projection reflection

Garrett Zopfi

Billy Frieble

Digital Studio

28 March 2012

Projection Project

The central theme of my work is an interplay on light and dark and how the most concrete forms of communication deal with a reading of the relationship between positive and negative.

I have previously been interested with ideas of positive-negative interplay and the semiotics of the relationship. I explored this relationship in a previous class in a book assignment. In the book I personified a shadow; the result of light reacting with the relationship between positive and negative forms.

In the book, the shadow was personified in such a way as to foster self-projection onto the character in part by the viewer. It sought to create an archetypal exploration into interpersonal relationships and dependant relationships.

The book contains illustrations that are reminiscent of shadow theatre and shadow animations from the 1930s. The illustrations worked well conceptually and ultimately worked well with the projection project.

Early on in the process I knew that I wanted to play around with shadow puppet imagery again. I wanted to use the technology of the projector to create an organic environment threw witch to tell a story. Originally I planned on translating the book I did in a previous class into an animation.  I abandoned this idea because I wasn’t really feeling it and I encountered a few roadblocks while I was teaching myself the animation program. I now feel more comfortable using the program but I would still like to find a better method to execute the task.

The roadblocks I encountered while learning flash and experimenting with the digital tool set available in the program ate up allot of animation time. By the time I felt comfortable with using the program I was running out of time in which to animate. I knew I wouldn’t have had enough time to do a good animation of the whole story so instead I opted to change what I was projecting to something that was more reasonable to create and still left me with enough time incase something went horribly wrong.

I then moved onto an idea of exploring people’s relationship between language and images. In my psychology class we just learned about written language acquisition and how people interpret the image of words with experiences with the abstract or physical concept that relates to the word. This then led me to think about how written language started in the simple process of incising lines into clay or wax tablets. This then led to surface based written languages where pigment was applied to a surface but it still, in form, resembles the original process of incision. This was a relationship between the positive and negative.

This thought process then merged with my learning about language acquisition through flash cards and how language acquisition has become a very visual practice. This translated into my projection in my take on an animal alphabet code.

I already had an academic interest in codes and encryptions in art from my previous study of sculptor Jim Sanborn’s work. This background knowledge partnered with an interest in semantics and visual language proved to create the perfect launching point from which to extrapolate my projection.

I decided to code the word “breathe” into my projection because there would have already been clues to the word in my classmate’s projection that was happening a few feet from my own. I consulted various teaching websites to come up with my animal alphabet; taking bits and pieces from many sources.

The idea of coding a message through a visual and pseudo-written form also worked conceptually with my projection space, a library.

I enjoy starting digital work physically. There is a creative block for me when I try to work on something purely digitally. I created the figure shadow puppet out of cut paper and the animals were drawn physically and then manipulated digitally to mimic shadow puppets. I like this merger of traditional and new media and think it lends more of an organic quality to digital work that can sometimes feel cold and sterile. This cold sterility is something I sought to avoid because I was directly channeling a nostalgic animation form in my projection in order to tap into more innate and visceral experiences.

I also had to think about my work and how it was relating to the person’s work who I was sharing the projection space with. I had been interested in working collaboratively for a while and this project wound up accidentally becoming a sort of partnership.

The first task that my space partner and I tackled was coming up with a surface to project on that worked conceptually with both of our works. The solution came by happenstance. I recently received a parking citation on a rainy day. I had an uncommon reaction to getting a ticket. I was excited! I had been thinking about a way to attach paper to the windows in the library that would be quick and easy to throw up and take down and it was sitting in front of my eyes stuck to my windshield with water. The way the water affects the bond paper that we wound up using makes it look like rice paper, a traditional shadow-screen material, and used the environment of my partner’s projection, water, to adhere it to the windows. It was a match made in the heavens.

The second task that we worked on together was coming up with transitions between our works so that they felt like a continuous work when looped. The transition from my work to her work is blue fire consuming my shadow-screen and revealing her oceanic scene below. The transition from her last frame to my first frame is a very slow fade to white that is pretty unnoticeable until my character walks across the windows. Ultimately the two pieces were seamlessly merged together to create a smooth and beautiful loop.

The finished product is particularly strange. I never would have seen myself come to this point from early on in the game. I like my projection in its conceptual and physical nature. I combined an exploration into human language and semantics with the projection space of the library; in this I channeled pre-historic cave works like the hall of bulls, Eastern shadow-puppetry, a tie in with shadow-animator Lotte Reiniger, a clever art historical reference to da Vinci and an exploration into the visual nature of language acquisition and universal symbolism.

The projection from a holistic visual standpoint makes great use of the window space in its composition.

However, without inside knowledge into the projection, the projection was pretty obscure and hard to read. I debated including a textual element in the end of my projection but decided not to, fearing that it would take away from the visual nature of the projection. Instead I decided on a type of encore of my alphabet animals. While the projection was taking place I had the idea that it would have been great to make my own alphabet animal chart and distribute it on site. This would have fostered viewer interaction and would have clued people into the projection without being overt.

Overall I think the projection project went really well. I had a great experience sharing the space with a classmate, I think conceptually the project worked really well and I was really excited about working on it. I also gave myself enough time when I changed my idea to do both the physical animation work but also give myself enough time to work out the intelligent aspects of the work. I might have given myself too much time because there were a lot of layers but ultimately my experience with creating the work is what matters most and I think it was a very positive experience.

I give myself an a- for this project. I think I adapted well to the new software even though it took forever for me to get the hang of it. I think I worked excellently with the person I was sharing my projection space with. I think I creatively solved the problem of creating a projection surface. I backlit a surface instead of projecting onto it which I thought was really innovative. My projection made good use of the space it was projected in and used the architectural elements present in the surface. Ultimately I created a work that is uniquely mine that I had a lot of fun making and experiencing.