Idea - Posters

When planing my post it note idea I thought of something else similar to that that might grab the attention of passers by in public areas ore than a few scattered post it notes. I thought I could make A4 posters that were bright, bold, and in specific block colours that stated a statistic or fact about the public area that I would then later on stick the poster up in. I will experiment with this idea later on unless my post it note idea is extremely successful.

Exhibition Idea

I don't yet know exactly what I want to display as a final outcome in the End of Year Exhibition but I have got a few ideas flowing around my mind. I like the idea of displaying whatever it is I want to display for example a series of images, I could display them all over the exhibition rather than al in one place to simulate how germs spread and can be found almost anywhere. I've displayed work like this in another exhibition I did and it went down very well, everyone loved the surprise of finding my work in a place that they wouldn't expect, it certainly grabbed people attention more than work I've done where I've displayed it all together in one spot.

Website of Interest

I typed in OCD art into youtube and it came up with something that I thought might have been relevant,  it was a edgy video of a guy doing some stencil art whilst a voice in the background states information about OCD. I didn't understand what the video was about until the end when I was directed to a website. I checked the website out and it isn't really relevant to this current project it was an interesting site that I might want to look back on at a later date to gain information or influence for a different project. http://www.redefinegallery.com The website is for a gallery in Orlando that specialises in art and photography. The work seems to be street and urban based, it's very modern, youthful and trendily up to date. There is an exhibition about a guy called SKIP that suffers from OCD (which is who was in the stencil art video which lead me to this site) but the exhibition isn't any help or relation to what I'm doing.

Microbe Spreading Experiment - Results

I went back to the photos that I left in my family home stuck in places where microbes gather, I left it just over a week to pick them up.

After retrieving the images from their areas I scanned them into the computer to highlight the collected dirt and compared them to the before and after shots. 

Before:

After:

After just over a week a few toothpaste marks had gathered onto the image but nothing too drastic occurred. I was shocked at how little was caught on the image, I expected hair, more toothpaste, and moisturiser and other creams to have spilt onto the photo. 

Before:

After:

The light switch image had a rough texture to it after the week was up but no visuals were picked up on the scanner. I think the fact that the image was stuck over the original light switch meant it was harder to press the switches so more use and harder pushing was needed which is probably why the image itself suffered as much as it did, it was as though the middle of the image was beginning to wear away. I would like to have picked up some visual damage.

Before:

After:

The floor near the cat bowl was affected quite a bit due to the messiness of my cat's eating habits. The floor didn't display the green colour that we can see so that must have come from the scanner.

Before:

After:

This is the image from the side of my kitchen sink. I'm not sure how the bright orange lines occurred but I'm assuming it was from a mixture of water and washing up liquid. This image reminds me of a photo that has been damaged with bleach, something that I've experimented with earlier on in this project. I like the oil spill look that this photo has, it makes it look industrial and dirty. The orange lines and coloured patches resemble the look of specific microbes under the microscope which is something I've looked into a lot throughout this whole project. I like this photo because of the rapid different between the before and after image as well as the effect of the aftermath itself. I'd like to experiment with water and washing up liquid to see what happens in a more controlled environment. The contrast between microbes and cleanliness is shown in this image because it was placed in that space to capture germs yet it seems to have come away after capturing being cleaned, watered and soaped on. 

David Spero Influenced Work 2

I went to a stationary shop for reasons unrelated to this project yet came across something that gave me and idea of how I could produce some work to fit in with what I've been looking at so far. I found a pack of little coloured stickers for just 50p!

I thought I could stick the little stickers over objects commonly found to have germs on them around the home and if I like the process and outcome then I'll develop it to sticking them in public areas. David Spero's work has influenced this idea due to it's creative, innovative and clever nature and through the way I'd perceived it and developed my post it note idea. The dots are to represent the germs crawling all over the objects and areas I chose to capture. 

Make up products and the bag they're carried in are a veritable breeding ground for germs. Dr Debra Juliman says, on the website http://www.shape.com/lifestyle/beauty-style/6-health-threats-hiding-your-makeup-bag "Every time you dip your finger into a jar of cream or foundation, you're introducing bacteria into it, thereby contaminating it. Many woman dab a cover up stick directly onto a pimple, transferring the acne bacteria right onto the stick where it then grows and thrives. Dr. Clairborne says: "Make up bags come a dime a dozen; however, what you fail to realize is that dark and moist places are breeding grounds for bacteria. If the bag is dark and the make up is moist, well, you do the math."

I stuck the dots to my mum's make up bag then edited the original image to make it lighter, corrected the colour, adjusted the tone and contrast. I'll experiment on Photoshop with different styles and see what happens. 

Changing this image to negative makes it look like it's covered in bacteria as bacteria is often depicted as being a brightly lit, illumines structure. The negative effect gives it an ambiguous look because the colours and tones of each individual object are less separated then they are on the original image. I think the pattern on the bag itself looks like swarming bacteria because of the patchy covered effect. Illumines colours in nature are usually found upon toxic animals or plants so by recreating the luminosity in this image it gives the signal that this object is dangerous. 

I repeated the process of editing the image to make it look better to then making the image negative and I think the results of the image taken from this angle work a lot better then the previous one. 

I played about with positioning and context and came up with this! Involving the mirror gives the image context because that's where people usually start getting ready, with their make up, at. 

The microwave is full of germ activity. Harmful bacteria can collect on the visible spills left behind on the inside of the microwave and germs cal also accumulate on the exterior buttons as we can use our microwaves a dozen times between washing our hands. 

I've edited the original microwave image to balace the colour by adding more blue tones to compliment the excessive yellow, I've brightened the image slightly and increased the vibrance of the small stickers so they glow more. I think as a series these dotted photos would be very strong both visually and through the message I'd be giving out of germs on everyday objects.

A U.S. study found that many shower head are dirty and may be covering you in a daily dose of bacteria that could make you sick. An analysis of 50 shower heads from nine U.S. cities found about 30% harboured high levels of Mycobacterium Avium which is a group of bacteria that can cause lung infections when inhaled or swallowed. Researcher Norman Pace stated: "If you are getting a face full of water when you first turn your shower on, that means you are probably getting a particularly high load of Mycobacterium avium, which may not be too healthy,". The problem with shower heads is that the insides of them provide a moist, warm, dark haven for bacteria to thrive and live. Bacteria can form sticky "biofilms" inside the shower head that allow them to gain a foothold and eventually set up residence.

I went to the bathroom without the intention of taking any images and I saw the shower lying there in the bath, it looked peaceful and dead and I caught myself just looking at the set up until I got the idea to stick small colourful dots all over it then take some pictures! The idea behind this image was that the germ covered shower head is turning away from the viewer so we can't see how many germs are on the other side, it leads us to thinking if there are that many dots on this side of the shower then how many will there be on the side where the germs thrive due to the dark, moist conditions. I couldn't get down low enough to look through my camera at what I was taking so I had no control over focus, in this case you'll see that it focused on the background as opposed to the shower head itself so I kept on trying until I got an image focusing on the shower head, you'll see this further down in this post. To edit this image from the original I changed the tone to get rid of the orange, I slightly modified the brightness and contrast and then I balanced the excess yellow by adding it's complimentary colour blue. 

I enjoyed sticking the dots around on the objects but I hated taking them off again...The longer they stayed there the harder they were to remove. I would like to create a scene full of dots as opposed to small objects like the wall of a kitchen that has a cooker, cupboards and utensils against it, I think it would look creative and striking because of the coloured dots covering everything. 

My David Spero Inspired Work 1

I've just sat at a computer for about half an hour finding our facts and statistics about how much bacteria and germs thrive on office equipment such as keyboards, mice and desktops. I've wrote all of my findings on post it notes to stick around a computer in the library later on. Whilst reading about all of the germs that are covering our office equipment, I was put off my sandwich, felt sick and felt the need to wash my hands. I was shocked to read some of the stats about germs on a keyboard versus germs on a toilet seat, realising that office equipment is usually dirtier than the toilet seat wasn't something I was happy reading. I'm hoping that when I've left these notes in a public are then people will start to look at them properly and read what they say as opposed to just walking off. One problem I might face could be that once a computer desktop space is covered with my notes, it might just look as though it's an out of order computer which may put people off seeing what the notes are all about. If that's the case then I will leave one or two notes on a few computers rather than spreading them all over one, this way, hopefully people will have already approached the computer and sat down before finding the notes.

I wanted to use the little, more colourful post it notes as well as the big blue and yellow ones because I wanted the post it notes to simulate the germs themselves and my research has lead me to believe that people are used to seeing germs presented in colourful, vibrant forms. I looked at what bacteria and germs are most commonly found on office equipment such as a keyboard, mouse and desktop and wrote the names of them on the smaller, brighter post it notes. 

I'm looking forwards to seeing if people react to the notes and if they do then I'm intrigued to see how they do so. I will continue to look for more public areas to stick these notes in. I am going to see how well people react to the stats and facts and germs before doing anything with spreading the short poems and verses about OCD around in public areas because I don't quite know yet how that will play out or what I can get from it. 

Everyone who came across this computer commented on the things that I had wrote down, I heard comments like "Ew is this legit?" and "Omg read this!" so I know my post it note idea worked in terms of spreading knowledge of how bacteria spreads and where it gets to as well as shocking people with how I worded it. 

My David Spero Inspired Work

Whilst sitting in the library looking through my blog after posting about the poem project for OCD Awareness Week and I looked up on the work I'd researched by David Spero, an idea reached me which involved the two. I am going to write small poems or verses or source them from somewhere such as the OCD-UK website from the poem project itself and write them onto post it notes and stick them in public areas for people to see, read and potentially understand the feelings of someone with OCD. I will focus on contamination OCD like I have done throughout the project and I will stick the post it notes in a formation to simulate the spreading of germs in a public area. I've thought of some public places to do this, one being a public toilet and the other being locations around university. I think when travelling into areas as public as toilets there is a risk of me getting into trouble for littering, defacing or graffiti so I will be careful not to get into trouble. I thought to start off with to see how the experiment works I will stick the post it notes on objects rather than around large public areas, I will start by sticking them onto a computer in the university library tomorrow. I will sit back and document the reactions of the public when they come across my notes.I am going to repeat the experiment with notes stating statistics of how rapidly germs spread in that particular setting that I've left the notes in for example, I'll put notes in public toilets stating facts about how dirty public toilets are in relation to germs and how rapidly they spread, I think this will grab public attention and get people thinking about how dirty specific areas are. This experiment however is not designed to frighten anyone who may be bothered by germs, it will simply be put into place so I can observe the opinions of the public when they read such things.

Inspiration - Advert

I was watching TV and an advert came on, I can't remember what the advert was for because I was focusing on the visuals, I do however remember thinking that the visuals didn't link to what was being advertised at the time. I took some quick snaps of the advert:

The advert played around with animation to create a light hearted, slightly amusing sketch of a microbe dancing around the slide. 

The funny side of this advert is what caught my attention in the first place because I hadn't thought about different ways to represent OCD and germs in another other way than a serious one. 

I was surprised to see repetition creep up once again, this time in the form of small islands with trees on them. 

I wanted to capture and remember this advert in case I later on got some ideas of representation or animation.

Hands

It's a well known fact that our hands are big culprits for gathering and spreading germs, in order to show this I've printed off a few images of the samehand and I'll manipulate it both physically and using the computer, this process will allow me to produce creative ways to represent microbes on hands as well as offer me the chance to see what forms of mixed media and techniques work in what ways.

The image above is of my hand after printing my hand over the top of it using black poster paint. I like this photo because it has depth, it looks like the hand in the photo has just printed it's hand print onto the camera lens yet the hand behind the print is still clean which gives it a bizarre element. 

I used orange poster paint on the hand image above. It looks striking, bold and neon which works well for representing germs but the paint doesn't look like it's on the hand, it looks like it's been placed over the top (which it has), however I still like the photo because of it's weird nature...it asks 'why is the hand orange?'.

The 2 images above have been coloured in with neon marker pen, I like this effect because it looks as though the pen was on the hand itself rather than just on the printed image, this is a good technique to use when photographing people who need to be covered in colour. Colouring the photo after printing also gives you more control over where the paint/pens land because skin is very hard to draw on yet the printed photo is flat and smooth. I really like the green hand because it reminds me of filth, poison and danger because of it's brightness in colour and mixed tones making it look like it's seeping through the skin. 

Manipulating Images

As well as leaving images around my family home to gather dirt and germs I've used the same photos to conduct an experiment to see what form of media works the best when representing microbes upon a specific surface or object.

I've looked into using UV paint as a representation of microbes upon objects and surfaces but haven't explored it enough to know what the result is. I used UV face paint on this photo of a light switch to see if the luminous dots looked like germs and bacteria, I think it does to an extent. The colours and luminosity of the paint work well in simulating microbes but the fast irregular dotted effect I've used does not. I now know that UV paint does work well when using it for this purpose but the execution needs to be finer, more detailed, more equal and dense.

I bought some neon marker pens so I could use them in my microbe representation experiment. I've covered this light switch image in the orange neon marker and was surprised that I like the result. The image is so simple but the texture given from the home made marks look creative, child like and strange. I like it when images are out of the ordinary, I like it when an image shows us something that we would never have seen if it wasn't for that image, this photo does that to an extent. We're used to seeing light switches looking plain and we don't think about it but when it's roughly coloured in a neon orange colour it's brought to our attention that something isn't right. In terms of the orange pen looking like microbes on the light switch I think it does this very well because the strokes from the marker look like certain types of bacteria before the slide is looked at through a microscope, examples of this are shown below.

I used orange poster paint to force my finger print onto the switch on this image. The image is simple yet has a big impact as the print is bright, easy to see, looks unnatural and therefore like it's not supposed to be there. To me the finger print does look like it represents germs on a hand being transferred to the switch but it could also be interpreted to looking like the prints after a crime scene, either way both of those situations are sinister and the image does capture that.

After the potential confusion as to what the finger print meant on the previous image I made this photo to enhance the idea of the prints representing microbes after being transferred from someone's hand. The multiple finger prints show the switch is touched a lot and the different sized prints show it's touched a lot by different people thus ruling out the crime scene story. The fact that I've used bright, colourful paint to print my finger encourages the idea of microbes as this is how they're often presented on things such as anti bacterial spray bottles and in creative photographs. I enjoy this image very much, I think it's fun to look at and holds a message that is clear to read and understand.

This is a photo of the floor near my cat bowl after I put Fairy washing up liquid on it and left it for a while then rubbed it off with newspaper. The washing up liquid has acted like bleach and removed the ink from the top of the photo revealing the fire like colours underneath. I like the effect washing up liquid has on the image, it looks like a pattern that certain microbes form when spread in a microscope dish. 

I flicked paint onto this with my finger to form elongated, stretched marks to make it look as though the heavier parts of the orange splats are microbes and the trails they're leaving behind them are to represent the speed in which they travel. The original images were of the kitchen floor near the cat bowl and my front door mat.

One again I used washing up liquid to create this warn out pattern, this time I dabbed the excess liquid off by overlaying another image onto it then taking it off this is why a grainy texture has developed within the orange lines. 

For this image I sprayed cleaner onto it to form small orange hollow holes that look like burns or bubbles. 

This photo was of the windowsill, I then dotted paint around it and sandwiched it under another image to get the wavey, pushed paint look. 

This is the image I used to press against the image above, I then sprayed it with spray cleaner to see if it'd reveal clean areas dotted throughout the paint. I like the marble effect that it brings, it has texture and reminds me of the work of Fabian Oefner with it's bright colours and obscure pattern.

For this image I dotted washing up liquid in certain places with my finger then overlaid another image to remove the excess which pulled the liquid away and left thin layers of washing up liquid that was beginning to seep through the ink. 

I've learnt some new photo manipulation techniques, some very interesting, so I would like to use them again, maybe later on in this project or maybe for one in the future. I was especially pleased with how the washing up liquid images turned out as well as the spray cleaner and the post painted images after being sprayed with the cleaner.