Blog Post 7 /  by Nicholas Valledor

So, for the final critique, I believe that I'm mostly done at this point and ready to go. I am going to print my images as large as I can that's economically viable, which means 17x22" prints. I think this will work well despite being smaller than they really should be seen, but I have to print smaller because I'm not made of money.

I also decided that I'm going to print them on regular inkjet paper, since 17x22" sheets of Pictorico film is nearly twice as expensive as for paper. So while I think that my images look neat on Pictorico, it just makes more sense to use paper for now.

Hopefully in the future I can either get funding through a grant or something similar to be able to print my images as large as possible, because I really want to see how they look when they're the size of a wall.

Anyways, here are a few more newer scans that I've made since last post. Included are a few of the images that I considered "failures" because they're either too dark/washed out, but everyone seemed to think showing the failures might be neat too. 

Blog Post 6 /  by Nicholas Valledor

We're almost done in terms of time for this class, with less than a month left, and I think we've (Shree, my classmates, and I) agreed that my project doesn't really need to have a set meaning since it's so far on the abstract spectrum that it might be better to leave it up to the viewer to derive the meaning for themselves. This is great for me, because I never really came up with much more than "I think they're cool and I like making them."

We also had meetings with visiting artist Nate Larson today, which I actually found really interesting and fun. I introduced him to my project and my process, which he thought was quite cool because he's done some similar work before using a Kirlian device, which makes similar, but at the same time, totally different images from my own process. He and I also talked (for a while) about how this project would work well as a gallery piece, and how if I try to get it shown, it should have an installation/interactive element to allow people to see the process in action.

Hopefully that means I have a decent chance of sowing my work off somewhere in the future, that'd be neat.

Below are a few more scans of my work.

Blog Post 5 /  by Nicholas Valledor

I'm still making new images as much as I can, it's a fun process for me and I like the outcome, so I try to get into the darkroom and make new images as much as I can. My meetings with Shree are going well. I've decided that I'm going to research artists that use data as the basis for their work, since mine can kind of be seen as a form of that.

Below are some more images I've scanned so far. In terms of final printing, Shree and I both think that it'd be best if they were printed as large as possible, since the film I'm using (4x5) can be blown up to a large scale and it would make my images more visually striking.

 

Blog Post 4 /  by Nicholas Valledor

I'm still cracking on making new images, I think I'm up to around 25 new ones so far. As for the motivation behind the work, I'm still kinda unsure, I talked in my meeting with Shree (my professor) and have discussed the idea of presenting my work as a sort of means of water quality testing, which I guess you could say that I'm doing. So we'll see if that's what I end up going with.

Below are some new scans that I have made since my last post. 

 

Blog Post 3 /  by Nicholas Valledor

This week I've been able to make more images using my Wimshurst, but as for the motivation behind my work, I'm still trying to find exactly what I want them to mean. 

As for working and making new images, I've been able to develop a new method where I put salt water on the top of the film before I discharge into it, and it creates some neat effects that I like. Some more examples of my new image scans can be seen below. In terms of how I'll finally edit them, I think I will just edit out any scanning defaults (dust, bubbles from wet scans, etc) and fix the contrast in each to make them uniform in their tonality.

Blog Post 2 /  by Nicholas Valledor

So far, my project has mostly consisted of searching for ways to bring meaning to my project. I'm not really sure what it is that I want my images to say or mean, as of right now I only know that I like to make them and that is my only real motivation behind the work.

I also have purchased my own Wimshurst generator to allow myself to work on my own time scale, independent of my contact in the KSU physics department. Below are some preliminary images that I have made using my device and the process that I developed last semester so far. I am using a new film (Arista 4x5 Ortho Litho)that I haven't used before, but it seems to work just fine for what I'm trying to do.

Project Proposal /  by Nicholas Valledor

                While taking Alternative Processes last semester, I became interested with the work of Hermann Schnauss. Schnauss was a German scientist who published a book titled Photographischer Zeitvertreib (Photographic Pastimes) in 1883. In his book, Schnauss explained a number of photographic experiments what he’d performed. In his book, he explained a particular experiment in which he used a “friction generator” to create images on photoreceptive material using nothing but electricity. After looking into his work myself, I reached out to the physics department at K-State and managed to recreate Schnauss’ process (see electrographs under Projects above for examples). Another source of inspiration that I found was the work of Hiroshi Sugimoto’s Lightning Fields. Sugimoto made a series of images using his own process by which he was able to image electricity passing through a photographic medium, creating stunning images. I intend to try to reach out to Sugimoto and ask him what his process was as well as his motivation for creating his images.

                For my project in this course I intend to expand upon the work that I made last semester in this manner, ultimately hoping to create a full portfolio. I would say that this genre of work would be in the realm of conceptual photography, as the process requires going out of the normal scope of photography. Throughout the semester, I intend to try a few different methods of presentation, from inkjet prints to small Collodion plate printing. As of now, I am leaning more towards large-scale inkjet prints, as the process by which I’ll make these images will easily scale up in size without information loss in the print.

                Challenges that I expect that I’ll encounter throughout the semester largely boil down to finding a specific motivating factor behind the work (the “point” that they should try to get across) and timeframe. I intend to reach out to the physics department again for aid, which creates the problem of having to work around times I can meet with the professors that I’ll be reaching out to, as they have busy schedules. One possible work-around that I think I can try to do to alleviate this is to acquire my own friction generator, which would be fairly simple, but costly. As for finding the motivation behind my work, I intend to try to come up with a more solid concept behind my project, but as of now I want to pursue this project because I enjoy making the images themselves.

                My timeline as of now revolves around when I can first get a chance to meet with the physics department. I have already emailed the professor that I worked with before, but as of now I have not scheduled a time to get into the lab to make images. If that fails, my next step is to purchase and receive a generator of my own, which will free me of most time constraints. Another aspect that I need to take into account time-wise is the use of color film, which I would have to send out to get developed, adding at least a few days of time between making images and the editing process. Other than these, I think that my project should be able to progress on schedule with the deadlines posted in the syllabus.