Photoshop pixelations (Unit 7)

 With the first thought of pixelation came the default look of square pixels, but without jumping straight into it i experimented with some other types of pixelation on photoshop.

Photoshop

Unedited

Facet

Fragment

Crystalised

Fragment was the most effective i think aside from mosaic (square tiles). Its blurred enough to recognize content but still be curious enough to keep a viewer looking. Whereas others are too much either way.

From this I've decided to stay with mosaic format and present it gradually increasing in pixelation from the original to totally pixelated.

Exhibition space and content (Unit 7)

With exhibiting there are many decisions for me to make involving content and space. Ive been in to rearrange and paint for the course exhibition and have been given a space of my own. Ive printed most of my content to different sizes in order to see which is most effective and to physically trial different setups. My content included hundreds of digital prints that have ranged through all different pixelations and pixelation scales (grid scales). 

Gradual increase in pixelation

After thinking about my exhibition i decided that as well as my digital prints I'm actually want to include the bee's physically in the exhibition to physically on display.  This is because of something i have explained in previous posts where my pixelated work seems to work and mean more along side the original unedited scans.

My first thought was to pin down my bees in a box frame on display. I have three bee's, one bee is flattened and thick, one bee is round and nicely formed and another is completely torn apart (which i still have the pieces contained). The torn apart bee would look beautiful with all its parts pinned across and i guess the others would to, i just felt like the torn apart bee would look good pinned alone. I actually went to Blackburn museum which has a massive bug collection just to think about the look of my own bees if i presented them like that.

Blackburn museum bug collection

So, after getting a box frame and putting it in front of my exhibition, it  just seemed a little empty. Its a white box and generally a white framed themed exhibition, whereas the bug collection i saw at the museum was characterised and fuller.

Then i came up with a better idea that still involved putting the bees on display. I would put the scanner (that i used as the process of all my work) on display, open, with the bees on it. Firstly, this means there are no pins, they just rest on the empty see through screen. It would be physically on display just in front of my wall on a plinth.

This works nicely as it gives the effect i wanted in being original along side my pixelations, its plain interesting to physically display my bee's unframed with nothing between the viewers and also in some sort of way having the process on display working with its results means a lot. Also its an A4 scanner, and my prints will then be A4 fitted just for that familiarity and sizeable looks.

Work space

Now i am to continue making decisions involving wether or not to frame my work and majorly which prints work best with what. So far it seems to me that the gradual pixelations from originals to completely pixelated mean the most and work the best. (See top picture). To be continued.

Gerhard Richter 180 colours, Mont Blanc Torben Gielher and Marco Sodano (Unit 7)

Gerhard Richter's 180 colors, similar to Piet Mondreans paintings of life that are presented in  deep line and pixel. While many abstract paintings are about expression or purity, 180 Colours is about nothing so lofty. Richter used a systematic approach to determine the rich variety of colours; he produced 180 from light to dark. The painting is composed of glossy enamel paint.

This is relevant to my work because of its effect of colour together in formation on the eyes. Richter has had total control over which colours and where they will be put or not put. I have only a similar choice in that i can only contain sections of colour from a massive close up of my scans. I choose whichever i think is the most effective for different reasons but i cannot change any of the colours or replace them because that would be getting between the true scans of the insects skin and would propose to myself "why not just choose and make my pixels from scratch".

Gerhard Richter's "180 colours" 1971

Torben Gielher's "Mont Blanc" Acrylic on canvas 2002 

Torben Gielher's painting relates to my work because it shows me that i could also not format my pixels straight up in the foreground, maybe i could somehow change how the pixels shapes and how they are formatted.

Marco Sodano produced these lego works of classic paintings, touching on that every child can be an authentic artist with lego. It relates to my work in the same way Peter Linn's work did in that its pixelating and pulling the roots of colour and shape forward making it something between curious and recognisable. 

Pixelations from broken bee digital scans (Unit 7)

This work practiced what i highlighted about Adam Lister's work in the sense of the extent of pixelation that i will control. Choosing how much familiar content to give away for it to be effectively curious. 

I used photoshop and paint to pixelate and compose the scans through different dimensions to see what effects they give. The biggest problem in evaluating and making decisions in which is more or less effective is the fact I've seen the original unpixelated scans and that it may be a different experience for viewers that haven't. Fortunately this is all contained in presentation because its my own decision to present or not to present the original scans along side in triptychs or however like I've discussed previously.

Also after watching a documentary about Damien Hirst he talked about colour squares and described that somehow when presented with certain dimensions such as 9x9 it seemed any choice of colour would work regardless of theory or rule.

Bee wing, 9x9

9x9

Scans continued, Non digital blurring and painting (Unit 7)

The bee was dried out and tore apart when i put it across the scanner. The way it scanned instantly made me think of painting and composition, i think composition because of its space and shape and i think painting probably just because of the texture and colour.

When i look at the scans instantly painting, composition and specifically the texture of  Van Goghs' sunflowers come to mind. This may be linked if i decide to work from these scans non-digitally.

Sunflowers (F.452), Oil on canvas, 60 × 100 cm,Kröller-Müller Museum, Otterlo

Sunflowers (F.375), Oil on canvas, 43.2 x 61 cm, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

What is lost and gained between non digital and digital pixelation ft. Adam Lister (Unit 7)

Adam Liste turns familiar classics and translates them using flat angular shapes. This work include the same control of pixelation that i will control. Choosing how much familiar content to give away for it to be effectively curious. This has also made me  think about pixelating without digital help and to understanding what is lost and gained from it. Something that is lost is accurate colour which was one reason behind using a scanner to get pressingly close to the death and fabric of the insects i use; changing that puts the artists hand and control of colour between the work, which in effect suggests that if i would to get between my work just a little bit why not just choose all of the colours myself.

"Girl with a pearl earing" Johannes Vermmer

(http://mashable.com/2014/04/30/8-bit-watercolor-art/#:eyJzIjoiZiIsImkiOiJfZ2hwemxsbXA1Nng2ZGdrcCJ9

Scans and pixel formats (Unit 7)

Theseare some cropped and pixelated scans of the first bee i scanned digitally.

Bee with no pixelation

12x12 Bee

9x9 cropped bee texture

Tiny ant scan without pixelation

9x9 Ant