What I Remember 06

WHAT I REMEMBER
210mm x 297mm
Ink on transparency

Our childhood experiences play a formative role in creating who we are; it influences our decisions and can have a huge impact on the later part of our lives. It is the significant moment of being able to try everything for the first time, where there is room for trial, error and exploration.

In a spate of self-awareness, it dawned upon me that I was struggling with the recollection of my childhood memories. As a means of self-expression, I wanted to convey my thoughts and emotions of these significant milestones through the exploration of movements. Using transparency & light as my medium to play with the idea of “fading memories”, I intend to immerse viewers in the projection of my memories.


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I purposefully hung the transparencies lower than the comfortable height for viewers with the intention of making them lift up the work to take a closer look at it.

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I was discussing my project with my classmate, Acid, at a half-lit ADM at 2am one day, when she showed me an effect against a dark corner of the wall. She shined a flashlight at the transparencies, making a projection on the wall. It was then that I realised that the effect was blurrier than what was seen on the translucency and could serve as a representation of “fading memories”. I also decided then that this was how I wanted to present my project. It is more interactive for viewers and hopefully will make them to think more about the deeper meaning behind the image.

What I Remember 05

I tried printing out the photos on different mediums for final submission. I felt like the paper base could make a huge difference in enhancing the experience of the photography project.

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Printed on paper with home inkjet printer, white space cut out to test the contrast of the paper against the wall as a background.

img_3821Printed on transparency with home inkjet printer to test out the effect.

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Printed on matte photo paper with home inkjet printer.

img_3825Printed on transparency and layered over a mix of coloured translucent paper to test effects of colour on the print.

After trying to print on the few mediums that I had at home, I decided to finalise with printing on transparency. I feel like the use of transparency could open the door for a wide range of effects because of the opacity of translucent printed on transparent. I also felt like the transparency could represent the act of “vulnerability” in showing my past to the world, in the sense of me being transparent about my life events.

What I Remember 04

I finally got down to trying out scanography with a home printer! It’s not exactly a very tedious process, but it’s very dependent on moving the photo at the right timing to get the effect at the right position. Here’s an example of how I did it:

The outcomes from experimenting with various movements to distort the photos were quite interesting, although it is difficult to replicate the exact effect again due to the nature of the process. Anyway, here are some of the methods I tried for each photo:







Basic CMYK


Basic CMYK


Currently it looks really really trippy and I quite like what has been produced so far. In my experimentations, I tried scanning extra elements in the hopes of enhancing the meaning of the photos. I’m not really sure if it works or how I can further improve this, will wait for the sharing session to hear what Robert & my classmates think about it so far. I thoroughly enjoyed the process of making, though I’m questioning if the photos look too complex and manipulated to make out what I’m trying to express.

What I Remember 03

Some examples of scanography found in zines:

tumblr_nia0eoqiel1svgodmo4_1280Using objects to create patterns

tumblr_nia1kbmdxt1svgodmo1_1280Using layers of paper

tumblr_nia36e0oot1svgodmo3_1280 tumblr_nia36e0oot1svgodmo4_1280Using motion & abstraction


I feel that motion & abstraction can be interesting as it does not distract the viewer from the subject matter (image), but brings more attention to certain areas of the photo that the creator might want to emphasise on. In the example shown above, it is also very emotive & expressive although there is a lack of colour. Hope all goes well!

What I Remember 02

I’ve been thinking a lot about how I could express my emotions through editing my photos with a particular medium. I remembered a process that I came across once, when I attended a Local People SG x M2 Academy market. A particular booth caught my eye – while everyone else was selling products, this booth was selling an experience – a hand at making zines, using scanography.

Scanography is the process of capturing digitized images of objects. It uses atypical objects, often three-dimensional, as well as from photography, due to the nature of the scanner’s operation.

The booth offered a wide range of items for us to play around with, from old textbooks & examination papers to a good morning towel. Using these items, as well as the movement of the creator while the scanner was in the process, created an effect that is impossible to replicate.

Examples of the pages in the zine from that flea market:

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I love the distortion of the images and how the effect expresses the creator’s movements and probably their thoughts and emotions when creating the zine. I also like how it makes use of existing objects to make art, giving the old object a new lease of life. I would like to try using this method to manipulate my photos to express how I feel about my childhood photos and the stories behind them.

What I Remember 01

I’ve been having problems thinking of how to execute my existing topic regarding human behaviour/reaction and expressing that through photos. I think the idea of using a set-up experiment as a form of research is interesting, but the topic I’ve chosen is really really broad and I had a hard time finding a place to start. (#self-kill)

After contemplating about my topic for the past 2 weeks, I have decided to focus on something that is more personal and close to the heart. The title of my project will be “What I Remember”, and it the central theme will be about memories (or lack thereof). I’ve always had this situation whereby I have barely any recollection of my childhood. I thought of expressing what I actually remember about my past through existing images of my childhood, with the use of old photos and pops of colour, to express my thoughts and emotions about that particular photographed memory.

Before I started experimenting, I decided to do some research on the medium of using colours on photos to see if I could get any inspiration.

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I love how the bright red colour is in stark contrast to the black & white background, immediately bringing attention to their faces (or lack thereof). It also draws my attention to the action of the subjects and their dressing.

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I like how the tone of the blue matches that of the filter of the photo. Giving the photo a very “soft” feeling. I also like how the brush strokes provide some form of depth and direction of an imaginary face although there isn’t one in the photo.

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The textures of the paint caught my attention because it gave a very three dimensional effect to a 2D photo. The mix of blues and whites also divides itself from the mundane black and white of the rest of the photo. The sharp angles direct the eye, further emphasising and framing certain parts of the photo.

I will start trying out by adding colour onto the photos and see if I can achieve the desired effect to bring out the emotions I would want to express.