The Picnic: time based photograph

Along with demonstrating elements of works for ideas and inspiration the beginning of the Picnic section also included the introduction to the Picnic Project. The aim of this project was to first document specific social interactions of your choosing using photographs, and then develop this into a map of the interactions that occurred. The process of the initial documentation was titled the time-based photograph as the photos were to be taken over a period of time, and also demonstrate the changes in interactions over time. The social interactions studied had to be specific aspects of people's behaviour such as gestures or expressions, which meant focusing on photographing particular body parts. For my time based photograph I chose to focus on the hands as these are main means of communicating other than speech and so would be quite dynamic. The posts covering this section of the picnic are listed below. To view these posts click the titles:

1. Picnic Photos
2. Collation of Photos

The final collage that I created resulted in the following time-based photograph:

I think this collage is quite successful in portraying the social interactions that occurred on the Picnic. In particular a variety of hand gestures are portrayed, demonstrating the focus of the image. The image however has not lost any readability due to this and so the situation can be easily assessed by the viewer. The composition of the image allows for the various movements and gestures to be displayed without crowding the image. As well as social interactions it also demonstrates interaction with both natural and man-made objects within the environment, which directly links with the theme of both social and human ecology covered in this module.
The time-based photograph was an interesting and engaging way to begin this project and also the module overall. By using a practical and social event to launch us into the project it allowed us to instantly get to grips with the mind set needed for the project whilst also acting as a useful introduction to the people and places around us.