For this assignment, my plan is to create a web presence that I refer to as the ‘Hybrid Photo Experience’ that displays my photographic art work in a creative and unique way. Instead of creating just an online web portfolio in order to display my abilities as a photographer, I thought treating it as a ‘create your own adventure’ narrative depending on who the user is would be a neat way to navigate the user through my head space; literally. I want this web-based project to function like the association game, only using my photographs as associations instead of words.
My homepage will only feature a portrait of myself from the shoulders up. There will be various places within the portrait that will link you to other photographs through a process of lowered opacity hover over’s that create a hybrid of my personal photographs with my face. The linked photographs, which will be several per page, will be organized based upon colour and shape of the original photograph it was linked to; this way the connecting photographs will not only blend with the original self portrait, but will allow for the narrative to unfold and expand upon itself. It also gives the option for the user to navigate or move through my website depending on what exactly they are attracted to in terms of colours and shapes. This is because I personally feel that keeping it simple is the best way to captivate a larger audience, especially those who aren’t necessarily familiar with art or the message or meaning behind a photograph.
My mind map shows only a few options per photograph but I want the final product to be a time consuming navigation through my archive of personal photographs, having several path options for each photograph. With that being said, once the user has chosen a particular pathway, they can’t go back until they reach the loop page; this takes them back to the homepage where they began, allowing the user to start an entirely new adventure.
I feel the hybrid aspect of this project is important not only for the interactivity of the user but because I as an artist am fascinated with the idea of transformation. Having the hover overs allows for the viewer/user to partake in the transformation of my artwork virtually; they can see all the hybrid forms before choosing a path to travel upon. I also feel that it engages the viewer to think about visual associations and how photographs can work together to create a narrative based off of highly simple traits since there will be little to no text while navigating through my website; and in some ways it makes it more universal because language barriers don’t come into play.
I like the idea of the "mouseover" hover as anticipating transformation and virtual participation. I will be curious to see how your ideas come to roost in the collaborative project. Good work.
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