4d

Experimentation, sketchbook scans, and final artwork planning for Block 1: 4D.

'look at you'

part a

Part A in Block 1, I was given the prompt: "The Window", so to brainstorm I sketched out anything that reminded me of a window or an opening; a new beginning. From there, since I knew I wanted to make something time-based, making a digital collage on Photoshop allowed me to form an idea of what my final work was going to convey.

th3 f1r5t dr4ft..

My first take at the digital collage manifested itself into this. I had no plan, I was just throwing random things that reminded me of being online at a young age onto Photoshop and hoping for the best. I think this work is better as a standalone image because of how much content is already in it - there are more hand-drawn elements in this piece, and more words.

Things I liked:

Use of clouds in the background
The Windows XP borders
The 3D asset in the top right (but I didn’t end up using any 3D effects because I wanted to rely on the blinking of GIFs and sound to convey my thoughts - doing this in a 2D manner felt more cohesive for the moving image. BUT I would like to go back to this sort of style - where 3D and 2D forms merge into one piece

Things I didn’t like:

The illustrated ‘bugs’ and the virus warning (also a “Local Moms in your area” ad) - these aspects of the piece didn’t seem to resonate with the message I was trying to convey, it almost felt too niche to include these experiences. I think the final piece was more manageable without the inclusion of words or phrases that alluded to the expulsion of the user from the internet (like ‘WARNING’ and ‘touch grass’).
I think including phrases into the image forced the audience to think a certain way which isn’t what I wanted to communicate. Allowing people to associate their own experiences with the internet to my generic/nostalgic artwork was the goal.
I think the lack of internet culture in this work made it feel lifeless.

Screenshot of animating process in Premiere Pro.

GIFs from GIPHY, sounds from Mixkit. Using still image as a base for the animation.

Screenshot of still image in Photoshop.

Collage with stock images, screenshots, Unity assets, photographs, and Photoshop brush tool.

'l00k at y0u. Start-up, User1User2, Shut-down'

part b

For Part B, I took the GIFs from Part A's video and dissected them for a series of images that were similar but not the same. The original concept was going to be each frame of the GIFs printed out and stuck to the wall to create something like a timeline - with some frames being switched out or completely omitted to create a "glitching in real life" effect. Ultimately, I landed on a very makeshift interactive piece with tiny paper cursors and tape, seen here.