Art from Code: Collage Prompt

I started with the idea of commenting on the role of wealth and attention in society. But after a while I realized my concept kept coming back to social media.  Obviously social media is a catch grab for attention but it also has defined modern society and younger generations.  Social media, along with the development of technology in itself, has redeveloped the way we interact and communicate with each other.  So for my collage, I wanted to emphasize that point, but also the notion that it does more harm than good.  I don’t necessarily believe in that but it is certainly a reoccurring theory.

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I thought about complimenting my collage with an image when I first got the assignment.  I thought it would be interesting to use an iphone as the complement and have the collage on its screen but I didn’t think that would be the most creative.  Instead I added an individual so I could structure it to look as if the collage is almost consisting of thoughts in a persons head. This is why the face is cut off half way and directed at the bottom of the picture.

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Half way through, I thought it would make sense to humanize the individual a little more, have him realize the work above his face.  With the dialogue, I used them almost as other images to add to the code to describe social media. I then had the idea of separating some pictures from the others.  I wanted to do this to display how people believe we lose certain skills and valuable traits to smartphones. With the images being separate from the larger thought(collage), I wanted it to look as if the pictures were vanishing from the mind.  Those pictures consisted of activity, communication, literature, etc., since those are the things some believe are lost due to this technology era.

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What my final piece illustrates is the ideas formulated throughout this post.  The collage is apart of the individuals mind. It highlights the need for attention, followers, and the consequences of social media.  The earplugs and picture of the female sitting alone represents the idea that phones cause isolation and lead to individuals plugging off the world. The images on the corner represent the fleeting values before phones and social media took over.  I tried to tint them and make them transparent so that they actually look like they’re vanishing from the page.

As for my own belief on the matter, I do think we have lost something valuable from smartphones.  I do believe individuals are less social, less polite, and more concerned about attention and self image.  Is it lost forever? Maybe, maybe not.  On the other hand, technology and social media has done more in providing us information than we could have ever imagined.  Life is a little simpler because of it, and now advancement is happening at a greater and greater rate.

Author: Gabe Eng