Mixed Media
Individualized Approach
Mixed Media
91.4 cm x 61.0 cm
April 2017
91.4 cm x 61.0 cm
April 2017
Exhibition Text
Individualized Approach is a statement piece, attempting to condemn the system through which college students are rounded up. The lack of individuality and increase in auto-send junk mail demonstrates just how significant a single person is to a large system. I kept the college mail sent to me for the past three months and only about half of it is shown here.
Individualized Approach is a statement piece, attempting to condemn the system through which college students are rounded up. The lack of individuality and increase in auto-send junk mail demonstrates just how significant a single person is to a large system. I kept the college mail sent to me for the past three months and only about half of it is shown here.
Planning
Inspiration
My mixed media project is inspired by the work of Stuart Haygarth, especially his work on Sharps Project (2003-2006). The symbolic meaning of presenting a significant amount of the same object caught my attention. I thought the overwhelming number of things continuing off in all directions made it seem as if it were a field of endless objects that we, as people, see all the time. The fact that the objects were so ordinary is what I liked the most and was most inspired by. When a person sees things treated with care, they begin to think about the metaphor associated with them or what the arrangement means. I think people are no longer concerned with the specific details of the objects at hand, but the fact that there are so many of them and it says something about a culture or large group as a whole. It is also inspired by Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait (2006-Present), by Chris Jordan. his visual representation of statistics is what I am trying to attempt with the college mail I have collected. One especially inspiring piece in the series is Three Second Meditation (2011), where 9,960 mail order catalogs are depicted to show the "the average number of pieces of junk mail that are printed, shipped, delivered, and disposed of in the US every three seconds," and Toothpicks (2008), which "depicts one hundred million toothpicks, equal to the number of trees cut in the U.S. yearly to make the paper for junk mail." These two pieces relate directly to the environmental ramifications of sending junk mail and demonstrate the magnitude of how much is sent. From these pieces a large number of college mail can be expected to be sent out. |
Haygarth, Stuart. "Works." Stuart Haygarth. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2017. <http://www.stuarthaygarth.com/works/#/sharpsproject2003-6/>.
“Chris Jordan - Running the Numbers.” Chris Jordan Photography, www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn/#about. Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.
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Critical Investigation
Stuart Haygarth explains his work best: "My work revolves around everyday objects, often collected in large quantities, categorized and presented in such a way that they are given new meaning. It is about banal and overlooked objects gaining new significance." Haygarth's installations of collected, everyday materials elevates these simple things to objects of value or beauty. More or less, he is calling attention much larger themes such as time, loss, abandonment, and modernity, associated with commonplace objects such as toys or glasses. In Sharps Project, Haygarth worked with TSA to collect confiscated hand luggage items at the airport to emphasize the key issue in contemporary society of terrorism and security. Chris Jordan's work is primarily created through digital manipulation of many pictures. His series, Running the Numbers, is an attempt to make change in the world by depicting statistics with metaphorically significant objects, such as using prison uniforms to demonstrate the number of people incarcerated in the United States in 2005 (2.3 million people = 2.3 million uniforms). He said he is hoping to "raise some questions about the roles and responsibilities we each play as individuals." By visualizing the statistics a person may be more inclined to change their behavior and make a change as an individual. |
“Chris Jordan - Running the Numbers.” Chris Jordan Photography, www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn/#about. Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.
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Planning Sketches
This idea came about with the intention of using the letters in an installation, preferably in a school. Where the overwhelming amount of letters has significance in place.
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This was the idea the lead me to Haygarth. The very clean layout of all the letters on a solid background. However, unlike Haygarth, the background is not showing through.
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This idea came about while looking at Chris Jordan's work on Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait (2006-Present). I had this idea to create an image with the letters to be symbolic of what I am trying to communicate. I attempted to make a bridge because my idea at this point was to show how the world we live in in linked through communication, both new and old.
Experimentation
Click on the images below to read details.
Click on the images below to read details.
At this point in my work I was playing around with different arrangements to find the best layout for photographing. This idea wasn't working because I realized the shadows from the letters would mess up the photo, and I also have way too many letters to photograph from above. I would be unable to photograph from a height like that.
Process
Click on the images below to read details.
Steps:
- Collect college mail
- Separate the main components of the mail
- Envelope
- Return Envelope/Postcard
- Scan documents into the computer using a document scanner
- Save them to a flash drive as a jpeg file
- Open a new document in Photoshop (24 in x 36 in and 200 pixels/inch)
- Open a couple of documents and begin resizing and positioning them
- Once step 6 is complete, merge all the layers and adjust the brightness and contrast
- Save final product
Evaluation
Early Planning Critique (22 February 2017):
My idea was slightly under-developed, but only to the extent the extent that I couldn't coherently put my idea in words. This just means that I can explain what I'm trying to get at very well. I'm going to use all of the college mail that I have collected in the past year to express the idea that individualism has been diminished and replaced by mass line. I am leaning toward displaying this concept through an organized assemblage. Like Stuart Haygarth, I'm going to carefully lay out all of the letters in some aesthetically pleasing arrangement and photograph them. In addition to this, I am drawing some inspiration from the American culture where everything is based on quantity over quality and efficiency over effectiveness. These things together will get my desired effect on the viewer. Some things I need to think about include the location I plan to assemble my piece, and when I plan to do it.
The main elements of art that will be focused on are form and space. Ideally, they will come together to create points of emphasis and movement on my piece. I want the viewer to look at every letter independently and all of them together. The repetition will hopefully mean as much to the viewer as it does to me, mostly because it is the most important principle in communicating my idea.
I think this critique was generally helpful in that it gave me new ideas on how to show my work. Originally, I wanted to display my letters in a locker for the symbolism of being in a school, but I abandoned that idea because it abandons my inspiration and trades it into a messy pile. The change to neatly displaying them on a wall or floor reinforces that my inspiration was Stuart Haygarth.
Midway Critique with Catherine from UW Milwaukee (March 2017)
Notes:
Final Critique at UW Milwaukee (Exam 25%)
The critique with Catherine at UWM went very well. I feel as if the feedback I received was beneficial. However, I was conflicted by what she told me concerning the use of Photoshop. She said I should put all the mail I received on the computer so there would not be a problem with shadows on my final piece. At the final critique she told me that I should have just photographed the enormous pile of mail to show the magnitude. I would say that I am more impressed with the collage I actually created because it ensures that the viewer will see every letter I had, besides the few that I could not properly fit.
The experience of critiquing another peers work was interesting. I liked how it turned into a debate where one peer gave possible improvements or compliments and the other defended their work. I feel a peers' ability to defend their work really demonstrates the amount of effort and care they put into it.
My idea was slightly under-developed, but only to the extent the extent that I couldn't coherently put my idea in words. This just means that I can explain what I'm trying to get at very well. I'm going to use all of the college mail that I have collected in the past year to express the idea that individualism has been diminished and replaced by mass line. I am leaning toward displaying this concept through an organized assemblage. Like Stuart Haygarth, I'm going to carefully lay out all of the letters in some aesthetically pleasing arrangement and photograph them. In addition to this, I am drawing some inspiration from the American culture where everything is based on quantity over quality and efficiency over effectiveness. These things together will get my desired effect on the viewer. Some things I need to think about include the location I plan to assemble my piece, and when I plan to do it.
The main elements of art that will be focused on are form and space. Ideally, they will come together to create points of emphasis and movement on my piece. I want the viewer to look at every letter independently and all of them together. The repetition will hopefully mean as much to the viewer as it does to me, mostly because it is the most important principle in communicating my idea.
I think this critique was generally helpful in that it gave me new ideas on how to show my work. Originally, I wanted to display my letters in a locker for the symbolism of being in a school, but I abandoned that idea because it abandons my inspiration and trades it into a messy pile. The change to neatly displaying them on a wall or floor reinforces that my inspiration was Stuart Haygarth.
Midway Critique with Catherine from UW Milwaukee (March 2017)
Notes:
- use digital manipulation to construct final piece
- have multiple pieces
- each one with a new theme or subject
- look at the work of Chris Jordan on Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait
- draw inspiration from the work
Final Critique at UW Milwaukee (Exam 25%)
The critique with Catherine at UWM went very well. I feel as if the feedback I received was beneficial. However, I was conflicted by what she told me concerning the use of Photoshop. She said I should put all the mail I received on the computer so there would not be a problem with shadows on my final piece. At the final critique she told me that I should have just photographed the enormous pile of mail to show the magnitude. I would say that I am more impressed with the collage I actually created because it ensures that the viewer will see every letter I had, besides the few that I could not properly fit.
The experience of critiquing another peers work was interesting. I liked how it turned into a debate where one peer gave possible improvements or compliments and the other defended their work. I feel a peers' ability to defend their work really demonstrates the amount of effort and care they put into it.
Evaluation of Own Work:
In terms of message communicated and reflecting inspiration, my mixed media piece turned out very well. Inspiration from both Stuart Haygarth and Chris Jordan appears to be present in the piece. The organization and magnitude of components in the piece are similar to that of both artistic inspirations. Both artists used small, everyday objects in large quantities to communicate their messages. |
Reflection
Overall, I think my piece turned out very well. I am completely satisfied with the message I communicated in the piece and with its simplicity. I also am not disappointed in the the craftsmanship I demonstrated. The message I wanted to communicate with the viewer was that the world is changing and individualism in turn is fading. I think this was very well communicated by showing all of the auto-send college mail I received over the past few months.
The craftsmanship demonstrated through the use of Adobe Photoshop CS6 is above average in my opinion. I put a lot of work into cropping every letter precisely, resizing, and placing neatly next to previously laid letters. Seldom can a hole in the pattern be found. One problem that I think could be improved however, is the consistency in the size of the letters. It is not very obvious, but the letters slowly get larger as the bottom of the piece is approached. This was human error; I thought they looked very similar in size when placing them, but it may have been the skew from the angle of the screen.
The craftsmanship demonstrated through the use of Adobe Photoshop CS6 is above average in my opinion. I put a lot of work into cropping every letter precisely, resizing, and placing neatly next to previously laid letters. Seldom can a hole in the pattern be found. One problem that I think could be improved however, is the consistency in the size of the letters. It is not very obvious, but the letters slowly get larger as the bottom of the piece is approached. This was human error; I thought they looked very similar in size when placing them, but it may have been the skew from the angle of the screen.
ACT Responses
Clearly explain how you are able to identify the cause-effect relationships between your inspiration and its effect upon your artwork:
My inspirations directly influenced the issue I was confronting with this piece. I noticed that each artist approached big issues through displaying them in terms of large quantities.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors of the websites I used to research held the work of my inspirations in high regard. They seemed to believe that the artists were doing work to change society.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered that the American population is very unaware of important issues in their society. It is sad to think that an artist has to visually present statistics in order to inform people.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my research was to find an issue that is worth demonstrating visually that I care about, or affects me directly.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While researching I made the inference that all of the statistics are accurate and relevant. I'm not actually sure if they are true, or just made up to get people to move toward a better future.
My inspirations directly influenced the issue I was confronting with this piece. I noticed that each artist approached big issues through displaying them in terms of large quantities.
What is the overall approach (pov) the author (from research) has regarding the topic of your inspiration?
The authors of the websites I used to research held the work of my inspirations in high regard. They seemed to believe that the artists were doing work to change society.
What kind of generalizations and conclusions have you discovered about people, ideas, cultures, etc. while you researched your inspiration?
I discovered that the American population is very unaware of important issues in their society. It is sad to think that an artist has to visually present statistics in order to inform people.
What was the central idea or theme around your inspirational research?
The central idea around my research was to find an issue that is worth demonstrating visually that I care about, or affects me directly.
What kind of inferences did you make while reading your research?
While researching I made the inference that all of the statistics are accurate and relevant. I'm not actually sure if they are true, or just made up to get people to move toward a better future.
Bibliography
Haygarth, Stuart. "Works." Stuart Haygarth. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 Feb. 2017. <http://www.stuarthaygarth.com/works/#/sharpsproject2003-6/>.
Thompson, Henrietta. “The playful world of Stuart Haygarth-Telegraph.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 13 Feb. 2014, www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/design/24588/the-playful-world-of-stuart-haygarth.html. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
“Chris Jordan - Running the Numbers.” Chris Jordan Photography, www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn/#about. Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.
Thompson, Henrietta. “The playful world of Stuart Haygarth-Telegraph.” The Telegraph, Telegraph Media Group, 13 Feb. 2014, www.telegraph.co.uk/luxury/design/24588/the-playful-world-of-stuart-haygarth.html. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
“Chris Jordan - Running the Numbers.” Chris Jordan Photography, www.chrisjordan.com/gallery/rtn/#about. Accessed 20 Mar. 2017.