Blog Exercise 5 - Ethics

what the people believe, in this digital act is pretty much controlled by the media and press. people only believe what they see and unfortunately, most of things that people see are from the media and the press who manipulate photos and images to fit their stories. although the degree of manipulation might be different, sometimes even the smallest alteration of an image can change the meaning of the image.

today, it's very hard for readers to differentiate an original from a manipulated photos as people in the industry has become so good at it. the only way that i can think of is to have people know what is going on first before judging whatever they see on the image, be rational and decide for themselves whether the image is really what it seems to be.

as a reader representative, i would tell the reader that it's our job to report things as they are, intact. explain to them about the ethical implications that entail the job of reporting news.

Blog Exercise 4 - Singapore Biennale

Visited the Singapore Biennale 2008 over the weekend and i must say that im pretty impressed by the scale and quality of the artwork that were hosted this year. Although i must say that there were a bit too many artwork that were based on videos (and video stills), maybe they're just not my cup of tea, to each his own i guess.

One of the artwork that i loved most was "Swing 2007", it was a swing made out of neon tubes, swinging in a big empty space alone. the moment i saw it, i was just standing there and watching it swing back and forth. it definitely intrigued me and evoked an uncanny feeling in the space, which was the feeling that the artist was trying to achieve from the artwork.

one artwork then i didn't really get was "The Breathing Room", it was a room with walls made out of PVC screens that will expand and contract, looking like it's "breathing". Maybe it's a bit too profound for me to understand.

an artwork can be made from any space that is given to the artist, or rather, sometimes the artist has no choice but to work with the space given. it is not always neccessary to have a large space to make an elaborate artwork, sometimes less is more and what is more important is that the artwork can make an impact on people.

Assignment 4: Urban Fantasy 1

for assignment 4, we're required to do a photo montage on the theme of "Urban Fantasy". it was pretty tough to conceptualize something like that and the fact that we had to base it on surrealism didn't help much.

concept that i came up with:

"Singapore is a place where buildings get built as fast as they're being teared down and sometimes it seems like buildings appear or disappear all of a sudden. it's almost like whatever we're seeing in reality is like a clipboard in another space/dimension where buildings get moved around like paper on a clipboard."

below are the pictures of the first draft that i came up with and the different components that i took in a day walking around city hall.

urban fantasy

singapore flyer

random bus on the road

bridge opposite esplanade

construction

underpass

critic that i got was that the piece was too logical and not surreal enough. some suggestions were to make it more obvious that it's a clipboard by adding a background of an actual clipboard and have pins on it. there was also another suggestion to make the picture look like it's been torn. time to look for ways to make all those happen.

Blog Exercise 3 - Reading Images

I've been following the Obama election campaign very closely and i try to get whatever i can on information of the Obama campaign. This photo is taken from the Chicago Tribune.

Those have been following the campaign would know that his campaign is focusing on bringing to the US and a light to the new era. This photo just exudes the confidence that he has in bringing change to the country and the light at the light behind him just looks like the light at the end of a very dark era under George W.Bush.