Reflection:

In this task, we revisited the ‘Cut-Up’ technique by William S Burroughs that we discussed in last year’s modules. As last year we focused more on the Cut-Up in terms of literacy in our Reading Group and how existing text could be ‘cut-up’ and ‘remixed’ into something new, in this workshop we took that knowledge and applied it to images. After looking at grey media and stock images in week 8, we decided to use the obvious and everyday visuals of the world and to place them within an environment out of context to create as what Burrough’s suggested, a remix of old media to create new meaning. To complete this, I used Photoshop as I felt confident and familiar with the layers and masking functions from previous tasks which I believed would be an effective way to manipulate the images to create what I had in mind.

Evaluation:

For this task, I wanted to create a juxtaposition between the environment and the ghost subjects to create a sense of discomfort, but add a humor element to a culture/environment which is becoming popular within society. I decided to use a gym background, but layer in images which you would not typically associate with a healthy and balanced lifestyle. For example, Father Christmas is known to be a ‘jolly, old, fat man’ who lives in the North Pole, so placing him in this environment appears to be odd for the consumer. Likewise, I added images of Ronald McDonald and a lady eating fries to make a laughable and ironic association with the motive behind going to the gym. With the money hanging off the bars, I related this to what people usually assume are men ‘monkeying’ around at the gym and actually going for the social side rather than the working out element. I wanted to highlight the uprising popularity of gym culture within the recent years and everyone’s obsession to look and behave a certain way, however, the subjects that I have chosen create that sense that there is still an unhealthy element in society which is hard to break away from, and showing the realities of what really happens outside gym doors.

I believe that I have fulfilled the brief as I have carefully thought about the concept which I wanted to portray and used my skills and knowledge from previous tasks throughout the duration of my course to produce a ‘Cut-Up’ product with meaning and humor.