Process and Production: Self Deconstruction with Nick Deakin

Self Deconstruction? (Cutting and sticking 101)

Ok so I didn't entirely know what to call this workshop, so I guess self deconstruction seemed like a relevant title. For today's Process and Production with Nick we worked with our self portraits by cutting them up and forming new images out of them. To start off we used our photographs from our student cards enlarged to A4 and cut them up, however Nick didn't have my photograph. Reason why is perhaps down to I was initially part of Group 1 which had a workshop with nick as the first process and production session, but due to nick being absent that session I decided to join I different class that day meaning that I became part of group 3 instead so Nick might have not had my name on the group three list. So instead! I used a photograph of another student who was Absent. For their protection online I chose not to show the original image I used and their name. (some script kiddie hacker boy can probably decipher who it is but who has the time for that?)

Using the guillotine as my primary tool for quickly chopping up the original image I intentionally jumbled up the now cut image. The image was really pixelated originally so it gave me the idea to make a physical glitchy art piece. For this part of the workshop we downscaled the A4 photos to a Sheet of A5 this meant I did a lot of over layering and some trimming down at the edges with the Guillotine. Below is a shot of the amalgamation of chopped parts glued to A5 before I guillotined it down on the edges. 

Although you can't even identify the person at all anymore I really like how it turned out. After guillotining the edges down I took out a pink and blue highlighter and added some coloured glitch streaks to give it that old VCR look. Once highlighted this part of the workshop was complete and each student mounted their work onto the studio's divider walls. Looking at everyone's work and how they are all unique compared to one another, there were a few people who also went down the glitch aesthetic design route for this and yet each of them were distinct from the next. Below is an image of my glitch piece made for this part of the workshop.

Scanner? Scanner.

The second part of the workshop was rather odd but fun nonetheless. Using the scanner in the studio we pressed our faces down onto the screen and scanned ourselves pulling odd faces resulting in an A3 print of our face enveloped in a dark background. It was suggested to position ourselves at an angle to get a better output so i decided to scan my left side so i had my Undercut with the green hair in the scan, and yes the tongue pulling was a necessity. All I can say is it was semi awkward as people watched me scan my dopey face as if I was a secondary school delinquent with access to a photocopier, but my goodness that scanner light is bright. 

After scanning it was time to go to town on the image with the cutting and sticking, I reused the guillotine to randomly chop up the image length ways, that and it was much quicker and more efficient than using scissors and craft knifes. After slicing the image up length ways I stuck them down to an A4 sheet at random heights to give it a hand made distorted look, after sticking it all down I went back to the guillotine and sliced it width ways to chop it up even more to create more distortion. Below is a picture of the facial scan cut up.  







































For the final part of this workshop we got a photograph of ourselves from either our phones or using the scanner again. This time weren't chopping the images but instead created a collage on A2 paper using dotted paper that varied in density. The denser the dots on the paper the darker the paper, the less dense, the lighter and so on. For this i chose to use a recent selfie of myself that i'm using as a profile picture for social media.

Now, first and foremost I suck at this sort of stuff, anatomy and proportion are not my forte at moment. However saying it did give it a go. The problems is however I believe took too long creating the base of the collage and planning things out so when the session was over i ended up with something that was a little bit rushed and disproportionate. Below is the collage I ended up with at the end of the session. Bootiful I know. at least you somewhat tell it's me, I drew on eyes and a jaw line which was later erased, this initially was to help with proportion. 

If I ever had enough time to try this again, I definitely would love to. I don't particularly do much physical design work like this, most if not all of my work is done digitally because i tend to find it easier. But I am always open for brief change of style. 

This concludes All process and production sessions for the first term of the second year. After the 4 week break we will be returning to Jay for some more Cinema 4D, at this moment I don't know what i'll be doing in the workshop but I eagerly await!