Transformative Collage
Object, Image, and Content
Digital Arts 118 Fall 2005
Instructor: Jeremy Lundquist
Project Objectives
1. Introduce students to Adobe Photoshop
2. Introduce students to the manipulation of raster images
3. Explore how the context of an object can completely change its meaning
4. Hone presentation skills such as printing and mounting
Project Description
Students were introduced to various Photoshop techniques, and then asked to manipulate both the image quality and composition of raster-based images. The final product consisted of six collages in which images had been removed from their original context and placed in a new context in order to create a different meaning. Technical skill development included: scanning, resolution, color model usage, various tools in Photoshop, printing, and mounting.
Design Rationale
During this project I had been studying Picasso and Braque’s Cubist movement, and I knew I wanted to create an abstract collage in much the same style, but with a modern twist. I was also interested in exploring the way women are portrayed in the media, as well as our societies’ obsession with Celebrities. I collected an array of advertisements from mainstream fashion magazines that featured popular celebrities, scanned them, and began to manipulate them in Photoshop. In each collage I chose to place one full size image of a beautiful woman in the background. I then shrunk the images of all the other advertisements down, dropped their opacity to 33 percent, and floated them over the background image. This technique served to taint the vibrant color of the beautiful woman, suggesting that there is something tainted about societies portrayal of woman.
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