Process:

I want to create the same overpowering effect as Ai Weiwei’s wall, so I adopt the same general layout, that is, juxtaposing several pictures of the same motif and layout. Originally I intended to use the photos of the headquarters of these big tech companies but later I felt maybe directly using their interfaces may make the audience feel more closely brought into the scenario I want to create, that is, as soon as you type your search or log into your accounts, the companies start watching you.

Product:

My work consists of four images of similar layout and the same recurring “big, dramatic staring eyes”, so I started with making that. I asked my friend to open his eyes widely, I took a picture of that, and then I feed the picture into the Prisma App to dramatize it. For the backgrounds for each I took screenshots of the corresponding pages of the companies, and again used Prisma App to enrich them with colorful shades so that they fit more coherently with “the eyes”. In the end I used photoshop to blend the two elements for each of the four images and finally put them together in one big image.

Critique:

In general I think the four images look good together, and the special filters applied onto them by Prisma provide a sense of art and beauty. The eyes in each image do look creepy, desperate and attentive, which is exactly the kind of impression I want to leave on the audience. There is also a variety of colors involved and they seem harmonic with each other.

Personal Reflection:

The biggest takeaway from this project is that I learn to combine different sources of inspiration, including what I learned in lecture, my trip to gallery and personal online research of artworks, together to make them all embodied in one single work. I learned to borrow from the others not only their techniques, but also how the ideas underlying their techniques may fit or further what I want to express. What I would do differently is that this work still looks not natural enough, and expresses my message so explicitly that it’s not really like what most art does.