2W29 Project Report

Nikolaos Almpanis
MADA 02
Camberwell College of Arts
18 March 2008

Project Report

The initial aim of this project was to re-define human portraiture in our digital society by creating with hybrid techniques a human portrait of identity. As this project was developing, after research and lot of experimentation with the digital medium, I have decided to focus more on the emotion that is been captured and conveyed through portraiture and less on the portrait it self as a fully developed paradigm of private information.

From the experience I have acquired from this unit, I have realized that the fusion of audio and visual imagery enhances the portrait by conveying the emotional state of the human-subject in a more informative way that almost reaches realism. Taking it one step further I had the idea to orientate my work in the creation of one of those particular instances, that we are not able to describe or recall, but they encapsulate the exact emotional state of our mind. I called them mind frames because they remind me the frames of a video footage.

The creation of one of my projects named ‘Human Generated Abstraction’ gave me good experience on creating something graphical from a black empty canvas. That was also a big step for the process I usually follow to create my work because sound was missing completely from the development as well as the final piece.

Concerning the digital portrait I still have to make a series of studies on face depiction and distortion in order to describe emotional states. Also motion and interaction tests (with the viewer) have to take place for better understanding the need of the interaction for my project.

For the final show I will require monitors preferably slim ones with good resolution, a pair of speakers for the audio needs, wii remotes and IR leds for the head tracking technique. The whole installation will be placed in a small dark room or inside a wooden cubistic construction, which I call ‘the box’. The idea is to isolate the viewer from external elements that might disorientate him.