16 6 / 2012
Artist Statement Exam
“The Reader” is a photographic piece I made to represent many ideas. It connects to my theme headless for the reason that she, (the subject,) is lost in a book, and separated herself from world, kind of like the concept of “head in the clouds”. I used the post modern principal of appropriation by borrowing the idea of a “lit” book. I got my inspiration from Joel Robison’s, “Night Reading” photo. I also used layering within my piece by merging 3 photos together and using brushes and gradients. The area of meaning I am exploring is aesthetic because my photo is very dramatic with its use of colors and images. If you know the essay by Ronald Barthes, then my meaning is also intellectual.
“The Reader” is a visual representation of my view of Ronald Barthes’, “Death of an Author”. In his essay he talks about how the meaning of a piece of work depends on the reader’s impression of it. He states, “A text’s unity lies not in its origin, but in its destination.” This is why I chose to photograph a reader instead of a writer. The text the subject is reading in my photo has nothing to do with what the author wrote, but instead what she perceives it to mean. When Barthes writes, “The text is a tissue of quotations drawn from the innumerable centers of culture”, he means that the author’s writing is unoriginal because it has been taken from many sources, rather than one individual experience. I can relate this quote to the process of my work by which I performed to create my piece. By looking through photos by my favourite photographers, I started to conduct my research. I chose to create something very similar to Joel Robison’s “Night Reading” photo. My idea is now unoriginal, since I’ve taken it from another source. Barthes states, “To give a text an Author is to impose a limit on that text.” By saying this, he implies that the reader must separate the writing from the author in order to understand all the possible means it can stand for. I have demonstrated that by using the light from the book as a symbol of mystery and endless possibilities within a text.
Throughout my artist journey, I have explored the theme of what it means to be headless. I have explored it aesthetically when I collaborated with Tee to create “The Headless Girl and her Word Cat” with a Projection Installation. I used my theme in an intellectual/spiritual sense by creating my Mise En Abyme piece. It represents confusion and “needing to using your head” to figure it out. My theme had a spiritual meaning for the Urban Art project when I discussed the idea of home being your sanctuary, and the place where your ideas can flourish – also uses the concept of “head in the clouds”. I combined two meanings to create my Mash Up – spiritual and aesthetic. I mashed Sweeney Todd’s literal decapitation with Alice in Wonderland’s feeling of wonder and confusion. All of these pieces can relate to Barthes’ essay for the reason that I needed to conduct research and get inspired from an external source in order to create them. I also have found that sometimes people interpret my art differently than from what I intend it to mean. This relates to Barthes’ statement, “A text’s unity lies not in its origin, but in its destination.”
16 6 / 2012
(Revised) Proposal
My piece connects to my theme headless for the reason that she (the subject) is lost in a book, and separated herself from world, kind of like the concept, “head in the clouds”. This also relates to Death of an Author when Ronald Barthes talks about how a text’s unity and definition doesn’t depend on the creator but instead, depends on the reader.
Ill defiantly be using appropriation as one of the principals of postmodernism because I “borrowed” this idea of reading a lit book from joel Robison. I’ll also be using layering quite literally in Photoshop because ill need many images to create my photograph. The area of meaning I’ll be exploring is aesthetic. I’m picturing my photo to be very dramatic with its use of colors and images. If you know the essay by Ronald Barthes, then my meaning will also be intellectual.
The materials and equipment I’ll need to make my photo includes:
1. Camera & memory card
2. Tripod
3. Remote control for camera
4. My room
5. My laptop
6. Photoshop
7. Possible Google images?
The materials and equipment I’ll need to present my photo includes:
1. LCD Projector
2. Computer
3. A white screen
16 6 / 2012
exam daily entry
photos i used to create final:
BASE PHOTO (FACE IS TOO DARK)
BOOK:
FACE (FOR HIGHLIGHTS):
16 6 / 2012
exam daily entry
YES!!! SUCCESS! i started as soon as i got home from work (at 10) and finished around 1 am. i loooove this photo! it’s JUST like i pictured it would be! i think it relates more to the essay, the only thing though,
i didnt like the heads sticking out of the book, so i cant say i used my theme “headless” like that. i can say though that she is lost in a book, and separated herself from world, kind of like the concept, “head in the clouds”
15 6 / 2012
exam daily entry
i have work today from 5 to 930 which sucks cause i want to try and change my idea tonight. heres what i want to do:
similar idea, ill be sitting down but ill be the reader and not the writer, and ill be opening a huge book with my heads coming out of it. after reading wikipedia on the topic of ronald barthes’ essay, this seems more relatable to his ideas.
inspired by joel robison: http://www.flickr.com/photos/joel_r/7171252509/sizes/m/in/photostream/
15 6 / 2012
exam daily entry
after getting feedback from my classmates, i decided to remove the smoke from underneath the people, behind the “writer”. Tee said the background is too busy and she didnt picture it being outside. personally, i like that i photographed it outside but i agree that the background is too busy.
14 6 / 2012
exam daily entry
this is NOTHING how i pictured it would be. im not sure if i like it.. 
the reason why i used a book instead of a type writer is because the type writer looked really bad. and didnt look like a type writer from the back
13 6 / 2012
exam daily entry
challenge and inspire:
*what visual problem do you need to solve?
visually representing the death of an author essay by Ronald Barthes and connecting it to my theme
*how can you create a visual problem to be solved?
by visualizing the concept of the essay:
(research that you do is written by many people, therefore your writing has more than one author = unoriginal) this can be visually shown by having many anonymous people, (photoshop/ blur out their face to represent anonymous, maybe even reduce opacity to show that the audience doesn’t know/see them) crowding around a person with a type writer (author)
*how are you inspired by another artist/ designer?
for this project i thought of photographer joel robison who creates very magical, dramatic photos - mostly about reading, writing, creating and so on.
*
13 6 / 2012
exam daily entry
i drew out my idea and i brought my camera, and im going to a field after school today to shoot! :)
