Digital media Practice
Postcards from the future
Introduction:
For digital media practice we were given an open brief, meaning we had the freedom to create a project using our individual skills. I came onto this masters’ course hoping to improve my photography skills and decided to focus on this for my project. I needed to come up with a good brief which I could create an interesting project from. I got given a link by John Hudson our lecturer to an interactive music video by Arcade Fire. The video was of the song ‘The wilderness down town’ and you had to add the postcode of your hometown. During the video images of the town were shown on screen, and you were asked to write a postcard to your past self. This video inspired me to create a project of postcards to be received from your future self. I titled it ‘Postcards from the future.’
I began by coming up with two ideas for what the final outcome could be. They both centered around a similar theme but the final outcome was to be perceived differently. The first idea involved sending postcards into the past, giving advice on how the world is going to change and what life will bring. The second idea was of postcards sent from the future. This also had two directions of thought. Firstly, a depiction of the future, giving advice and information on it. Secondly, a selection of general advice to lead a good happy life, based on what the future person had learnt.
I chose to run with the latter.
Research:
As originally I did not know which direction the project itself would go in, it gave me plenty of scope of ideas to research. I began by looking into different styles of photography to see which techniques I could use to make outstanding images which worked for this project. I also showed examples of techniques I had tried myself via my learning blog. I showed the techniques to portray their relevance and how they fitted in with the style of the project. I was still unsure of what my project would be so the main styles I researched were zoom exposure, colour popping, illustration and photography, and some other visual effects such as making a photograph look old. Looking at these techniques and trying them out, gave me a good idea of what I was capable of achieving with both pre and post production photographs. This is what a photographer needs to take into consideration before any photos can be` taken.
As I knew my project could be looking at the future writing postcards to the present, I wanted to explore how the future would look and feel. I looked into people’s visual interpretations of how they thought it will look, from digital and hand drawn illustrations to digital models. Some of these felt quite outdated showing a built up world of skyscrapers and elevated roads. From research into models designs based on scientific research this is shown to be a non-realistic version of the world. Recent images of the immediate future show lots of environmentally friendly homes, with one design about to become reality in Singapore, with a 55% self sufficient building. Having completed visual research into the future, I wanted to do some more academic research, and find out what had been predicted through advancements in scientific studies and even prophecies. I started watching a program I found online called 2057. This program was a fact/fiction documentary which had a storyline following a futuristic family. It described why they had added futuristic differences following advancements started in the present day that will be publicly used in 2057. This program portrayed a widely considered prototype of the future. The differences the program showed were mainly technology based which we know is changing all the time. The population and way of life were also dramatically effected in terms of our basic instincts and habits.
The prophecies I looked at were mostly unknown ones. The ‘Baba Vanga’ prophecies are all relevant to our direct future. The first prophecy which did not come true cited the beginning of World War 3. Followers believe this refers to events having now been set in motion. The other prophecies are yet to come, however I feel it shows how a desire to believe pushes you to find connections for the sake of self confirmation and scaremongering.
Having looked into what will become in the future, I was swaying towards concentrating my efforts on that side of the project. I decided however to still look into how the world had changed in the last ten years, and things that people miss which are not about as much any more. Looking into this was helpful, even though I decided to go with advice from the future. Having seen what people miss about the past it tends to be simple things such as fads, phases and games which were popular at the time. This led me to realise that the advice I use in my postcards need not be explaining what will happen, but enforcing the ethos to enjoy life while you’re living it.
Ideas development:
Although most of my research leans towards the direction of looking at the future and what will become of it, I felt that you wouldn’t receive advice on how the world will change or the advances that will happen. You would instead need advice to get you through life. I wanted to find out what other people would say to their past selves were they speaking from in the future, so I tried to set up a project where people made postcards for me to gauge their thoughts and opinions. Sadly only two people got back to me. One said “More of the same please” and the other, “Keep on smiling”. These did help with my ideas, but I wanted a wider opinion so I made it my task to bring it up in conversation and even if there were few words such as reassurance in life, it gave me something to start with. It led to me using the idea of advice from the future, giving general advice to lead a good, happy life. This is how I started to develop my own visual ideas and final pieces.
I had to consider which pieces of advice I felt would be the most important, at my graduation a honorary degree was given out to the novelist, David Mitchell. In his speech he mentioned things he would tell his past self, and one of these pieces of advice was about relationships and how he found the most useful pieces of advice throughout his life on things such as fridge magnets, simple quotes. This led to my realisation that giving too much detail away to your past self would change too much. To warn off the bad times that are yet to happen would mean you wouldn’t learn from them as a person. The advice needed to be simple, handy tips when you needed them. They came from conversations I had with people, and through things I had heard throughout my own life such as via conversation, TV, even fridge magnets like David Mitchell. I managed to come up with eight pieces of advice which covered the basics.
Final ideas and images:
The first two ideas went hand in hand. ‘Work hard’, which links with ‘Play hard’ are two pieces of advice which go together and are important at any stage in life. To work to get the best out of life, but also to relax and have fun, enjoy the life you work so hard for. I wanted the images I photographed to go alongside these. Not only did I want them to work as postcard images, I also wanted them to be suggestive rather than too obvious. I decided to use a still life which incorporated items that suggested ‘working’ and ‘playing’. The ‘working’ scenario was the hardest as it has a different meaning to each individual. Working by way of studying, using a computer and diary felt right. Even if you didn’t use them for work now, you would have at school so the image’s meaning would make sense. The watch suggests deadlines and good time management.
The play hard image is a collection of things which suggest fun, hobbies and socialising to show fun; however you do it.
The next image is titled “The best things in life are free”. Talking about memories are priceless as you always have them with you. It enforces the ethos of enjoying the little things in life. The image to go with this shows a man playing with a child. The image works for me as it shows getting pleasure through something and achieving happiness while you are doing it. The concept of parenthood and feeling a child’s love is free and priceless at the same time.
“Life rushes past you, enjoy it while you can”. This quote I wrote myself, it was to represent how if you’re not careful time can slip by in the blink of an eye. I used zoom exposure to represent this. The technique makes the street look as though it is speeding past you, fitting perfectly with the quote.
The “Never be scared to say I’m sorry” image is one that I struggled with. The idea was that saying sorry solves lots of problems if you say it when needed, which a lot of people fail to do. I wanted to show this through a quote and an image to fit in with the other postcards. I couldn’t find a quote which said it right so I felt that I needed to write something myself, which is where this quote came from. I feel it sums up the need to use ‘I’m sorry’ and admit you are wrong, which humans often don’t like to do. The image is a close up of a card on a bunch of flowers. Flowers can be given for many reasons and are always received warmly, showing how much you care, and mean what you are saying.
For the last three images I had the theme idea in my head, before finding quotes which re-enforced them. The first is the idea of remembering the past, and the quote is “May you never forget what is worth remembering, nor ever remember what is best forgotten”. This is an Irish blessing, meaning you should not dwell on the bad things but remember the good and live on in that way. The image is of an elderly lady looking at a wedding photograph, suggesting she is remembering this happy memory from her past. It could also symbolise the sender of the post cards.
The next quote I used was “There is no feeling more comforting and consoling than knowing you are right next to the one you love.” This was to go with my relationship idea. I wanted a quote which represented what a true relationship felt like, and give hope that they existed to people who are cynical. The image is of a couple looking adoringly at each other. The reason I used colour popping and made the background in black and white was to suggest that life was timeless when they were together as they are so happy, and their love stayed as strong throughout life.
The last quote I used was “The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” I wanted a postcard to show the importance of experiencing the world and travelling. This quote fitted perfectly as many people reference their lives through books and this quote felt as though it was saying to live life to the full, and fill the pages of the book of your life. The image is another still life collage filled with items suggesting travelling.
The last image I used was not a piece of advice, but an opening to the postcards themselves. It shows the hand of an elderly woman, which suggest it’s the senders hand, writing on the back of an envelope “A bit of advice for the future”.
If the images were to be presented, I would want them to be together, and preferably in sequence. I considered different ways of doing this but decided that traditionally postcards are sent separately. When people collect them they often put them in albums and view them together. Therefore to make a book out of the images seemed an appropriate way of them being viewed, and this way if they were to be displayed the viewer could flick through and be interactive with the images.
Conclusion:
Overall I felt my project went well. I feel that the images were to a high quality and they represented my ideas clearly. If it were ever possible for me to send postcards back to myself, I would stick to the same idea as I used for this project. If I was to further the project I would create more of the same images, with other quotes linking to more direct aspects to a certain persons life, including family and just keeping smiling, which I have started to think about already and put examples on my blog.
References:
Arcade fire, (nd), The wilderness down town, [online video] Available from: www.thewildernessdowntown.com, [Accessed: 30th September 2011]
Darling, P. (2012) All posts. Parisa DCME 4004, [blog] 30/09/11-9/01/12, Available at: http://parisacdme4004.blogspot.com
inhabitat (2008) Singapore’s Ecological EDITT Tower. [image online] Available at: http://fs-testserver-v2.com/editt-tower-by-trhamzah-and-yeang/?isalt=0 [Accessed: 30th October 2011].
Listverse (2011) Top 10 prophecies you don't know, [online] Available at: http://listverse.com/2011/03/11/top-10-prophecies-you-dont-know/ [Accessed: 23rd November 2011].
matador (2008) The 50 most inspiring travel quotes of all time, [online] Available at: http://matadornetwork.com/bnt/50-most-inspiring-travel-quotes-of-all-time/ [Accessed: 9th January 2012].
Science documentaries (2007) 2057-The city. [video online] Available at: http://science-documentaries.com/?p=601 [Accessed: 8th November 2011].
Thinkexist (n.d.) Remembering quotes, [online] Available at: http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/remembering/ [Accessed: 9th January 2012].
Thinkexist (n.d.) Relationship quotes, [online] Available at: http://thinkexist.com/quotations/relationships/ [Accessed: 9th January 2012]
