ARTifact

This exhibition is a culmination of students at Zhaoqing University (Zhaoqing, China) working with photo manipulation for a first-generation art product. Click on a thumbnail to view its larger version of the ARTifact, then click on the thumbnail to the right of the ARTifact to compare it to its origin or the original photograph.



This project is under the instruction of Tom R. Chambers at Zhaoqing University (Zhaoqing, Guangdong Province, China).

This is the first time for these Freshman art majors to experience and apply software [PhotoShop] to a photographic image to manipulate it to produce an ARTifact. The photographs were acquired and exchanged through student partnerships [Classes 1 and 2/Classes 3 and 4] for manipulation. This process and its first-generation art product borders on "The Exquisite Corpse" ... based on an old parlor game and used as one of the Surrealist techniques exploiting the mystique of accident. One of the basic tenants of Surrealism is the notion that creativity/genius can be a shared experience, and the student partnerships were set up to create a greater awareness of this concept and its Movement. Over a very short timeline ... four days [three hours per day] of class instruction ... the students acquired basic software application skills to begin to move towards making digital art for print and online presentation. The first-generation art products above are open for a true approach to "The Exquisite Corpse". Contact Tom R. Chambers if you and/or your students are interested in continuing this process.

Analysis:

"Many of the above ARTifacts are on shaky ground in terms of "real" art, but this is due to several factors: this process is a first for the student population to have hands-on with PhotoShop; they're Freshmen with little exposure to the art process; they're also childlike [this approach seen in many of the original photos and ARTifacts], which in this teacher's mind is due to parental overprotection [One-child Policy] and the nature of their prior educational process in which there is little to no room for creative development and cognitive thought. However, a few of the above ARTifacts show artistic promise such as the pieces by Cai Jing Shu [row 1, number 1], Wang Huan Ke [row 2, number 9], Zeng Bi Jia [row 3, number 4], He Yu Mei [row 4, number 1], Mai Jia Tao [row 4, number 9], Wu Jiang Yi [row 5, number 4] and Zhong Xiao Qi [row 5, number 9]. And what's probably more important anyway ... particularly at the Freshman stage ... is the opportunity for these students to begin to experience graphics software then apply those skills to making or having some kind of end result. In other words, the process of learning how to work with graphics tools, filters and layers supersedes the ARTifact."

Tom R. Chambers
Visiting Lecturer, Digital/New Media Art
Fine Arts Department
Zhaoqing University
Zhaoqing, China

Websites about photo manipulation and "The Exquisite Corpse":

www.tomharold.com

www.artattack.to

www.deviantart.com

www.gfxartist.com

www.exquisitecorpse.com

www.anexquisitecorpse.net

www.thesurrealist.co.uk

www.ebsqart.com