main page - finished site

I've finished the main page which links to all the digital art works i've made to represent identity. I was inspired by a flash site which was of this point of view on a wooden table. moving the mouse would scroll around the table to various images that you could click on to enlarge. I've used a similar layout, albeit not with flash since I don't have those skills so I made it with photoshop images sliced up. Each picture on the desk is of a friend of mine. My site basically examines their identities as i try to represent them artistically. There's the fun and crazy friend, the downer, the wise and helpful one and the one thats just a bit too difficult to understand. I thort it would be easier to use real life people rather than imaginary characters because i knew more about them and thus more to work with. In terms of narrative style I am the character and the narrative vehicle as you can tell from the first page which zooms into my eye and shows the colours it's seeing as well as some black and white flickering ones showing confusion or the perception of some sadness and unsettled nature in what i'm viewing. The top view of the desk is my point of view and the images are how i perceived these peoples identities and the components the make up their identities.

home page

This is my home page, it has clear links to some of my previously displayed inspirational images. It shows what I think identity is made up of... lots of parts. their difference is shown by contrast. Overly happy and joyous on the right, transitioning to through calmer blue to a mixed confused panel and onto a dark grungy on with flat pale faces obscured by grungy black (which is actually an image of matted wet hair) This page represents what i think my identity is made of as I experience all these moods and states. This page is a timed animation that re-loads the next next page when complete. to return home and view this image once again 'home' can be clicked on the parchment in the bottom left of the next page.

visual divisions

Visual divisions, I made that term up but I thought it was a suitably cool description for something I think is very cool to look at. I think the style of this picture would go very well with my concept of people having multiple identities as you can split the subject of the image up in to several sections each with their own unique look. the combination of these mixed colours, lines and opacities really shows that people are complex and layered out of many different... identities.

site plan

so this is the final plan of my site. The top most image is the home page. It's not too clear from the plan but it's an image of a face split into 2 with differing visual styles according to whats on either side of the pictre. I may split it into four different sections that transition from one side to the other as at one end i plan to have over the top colours with joyous neat vector illustrations made in illustrator. And on the opposite side I'm going for a grungy look much like the dark imagery I've posted on the blog. These are the most extremes of our identities and extremes that everyone has. The transitions strips show the middle ground that we mostly find our selves in. This page will be a timed animation (using javascript i found on the net) and after 10 seconds or so will zoom into the persons eye at which point an animation of a B/W eye comes up which cycles through different colours of the retina before ending in an eerie flickering manner. This is too suggest that some one is witnessing the various identities that we all have.

On the next page, we become the owner of the eye as they look down at a desk scattered with photographs. From here users have control over the site and can view each image which will represent the multifaceted nature people identities. I haven't yet decided if i will use the one character only or Have photographs that each show a different person and their changing identity. From this page there is also a home button to view the home page again.

Theses are the other examples I've found that interested me. Not exactly any contrast here, but very dark and clourless. I want to represent a side of a characters identity that doesn't have any joy and i think this style would be great for that. The Body without the head is a good example of this, showing a disconnection from the world and entrapment of the mind, as the head is spinning round in the washer

So in terms of contrasting identities I was thinking of using contrast as my main tool of representation. This image is my inspiration of this choice, where not only the colours contrast but also the visual style. There is only a slight colour contrast here but the added grain and lines as well as deep contrast within the darker side of the image, all add to the overall effect. I'm thinking of using black and white and contrasting it with vibrant colours while maybe throwing in some grungy darkness as in this image and some others that i've found. It's an interesting visual style and will be especially in contrast to some vibrant colour.

A combination of both

I should probably get off the text and image idea already, and i was trying to, but i came across this. It's creating text with text but also a combination using text to create a picture and creating a picture using text. I can't really dream of recreating anything like this tho without getting allot better at using Maya and UV mapping. A shame...

One from my past

This concept isn't as new to me as i thought. I found this image on my computer, from about 3 yrs ago. It's "20 days" spelled out with bones that was made on a hike I did. It's okay the hike wasn't really 20 days. It was 18. But we figured 20 sounded more impressive. Unfortunately bones arn''t all that available to me these days, but I believe there's lots of opportunity to create some very cool text using them. A bone alphabet... maybe a project for the future.

Interesting fonts B/W

On the subject of text I found this interesting method of creating text from images. In this case it's a series of photographs taken in the street. It's very cool and i like the lack of colour. Black and white is growing on me ever more as increase my exposure to web art. The moods that can be created through the lack of colour outweigh anything vibrant colours can make you feel. B/w images also have allot more depth as there are no pointless colours to get in the way and distract away from the meaning of the image.

image from

http://www.edesignerz.net/photoshop/4774-not-your-usual-characters-30-amazing-alphabet-recreations

My attempt

This is my attempt at making a face out of words. I basically got a face that i reduced to blacks an whites, deleted all the white then layered it over some text. Problems are the text has to be colored. and if i want to use specific words I would have to create my own colored text. Still I think I could use this method if a wanted to create something like this for my site, I don't take much time, even if i had to make the text too.

pictures out of text

I found this picture on the web that i really like. I'd love to be able to make something like it for my site but don't have the skills. It's like the pictures i've always been an admirer of that are made out of smaller pictures.

I think this style would be useful in depicting identity as words could be merged with faces since expression is not always very clear to all of us, or perhaps just to reinforce the message of expression and make it stand out. a series of facial expressions made out of text is the idea I'm having at the moment. I think it would be hard to accomplish, but would be a great way to represent someone's identity.

image from

http://www.smashingapps.com/category/cssstyle-sheets

Lies lies lies

So all these questions re-emerged in my mind after watching the show 'lie to me', it being about lying and all. Something key to the show is the close ups on peoples face's as they lie and their expressions are noted and analyzed. It's very interesting being so close to their face and having all the little facial expressions (tell tale signs of a lie) pointed out. Our face is very much our identity.. not in the way it can't be changed , because it can. but if you got hit in the face with a bus and had to get a new one (a face that is not a bus, it might just need some soap and water), would your identity be any different? I don't think it would because it's not so much what your face looks like that determines identity but what you do with your face. and i don't mean using your face in strange ways like painting walls with it, thats not really identity, I think it's just called weird. I mean the expression you make with it. we can gauge allot about a person form their facial expressions, more so than body language. and probably less than words, but I'm more interested here, and don't words come from your face anyway?

Point is liars or not, i think we're all liars actually, 'lying' or not facial expressions say alot. I think in my site i would like to include lots of close ups of faces, bit of faces, and expressions on those bits of faces.

This promo clip for lie to me also intrigued me, it reminded me alot of the mixed faces we look at at the start of semester.

multiple identities

So I'm exploring my idea of people having multiple identities based on their surroundings especially around different people.

I decided to ask a friend about the issue and documented this through video... tho it's been cut half way through due to the rest of the dialog, not because it doesn't prove my point about people having multiple identities, but because it proves my point too much, and with too much graphic description.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w4zzJnwi4vE

But I'm not completely convinced I can believe everything that was said in the video, so maybe people are just lying about different identities?

Can an Identity be determined through something so small as a lie?

How much of our lives are a lie?

Who are we really lying to?

And why? to be funny? there's a truth we don't want to face? we're experimenting with who we want to be?

Exploring something often only leads to more questions....

So what if i don't come across an answer by the end of all this?

or worse, come across an answer that is a lie?

Well, hopefully I'll have enough questions to make something out of. At least questions are always true.

unless... can a question lie?