Reese's Task Number Three

Gaspar Noe takes advantage of Tokyo’s excessive use of incredibly brilliant neon lights in his film Enter the Void. Their buzzing sounds and colours that fill the atmosphere often reflect the overall mood and experiences of the characters. For example, near the beginning of the film, before Oscar experiences drug-induced hallucinations, there is a part during the scene when the varying lights beyond the balcony become blurred while he begins to feel the effects of the drugs and then momentarily blacks out. These colours emerge again during an abstract psychadelic hallucinatory sequence. I began to think of situations where similar bright and saturated colours could exist in the world naturally and my first thoughts were the aurora borealis and sunrise. The sunrise, in particular, is an often photographed and highly romanticized subject. Google can prove it. I entered "sunrise" while searching through Google images and was provided with pages upon pages of various sunrise photographs. I layered around the first fifty of them together with Photoshop, which resulted in the above image. The quality and distribution of hues are usually the same within each frame, allowing the most dominant ones to hold their position in the final flattened piece. While the forms and structures aren't as distinguishable as in the original Google pictures, the particular harmony of colour, saturation and brightness that are already familiar to us can be easily recognized. This is another example of how personal experiences are often linked to our interpretations of colour, fueling affect and the alluring qualities of an image.

Ar't we better off because of it? Renée Drexler

I found certain images in Gaspar Noe's 

film Enter the Void provocative - specifically

the scene where you see a penis penetrating

a vagina. I wanted to incorporate flesh tones

into this work since I feel these tones evoke desire.

In the process of making this work, I was reminded

of using Crayola pencil crayons to draw when I was a kid.

I remembered never knowing what colour 

to use to draw skin. You usually never got the peachy flesh colour

pencil unless you bought the really big box of crayons. The 

brown and black kids never had that problem because

those colours always came in the 12 pack.

I have no idea what this means:)

However, there may be something uncomfortable in 

the idea of using children's crayons to make provocative 

imagery.

ASSIGNMENT #1, Task #3 by Caitlin Baker

This room is called the 'blue room'.

It is the former bedroom of my boyfriend, Dante's, late father. It was the room I stayed in during reading week, in Thunder Bay, Ontario. As appropriate for an unmarried couple, my boyfriend stayed in another room despite the fact that we have been living with each other for over three years.
The moment I walked into the room and sat on the bed, I looked up to this scene. Left alone with dust motes floating through beams of light, no noise except the distant rumblings of domesticity, I had a moment  that is as close as I can relate to an affective experience. For me, the punctum in this room is the heatbreaking absurdity of the details: this vaccuum of time.
The 70's beach mural paired with the 90's portrait, the 25 year anniversary plaque and medieval catholic imagery, everything is just slightly off kilter. What I love most is how mundane the intent behind the design of the room is. As a guest room, things have been added to the walls quietly over the years, lined up with care then left unvisited until someone like me comes through.
I watched Gaspar Noe's Enter the Void several weeks ago. What resonated with me visually was the intense feeling of what felt like flying through and over the walls like a spirit. I remember a blur of pinky red and a dark humming noise, as though I was experiencing each moment from inside one of the main character's bodies. What I pulled from the movie to relate to this image is the sense of the past, taking a little piece of a room and pausing it to focus on the implications of the scene. While the film was expressive in its ephemeral exploration of memory, this image is stark and banal. For me, there is a equal strangeness to the experience of thinking about the past.

This is the original image I was going to submit to this assignment. I watched Enter the Void a few weeks ago, so the images I can recall feature blurred, sensual colors the seem to melt into each other. This image is inspired by the ending sequence when all the men are having sex at the same time (I don't remember the main character saying this would happen, but apparently it was predicted.) I just remember all the women being on their backs, looking drugged and out of it. While it references the visual and the feeling I get from the film, I still like the first image I submitted for it's strangeness.

Task Three: Katie Stewart

SATURATE

intense luminous color

forcing vibrations within the eye.

abstract composition

with a

subjective representation,

allowing the color

to be the meaning.

Task 3: Caitlin Cox

Gaspar Noe's aesthetic in his film Enter the Void is much different from my own. I've tried to create an affective narrative by using imagery that has been abstracted by varying degrees. The colour palette connects these images. I intend for these images to evoke a sense of nostalgia. The flashbacks in Noe's film recount an untroubled childhood. These images are like snapshots of an innocent discovery of the world. 

Filena Arcia Assignment 1 Task 3

After watching "Enter the Void" I found my self very drawn to the use of saturated colours and neon lights. It was something I saw again and again and I wanted to experiment and see if I could create a sense of confusion and pull with still images using neon signs and colours. I also was drawn to the reference to death as well as religion which got me thinking about the 7 deadly sins (Pride or Vanity, Envy, Lust, Gluttony, Anger, Greed, and Sloth) which merges this idea of death and religion. The 7 deadly sins are also representative of some of the things that go on in the movie. I decided to explore neon signs that had something to do with this theme and warp them to create a collage of seedy red light district feeling images. I want the viewer to almost get lost in the image like I got lost in the visuals of the movie. 
Pride is excessive belief in one's own abilities, that interferes with the individual's recognition of the grace of God. It has been called the sin from which all others arise. Pride is also known as Vanity.
Envy is the desire for others' traits, status, abilities, or situation.
Gluttony is an inordinate desire to consume more than that which one requires.
Lust is an inordinate craving for the pleasures of the body.
Anger is manifested in the individual who spurns love and opts instead for fury. It is also known as Wrath.
Greed is the desire for material wealth or gain, ignoring the realm of the spiritual. It is also called Avarice or Covetousness.
Sloth is the avoidance of physical or spiritual work.

TASK 3: Stefanie Cocuzzo

After watching "Enter the Void", the one thing that I could not help noticing was how the figures, when represented, were almost always showered in this red light. I then decided that is what I wanted to work with. Using coloured gels over my flash I added red and blue flashes of light on my original image, then within photoshop decided to overlay this pattern. I wanted there to be a confusion between the pattern and subject. This fragment of line within the pattern helps to emphasize the jolt of picture stills we are given in the movie and shifting storyline between characters. 

Assignment 1, task3 - Elena Franzese

Ever since I was a toddler, I was able to pick up subtle hues in objects that otherwise appeared to have dull and muted colours.  For example, something like pavement, which appears to be just shades of grey, is something I can look at and see the variations of hues.

The top image is a cropped selection of a Chinese Dragon head that was the front of a roller coaster train for a ride at a Winter Festival I recently went to in Vaughan.  Not only do I like the image, I am using it as a comparison between something that is noticeably colourful and something that appears to not be colourful at all: pavement.  But in the 2nd image, I increased the saturation by 85%, which is a moderate exaggeration of what I pick up with my senses...  The 3rd image is the same photograph of the pavement, with the saturation increased all the way (100%).  At this level of saturation, it's just as colourful and vibrant as the Chinese Dragon.   
I enjoy picking up on the hidden colours in objects; and through art, I love to emphasize them (though I don't do it ALL the time...). 

Filena Arcia Task #2

 The item I cherish most is my baby pillow. It's a tiny pillow stuffed with small feathers that I have had it since I was born. I rarely sleep without it on my bed and when I sleepover at places I try and bring it with me. It sounds childish but there's just something about it that puts me at ease. It's scent is my favourite scent and it is indescribable because its not an average scent like a perfume or candle. It reminds me of simpler times when as kids we only worried about what games to play or shows to watch. You can even say its like my safety blanket and definitely something I would grab if my house went on fire. Its old and stained but I love it. I used the colours of the pillow which are beige/white and light blue. I thought of reasons why I love it and two of the main reasons are because I've had it since I was born and it brings me comfort and ease. I associated light blue to childhood because of the idea that baby blue is for boys and pink is for girls and how most toys fall within theses colours. I took all the blue items I could find that I have had since I was a kid and took close up shots in natural light of each item. I then associated beige/white with tranquility, comfort and ease and so I looked through my stuff to find items that are in that colour range and give me the same feeling. My baby pillow is in both images and I tried to accentuate certain colours for each piece. The setting is my bed since that it were my baby pillow lives.

Task #2 Sarah Ashenhurst

In response to this task i chose the "object" as a tattoo on y body that i have incorporation my parent's wedding flowers into,  them including pink roses.  through experimenting with my thesis i am using old negatives and appropriating them.  I chose to relate this image to this task as for it holds puntum in the flowers on the arch and i would then juxtapose the image with colour which i "eye dropped" from the photograph.

Task 2: Stefanie Cocuzzo

The response for this assignment for me was taking this "object" which is a abstract poster image I have framed at home (actual size about 5x5) and interpret this into a landscape image. I was inspired by the colour in this piece and had that in mind when shooting for this task. I wanted to keep the feeling of the abstract blurriness and unclarity of the image yet create a scene. 

Here is the final image. As you all can see i was inspired by the use of the yellows mostly within the piece, that line running through the image is seen repeated through different elements in my landscape and the hints of green and blue are seen through the windows and sky. 

Assignment 1, task2 - Elena Franzese

The object I chose for the starting point was this mushroom pendant I received for the 1st Christmas with my hubby =).  I summed up the main colours as red-orange and blue-green, but I simplified it to red and blue.

"The color of ocean and sky, blue is perceived as a constant in our lives. As the collective color of the spirit, it invokes rest and can cause the body to produce chemicals that are calming. However, not all blues are serene and sedate." - Kate Smith

Blue has been a constant in my life for more than just the common reasons mentioned in the above quote.  At age 4, I had a strange dream (felt like a nightmare at the time) that I'll never forget.  I crawled through a long dark tunnel that led to a bright white room filled with kids painting pictures on the floor.  One girl in the room asked what colour my brother's hair was.... I was puzzled by the random question, but I still answered, "Brown."  Then for some reason the girl plopped blue paint on my hair; feeling upset and threatened (thought I'd be attacked more if I stayed), I screamed and ran back the way I came.  The tunnel linked to my bedroom, and when I got back, I had actually woken up right at this point, but the dream leaked into reality.  So, above my head, I saw a creepy blue lady ready to grab me.  Screaming again, I ran out of the room.

Ironically enough, I dyed my hair blue later on when I was 19 or 20.


At age 12, I had another dream that involved the colour blue.  Long story short, there was one part where I had put make-up on, and when I looked at my reflection, my whole face was blue (as opposed to just having, say, blue eye shadow), and it looked a little lumpy...just weird.


So, unpleasant dreams involved blue.  However, it has been a positive colour for me, later in life, as well.  The background used in my image for this assignment is a photo of a painting I did; for me, it reflected a meditative state.  Lastly, as for the image of myself with a blue tank top and red hair: I love red and blue together.  I almost always prefer each colour with one another.  As van Gogh once said, "There is no blue without yellow and without orange."  I paired it with red, but it's essentially still paired with a warm colour.

White Canvas by Matin Pezeshgzad

The chantilly lace robe, a vintage garment belonging to my grandmother is the perfect white. It acts here as a blank canvas, projecting an image of a snowy winter scene. I wanted to create a dream like state where the figure resembles the posture of the trees gets lost and blends into the airy environment, and into the subtle tones of green and blue. The softness and simplicity of the image reflects the way that I see and experience the garment.

Assignment #1, Task #2 by Caitlin Baker

I have synesthesia. For as long as I can remember, I have associated every letter and as well as every number with a distinct, vivid color. Because of this, certain words or combinations of numbers can be beautiful or very awkward and ugly. I love the word moon, because M is deep purple, N is just a little bit lighter and more blue. The two encase two charcoal O's to create a velvety texture of (ironically) a moonless night. Certain letters are very similar in color, so if I am typing quickly I can mix up F, N, W, and M if I am writing a new word. I can never remember the numbers 6 and 9 in a sequence because they are an identical light aquamarine.

This is how my mind has always worked, but I am deconstructing these colors and associations for the first time with this project.

I began by searching sea coral, as A is a coral-pink. I quickly found that coral itself is a multifaceted organism with colors that range well beyond my alphabet spectrum, so opted to use it to find all my colors. This task has been a test of extreme concentration. The colors are always there in my mind, but are difficult to focus on with a left, analytical brain. While some colors came very easily, such as the letter H, others had me closing my eyes and running over words I have used for years, like the names of my family members, to seek out the right hue.

I started with blocks of colors, but became frustrated with the inaccuracy of the tones. I then switched to blurred and pixilated lumps of varying colors which I found to be a better representation of the fragmented way in which I "see" these colors.

Above: Original Alphabet with solid blocks of color. 

Below: Second version of color alphabet using pixels as representative of a varying, shifting spectrum.

Once I had an alphabet, I chose one of my favorite books and found a quote I liked to "translate". Once I saw words laid out in this format, I could judge my accuracy. While I didn't get the colors perfect, I can see a resemblance, like I face I recognize but can't quite place where I know it from.

"She was a doll with the stuffing falling out, her button eyes hanging by threads." -Chip Kidd, The Cheese Monkeys

I like the idea of a color language, even if it's one only I can understand. I am most curious to know if other people who see letter and numbers this way would have the same associations as I do.

task two: Kevin Chaves

I've had this little accordion since I was probably 10 or 11 and even though half the keys no longer work and I don't really know how to use it I still seem to always want to take it with me. My god father who is an amazing accordion player gave it to me as a gift and I've always liked it. Being Portuguese, the accordion is essential to traditional Portuguese music (called fado), which a significant portion of my family still participate in. I've always been surrounded by this music and culture and it always reminds of when I was a child.

I used the colour palette (red, blue, and white) to create abstract imagery, which is obscure in order for the viewer to construct their own ideas and notions of what the image could be.

Reese's Task Number Two

My mom bought this GAF Anscomatic 62 Super 8 movie camera during a stay in New York soon after the model’s release in 1971. She was in her early twenties then, living abroad from the Philippines and adjusting to sociocultural differences and a contemporary Western lifestyle. Considering that I am currently around the same age as her when she made most of the film that’s been preserved at home, it’s interesting to compare her footage with my everyday photographs. It’s a generally fun experience hearing my mother reminisce about her time before married life.

For this task, influenced by Rothko’s paintings, I created compositions using a palette consisting of the colours found on my mom’s Anscomatic. The three colours are red, black and grey (in the place of silver). The amount of each colour used is based on its respective percentage of surface area on the camera. These are three of the different shaped canvases I tried, thinking that perhaps the effect of the colours may differ depending on shape and orientation. However, the black is so prominent that it doesn’t seem to matter. In Western culture, black often connotes negative thoughts like evil, depression and death. In one’s aura, it would indicate blockage or something being hidden. Funny how these aspects contrast with the more positive feelings associated with the object from which this color palette originated.

Caitlin Cox: Task 2

This winter has been long and cold. Recently, I've been empathizing with my peers about feeling confined and isolated by the weather. During the day there are a brief few minutes of sunlight in my apartment, which is disheartening, but it's hard to leave because it becomes comfortable indoors. 

The original object would be my apartment. The art object will hopefully convey a feeling of longing through narrative, colour palette and evocative imagery. 

Task 2: Katie Stewart

The eye is the object.
Untrue colors abstract the representation.
Perception is viewed through the eye.
Colors are uncontrollable.

Nostalgia - Renée Drexler

The object is the blue carpet and the decor of the room, which in itself alludes to an era of time that has past.

The theme of this staged photograph is nostalgia.

How can we even begin to explain nostalgia? 

Why do we feel nostalgic of our past? 

And can one only experience nostalgia upon the understanding of mortality?

These questions correlate to the medium of photography which enjoys a brief history compared to other art mediums; yet has strong ties to the past. 

The photograph (as we all know) becomes history the instant the photograph is taken.

This piece uses colour to address the melancholy one may experience when looking at images of the past.

Something is always missing in a photograph. It never quite gives us what we are looking for.

However, the photograph is always somehow familiar.

Einar Örn by Matin Pezeshgzad

 

One of the threads that have been a constant in the photographs I’ve taken is the marriage of the worlds of fashion and art.  For this assignment, I wanted to try bringing in new elements into my existing aesthetic, borrowing from a fashion lookbook I once stumbled upon as well as using male models that I would never usually consider photographing.

I’ve tried to incorporate the elements required in the image in a way that feels unforced – the two blue circular gradients in either corner of the richly patterned tapestry, the missing limbs of the two figures holding it up, and the industrial chain that borders the edge of the photo.  There is both juxtaposition and a sense of falseness in the photograph’s composition, in the main subject’s ghostly complexion and grunge demeanor juxtaposes the floral backdrop, both set against a cold grey background, with two incomplete figures on either side.