Deja Vu

1.)                                                       Final Project: Déjà vu

            I chose to do a new big idea instead of extending the midterm.  My big idea: Déjà vu.  This has always been a mystical and mysterious idea that I wanted to recreate with photoshop.  I envisioned flowers, muted colors, faces, animals, buildings, and faded images.  To capture a moment of déjà vu I wanted to get my hands dirty and not just strictly use the computer. 

            To me when you fall into a daydream your thoughts are never based on anything from reality they are always a skewed perception, which changes the color of your thought.  When I daydream or experience déjà vu it is accompanied by a compelling sense of familiarity, and also a sense of strangeness which I also tried to capture in my photo.  The previous experience is usually attributed to a dream, although some people believe it occurred in the past. These feelings frequently occur in nature (and I think that applies for most people) because nature gives feelings connected to the earth, which are not only a sensation from déjà vu but also a memory that is recreated.  It’s connecting yourself to an experience that you feel you’ve already witnessed.  The experience is never clear and the colors are never the same leaving us in saying “I feel like I’ve been here before,” or “I feel like this has already happened” both feelings of déjà vu.  Our brain can only process so much information which leaves us with little information of the experience we just feel like we’ve been there but it could have been a dream or maybe we experienced it in the past.  The mystery leaves us feeling eerie and full of unanswered questions.  I envision my big idea to be found anywhere from a magazine to a museum.  I think the idea of deja vu is universal and can be applied just about anywhere.

2.)  An artist that influenced my work was Rodney Smith.  He captures surreal photographs especially in nature. 

Another artist/photographer that influenced me was Tram Davies.  His photos capture deja vu which is my big idea and I like his interpretation.  The elements in the picture below is a good representation of deja vu and the sensation that follows after experiencing it.

The last inspiration I used was from a blog I found by VioletJulia who takes Polaroid photos.  The images are tranquil and surreal.  The compositions are minimal and go well with the muted colors of the film.  I was influenced by her sense of color and lo-fi style.  I wanted to capture this in my photo.  There's something about lo-fi that creates a serene and dreamlike atmosphere that makes photos more natural and less commercial. 

http://www.flickr.com/photos/violetjuliaart/


3.) The new photoshop technique I wanted to use was scanning painted images.  After scanning several images I ended up using the coffee stained paper method.  This was fun because I was able to use other medias when doing the project.  The tutorial I used was http://www.digitalartsonline.co.uk/tutorials/index.cfm?featureid=1699&pn=4.

I just used it for the how-to on scanning an image and what to do with it once in photoshop.