Watching Crows

Today in my convergent media class at the University of Oklahoma our professor had classmates trade iPads which we recorded images, audio and video on each other's devices.  From these three mediums we were to choose one as a launching point to produce another form of media.

I actually was very apprehensive about trading iPads. It's not that I didn't trust my classmate to take care of my device, it's just something I don't do-touch other people's technology. It's like touching someone else's car, You Just Don't Do It!!

After I got over my anxiety with touching other people's "stuff," I recorded various images on my classmate's iPad. I recorded audio clips of the traffic passing the North Oval on campus at OU and the sounds as pedestrians wait at the crossing light. I took a few pictures of a locked door with a keypad, the wooden floor of the art school with a bright light shining into the image and a multi-colored paper mobile which was hanging in the window. I also recorded video of the university's new 3-D printer as it was making some type of head or bust. These are sounds and images which my classmate will use to create his convergent media piece.

Currently I am working with a reoccurring theme of surveillance and the act of watching or being watched.  The images in the video slideshow I have produced were re-appropriated from the Internet and set to an ambient sound captured by fellow media student, Tanner Trammell.  Below is my 33 second piece entitled Watching Crows.


Click on link below or go to: http://vimeo.com/74680716

Watching Crows from Shelly Perkins on Vimeo.


For more information about Shelly's work go to:
www.shellyperkins.com

Finalizing my Project

~~~~ ~~ THE PHOTOGRAPHIC WORKS OF SHELLY PERKINS ~~
~December 12, 2012
In a quest to finalize my project for this semester at the University of Oklahoma, I’ve found that I’m wanting more. I don’t want my project to be over and plan to make additional images for my Wonderland interpretation. I loved getting to know how I work and how I go through the process of making my artwork, from the initial concept and idea down to the final image and large inkjet print. There are a few images that my project will never be complete without, one of which is the White Rabbit. How can Alice go to Wonderland without chasing after the White Rabbit who is always late? (I’m currently on a mission to find a white rabbit that my little Alice could cuddle in a portrait.) Another image I plan to make includes the caterpillar, possibly with a smoking hookah, and finally the Mad Hatter and well, you’ll just have to wait and see about him. The Mad Hatter images I made looked a little too creepy for my final presentation. I wanted to stay away from the creepiness (which is the path I took for my last large project but instead wanted this final class project to have a light-hearted feel to it and to bring back memories of what others may have remembered about “their” Alice for their own childhood. Here is a collage of the final images from my project (albeit finished for the class, but not quite finished for my own personal project). This will be my final posting on my student blog for this Digital Photography at the University of Oklahoma. I’ve had a great time…now Enjoy and Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Have a Blessed New Year!!! ( FOR MORE INFO ON MY ONGOING WORK — CHECK OUT WWW.SHELLYPERKINS.COM )

Shelly Perkins Photography www.shellyperkins.com

My Inner Trip to Wonderland

~~ November 12, 2012 @ 3:50 am My inner trip to Wonderland
I am continuing my journey to my own "Wonderland" and have found many roads I could choose to travel. As I work through my idea and storyline, I relax and let my mind take me on a journey to a make-believe space and to a time which is always speeding along, too quickly and yet it almost stands still. I find inspiration all around in small objects that are often missed or ignored and I feel compelled to photograph these small details, up-close in a minimalist way, keeping the images simple to show the importance of each object. I have photographed Alice's legs and feet. This is a tool which are going to take us to our adventure through Wonderland and Alice's dreams. We notice the key and wonder what kind of door it might open. We see a stack of disheveled cards with the Queen of Hearts on the top to show the domination the queen possesses. A purple, fat, whimsical cat looks the viewer in the eye while other images of clocks and time pieces have importance to the story. Each small part helps to represent the larger part of depth of the story of Alice's journey.

Into the Digital

Into the Digital

Photography has evolved in a changing society from the mechanical to the digital. Names found in natural everyday objects are given to products and devices to make consumers feel more comfortable with welcoming them into their lives. People in advanced societies have embraced the “digital age” as the changes in photography could not be stopped. Touch has been reduced to clicking and sight has been reduced to a rectangular shape.

Computers have made “users” out of people like drug addicts who buy software and must continually check their email. Digital media translates everything into a flat space, “redefining space and time.” Binary code can be viewed as musical notes and designers can be seen as musical composers writing great symphonies. Digital photography is no longer a “visible reality” but it is something that can be manipulated for new meaning or something created out of nothing but numbers.

Photography has now become a constant in everyday life. What was once a dance between the photographer and the image viewer is now quickly viewed and discarded. As one Microsoft employee explained people now function with “continuous partial attention.”

Photography of today can be viewed as a process with advanced and efficient tools to capture images but we are living in an “evolution in media.” An analogy to the automobile teaches us how a tool can change the way people live and exist. Transportation on horses kept most events local but with the invention of the automobile, people can work, travel for leisure and live at a distance from family. Even wars could now be fought at a distance because of the invention of the automobile and modes of transportation other than the horse. As the digital revolution occurred it was considered the “information superhighway” which will take you where you want to go.

Photography has become an interpretation of the “real.” Constantly digital cameras and cell phones track our everyday mundane activities that are blasted on the “information superhighway,” quickly viewed and discarded from memory. We add text to explain the scene as if to give our trip to the store or football game more meaning. We no longer photograph images to really “see” the “real” but photograph to prove our existence. We capture quick images to make our lives seem worthwhile and less average. We are now caught up in a movement where photography has lost its meaning and is now just a moment in time, quickly discarded as we move to the next moment.

Response to reading, Into the Digital by Fred Ritchin All quotes credited to Fred Ritchin

Shelly Perkins Photography www.shellyperkins.com