Self Assessment: Project 3

For project 3 I am proud to say my projection art has been the most rewarding and entertaining projects within my Advanced Digital Media course. Beginning with artist research I stumbled across a photographer by the name of Lee Kirby. Kirby, who projects images of city skylines and nightlife onto human bodies, gave me inspiration to also use the contours of the body as a living canvas. Because this piece was in need of a body, I realized no one would be willing to stand lit up in public space for two hours- thus the idea of using a statue to project upon crossed my mind and began looking in monty for a usable subject. It soon became apparent though that no statute had a daunting enough presence or ideal position so I was forced to go back to square one.

Suddenly, I remembered one of the St. Mary's wonders- The Naked Man statue located right in between route 5 and Trinity Church road. Not knowing its significance I acquired knowledge about its existence, hoping it could add to the content of my own piece. 

The statues actual name- Freedom of Conscience, was sculpted by Hans Schuler in 1934 to celebrate the 300th anniversary of Maryland. I am embarrassed not knowing this after living here for almost 4 years, but St. Mary's City is considered to be the birthplace of religious freedom in America. The piece itself symbolizes the original colonists who were escaping the religious tensions of England during the 1600s.

Lee Kirby's Self, my personal favorite

After acquiring this knowledge, I felt bad that students simply know it more as "the naked man" rather than a erected symbol of diversity- a concept this campus is obsessed with addressing. In terms of my own art projecting onto the sculpture I wanted to stray away from my usual glitching technology for two reasons: one, I felt as though I should have stepped outside of my usual artistic genre, and two, I feel glitching would have little to no positive effect on the sculpture itself. The class had various spurts of creative suggestion, beginning with the idea of projecting genitals onto the sculpture. Others believed it would be fun to display it with clothes on, but again this goes back to the issue of no one really knowing what the naked man really stands for.

As Lee Kirby showed, the human body has wonderful curves and lines that warp images into an unrecognizable spectacle. Brainstorming, I realized the ideas of religion are represented by none other than text and symbols, both of which having diverse meaning. Even among Christianity, many meanings within the bible may be interpreted or translated differently from the U.S. to Japan. Because of this, I began constructing the project through Final Cut Pro- editing together images and including scrolling text of various religious texts, such as the Koran and Torah. These beginning passages would then be put through Google Translate and voila: a diverse collage of religious passages in various languages and images such as the Star of David and Jesus.

As a filmmaker, having a great amount of Final Cut Pro experience was very useful towards getting the most out of this piece. Playing around, I first layered religion verses over their symbols. I soon realized I could even layer other scrolling text on top of the original text, connecting all three with custom transitions. In the end I had verses and symbols from Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Judaism, all to be projected onto the statue in a rare harmony of culture.

Image of a Buddhist Infinite Knot is
shown over the first verses of the Quran

While my work habits were strong and consistent, the biggest issues I faced were from both technology gripes and the act of testing the projection before the digital media art walk. Due to great amounts of rain, it was tricky to set up a large amount of electrical equipment outdoors- trying twice to get a test going but retreating due to the possibility of my lap top short circuiting during finals. Dragging the cords across the street and through the dirt became a muddy job itself. Luckily, Clifton was there for support after he moved his piece from the Trinity Church  down towards the back of the statue. All in all, we tried.

On the night of the projection, I attempted to transfer my final project onto a flashdrive before downloading the quicktime movie onto my computer. Unfortunately, my flashdrive refused to accept my project due to "not having sufficient memory." Even after I deleted everything from the flash drive it still would not download- so I ended up projecting a test version of my project onto the statue instead. Despite the difference being only a minute, I was more bothered by the end of the piece- showing Jesus randomly popping up in different sizes (originally to scale his body to the statue).

Regardless of minor hiccups, once I saw my projection for the first time I had the greatest feeling of satisfaction rush over me. All that tedious copying/pasting text and rendering video finally paid off. Now I could sit back and admire my piece in public, flashing its images across the contours of Freedom of Conscience in a spectacular manner. The turnout of art audiences was surprisingly great also, averaging roughly 10 people every 20 minutes- all loving the projection montage and questioning its significance. 

When I look back upon the piece, I believe I was highly successful in creating a visually beautiful projection that fit the original sculpture and its meaning towards St. Mary's City. Because of this, I'd give myself a solid A. 

Wherever he is, I hope Hans Schuler would approve.