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Collage Experimentation

Why?
Before exploring a potential system or interface that would facilitate a ‘Hauntological Collage Creator’ it is important to first experiment with creating my own collages. This will allow me to understand what features are required for a user to be able to adequately create their own and what features the system will require.​

Collage creation would also be an experiment in collating imagery that is both visually appealing but socially and culterally resonate.

Collage Artist Referencing

The Brooklyn Collage Collective: https://www.brooklyncollagecollective.com/

The Two main literary references for this project I am using are the books shown below. 

Photomontage: Experimental Photography Between The wars (1991)

Provides some context to the origins of collage, particulary in the public eye. The book contains examples of collages creating during the World Wars. It is interesting to get a sense of historical context. Aesthically speaking as well, the mainly black and white imagery used and some of the transparent images laid over original seperate pictures have strong Hauntological qualities.

Dr. Me - Cut That Out: Contempary Collage in Graphic Design. 

Provides a more modern take on collage and its application and use in modern industries and projects. Again an effort was made to really apply a hauntlogical lense when considering the collages shown.

Project Menu: Hauntology

Research:

Experimentation:

Design process:

Project Reflections and Future:

IMG_1541.jpg

Photomontage: Experimental Photography Between The wars (1991)

Highlights from Photomontage 

Dr. Me - Cut That Out: Contempary Collage in Graphic Design. 

highlights from Cut That Out

Collage Picks: ^

The collages I selected were chosen due to consistent features, which could be construed as Hauntological. These features include black and white or very minimal colouring, the use of ancient/historical symbolism and artifacts, the sense of 'haunting' created by layering transparent images (the three top hatted men with the female body overlayed is a particular example of this), and in some images the minimalistic approach or use of white space which again creates a sense of haunting or sparse unease.

College Experimentation Using Photoshop and Illustrator

Text Based College Experimentation

To create my collages I sourced images premoninately of prominant 'sporting' moments that I find particularly hauntologically applicable both in a sporting sense and wider culteral sense in relation to the UK, I also used images from the 1980s miners strikes, often viewed as a sismic battle and turning point in UK politics and culture, the ramifications of the strike are still believed to be felt today.

Creating collages was essential to understanding what functions would be required for the user to create their own. The main takeaways from these experimentations were:

  • Transparency control

  • Grain effect control

  • sizing/scaling

  • Colour Control

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