User:Jeemzz

Jamie Deen - 0930546 - 2018

Digital craft

The assignment was to choose a work in the Boijmans.
We will use this work as an inspiration source.
Starting a project with a trip is immediately a plus for me!
We had to make a copy of this work and a transformation.
This means that we make a work that is entirely derived from the chosen work from the Boijmans
and one that we make with the work of Boijmans in mind.

The painting I chose is called “Late visitors to pompeii”

The artist behind this painting called Carel Willink.
He was a Dutch painter who preferred to call his style imaginary realism instead of magic realism.
I can understand the fact he preferred that name taking this painting as an example,
it’s almost surrealistic it’s a surreal situation and at the same time it’s a mirror of our society today.




Looking at this painting I am overwhelmed with confusion.
Is it possible that we were already so individualistic in 1931, that our society was already so antisocial and closed?
When a bomb explodes, we do not look at each other, as if we ourselves have nothing to do with it. we are solidly melting in our own egos.

In order to clarify the feeling I got from the painting, I have photoshopped it a bit.
I force the men to look at each other while a volcano erupts behind them.
I force them to no longer ignore each other.
Then I let them point to each other.

I believe that we live in a society in which we constantly blame each other for everything and everything but never find ourselves responsible.
We find it so easy to point to others or say "yes, but I did not do that".
When you see someone falling on the street, there are most of the time only 2 out of 20 people who will stop and help.
When there is a verbal battle or fight we act like we do not hear anything.
Why do we do this !? Why do we turn our backs on situations, why do we find it so scary to get involved in something?
It's so damn easy to blame others, and we turn our backs on our problems. pointing out fingers.. I didn’t do it, he/she did!



I made a video in this same posture to copy what I created from the painting.
I deliberately did not take a picture because it seemed more interesting to me to keep it alive.
By placing ourselves as static as in the painting, the small movements of blinking eyes and breathing, I copy the alienated and illogical effect of the painting.

Keeping your arm up like this is a punishment in itself.
I (left) am the only one who looks into the camera just as the artist Carel Willink has placed himself in his painting on the left.
I look at the viewer just as Willink looked at the viewer. almost questioning, "Is this what you want?"

Test 1 2 3 Test

To further discover what I want with this atmosphere, I have done tests.
I have taken pictures of people who refuse to look at each other.
That is the point that held me so firmly in the painting.
The ignoring of each other and each other’s silence is something unbearable,
this gripped me so firmly that I wanted to translate this into my transformation.


Transform Transforming Transformed
In the end I chose to involve the viewer in my presentation.
I wanted to make the feeling of ignoring appear in my photos.
At first I did not know how I was going to create that feeling in a picture, I wanted to work in the direction of my tests.
Then I came to the insight that i want to ignore the viewer. How annoying will it be to go to an exhibition where the work literally turns its back on you.

Without any studio experience I went into the photography studio and I made pictures of the back of people's head....







'What is the theme I am investigating? a disconnection between human and human What is my research question? do we accept this? I also wondered in my research whether this was already happening since the painting dates from 1931. How am I structuring my research? I work in the indicated steps. I first started to investigate my painting. After that I made a video, during the making of the video.

I also did tests with photography. In the end I work kind of as a  action, reaction, action,  reaction. 

What tools or methods could I/will I use to conduct my research? See the answer above. I like to work by diving into it and doing it.
What is the foreseen result? When I started this work, I thought I would work it out in a performance (that I would still like to do).
My result, however, is different than expected because I came to new insights during my tests.
What is the difference between my foreseen result and the result which came through the process? See the answer above.
It is good and okay that things change within a process. But to be honest, I could have gone on so many other ways if I had more time. Is 1. - 6. relevant? Yes it is, we have a lot of criticism on our social level, on communication and connecting with each other in this society.