t’s really hard to keep up with blogging these days, no thanks to Twitter and my school projects! But nonetheless, I’m armed with a whole load of photos edited and ready to post up here! I’ll continue to blog about my time in UK (in case you are wondering, yes I’m back in Sunny island already!) in the next few blog posts, but for now, here’s the project that I’ve been working on for the past couple of months.
Well technically, it didn’t take THAT long because the bulk of it was rushed within the week I was back here in Singapore. The ideas and concept are the ones that were going back and forth during the entire time.
My little “exhibition” corner looks as simple as it gets; no rah-rah, no fanciful but frivolous decoration. The only thing I can complain about is the stupid distracting pink door in my corner!
A little more about the project: It revolves around this tagline – “Fame is the optical illusion of society.”
It is a comment on society being conditioned to worship fame and celebrity status. Using the metaphor of natural disasters being the adverse effect of stardom, it highlights the downhill that stardom can potentially bring to people. Hence the title, “Heyday/Mayday”.
And as the tagline suggests, I get to play with optical illusions to create this work. Pretty cool stuff that came up in my research but eventually it was a headache to look at all those mind-warping images all day long!
The main bulk of the optical illusion that I utilised is ambiguous imagery. Can you tell which celebrity is hidden in the images?
“Cobainami” – Grunge legend or a lethal wave?
“Monroenado” – Pop culture icon or a deadly swirl?
“Jackruption” – King of pop or a terrifying spill?
If you’ve been following me on Twitter, you would have seen my rant when I did the paper cut! It was driving me crazy to finish within a few days!
The last leg of the installation work was to make this reverspective optical illusion:
The mind-boggling perspective illusion can be seen via the video above! Check it out if you haven’t!
Also, I added in an interactive aspect to the work with the use of QR codes!
So when anyone uses a smartphone with QR code scanner apps to scan the codes at the end of the “tunnels”, they’ll get brief information on the hidden celebrities in the ambiguous images! COOL RIGHT!
Anyhoo, I have yet to receive my grade for this project. Though all of us in class somehow have a hunch that we all did badly for the assignment! Fingers crossed!
It’s not that I’m procrastinating to blog, but everyday is quite packed with things to do that I don’t really have the time to sit down to write about the happenings here in England. That said, I shall just post up some of the nicer shots that I’ve taken so far!
These are all still from way back during the first week in London!
This was a test shot when I changed into my 50mm f/1.8. It’s a really cheap and good lens! Don’t know why I took so long to get it.
Gabriel & Errol. Two of the funniest people in class!
Love the streets of London! The architecture are all so gorgeous!
We went to this place called St. Bride Library. They house everything about the history of type. We got to see some ancient moveable type and printing machines. Very cool!
And these are only the ones taken using my DSLR. There are still photos taken using my iPhone and LX3! Ahhhh so many things to do, so little time!
Tried to compose a couple of panorama shots in London and here are the results!
(click to view the larger version)
They are not perfect, so if you have a pair of keen eyes, you would be able to spot some very harsh editing. I’m gonna try taking more when I’m in Paris this weekend! Hope I’ll be better at it on the next batch or panorama shots!
That’s our first dinner in London. Had to order takeaway pizzas and walked all the way to return to our hotel to eat. The food was already cold by the time we reached back – Not a good experience for a start. It was all thanks to our (irresponsible) lecturer.
I had no internet access but I was so furious at that point of time that I wrote this in my phone while walking back to the hotel:
If you plan an itinerary for your students to grab dinner, you jolly well make sure they end up with the said plan and have some food after a long day of flying.
What’s up with bringing everybody to walk in circles and leave them at a shopping district and say, “Okay that’s it. You are dismissed.” and ending it with a nonchalant wave goodbye?!
Your poor students had nowhere to buy prepaid mobile lines because the retarded “orientation” of yours took so bloody long and all they did was monkey-see-monkey-do, following the person in front and walk. News flash, it wasn’t beneficial at all. They were then left stranded with no idea where to go, or grab decent food for that matter.
Good job dear lecturer.
I’m no longer angry now, but just thought I’d share.
t’s really hard to keep up with blogging these days, no thanks to Twitter and my school projects! But nonetheless, I’m armed with a whole load of photos edited and ready to post up here! I’ll continue to blog about my time in UK (in case you are wondering, yes I’m back in Sunny island already!) in the next few blog posts, but for now, here’s the project that I’ve been working on for the past couple of months.
Fingers crossed!
