MFA THESIS :: By Lake Nokomis: Fragments from Walks through the Neighborhood and Home Again
by Louise Lystig Fritchie, MFA, Uof M :: July 2002
Abstract
Scenes of the author's neighborhood of many years--the area surrounding Lake Nokomis in Minneapolis, Minnesota, U.S.A. --were captured with a digital camera from Septemeber 2001 through April 2002. These images, fragments of the natural and built environment, were composed with an interest in the elements of color, texture, light, line, and shape. A selection of the images is the focus of the web site http://bylakenokomis.com. The website includes the pairing of low- and high-resolution images, a calendar, a map, perosnal narrative, and links for larger, related images. These features allow visitors to make various discoveries about the images, such as the dates, the locations of the subjects, thoughts of the author, and visual surprises. The images were also used for magnets with the web site's URL and a set of banners placed at the end of a 230-foot hallway in whcih visitors discovered the effect of distance on image resolution.
Sections
01. Introduction
02. Neighborhood [geographic/demographic info, factors influencing development, housing characteristics]
03. Photography [author's experience with trad. & digital photography, viewing photos in different formats]
04. Digital Narrative [properties of digital environments, aesthetics of digital narrative]
05. The Nokomis Web Site [development, description, feedback/revisions]
06. Public Display of Work [idea generation, printing & installation, viewing experience, analysis]
07. Conclusion
08. Bibliography
09. Appendices [visual influences, equipment, CD-Rom]
2 comments:
02. Neighborhood demographics section includes 2000 Census Bureau data on total pop, gender, age distribution, races, and avg. household size...I'm wondering why these data are relevant to a study of image perception/color and pixelation?
Housing Characteristics: this section seems more in congruence with the overall intent of the project; describing the qualitative aesthetics of the built environment that is to be photographed and experienced. (most housing was built between 1920-1940, including bungalows, Cape Cod cottages, Colonial and Tudor styles). In this same section she describes the trees that dot the landscape; elms, conifers, cedars, maples, ash, and crabapples.
03. Louise does a good job of describing her inspiration and orientation to the chosen thesis topic: inspired by the photography of Jim Brandenburg, the immediacy of her own neighborhood, and low-cost/time investment relative to a big skill payoff (producing digital photographs en masse as a way of increasing her own skills naturally).
04. the digital narrative emerges in how the photographs and other design elements are arranged together. A level of interactivity creates an "explorable and extensible" world within the digital creations.
05. Web site. This section describes more clearly the process Louise used. Development of the creative project component (the web site) was characterized by what she calls a series of "expansions and contractions" that took the project from an initial stage of a wide range of possibilites, to a narrowed, and ultimately singular form. Steps included:
-creating a long list of possible topics and narrowing down from there
--taking many photographs over time and selecting the best
--immersion in visual events and media and keeping thoughts recorded in a journal
--sketching possible ideas and layouts for the narrative structure, discussingn, producing, refining
--seeking out criticisms and making revisions
"Filling in the well"
Louise visited museums, galleries, lectures, conferences, viewed all types of photography books, and searched photography sites online.
She kept a journal for the purpose of recording discussions and decisions along the way, to keep summary and commentary on her visual event experiences, and to serve as a tool for planning and brainstorming.
Feedback was sought for multiple sources (other MFA students, faculty committee, graphic design seniors, etc.) at various front-end to final-end stages. Revisions were made based on these critiques.
06. Public Display of work, a required component of the MFA Creative Thesis...Louise describes her thought process and decision making, as well as the implementation of her final installation and display, along with a visual analysis.
General Impressions...
The writing was done in the 1st person voice, interesting to note.
Overall I felt that the ideas presented were not overally complex or abstract. They were, rather, simple but acute observations that were well-thought out, thoroughly discussed and explored, and all decisions that were made were defended with sound reasoning.
The project focus was narrow enough, but allowed Louise to dig deep within it.
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