Village Architecture Mishaps

village-jim-grooms_John I was out walking on my way to a bungalow design session for #7. I was a little concerned as I don’t know who #7 is or what his history is in the village. After taking the hidden shots of different signs in the Village I have been a little on edge not knowing who is a friend, who is a guardian, who is a warder – or if friends have gone to a different side. Perhaps this is how isolation happens? I need to work on making sure it doesn’t overcome – so I walked faster and looked up instead of down to not cause attention and to see what was around.

Being that I look for design, form and function I started looking at the architecture. In assimilation I was taken around and all looked so perfect and maintained. Being out on my own, I found other areas where things were not always perfect. Could these have been experiments or just buildings added on to multiple times?

Take a look – The first is a huge structure – not sure who resides in it.

The second was a dead-end I turned into when trying to find #7’s bungalow. You would think #7 would be right next to #6 – but resident numbers don’t always seem to go in order.

Process:  Photos were created as an attempt at VisualAssignments954 where you are to take multiple photos of buildings and splice then together to make a new structure. There were no submissions to this assignment, but it sounded a fit for Summer2015 in Prisoner and in Burgeron106. Using a photo editor – I chose Photoshop. The utterly fantastical portfolio of work created by Jim Kazanjian, was inspirational – but not attainable in these first runs – but do make me want to explore more and try. 

The time sucker is finding photos – lots of looking at photos, licenses and rights, quality, parts of buildings, perspective. Color was not an issue as turning them black and white when finished pulls it together. 

I wasn’t sure on canvas size either. Doing this again I think I would start with a large canvas to allow for adding and providing enough white space for environment to be added effectively. I was constrained by what I had started.

You need to be in the mood for lots of manipulations. My strength is not perspective – which seems to be critical. Looking and using flips of pictures helps. The Warp feature in Photoshop became more useful than scale and skew or perspective.

It was fun and I certainly think I would do again. The discussion boards for the artist argue over if this is art, is it photography etc. Nothing I was really interested in getting involved with as an opinion. It is what it is. 

Signs, Signs, Everywhere Signs

village-jim-grooms_John@mdvfunes asked if I had seen any signs on my walks through the Village.

I did! – But you know they are watching! So I carefully placed a  camera in my hat and tried to capture some of the signs as best I could for Mariana to research. Because of the covert mission – they are not following any artistic or creative interpretations – pretty much pointing the lens as directly as I could and snapping.

I hope I don’t get in trouble – Number Six did this too and we know what happened with him.

Good Luck Mariana – I am not sure what these all mean, but they raise questions.

Here is the album of photos of the signs.

A few stand out to me-

Who is number 7?

Who is #7?

A bar with no alcohol?

Non-Alcoholic?

And I thought this guy retired a few times? Maybe he really resigned?

A big deal!

 

 

Photos of Information – but whose side?

no6wcamera at fountainvillage-jim-grooms_JohnA photo safari as a resident in the Village is a challenge. It does need looking at the Village differently and in finding meaning in what is right under our noses. Will this assignment keep us from becoming fully assimilated? Or are there hidden subliminal messages in the village to convince us in accepting our stay and conforming? Will the photo safari make you independent or conform? How will viewing other resident photo safari interpretations sway our thoughts? Are the warders setting us up for conforming or escaping?

 

Imprisonment

The photo above is from the deck of my village bungalow. A hint of the lovely gardens provided for our pleasure – but I also noticed at this time through shadows that we are imprisoned! A beautiful path that is fenced so that we can not go farther – the confines of boundaries everywhere and amplified by the late afternoon shadows that I would not have seen if not taking photos.

Photo Safari Album – I am a collector by nature and one who finds looking at things in multiple points of views and arrangements before choosing is necessary and enjoyable. And once chosen is looked at again for yet another iteration. I am going to continue to shoot as I remember during this week and at week’s end see if I have come up with pictures to convey the subjects requested in a later post.

Information is in art. Keep your eyes and mind open. Will you find information in your photos? Will the photos help you in escape? Do you need to escape? Will the photos help you accept your stay?

When asking “What does it mean?” and being told “it is what it is.” , really a reminder not to seek information and an effort for residents not to look deeper –  that information is only for No. 2 and the committee?

I am still figuring this out and will need to gather more photos to check for messages.

n06wcamera Be seeing you.

Vintage style TV shows visitors the Village

village-jim-grooms_JohnI was sent to a resident bungalow this week to help in creating a new arrangement for the occupant.

First priming and painting were done first. The resident decided on Rye Grass green for wall color  – it reminded him of when he was a child and felt like all the cares in his world were lifted by laying in the grass.

In order to conform he needed to have a TV installed. Keeping with the vintage style it was built in to a space and has a retro feel about it. The lion planters are add as decor.

When testing the TV stations it seemed I was able to get an outside signal. Gnomes kept showing up on different channels. I am not sure how I got the signal – but there must be some information in the programming that is running. Either that or as I was teleporting some of them were in the tele-porter with me and are now residents in the Village too!

Be careful – these Gnomes are not usually able to be seen and now they are broadcasting n the Village! Must be some information that needs to be sleuthed.

 

Art is Information: Announcements

village-jim-grooms_John Audio Week!

I have a love hate relationship with audio.

I love the creativity, the possibilities, the small details covered. Good audio is a powerful springboard to visuals and video added.

I hate the unlimited possibilities, the small details  covered and that I forget that I can use my voice no matter how much I don’t like to hear it.

The morning announcement assignment was a good re-entry. With teleporting between villages I have not viewed or caught up with all the episodes. You can’t really write good morning announcements without context.

I decided to use the on hold music that drives Number 6 crazy and makes him bash his phone instead of the marching music. Seems it was repetitive enough and adds the conformity layer. And it did start to drive me crazy too.

I wanted to include my warder role of Designer/Painter into the announcements. I like the accents and my midwest voice didn’t seem right – so I used text to speech and chose Karen from Australia. This doesn’t give the best flow of language – but she seemed to sound pretty good.

I then combed episodes and a review site for audio clips.

Downloaded and gathered the lines I wanted and then started in Audacity. We all know – lots of moving around. Some of the music was too loud in areas and I got into mega envelope tool sets.

After a few hours of tweaking and puttering I still didn’t like it and thought I should record all in one voice. About that time – family intervened so that will have to happen later. I have left it with the multiple voices.

I have included some of the quotable lines I picked up on in listening to episodes and sound clips. New residents have a mandatory painting session in the garden. Hoping the residents can see through it and know it is a way to share information through paintings and choices for bungalow updates. But if they are already on a side or have become a number I am not sure it will help.

The art show is at 4pm and “we don’t know what it means – it means what it is”……

……more later in the week with either an update to this assignment or improving in the next.

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