Self Portrait Assignments-Due 9/10

We do not have class next Monday. Here is a summary of the assignments I gave at the end of class. Pay attention to the details and make the best work you can. You have 11 days --


Self Portrait Assignment 1

Select a mainstream media video or image from the internet and attempt to duplicate it using yourself as a stand in for one or more of the main subjects. To the best of your creative ability attempt to duplicate all the aesthetic / stylistic qualities of the original video/ image ( e.g. pixelated, B/W, environment/background , costumes, gestures, camera angle, objects etc.). You will present the original video/image in class along with your new work.

Consider the social, political, and performative implications of the image you choose carefully. Choose an image that enables you to reveal or highlight something unique about your identity or allows your introduction into the work to charge the audience with new questions that possibly subvert the original work or completely transform its meaning.

Present to class a web quality image or video on a jump drive to be transferred to instructor's mac laptop . Also submit to instructor another higher quality version on CD (print / projection quality) .

Self Portrait Assignment 2

Create an image/video entitled "Self Portrait After Ten Minutes". You have full creative license. The only stipulation is that the image/ video has an obvious performative value or resonance. You are attempting to engage your audience by making them consciously aware of the visual repetition of a preceding act or acts.

Consider this idea when you create this work:

"The most provocative performances for the camera are those that engage the spectator on a conceptual level to participate either physically or psychologically in the action. On these occasions, the communicative exchange at the heart of all performance is set in motion, and the social implications of the performance are understood."
Diana Nemiroff

Present to class a web quality image or video on a jump drive to be transferred to instructor's mac laptop . Also submit to instructor another higher quality version on CD (print / projection quality) .


Self Portrait Assignment 3 --- please see assignment correction in last sentence

From the perspective of the self as photographer/filmmaker, write a detailed description of the moment of creating a fictional self portrait video/image (end this description with the word "Click" symbolic shutter.

Write an additional detailed description of the resulting self portrait video/image that was created by the "click".

You will be performing (reading or reciting) this self portrait in class. You have free reign to use any props, costume, or A/V effects that you deem necessary. Challenge yourself to engage the class as an audience. Focus on affecting the audience emotionally. Remember this does "not" have to be an actual photo/video you have made or possibly will ever make