Introduction
Would a PSP be considered "old school" in the years to come?
I want to investigate what it means for something to be "old school" after an inspiration by a friend's comment on a childhood snack, Pola Snack, as being "old school". It seems that the term itself embeds some form of nostalgia.
Through this series of photographs, I attempt to create a sense of nostalgia for the people of this age (and perhaps a slightly earlier generation) while extrapolating to the future. What I mean is simply this: I imagine a futuristic audience who will look at the photos and think to themselves, "Hey, this is old school!"
Reference artist/Photographer
I refer to the style of the photographer, Kurt Tong, who created the "In Case it Rains in Heaven" series at the Singapore International Photography Festival 2010. Though the theme used is vastly different, I like the way he has captured the items - i.e. a black background framing the objects.
Research/Idea Development
To further develop the idea, I brainstormed about the various objects (from my parents' generation to my own childhood, to current modern times). I had to think of familiar objects that people at large generally have seen/used.
I broke down the structure of the concept into segments: the first two or three photographs that showed items from my parents' 'era', then the next two from my own (but being phased out already), and then the current 'era'.
For the items, I got my father's help to bring out the nostalgic items that he once carried - things like pager, his childhood toys, SMRT cards, phone cards etc. I also ransacked my belongings to find suitable subjects.
Finally, these are the items I settled upon:
- An old abacus (presumably belonging to my late grandfather)
- A spinning toy from my father's childhood
- Pager
- Phone cards and TransitLink cards
- Samsung mobile phone (somewhat modern)
- PSP (modern)
Technique Used
I experimented with two techniques - to shoot with a normal exposure, and shoot using low key techniques.
I found the low key images to be more effective as they bring with it a sense of mystery and the readers will spend more time in trying to decipher it and once they do, there is a higher chance that they will realize the nostalgic moment. In other words, I want to invite the readers to participate in the decoding rather than just putting the images plainly in their face.
I also employed photoshop techniques on the images to try to make them look equally faded and ancient, so that readers see that I am trying to draw a similarity between the items even though they do come from different 'eras' - that they are all going to look 'old school' to the reader anyway in the future.
Reflection
I have learnt that it takes careful planning to effectively carry out what I want to achieve in conceptual art. It takes into account the various contemplation of a single idea - i.e. the subjects to use, the techniques and the framing.
The artist is only incharge of encoding the image in the best way that he/she can with the resources available. It is still up to the individual readers to decode it and it is in this 'uncontrolled' decoding that I find very interesting and exciting as their interpretations can even open up new ideas or revelation that I perhaps had not thought of before.
