I took some photos today, of zoomed in images of nature that I took on recent trips, I don’t know why, just exploring how strange it looks from the outside seeing a miniature tree on a screen in a domestic setting (speaks to our strange times now, nature through screens, and the souvenir - the reduction in size increasing in narrative significance like Stewart expressed) when I set up my phone standing up on my pillow, it had a strange visual kind of like in 2001 space odyssey, that plinth has been on my mind and has been a reference point ever since my high school art teacher showed that to me years ago. I haven’t actually seen the film, but I really ought to. I watched a video on it, and it seems the blurred line between tech and human/emotion is explored in some way, and I really think right now in my studio practice or before even, I’ve been thinking about the nature, the human, AND the digital/technology. Everything is as important as the other on this earth, technology being brought about by humans, but made from nature into something ‘unnatural’ and the belief that AI or technology might gain emotions proves a strange full circle. That’s why artificial plants and landscapes are so strange. Because what are they? Where do they lie ... they are not natural but they are not unnatural... but they are beautiful.. again, I’m thinking about if it’s possible to feel a contemporary sublime.. it seems that in Jon roffmans images on the gallery website it said something about the sublime.. the abrupt way it was contrasted, is so strange and wrong yet pleasing to look at still. I don’t know what I’m trying to make right now, but sometimes you just have to DO, to play around with your (digital) materials, and the meaning will (naturally) grow as you work. it is scary, like jumping out of a plane with minimal equipment or experience, having the near impossible objective of gathering as much stuff as possible on your journey down, (or avoiding obstacles like Alice down the tunnel) but you know you will land somehow somewhere and hopefully you’ll be alive and kicking and have something to show for your journey (souvenir)
Right now, I know I want to do these things in this possible digital Thing (might not be able to do everything):
-say something about the nature/culture dilemma, and viewing through the digital
-create a somewhat realistic yet abstract landscape that you feel you can be in
-scale objects that wouldn’t normally be that size e.g big objects and small people
-maybe even reference a film somehow, perhaps imagery manipulated or collaged (e.g as background or onto three dimensional model)
with the three dimensional models I’m going to have to make my own. (because the creative cloud still doesn’t cover adobe stock, which has tons of great three dimensional models like furniture or candy bars) which means they’re either gonna be normal geometric shapes for now or really randomly doodled shapes. Which is fine, but I don’t want it to seem like just random assortment of objects like you typically see in some digital works. I want them to have meaning, or narrative to them, I want them to be orchestrated, set out to be still with purpose. (I think I’m gonna learn how to use blender which is a free tool for three dimensional models) and if they’re going to be geometric objects (which throws back to when I did that little experiment with painting wood blocks and photographing them, and in foundation when I wrote and painted and resined on this block) I’m going to have to understand better what the plinth means in 2001 space odyssey. I think that’s quite key, I always think about that when I see a rectangular strange object.. maybe do another shape and colour but have the same meaning.. I want it to be ominous and peculiar like a strange dream full of symbols you want to decode but cannot...
...something our human brains cannot even Begin to fathom because it’s ahead, way ahead of our time. And I’ve had a moment like that.. I can’t even explain it but.. once a lot of years ago I had a strange moment where it felt like an epiphany, and I felt that rush when an open tunnel goes from your head, but when I try to reach through.. there was nothing there. Instead I had this visual in my mind of this shape, this somehow shapeless shape, maybe it was a square or a perfect circle, but I had the sense that there was something more in the edge. And I couldn’t reach it, and in my mind and now that I think about it now, maybe it’s a manifestation of never being able to turn over that edge, like I KNOW something revolutionary is on the other side, but I can’t explain this moment because I have no idea what I experienced. That was the moment I understood there are somethings that, no matter how hard you try with your human mind, some things are simply out of reach for our brain capacity. And that blows my mind. that there are some things you can’t even think of. Fathom. You can’t explain it because it isn’t there in the first place. Anyway, it was really strange because there was no lead up to this moment and All I remember now is that faint concept of the black shape and its edge ... (much like the odyssey plinth!) it’s so impossibly strange.
I said ‘ahead, way ahead’ and that reminds me of a film I watched from a while back called The Way Way Back. and it’s just a normal comedy/drama film about an awkward teen coming to terms with his family, but he gets work at this water park, and I don’t know what I love this film so much but, there are some great nuances and set up in this film that gives a beauty to it, and with the heartwarming factor of the protagonist finding somewhere he belongs. It also sets that strange timeline of a teenage summer, where you feel like you should be doing something productive but everyday is a lazy summer day. and the time is so long but so short. the air warm. I think I have some film stills from this film somewhere...
anyway, here's the really quick experiments with photographs I took that I did on adobe dimensions (and photoshop) just to try out the application... I am enjoying it a lot so far, though I wish I had access to adobe stock which has so many materials and models to render from. But this is good because now I have to create my own shapes, and I think I'm going to try to learn Blender for that...
I love how I feel like I'm building a sculpture, but not physically in real life. without the constraints of physical making, I have so much freedom! and to place these models onto whatever I want! some of the photographs I took today are on my next post. below are some screenshots from tutorials on film, aftereffects, writing for short film etc./process from the image above...
in a tutorial I was watching about using the programme blender he said that you're probably overwhelmed by the world of 3D right now, and provided this image.. and its true.. but he also said
you don’t need to know everything. The 80/20 rule, usually only need to know 20% of programme to do 80%, which is quite comforting. I can't wait to see what sort of thing I can create with new skills...
