Development of Ideas / Statement of Intent

Potential Ideas for my work:

1) I could create digitally manipulated photography like Geoff Ault. Unlike his nature prints, my subject would be the human form/portraiture in a destructive mindset or based on how society views that person. I will use digital photography to do this and then edit and manipulate it in an artistic way using Adobe Photoshop. It will differ from traditional art in that it's purely digital based with no use of traditional painting techniques used  in painting/drawing. It will be a modernised version of a painting using layers, textures and different digital brush strokes.

2) Cinemagraphs of the town I live in based off of Jamie Beck and Kevin Burg. I will take mini videos of traffic, the town centre, society of the town, pub life, anything relating to town life, modern life. I will use my digital camera on a tripod to create the videos, then transform it in to a Cinemagraph using Adobe Premiere and Photoshop. It will differ to traditional art in that Cinemagraphs have only come about with in the past five years, it is a very modernised outtake on media and the use of gifs. Unlike a photograph or a film, its a still image with slight movement, very different yet unique.

3) Cinemagraphs based off of the artist I looked at Petra Švajger. My subject will be human, most likely female and close up, this is because I want my cinemagraphs to look quite soft and pretty with a twist of different lighting to make it different. I could play around with lighting techniques to make scary or innocent portrait Cinemagraphs. I also want them to be in black and white like the artist and use different lighting techniques like she does. Much like how I stated in idea 2, I will use my digital camera on a tripod to create the videos, then transform it in to a Cinemagraph using Adobe Premiere and Photoshop.



Statement of Intent:

For this project I have already researched different artists that produce different types of digital art. I have also looked further in to different ways of producing digital art, looking at different media, software and techniques. Doing this research made me come across a new trend that started about five years ago; Cinemagraphs. Cinemagraphs are still photographs in which minor and repeated movement occurs. They are published in either animated GIF format or as video, and can give the illusion that the viewer is watching a video.

I looked at the creators of this art form, Kevin Burg and Jamie Beck. Whilst I really enjoyed their work and thought it was unique, beautiful and inspiring, I wasn't quite sure how I could respond in my own personal way. I decided to look further in to Cinemagraphs and recent artist's take on it, I came across Petra Švajger. Petra produces these beautiful fashion fine art Cinemagraphs in black and white. I loved how she used different effects such as strobe lights, disco lighting and a smoke machine within her video which she then turnt in to a Cinemagraph. With these effects being the moving aspect of her Cinemagraph, she still managed to make her subject stand out in a dark, mysterious yet wonderful way.

I was very heavily inspired by Petra Švajger, I wanted to create similar work based off of her gifs. Instead of Fashion, I wanted mine to be purely Fine Art based. My idea in response to Petra is to create my own Cinemagraphs with my subject being Close up shots of females using different lighting effects to make the Cinemagraph interesting. I want to create Cinemagraphs that will entertain the viewer and make them feel a slight connection to it.

To produce my Cinemagraphs I'm going to use my digital camera on a tripod to make very short five to six second videos of my chosen subject. I'm then going to upload these videos to my computer and use Adobe Premiere to edit the video, I will then use Adobe Bridge to convert the video frames in to Photoshop layers and in Photoshop I will create my Cinemagraph.

Before I think about my final piece, I'm going to experiment with lighting and subject matter and create some experimental Cinemagraphs in response to my artist Petra Švajger. They will be in black and white and an experiment of getting used to the technique of producing a Cinemagraph in preparation for my final piece.