joana with one n [has a thesis blog]

I suppose it goes without saying, but I have to admit I hadn’t thought of it before… conducting little experiments is the easiest thing to do. I don’t know why it’s taken me so long to realize it. If I’ve learned anything important during all this thesis nonsense, it’s that there’s absolutely no reason I can’t quickly conduct some wacky experiment. Any experiment is worth conducting, even when it fails miserably.

I bring it up because I tried to photograph myself sleeping the other night. I was messing around with my camera, hoping to find some secret macro setting for a quick experiment of close-up photography, when instead I found the intervalometer. An intervalometer would allow me to take photographs automatically at regular intervals (hence the name!), which would be ideal for sleep photography. I set up a tripod and took some test shots before going to bed.

Unfortunately for me, my camera’s sensor is not fabulous enough to pick up the mere sliver of light that I allow in my room when I sleep. Thanks to this botched attempt, which was so easy to test, I’m going to experiment with my film camera, which might have an intervalometer I never noticed. If that doesn’t work out, I’ll check out one of the video cameras from school. It would be better to film anyway, don’t you think?

It’s so obvious now, but it’s so new to me to think in terms of experiments. It’s much more fun to dabble and investigate than to think of things in more concrete absolute terms. I’m knitting a scarf at the moment, and I have no expectations for it. I hypothesize that it will be long and grey and warm, but it might just be an exercise in knitting even rows and getting used to working with yarn. It doesn’t matter.

I suppose it’s the expectation that has been such a struggle for me throughout the thesis process. Rather that being allowed to experiment and fail miserably, which is what happens at the end of some (many?) experiments, I feel like I must succeed. No one but me has imposed such a term, but I’m not fond of the idea of installing a series of half-baked projects to explain that I’m just experimenting. Sure, I’m young, I’m inexperienced, and I haven’t quite got the hang of articulating what it is I expect, so it would make sense to show the trail of unfinished projects that have preceded my work until now. It just doesn’t feel right…

More thoughts on experimenting to come.

I went to see Vik Muniz’s Pictures of Junk at Sikkema Jenkins & Co. when it was up in 2006. I guess I’d just forgotten the artist’s name, but I remember being really into the photographs. They were fun and reminded me of Where’s Waldo… and of a book with animals on every page in which the goal was to find the kid or a lizard or something that was hidden on each page. I wish I could remember the name of that book.

Anyway, I really like Muniz’s work, but it’s not the sort of thing I’m trying to do for this project. It could have been, but yesterday I decided that’s not what I want to do. It’s not about piecing a portrait together, it’s about taking a portrait apart and making that, the chunklet, the new portrait.

I don’t want people to look at an image and say, “Look dear, here’s a photograph of some girl…oh wait, that portrait is made out of meat.” Instead they should be saying, “This meat looks a bit funny, don’t you think? Oh, wait, I think that’s actually some girl’s face.” More or less. Except for the meat part.

With that in mind, I’m investigating the macro ability of my camera. I have a Canon S80, which allegedly has up to a 4cm focus position. I remain unconvinced. A quick test provided me with a series of out of focus shots.

I’m undeterred. Tonight I’m going to try to scan my face in a less smashed-against-the-platen way, and hope for the best. I really want these scans.

Does the school have a non-contact 3D scanner? I should investigate…

Perhaps the most realistic concept I’ve had so far, complete with hilarious illustrations:

“My project, tentatively titled Monitor, is an exploration of the intimate interactions people have with their computer screens. Through a series of video observations taken from the computer’s perspective, an audience can watch 5 individuals react, read, and emote with their computers (and each other). The videos will be presented like photographic portraits. This project is a screen-based installation.”

I am paralyzed with indecision.

I really want to make a photo booth, and I really want the term “photo booth” to be loosely interpreted here and not necessarily confined to a big box in which one stands, smiles, and has his photo snapped. It might be something else. It might be a glass elevator.

It might be a peep show (also loosely defined)?

Seriously though, the very thought of thesis, and deadlines, and papers, and research, comes at a strange part in my life, and I’m slowly and steadily beginning to freak out. I want to be in flow, I want to want to make a photo booth and not just want to think about making one, and I want to actually do it already. A (partially) working prototype for the first day of class? Groan.

i want to make a photo booth!! details to come!!

Rent-a-Booth
Warhol Booth

New York Times Booth
Blog Booth

To begin, I need to figure out what I want to say. What is my question? What is important to me, and why should it be important to anyone else? Given the opportunity to spend a year working on one project, what would I really want to make?

Right now, I’m not too sure.

Here’s what I do know:

There will be a frame, it will be wall art, it will have some sort of narrative, it will include photographic images, it might capture the viewer and insert them into a composition, it might allow the viewer to arrange the composition themselves, it might be a series of things and not just one, there could be some video, it will be a surprise.

In fact, just writing that out made me think of something interesting:

*edit* I realize the following probably won’t make much sense, but it will help me out later:

What if the installation was site specific, and took a photograph of someone looking at another project (or something made to look like a separate project), and then when they came around to the main part of the project, they would find a portrait of themselves. It would be interesting to capture people’s expressions when they let their guard down….

…What do people look like when they look at art? Is it an “I’m thinking about this” face, or an “I’m so bored” face? Will everyone see the portrait and say, “Oh my god I look awful!”

Interesting.