Week 4 Tutorial Reflection – Self Portrait #1 Presentation Reflection
As I gathered the images, videos and audio for my self portrait I kept moving back and forth on whether I should try a deep and introspective look at myself or showcase my strange personality. I found a middle ground with my portrait, the images leaned more towards the more abstract and symbolic, the crushing darkness surrounding a barely visible me or the eye glasses devoid of a head, staring ahead at a barely visible crossroads. To contrast that, I used my audio pieces to communicate my outward personality such as my laziness and love of film, the things my friends and family associate with me. Presenting this project to my classmates was more interesting because it allowed me to see various approaches to capturing the self. Some focused more on the abstract while others used their personality to display themselves first and foremost. All the portraits I saw opened my eyes to the infinite ways to approach creating a self portrait through various media. It allowed me to feel more comfortable with what I gathered and to not try to be to ‘artsy’ and just try and capture what others see in me instead of trying to solely attempt to transcend to a art-house representation of myself because that would ring false to me. Defining myself and my personality is something I avoid doing at all costs in my everyday life so creating a project based around myself was difficult as an awkward and extremely self conscious guy so being able to see everybody’s anxieties displayed proudly next to their strengths helped to control my anxious in capturing myself and allows me to approach the second portrait with the ability to understand myself and how to present that to an audience without feeling like a complete fool.
