Brief Word: Resolution

The word of the project is Resolution. My first thoughts? Resolution is what you get at the end of a debate and is the best way to please everyone. When I think of the word resolution I also think of film photography and footage, especially when the film is really old.
Resolution -From Latin resolutio-/resolution, from resolvere, meaning "to loosen or dissolve again," which was the original meaning.

Resolution (audio): In digital audio, bit depth describes the number of bits of information recorded for each sample. Bit depth directly corresponds to the resolution of each sample in a set of digital audio data. 

(Image) Resolution: is an umbrella term that describes the detail an image holds. The term applies to raster digital images, film images, and other types of images. Higher resolution means more image detail.

Resolution (debate): In policy debate, a resolution or topic is a normative statement which the affirmative team affirms and the negative team negates. 

Resolution (music):  Resolution in western tonal music theory is the move of a note or chord from dissonance (an unstable sound) to aconsonance (a more final or stable sounding one). 

Thought Shower

My group is made up of four people, Elekia, Joanna and Karis and I. We got together and started to look at the word Resolution in different ways and thinking about how we could make it into an exhibition piece. I was clear that we wanted to reflect on more than one definition of the word. I thought that we should combine as many different kinds of media format that was efficiently possible.


Resolution - could refer to a problem but that would be to smile and wouldn't require much thought. I think the way how people come to a resolution is interesting. Like when you watch a murder mystery and look at the clues to figure out who the killer is. 


However, we also wanted to look at resolution in relation to things like pixilation, photo quality and sound quality. We thought that looking at different type of photography and film may help us get more ideas since we wanted a range. We talked about how photos the the ability to tell stories with out written words and how the audience should be allowed to make up their own story.


The Website
For this project we have to team up with a computer science student to make a website about the exhibition. We decided that we would do separate pages explaining the different type of medium and an explanation of the project on the home page.

Artist: Dara Birnbaum

One of the first galleries that we went to visit was the South London Galley, where we saw the Dara Birnbaum Exhibit. She had a range of art pieces and many rooms. I found the different ways in which she chose to tell stories interesting,  especially the multi-viewing room setting. I think that the earphones attached to some of the TV's an interesting way to get people involved too.

Artist: David Hinga

Dark room photography of Brighton by the artist David Hinga. I chose to analyse his work because these photos were taken a where taken a while ago however because of the type of film he used and the way he developed they look really old. The look like they've been in an attic of a old house, and found after a fire.

I guess there is a risk in this type of photography. When you get given expired film there's no way of predicting how expired it is. And when you develop it yourself in a dark room there's a risk of ruining the image completely.

1

Artist: Jherin Miller

I came across Jherin Miller while researching ways to exhibit to polaroids. His piece Pixels and Polaroids caught my eye because of how he used two contrasting resolutions. It looks good and portrays resolution well, however I don't know how effective it will be when it comes to storymaking. 

"Pixels and Polaroids is a series of images I’ve created combining pseudo-Polaroid photography and retro 80s era video game graphics. The concept behind Pixels and Polaroids was to blend these two elements into one world where pixelated characters live through the eye of a Polaroid camera. My goal was to combine retro film photography and retro digital graphics into one interesting world, and you get to view this world and it’s inhabitants through these “photographs”." (Jherin Miller)

Inspiration: The Artist

The Artist is a French black and white, silent film which was released in April 2011. I thought about this film in relation to our project because it attempted to create a similar feel in terms looking at different ages in film. Its an old style silent film for a new audience. It baffled many people and was delightfully intriguing.

 

Sibylle Bergemann

Sibylle Bergemann is a photographer with me group member Kia brought to our attention. She mentioned this photographer because of her interesting Polaroid photography.


We talked about how Polaroid these days are not seen as art but a tredy fashionable things to have. I feel like Sibylle Bergemann uses the eire effect that Polaroids give of to explore the human expression and thats something that we should do. 

"The photographs of Berlin-born Sibylle Bergemann are awe-inspiring for one because of the diversity of their subject matter and second for their astonishing insights and sensitivity. Bergemann commands subjects such as fashion, reportage, photographic essays, urban and rural landscapes as well as portraits in an equally self-assured manner. At first known as a fashion photographer, she fast became noted for her photographic essays and her precise observations of hidden contexts." taken from here

Here's some more of her work

Lana Del Rey

The themes of of age and film photo resolution reminded me of the music video of the singer-songwriter Lana Del Rey. I always thought that her image of style was strange, she looks like she half belongs to another era in American history with her vintage hairstyle and clothes. A she directed and edited her own video to her song Video Games.

She used old film clips and footage recoded by her, some footage was even recorded on her webcam. You can see that in parts of the video she uses effects so the footage looks older.

Our Idea

We decided to an exhibition based on photo resolution and partly on narrative resolution too. In total we plan for there to be four elements in our exhibition. The set of our exbit will be a viewing room and a dark room which we will make ourselves. These four parts will be:



1) Hanging photographs which the audience can rearrange to create a narrative. The images are going to be of a relationship between a girl and a boy and their friends at different points in their lives. 

2) The are going to be a 35mm projection of photos we will take of people in vintage and modern clothing sitting together.

3) The are going to be Polaroid's photos of modern day things. This and will also show how the resolution of photos make you question when the photos where taken.

4) The forth element is sound resolution. We plan to have a sound clip pay of the characters speaking to each other about different things. The idea behing this is so that the audience try to link up the conversations with the images the are seeing. 

Slide Film

When we first thought of the slide idea we thought it'd be simple to get equipment since i had a film camera and a lott of expired colour film. But when I went to confirm things with my friend who works at a camera shop he said that we had to use special slide film. He said that the film used for slides was called reversal film. I thought that side film was just chopped negatives.

A reversal film is a type of photographic film that produces a positive image on a transparent base. The film is processed to produce transparencies or diapositives instead of negatives and prints. Reversal film is produced in various sizes, from 35mm roll film to 8x10" sheet film.

Internagatives

35mm slides never were a "negatives". There was a process where negatives could be created from the slides. These were called "internagatives."

1. The camera operator shoots a positive image and the film ends up as a negative.

2. The original negative is printed onto stock that comes out as an interpositive. Often, two interpositives were made, one to be archived and one to continue through the process.

3. The interpositive is color timed (to balance the scenes) into the internegative.4. The internegative makes the positive release print.

Taken from:  http://www.old-photo.com/pages/35mm-reversal-film.htm

So I went on ebay and ordered expired Fuji Provia RXP 400X 35mm slide film. It goes into my 355mm film camera just like normal film. We are taking it to be developed and mounted in London.

First Photo shoot

We planned to do the digital photos for the dark room and the slides on the same day but it was raining so we only did the digital photos. We prepared a range of different costumes for the models and props. We tried to keep many of the poses as ambiguous as possible so they could be interpreted in many ways. Therefore people could come to various resolutions. 

SHOT LIST: 1. Toddlers; 2. Dinner date; 3. Argument - Boy and Girl; 4. Holding Hands; 5. Argument Girl and Girl; 6. Suitcase; 7. Pregnant; 8. Church; 9. Different man; 10. Lads drinking; 11. Girl crying to girl; 12. Intimate Shot; 13. Group meeting; 14. Passed out on the floor; 15. Pregnancy test; 16. 2 girls crying; 17. Cleaning up kids toys ; 18. Driving; 19. Ring on finger ; 20. Ring on chain; 21. Flowers (happy face); 22. Flowers in the bin; 23. Button hole flower; 24. Baby shoe.

Second Photoshoot

Because we didn't get to the some shots at the last shot and we was told that we should do more similar shots with different character to give the audience more of a choice, we had a second digital shoot. We replaced the previous guy Luke, with Yassin. These shots worked well.

Picnic

For our 35mmm we decide on  a communal picnic setting. We were inspired by an oil on canvas painting le déjeuner sur l'herbe 

by Édouard Manet  (first painting below) and Georges Seurat's A Sunday On La Grande Jatte.

The picnic images are interesting because when you don't know the people in images you naturally question their relation to each other and where they are. Also the two men two women in le déjeuner sur l'herbe can be compared with our characters.

Point of View

The four elements of the exhibition present the audience with different piece and clues for them to work together. I think that you should also look at a point of view when it comes to images. It may look looks like the photographer is a participant of the events or an outsider, the observations of these points of view can change how the audience view the photos.


With the Polaroid photos, the characters don't really look dead on at the camera. The photos look like casual mug shots. I think that this look learns towards Sibylle Bergemann effect. The head shots don't reveal anything about their lives and all the audience can do is guess. Also with the way we arrange the photos the audience can guess how the characters are related to eachother.

The 35mm photo have  a more relaxed point of view and the photographer her could possible another participant in the group of friends. However this may also pass on the feeling of intrusion to the the audience because they may feel like they are looking at private photos. 

The digital photos looked like outsider photos, sort of like still shots from a soap opera. The give the audience insight on the private life of the characters but at the same time create more distance than the 35mm films 

Sound Resolution

The sound is a key piece in our exhibition. I've chosen to analyse the album "Shock value II" by the producer Timberland in reference to digital audio resolution. The majority of Timberland's production contain voice manipulation and with this album there is a particular emphasis of distortion in both instrumental and vocal parts of the songs.

We went to the sound recording studio and recorded Karis and Kia speaking. I used the different types of distortion effects on the clips so the audience has to pay closer attention to what they are saying then try to link then to the photos. I also rearranged the clips and then edited all the clips to get and used the pan to add a surround sound effect. The first time I made the clip my group said it was too muffled so I changed it so their voices were a bot more clearer. 

The Slide Show

The department had a old slide projector that they let us borrow for the exhibit. The shop we went to to develop and mount the slides, did have enough mounts. This was probably because not many people ask for slides these days. We managed to get some more slides and put the projector on a timer.

We painted our whole exhibition space black and left a white square so that the slides could be projected and seen clearly. The white square idea proved to be very successful. And we covered the floor in black cloth to help it stand out. I think that this technique was simple yet effective and gave the exhibition a professional look.

We we projected the slides we found that they didn't look as old as we thought they would. The actually came out quite clear how ever the colours were quite vintage. This discovery was a bit disappointing but also quite interesting. We took a risk with expired film, you never know how its going to turn out.

Polaroid

The Dark Room

 I printed out the photos using a instant photo service. 

We decided on 7x5 size with a border and they came out looking great. 

We made a drying line and had a black table with a tray and extra clips to encourage the audience to move thing around. The dark room ended up look looking fully functional.

Exhibition

Our exhibition was the last one of the day. The day, the audience came in and watched the slide show. It took the a while to realise that there was another room due to the black curtains looking like it was part of the background.

Because we did not put up a sign people didn't feel like they could touch the photos before we told them too. However I think that the exhibition time should have been longer so people coud interact more and also we should of had a bigger dark room or a up to 6  people allowed policy because it got over crowded. 

The sound created a good atmosphere. The Polaroids where not looked at much and I think it was because of their position in the room.

1