The final project gives you a great deal of flexibility in exploring an idea in relationship to all of the technical processes that you have encountered this semester. You will demonstrate technical proficiency in Photoshop while striving to create images of substance and meaning.
I realize that this may be a daunting process. Here are some choices to get you started:
- Continued development of an idea from a previous project
- Digital Subversion. This topic asks you to consider the role of subversion in the artmaking process. Examples of digital subversion could include: subverting corporate logos, subverting a media advertisement, and creating your own "advertisement" to promote your own ideology. Think about how you would thoughtfully affect another person's way of thinking or promote a specific point of view. Consider Adbusters, Robin Lasser (Click on "Public Art"), and the Guerilla Girls in relation to the idea of subversion.
- Digital Conspiracy. This option asks you to apply your photographic/illusionary skills to deliciously deceitful ends - in other words, to tell a deliberate lie. In this case, though, it should be both believable and convincing based on your documentation. The term "documentation" is open, but it should allow the viewer to "suspend their disbelief." The artists Danny Goodwin, Dino Ignacio, and David Wilson would be good influences.
- Light is Like Water. If you choose this option, you should read the short story Light is Like Water by Gabriel García Márquez. Use this story as a departure point for new and exciting imagery. The origin of these images should somehow trace back to the story, but you may consider the story on any level to inspire or direct your digital imagemaking. I am not looking for mere illustrations; your images and the original story should both stand on their own. In the words of Edward Weston, who undertook a series of photographs to complement Walt Whitman's poems, you are "undertaking the task of rendering visual the underlying themes, the objective realities" that make up Márquez's vision in the short narrative. Use this as a starting place to develop your own ideas and your own response. Consider this response by Jeff Wall to Ralph Ellison's novel The Invisible Man.
- Your proposal. Make it thorough and you're off to the races.
Your images should contain at least one photographic element, but may additionally include hand-drawn, text, or scanned objects. You should have a 4-5 final images in your series, depending on the complexity of your manipulations in Photoshop. Your images should explore one theme, idea, or topic. Consider the impact of scale and possibly printing larger. Final images should be window matted.
This is a significant chunk of your final grade in the course, so I encourage you to get started as early as possible. I will expect to see steady progress and working images during open lab time.
Your projects are due by the beginning of class on Monday, May 12th for Critique. Any other project revisions or extra credit is also due at this time.