Responces and Experiments

This post will show the responses I do from my photographs and primary sources I collected from around Picadilly Circus and Balham. I will be working from photographs as well as collectibles I gather from these places.

The images below show my experimentation of changing the atmosphere of a place by simply changing the light around it. The first three images show an attempt of making the photograph seem as if it was taken at different times of the day. In the first photo, you can see the the sky is clear blue and the other two they look as of if the skybox was filled with gray clouds. When you compare the two, look on the inside of the building. The atmosphere changes completely as well as the mood just from changing the brightness of the background.

The purpose of this experiment was to explore the idea if changing the viewers experience of an image from just changing the light. The experiment was not successful because I cannot expand from this and it wouldn't help me in future progress.

The second experiment I did on photoshop was another light experiment through changing the brightness of the image. This photograph was taken at the Balham tube station. It shows how changing the brightness down makes it feel like a different time of the day.

The image below shows the original. Even from this image , you can see that the inside of the tube station feels very different from the outside. You wouldn't expect it to be that bright or you would at least expect to be brighter inside as well. This image is actually a second where you're about to go out of the tube station. Everything around you goes dark and the outside turns very bright as your eyes try to adjust to the surrounding. The purpose of experiment was to see if a photograph can capture the same experience you get through your own eyes. I was able to capture this experience and then experiment from it meaning the experiment was successful.

I think that this experiment is a combination of the artists 'Whistler' as well as 'MC Escher'. The experiment doesn't link directly with the meaning of their works but the techniques they used. Whistler would use light and atmosphere to his advantage and use it to create a distorted image. I also used the light, but also just as Escher uses impossible building to cause confusion, I changed the brightness of light to change the viewers point of view of the image. As you look from image to image, you believe it's different time of the day , but  at the same time you cannot tell which image is the original.

I can use this experiment to create 3D installations that will link to Whistler and Escher and also use other types of media such as videos, paints or chalk.  

The photograph and experiment below link with two of my artists 'Whistler' and 'Manet'. The photograph was taken in the way Whistler would paint his work. It is distorted which makes the viewer less aware of the objects in the photograph. I wanted the viewer to focus around the shape and light which is the same feature Whistler looked at when painting his work.

The experiment on the other hand links with Eduard Manet. As I mentioned before hand, I am more interested in his techniques rather than meaning in his work. This response was created using chalk. Chalk was ideal because it was shaped like a brick. Manet painted his scenes in a very 3D way where you can look very deep into the painting. In order to do that, he used thick blocks of color that would be pointed into the centre of the painting creating a 3D feel. I used chalk to create this very effect and drew with thick strokes. What this did, was allowed me to quickly capture 3D-ness in the response. As you look at it, you can look deep into it and it feels as if you're actually standing in this huge corridor.

As well as Manet, this is also a response to Whistler. I didn't try to add much detail in this drawing and I also tried to capture the light from the photograph. I used thick coats of white chalk in the corners and then focused the light towards the centre of the image. This has also influenced the 3D-ness of this painting and it almost feels as if you were running through this corridor and everything around you got distorted. 

I believe this experiment was successful and I will carry on creating more of these in later stages using chalk as well as paints, pencils and drawing these in different sizes such as A2, or A5. 

One day when I came back from college, I took blurred photos from outside of the windows in my house. I took them by looking through the glass and at the time, the glass was very wet and it made everything you see look distorted and it reminded me of some of 'Whispers' work and I decided to use those images to create responses. These responses will not only be flat drawings, but I believe I can take these images to create 3D installations by taking the image apart and putting it into sections one by one creating a 3D effect when looking into it. Whistler focused on the idea of shape and color which can be fully explored using installations by adding and taking away from what is already present which also links to another artist 'M.C. Escher who was pulled into the idea of making something look impossible just like a puzzle which doesn't have the right pieces, but yet is still the whole thing.  I also know that Whistler would simplify his paintings and describe them as 'Harmonic' which was why he made them look so mysterious. I want to apply these ideas when creating my responses.  

As a response to Whistler and Bruce Nauman, I decided to do a series of small installations. It was simply an outline of a city and some trees and I placed a torch around this small installation looking at how it would affect it when placing the light from different sides. All the photos were taken in dark in order to focus on the light itself and nothing else.

In the image below, I used the blue carpet of my room to create a watery effect. As you look down at the image, it feels as if you're standing far away from it which means it created a 3D effect. Nauman was an artist who wanted people to move around his neon installations. The whole purpose of his work was to force people to move around in order to explore it's full content and this was achieved with the quality of light. If I moved the torch from it's original place, it made it seem as if you were standing kilometres away from the light source even though it was moved a few inches. 

The image below shows an experiment of putting the torch behind the installation. I used a metal sheet as the background and since it's metal, it was scratched all over and the light made it seems as if those scratches were stars. I found this interesting because when I moved the camera angle, the whole image looked way different. The quality of light changed significally and it turned from dim blue to bright white. It might have been that the metal in the background had an effect on the light which would change the brightness if you looked from another angle.

This is the same image and the only difference here is the position of the camera. The whole perspective has changed and this is just about 15 degrees to the right. This links to Bruce Nauman as he wanted people to experience something else each time they moved around his installation. In these images, you can experience different qualities of light just from moving around it.

Whistler was very interested in the quality of light and not so much in what was in the image. Below, I took a very distorted photo of my installation while having the torch very far away leaving only a bit of light. When you look back at Whistler's work, you can clearly see the light resemblance between his work and the image below. When you do not see anything except the light in the image, you start to take a much bigger interest in the light itself than anything else. It goes into Whistler's idea of 'harmony' in the image

I have researched artists who might do such experiments with paper and I found an interesting sculptor who works with paper and light called Nicholas Wright. The mood he sets in his work is also very similar to Whistler; however instead of paintings, he creates a sculpture that he build around a lamp and when lit up, the whole scene comes to life. What I found very interesting about that is that you can use different color or brightness of light to set different moods for the same sculpture. This is something I want to carry through and I will be creating more responses to Nicholas Wright as I progress.

I created a small light box which I filled with different color filters and created various small responses that I linked to other artists such as Bruce Nauman and Dan Flavin. Both of these artists used different color lights to pull you into various moods created by different colors. I even created a small video as a response to Dan Flavin showing off the variations in color in this set.