Camera Obscura ft. Payton Astin and Kaley Gatlin

"cam·er·a ob·scu·ra

ˌkam(ə)rə əbˈskyo͝orə/

noun

a darkened box with a convex lens or aperture for projecting the image of an external object onto a screen inside. It is important historically in the development of photography."

If you want the basic definition of a camera obscura, this is what you'll get when you ask Google. If you want to witness something amazing, however, you'll get some friends, 21 giant black trash bags, and a LOT of tape.

This collaboration started out as a somewhat doubtful experience. While talking about the process, we all kept saying "I hope this works, I hope this works," crossing our fingers that we could get some good photos for this assignment. At first, once we got all the layers of our trash bags up, we stood in the dark room discussing how big the aperture should've been.

We started with a pinprick.... nothing.

We moved on to a dime size... it got a little brighter, but still no image.

At this point, I think we all feared we had done something wrong. Then we tried to make the hole a bit bigger...

And we were all amazed by what we had just created.

The city had been flipped and plastered on the wall behind us. We saw boats and cars passing on the ceiling, and the clouds fell to the floor. We were all so excited and stunned by what we were seeing. Then, after taking several pictures, we had an idea. I wanted to see what multiple holes/apertures would create. When we ripped another hole in the bag, an echo of the 'fresco' was created. Then another, and another. We ended up having four or five different copies of the same image, while the city went about its normal day.

I had such a great time with the process, even though I had my doubts, but the outcome was absolutely amazing to me. I've mentioned before that I like collaboration projects, and this still reigns true. It felt so much more rewarding to be able to share the experience with others, and I wish we had had another person there to help take photos of us all together with the project. The experience ended up being a memorable one, and I can't wait for the next Camera Obscura, fingers crossed!

Photo Credit: Kaley Gatlin

Comments

Flipbook

Still working on the audio and details of pages, but here is the majority of my flipbook for class. The concept of a wineglass girl was one I've been thinking about since high school, and I'm glad I was able to do something involving it finally. The girl, glass, vase and candle are all supposed to be representative of a romanticized and idealized feeling. The girl seems fragile and is made of glass, but then later blooms flowers because she holds such beauty. Strength is held in this beauty, which is why most of the images are in black and white, until it comes to the fire on the candle and the flowers from her mind.

Introduction

A girl's gotta have her coffee! Hello to all! My name is Michaela, or Mickey, or Mic, or Mouse, or Mikka (take your pick, and if you don't like those I've got lots more where that came from.) I'm currently a transfer student in my first year at University of Tampa, and I'm thrilled for all the new opportunities I'll encounter while here. A sample of Michaela's digital art. I'm generally a very happy person but, just as anyone else, I have my off days too. Mainly though, you'll be able to find me smiling! I may start out a bit reserved and quiet, but give me a few minutes and you'll realize I'm a pretty colorful person. I'm an Advertising and Public Relations (creative) major and Studio Art minor. As a student who loves the arts, please don't be surprised if you find my clothes covered in paint one day! Throughout this course, I'm very excited to learn about different ways that art and technology work together ...

Grid Project -- Acknowledging Failure

I was so excited about the grid project originally. I had at least five different ideas instantly ranging from hand drawing a portrait in different colors for each grid piece to pouring resin layers for a "floating" picture effect. I realized, I spent so much time thinking about what to do, and how excited I was to do it, that I began to run out of time. The idea that I went with was still exciting to me but my execution of the project fell a little flat of my expectations... I wanted to make an image transfer. I began by printing out five images of special moments that I had. four images were in black and white and one was in color. The four b+w images were good memories, but the color was my favorite of them. I cut all of the pictures into inch squares and mixed them together so I wouldn't know which pieces I was grabbing. Then I spread gloss heavy gel on a blank canvas sheet and began placing the squares around the canvas in random order. I wanted to repre...

Art and Technology

Search This Blog