Double Exposure

Me and the other ME more questions on identity 

This blog entry showcases another ADP [Applied Digital Photography] assignment given to the 2nd years sometime in September. The images and blurbs are viewable on a Picasa Web Album_ click on 'buka lapha' to take you there...

buka lapha

screenshot off my hard drive

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Outline

The theme of this assignment was about revealing another side of ones ‘identity’ that is normally not ‘exposed’ to others. The students were asked to juxtapose (make a comparison, put side by side) what they show outwardly (external, exterior appearance, what people see, clothed self) as opposed to that which is hidden or private (internalized, and in a sense ‘unclothed’).

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Double Exposure

Double Exposure [DE] in Photography is a technique in which a piece of film is exposed twice, to two different images. The resulting photographic image shows the second image superimposed over the first. This technique can be used to create an artistic visual effect by creating ghostly images or by adding people/objects to a scene that were not previously there. 

For this assignment, the term, DE, literally means_ to expose oneself twice or expose two personalities by:

• juxtaposing onesself clothed (concealed) contrasted by ‘unclothed’ (naked/revealed) in one environment.
•  examining tensions and dialogues (see the suggestions listed below) between what one reveals (public) and what one conceals (private). 
•  showing how ones outward appearance can be ambivalent (see glossary for definition).

Body Art as Text

Additionally the students were asked to adorn or scar your ‘unclothed’ self with ‘body art’ of your choice with the intention to tell a story about oneself. The characteristics, mode and placement of the body art becomes a 'text' and further adds a conceptual element to the image. These 'texts' must be sourced from the student's own photographs (eg photographs of textures, designs, patterns, shapes etc) and converted into tattoos, scars or body modifications utilizing Photoshop’s blending modes, filters and masking capabilities.  For example: lines on a body, created by photographing tiles on a floor may imitate stretch marks which indicate a pregnancy etc.

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 being clothed vs being unclothed 

• Being physically clothed defines many things, such as:

·       The way you dress and style your outward appearance reveals part of your culture and identity

·       Keeps you warm, secure and protected

·       Hides your ‘unclothed’ body: body defects, skin or marks

·       Act of concealing

·       Act of secretness

·       Artificial

·       Formal

·       Adorned

·       Social constraints

·       Public

·       Be someone else

·       Oppressed

·       safe

• Being unclothed defines many things, such as:

·       Makes you powerful or vulnerable or both

·       Exposes nakedness: without covering/protection, easily harmed

·       Is revealing

·       Shows your skin: natural covering

·       Informal

·       Insecurities / Emotions

·       Private

·       Freedom

·       Unsafe

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osmosisBLOG posts on ARTISTs and interrogation of “identity"

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1. http://osmosisliza.blogspot.com/2011/04/first-uk-exhibition-of-contemporary-sa.html
2. http://osmosisliza.blogspot.com/2011/07/lolo-veleko.html
3. http://osmosisliza.blogspot.com/2011/07/ernest-cole-unalterable-blackness.html
4. http://osmosisliza.blogspot.com/2010/12/asxinterview-gil-blank-with-thomas-ruff.html
5. http://www.americansuburbx.com/2009/03/interview-interview-with-artist-cindy.html
6. http://osmosisliza.blogspot.com/2010/10/adp2-self-portraitexposing-another.html
7. http://osmosisliza.blogspot.com/2010/08/self-portraitsfrida-khalo.html
8. http://osmosisliza.blogspot.com/2010/10/photo-wisdom-part-3.html

 

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Glossary:

SYMBOLISM: a shape or sign used to represent something à meaningful, significant or representative

MONTAGE: the process or technique of selecting, editing, and piecing together separate sections of film to form a continuous whole.

JUXTAPOSE:  place or deal with close together for contrasting effect

AMBIVALENT: to have mixed feelings or contradictory ideas about something or someone.

BODY ART: the most common forms of body art are tattoos, body piercings, scarification, branding, sculpting (corsets etc), body painting.

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Buzzing off

goodbye Buzz hello Google + 

 

I opened my Gmail this morning to find in yellow highlighted text an announcement by Google that Buzz is being discontinued (like Google Wave) but you will have access to your 'stuffs' through Google Takeout!

All the more reason to publish your photographs on Google +

 Paul Strand: " I've always wanted to be aware of what's going on around me, and I've wanted to use photography as an instrument of research into and reporting on the life of my own time". http://www.photoquotes.com/showquotes.aspx?id=112&name=Strand,Paul#422

What is Google Takeaway?

Google Operating System [GOS] blogs on Google's unofficial news and gives tips. GOS reports that " Google wants to differentiate from Facebook by offering a lot of ways to export your data. Google Takeout is a feature that's included in Google+, but it's also available as a standalone service. You can use it to export your contacts, Google Buzz messages, Picasa Web photos and Profile data with one click."

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Through the Peephole

"Looking into the peephole to a place where I was born..."

ADP2_assignment 1 

 

Here is a small blurb and a link to the Picasa Web Album [PWA] that showcases the images and 'blurbs' from the second year students for an assignment where they were asked to create a photo-montage that completes this story line above.

screenshot of PWA

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 the BLURB

 

osmosisLIZA said: "This assignment will require that you interrogate as well as investigate, who you are in relation to others (communities) as well as identify characteristics that make you the same/different to others (communities). You will be asked to weave both private and public persona’s and feelings in and out of your personal lives which will be revealed by stories and objects of the everyday. Ones that you have strong personal associations with. These objects can be the voice to your culture, your political and social positioning.  You will be asked to make visual references to these positions by expressing your feeling and beliefs through objects and stories as if viewed through a peephole". I asked that the learners findings demonstrate the 3 A's_which I define as: • Authorship:  reveal a personal story in a visual, written or spoken manner. • Authority: the content expresses a strong  and confident voice • Authenticity: displays the real experience of the student, through capturing, expressing and articulating individualistic thoughts and concepts from ones immediate environment.

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Angie Buckley

From the list below the students were asked to respond to only 5 words. They were then instructed to source and photograph 5 ‘everyday’ objects that best depicted their emotional responses to these words. 

1.    My Age_ Generation 

2.    Gender: the male or female in me 

3.    Power 

4.    Weakness 

5.    Culture 

6.    Political Ideology 

7.    Spiritual 

8.    Personality 

9.    Aspiration or Dream 

10.  Present emotional self

tutorial by osmosisliza

The objects were to become metaphors for their personal interpretations of "what these words meant to them". From the 5  ‘everyday’ objects, the students then chose one object to become the shape of the peephole and utilized a 'clipping group' tutorial to place their objects into the peephole. This assignment was inspired by the photographs of Angie Buckley and Taetim de Villiers.

Click on the 'buka lapha's' below to discover more

buka lapha_1 Angie Buckley

buka lapha 2_flickr 
buka lapha 3_ feelings of being  
buka lapha 4_ Taetim

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Glossary:

SOCIAL: the relationship between you and where you live: living together • relationship the community of people. How you are defined by what is around you_ one you cannot choose_ how you interact outside of yourself.

CULTURAL: the relationship between you and the ideas, customs where you live • ethnic, lifestyle, habits, arts, humanities, literature, music, philosophies. The way heritage informs who you are.

POLITICAL: the relationship and dynamics between you and the collective decisions made by groups of people • status, authority, academic and or religious. Civil role. How people are and how they behave_ defines ones morals.

METAPHOR: something regarded as something else other than what it is à make comparison or association.

 

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I hope that this post makes you ask the following question ---->

What make me me?

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words make images

ying and yang tagged over with a smiley

(DIKSON)

Slam Poet, DIKSON is one of the poets performing at the Poetry Africa, organized by the Centre for Creative Arts (University of Natal). I had a chance to watch him perform today and was inspired by how his poetry formed clear visual images in my head... I was intrigued... Thoughts and questions ran through my head... about the relationship between text and image... like...Do pictures speak louder than words? Can one listen to words without forming pictures? Photography as text... Text as Photography... Text and Photography... possibilities of being poetry inspired.

----> watch Dikson's YouTube Video above

I formed some incredible images from Dikson's words.  I made photographs in my head with the help of Photoshop with no camera! Here are some of my favorite words from the poem in the video above.

• "turns people into salt and runs blood through drainpipes?  
• "tears forming blue pearls where the eyelids would touch", 
• " his breast pocket was where he kept his rainbows and confetti" 
• "add a slash of colour to dimly lit rooms" 
• "slouched back in his chair, leaning on the weakest leg hoping that maybe he might fall and lighten the mood" 

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 Get more familiar with "slam" by clicking on the "buka lapha's" below.

• What is poetry slam? 
• What is a poetry slam?
•  Who gets to participate?
•  What are the rules? 
• Are the rules the same from slam to slam?
•  Who organizes slams?

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 lingering words by Dikson

" somethings are too big to describe so trust your eyes and what ever it is that makes you smile" 

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ooooodles of Google...

Google + 

Google Plus is Google's new social network_ and is still in it's 'testing' stage.

Is this the way forward?

launched on the 14th July

A new online space to engage with each other and talk and share...

photos • video • links • location 

 

I  asked Siya Ndlovu [SN], who originally shared this post on Google + if I could post the conversation that took place about his work between Bwalya and myself, on osmosisBLOG.  The reason being I wanted to share the conversation and encourage my followers to do the same.  

  

and

I want to get familiar with Google + and would like for us to learn how it works together.

...So lets create circles and share. 

 

I think that it is a great forum to have discussions about ones works and to get feedback from each other or just from a selected few. We all see things differently and as I constantly chant this mantra "what you think, feel and see is important... it makes us understand more ".

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Google + vs Facebook

 Watch the 2.33" video below to get an overview.  I get a feel that Google + is an improvement on Buzz and a replacement for Google Wave (which has been discontinued).

Google Plus has a lot of slick features, but the biggest reason to open a Google Plus account is that if you use a lot of Google products and these will all be integrated someday. 

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Chatting with Siya and Bwalya on Google +

 

siya ndlovu line of duty (9 photos)

IMAGE_1

Add a comment... Keep the conversation going about the image below_  tell SN what you think? Click on his name above and you will go to his Google + page.

  

BWALYA:       Oct 6, 2011 10:08 PM: This is so cool! You capture the expression of this hard labor. The detail is crisp I wonder would it have worked in colour too? I love the layers of your back ground. This reminds me of the days when we used to play tires.

osmosisliza: Oct 8, 2011 10:40 AM: The decisive moment? The expression is so telling, pushing and playing with the tire is hard work and I am nervous, looks like he is on top of a roof!

BWALYA: @ Liza, it his that tension in his face. It does place you in that moment and you wait anxiously to see what happens when he has gotten over that hurdle.

siya ndlovu: Oct 10, 2011 12:40 PM: if you look on the far right corner, you can see that there is a road which in my view sort of tells you that we've come a long way with this township tradition of playing tires as our toys which now has been replaced with modern toys and games, so this young boy is the reflection of those left out and pushing at the edge hoping to connect with the modern world  IMAGE_2

BWALYA -Oct 6: I really like this, but the bush on the left is distracting me. It is bigger than the kids. osmosisliza - Oct 8: For me the size of the bush and the fact that it is used as a wash line is comical_ the kids are kind of watching it ( I suppose like one would a TV) as they eat and chat amongst themselves. Its size accentuates its 'oddity' and its ominousness. As a viewer the space one occupies is that between the bush and the kids, one is on the path. The path also divides the bush and the children (which I recognize and is called in English "Yesterday, today and tomorrow"_ in fact saying that I also believe it it is not indigenous to South Africa) . Oooh I feel a metaphor happening here.  BWALYA -Oct 8: It reminds me of mine workers taking a break for lunch before going back to 'work'. The bush creates that feeling for me because in such working places (like here at ML Sultan) having lunch outside in the sort of space we have, feels awkward. siya ndlovu - Oct 10: thanks gyz for da comments, this is jst me tryin to move with my documentary which i call the "pray verses predator". my idea is to drop wat eva image i fill like dropping until the images themselves tel their own story of what/who is the predator and the pray. keep your comments coming so one can grow in documentary, for the love of art DITTO SIYA ☕