And So It Begins - Meditations on the First Project

In this assignment we have been asked to work through some ideas about our first project in the Digital Imaging class.  Continuing in the theme of the posts above, this artwork will be one of appropriation.  We were asked to use the internet to find images that could be compiled into a work on a theme of our choice.  At this rather early stage in the game, we have been asked to brainstorm just what our themes might be and what images we might pair with them.

These themes are meant to be weighty, conscious - relevant to the issues of our times.  With this prompt in mind, I have come up with the following ideas:

- Industrialization vs. Nature
- the Search for Peace / the Meaning of Peace
- the Passage of Time

I have considered other themes, and still might come up with a few more.  However, for the time being, I worry about what will happen if I try to make my mind go in too many directions.  Sometimes chaotic spirals of creative thought are good, and can yield surprising results.  On the other hand, I often find my imagination going nowhere if I try to send it in too many directions.  So, if it becomes necessary, I will discuss more themes later.  For now, I will focus on the types of images I might use with the themes above.

Our first assignment is to find one images that could be repeated, used over and over until it forms an image of something else entirely.  An image I could see myself using in such a way for Industrialization vs. Nature would be the image of a billowing smokestack.

This is an image taken from what I can tell by Steve Cole, of the Getty Factory smokestacks.  I think this image could be admirably adapted into the branches and leaf clusters of a tree, by isolating the smokestacks and the smoke and articulating them into a tree-like form.  This would speak to the interplay between industrial processes and nature - it's an idea that's very much about environmental awareness.

The next idea I want to discuss is the idea of the Passage of Time.  Yes, I know I'm not necessarily addressing the ideas in the order of my list above, but as I will discuss below I'm saving the middle idea for a good reason.  When I think of the passage of time, I think of the whir of gears and the slip of sand through an hourglass.  I'll admit a bit of dissatisfaction with my concept for this one, because I doubt that it will sound very original.  Anyway, I think I would enjoy using gears as my repeating image for this theme.

I'm not sure whether this technically fits the parameters of the assignment or not, but I was thinking that I could isolate the gears in this photograph and use them to re-create something like sand flowing through an hourglass.  The result would be something that had a really neat machine-like feel to it.  Of course, I could also use them to make a model of the globe or solar system.  That might also be interesting.  However, this is not the idea that I favor.

The theme I find most intriguing or creatively stimulating is the Search for Peace / the Meaning or Nature of Peace.  However, I'm having a difficult time figuring out one repeatable image for this theme.  It conjures thoughts of stillness, and of quite. 

This is a jade bi, a disc dating back to the earliest civilizations in China.  It is associated with heaven, while a solid disc counterpart is associated with earth.  I love this image, but as of yet I'm not entirely sure what I would want to construct with it.  I thought of using the disc to construct the Chinese character for peace, or perhaps the Chinese character for the sound Om... I am honestly not sure I should do that, even if I wanted to (and I'm not sure I would want that either).  Sadly, not every idea develops when you need it to.  I will continue thinking about this idea, and trying to come up with more images for it.  Once I figure something out, I will write another post on it.  Until then, I think it's time to let my ideas work themselves out in my imagination.

- Kelly F.