CONTENTS PROJECT CONCEPT
! ! INITIAL CONCEPT TESTS ! SUBCATEGORY: VAPORWAVE ! 80S VISUAL INSPIRATION ! ZINE DESIGN INSPIRATION ! IMAGE SELECTION ETHIC ! FINAL PRINTS ! FINAL ZINE ! EXHIBITION PHOTOS ! GLITCH ART OVERVIEW
ZOE (CK) MEEDER - MIVC 600
QUICK LINK ACCESS
CRITICAL ANALYSIS AND REFLECTIVE SUMMARY
FINAL ZINE AVAILABLE AT ISSUU.COM/EFFLUVIAH
LINK LISTING
FINAL IMAGES/PRINTS AT EFFLUVIAH.TUMBLR.COM
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PROJECT CONCEPT
INITIAL IDEA:
USING GLITCH ART TO EXPRESS DEEP OR PERSONAL HUMAN EMOTION IN A TECHNICALLY MORE REMOVED MEDIUM THAN TRADITIONAL ART, CONNECTING THE OLD TO THE NEW IN TERMS OF TECHNOLOGY, IMAGE MAKING, EXPRESSION, AND METHOD.
PROJECT PROPOSAL:
To elaborate on my initial idea, I would like to use fairly recently developed digital means and methods (glitching, image breaking, image hacking, data moshing, experimental image distortion via code breaking or image manipulation through software not intended for visual files, among other methods of glitch art creation) as a way of experimenting with “cold” mediums. With technology traditionally being viewed as distant, or as creating distance between oneself and the output one is creating as well as the audience, the gap between the person and the input one is experiencing via monitor display, technology is at odds with the traditional idea of emotion and humanity as a “warm” medium, physically close, face-to-face communication, physical engagement either in painting or using traditional tools and techniques, and so on.
!I want to see if it is possible to express emotions
effectively using nostalgic and/or pre-existing common, familiar media to induce a deep yet basic level human understanding between individuals on opposite ends of the internet, on other sides of the world. Bytes as a means of feeling, using visual cues as well as text derived from my own diaries, thoughts, and notes to provide a small insight into the feeling being expressed as well as to provide a personal narrative in the accompanying zine, to be made alongside the prints (to be viewed/sold online and in person, as well as being put on display at the exhibit).
GLITCH ART OVERVIEW: I started getting into glitch art several years ago as a way of combining my interests in technology with my interests in illustration. There are multiple ways to produce art, but largely, it is essentially performed through “breaking� a digital image (or digital copy of an image) on a code level, meaning that every result is unique and depends on method of code breaking, image creation, software or text editor, etc. to produce a final piece. These are some of my older pieces, most of which are mixed media (scanned in collages that are then digitally manipulated and glitched, entirely digital pieces, and experimental methods using fine art materials such as acrylic on top of transparency sheets then scanned, edited, and glitched) as well as experimental software techniques such as porting an image into a music editing software such as Audacity and editing the image in timeline format, then exporting back out as a JPG to view results. (These are also viewable at effluviah.tumblr.com.)
INITIAL CONCEPT TESTS I find this method of illustration to be not just fun, interesting, and inherently individual and eye- catching, but also financially feasible (little to no materials cost, only a laptop and scanner for the most part are required) and constantly developing with new coding styles, techniques, and software. It is a constantly changing and relatively new form of art, and I feel as though it is perfectly suitable as a focus for my artistic practices, both professionally and purely out of personal interest. Here are some examples of “technique tests�, of which I can generate many due to the unique working conditions mentioned above, using screenshots from whatever show I was watching at the time looking for good candidates for nostalgic emotional value (in this case, Voltron: Defenders of the Universe, 1984) to experiment with code breaking or altering methods in order to alter the image in varying ways, such as fractals, 8-bit, dithering, and so on. (Many of these small tests are viewable at instagram.com/effluviah, a few posts back.)
SUBCATEGORY: VAPORWAVE VAPORWAVE IS A SUB-GENRE OF GLITCH ART, KNOWN FOR NIHILISTIC OR PESSIMISTIC GENERAL SENTIMENT PAIRED WITH COLLAGED IMAGES OF CLASSICAL SCULPTURES OR WORKS OF ART LAID OUT OVER OR CREATED USING OUTDATED (AND OFTEN NOSTALGIC) TECHNOLOGY, FOR EXAMPLE, PURPOSEFULLY USING OLD SOFTWARE TO DECREASE IMAGE QUALITY FOR A PARTICULAR AESTHETIC. PASTELS AND EIGHTIES INSPIRED COLOUR PALETTES AND PATTERNS ARE COMMONLY USED. 80S REFERENCES ARE CONSIDERED A MARK OF THE STYLE.
!IT
IS ALSO KNOWN FOR USING JAPANESE INFLUENCE, FROM BOTH JAPANESE ARTISTS OF THE EIGHTIES AND NINETIES, BUT ALSO ANIME AND MANGA AND OTHER JAPANESE MEDIA. JAPANESE LANGUAGE TEXT AND SIGNS ARE ALSO INCORPORATED.
!BRAND
NAMES AND CAPITALISM ARE OFTEN MOCKED IN VAPORWAVE (SUCH AS LA CROIX WATER OR FUJI WATER, BOTH PARTICULARLY POPULAR BRANDS TO INCORPORATE DUE TO THE VISUALLY PLEASING PACKAGING), TYING TOGETHER A SENSE OF NOSTALGIA AND FAMILIARITY WITH CLASSIC AND MODERN ELEMENTS OF ART AND VISUAL CULTURE THAT ALSO INVOKES A BITTERNESS AND SELF-AWARENESS, AND IS OFTEN SELF-MOCKING OR NOTED AS BEING THINLY VEILED CRIES FOR HELP, AS MANY WORKS ARE BASED AROUND THEMES OF PERCEIVED ISOLATION IN THE MODERN INTERNET ERA.
!HERE
ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF VAPORWAVE ART, WITH LINKS TO THE CREATORS.
INSTAGRAM.COM/VAPORMAFIA.EXE
INSTAGRAM.COM/VAPORWAVE2002
EIGHTIES VISUAL INSPIRATION
WOLF VOSTELL
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STAKKER
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MASOUD YASAMI
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KEITH SONNIER
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ED PASCHKE
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BARBARA KASTEN
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SUE LLWELLYN
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PAUL SLOGGETT
ZINE DESIGN INSPIRATION
THE FACE
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MONDO 2000
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DEADLINE
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SASSY MAGAZINE
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I-D MAGAZINE
IMAGE SELECTION ETHIC DUE TO THE SOMETIMES WILDLY UNPREDICTABLE NATURE OF CREATING GLITCH ART, MANY ITERATIONS ARE REQUIRED TO BE MADE OF EACH IMAGE BEFORE A USEABLE FINAL CAN BE SELECTED FROM THE PERMUTATIONS GENERATED DURING THE PROCESS. SOMETIMES IT IS JUST A MATTER OF PREFERRING A CERTAIN EFFECT THAT OCCURRED DURING BREAKING THE IMAGE FOR AESTHETIC SENSE, BUT KEEPING IN MIND THE READABILITY OF THE IMAGE, DEGREE OF DISTORTION OR DAMAGE, COLOUR EFFECTS, AND SO ON AS BASIC RULES OF DESIGN AND VISUAL LANGUAGE ARE KEY TO A SUCCESSFUL SELECTION. CERTAIN METHODS OF GLITCHING MAY HAVE BETTER OR WORSE EFFECTS FOR A PARTICULAR IMAGE, SO CONTRAST AND OTHER ELEMENTS MUST ALSO BE KEPT IN MIND WHILE CHOOSING AN APPROPRIATE MODE OF IMAGE HACKING.
!HERE
ARE SOME EXAMPLES OF GOOD AND BAD ITERATIONS, ALL OF THE SAME ORIGINAL IMAGE, GOING FROM LEFT TO RIGHT ACROSS THE PAGE FROM INITIAL IMAGE TO DISCARDED VERSIONS TO THE FINAL SELECTION.
SELECT FINAL PRINTS
SELECT FINAL ZINE PAGES
SELECT EXHIBITION PHOTOS
CRITICAL ANALYSIS/REFLECTIVE SUMMARY In regards to retrospectively reviewing the project as a whole and analysing what I have managed to produce in terms of digital and analog copies of the prints and zine as well as my exhibition display, I am please that things have turned out as well as they have regardless of the many incidents that occurred throughout every stage of planning, development, and production.
!I immediately started a project schedule book (photo on next page) meticulously recording and annotating ideas and
timeslotting to allow for as much preparation and work to get done as possible. I had plenty of setbacks, starting with having months of high stress (and high risk) visa paperwork to get through at the beginning of the project on top of everything else, to the deaths of close family members and friends peppered throughout the year, reaching two deaths per month by the end of 2016. Being meticulous about notes and scheduling helped me manage to get anything at all done under such circumstances, and gave me an occasional planned break to attempt to recover from stress, sleep deprivation, grieving, and anxiety. While the breaks were brief due to the overall workload of the course, I managed to produce hundreds of iterations of images.
!Serious setbacks were experienced with the exhibit, with my first round of prints being completely destroyed during
initial setup due to a bad can of light fixative, then having my display table moved, then having another round of prints damaged on the night of the exhibit when I was asked to move my works once again to allow for another group to take over the table I had set up on because they had forgotten to measure the diameter of their work versus their table and required my larger space. Due to this, I could not display the print copy of my zine, as there was now no longer any room for it.
!Despite even the most last minute disasters, I had planned and pulled through, and while I absolutely had to take the time off to to collapse emergencies make up for
rest after setting up (I did not attend very much of the weekend opening, regretfully, as I did not want at the event), I appreciate that setting up my own print shop at my flat and planning for potential or mistakes was an excellent call, as it allowed me to reproduce high quality prints multiple times to the ones damaged or lost on extremely short notice.
!Due to time constraints, I wasn’t able to add all of the writing or images to the zine, but the aesthetic came out
exactly as planned, being based off of 80s/90s magazines and underground cyberpunk subculture photocopier zines, which I made by designing some elements (my main body of imagery) digitally and then printing it out, collaging pages together, then photocopying final page layouts onto high quality paper for display. In my next zine iteration, I want to progress beyond what I have using my current content as a springboard and I have already secured at least one collaborator for my future work on it.
!Had there been additional time and less disaster overall, I could have stocked copies of the zine at Orbital and/or
GOSH comics, both of whom I asked about stocking, and was given the green light to sell. I also want to sell copies of my prints if possible, either digitally or in person or both, on a society6 store or in Brixton Market, where myself and my flancee (also an artist) are looking into getting a table to sell general arts and crafts.
I believe my various techniques in generating glitch art resulted in plenty of good image iterations of a wide variety of effects and styles, which lent some diversity to my image selection. I feel as though I could have worked on adding elements to the images, similar to the vaporwave style, and I could certainly elaborate on these works and take them further, which I plan to do in my next zine (the working title of which is ă ?ă śă‚“feeling).
!Separating the words and images more would benefit the work, as some text was too overbearing inside of the images, and as I am an avid personal writer, I have about 46 pages of written material that did not get the chance to be used this time around.
LINK LISTING GLITCH ART - EFFLUVIAH.TUMBLR.COM ZINES AND PDF
! DOWNLOADS !
ISSUU.COM/EFFLUVIAH
SKETCHES, PHOTOGRAPHY, AND ASSORTED - INSTAGRAM.COM/EFFLUVIAH
STATISTICS (ALL STATISTICS HERE ARE AS TAKEN IN EARLY JANUARY 2017) TUMBLR ISSUU - 81
! 870 COMBINED ! READS, 2,243 !
FOLLOWERS IMPRESSIONS
INSTAGRAM - 1413 FOLLOWERS