5-1

Scannography Series

I based both of my series off of a central idea. One thought... Usually my work is very personal, but it was fun and a bit freeing to experiment with simple shapes and forms for this project.  



#1 

For this series I was inspired by the collages of Travis Smalley. I loved his process of layering free form paper shapes. Before deciding if this would become my series, I wanted to experiment with cut collages using drawings I made last week. I cut up the drawings and experimented with composition and manipulating the images on the scanner (scanner bed open/closed, moving the image over the scanner, different scanner settings). As I did this, the incremental changes in the composition as I experimented reminded me of a stop motion animated. I then thought of Chel White's Photocopy Cha Cha, and decided to make videos with my scans as the frames. However, I wanted to make the videos loop rather than have a beginning and end. I decided to make a series of gif's instead of a series of videos. The gif maker (Gify) has many filters that you can use to stylize the gif. I recently saw Cindy Sherman's Instagram, where she takes image and beauty editing software to the extreme in her posts. I was inspired to explore the artistic potential of the Gify filters in a series of test gifs before creating my final pieces/gifs. I also downloaded video files. 

Test gifs using my scans


via GIPHY

via GIPHY


via GIPHY


via GIPHY


Final gifs using my scans

via GIPHY


via GIPHY


via GIPHY


via GIPHY


via GIPHY


#2

The second series was inspired by the many scans of flowers and food that are common in scannography and the work of Dieter Roth, who uses mold as a medium. I decided to create a series of petri dishes using food and condiments from my fridge folded and moistened in saran wrap. I let the dishes sit in a warm dark place for three days and scanned the results. Food has always been an interesting subject for me because of its perishability. I work with natural dyes and am always intrigued by how food and natural materials as a medium fade and become waste. I also wanted to subvert the often used images of beautiful food and flowers neatly arranged on the scanner. 

The mold took longer than expected to grow. So the work will become a two part part series. This first part shows the food after just a few days of sitting out. There is no visible mold yet. I will also include an update once mold sprouts. 

One thing I was not expecting was the beautiful quality of the saran wrap when scanned. It has such a dreamy (and maybe creepy) look and adds a lot of texture and many highlights.