November 27, 2024 Summer 2024
😏📸🚫🖼️❓🤷♂️👇📝💡📸👣
1️⃣🔨🤢🌫️🔎🔊✂️🤷🚪👁️📸
2️⃣📸❌👍😊⛓️💥🧠🤖❌👁️🫵❤️👀📱❌🏁
3️⃣🙅 💳 ⏳ 💰🧱🚫 🧑💻❓🙂↔️
4️⃣🚫📷❓👍❗❌📸❗➡️🖼️🧑🏫🗺️🚫📷🖼️📲📸🖨️🧑💻🔨🖼️
5️⃣💡🚫🟰👍⬇️🗣️😤🥊…🎨💡🔄📜➡️📸👐🎶🎨📚❌📸👥📖🖼️✨📸🎨📜
🚫🖼️🔟🗓️👩🏫👨🏫👩🏫☀️🗓️
🕰️📚🤔“🖼️✨”❓👥📸🙇🤔🛠🦠📱💻🏙️🏡“✨”🖼️👍📱👑✨🖼️✨🔆🤳=📸😎👤💡❌📸❌🎭🌎❗📸🎭🤯💭😴🙌❌🔍🎭👏💡🔥🔄🤔📸“👍”➡️📆📜🎨
❌❤️…
🕖7️⃣🗓️🤔🎨📲📸🤔📲📸📁🔐🪦🌫 🖼️🦴🔙⏳📊📍🫂…
🚫📸
💭🤔📸🔄💻🌐 🧱🗂️🏗️📁➡️📖🎨✨ 🔄❌🎯🔧👁️📚
🤷📸🌅…
👥⛓️💥🚧💄📈
⛓️💥🚫🖼️
💩🟰😻
🔄📤➡️💓📚🧑🎨🧪✍️🚫🖼️—🧑🎨➕🧑🎨🧑🎨🧑🎨🧑🎨🗣️🤏📖🖼️🔨↗️🌄💻📱🎥📺📀🛜🧑💻✍️🖼️💭🧐 👀 👾🫸 🖼️ 🙋📝🏔️🖼️ 🔄⏳📆
🤖🕖7️⃣, 👨🏫📄, “😒🖼️” 📩💭: 🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🚫👧❓⏳🏃♀️✌️🖼️❓
📩🫵🛒📂🗂➡️🔗, 🙏🫵📸🥴🚽🖼️🔜❗️
Always wanted to 📸🚫🖼️ but 🤷♂️? Here are 📝💡📸 help you get started.
1️⃣ Make it 🤢
Stand too close or too far away from 📸🫂. Embrace things like 🌫️, 🔎,🔊, and ✂️. 🤷 🚪👁️when you 📸
2. 🤔❌ about getting 👍 or 🔄
📸❌👍 and that’s fine. ⛓️💥 yourself from 🧠 about what the 🤖 wants to 👁️ and instead make something 🫵 ❤️👀. Social media ❌🏁.
3️⃣🙅 spend a lot of ⏳ or 💰 on it
Paywalled 🧑💻? 🙂↔️!
4. 🚫📷? No problem❗
You don’t need a 📸 to make an 🖼️. 🧑🏫, we explored different camera-less techniques for making images that utilized 📲📸, 🖨️, 🧑💻🔨🖼️, and more.
5. Original 🚫🟰👍
This one is a little 🗣️😤🥊…but our 🎨 often lifted, sampled, stole, and 🔄 existing work. We weren’t just making 📸, we were 📖 with a long 📜 of 📸🎨📚!
🚫🖼️🔟🗓️Molly Soda, Will Allstetter, and Kayla Drzewicki☀️🗓️
🕰️📚, we 🤔 a lot about what constitutes a “🖼️✨,” 👥 these images 🙇, how and why they are 🛠, and how they completely 🦠 our lives 💻🏙️🏡. “Perfect” 🖼️ often 👍📱👑, generally are ✨, usually 📸😎👤💡. However, perfect images lack the ability to be 🎭🌎. They evoke 🤯💭 and sometimes are just flat out 😴. But we believe imperfection is inevitable and interesting! In order to 🤔📸“👍,” each week we ➡️📆📜🎨:
We created images ❌❤️…
We spent 🕖7️⃣🗓️🤔 the 🎨 of 📲📸. 🤔 screenshotting as an act of 📁: 🔐🪦 in its 🖼️ lie 🦴🔙⏳, 📊, 📍, or 🫂.
Sometimes, we created images 🚫📸 …
We 💭🤔 how images 🔄, and how the 🧱🗂️🏗️ of 📁 might be utilized as a 📖 device, beyond its intended 🎯 to 🔧 order ….
🤷 weren’t worried about taking 🌅 photos…
👥 felt free from the constructs of 💄 and 📈!
Free enough to create 🚫🖼️.
For us, 💩 was 😻 sometimes.
🔄 we shared and created to our 💓 content, we also learned about 🧑🎨🧪✍️🚫🖼️ Imperfect Images—🧑🎨➕🧑🎨, 🧑🎨, 🧑🎨, and🧑🎨, just to name a few. We learned how the practice of 🖼️ has changed with the advent of 💻📱🎥📺📀: from the 🛜 to 🧑💻✍️🖼️. We often 💭 about the ways we had witnessed 👾 culture influence images in our 🙋; we 📝 how different the 🏔️🖼️ of the early 2000s was from today.
For AI 🕖7️⃣, Ruby Justice Thelot presented their recent essay “😒🖼️” and invited us to 💭 questions such as: 🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🖼️🚫👧❓⏳🏃♀️✌️🖼️❓
We invite you to browse the 📂 included in ➡️🔗, and 🙏 📸🥴🚽🖼️🔜❗️
Always wanted to take a bad image but never known how? Here are a few tips to help you get started.
1. Make it Ugly
Stand too close or too far away from the subject. Embrace things like blurriness, low-resolution, noise, and bad cropping. Maybe close your eyes when you press the capture button.
2. Don’t think about getting likes or shares
Images don’t always get likes and that’s fine. Free yourself from thinking about what the algorithm wants to see and instead make something you want to see. Social media doesn’t always have to be the end-game.
3. Don’t spend a lot of time or resources on it
Paywalled software? No thanks!
4. No camera? No problem!
You don’t need a camera to make an image. In this class, we explored different camera-less techniques for making images that utilized screenshotting, physical printing, photo editing and more.
5. Original doesn’t equal Good
This one is a little controversial… but our projects often lifted, sampled, stole, and remixed existing work. We weren’t just making images, we were engaging with a long history of photography and art!
Imperfect Pictures was a 10-week course taught by Molly Soda, Will Allstetter, and Kayla Drzewicki over the summer of 2023.
Over the course of the class, we thought a lot about what constitutes a “perfect image,” who these images serve, how and why they are made, and how they completely take over our lives, online and offline. “Perfect” Images often perform well on social media, generally are of good quality, usually portraying its subjects in a flattering light. However, perfect images lack the ability to be representative of reality. They evoke false expectations and sometimes are just flat out boring. But we believe imperfection is inevitable and interesting! In order to challenge the standards of what makes a “good” image, each week we completed different assignments:
We created images intended to get as few likes as possible…
For our “Flop” assignments, the goal was to post a photo that would attract as few likes as possible. Instagram-less participant Molly Wurwand chose to physically “post” pictures around her neighborhood and track how many “likes” they might get by inviting pedestrians to pull tabs that read: “I like this photo and find it interesting.” [ALT TEXT: The rearview window of a car features a picture of a man. The windshield wiper also has a photo of an arm, so that (presumably) it moves it looks like the man is waving. You can see the reflection of the picture-taker’s arms and phone on the car. Below the photo is a plain black and white text with pull of tags that says “Do You Like This Photo and Find It Interesting? If So, Please Rip Off A Pull Tab To Show You Like It!” There are 11 pull tabs that say “I like this photo and find it interesting”]
We spent an entire week contemplating the art of taking screenshots. We thought about screenshotting as an act of preservation: hidden in its image lie remnants of a past era, trend, place, or friendship.
Yuni Yuan created a humorous file explorer experience that shared the findings of her deep dive into Yeshu Coconut Drink and designed it to look like a grocery store shelf, playing off of memes about the drink. [ALT TEXT: A Finder window looks like a grocery store shelf full of cans of coconut milk. If you click on a can, it opens a new folder with an assortment of content, from webpages to text to images.]Sometimes, we created images without even taking them…
Morry Kolman shares his project, https://trafficcamphotobooth.com/, a website that helps you use publicly available traffic cameras to take selfies. [ALT TEXT: A screenshot of a Zoom Meeting where Morry Kolman is sharing his screen. The screen features a variety of windows showing views from street cameras. In the chat, Zoe ask if he hacked the cameras, rusty says “need chicago next, and zoe says “need to get out of speeding tickets, would love to get in there first and delta the image. Im not joking.”We thought about how images circulate, and how the built-in architecture of folders might be utilized as a storytelling device, beyond its intended purpose to keep order ….
We thought about how images circulate, and how the built-in architecture of folders might be utilized as a storytelling device, beyond its intended purpose to keep order ….
For the final assignment, Kayla Henry Griffin created .gifs of themself and stipulated rules (including what day of the week they were allowed to be posted on) for their use. For example, “20240721_144937.gif” requires the viewer to: take yourself out on a date within two business days, read some text that you have been saving for a rainy day, and repeat a lyric you enjoy at least seven times in your head. [ALT TEXT: A gif of a screen that, on the left, shows a Finder window with 8 files (and the txt file open to the right. It reads: “{README}]We weren’t worried about taking nice-looking photos…
We felt free from the constructs of beauty and success!
Free enough to create Imperfect Images.
For us, ugly was beautiful sometimes.
As we shared and created to our heart’s content, we also learned about artists who regularly experiment with creating Imperfect Images—Eva & Franco Mattes, Sondra Perry, Penelope Umbrico, and Christopher Clary, just to name a few. We learned how the practice of image-making has changed with the advent of different technologies: from the internet to photo editors. We often reminisced about the ways we had witnessed digital culture influence images in our own personal experiences; we noted how different the image landscape of the early 2000s was from today.
For AI week, Ruby Justice Thelot presented their recent essay “The Treachery of Images” and invited us to ponder questions such as: What happens when we have the ability to generate a multitude of images without human intervention? When will we run out of images?
We invite you to browse the folders included in our folder anthology, and we hope you’ll take a bad photo soon!