Arturas Bondarciukas

MA Computational Art student || BA(Hons) Digital Photography graduate

[abondphotography]

Final Project - Plant feeder

For the final project I decided to continue with my half-term project - ‘Plant Feeder’. Originally I intended to make a guitar pedal with a compressor effect for my partner (he’s an avid guitar player), but decided it against, as I didn’t have enough knowledge in using Op-Amps (operational amplifiers) and saw the struggles of the people who decided to build some sort of sound amplifier circuits. In theory it looked extremely simple, but weighting knowledge and timescale we have (sourcing materials and waiting for shipments, etc) this was a better bet, as I wanted to fully realise my plant feeder.

First, I established some of the areas that I want to improve in my project, such as: fixing the bugs in the code, adding temperature and humidity sensor, full-proofing the pump, making a user interface with a menu, making the top plate of my enclosure to accommodate the screen, design a manual, etc.

Firstly, I decided to design the PCB for easy plug-n-play screen installation (I wanted to be able to take it out if I needed it), buttons and extended 5V and Ground connections, for other parts (temperature sensor, moisture sensor, and anything else). I wanted the PCB to have all the connections, resistors and interconnections done on the board, so I would only have to plug the jumper cables and it should work. A self contained ‘module’, if you will. I designed the board just big enough to fit on top of my current enclosure. I/Os include:

3 buttons - all have common ground through 10k Ohm resistors and 3 pins for jumper cables.

Screen headers - all the power needed is wired on the board (resistors are present as needed, mostly for screen contrast which is fixed by a 1k resistor).

5V VCC and common GROUND - the board is powered by 5V and GND from the Arduino and extends them with extra 4 VCC and GND pins for plugging other sensors and a pump.

PNP transistor as switch - for controlling the pump with one pin from Arduino. Easy peasy (not so much then, figuring it out late at night).

All in all I’ve learned quite a bit of having to design this for my own use (I tried before - wasted 3 boards…) and it was extremely satisfying to see it work exactly how I intended it to.

A side note: I wasted a lot of the time trying to design my own boost board as I was adamant to have solar energy powering my ‘Plant feeder’. I failed, of course, as I didn’t leave enough time for that. But I did manage to grasp the concept of storing the energy in a coil, collapsing the magnetic field and boosting the voltage. Unfortunately I didn’t document this part (I did it while helping make some electro magnets that became a part of my not-so-working boost converter) as I was too frustrated with it that I ripped it apart and never looked back. What a fool… But I did have fun ripping apart an old television to get an inductor.

After making sure my board is working, I began programming a user interface for my ‘Plant Feeder’. Requirements: simple main info screen, with stats; two options in the second part - changing the frequency of watering and amount of water to use. Again, I ran into issues with implementing sleep (Idle) timer, as it relied on millis() function, which, after few seconds of running, would return exo-orbital values. I tried using modulo but that didn’t help either. In the end I did manage to make it run somewhat stable through use of some variables. 

So far so good right? Not so fast. Due to addition of extra of sensors the amount of cables that the poor enclosure had to accommodate grew as well, with an addition of the screen and buttons. The wire-o-mess at the end of plugging everything together proved impossible to fit everything neatly, leaving the dandy PCB I made (as nice as it looked) dangling outside. A bit like a plant. (Silence for a bad pun should happen right about now). 

With helpful feedback from my peers and lecturer, I set out to design a new enclosure. I spoken to my flatmate (thank you, Ieva) who gave me an idea using watering pot as an enclosure. It looked great in practice, but I would be just buying a ready made one and cannibalising it to fit my electronics inside of it (perhaps I’ll use it for the future ‘outdoors’ Plant-feeder). Instead I designed my own minimalistic pot in SketchUp Make and 3D printed it.

[abondphotography]

Human scale - Physical artefact proposal

Concept

The idea behind my human scale concept is to analyse the repetitive tasks that I (or anyone else) do over the course of a day. Monotonous tasks, usually repeated without much divergence, might include cooking, eating, brushing teeth, taking same route for a daily commute, just to name a few. The challenge for me in representing these tasks as an artefact is what makes it so fascinating. There’s often little to no thought about these performative movements we might do, usually performed in an ‘auto-pilot’ mode.

What happens to these gestures taken out of the context of our environment? What little divergences occur when we perform them daily? How can those tasks ca be represented? What makes them interesting and boring, or usual and strange? These are only few questions I am interested in exploring through my digital and physical artefact.

Methods

To start exploring this concept, I need a defined process of capturing, processing and outputting the information I want to make into a physical artefact. The way I am going to capture the movement information is through using a Kinect for Xbox 360 – a dual camera system capable of capturing depth information, as well as taking images and video. Using Kinect, I can begin capturing test information and playing in representing it on the screen.

The next step from here on would be not only capturing one slice of the depth information, but recording it in time. The way I want to do is to create a defined amount of ‘time slices’ and capture those slices as meshes. Once I have a desired amount of meshes (or ‘time slices’) I would then combine them into a single mesh. The overlapping vertexes should be removed and any non-overlapping vertexes then should come through, potentially leaving me with a final mesh consisting only of the unusual movements.

 Artefact

For the final artefact for this study I have few options:

Creating a single object combining all of the unusual movements from the mundane tasks recorded.

Creating several objects, each representing a different task.

Creating all the layers (‘time slices’) of one task and representing them in series.

The first object idea can be quite tricky, as the object would have to be quite big as a standalone piece (A2 size). Second and third ideas are more feasible, in my opinion, as they can be scattered around to fill in the required size of A2 for this project. However, I feel that seeing the every-day tasks we perform daily would be most interesting to see as layers in time, as it is a very unusual perspective to see them in. Also, for the third option, I could animate the layers by mounting them on a rotating platform and flashing a light on them in defined internals, which would create an illusion of the layers morphing and creating the movement in 3D space. This would complete the loop, from me performing these tasks to having a 3D object that loops over that task, playing on the idea of the repetitiveness of the movements we perform daily.

[abondphotography]

Plant Feeder - Update

After our critique sessions on Thursday (23rd of February) I decided to continue working on Plant Feeder. I wanted to improve aesthetics and begin incorporating some of the functionality I have outlined before, namely the user interface that will allow setting the device up.

Using the wood sticks I already had, I began working on the enclosure. For this version of Plant Feeder I won’t focus on making the device weather-proof, so uncoated wood sticks work just fine. One of the critiques that I received was that it did not feel personal, and I completely agree. The cardboard just doesn’t cut it. I measured all of the sticks, cut them (albeit not perfectly as I decided against using the jig-saw, due to being tired, so I cut them by hand) and stick them onto the enclosure using the hot glue gun.

Using something as simple as wood sticks really helped to make the device more personal, and more aesthetically pleasing. I can see it standing next to a plant and not being an eye-sore.

Next, I began working on the user interface. I already had an LCD 16 by 2 characters display that I decided to use for this project. I haven’t played with the screen before as I didn’t have a need for it (besides one of the homework assignments), but I found it to be extremely easy to use. The main components of the user interface:

LCD screen

Navigation buttons (Left, Select, Right - in order)

Power switch 

[Optional] Toggle for learning the watering patterns.

I want the menu to be pretty simple and user friendly. ‘How do you know you’ve succeded in making it user friendly?’ you might ask. Simple! If my Mum can use it - anyone can! I want to have a main screen, or ‘Standby/Running’, that will show basic information, such as temperature, humidity, moisture of the soil, watering pattern/frequency and maybe water level in the tank. When any of the buttons is pressed it should enter a menu with the following options:

Plant presets

[Optional/Future implementation] Learn watering pattern

Manual watering pattern setup

When there’s no user interaction detected, it should timeout and return to the main screen with the information about the plant.

That’s pretty much it for this version of the Plant Feeder. For the next version, I want to build my own circuit with smaller controller (ATTiny, maybe?) so I can shrink it and reduce energy consumption, making it solar powered!

[abondphotography]

Mid Term Project - Plant Feeder

Introduction:

For this project I wanted to wander away from digital-ity of the electronics, flashing lights, beeping sounds, etc. Instead I wanted to focus on reading analog data inputs (with exception of temperature and humidity readings) and apply it to  the real world use. Let me get one fact about me straight: I am terrible with plants, but I am somewhat less horrible with electronics. So why not apply less terrible skills to something I am terrible at - plants! It also ties with my need (want) to be more eco-friendly, waste less resources (water, plastics, paper, just to name few) and improve our environment. This is my first step into ‘helpful and useful’ electronics voyage and I can see continuing on this path for a while.

The project:

My project is a basic watering system. It includes temperature and humidity sensor, moisture sensor, water pump and few spare I/O included in the case for extra plant moisture sensor and/or add-ons, if I choose to make them (and I did… sort of). And that’s the premise I’ve built my project on: a device simple enough and works on its own, but can be expanded if needed be.

The enclosure for my project was a bit of a hit and miss. I’ve bought wooden sticks and sheets of A3 corrugated cardboard. I knew I wanted to make it look handmade and natural but to see how it would all fit in I decided to use cardboard for start. I measured the Arduino, ports I wanted to use and headers I would include and drew the layout in Illustrator. It took me a few tries (and wasted cardboard) to get it right, but I did realise that I need the sides of the enclosure to interconnect so I drew puzzle interconnections for all sides, so it can stand on its own and can be assembled in seconds.

Because I included header pins in the enclosure I didn’t really need access to the inside of the enclosure, and I made a hole for the USB cable to power the Arduino for demo purposes. I did include 9 volt battery connection inside of the case for stand-alone operation, but I will make it accessible from the outside, either through a flap, to pop the battery in, or external connections (although the former would be easier if I decide to make weather-proof and solar powered).

The quick piece I made with solar panel and a servo is still work in progress. I do think that servo might be an overkill, to track the sun’s position throughout the day, so I might just stick with stationary solar add-on.

Future plans:

From the start, I had to dial down my expectations of what I can and can not achieve in given time. I already had a clear vision for where I want this project to go. With the base out of the way, well and working, here are the few additions I want to add to my project:

Learning watering patterns/optimal moisture levels - there should be an option which allows the user to setup a custom watering pattern and/or choose optimum moisture level for the plant manually.

Plant presets/ watering pattern presets - a menu option (and way to select it) through a friendly UI which allows selection of the preset plants that will then automatically do its work. This would also allow pattern and watering amount to be chosen if needed be, as described in the first point.

[Advanced] Detecting soil type - this could be a useful feature for more specific use cases. Different soil bases have different absorption rates, etc, also that would mean that it could be incorporated into hydrophonic systems.

[Advanced] Plant health monitoring - this could potentially be a killer feature. This would also allow for the system to make suggestions on how to maintain the plant better.

[Advanced] Internet connection - that would open the door to IoT world and give the ability to control the device through the Internet, allow real-time user notification alerts, OTA (over the air) updates and remote logging.

[Advanced] Radio communication - similar to Internet connection but far more useful for managing multiple devices: I could build smaller self contained ‘Plant Feeder’s’ modules, that require less energy, and are controlled from a central ‘hub’ that controls them and carries other more computationally intense tasks (Internet connection, logging, etc). The small modules could potentially be hooked straight to an XBee module, with it’s own battery, making for a much smaller self-contained package.

[abondphotography]

PHYSICAL_COMPUTING_WEEK_1 & 2 Homework

For the two first weeks we had to work through 1 to 4 examples from the Arduino Project Book that comes as part of the Arduino kit. These were designed to teach us the basics of electronics, such as : controlling voltage, resistance, and basic Arduino operation through code.

The four videos of the homework:

GET_TO_KNOW_YOUR_TOOLS:

SPACE_SHIP

LOVE_O_METER

COLORAMA

[abondphotography]

Major Project - Finalising the installation

After further playing with the code I still had to decide what imagery I am going to show on the screen on the ground floor of the gallery. I decided against setting up my own camera and instead look for web cameras around London. There are publicly available websites with lists of public cameras on the street that allow you stream them live. However often I found that these are usually weather and traffic cameras, too detached for my purposes.

I decided against using these publicly available cameras and instead turned my attention back to my research paper and my findings in it. While writing the paper the most shocking discovery to me was the lack of security measures taken by the users of Internet connected cameras and other internet connected devices, often leaving default usernames and password unchanged from factory settings. Knowing this vulnerability I decided to use the tool I researched for my research paper called Shodan.io - a Google for Internet of Things. 

By searching for different makes of Internet connected cameras and probing different systems I was able to produce a list of cameras. Through using different filters available through this tool I specifically targeted most popular and outdated software to access the cameras “linux upnp avtech” (Linux - operating system, UPnP - connection protocol, AVTech - make of the digital video recorder) and also included a filter to just target London. I have learned these techniques from a book that is available to buy on the website “Complete Guide to Shodan”: 

After running the search query I have got a complete list of 293 devices that fit the criteria of my search. From here I just had to open each one and go trough each one of them trying the default username and password for this device and operating system (admin, admin). Shodan also provides tools for building reports and saving the results (premium feature requiring one time payment of $50).

After going through each one of the IP addresses I made a list of the Internet connected cameras that I can use with default username and password. Some of these cameras even allowed me to control the orientation of the cameras.

A list of cameras:

Accessed private internet camera:

By using private cameras I want to further emphasise the privacy issues associated with digital technologies and lack of awareness of the general public on these topics. I think it makes a stronger case why my work is relevant and the message I am trying to convey with my installation and to really make the viewer think about the consequences of exposing ourselves to the Internet.

With this last piece of my work in place I feel like my project is complete and ready for the exhibition. 

[abondphotography]

Major Project - Putting pieces together

For my project I decided to feature to screens, one on the ground floor of the gallery and one in the basement. The problem that presented is the fact that I had to figure out a way how to connect everything over two floors. For this reason I decided to invest into Apple TV. With Apple TV I can AirPlay (Apple’s appropriate technology for streaming content over WiFi) downstairs without having to run all the wires. 

To produce ID cards of substantial quality I also had to invest into a Full HD (1920 by 1080 pixels) web camera to resolve the faces and allow me to print a good quality cards if I decide to. I did a small research into prices and features of different web cameras. Across multiple reviews one cameras stood out the most: Logitech C920 web camera.

However at this point I was still tinkering with the code and decided to hold off buying the camera just yet. Over a week I began building my code to produce a grid of faces and displaying ID cards alongside. To make things less complicated (and faced with the limited amount of ports on my machine) I decided against using two screens to display the grid of faces and ID cards and instead figure out a way to combine them into one. One of the limiting factors in Processing (the software I used to build my software) that it renders everything out on the screen. I wanted to hide the processes taking behind the scenes and produce a clean piece of work that viewers would see. After looking around in the reference documentation of Processing (https://processing.org/reference) I came across a useful function called PGraphics (https://processing.org/reference/PGraphics.html) that allows to create an invisible space outside the screen to draw things on. I then separated my “workspace” into three: main window showing the grid and ID cards, a face capturing invisible space and ID “production” space.

I also needed to test out my code on a big screen to see if it works as intended. I have not seen a big screen to do so. Fortunately enough when I was helping first years students on Hubs Project I came a cross a big screen used in the film making studio, as we had to open the partition wall to join the two spaces together. Presented with a chance I had a go with a big screen:

Besides few spacing issues I was really pleased to see the big picture I was working on. From here on I felt fairly confident that my software will work fine on the big day of the exhibition. I decided not to wait any longer and purchased the web camera mentioned previously on Amazon.

I had to slightly adjust the resolutions of my picture and final piece to accommodate higher resolution but it worked straight away. 

Printed tests of the ID card:

With few minor issues remaining in the code, which I believe can be fixed fairly soon, I am positive it will work perfectly at the exhibition. The added resolution is going to look great on the bigger screen.

[abondphotography]

Major Project - Reasoning

After receiving some feedback from my tutors I felt that I need to be more clear what my project is about and where to position my work in terms of artistic practice. My piece is very technical in itself and it can potentially stand on it’s own. The prime example of this can be found in the conceptional work by Robert Morris “Box with the Sound of Its Own Making” (1961). The final object is not the art but the process of it becoming a box; an art piece reflecting itself.

However with my installation the system would just become another surveillance tool that carries no meaning and does not exist without interaction from the viewer. Also it could potentially just become a science museum exhibit of sort.

I realised that the moment my piece “works” is when the viewer is presented by the outcome of my installation and is exposed to something they potentially would feel uncomfortable with. People are generally very cautious of cameras and so by photographing viewers without their consent or knowledge I might stir some emotions at the exhibition. Not only am I taking pictures of people but I am also creating a piece from these images, open for anyone to see. Another layer I am adding is creating an ID card which further solidifies of the “incident” taking place; I am forcing the viewer to acknowledge the fact that they have watched other people and presented them factual information about the duration of their “transgression”  that they potentially oppose, in one form or another. It would be interesting to see if the viewers at the exhibition would actively engage with my piece or avoid it altogether. I am still debating over printing the ID cards or not, which would be interesting to see if the attendees would pick up the card on the way out.

[abondphotography]

Major Project - ID Card

For my second part of the project, that captures viewer’s faces, I decided to make an ID card that could be later printed out and handed out at the exhibition. These cards would be produced on the spot (the second the viewer leaves) and creates a tangible object which can stand as a documentation of my work on its own. These cards that can be collated into an archive and reused later.

One of the works that inspired me to create the ID cards and ponder around the idea of printing them live at the exhibition was Tom Stayte’s work “#selfie”. The artist examines the way social media shifted the way public disseminates imagery and contributes to self-surveillance, as well as dark-side of trusting the unknown and exposing private life. The viewers were encouraged to pick up the prints and interact in any way they see fit.

To create my own ID card I had to decide what information I want to put on the card and how I am going to present it, as well as figuring out the code. When working with code and visual elements I like to pen them out first and draw logical flowcharts that would aid me in writing my software.

After deciding on a rough template I dug into writing my code. The premise of my code was fairly simple:

1. Detect a face

2. If face is present, take a picture.

3. Locate the face.

4. Cut the face out.

5. Note all the details about the face (size and location).

6. Note the time and date.

7. Count how long the face is present.

8. When the face (person) leaves, place the face on the left side.

9. Paste all relevant information on the right.

10. Present the card on the screen.

11. Save it.

The code:

import gab.opencv.*; import processing.video.*; import java.awt.*;

Capture video; OpenCV opencv; PFont f; int c = 0; int vx = 1280; int vy = 720; int wx = 1280; int wy = 720;

int mLast = 0; int mCurrent; int sec = 0; int min = 0; boolean timeOut=false; int face = 0;

PImage img;

void setup() {  size(1280, 720);  String[] cameras = Capture.list();  background(0,0,0);  video = new Capture(this, vx, vy);  opencv = new OpenCV(this, vx, vy);  opencv.loadCascade(OpenCV.CASCADE_FRONTALFACE);  

 video.start();  f = createFont("Arial",8,true); }

void draw() {  textFont(f, 32);  fill(255);  scale(1);  opencv.loadImage(video);

 fill(0);  //stroke(255, 0, 0);  //strokeWeight(3);  Rectangle[] faces = opencv.detect();  println(faces.length);

 //saveFrame("captures/face-###.jpeg");

 /*  //this is run once to capture the face  for (int i = 0; i < faces.length; i++) {    int fpx = -(faces[i].x) + (wx/2) - (faces[i].width / 2);    int fpy = -(faces[i].y) + (wy/2) - (faces[i].height / 2);    image(video, 0, 0);    img = get(faces[i].x -30, faces[i].y - 30, 280, 280);    rect(0,0,640,480);    scale(1);    image(img, 30, 30);    println(faces[i].x + "," + faces[i].y);    //rect((faces[i].x), (faces[i].y), faces[i].width, faces[i].height);  }  */

 if(faces.length > 0){    faceCapture();    faceCheck();    println("Face Capture");    mLast = millis();    while(timeOut == false) {      if(millis() > mLast + 1000) {        mLast = millis();        sec++;      }      if(sec == 60){        min++;        sec = 0;      }      faceCheck();      println("Face Check");      fill(0);      rect(0,0,wx,wy);      image(img, 30, 30);      println("Image");      fill(255);      text("Duration: " + min +  " m  " + sec + " s ", 450, 50);      text("Date: " + year() + "/" + month() + "/" + day() + " " + hour() + ":" + minute() + ":" + second(), 450, 100);      text("Face location: X: " + faces[0].x + " Y: " + faces[0].y, 450, 150);      text("Face size: Width: " + faces[0].width + " Height: " + faces[0].height, 450, 200);      text("Face ID: " + face, 450, 250);      println("Duration: " + min + " m  " + sec + " s ");      println("Date" + year() + month() + day() + hour() + second());      println(faces.length);      println(millis());      if(timeOut == true) {        saveFrame("captures/faces2/face-" + face + ".jpeg");        face++;      }    }    sec = 0;    min = 0;  } }

void faceCapture(){  opencv.loadImage(video);  Rectangle[] faces = opencv.detect();  for(int t = 0; t < 5; t++) {    delay(100);  for (int i = 0; i < faces.length; i++) {    int fpx = -(faces[i].x) + (wx/2) - (faces[i].width / 2);    int fpy = -(faces[i].y) + (wy/2) - (faces[i].height / 2);    image(video, 0, 0);    img = get(faces[i].x -30, faces[i].y - 30, 400, 400);    //rect(0,0,640,480);    scale(1);    //image(img, 30, 30);    println(faces[i].x + "," + faces[i].y);    //rect((faces[i].x), (faces[i].y), faces[i].width, faces[i].height);  }  } }

void faceCheck() {  opencv.loadImage(video);  Rectangle[] faces = opencv.detect();  if(faces.length > 0) {    println(faces[0].width);    if(faces[0].width > 300) {      timeOut = false;    }    else {      timeOut = true;    }  }  if(faces.length == 0) {    timeOut = true;  } }

void captureEvent(Capture c) {  c.read(); }

From time to time it will detect multiple faces and produce some glitches, where the code does not cut out the face and instead saves the whole image provided by the web camera. To avoid it I tried to limit to only capturing the faces that are bigger than a specified number, cutting any other faces in the background. However the problem persists as it still detects the face and places the previous images instead. I am looking into fixing that.

Below are the examples of the test ID cards:

[abondphotography]

Major Project - Surveillance

Continuing from my previous ideas on capturing images of people and/or their faces for repurposing later and creating my piece from there, I decided to focus on surveillance and making a comment on privacy issues that it presents. I chose this topic as I already have written a research paper on it and wanted to continue on this subject, as it is something I am really interested in, as well as interactive installations and technology. The idea that I am currently most fond of is creating a closed looped between observers and the observed. The closed loop itself would also record both participants in this loop. I can use the facial recognition to begin the process or flash images to the viewer when a face is detected.

Lydia’s feedback on my idea was quite positive and she had more suggestions and ideas to think about:

1. Two way mirrors are used to observe people and unconsciously engage with the image ending up looking at themselves and not the people observing. This happens quite often when people check their own reflection in windows without realising someone else might be behind the glass looking at them.

2. Continuously evolving set of portraits. Ever growing library of captured faces.

3. Engaging with the surveillance, human agent as a switch to activating wole process. How does it make the observer feel knowing that he is a trigger to the process (Society of Surveillance).

4. Following on the previous idea: save images of strangers faces as long as the observer is present, also record the duration of observation.

5. Unconscious engagement with surveillance and social media.

6. Individuals looking for ‘self’ in mirrors, the idea that we are almost bound by the necessity to look at oneself as a proof that we exist.

7. Look at the concept of mirroring as the way of developing concept of self during childhood.

8. Fragmenting of self.

9. Narcissism - mythological and philosophical aspects (future project?)

At the end I decided to focus on two parts for my Major Project. The first part would be focused on the relationship between the people, two-way mirror and the camera, wheres the second part would then focus on the observer wanting to observe other people and being observed in return. At the moment I can use the Processing software to detect the faces but to create something more complex than a bounding box around the face will require me to further my skills before producing any substantial test pieces.

[abondphotography]

Major Project - Dan Graham & Bruce Nauman

Dan Graham - "Performer/Audience/Mirror" 1975

Dan Graham

Often engaging with theories of cultural systems, subjectivity and performance to explore television, pop culture and architecture Dan Graham’s ideas are expressed through installation, video, performative and sculptural work, produced over decades. Often provocative, Graham’s work plays with distorting viewer’s perception through video projections and mirrors placed inside architectural installations.

The piece “Performer/Audience/Mirror” explores the instant feedback systems by performing in front of the audience with a mirror placed behind the artist. Here mirror replaces the video cameras and screens, a mechanical analog of the feedback loop. The audience is subjected to instant feedback in form of reflection followed by a delayed description from the performer. What happens is that the audience can then associate itself as audience while being audience themselves and again through the delayed description from artist’s point of view. The artist also then faces the mirror to describe subjective audience in the mirror, further distorting their perception of, not only themselves, but the performer too. However the audience has a choice to view the entire performance as meta-performance, thereby seeing the performers attempt to distort the audiences perception as a performance in itself.

The similar ‘performance’ is taking place in our society daily, either through social media where people are subjected back to their own image of themselves, or through involuntary participation in the surveillance, performing to the observer on the other side. These are just two examples of constant informational loops, each introducing their own sets of distortion.

Bruce Nauman

Bruce Nauman - “Anthro/Socio (Rinde Facing Camera)” 1991

Known for conceptual works that explore space, language and body, Bruce Nauman’s work can’t be easily described, but is heavily reliant on sculpture. Working with mediums such film, photography, installation and performance, Bruce creates work that is often infused with humour and irony, exploiting language’s occasional inability to act as a reference to real world through neon pieces, minimalist approach to body and its interaction with surrounding objects through repetitive tasks, or just treating art as a complicated system of signs, obscuring clear and strong meaning. More than often Nauman’s work makes the viewer aware of their own physicality through clever visual and verbal puns, playing with the metaphorical possibilities of rearranging words and letters, creating visual and sculptural installations that create unsettling feeling of confusion and disorientation, as well as allowing viewers to engage, to some degree, with the art work. 

I am trying to achieve a similar effect and I want my work to make the viewer conscious about himself. By creating a piece of work that makes a comment on a pressing issue (namely privacy issues) by engaging the viewer without consent, or at least by providing some clue as to what is happening, I am (hopefully) will be able to achieve the similar results in provoking the viewer to think about it more carefully. Ultimately, as crude as they can get, these pieces of work achieve the desired outcome through going back to crudeness of signs and meanings attached to everyday objects, words and human gestures.

[abondphotography]

Major Project - Philip-Lorca diCorcia

Philip-Lorca diCorcia

This is the artist I keep coming back to over the years of studying. Not only I am in love with his aesthetics, but his series of work ‘Heads’ is extremely relevant to my major project. When I first decided to work with capturing people’s faces, these images came to my head.

(Images source: http://www.davidzwirner.com/artists/philip-lorca-dicorcia/survey/page/3/)

To capture these candid moments Philip-Lorca diCorcia positioned powerful strobes on scaffolding and removed himself from the scene. In this series of work he’s playing with chance and sense of empathy, without even meeting the subjects. 

From my perspective it is a play on privacy as it is on catching candid moments. The unaware subjects look genuine and natural, something that is impossible to capture when strangers see a camera lens pointed at them. To capture images of people in town as big as New York without raising any problems makes it even more complicated. Indeed, years after, in 2006, Philip-Lorca diCorcia was sued by some of the people artist photographed. Some people claimed not only that it infringed their privacy but their religious beliefs as well. The line between art and violation of someone’s privacy, especially when it comes to public spaces, is very fine one as more people are becoming aware of privacy issues associated with digital culture and social media, besides worrying about surveillance. 

[abondphotography]

Major Project - Capturing images of people

After pondering around with the ideas of interactive and reactive piece of work, combined with the feedback received from my lecturers, I decided that it would perhaps be more interesting to work with the images taken of the viewers and reusing them to create my final piece. Following my research paper that I wrote I thought I can combine my interest in surveillance and public awareness of this issue to create a piece that reflects my stance on this subject. 

Few ideas that I came up with:

1. Fracturing image of self-projecting yourself from the angles that you wouldn’t normally see of yourself.

2. Collecting data on people and using that as my work piece. The problem that people might have with this is quite interesting and could be used to make a statement on surveillance and privacy (or lack thereof), as well social media, and blurring the boundaries between private & public life.

3. Idea of the image ‘looking back’ and concept of the gaze being reflected back at the observer.

4. Exhibiting the ‘observing image’ in different locations and spaces. The location of an invasive piece being in public and how that changes people’s behaviour.

5.Think about using using captured images of people as my final piece. Think of the ways you can use acquired images in different ways. The potential for these images is quite big as I could make work on any subject I want once I have all the material.

6. Think about uploading live captured faces to publicly accessible folder to explore privacy/consent issues with digital media and Internet itself.

7. How far can I push the boundaries of my work in terms of ethics?

8. I can, potentially, use the images gathered to build relationships between them based on any criteria/connections I want.

[abondphotography]

Work Experience - Website/Portfolio research

During the second year and the beginning of the third year I have looked at viable options for a good Content Management Systems (CMS) for my website and potential web hosting companies. The one that stood out to me in terms of price and features provided ipage.com stood out to me. I have bought a domain name and storage space, which came with email handler as well, which luckily for me was not in use - abondarciukas.com. The reason for choosing .com as I did not want to tie down myself to a location, but rather to emphasise that I can do work anywhere in the world - physically or/and digitally. 

As for CMS in the beginning I have been using Tumblr page with a custom theme that I bought. However I came across multiple limitations of terms of design and content management. Design wise the splash page was the same regardless of the page opened; each time a link was clicked you would still need to scroll down to reveal contents page, which was only indicated by an arrow at the bottom of the screen. This was slightly confusing and unclear to some people. A second problem I had with using Tumblr was that I had no control over the landing page, it would always open a page with all the blogs posts made, in a chronological order (newest at the top). The other pages could be separated by using hashtags but there was no option to have a gallery and instead every piece work was presented as a page that could only be scrolled up and down. It was better than the WordPress option presented to us in the second year however. I trust that WordPress is great tool for blogging and word based websites, but not for photography as it is extremely complicated to manage images and galleries. Therefore, albeit its limitations, I decided to stick with Tumblr and forward my hostname to it, until I found a better alternative.

During my quest for a good CMS I came across Indexhibit - a free and simple CMS for artists with a brutally simplistic design. Combining basics of web pages (Index) and gallery based approach (exhibit) it is sole purpose is to present work in a simple and quick way with no technical ability needed.

While looking at services like Format and Wix, I have looked for artists who have successfully adapted indexhibit to their practices and needs. What draw my interest is the brutal simplicity (as mentioned above), open-source approach and the endless customisations through the editing of the settings and CMS files itself. The reason for choosing brutality over simplicity is that I didn’t want my website to be too pretty as it draws attention away from the work and users tend to be too caught up with the functionality of the website itself and spend a lot of time improving the website rather than the presentation of the work. Some of the websites that inspired my approach to the presentation of my work online:

Lance Wyman - Environmental graphics designer

There is a clear separation between the index of the with clean presentation of the work on the right, that occupies most of the screen. The work can be accessed either through clicking on the pictograms or through the menu on the left.

http://www.lancewyman.com/

Giant Ant - Creative collaboration (writing, producing, animating, filming, etc.)

The website features more ‘classical’ approach to the website design, featuring a banner running across the width of the screen with a logo presented in the middle (it runs through a minimalistic animation when the page loads). The navigation is presented in a clear form at the top right of the webpage that contrasts well with the banner. The front page features mixed work, but is limited to only 8 to keep the landing page clean but at the same time it gives a clear sense what the collective does. More work can be accessed through the links at the top, with two categories of work clearly separated. I am thinking of adapting the minimalistic animation for my own website.

http://www.giantant.ca/

nendo - Designer’s website

Following the same brutal approach to simplistic presentation, nendo is another perfect example that, in my opinion, perfectly illustrates the function overtaking the importance from design. Featuring simple layout of endless scrolling list and animated icons, the website is a breeze to navigate through, putting the content at front and the website of second importance.

http://www.nendo.jp/en/release/2016/

Liane Plant - Illustrator

The choice of this artist to use black background for the website is a very welcome decision as it contrasts the work presented really well and compliments the details in the artwork, otherwise the focus could be lost. The page itself is very basic however the content requires the website to be so as the work is very complicated. The website contains all the necessary information for contacts and a simple way to purchase the work through the website.  

http://www.lianeplant.com/

Hiroshi Sugimoto - Photographer

True to his photographic practice, Hiroshi Sugimoto’s website resonates well with his minimalistic approach to photography and presentation. The layout is simple and clear, with main focus on information about his exhibitions and publications. The colours of the website compliment his work as well as making the text easy to read. All the recent activity is documented and filed

http://www.sugimotohiroshi.com/index.html

Ash Thorp - Graphic Designer

My favourite website so far is personal portfolio of Ash Thorp. He has worked on designing titles, user interfaces, motion graphics for big blockbuster movies, as well as producing work for print. The main page serves as a gallery for all the work that he has done, including movie titles. Rest of the website is split into three more pages, that including his courses and store, for purchasing any work, as well as detail information about the artist, work he has done and contacts under the INFO. I particularly like the idea of a big, screen adaptive video reel as most of his work is movie based, making it instantly clear to a visitor. I also really love the idea of having a clean grid of project thumbnails, that only reveal the title when you hover over it with the mouse. This website has resonated with me the most and it is the style that I want to adapt for my website in near future.

http://www.ashthorp.com/

Other Indexhibit websites that inspired me:

All of these websites are using Indexhibit as the base, with custom templates on top and running custom plugins. These website perfectly showcase the versatility and customizability of Indexhibit, allowing for fairly simple to extremely complex websites to be made.

My Website

Currently my website is using Indexhibit with the stock template (see images below).For the moment is fairly plain, but functional; it loads quick and does not slow down any browser, requiring minimal download speeds from the user to view the content. The video on the landing page, as well as other pages, begins playing automatically. This is particularly helpful as it makes up for the lack of the interactivity of the website and puts the work at the centre of attention. I will be doing more research into how I can customise Indexhibit to my liking, as currently I do not know much about customisations available to me ( i am also learning HTML, PHP and CSS with a prospect of building my own website from scratch). I also have to update the titles and the descriptions of the works I have presented on the website, besides updating with the most current work.

[abondphotography]

Work Experience - South Bank Collective | Fassi

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Work Experience - Studio RM | Internship

Over a period of four months I was interning at the Studio RM, a retouching studio, that specialises increative retouching and motion picture post-production, thanks to Daniel Alexander and Bradley Chippington, from October 2015 till March 2016, with breaks in-between to do my university work.

Some of the responsibilities I had as an intern at the Studio RM:

1. Making coffee and tea for the team members.

2. Grocery shopping - making sure there is milk, snacks, etc.

3. Preparing files for the retouchers.

4. Maintaining the archive of jobs.

5. Scripting jobs for the website - processing images, scaling and cropping them according to the publications/websites the work is featured in.

6. Updating the website with completed jobs.

7. Uploading motion picture jobs to Vimeo.

8. Maintaining the printers - make sure they are calibrated and ready for print at all times.

9. Assisting retouchers in any way.

10. Creating and updating company’s handbooks - the handbooks at the studio were outdated and some of them had to be created for the next interns and new employees, explaining how to script jobs, upload jobs in the website, manage archives, etc.

11. Making sure the kitchen area is clean and take out rubbish as necessary.

12. Making sure the server/storage room is kept tidy.

13. Moving equipment to the new office dedicated for the operations team.

14. Photographing the magazines that featured the work retouched by the Studio RM. 

15. Searching for potential clients in New York and updating an excel sheet with contacts.

16. Retouching - minor clean-up in the images. 

17. Running errands - buying electronic accessories and acquiring magazines.

18. Fixing minor things around the office - changing bulbs, moving equipment, etc.

19. Fixing and automating the Photoshop actions further to assist the retouchers when printing.

20. Creating and updating templates for the Photoshop actions for preparing the prints.

21. Organising the test prints and folders for the jobs.

22. Preparing envelopes with the final prints for post.

For the duration of my internship I had to keep detailed diary, outlining the things I have learned and tasks I have completed during the day. This diary contained detail steps for each tasks, as well login details. For that reason I am not allowed to shared any information written in the diary. This diary will be used for future interns as an example and handbook for different tasks that are done by the intern.

This job placement was unpaid, however Studio RM agreed to cover my travel and lunch expenses. The experience itself was worth more than getting paid in my opinion. I have learned key aspects of running the company, organisational skills, importance of deadlines and importance of the processes in place (retouching, organisational, invoicing, emailing, to name a few). The Studio RM was really keen on keeping in touch me for job opportunities (they have recently contacted me for a paid opportunity). My overall experience was great and invaluable, I have learned a range of skills that will benefit me when I decide to open my own studio/business.

[abondphotography]

Work Experience - LSBU | Hubs Project

At London South Bank University there are seven schools: School of Applied Sciences, School of Arts and Creative Industries, School of The Built Environment and Architecture, School of Business, School of Engineering, School of Health and Social Care and School of Law and Social Sciences. All of the schools occupy different parts of the buildings on campus, however these spaces most often lack any presence; you can easily transition from one department to another without even realising. London South Bank University approached South Bank Collective to create artwork for these schools (excluding School of Arts and Creative Industries) to exhibit in the respective departments to give these schools a presence, creating Hubs for each school.

Our senior lecturer decided to turn this job into a module for the first year BA Photography students. The first year students then were randomly assigned into equal groups to work with different schools. Within the collective we were offered managers role to oversee the production of the artwork and also act as liaison between the students and respective senior lecturers within the schools to organise meetings, shoots and take care of any requests from students and sort out any problems.

I volunteered for this job as I wanted to gain more knowledge in managing as well as getting to know the students better, who will be running the agency after we graduate. As there weren’t enough volunteers I had to manage two groups: School of Applied Science, who were focusing on Motion Capture; and School of Engineering, who were focusing on Virtual Reality suite and 3D printing. I was assigned these groups as I have an immense interest in these subjects as well as having worked with Virtual Reality, I felt these two groups were a perfect fit for me.

All of the groups working on this module had to come up with the ideas for this project and eventually pitch their ideas to client, the Deans of each school. After the ideas were presented to the Deans the students then began developing their projects through testing and communicating with the lecturers and students from all the schools. As mentioned before, my job was to make sure everything was going according to plane. I had no involvement in the creation of the artwork, besides suggesting what might work better and what ideas they should try out.

The whole process itself was fairly straightforward. I had to make sure that I am constantly up to date with the progress of the students as well as keeping constant communication with the lecturers from two schools. The students were really proactive in managing their time as well as showing great competence in self-leading their own shoots. The groups also partially took over the communication with the lecturers and students, keeping me in the loop, which helped me as well as I had my own university work to attend to. The groups are now in the process of finalising the images and communicating with the print shops to produce final prints. I will be going to the print shops to guide them through the process of testing and finalising the files for the final prints.

School of Applied Science:

School of Engineering: