow heartless drones made their presence on the floor known. Their age stricken faces turned, their mouths maintaining a scowl as they gazed over the other dancers in disgust.
Photomontage
Photomontage stemmed from Dadaism and is often used by Surrealist as the aspect of chance can be incorporated by cutting random shapes then placing another image behind the first ( a process I also experimented with) creating a collage.
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mAN rAYMan Ray (1890- 1976) was an American artist who worked on with many mediums from photography to paint. He is now well known for his contributions to photomontage and the surrealist movement, his photomontage set revolving doors combines geometric shapes with mainly primary colours to produce simple yet beautiful works of art. |
"The concern of a period of time often leads to the disappearance of material space. That is what the images in two dimensions shown here tend to prove; by a mutual action, they give birth to a series of events escaping from the control of all diversion."
- Man Ray in reference to Revolving doors
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Hannah HochHannah Höch (1889-1978) was a German artist working during the period of dadaism. She is widely considered a pioneer of collage due to her satirical pieces which consisted of magazine and journal cut outs combined together to create humorous images. Working through the war in Weimar Germany, she explored the idea of the 'new woman' resulting in some images seen in the series From an Ethnographic Museum which generated conversations around the subject of gender and identity.
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We were asked to choose 3 images from a selection of images that we felt worked together and position them as if we were a gallery curator. I chose the 3 images above that happened to be by the same photographer Lewis Baltz, I felt that the images worked together as they were all minimalistic architectural shots. I positioned them in a horizontal line as I felt a line could be seen running through and connecting the images. While the first and second image appear to present desolate areas the middle appears more commercial and clean,the minimalistic feeling of the images is reinforced by all images holding common geometric shapes.
I later took photos to create a set of images that I felt worked together, I then created collages from these images and others, In one of the images I wanted to tell a story so cut the lines of the garage in an image from Baltz and placed another image of a girl taken by Sally Mann behind it resulting in a final image which looked like the girl was trapped behind bars. While in another I turned the image over and cut random shapes before placing another image behind it resulting in the only factor controlled being what images were used.
I later took photos to create a set of images that I felt worked together, I then created collages from these images and others, In one of the images I wanted to tell a story so cut the lines of the garage in an image from Baltz and placed another image of a girl taken by Sally Mann behind it resulting in a final image which looked like the girl was trapped behind bars. While in another I turned the image over and cut random shapes before placing another image behind it resulting in the only factor controlled being what images were used.
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Dream Diary
Surrealist were also concerned with dreams as the involuntary images created in the mind could be interpreted and used to inspire their works, after keeping a dream diary to note down any dreams I had I selected two of the most vivid dreams and created a collage/photo manipulation in photoshop using images of my own and others found on the internet to create a visual representation of the dreams.
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After falling asleep after re-watching Pocahontas I had a dream that I remember resembling a scene from the film, when selecting the images I chose those that I felt best represented the image in my head. As a final step in the creation of the image I warped the image to create a dream like/ hazy feel to the image.
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I often have dreams about falling from a large height, this time instead of falling into just a dark space I could see the sea so I decided to represent this by taking an image against a barrier and combining it with an image I found online of a deep blue sea. As the sea was visible all around me I decided to add a white fill layer and lower the opacity of the floor I stood on so it looked similar to glass.
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Equivalents
Equivalents is a term given by Alfred Stieglitz to a set of images created by himself. The term refers to abstract images that are equivalent to the photographer's thoughts,emotions and/or experiences when taken. Circa 1922-1935 Stieglitz created a set of cloud images;combining objectivity and realism the images are seen to reflect his emotions. Paying attention to forms, lines, colour emotional states can be inferred.
"I have a vision of life, and I try to find equivalents for it in the form of photographs." |
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The Rorschach Test
Named after its Swiss creator Hermann Rorschach the Rorschach test is a test used for psychological analysis, various ink blots are shown to participants whose psychological state is then measured based on their interpretation of the images. Although since the publishing of the images online the usability of the test has been compromised as the likelihood of the patients seeing the images beforehand has significantly been heightened meaning they might have pre established an answer to the ink blots - voiding the test. |
Andy WarholThis test has inspired many creative responses and example being Andy Warhol's 1984 series titled 'Rorschach paintings' Despite thinking that it was the patients that created the images and the the psychologist who decoded it the series is still considered by many to be one of his best.
“I thought that when you went to places like hospitals, they tell you to draw and make the Rorschach Tests. I wish I’d known there was a set.” |
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Stefan BucherA similar project by modern artist Stefan Bucher also uses the unpredictable nature of ink but in a different fashion. His project Daily Monsters consists of ink being dropped on a page and blown to produce a random design, he then adds to each of these ink blots to create different characters. |
Above are some rorschach blots I created by dropping ink from a distance on one side of A4 then folding it in half to smudge and mirror the image. Similar to the blots used in the rorschach test I was able to notice other things within the blots such as faces and animals. I then edited the photos in photoshop to produce various images, with the use of layer masks I was able to make it appear as if another image was apart of the ink blots. To further experiment I inverted one of my images and reproduced it in the dark room, this then provoked me to experiment with the creation of rorschach blots in the dark room.
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I experimented with adding on the chemicals in alternate orders to produce images with distinctive white or black lines. When looking at my final set of images i found that I liked the appearance when I put on the stop, folded the image to spread the chemical like a rorschach blot , then exposed it to light. This was because the images I created following these steps tended to be more distinctive due the white on black, they also reminded me of smoke due to the soft smudges created.
I then experimented with coloured ink, after creating a coloured rorschach blot of A4 I asked a few people to select inks from a tray and drop them randomly on an A3 sheet of paper before I folded it. The contrast between the A4 and A3 sheet was evident as the A4 sheet seemed to have a 'cleaner' finish as I had been doing it by myself so hadn't really splattered the ink everywhere, with the A3 piece I had no control over where the others decided to place the ink.
trick Photography
Trick photography emerged in the early 1900s, it was used by surrealist to create illusions, these images could then be used to present ideas from dreams. Manuals such Woodbury's Photographic Amusements (1896), Chaplot's La Photographie Recreative et Fantaisiste (1902) and Walter Eagleson's Trick Photography (1902) were created to aid photographers while taking these images. |
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I decided to follow some of the tutorials within Woodbury's Photographic Amusements after finding a Pdf online, below are some of my images. Following a tutorial on caricature portraits with slight adjustments I was able to turn classic portraits into caricatures within the dark room |
Glitch Photography
Glitch art is seen by many as a form of digital surrealism as a image is disrupted by chance to create pure accidental glitches. It's been seen in many different mediums such as film projections through the cigarette style burn marks which,when video is converted to an incompatible format or a phone is dropped and the screen's pixels are altered. Although intentional glitches such as the cigarette style mark are now seen in modern day media, an example being Kanye West's song welcome to the heartbreak in which datamoshing is used to represent his emotional state.
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I then began to research artists who had experimented with different forms and mediums of glitching:
Diane MeyerThis manual glitch brings the manual labour back into the production of photos.
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"This series is based on photographs taken at various points in my life and arranged by location. Sections of the images have been obscured through a layer of embroidered pixels sewn directly into the photograph. The embroidery deteriorates sections of the original photograph forming a new pixelated layer of the original scene. The project refers to the failures of photography in preserving experience and personal history as well as the means by which photographs become nostalgic objects that obscure objective understandings of the past." |
In 1991 Joachim Schmid created the collection Photographic drafts which consisted of 32 black and white collaged images. After being donated pictures for his work, Schmid ripped the images and joined half of one image with half of another to create the series in which some of the final images were perfectly aligned. This action of disrupting images and recreating them in a disorderly fashion is what allows me to classify this series as glitching.
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Joachim Schmid |
Other WorksTwo other works that I found interesting when researching glitch art were collections of images by Seung-Hwan Oh and Louie Van Patten. Seung-Hwan Oh's images were created through the distortion of film resulting in unexpected results- he experimented with the cultivation mold on film by storing his images in a wet and warm environment although this process doesn't guarantee a perfect result as only 1/500 images turn out properly. Van Patten's images aren't necessarily glitches due to the technique but they hold a glitch aesthetic as he uses oil paints to intentionally present movement in a sequence resulting in various lines disturbing the image.
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outcome
After looking at different types of glitches I decided upon a digital glitch, using an incorrect program to edit a jpg as it allowed for less control so more chance would be involved than if I used pixel sorting or datamoshing- processes that require more control. I chose several images from folders I and other classmates had, this resulted in 6 of my images and 3 from another source. I opened each image in a text editor and asked several people to mess with the code under a certain point in each file to avoid corrupting the images. As the participant could delete and write anything they wished I feel that this was more random than chance based so I decided to repeat the process but set up guidelines which allowed for variation.
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My guidelines specified that the participant would pick any number then select that numbered image from a folder of images I had collected, they would then google a word relating to the image and paste the title of the first search result throughout the document, I felt the instructions given allowed the process to appear similar to a surrealist game and also yielded unique results that weren't as random.
After creating my first set of images I debated whether or not to edit them in Photoshop as in some cases I wasn't pleased with the final outcome this provoked me to think about how sometimes when we limit chance we also limit our creativity as we become unwilling to experiment with different outcomes and processes in fear of its outward appearance, so in a sense the surrealist movement and the exploration of the subconscious mind disregards the physical beauty of an image but looks more into the process of and behind creation like conceptual photography. I was also conflicted when it came to the presentation of my first set of images as they were all different sizes, although with this second set I felt that different layouts would present an alternate message to the viewer, so I decided that If I were to present this set I would present the images in a staggered line to reflect the idea of distorting how we view things.
After reading various posts about glitch art and looking at my images I began to realise how the distortion of an image also disrupted our perceptions of said image as I found that I felt differently to multiple distortions of the same images I had created. From this I began to think about other ways in which an image can be distorted and whether or not the final image could even be considered a photograph. Reading articles from 'What is a photograph', 'Creative Vision' and various other posts on the subject I found multiple ways to distress digitally produced and film images resulting in a series of chemically and manually destroyed images.
With the prevalent rise in digital photography some are artist have begun to return to analogue photography to reexamine the artistic process behind the production and development of images - this has allowed them to breakdown the materials used to develop images such as film. sourced inspiration from this movement
Scratching
I experimented with the scratching of both film negatives and photograms with a scalpel and scissors, I found that I had far more control over the scalpel and could achieve more precise lines but with this method I ran the risk of cutting through my produced images so decided to alternate between the two methods but focus on the use of scissors on my negatives. The images I experimented on were fairly random with the strip of film being from another classmate, on one of the negatives of a face I scratched over the face obscuring the identity of the subject while on my photograms I scribbled over the image at random and also experimented with outlining the subject- a process I later carried over to the negatives with slight difficulty due to the small nature. I made sure to work on the photograms while they were still damp to actually scratch off the present colour, I feel the final photograms reflect an effect I've recently been attempting to achieve in video editing In which scratches flicker on the video outlining the subject and adding a cartoonish effect. I found that my developed negatives lacked the texture present in the photograms as I had scratched the images before developing them, I feel that I could also layer another scratching on top of the enlarged negative to play with the mind of the viewer.
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Burning
I then experimented with the burning of photographic negatives as well as developed images in the process of heatage used by surrealist David Hare but experienced multiple problems in the process; one of which being the inability to insert the film in the enlarger due to the way it had crumbled once burned. The distortion of the emulsion on the negative created when burned allowed for the light and dark areas in the final image to also be altered, it also resulted in a depth in the final images. The burning of the developed images was a trial and error process as the result was dependant on the flammability of the photographic paper as well as the weather conditions when burning the paper. In some cases the paper would bubble and crackle and it others a hole was burned through the image.
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BleachBleaching my developed photos was also a trial and error process as early on I found that the spray bleach I was using had no effect on my negatives so I focused only on spraying the developed photos using sunlight to accelerate the process. This resulted in the colour quickly being removed in layers, and a bubble like texture from the air bubbles produced when spraying the bleach. The bleach remained active despite rinsing the images resulting in them changing over time, although I was quite pleased with the results at the time of scanning.
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I felt that all these methods revealed the materiality of photos but the fact that the process of scratching the photo gave it texture is what pursued my final piece for this idea. I created a print of an image that I had taken and began scratching using various tools such as a scalpel, scissors, a compass and a scourer in an attempt to achieve a different texture on the tree. I then displayed the image on a sheet of plexiglass which would allow the viewer to interact with the image consequently evoking a better understanding of my exploration of the build up of a photograph. While I like the final image I regret using the scourer on the tree as the result wasn't as I had envisioned I feel sandpaper moving intermittently in one direction may produce a closer effect to what I wanted, I also feel that if i had created a slightly lighter print I would be able to add further detail to pigeons.
As I wasn't entirely pleased with this outcome and didn't feel I could accurately present my idea with a single image I decided to create another piece which included all three of the methods I had experimented with. I felt this final image allowed for a perfect visual interpretation of my initial ideas. Through using images of 3 people facing in different directions I was able to present the idea of looking at photography from an alternative and deeper perspective.
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Full Unit 3 Evaluation (Including final PIECE)
My personal investigation was inspired by the question ‘What is a photograph?’ and explored through the disruption of both digital and print images in order to draw attention to the materiality of photographic images and their ability to alter over time. Although I begun with research about the surrealist movement in the 20s and 30s and their interest in issues such as chance, games, automatism and dreams. I was interested in the surrealists’ fascination with games, following in the footsteps of contemporary artists influenced by surrealism such as John Baldessari and his game Throwing Three Balls in The Air to Get a Straight Line I created my own photography based game. I played multiple games based on chance myself, this included word as well as picture association games, automatic drawing and various takes on the childhood game, the Exquisite Corpse. The games sparked new ideas, as a child I would often play the exquisite corpse and engage in automatic drawing - a game in which you would turn scribbles into another image. These processes would always help me to feel creative as I was able to generate images I had never thought of before which allowed me to understand the beauty within chaos. Another game I played consisted of using a random word generator to gather some words then stringing them together to create sentences or paragraphs. This process like the prior games enabled me to be creative when I felt as if I had run into a wall as I found that with some combinations of words I instantly became inspired and had already formed a scenario in my head.
I then sought out some more contemporary games such as Cranium and Pictionary. I settled on my game not being explicitly competitive but instead working as a learning experience. My final game idea was a portable educational photography game in which a player would randomly select a prompt of either a quote, photo, photographer, movement or genre then all players would respond by taking and if they also wished edit a photograph. These final images and the thought process behind them would then be discussed using the formal elements as guideline and if desirable the players would then pick who they felt best interpreted the prompt. I created multiple prototypes of the box to find a card thickness that wasn’t thin enough to distort under slight pressure but wasn’t so thick that it would separate when folded, my design for the game box and cards evolved while in photoshop as I went from my original idea of images hanging from a washing line and basic square cards to a collage of polaroids with images from the game on the box and cards designed to look like polaroids with the prompts in a font to portray the idea of being handwritten.
I tested my game with multiple people and found that it was actually helpful in provoking me to think through the composition of my shots as well as the signature qualities that made other photographer’s works noticeable. I found that others found my game simple enough to play without instructions but having instructions would assist in making the gameplay smoother so if I were to recreate my game I would include brief instructions inside of the lid to avoid bulk. It was also advised that I’d include more photos relating to the photographer and a short description of the movement. Overall I’m pleased with the concept and final design of my game as I feel it can be used effectively as an educational aid while relating to the surrealist idea of finding prompts for creative processes though games.
This investigation allowed me to understand the fundamental ideas behind surrealism and served as useful knowledge when further exploring surrealist techniques and similar methods such as Photomontage, dream diaries, trick photography and and the Rorschach test. I not only found that Hannah Höch and Man Ray both incorporated the element of chance though cutting and rearranging various shapes, but also that the work of Hannah Hoch and many other surrealist works were used to promote a political message through the satirical rearrangement of images resulting in humorous images, Hoch’s series From an Ethnographic museum also explored the idea of the ‘new woman’ which generated conversations around the unconventionally discussed subject of gender and identity while Man Ray’s combination of colourful geometric shapes in his set revolving doors produced simple yet beautiful works of art consequently presenting the diversity of the technique. My own collage work had constructed and chance based elements while experimenting with the use of magazine clippings, work by other photographers as well as my own. My favourite piece of work produced while exploring this technique was one that emitted a story of entrapment, following a common surrealist idea of reusing old work I combined a greyscale image of a garage from Lewis Baltz and an image of a girl taken by Sally Mann. Cutting every other line in the garage’s pattern I was able to place Sally Mann’s image behind to create the idea of the girl being trapped, I feel that if the image of the girl was in colour I would be able to present a message of the suppression of female creativity, this final image contrasted Hoch’s chaotic work as I intended for it to be minimalistic similar to the work of Man Ray. My research into Rorschach blots also led to me experimenting and producing various outcomes within multiple mediums, after viewing Andy Warhol’s 1984 series Rorschach paintings inspired by the test despite his misinterpretation of its intention I found the work of contemporary artist, Stefan Bucher who used the unpredictability of ink in a different fashion. His extensive project Daily Monsters consisted of ink being dropped on a page and blown to produce a random base design from which he added to to create a multitude of characters. I adapted this method to the dark room, I produce multiple images in which I exposed the paper then dropped developer on to the light sensitive paper, blew it around then folded it to duplicate the pattern resulting in rorschach blots of my own. Although my favourite outcomes from this method in the dark room occured when I reversed the order of the chemicals and instead placed the stop on the paper in the same fashion before exposing the image and developing it as usual, this resulted in a white on black rorschach blot instead of the conventional inverse, each of the images produced like this also featured a ghosting effect from where the quantity of chemical was lighter in some areas I felt that this added an eerie feel to the set as it allowed it to imitate smoke or appear as if there were otherworldly entities visible. I also experimented with rorschach blots following the traditional method of ink and paper, I then created double exposure edits with my smaller A4 ink blots to inlay what I could see when looking at the original ink blots. My larger A3 ink blots consisted of multiple inks and people in the process, I asked 4 others to randomly drop a colour ink of their choice on the paper before folding the image subsequently dissolving my involvement in the project and leaving the full result to chance, I found that other than the colour and size difference this image contrasted my smaller ink blot which had a ‘cleaner’ appearance leading me to the conclusion that even when I tried to leave the placement of the ink to chance the fact that I consciously had control over the ink dropper meant that the final A4 product wasn’t fully left to chance.
This revelation led to me wanting to further explore chance for my final project, specifically glitch art due to my recent interest in the digital disruption of images through data moshing and pixel sorting. Glitch art is seen by many as a form of digital surrealism as an image is disrupted by chance to create pure accidental glitches, it’s seen in many different mediums such as film projections through the cigarette style burn marks, when video is converted to an incompatible format or when an electronic device is dropped altering the pixels. Although glitches such as the cigarette style mark are now intentionally seen in modern day media, an example being Kanye West’s welcome to the heartbreak in which data moshing is used as a visual representation of his emotional state. I researched artist who responded to the term glitch in various ways and found the work of Diane Meyer whose manual glitches brought manual labour back into the production of photos, her series ‘Time spent that might otherwise be forgotten’ consisted of images from various periods in her life with sections obscured by embroidered pixels sewn into the actual photograph these photos demonstrated the failures of digital photography in preserving experiences while also presenting the idea that photos obscure our objective understanding of the past. I also looked at Joachim Schmid’s 1991 collection Photographic drafts using the surrealist technique ofb repurposing old photos in a collage like fashion Schmid was able to create 32 black and white collaged portraits some of which were perfectly aligned as if they were original images. Two other works I found interesting when researching glitch art were collections of images by Seung-Hwan Oh and Louie Van Patten. Seung-Hwan Oh’s images were created through the distortion of film through the cultivation of mold in a wet and warm environment producing otherworldly final images although a perfect result wasn’t guaranteed due to the final results being based entirely on nature’s course. Van Patten’s images weren’t necessarily glitches due to the painting technique used but I felt that they held a glitch aesthetic as the oil paints used to intentionally used to present movement sequence resulted in various lines disturbing the images.
After looking at different types of glitches I decided upon further exploring digital glitch by using an incorrect program to edit a jpg as it allowed for less control so more chance would be involved than if I used pixel sorting or datamoshing- processes that I felt were a little too structured. I chose several images from collections I and other classmates had, this resulted in 6 of my own images and 3 from another source. I opened each image in a text editor and asked several people to disorder the code under a certain point in each file to avoid irretrievably corrupting but still distorting them. As I allowed the participant to delete and write anything they wished I felt that this process was more random than chance based so I decided to repeat the activity but set guidelines which allowed for variation. My guidelines specified that the participant would pick any number then select that numbered image from a folder of images I had collected, they would then google a word relating to the image and paste the title of the first search result throughout the document, I felt the instructions given allowed the process to appear similar to a surrealist game and also yielded unique results that weren't as random. After creating my first set of images I debated whether or not to edit them in Photoshop as in some cases I wasn't pleased with the final outcome this provoked me to think about how sometimes when we limit chance we also limit our creativity as we become unwilling to experiment with different outcomes and processes in fear of its outward appearance, so in a sense the surrealist movement and the exploration of the subconscious mind disregards the physical beauty of an image and instead looks deeper into the process of and behind creation like conceptual photography. I was also conflicted when it came to the presentation of my first set of images as they were all different sizes, although with this second set I felt that different layouts would present an alternate message to the viewer, so I decided that If I were to present this set I would present the images in a staggered line to reflect the idea of distorting how we view things.After reading various posts about glitch art and looking at my images I began to realise how the distortion of an image also disrupted our perceptions of said image as I found that I felt differently to multiple distortions of the same images I had created. From this I began to think about other ways in which an image can be altered and whether or not the final image could even be considered a photograph. Reading articles from 'What is a photograph', 'Creative Vision' and various other posts on the subject I found multiple ways to distress digitally produced and film images resulting in a series of chemically and manually destroyed images to evoke the questioning of the makeup of a photograph.
I experimented with the scratching of both film negatives and photograms with a scalpel and scissors, I found that I had far more control over the scalpel and could achieve more precise lines but with this method I ran the risk of cutting through my produced images so decided to alternate between the two methods but focus on the use of scissors on my negatives. The images I experimented on were fairly random with the strip of film being from another classmate, on one of the negatives of a face I scratched over the face obscuring the identity of the subject while on my photograms I scribbled over the images at random and also experimented with outlining the subject- a process I later carried over to the negatives with slight difficulty due to their small nature. I made sure to work on the photograms while they were still damp to actually scratch off the present colour, I feel the final photograms reflect an effect I've recently been attempting to achieve in video editing In which scratches flicker on the video outlining the subject and adding a cartoon-ish effect. I found that my developed negatives lacked the texture present in the photograms as I had scratched the images before developing them, I felt that I could also possibly layer another scratching on top of the enlarged scratched negative to play with the mind of the viewer.I then experimented with the burning of photographic negatives as well as developed images in the process of heatage used by surrealist David Hare but experienced multiple problems in the process; one of which being the inability to insert the film in the enlarger due to the way it had crumbled once burned. The distortion of the emulsion on the negative created when burned allowed for the light and dark areas in the final image to also be altered, it also resulted in a desirable depth in the final images. The burning of the developed images was a trial and error process as the result was dependant on the flammability of the photographic paper as well as the weather conditions when burning the paper. In some cases the paper would bubble and crackle and in others a hole was burned through the image or it was only singed. My third experimental method of bleaching my developed photos was also a experimental process as early on I found that the spray bleach I was using had no effect on my negatives so I focused only on the developed photos, I found that placing my photos in sunlight while the bleach was still on them sped up the process significantly and the bubbles within the spray bleach left a textured pattern resembling leopard spots. I felt that all these methods revealed the materiality of photos but the fact that the process of scratching the photo gave it texture is what provoked my first final piece for this idea as I felt the physical change would really convey my agenda to the viewer. I produced a large photogram of my image that I felt had features that would stand out when scratched,I alternated between the use of a compass for the outlines and a scourer and various other tools with rough edges to create texture on the tree within the image. I was pleased with the final image but felt my idea couldn’t be conveyed with only one image on show, I planned on creating a photobook to display multiple images with a similar effect applied but couldn’t find images that I felt worked together so I disregarded this idea and created a second outcome that I felt represented my intentions while using a few of the previous methods I had experimented with. I created 9 photograms of inverted digital photos I had taken of 3 people from 3 different angles (front, side and back), I then selected an image of each person from alternating views and created 3 sets. I carried out the scratching method on one set, burning on another and bleaching on the final set resulting in each person within the set having an image from each angle distorted in a different way. I then mounted the images in rows corresponding to the person within the portrait and the method carried out, ensuring that the centre image of the entire set was a forward facing portrait.
Overall I was happy with this final outcome as I felt that by using portraits from multiple angles I was able to show that I’m attempting to present a non conventional way of looking at photography and presenting a new perspective, my distortions were focused in the facial area and all but the scratching images incorporated chance, all of my final images also have a physical texture or appear as if they do. I feel that if someone were to look at my images in a photography gallery surrounded by conventional photographs they would begin to ask whether my images really belonged there and in turn question whether because they are ‘damaged’ they can still be considered photographs. If I had the chance to further develop this investigation I would further explore scratching on film in relation to automatism and possibly explore video and the disruption of that medium or the concept of time presented by light and lens based media as Diane Meyer did while linking it to the surrealist elements of dreams since I feel I didn’t explore that avenue as much as I would’ve liked to.