Journal Entry #10 - My Processing Journey in Assignment 1 aka The Hellawhack Shiznit That Happened Inside My Brizzle Part 1

We were tasked with creating an artwork for our first assignment, and I decided right off the bat, I was going to do something related to the digital realm. Going through the past few weeks, I found a certain medium that I was certain I was going to incorporate into my work, and that was none other than the glitch selfie. I loved how the images remained in flux, constant motion at every turn related something very real to me, and that is how the glitch represented something the way inherent in how life was. Through the manifesto written by Rosa Menkman, I was further inspired by her writing on how the glitch represents many things, and most of all, it was the start of something new. An initial spark that will result in explosion of the new. And thus I began my process to create something related to the glitch.

It did not start off that way though as you will come to see. I intended for something entirely different. Initially, before the idea to use a glitch, I also had a plan to make a digital copy of myself and incorporate elements that made up who I am, similar to our PechaKucha assignment. I wanted something to feel the same way, as we are all made up of things.

I had also been inspired by the artist Giuseppe Arcimboldo, which was brought up during lectures. He was an artist who painted objects to create portraiture.

Artwork by Giuseppe Arcimboldo

As I considered the elements to put into my work, I created various versions from the same particular set of materials.
Therefore, interspaced between this post, are certain drafts I went through just to accomplish that effect.

"I am... I like... I want to..." (Draft 1) by Vashon Tnee

As I began to think about the things that I could use in my work, I was forced to self-reflect on the things that mattered most to me. I wanted the things that did, to stand out more than others because we all have different weights that we afford to the things around us. Priorities to the things that we feel deserve more of our attention. But that does not mean that the smallest things do not make up the largest part of us. That's when I began looking at space as well, the world we live in.

"I am... I like... I want to..." (Draft 2) by Vashon Tnee

The process continued as I began to consider the things I wanted to put into the artwork. It was around here I decided the glitch effect would be perfect. So I knew somehow, I would need to make variations of the same thing to create that glitch.

"I am... I like... I want to..." (Draft 3) by Vashon Tnee

By now, I was putting images of myself inside as well, to signify who this work belonged to, what it meant to me as an individual as well as how I was a part of the things that make up who I am just as much as they are a part of me. It was a two-way relationship that was being portrayed by the time I arrived at the third draft.

"I am... I like... I want to..." (Draft 4) by Vashon Tnee

Then came the decisions. To make a complete glitch, or not to. Because certain elements would need to be removed in order to create a whitening space that was what I intended, I had to consider which elements to take away because it represented how we move on from certain places, or things.

"I am... I like... I want to..." (Draft 5) by Vashon Tnee

As such, I selected to remove the picture of my home which was Singapore, represented by the skyline of the Marina Bay to create the white spaces I required. The reason for that was because I felt as much as I wanted, the objects that made up who I am, were already fixed. But locations could still be mobile, as I am alive and able to travel. So feeling that it made the most sense, I removed locations to create the glitch.

Finally, the resulting effect was this artwork you see now.

"I am... I like... I want to..." (2017) by Vashon Tnee

Hope you enjoyed looking through my artistic process for creating this work! I thoroughly enjoyed the process, as I went through a bunch of research to get to this point, I realized it was the process I really liked the most since it endowed me with certain reflections on myself as an individual as well as garnering new knowledge for me to utilise. Thank you for reading!