What bird is this?

Blog Exercise 4 - Singapore Biennale 2008

The theme of the Singapore Biennale 2008 is "Wonder". As defined by the dictionary (and the guide to the Biennale), "Wonder" is a feeling of surprise and admiration caused by something beautiful, unexpected or unfamiliar. It is a feeling not only of curiousity or a desire to know, but is also to feel doubt.

This year's exhibition was jointly held at four seperate locations, at the City Hall, South Beach Development, the Singapore Flyer and at the Marina Bay.

I felt that the exhibitions at South Beach Development were slightly more interactive and interesting than the ones at City Hall. Perhaps the nature of South Beach Development (an ex-army camp) provided a raw, rustic feel to the experience of viewing the exhibits there. Experiencing intricate artwork in a non-airconditioned and sometimes non-ventilated environment certainly was quite an unique experience.

One piece of work which I thought was interesting was Location (6)(2008) by Hans Op de Beeck as seen below.



This is a 18 metre long installation which is housed inside the Containerart Pavilion created by Shigeru Ban at Marina Bay. One has to walk through a long, white corridor before he is greeted by the sight of a seemingly vast, snowy landscape. It is upon closer inspaction that one realises that the "depth" of the installation is created by the use of tilted angles and the manipulation of the sizes of the visual elements (the trees) in the installation.

Indeed, one does experience a sense of tranquility and wonder as he/she takes in the panoramic view of the snowy landscape in this environment. This is a work that transports the viewer from reality into another world, but as mentioned by its creator, the aim of the work is also to generate scepticism about one's location and to highlight the human ability to imagine being in other places.

This work seems to represent how our eyes seem to fool us sometimes, or how we seem to be able to make ourselves disillusioned and force ourselves to see things that we only want to see. Without the context of us entering the long corridor into this "alternate realm", would have even realised that we were actually enclosed in a 18-m long installation? I think the theme of this work would be "Don't judge a book (reality) by its cover".

A work which I thought was not so good at the Singapore Biennale was Bachelor - The Dual Body (2003) by Ki-Bong Rhee. I have no photos of this work as the exhibit was placed under low light in one of the rooms of City hall.

This work is an installation in which a book of philosophy is thrown into an aquarium. Jets of water are then used to create current to keep the book from rising to the surface or sinking to the bottom in the closed, isolated environment.

The "dancing" motion of the book represents Western logical thought having "fun" (as described by the artiste). The artiste wants the "dream-like image to be dominant over the meaning or the material".

Unfortunately, I guess the streams of water current did not really work as well as the artiste had expected. When I viewed the installation, the book did sink to the bottom quite frequently instead of it being suspended in mid-air. Perhaps the artiste could have used a less isolated style of presentation to keep the installation interactive. The writings on the book were not really visible while the dark settings and blue tone of the water creates quite a dull mood which does not seem to bring out the concept of "fun" nor "wonder".

Assignment 6 - Conceptual Photography

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Blog Exercise 5

Two interesting questions to ponder about:

1) What are the ways readers can judge the credibility of an image even in this era of digital manipulation?

I got to agree that in this digital age, almost any image can be manipulated using photo-editing software such as Photoshop, Lightroom or Aperture. Actually, even photos taken using film can be manipulated,as in the case of double exposures where one image can be super-imposed onto another.

I think there are a few ways that readers can judge the credibility of an image. One way would be to look out for photo manipulation errors or signs of "complacency". One can most probably spot repeated patterns or graphic elements which look out of place in the picture due to inadequate photo manipulation. This would be one of the most basic ways of spotting a manipulated picture.

However, for photos which have been manipulated by someone who is highly proficient in photo-editing software, perhaps the line between true and false depiction by an image will even merge. Often, photos are usually used together with video or words to provide news information to viewers.

I personally feel that unless we experience these events ourselves (meaning we were present at the place and time when a particular event occurred), one can never really have a good idea of what exactly happened. I don't mean to be cynical, but all we can do is to interpret images and words with a pinch of salt. This is not to say that we can't believe in EVERYTHING, but means that one should perhaps refer to a few more sources to gain a better understanding of a particular situation.

If an image looks too good to be true, it probably is haha... this probably applies a lot to the images we see in magazines which depict the aesthetical aspects of the human body. I guess this cynical view has to do with the perceived credibility of the medium itself, and magazines are usually read for leisure and as a source of entertainment.

Unfortunately, a lot of people do perceive images portrayed on news article (eg: The Straits Times, Lianhe Zaobao etc.) to be of high credibility. In this case, a manipulated image would probably be interpreted as being real without much thought from the viewer. The ethical views of the journalist/writer would then come into play here. If a journalist decides to be unethical and manipulate images in order to sensationalise or shock audiences, I wouldn't think that there would be a way to detect this form of "pseudo-forgerty", unless the journalist confesses.


2) Imagine yourself as a reader representative for a newspaper. What would you tell a reader who complained to you about a picture of a car wreck that was particularly upsetting?

I would tell the reader that actually that's the exact purpose of the newspaper, which is to report factual news and provide information and images which best represents a particular event.

I can understand how the reader feels, but if I were to have shown an image that was digitally manipulated, would that be ethical from a journalistic perspective? This reader feedback would definitely be reported to the exectuive management. Perhaps then the next best thing would be to not display any pictures at all for any news articles on car accidents.

A few other things to consider:
Perhaps the newspaper firm at which I'm employed could be one that is considered as tabloid. If I were to not display any images that leave readers in "shock and awe", would this affect readership and ultimately cost me my job?

This is the moral dilemma which plagues the minds of many journalists perhaps.

Assignment 5: Mood without human expressions

For this assignment, we were required to use 2-4 photographs that depict a certain set of adjectives without using any form of human expression as the subject.

We were given the following sets of adjectives.

1) Peace, serene, calm, harmonious, tranquil
2) Happy, cheerful, satisfied, delighted, joyful
3) Progressive, active, advancing
4) Lonely, abandoned, desolate, solitary
5) Sad, gloomy, miserable, depress, solemn
6) Chaos, disorder, turmoil, mess

Can you guess which mood am I trying to portray with the following pictures?

Update:

For this picture, I was trying to portray the mood of "happy, cheerful, satisfied, delighted or/and joyful". As human expressions weren't allowed for this assignment, I decided to use bright pastel colours to bring out the "happy" mood instead.

I think this relates a lot to how children's toys are usually made with bright, pastel colours. Children playing with toys are usually very happy doing so (unless they start arguing and fighting over toys of course haha...), so there is this natural connection between "happy", "pastel colours" and "children's toys" i guess...

This picture would be the depiction of the theme "sad, gloomy, miserable, depress, solemn". It's actually taken from the perspective of someone staring out of a window grille with broken glass panels.

The worn-down texture of the buildings in the background and the texture and lines of the broken glass panels and window grilles in the foreground add to the gloomy and depressing mood. Perhaps I should desaturate the colour of the grass to bring out the mood in this picture even more. Suggestions anyone?

I had goosebumps while editing this picture haha... I thought something was going to come down from those staircase at any moment. I think it's how the railings of the staircase leads you to the corner of the picture, which leads to nowhere it seems.

Added a bit of saturation to bring out the colour in the background and upped the exposure levels to create "noise" add to the "lonely" and "abandoned" mood haha... perhaps the light coming from the glass panel is too bright and I should adjust the contrast and brightness of that portion of the picture.

This picture would bring out the notion of "isolation" and the "solitary" figure. I desaturated the colours from all other parts of the picture except the arm chair in order to portray this particular "mood" in the picture. Perhaps I can saturate the colour of the armchair even more to create better contrast.

Makes you wonder who sat there before. Or can you imagine someone sitting there? haha.

This picture represents "chaos, disorder, turmoil and mess". Although this was taken at a "warehouse" of a spare-parts collection company (and the parts are actually sorted out into different components), I still felt that this could be a form of "organised chaos".

However, maybe there are too many elements in the picture itself, which distracts the viewer by not giving him/her an area to focus on, but hey, isn't that fitting for this theme? hahaa...

My classmates thought that this picture was a bit "Saw"-like (in reference to the sadistic cult movie haha...) This was actually taken at an abandoned army barrack in Changi but the original picture was not like this at all.

It was via colour treatment that I managed to create this "Holga/Lomo/street photography" feel to the picture. Maybe I should crop away the right portion of the picture to remove the lines of the corner where the walls meet each other.

Assignment 4 - 2nd draft

Ok I think this post is long awaited haha... This is the 2nd prototype of my work on Surrealism. As you can see, I made quite a revamp from the original prototype I came up with.

The idea is still the same of materialism and us being stuck in this never-ending cycle of material pursuits. (On a sidenote: Please do watch "The Graduate" (1967), a film starring Dustin Hoffman for a theme that is quite similar to the one I am depicting)

However, I've put in place a human element this time, with his gaze firmly fixated on the visual elements in front of him. This "frame" that I have placed in front of this person can be interpreted either as a mirror, showing the "reflection" of the person himself; or it can also be viewed as a "frame" which the person can use to peek into a pseudo-society.

I've also slightly adjusted the arrangment of the "wall" and I thought I portrayed the theme of a "labyrinth" pretty okay this time, with the repeated patterns. However, one drawback would be that I am unable to place the money notes on the wall this time around, because it would add to the clutter of the picture.

I'm thinking of incorporating elements from both the 1st and 2nd draft in my final piece of work. Perhaps showing how even the person viewing the photo is also trapped in this "labyrinth" will bring out the theme even better. We'll see how hahaha...

Blog exercise 3

This picture was taken by Arko Datta, an Indian national who has worked with Reuters as a photographer since 2001. It was taken in India after the December 2004 tsunami incident and won the World Press Photo of the Year 2004.

It comes under the category of photojournalism and depicts a woman bent over on a sandy ground, crying over the death of a friend or family member, with her palms turned to the sky. The arm of a tsunami victim can be seen on the left of the image.

This image can be viewed as a representation of realism, where the photographer wants the viewer to look at the image as a portrayal of society at a point in time, like a window. If one were to look at the formal elements of the image, the aspects that catches the eye would be light quality, focus, angle of view, colour and the composition of the image.

The main source of light in this picture would be from coming from natural sunlight as this picture was most likely taken in the outdoors, and it would be highly unlikely that any artificial lighting (except maybe a camera flashlight) would be used in capturing such a tragic moment. The light is coming from the top of the picture and this casts shadows on both visual elements (the victim's hand and the woman) in the photo. The shadows formed are rather harsh and this could be interpreted to serve as a juxtaposition to show how the tsunami was a dark and tragic moment for all those who were affected by it.

All visual elements in the picture are relatively in sharp focus and I feel that Arko Datta chose to do so in order to retain viewer attention on both the facial expression and posture of the crying woman in the picture, together with the outstretched, lifeless hand of the tsunami victim. I feel that both elements need each other in order to create meaning to the picture to tell a story. If either visual element were portrayed on their own, the picture might not evoke as strong an emotion from the viewer than if both were placed together in the same image.

The angle in which this picture was taken is from a top-down perspective. I think this serves to reinforce the isolation of the victim and the woman in the image, perhaps to show the close relationship they had prior to the disaster. Somehow I feel a sense of surreal-ness by look at this picture. The angle of view of this picture makes me feel as if I am looking at an "exhibit" from a third-person perspective. The woman's mouth is open and she was probably crying or wailing in sadness when this picture was taken, but one can only use imagination to figure out how the situation was like.

The colour of the soil dominates in this picture and the colour of the victim's hand seems to blend into the background. Only the attire of the woman provides the more obvious colour elements in the picture. I feel that the lack of colours in this picture creates a "lifeless", seemingly monochromatic mood to the image. Even the colour of the woman's attire is slightly washed out and muted.

The composition of this picture may seem slightly imbalanced at first, with the right side of the image being "heavier" than the left side. However, I feel that this can be explained from ethical and emotional/cognitive aspect of photography. I guess if Datta had included more of the victim's body in the picture, attention would have been drawn away from the emotions protrayed by the lady in the picture. I think it wouldn't be too ethical to show pictures of a deceased person on mass media as some people may find the image too disturbing.

Another explanation for the imbalance created in the image would perhaps be how just the visual image of a dead person's arm can evoke anyone to imagine the presence of a larger "entity" behind the hand to actually "balance" the picture; perhaps to show the scale of destruction of this natural disaster and represent all the victims who died in this tragedy.