Homework 8

#1 "Strictly Classroom": Go back once again to our scanography-assignment. How would YOU like to work with a scanner in a classroom? Write a lesson plan for a student group of your choice (K-12).  

Title: My Sides, My Self  

Activity: Students will manipulate their self-portraits made with traditional media by scanning and then changing elements such as color, texture, and manipulating their expression to show another side of themselves using Photoshop.  

Number in Group and Age: 15 - 20 9th grade students

Learning Objective: Through altering their self-portraits in Photoshop to convey the opposite mood or emotion from what was originally drawn, students will learn that they can use new media to express their emotional multiplicities while exploring their ability to transform their ever-changing identities through art.

Materials: students' own self-portraits, scanner, computer, Photoshop

Time Allotted: Two 1-hour class periods

Opening Statement:

T: I hope everyone had a nice weekend! After our last class, I began thinking about the many moods and emotions I share with other people throughout the day. I thought of the different ways that my facial expressions convey my emotions to others whether it is through a scrunched up nose, lowering of my eyes, or subtle smile. I love to think of how revealing or telling these gestures are. I also like to think of them as clues to who we are as individuals!

Topic Question:

T: When you’re with your friends, family, or someone unfamiliar, how might your facial expressions change in each different scenario?

S: Well, when I’m with my friends we like to joke around a lot, so I would probably have some kind of smirk on my face about something one of them had said.  But if I was meeting someone for the first time, I tend to be more reserved so I might look down at my feet and wait for whomever I’m with to get the conversation rolling. You know?

S: My family and I have this “thing” with our eyes.  We just have these “looks” that we give each other...it’s an intensity. My eyes change when I’m talking to a friend. I feel like when I’m trying to be understanding, they soften in some way.

S: I have to be really tough with my friends, so I usually look like a punk or someone in a really bad mood.  But when I’m home and making dinner with my grandma, I’m a totally different person. I think I’m softer and it’s almost like the stress goes out of my face and I look more relaxed.  

T: I love the subtleties you’re each describing. How might you depict these? What would you do differently from your first self-portrait that we made last class? In other words, how would you show another side of yourself?

S: My face in my last self-portrait was definitely smirking at the viewer.  I think if I could change it and show another side of myself I would make the eyes slightly looking up (like almost in between up and down).  I would do this to hint at my shyness, but also at my hopefulness that I will one day grow out of it.

S: My last self-portrait now that we’ve been discussing different expressions seems kind of blank.  I think I would want to play with the irises of my eyes and my eyebrows too, because I think those would be ways to show a sense of intensity or purpose.

S: I automatically went for my tougher side in my last self-portrait. I’m happy I get another chance to show how I am with my grandma.  I would want to give her a portrait of me smiling.  She knows me the best and I want her to see that.    

T: What about the background? How can this inform your emotions and facial expressions? Think about whether your surroundings indicate something about who you are?  How do you view your surroundings and would you choose to change the background of your portrait to indicate another side of yourself to the viewer?

S: I would be in a more vacant spot because that’s how I usually feel when I meet someone new.  I feel emptiness because we haven’t filled that space with memories or shared any experiences together.  That’s usually what makes me nervous to talk to them in the first place.  

S: I would want to be at a dining room table or have a meal of some sort in front of me. My family and I always have conversations over dinner and this is when we share our emotions and how each of our days went with each other.

S: I would definitely draw the wallpaper that’s in my kitchen in this one. I would want it to be something only my grandma would know, but it could still be something nice to look at for everyone else who sees it. This way it would have this private element about something that we share together.

Recap:

T: Those are all wonderful insights! We talked about the many different aspects of our faces that lend themselves to expression as well as the backgrounds that we surround ourselves with and how these are clues to who we are and what we are feeling at any given moment.  Whether it is a smirk that reminds us of the funny things our friends have said or the gentleness in our eyes when we’re trying to listen and understand one another.  

Visualization:

T: Today I’m going to have each of you scan your original self-portraits into the computer and you will have two class periods to transform them using Photoshop.  I want you to use this tool to show another side of yourself that differs from your last attempt, but still incorporates elements of that self with this one. Now that you have in mind how you would draw this, think about how you would do this to your scanned self-portrait from last class in Photoshop? What tools might you use?

S: I could easily change a smirk into a blank mouth by selecting the area and moving it around.  The challenge, for me, would be what to do with the eyes.  Maybe I could go on the Internet and find eyes like mine that are slightly looking down and then add them like a collage.  Maybe that would show that it’s a temporary phase I’m going through or something I’m working on.

S: I’m really good at using a tablet.  I have one at home and I would be able to show my classmates or anyone who needs help how to draw with it.  I would probably make selections in the area around my eyebrows using the cloning tool to try and get rid of them for the most part.  Then I would draw in new ones over that.  I would also play with textures in my hair to make it look more realistic!

S: I would definitely play with the textures in the background to look like the wallpaper of my kitchen, where my Grandma and I cook together.  I would also want to change how serious my face looks.

T: How is this medium different from drawing? What things might you have to think about differently?

S: This is different from drawing because it seems to be more forgiving. I can always go back in the history toolbar and erase changes I don’t want.  This makes me think about layers and it makes me want to play with transparency to show this history.

S: I really like the blending tool because I’m not very good at shading yet and I think this will help me to create a more realistic effect. I think I will be able to communicate what I want to show more accurately.  I love making things look real and I think this will let me focus more on the emotions I’m trying to get across rather than worrying about whether or not my shading is perfect.

S: I like the idea of using a machine to wipe away my synthetic exterior.  I think it’s kind of ironic.  I feel powerful in giving commands to a machine, running them through a program, and then seeing the result appear before my eyes on a screen.  It makes me feel a little bit better about revealing so much about myself...maybe a little less vulnerable.  

T: What challenges might you come across when using a computer program like Photoshop and how would you proceed or how would you navigate them?

S: I think I might want to make the collaging of the eyes a little bit more seamless than I had originally thought.  This might look a little more freaky and unusual. I think this might be hard to do, but I can’t wait to try it out!

S: I think I might have to reference images of food for my dining room table idea, but I’m really familiar with Photoshop so I’m not that worried!

S: I’m not really sure how I’m going to soften my eyes or how I will change my mouth to look more gentle, but I think that’s what experimenting is for, right?

Recap:

T: Great! So everyone has a different strategy of how they plan to incorporate their different emotions into their previous self-portrait using Photoshop! We discussed how altering the background, playing with textures, and using some of the different tools/effects can be used to accomplish this.

Transition:

T: Before you begin, remind yourself of all the different subtleties we’ve been discussing and how you will alter your previous self.  Think of it as something you’re building upon and as a piece that has multiple layers to it, much like yourself! Remember that you can let some of that history that we talked about from the previous image to show through.  I will be walking around to make sure that everyone has been able to scan their images in as well as to help troubleshoot any problems you may have.

Closure:

T: Who would like to share their work with the rest of the class and how they feel about its outcome? Describe for us any challenges you faced using this medium as well as your successes!    

#2 “Research”. Explore 2 artists who use video creatively. Take a screenshot to quote their work or embed their video code in your blog and create 2 separate blog entries. Add 1-2 paragraphs description which comments on their process and what you find particularly creative in their approach to video. Be specific. 

Ross McElwee

Born in Charlotte, North Carolina in 1947, McElwee is currently in Cambridge, MA teaching videography to students at Harvard University. He graduated from Brown University in 1971 with  a degree in creative writing. But while at Brown, he also cross-registered in still photography courses at Rhode Island School of Design. Upon his graduation from Brown, McElwee lived for a year in Brittany, France and worked for a while as a wedding photographer's assistant. Upon returning to the US, he attended MIT's new graduate filmmaking program and graduated in 1977 with an M.S.

While I was at Harvard, I took his class in which I made a 25-min-long documentary film. In class, I got to watch his own documentary called Photographic Memory (2011) which was premiered at the 2011 Venice Film Festival. The film was about about a voyage back to the roots of his involvement with the camera. For the film, he uses not only his own pictures and video footages taken with video camera, camcorder and computer but also those of others including his son's cellphone videos.

 The following is the brief summary of its synopsis: The filmmaker finds himself in frequent conflict with his son, who is no longer the delightful child the father loved, but an argumentative young adult who inhabits virtual worlds available through the internet. To the father, the son seems to be addicted to and permanently distracted by those worlds. The filmmaker undertakes a journey to St. Quay-Portrieux in Brittany where he worked for a spring as a wedding photographer’s assistant at age 24 –slightly older than his son is now. He has not been back to St. Quay since that visit, and hopes to gain some perspective on what his own life was like when he was his son’s age. He also hopes to track down his former employer, a fascinating Frenchman named Maurice, and Maud, a woman with whom he was romantically involved during that spring 38 years ago. Photographic Memory is a meditation on the passing of time, the praxis of photography and film, digital versus analog, and the fractured love of a father for his son.

Yeondoo Jung

Born in Jinju, Korea in 1969, Jung still lives and works in Seoul, Korea. One of the most prominent artists working in Korea today, Jung graduated College of Fine Arts, Seoul National University in 1994 with BFA in sculpture. In 1995, he received his Diploma in Sculpture from Central Saint Martine College of Art, London Institute. Then, he attended Goldsmiths College where he got his MFA  in 1997. 

Jung refers to himself as an "visual artist" instead of a photographer or a filmmaker. The artist has garnered global attention for his artworks in the fields of photography, painting, sculpture, film and installation art that break down the barrier between reality and fantasy. Jung is the youngest person ever to be named the Artist of the Year by the National Museum of Contemporary Art Korea and the second Korean artist, following Baek Nam-joon, to have his media work be screened and collected by the Museum of Modern Art New York.

I mentioned him in Homework 1 in which I had to introduce 2 artists who uses photography creatively. In fact, I have seen his film called Documentary Nostalgia (2008). The film was taken at the exhibition hall of National Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea On May 2007. Documentary Nostalgia is similar to McElwee's Photographic Memory in a way that both films are about the passing of time and memories of filmmakers.

#3 “Practice”. First: Find a short video online (on youtube or vimeo, for example) that you find appealing or suitable to redo, remix, remake, or further develop. Put a link to that video on your blog or embed its code in a blog entry. Then: Create your video-response by redoing, remixing, re-interpreting, or further developing that found (template) video. Bring the outcome to our next class so we can all share the rich responses you came up with. In general: If you have difficulties along the way, please contact me or bring your project to our next class so we can work out the difficulties. But also: If you haven't worked with video or video-editing before, maybe you want to rethink your response-idea; simplify it; look for a process process that allows you to proceed. As we've said in class: The creative use of technology is not a matter of command over a particular piece of software; just like the use of language doesn't depend on one specific piece of vocabulary; instead, it's based on the ability to circumscribe and use the many resources that surround us intelligently, creatively, fluidly.

I think I need little more time to do this........but I want to do something that has to do with time and space. And, thinking about this assignment, I thought about a music video of my friend Paul who is now a singer in Korea. Here is the link to the video: "Hello My Ex" (2011). 

So, I sent a message on Facebook to Paul and he told me there is a making film of Paul Baek's "Hello My Ex" (2011) on YouTube that I can refer to if I were to remake his MV. Apparently, it need a lot of time and efforts before filming. So, I will make a shorter version of his! :)