This semester passed very quickly. “Seeing The Unseen” is the first studio class I had in university and I have learned quite a lot of knowledge throughout the semester.

I can remember in the beginning of the semester I was a bit confused about the purpose of this studio and what we do because I thought noticing is just something very natural, as long as we are alive we will be noticing. So I didn’t really understand why we need to make ourselves notice something. Then a quote in the reading enlighten me, John Mason wrote “Ordinary-noticing is easily lost from accessible memory. It is only available though being re-minded (literally) by someone or something else.” So what I called “naturally noticing” is actually ordinary-noticing, and I found what he said very true. There are many things I noticed but I will never bring it up again unless someone or something else reminds me of it. That is when I understood the meaning of “set myself to notice”. I need to give myself a mission and notice things depends on what the mission is.

For task 1 I set myself to notice how the natural light changes during the sunset. I used four photos and one time-lapse video to show how the natural light changed. The photos and video managed to show what I noticed however they were not good photography works if I look at them with a photographer or artist’s perspective. For example this photo is over exposed:And this one is completely black: At this time I didn’t manage to make the things I noticed into great photos or videos, and as a photographer I was not very impressed. So that became the target for my next assessment.

For task 2 I had to notice a list of things in a particular location. In this task I started to think about how I can present what I notice in the best way possible, and I chose to do close-up photos of the things I noticed. By using close-up photos I can lead my audience’s eyes to the focal point of the photography because most parts of the photo is blurry because of the shallow depth of field. Just like this photo:

A cigarette butt on the ground

This not only leads my audience’s eyes but also makes my photo visually more beautiful. I achieved the target I set myself at the end of task one during the process, and I also learned some new knowledge about noticing from a class discussion we had. Which was how we can notice new things from the media we made and develop new ideas. Basically when we noticed something and recorded it, if we take a detailed look at the media we collected later we can find something we didn’t notice when we collect that piece of media. So if I go to the same location again I will definitely notice some new things because I found new ways of noticing, that is notice new things from the media you collected already and make new media out of the new things.

Other than finding new ways of noticing, I also found two other things I will like to discover more. One is how can I notice things more naturally, by that I mean I would like to make noticing things in a detailed way into a habit, so I can notice things and record them without setting myself to notice them or write down a list of things for myself. The other thing I would like to discover more is to improve my video shooting skills so my audience can understand what I’m trying to express through my videos. Because the three videos I did in task 2 did not reach my own expectations and it is lacking a narrative. Here is one of them:

Narrative has always been a concept that I can’t really understand even if I translate it into Chinese. During the week four classes I had a chance to figure out what it really is by looking at Koyaanisqatsi and Galapagos Island as examples of Non-narrative documentary and narrative documentary. The first thing I noticed was narrative documentaries have a clear theme for audience to follow and non-narrative ones are more “random” and abstract so audience will have to figure out what it is trying to express by themselves. I also did a little exercise by making one of each using the media I collected in task 2.

The week 4 classes and this exercise really helped me to have a clearer idea of narrative, which is to have connections between what you put together to make it a story or has a clear theme.

I did three experiments for task 3 based on the two questions I raised in task 2. For the first experiment I set an alarm each day at different times to notify myself to notice something around me and take a photo of it. I hope this can make noticing things around me become a habit, and it worked very well. There was one day I forgot to set an alarm so I didn’t take a photo that day, and that mistake became a reminder to myself of not forgetting the experiment again. At the second half of the experiment I found myself starting to notice things automatically, and I didn’t need any alarm or notifications to tell myself to notice things. I’m starting to notice things in a detailed way. John Mason mentioned this in his book “one mark of an expert is that their sensitivity to notice certain things is integrated into their professional functioning so that all they are aware of is an possibility to act, but not necessarily of the distinctions which trigger that act.” This means after this experiment I’m closer to my expert which is photography because I’m automatically looking for things I can make into a good photo, this scan really help me to add more content into my photography works.

The second experiment was to make a video based on the theme of “textures in daily life” and send it to my friends with a survey to see if audience can understand the theme. The result can show where I need to improve on. Here is the video:

The correct answer I set for my survey is to include both “daily” and “texture” because I consider those two words the most important elements of my video. However most people only managed to answer one of the two words and only one person got both. So there still has room for improvements and I started looking for it. From the feedbacks I received from the pitch presentation and the answers from the surveys I think the music I used in this video affected the emotion it is expressing to the audience. The music I used was a bit sad and that can give some of the audiences a depressing feeling then change the original meaning of the video. Before this experiment I always focus on the visual part of my videos and I just used music as something to make my videos less boring or an extra element to add it. Sometimes I use the tempo of the music to combine with the flow of my videos but I forgot how powerful music can be. So this is definitely something to look out for in the future. I consider this as the most important outcome from this experiment.

My third experiment is a continuation of the first experiment and it really set the tone for my final project. I basically did the same thing as experiment one except I didn’t set any alarms so I could find out if noticing things around me in a detailed way really became a habit to me. The result turns out to be positive. After the experiment I always tend to look at things in a more detailed way and I am becoming more sensitive to textures. Like John Mason said “In fact attention is highly selective, and for a good reason. We could not cope with all the impressions pressing on us at every moment. We need to be selective in order to survive. What get through into awareness (conscious or subconscious) is what we notice, at whatever level.” Now I have expanded my awareness during the experiments so I managed to notice a lot more things without setting myself to do that. Because of this I brought in more diversity for my photographs and noticed details of things around me that I ignored before.

Task 3 really taught me a lot of things. Because of task 3 I can notice things very naturally, I’m looking at things in a detailed way to see if it is worth recording and touch it to feel its texture. I learned how powerful music can be to a piece of media, and most importantly I can look at things with a different perspective, which is through a camera. All those photos and video I made in this task reminded me the concept of my photography works throughout the years which is making ordinary things into extraordinary photos. And I will keep doing it for my task 4 project. In week 6’s reading Macdonald mentioned when the sync-sound recording technology first came out “Many Avant-garde film makers, however, explored non sync alternatives or resisted the new sound recording technology altogether.” This reading and the discussion I had with Hannah about the meaning of Avant-garde made me feel quite relatable. Because Avant-garde film makers and designer all have their own target they set for themselves and they don’t follow the trend or try to be like others, they just want to improve themselves on what they do. That is the same for my abstract photography. I want to improve my ability to turn normal things into great photos.

In the task 4 project I combined all the new skills I developed during the semester and made them into a series of abstract photographs based on the theme of “Finding the beauty in your daily lives”. I took photos of things people use very often in their daily lives like computers, lamps, wallets, cloths and others and made them into abstract photos showing the beautiful side of them that people don’t usually see.

The name of studio is “Seeing The Unseen”, so I used looked at the objects with a photographer’s perspective and use the camera to show a beautiful side of those objects that can only be seen through a camera. I tried to be as creative as possible with this project so in my photos I used either extreme lighting or extreme close-up shots or both of them to achieve the surprising visual effect. I’m impressed with the result because some of the photos turned out even better than I thought. When I was taking the photos I didn’t know some interesting details will be shown in the photo like the color reflection of light in the lamp photo,

A spring on a lamp

and the glossy finish on the scissors.

Scissors

These are some details I noticed when I looked at the photos after I uploaded them into my computer.

In this project I also asked my friends to send me the special things they noticed on everyday objects. It helped me to see everybody’s different perspective, some people are more into colors and some people are more into shapes and material. Because different people always notice different things, what they notice depends on their own experiences or hobbies. I will personally pay attention on cars, shoes, textures and other things I’m interested in because I know a lot about these things and I like to know and see more about them. This is why some photos I received are broader and shows the whole object and some photos are very detailed and shows an interesting small part of the object.

Before I start doing this project I wrote down the biggest things I want to achieve with this project. It was to find the beauty of everyday objects and to notice things people usually ignores. I think I have achieve it because the photos I took for this project really shows the beauty of these everyday objects and this side of them is what people usually ignores.

I’m happy with the results and I think I have done a better job than any other tasks in this semester because I learned from previous works and put those experiences into my work to get the best results. In my opinion these photos I took will change the way my audience look at things as well, because for some of the photos it will be really hard to tell what is the object shown in the photo and when my audience find out it is something so normal they will be surprised and re-think about the way they look at or notice things around them. That is also what I would love to see. How people are missing those beautiful details around them is what drove me to start doing this kind of abstract photography, and I would love people to know how ordinary things can look extraordinary. Everything has their own purpose to exist. Even when it’s something small and inconspicuous it still deserves to be noticed.

I learned so much during the semester. This studio not only helped me to improve my technical skills on making media but also taught me new ways to look at things. Now I will always look at things with different perspective and I am developing new ways to take photos in order to add more content into my collection. My writing skill has also improved throughout the semester. All those outcomes are priceless and will be very useful in the future.