#rotationwork

The article in Art Monthly was really interesting and explored the ideas and symbolism of the Human Form and how the human hand defines us from different species. It opens that idea of what the hand means to us, the humans and what happens we when take it out of context and compare it to other species and primates. The article talks about how social media and various aspects of life and created this expectation of the human hand how we’ve developed Hand Signs as a form of communication which can instead be used as a form of art. We take the human hand it’s capabilities for granted and interesting to use it in other forms as a part of art.

I’ve enjoyed various parts of this rotation, especially the image hack and dark room aspects of it. What I love about Fine Art is the diverse different forms and mediums you can pick within the subject. I’ve narrowed my choices down to Fine Art, Visual Communication and Fashion & Textiles.

Yesterday I learnt to use the darkroom for the first time. We created photograms in the dark room. It was really interesting and found it very fun seeing the different results we could create with different objects. I enjoyed experimenting and seeing the outcomes I could create. We placed various different objects made on top of light sensitive paper before subjecting it to short bursts of light. Different objects had different levels of transparency so they all reacted differently with light. I also experimented with my iphone torch and created different shadows of the objects. I also adjusted the contrast on the machine to create bolder shapes and objects.

After we finished the image hack we printed the hacked image onto acetate and weaved it into an old postcard. It was really enjoyable and I liked the final outcome! It took a while to complete but the outcome was really interesting. I wish that I had taken a bit longer to cut out the strips accurately so the gaps would be smaller and it would look better.

Ed Atkins creates digital pieces of art which explore the idea that technology can one day replace human activity. Similar to the work that we’ve created it works on the idea of ‘Almost’, Technology ‘almost’ taking on the role of humans and that software, despite everyone’s blind eye to using it everyday subconsiously that it’s still vulnerable to hacks, glitches and distortions. 

My completed image hack after being hacked through three different softwares. I started the hack using TextEdit and deleting parts of the code. I then opened the photo into Photoshop and copied parts of the hack around the image. I opened the photo in Audacity and distorted the sound file before converting it back into the image. I think the final outcome came out interesting and I really enjoyed the process.

I then imported one of my hacked images into Audacity and converted it into a sound file. I then continued to hack the image by distorting the sound using effects such as echo, adjusting the wavelength and inverting. It was interesting to see how distorting the sound effects the image. The sounds it creates are very weird and just sounds like static but it’s interesting to learn that images can be converted into sound files!

Today we learnt about Image hacking and how to create a glitch within a photo. A glitch is a malfunction or snag within the software or computer. This creates a very distorted effect on the software or image. The glitch itself visually emphasizes ‘Almost’, the idea of machine and software ‘almost’ imitating life, similar to what Ed Atkins work looks at. We learnt how to open our image into ‘TextEdit’ and hack away at the code to create some interesting results with various levels of glitches. We also used Photoshop to duplicate parts of the image and to spread the glitch around the image.