Assignment 1 - Scanography
'Death'
As I looked through the props provided for us to use for this project, the pills piqued my interest the most because they bring to mind the image of a suicide attempt via overdosing on pills. In the picture below, the photograph on the left depicts two dishes containing pills, representing an hourglass. The photograph on the right is the same image, but with empty pill strips scattered at the sides. I would title the photograph on the left 'Death' and the one on the right 'Suicide'. This is because an hourglass is a typical symbol of one's remaining life and symbolises the imminence of death. The empty pill strips in the picture on the right imply that the imminence of death has been caused via unnatural means; they may also be interpreted in a more literal way as the aftermath of someone who has taken an overdose on pills.
The following photographs depict one's descent into the pain and darkness of death, and are a continuation of the 'suicide' theme. This photograph depicts helpless and lifeless hands bathed in blood-red light after an overdose attempt on pills. I used a red filter for this photograph to set a menacing and sinister mood.
This photograph depicts another method which one may take his or her own life by - the dish of pills, in this photograph, would represent one's life, or perhaps one's heart.
This photograph depicts yet another way one may bring death upon themselves - via cutting. The pills represent blood splatters in this photograph. The red filter performed a wonderful job of giving the pills a bright red tint, making them look like blood. In my initial scans, I had some translucent pills on the scanner which did not attain the bright red tint from the red filter, so I removed them for this photograph.
My final image is that of an agonised face, signifying the anguish and torment experienced by a person before death, with hands stretched out in attempt to stop the pain from approaching, but are unable to save themselves.
Week 1 - Reflection
This week's lesson is on the first day of school and the first class for us. We learnt about what experimental photography was, and about scanography. I was surprised that there were people who used scanners to take photographs because it is certainly an unconventional way of achieving that purpose. I experimented with the props and looked up references online to produce the following works above. These were some of the works that gave me inspiration for some of my photographs.
I would never have thought of scanning my face or hands if not for these references! Besides the photographs that I have uploaded above, I also experimented with other scanography techniques, such as implementing movement in the photograph.
I tried moving the dishes of pills around while scanning to create movement, and was pleased with the results. I thought that the pills, under the red filter, looked like the blobs in a lava lamp, or perhaps red blood cells. I liked how my first photograph ended up looking like a sine curve.
These were some of my earlier scans as well, which I made while I was experimenting with the effect of moving objects while scanning them. I like the distorted effect that it resulted in, as it reminds me of Salvador Dali's works.
These were some of the early versions of the scans that I have selected above. I had to re-scan most of the images as I would notice mistakes such as white areas due to the red filter being creased or unintended distortions due to accidental movements. I also made the mistake of pressing 'Preview', making my movement on the scanner and forgetting that I have to make the exact same movement for the actual scan.
All in all, I felt that scanography was an unusual but very interesting topic. I was impressed that our lecturer would buy about 20 scanners and carry them all on a trolley just to let us use them in class! As an aspiring artist, I was excited to discover a new art medium - scanners - and look forward to using them again for my future works!
