EL Project IV

Artist Statement

Instead of depicting the destructiveness of decay, I was interested in decay as a part of the whole life cycle of nature. Decay happens continuously and so does the grand process of renewal in nature. The circle frame of the images refers to the continuity and perfection of nature's ability to recycle itself fully. Over the course of the video, flowers wilt, fall apart and their biomass gets broken down to fruitful new soil.

One of the main mission of this video was to make it evident how there is beauty in decaying. Over the course of the video there are many organisms, but the there are three types that are focused on especially: flowers, moss and mushrooms. The comparison of flowers and mushrooms evokes questions of how and why we adore things.  The mushrooms are very colorful and attractive though their job is to do the dirty worth of taking apart all the matter that ends up at the forest floor. 

The blue black ring around the pictures is a sort of a zoom window - like the ones that are on a maps or diagrams. The thickness of the circle was chosen because it looks like a magnifying glass. Usually these kinds of circles show the detail and texture of a bigger picture, which in this case is the entire environment. I used the circle frame to establish a focus on small scale events, but also remind the viewer that the picture and process is just a tiny part of a bigger ensemble.

VG- Project 4 - Decay

CMB Artist Statement

Clarissa Martinez-Blat

Digital Imaging Spring 2015

Project 4

Artist Statement

                Decay is defined as the process or state of rotting or decomposition. There are many different types of decay: natural, urban, digital, mortal, still life, and decomposition. For my project, I chose to portray urban decay while also showing the cycle of life. Normally, graffiti and moss on a wall are associated with urban decay. I chose to play on that fact and use them as ways to characterize the way that although some things may die, more things will grow from them. The words "Still I Rise", which come from a poem by Maya Angelou, represent the life cycle. People say that a tree spends half of its life standing up, growing, and the other half of its life lying on the forest/jungle floor as a home for thousands of other creatures and plants that grow from it. The bird and the ballerina also personify the act of growing and getting back up despite having been knocked down. The gif is supposed to be looped to show that continuous cycle which is life. Decay does not always lead to death, it can also breed life. 

VG- process sketchbook

burger process project 4

CMB Process Book

AH Final

Ailynda Ho

Decay Project

            My project is about the decay of the human spirit at an emotional level. Inspiration for this project came from my own experiences with the decay of the human spirit though motivation, happiness, sadness, anxiety, and excitement. The imagery narrates the emotional roller costar of the character. These stages are all the progressing and degreasing faces between ecstatic and troubled. As the images move the figure stays in the same while the expression and background changes with the mood of the character. I chose to format the project as a GIF due to its looping abilities. This aids in the cyclical nature of the emotional decay of the human spirit. The organization of the images was taken into consideration to not be exclusive to the decay of happiness, but also the decay of sadness. In addition to achieving a sense of equilibrium there is an underlying notion that extremes of either emotion cannot exist without the other.