Week 02 | Resolution

New Year's Resolutions are a tradition based in the hope that reflecting on the past and resolving to make a new will simplify one’s life. If you think about the most common resolutions, they are often removing something from the person’s daily life or habits. In doing this, a new person should emerge! (That is if it's kept) Similarly in digital media, the construction of an image can be simplified through the means of resolution. Resolving the image into more manageable parts can reveal a lot about the complexity you began with.

Almost a century ago and without the aid of any pixel-generating computer software, the itinerant photographer Arthur Mole (1889-1983) used his 11 x 14-inch view camera to stage a series of extraordinary mass photographic spectacles that choreographed living bodies into symbolic formations of religious and national community. In these mass ornaments, thousands of military troops and other groups were arranged artfully to form American patriotic symbols, emblems, and military insignia visible from a bird’s eye perspective. Living Portrait of President Woodrow Wilson, for which 21,000 troops assembled at Camp Sherman in Chillicothe, Ohio, in 1918, is the best-known of Mole’s photographs. The image is characteristic of Mole’s work in that it wavers between the compositional effect of the whole (i.e. a portrait of Woodrow Wilson) and the desire to focus upon the obscured individuals who constitute the image, thereby undermining the optical illusion of the totality to a degree.

In our class, resolution also has many meanings. Mainly, we will talk about resolution as the depth of an image. The depth of a pixel-based image relies solely on its quality at the most basic level; here, the image is an unrecognizable pattern of colored squares. When organized into an image, however, these seemingly disparate parts become something much more legible. “Usually we try to produce images that are of sufficient resolution to render these individual pixels imperceptible, but seeing pixels is not necessarily a bad thing. Prominent pixels call attention to the process…”

0 In the last assignment we conjoined five photos to create a unified composition. In this assignment, we are trying to distill that image into a data-driven sequence. Focus on the conjoined intersections marked on Assignment 01; we will be using them as the basis for this assignment.

1 Select a 500 x 500 pixel square around a significant intersection within your ‘conjoin’ assignment. Copy and create a new image from this selection. Save this image as your original. Now, duplicate this image and save it as your index image. You will be working with these images side by side, do not close them.

2 We will use the Pixelate>Mosaic filter on the index image you just saved. Set the mosiac at a 125 square cell size: this will distill the image into 16 colors. Using the Eye Dropper within the Select>Color Range tool (set at a fuzziness of 1-10), we will map (one-by-one) the occurrence of each of these indexed colors within the whole – create a new layer within your layers window and fill your selection with black (this allows you to view the pixels quantitatively). Name each new layer intelligibly to record each of your selections. The final product, then, is a reduction or simpler form of the original–a mapping of that particular intersection.

3 Test this process with several interesting moments from your A01 assignment. You will be using this product in your next assignment, be sure the result is compelling to you, with a strong graphic (not figural) purpose. Remember: there is never one answer to a problem > the resolution often becomes a multiplicity of almost right answers > tests that seek to expose/articulate information in a manner not thought possible beforehand! Continue testing new color ranges until the translation makes sense; that you can fully describe what has graphically been extracted from the image.

One 11” x 17” .jpg construction at 72 dpi in RGB color mode. This construction should contain the following information: A minimum of one original intersection image, one image index, and five selection filter images generated from the image index, notate this page to describe your process and reasons for selection – everything on the page must be thoughtfully composed. The way in which you layout these individual images to form a cohesive construction is critical if we are to understand your craft and process. Use the grid and guides in Photoshop to generate proper alignments and do not use notations or text.

Again, use the filing nomenclature: for student BobSmith, “WS02_Smith_B.jpg.” All .jpg files are due in your backpack by 6:00 PM on Monday 02 February. Late work will not be accepted. Please print your file in color and bring it to class on Tuesday, February 03. Be sure to save the original photoshop file and layers for future use.

Week 01 | Follow Up

If you are still struggling with WS01, think about several things. Why did I make the connections I did? Do the images read as graphic elements, not subjective (based on their content)? and is there a cohesive image that acts on multiple levels – one being the connections between two images and two the image as a whole? 

These are questions that you should easily answer when critiquing your own 11"x17" submission. The moves that you make should always be based on the quality/idea you are trying to achieve, not the tools availability.  

Remember, your assignment is due by 6:00 pm  on Monday, January 26th in your backpack. You MUST name me as a shared user, my username is "jacklynn." No exceptions will be made for late work regarding this issue or any other "technical issues." You need to save time for these unforeseen events. Looking forward to seeing everyone's work!

Week 01 | Unite, Combine, Associate

This semester will take a path that we cannot definitively chart. It’s a pocess of testing and decision-making. How we move from one project to another will largely rely on the way we resolved the previous project. The class focuses on accumulation and experimentation: each week will build upon information learned prior. We are required to experiment with the media provided, often not knowing where the information will take us.

The image shown below represents possible directions or ‘waypoints.’ These flight plans are a standard and give a series of possible routes to the pilots using them. When in a zone near an airfield, the possible directions of exit or entry are shown as vectors with data attached to each line. The reason for theses nodes of movement and this mapping technique is ultimately the technology in place at each airport. An aircraft would move towards a locating signal and then re-route to the next available signal based on the variables surrounding them (ie. weather, winds, traffic, etc.)


Think of this class as the transition from flat to 3D, from analog to digital, and even from static to dynamic. As a result, the way we think about architecture should be similarly expanded in multiple directions, because there are always various answers and viewpoints. If we loosely define architecture as the articulation of movement, spaces, and materials _ the methods of representing this are endless and do not always resolve themselves in a plan or even in a static image. The representation of an idea should carry as much meaning as the idea itself.

The first project is a blending of supplied photos in photoshop. The goal of this exercise is to examine the ways we can join pixel-based images with the software's tools. The 'seams' conjoining the photos are the space of investigation. These junctures should be stitched with reason and intent – shading, shapes, or any other graphic reason, not symbolic linkages. Focus on the reasons why you've linked things. Keep in mind these three themes: Unite the images, combine the images, associate the images. This is not a three-step process, but rather a syncopation of each theme acting simultaneously.

Unite: to bring things together or to come together to form or act as a unit; to adhere or cause things to adhere; to combine qualities or traits. Find like qualities in the images that graphically unite them. Use this technique while selecting the 5 from 15 images. Attributes such as tone, shading, shape, proportion, and contrast can be thought of as uniting qualities. These are graphic qualities of the images, not contextual (ie. connections should not be made based on the subject of the image – these types of connections will have a negative effect on your grade)


As an example, these two images both have an intense contrast between a strong color and black, making the subject a strong graphic. Yet, what is important to us is their qualitative contrast, not the icons which those graphics symbolize. Do not stop at the initial reading of images, zoom in, look closer, dissect the images for what lies under their meaning as a photograph.


Combine: to join or mix together, or join or mix people or things together; to undertake two or more activities at the same time; to join together or to make substances join together to form a chemical compound. Combinations will allow you to join together unlike images and properties to create a union greater than the sum of its parts. Combinations rely on the unexpected, test cases will allow you to see what results are most interesting to the composition.

Associate: to connect one things with another in the mind. To associate your images, you will use a series of selection processes to orient and crop your images. These tools will allow you to build a foundation on the page. Second, you will want to apply a series of applicable transformations to the series. Managing and labeling layers during this process will also be critical in maintaining image distinction, separating transformations, and in keeping your file organized. For quick tool reference see the Adobe help center online.

Your file should be no larger than 2250 pixels wide and 1650 pixels tall (this translates to 17” wide x 11” tall at 150dpi) saved in .JPG format using RGB Color mode. Place your file in your “mybackpack,” making sure to list your instructor as a shared user for the file. Please use the nomenclature “WS01_yourlastname_firstinitial.jpg” for the file name. If, for example, your name is “Bob Smith” you will save you work using the nomenclature “A01_Smith_B.jpg.”
All files are due to your backpacks by 6:00pm on Monday 26 January for section 002 and 6:00pm on Wednesday 28 for section 001. Late work will not be accepted. Please also print a color copy of your work and bring it to class. This will require you to convert the file to CMYK color mode in Photoshop prior to printing. The size of your file will determine the size of your print.