Inspired by The Postman by David Brin, I wanted mail to be the central conceit of my project, with an overall theme of progress. I used Photoshop to manipulate all the images.

Addition

Message: Mail bridges the distance between people, bolstering and solidifying relationships in spite of obstacles.

Debrief: The romantic postcard look emerged by accident, but I think it fits. We have a very idealised view of snail mail, after all. It’s a labour of love.

Subtraction

Message: Bridges are torn down, the rivers dry up. A satire of the borderline apocalyptic consequences predicted by the older generation should social media thrive unhindered amongst the youth.

Debrief: This was my first time doing that charred effect on the edges of the sheet and I like the result. Gathering screenshots of my open social media pages was fun.

Substitution

Message: Who needed that water? We’re all knee-deep in it! As natives of the modern world, we are physically, socially, mentally and emotionally distant from one another. But even as snail mail withers on the vine, social media and the Internet continues to build more and more bridges and gives people of varying classes the opportunity to connect over these long distances. Regardless of what channel it is communicated through, the message will shine through. It doesn’t mean less just because it takes less effort.

Debrief: I could have done a better job making the distinction between the woman on the left and the man on the right, as I’d wanted to convey that people of different personalities (e.g. introvert vs. extrovert) or social statuses could bond with each other over instant messaging.

Superimposition

Message: This was intended to be the capstone or moral of the series. Change vs. Stagnation. Progress isn’t a binary but an ongoing process. We should embrace it instead of allowing the past to creep up and suffocate it, dressing these hackneyed and inefficient conventions up as ‘tradition’ all the while.

Debrief: Not happy. The piece is rushed and sloppy in composition. I took the instructions for an ‘image bank’ too literally and ended up cobbling together a selection of images that don’t really mesh. It doesn’t get my message across very well, either. I do like the superimposition work with the dead trees.

Reflection: I had difficulty coming up with ideas and compositions that would convey my themes clearly. This made actually creating the pieces an arduous task. Looking over the pieces now, I think they’re messy and need a focal point to be more powerful.