Technical Exercise #8: Activating The Picture Frame

First of all, this image is the third in my “Technical Exercise.” series and it’s worth noting that I simply pick a number for each one (this is #8, out of 3).  That’s because part of the point of these images is to have a little fun with the entire notion of technical exercises, which normally would be done in a specified order, according to a curriculum.   But, of course, these are not really technical exercises.
 
This latest one is a combination of a self-portrait with one of  two diagrams I often improvise on the chalk board during class to illustrate the difference in tension between when one touches the border of an image with subject matter vs. when one doesn’t.   This phenomena may best be learned by comparing Matisse’s famous image of "Dancers" with his similar image of "Musicians."  In some beginner classes I will ask students to make similar little compositions (technical exercises).  But here the circles are photographs of chess pieces and oranges submerged in the snow and digitally combined.  As I made them, I thought of them as little pucks or petri dishes…which I suppose plays into two of my themes…play and (recently) germs.
 
The fun part of this image (for me) is the fact that although I balanced it, in a formal sense, due to the positioning of the face the viewer may be very tempted to turn the image 90 degrees. Thus, the failure of the technical exercise…even though one may follow all the rules of composition, there are other aspects at play. Form is only one aesthetic component of an image—subject matter and content also have their place. This image pits the balancing of form against the desire to consume content in a familiar way.  My hope is that people viewing the image on social media will turn their phones to the side and then maybe the screen will automatically adjust in a way that foils them…making the image interactive, and a bit of a frustrating game.
 
Once again I have included wingdings, this time to confound and/or overdo the stated goal of the image to activate the picture frame. The message in the wingdings (if decoded) reinforces their purpose in this regard. However, the wingdings also have their usual decorative role here as well.  By decorating the border, they help transform the entire image into what I believe is something like the back of a deck of “Jason Hunter” themed playing cards, or even Tarot cards. The images on the backs of cards are usually either formulaic (like the front) or so independent that they do not signify their relationship to playing cards in any way (pictures of buildings, landscapes, animals, etc.).  Somehow, I think the wingdings and other decorative qualities of the composition all work together to suggest this image is the back of a card.  And, if it was, you could easily turn this Jason Hunter playing card 90 degrees to examine the portrait.