Major Project 1
Week 1: Research
Victor and I are going to work together.
The subject we decided to work on is Empty Cities.
We were wondering how a city that is always full of life and boiling with activity would look like if it was empty.
After doing some research and looking at some already existing pictures of empty cities, we found out that the reason why we are attracted by images of empty cities is because we are very self-centred: we tend to see faces where there are none and in any photo where there is at least one person, our eye automatically is drawn to it. So in case of an image of emptiness, our eye is lost and so we tend to notice what is happening in the background that becomes the foreground.
The subject we decided to work on is Empty Cities.
We were wondering how a city that is always full of life and boiling with activity would look like if it was empty.
After doing some research and looking at some already existing pictures of empty cities, we found out that the reason why we are attracted by images of empty cities is because we are very self-centred: we tend to see faces where there are none and in any photo where there is at least one person, our eye automatically is drawn to it. So in case of an image of emptiness, our eye is lost and so we tend to notice what is happening in the background that becomes the foreground.
Creds to Victor Le
Links to relevant website:
Why Do We Love Images Of Emptiness? Scientists And Artists Explain: https://www.fastcodesign.com/3062926/why-do-we-love-images-of-empty-spaces-neuroscientists-and-artists-explain
Welcome to The World's Largest Ghost City: Ordos, China: https://gizmodo.com/welcome-to-the-worlds-largest-ghost-city-ordos-china-1541512511
Neighbourhood Full Of Million-Dollar Homes Is Now An Eerie Ghost Town: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/neighborhood-full-of-million-dollar-homes-is-now-an_us_59125bdae4b0e3bb894d5bab
Why Do We Love Images Of Emptiness? Scientists And Artists Explain: https://www.fastcodesign.com/3062926/why-do-we-love-images-of-empty-spaces-neuroscientists-and-artists-explain
Welcome to The World's Largest Ghost City: Ordos, China: https://gizmodo.com/welcome-to-the-worlds-largest-ghost-city-ordos-china-1541512511
Neighbourhood Full Of Million-Dollar Homes Is Now An Eerie Ghost Town: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/neighborhood-full-of-million-dollar-homes-is-now-an_us_59125bdae4b0e3bb894d5bab
Week 2: Brainstorming
Now that we have the subject, we need a theme.
We decided to go with "A day after the Nuclear Bomb".
With the Nuclear tension at its highest sins the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, we were wondering how Montreal would look like after North Korea launches its missiles at Washington DC (for example).
People would be too scared to go out because of nuclear radiation. Places where it's usually packed with people and tourists would be deserted and Montreal would transform into a ghost town.
We don't want to take pictures at night because obviously it would be empty because it's night. We want to take pictures where it's in the middle of the day when it's most busy to have a contrast.
Of cours during the day we will never have busy places empty of people so we decided to do a time-lapse of well known places in Montreal. For each place we would divide them into small strips on Photoshop and reconstitute them with the parts where there are no humans in the picture so that we would have a whole image where there is no one.
We decided to go with "A day after the Nuclear Bomb".
With the Nuclear tension at its highest sins the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, we were wondering how Montreal would look like after North Korea launches its missiles at Washington DC (for example).
People would be too scared to go out because of nuclear radiation. Places where it's usually packed with people and tourists would be deserted and Montreal would transform into a ghost town.
We don't want to take pictures at night because obviously it would be empty because it's night. We want to take pictures where it's in the middle of the day when it's most busy to have a contrast.
Of cours during the day we will never have busy places empty of people so we decided to do a time-lapse of well known places in Montreal. For each place we would divide them into small strips on Photoshop and reconstitute them with the parts where there are no humans in the picture so that we would have a whole image where there is no one.
Week 3: Taking pictures and working on the book
On Sunday the 1st, Victor and I hit the streets of Montreal to take pictures. We went to the Cartier des Spectacles, the MAC museum, the Cathedral Notre Dame, China Town and Old Port.
Those are some of the many well known places in Montreal that we went to. I really wanted to go to the Biôdome of MTL and Parc de la Fontaine.
Victor started working on the photos while I started working on the booklet that come with it. On top of images we will include text. The text will be centred on people although we don't have any people in our pictures: for each image there will be a text talking about a specific individual and what they were supposed to do the day after the big event happened.
For the images we looked up on the internet so see easy ways on how to photoshop the images.
Here is the link:
https://lifehacker.com/remove-people-from-your-photos-with-this-photoshop-scri-1245505649
Those are some of the many well known places in Montreal that we went to. I really wanted to go to the Biôdome of MTL and Parc de la Fontaine.
Victor started working on the photos while I started working on the booklet that come with it. On top of images we will include text. The text will be centred on people although we don't have any people in our pictures: for each image there will be a text talking about a specific individual and what they were supposed to do the day after the big event happened.
For the images we looked up on the internet so see easy ways on how to photoshop the images.
Here is the link:
https://lifehacker.com/remove-people-from-your-photos-with-this-photoshop-scri-1245505649
Week 4: Process and Presentation
So after walking around Montreal on week 3 it was time to edit the images. When I started working on them to remove all the people, we noticed that some locations that we shot were pretty hard: in China Town and the Notre-Dame Cathedral there was a lot of tourists bumping into us and coming in the way of the camera so it was a living hell to edit each person out. I asked Victor to go to the Biôdome and the Olympic Stadium to take two more locations.
I documented everything on Snapchat (of course) when we were taking the pictures. People would stare at us like "how dare you take pictures of us" kind of way.
Back to the subject on hand: while Victor was taking the pictures of the two new locations and I continued editing the pictures and doing the booklet that came with the poster. I first edited the picture we wanted to be big and sent it to Rubiks one week before to be sure it printed well on the inkjet printer. As for the booklet I worked on it during the weekend and Victor corrected the spelling mistakes. We printed it the day before the presentation and assembled them in the VC lab.
During the presentation I was happy that people responded well to it. The ideal would have been to do like an exhibition so that people would walk around and see the pictures full scale: it would have had a bigger impact on people.
I am happy with the final result; this must have been the least stressful project I have worked on until now and It was also fun (walking around Montreal and rediscovering it). I would love to continue this project with Victor and maybe send it to a gallery to make awareness of how the Nuclear war threat it very present although we don't really feel it.
Back to the subject on hand: while Victor was taking the pictures of the two new locations and I continued editing the pictures and doing the booklet that came with the poster. I first edited the picture we wanted to be big and sent it to Rubiks one week before to be sure it printed well on the inkjet printer. As for the booklet I worked on it during the weekend and Victor corrected the spelling mistakes. We printed it the day before the presentation and assembled them in the VC lab.
During the presentation I was happy that people responded well to it. The ideal would have been to do like an exhibition so that people would walk around and see the pictures full scale: it would have had a bigger impact on people.
I am happy with the final result; this must have been the least stressful project I have worked on until now and It was also fun (walking around Montreal and rediscovering it). I would love to continue this project with Victor and maybe send it to a gallery to make awareness of how the Nuclear war threat it very present although we don't really feel it.
Major Project 2
Week 1: Thought Process
From the beginning I knew I wanted to talk about discrimination. This is a subject that affects me personally and I wanted to show what it is. Discrimination is present in out day to day lives whether you do a racist comment or act weirdly in the presence of an other person (for example feeling threatened and tens up by an African American when he comes into the elevator with you).
I still don't know which angle to go with, I am still exploring. But I would love to do a video animation depicting discrimination and showing how it is still very present in our everyday lives.
I still don't know which angle to go with, I am still exploring. But I would love to do a video animation depicting discrimination and showing how it is still very present in our everyday lives.
Week 2: Dig Deeper
After talking with other students about my subject and telling them I didn't know what approach to go with. We discussed the presentation about Pantone colours and how there are some trends that just come and goes. Then I told them how even with discrimination there are "trends" and how some forms of discriminations tend to resurface and take the spotlight.
This gave me the idea of doing Pantone Discrimination of the past "trends" like during the gay rights moments and equal marriage rights, then with the black lives movements and now with the muslim issue.
I am still not sure if I will do a booklet like the Pantone booklet and will write on the back of each card a small historical explanation or a big poster with the Pantone "Colour" that I will do and will hand them on the wall.
This gave me the idea of doing Pantone Discrimination of the past "trends" like during the gay rights moments and equal marriage rights, then with the black lives movements and now with the muslim issue.
I am still not sure if I will do a booklet like the Pantone booklet and will write on the back of each card a small historical explanation or a big poster with the Pantone "Colour" that I will do and will hand them on the wall.
Week 3: Lost
I thought I knew where I was going but I did not...
So I am lost... AF... help.......... :'(
So I am lost... AF... help.......... :'(
Week 4: Mockup
My main subject is Discrimination but there are so many grounds of discrimination that I thought maybe narrow it down to racial discrimination.
I will be doing a series of Pantone-like cards depicting different types of racial discrimination during the ages and do a timeline by showing how they are presented in the media and how much emphasis it is put on them in the media with the density of newspaper snippets put in.
I will then layer it with an already existing Pantone color with low opacity to show that media focuses on things "en vogue" and when it is no longer "cool" to talk about it they just change the subject just like the new Pantone color every year.
I will be doing a series of Pantone-like cards depicting different types of racial discrimination during the ages and do a timeline by showing how they are presented in the media and how much emphasis it is put on them in the media with the density of newspaper snippets put in.
I will then layer it with an already existing Pantone color with low opacity to show that media focuses on things "en vogue" and when it is no longer "cool" to talk about it they just change the subject just like the new Pantone color every year.
Week 5: Final Presentation
5 days before the presentation I had a problem with my project: I wasn't sure what to do with the white space beneath the journal snippets, then I had the idea of doing fact cards.
I am pretty satisfied with the final product. While doing this project I learned a lot about Islam and I saw how horribly the world see's them.
My main objective in this project is to inform people about the real Islam and make the aware that what they see in the media is not always right, it mostly taps into their fear and insecurities.
I am pretty satisfied with the final product. While doing this project I learned a lot about Islam and I saw how horribly the world see's them.
My main objective in this project is to inform people about the real Islam and make the aware that what they see in the media is not always right, it mostly taps into their fear and insecurities.