Overwhelmed

I think I have come to a point in my project where I need to simplify and condense my ideas to form a strong outcome. At the moment I have so many ideas but haven’t moved forward with any of them because I feel overwhelmed. Interestingly, I am drawn back to my original idea of a magazine, this is the only idea which I can feel progression with.

I started to form a magazine spread out of some of my images and found a real love for this process. I think it reflects my concept of embracing life’s little luxuries, removing too much digital interruption and reverting back to simpler times. Throughout this project I have created a few narratives, including doom scrolling, behind the scenes of ballet and finding joy in lockdown. I couldn’t see a way to merge these together without looking random. I am working towards formulating a solid concept for my final outcome.

Throughout my FMP I have been developing disposable cameras through the website Filmprocessing.co.uk. I have admired their customer service and quick turn around times. Today I received another disposable camera back from a girl I found on Instagram who is well known for producing positive prints to inspire women. I asked her to document her day with consideration to take pictures of things that she usually wouldn’t in hopes that this would produce raw imagery.

Due to her personal complications she could not devote enough time to this project as we would’ve hoped. This is shown in the images, she has simply documented her finished prints with little insight into her life being a woman working through hard times. On the other had, the images I took to fill the remaining film are some of my best shots from disposable cameras. The colours turned out amazing and truly captured the essence of a lockdown walk.

Today I finally received a disposable camera back which was sent out in January. There were some personal complications with the receiver and therefore the process was delayed. I sent it off to get developed immediately and am hoping they will be useful in these late stages of my project. The camera came back only half used so I decided to fill the remaining film with personal day in the life shots. I took the camera on my walk (being in lockdown its the only interesting thing to do) and snapped interesting/ colourful close ups. I wanted these to reflect the new found appreciation for smaller things in life due to the pandemic. This relates to my previous research into little luxuries, finding beauty in things we usually would overlook and setting expectations low.

Throughout this project I had wanted to use my scanner distortion technique on typography. As of yet I do not have personal typography content for this project and instead of spending time creating these I decided to test the outcomes first. I dug out my magazine archive where I removed interesting pages to scan. This started out purely focussed on text but quickly developed into a collage technique.

The outcomes worked well in correlation to my project. The work fits in with the rest of my experiments but adds another layer of context by introducing typography. I would like to see how this technique works with some of my own text layouts/ article spreads. Although the collage outcomes are interesting in their own right.

Inspiring images on Pinterest:

My outcomes:

In order to continue my experimentation through lockdown whilst sticking to my values of process and imperfection I decided to create my own lenses. In this weeks tutorial I discussed creating a mock disposable sleeve to cover a smart phone, making images imperfect and raw.

Initial ideas were to recreate the paper sleeve to wrap around the smart phone covering the screen and distorting the camera image. Again, this is the perfect blend between analogue and digital.

I started to experiment with mirrored card, acrylic and craft paper to attempt to achieve kaleidoscope, pinhole and fish eye effects. Through out this project I have found great enjoyment in craft and process which is why  I have developed this idea. The image below shows my first attempt at creating lenses.

I listened to a podcast today where the hosts were discussing social comparison along with their own experiences of this. What stuck with me most was when one of the hosts said ‘social media is a distorted version of reality’. I realised that my work portrays this statement without me originally making the connection. My scanner distorted images mock the distortion we see on social media by taking it to the extreme. On social media it is easy to upload filtered and photoshopped pictures and play them off as genuine. It is this which causes negative comparison as the viewer strives for something which is not even reality.

Podcast – Overcoming comparison culture – Cimoreli- Youtube.

Until I can source a MAC to be able to use the full functions of this software I decided to explore the basic app functions. It was important for me to understand how to navigate through each screen to make sure my final prototype is fluid and aligns.

Attached to this post is my VERY basic first prototype to show that I have explored the software’s functions in preparation for my final outcome. I like how the software lets you navigate through the screens similar to a real working app which is extremely user friendly.

Today I set myself the challenge of navigating Adobe XD and create a test prototype. After hours of figuring the app out it came to my attention that my computer is not compatible with all the functions. This is a huge disruption for me, in order to gain access to the UI Apple kits, to make my work look professional, I need to be operating on a MAC. Next challenge find a MAC …

Designing and Prototyping a Mobile App with Adobe XD  by Paul Trani

Building on my idea of producing an interactive app for my outcome I decided to utilise LinkedIn Learning and test of my idea is viable. Chris Aaron brought up the idea of following a tutorial on this platform to learn how app design works. We decided to explore Adobe XD as it had been recommended to Chris before.

I watched a long tutorial for beginners by Paul Trani, I realised that the functions of the app were similar to other Adobe apps which I have experience with. Adobe XD essentially creates a prototype for you app with working commands and mimics the functions of a regular app.

Therefore, I think this tool will be extremely useful in developing my prototype app and I can move forward with this idea.

The purpose of this tutorial was to convey a clear outcome for our FMP and our intentions of how to get there. As I have already discussed, this week I questioned my original idea which led me to consider different possibilities.

I decided to leave the idea of publishing a magazine because I feel it conflicts my objectives by opening viewers up to comparison. Throughout my research I found that they best way to avoid comparison is to find your own alignment. This helps keep you on your own path without distractions from others.

I decided to invest in creating a piece of media which readers can personalise to fulfil their own goals and have physical evidence of their individual journeys. I described this as a self expression workbook/ journal, although when relaying this to my tutor It was bought to my attention that an app might an interesting outcome. I had already completed some notification pop ups which helped form this idea – found linked here: Notification

We discussed how my work finds the line between physical craft and digital techniques. An app may be a nice diffusion of the two mediums and makes sense because people who struggle with comparison would have devices capable of downloading apps.

The workbook idea could be incorporated into the app but essentially the app would include my notification pop ups to remind users about what really matters and to attempt to stop them comparing themselves online. The app would use friendly and casual language so that it is not intimidating. It could tell you when you are spending too much time online and give you suggestions of activities to do.

Today I am experimenting with Adobe XD to see if this idea is viable in the time limit set by this project. I have never used this software before and would like to test it before fully committing.