Print Me

Stemming from my scanner adventures and my general obsession with the recording of the self in minuscule ways, I wanted to do this thing, playing with the idea of projected personality and identity online through collages made from printed scans and "dumb internet comments" (that's the technical term).

A textural mix of the analogue and digital is achieved through three stages:

1. Scanning. I'm used to scanning my face as part of a long term project (attempting to be lifelong, infact). It's a way of taking my physical self and transferring that, momentarily, into a digital image.
2. Printing. Printing out these scans immediately adds a texture via the lines of ink placement and the texture of the paper. Interesting effects can occur when printer ink is running low. Here it has added a soft pink to images that were originally black and white. I'm trying to mix analogue and digital media by printing out scanned images and re-scanning those images, thus creating a loop of digital transference. 
3. Collage. The subsequent collage phase changes the physicality of those initial digital images further by tearing and layering tangible prints, adding to the analogue distortion which took place during printing, and in a sense solidifying the image in the physical world. The addition of comments pasted over the collages creates a perception of some sort of narrative, although perhaps one which we only have a glimpse of, as they seem part of a conversation. It is probably more powerful due to the absence of a complete conversation or context, as the viewer can imagine where the comments might have stemmed from. This is appropriate as a study of online communication as it is easy to stumble upon bits and pieces of public correspondence that don't make up full conversations, perhaps due to sections being deleted or hidden, whether immediately or over time (which takes us back to the concept of decay).

1. Scanning.

[images lost]

2: Printing.

3: Collage.

Collaging: pt 3 (photo collage again)

I thought it was a good idea to fill an exercise book with photo collages, partially to see how the nature of the collages changed as the book filled up and partially to create a photo album I suppose, and item less common with decreased physical manifestations of photos as tangible mementos/increased digitisation of photos. And it's one of a multitude of different versions of diaries or journals as well.

As the book went on I got and more impatient and less calculated in my methods, much more inclined to just slap anything and everything down at random. This seemed to actually make more dynamic images, suggesting that thinking too much about placement can dilute some sort of compositional variation that allows work to be more interesting via a dynamic spontaneity that occurs otherwise. Of course it's impossible to turn off all thought, so this is debatable in terms of the fact that my placement of images can never properly be random.

I suppose a messy photo album like this could be considered a bit more lifelike than a digital collection of images in the sense that the rips and wonky edges and all of that sort of thing give it an almost more tangible texture in a way, and the grouping and gathering of images as components making up a bigger picture brings a narrative into the collages that isn't present when flipping between images in an online album.

At least blogs and Facebook photo albums aren't so bloody heavy though.