📝






Fedre’s Y4
Learning Journal

 1. Main page
2. Process overview
3. Walks
4. 35mm film photographies
5. Runway experiments
6. Midjourney experiments                        (I)
7. 35mm film experiments
8. W I P
9. Midjourney experiments                       (II)
10. Lightbox process
11. Processing 
12. Final outcome

35mm film experiments





thinking about how to present the midjourney-generated images +++

a collection of the pictures



Initial ideas and tests on how to resolve the presentation of the images I did in Midjourney. Thoughts on how to present it for WIP, and degree show after that.





First tests:

I started thinking about how to present my pictures and the generated ones by focusing on the feelings that analog pictures give me. I wanted to transmit this rawness that analog has, but I was still unsure on what medium to use. So I started thinking how to translate digital to analog. At this point I saw an artist I follow on instagram talking about SSTV signals. His ethos is well resumed on the following picture:

“There are enough content creators. We need content destructors”. - LINK
(Audio is muted for convenience) LINK TO THE VIDEO




Digital to analog:

At this point I started thinking about what other methods could be interesting to show that would also inform the idea of cycles and rythms that I was exploring. The methods I started thinking about above revealed potential paths, and they could have worked with this idea of memories feeling like a dream to the past, where we feel dettached to them - maybe it would have been interesting to link it with the loss of information we get sometimes with analog, but also when we transform information from analog to digital or digital to analog. 

I started doing a few tests with the SSTV encoder, here are some of the audio files:











Here are some results from decoded images: 


I also started using Ableton to change the pitch of the sound, I applied delay, and use a few sound effects to see what results I could get. Those results can be seen in the images avobe. I liked the idea of using sound as a medium, and modifying it in order to get different results in this communication. This made me think about the loss of information in this way of communication and how memories behave similarly: we reimagine our memories every time we remember them, and sometimes some information gets lost in this process and new information gets gained. I want to convey this idea somehow.

Thinking about how I could apply this I hit a wall. I thought about creating a processing sketch that behaved in a similar way, but didn’t really hit the spot. Automatasing this process would lose this idea about analog I explained above and I did like it. I wanted to do something that would use transform something digital onto analog (to gain and lose information).

I reflected on the pictures, the format they come in, how they are captured, but I haven’t reflected on the negatives much yet! The negatives are sometimes overlooked. When we get the pictures back after developing the film, we look at the pictures, but never the negatives! And yet, the negatives hold everything. All the information is there, waiting to be translated. Sometimes the negatives feel out of reach, in the sense that we cannot process their information straight away. We can guess, our brain does some efforts automatically to fill in the gaps of information we’re missing, and it seems like we can even read what is going on on those small pictures. Suddenly it feels somehow familiar, but at the same time we’re missing so much.

Things do change shape or feeling when they move between formats. Memories sometimes feel like that too - familiar but altered, familiar but distant, and sometimes unfamiliar in a way that still feels certain, like we know it happened but can’t quite say how or why.





Exploring the negatives:

I started thinking on how I could do this digital to analog with a roll of film. I contacted the photography department in GSA and recommended me to project my pictures with a high quality project and take pictures of them with a professional film camera. I did consider this idea, but thought the process could be perceived when looking at the negatives (like it would be obvious to some people that I did that). I was afraid to risk time and money on that, and did some research on alternative methods. 

I found this video tutorial explaining how they did it and turns out there is a machine that does it.

The video is from a person that lives in the US, so I did some research on who would do this process for me here in the UK. I found this website that seemed fast an reliable (WIP was approaching) and though about giving it a shot! When I was about to submit my order, I realised it would cost me +100£ to do that... There was the option of ordering less pictures - so it would be chepaer - but they had to be 36. I wanted to reproduce the experience of having a roll of film developed. It had to look like they were real pictures form a real film. I was back to square one. I phoned around and finally managed to find someone else with this machine in the UK. There ar just a few, and it is an expensive process. 

This person told me 1 full roll with 36 pictures would cost me 40£ + postage, which was way more affordable and went for it! I chose to use colour negatives.

Next step was to do a mix of my photos and the ones generated by midjourney. To do this I tried to convey a similar pattern of photos to those I had in my own film rolls.

This is the final selection I did:







I have the roll, now what?:

I got the roll back - not developed - so started thinking what to do with it. I thought about processing it myself (I did a course on how to develop film and pictures), and thought it would be fun to do it myself. Again, WIP was approaching and I didn’t know if I could do the process in GSA. I even considered at this point to take it into a special lab to do it, to avoid SnappySnaps and its automated process.

This made me reflect on the why. Why develop that film when I never do it with my own films? I always go for convenience, I want to have my pictures as soon as possible and I always go to snappy snaps. So, to match my process and my idea behind rythms and cycles around film photography I decided to do the cycles I always do: go to snappy snaps and wait 24h for my film to be developed - or pay extra to have it in 1h.

 
(missing reflection on how the pictures look on colour negative film)






Second roll of film:

This is the selection of photos I did for the second roll of film (this one was to complete my lightbox for my final outcome:



To see how the films look head over to the Lightbox section!