References That Guided Further Iteration
The references below helped me contextualise my initial iterations as an inquiry into how we shape and see things. They guided my iterative process in the second week of this project towards exploring concepts of the constructions of reality and perception, the labor involved in shaping meaning and subsequently the labor involved in interpretation and sense-making.
‘The Girl Chewing Gum’ (1976) Film by John Smith.
- Haraway, D. (1988) ‘Situated Knowledges: The Science Question in Feminism and the Privilege of Partial Perspective.’ Feminist Studies, 14(3). pp. 575–599.
- Rock, M. ([1996] [2009] 2013) ‘Designer As Author’ and ‘Fuck Content.’ Multiple Signatures: On Designers, Authors, Readers and Users. New York: Rizzoli.
- Ross, L. (2014) Language in the Visual Arts: The Interplay of Text and Imagery. Jefferson: Macfarland.
- Sontag, S. (2003) Regarding the Pain of Others. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
- The Girl Chewing Gum. (1976) Directed by John Smith. [Film]
- Margitte, R. (1935). La Clef des Songes. [Oil on Canvas]. Available at: https://www.moma.org/audio/playlist/180/2390 [Accessed: 5th May 2022].
Week Two Iterative Experiments
I began this week’s iterations guided by my references to experiment with the authoritative control held by a designer/author/director over the construction of a narrative and the relationship this ascribed meaning has to a viewers interpretation.
In my iterations I manipulate and obscure viewer perception through, captioning, distorting, repetition and varied sequencing using imagery extracted from unedited documentary footage.
Using the initial 100 iterations, I added 20 more captioned stills – here the images are clear yet the captions are totally unreliable, useless or misleading.
Based on the feedback from the previous week, I wanted to focus on the form, sequencing and narrative potential these 120 iterations hold.
With these 120 image-text combinations, I first created a grid or graphic key, which maps out the sequence of images and their corresponding captions. Each image and corresponding caption are sorted, tagged and coded in a sequence.
I used this graphic key to create a collection of iterative printed publications using different permutations and patterns of the image-text combinations to create multiple distinct narratives.
The publications consist of multiple versions of a singular narrative made up of images and captions that vary in levels of clarity and accuracy.
View all publication iterations through the links below:
Unreliable Narratives: 1
Unreliable Narratives: 2
Unreliable Narratives: 3
Unreliable Narratives: 4
Unreliable Narratives: 5
Unreliable Narratives: 6
Unreliable Narratives: 7
Unreliable Narratives: 8
Unreliable Narratives: 9
Unreliable Narratives: 10
Unreliable Narratives: 11
Unreliable Narratives: 12
Some Questions I Wanted My Iterations To Explore…
How might my work embody the subjective nature of engaging with difficult information? How do we make sense of information? What is the relationship between maker’s intent and viewer’s interpretation? What is the relationship between image, text, sequence and meaning? Can these relationships be challenged?
Feedback Notes
- The project is most successful when the narrative (or poetic) sequence achieves the right balance in levels of clarity and accuracy between the image and corresponding caption.
- The graphic key poster that catalogues each still and corresponding image in sequence and degree of manipulation worked well to contextualise the set of publications created.
- They work best when viewed together as a collection.
- It successfully reflects the intention to create multiple narrative constructions and subsequent interpretations from a single information set.
- The process of understanding the content more as you are experiencing it over a period of time as a whole collection reflects the emphasis on the labor involved in creating, engaging with, and interpreting difficult information.
- There is an optimal range for image manipulation where the intent to challenge the relationship between image and textual interpretation works best. In some of the manipulated stills and accompanying captions it was too difficult to perceive any meaningful formal qualities within the image, leaving the text to narrow the ‘meaning’ too much.