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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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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the relevant finger

collaborate

make the index finger known

Tyla-Skye & Josh Africa

I was joking to the first years in class today on how we would have to get our right hand index finger strong for clicking on all the hyperlinks whilst we search and browse the wonderful world of cyberspace. This photograph sent by Tyla-Skye from her Blackberry has also inspired my thinking on the relevance of the index finger, the finger that clicks on a mouse and scrolls on a touch pad . 

 Also inspired by these: buka lapha 1

So...

I am inviting you to collaborate on a project called:  
The Relevant Finger 

(click on this hyperlink to take you to the web album) 

I have opened a Picasa Web album where we can create a gallery of index fingers. I encourage you to take photographs of yours/others INDEX finger post them on the web album. Use any digital device to capture the 'character' of the index finger.

Does anybody use any other finger for clicking or is anybody left handed?

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ADP2: SELF PORTRAIT_exposing another identity

view and comment on this Web Album

buka lapha

The Satisfied Poodle

Injusuthi translated in Zulu means the dog is satisfied
Being surrounded by enormous mountains and the fresh Injusuthi air provided the perfect backdrop for new friendships, fun, beauty and photography.
View my Album
so far...
I am still in post production with the other 200 images.

http://picasaweb.google.com/osmosisliza/TheSatisfiedPoodle