GLITCH TESTING

To show how my online world is interfering with my reality, I wish to create glitch effects over the top of images as a representation of how the two are intertwined and causing noise, chaos and unclear visions for me. As I had success so far when relying on only myself to edit and retouch images, I chose to carry on this method as not only was it convenient and reliable, it has given me the opportunity to improve skills, learn completely new ones and boost my overall confidence in all things creative. Within my original proposal I stated how I wished to work with a huge team of creatives to achieve the planned goals, however during the production, this has proved to be a tedious task and as my ideas have grown and developed it has worked as a huge learning curve as I now want to use every opportunity to embrace challenges that I encounter and work twice as hard to learn how to deal with these problems and devise the correct solution that I can.

Within my project proposal I had already experimented with effects within photoshop to create a futuristic, glitch-like images. It was extremely successful considering this was my first-time in doing-so and I still love the outcomes that I produced from them, however I think that they could convey the wrong message to the viewer as they may be perceived as too space-like and futuristic. My project is focusing on my real life, and the present issues I am facing through my over use of social media, so this needs to be shown clearly throughout the imagery. The image in the bottom lefthand corner achieves this the most as I feel it is the closest representation of a glitch that may be found on a phone app or computer screen. I need to experiment further with this technique, exploring colour balances  and hues further to truly achieve a real technical fault vibe to the image.

Still wanting to achieve the outcome on my own, I asked other students within the university for advice rather than assistance as my photoshop skills weren't as advanced as I would like them to be, but I wish to improve through the completion of work. I received some wonderful feedback from a few people (shown below) explaining how there are mobile apps that can achieve my desired look and various ways that it is possible through photoshop. To my surprise, the photoshop advice I was given was actually the same way that I had actually produced the bottom left image from my proposal! 

Mobile app ‘Glitch’ was the chosen tool I used to test out the affects. The app had wide range of effects available to add onto my images, however after testing out various images that I had uploaded to my personal Instagram account, I found that it reduced the image quality quite drastically. Even after taking into consideration that a glitch isn't perfect and it is a faulty image, I still decided that I preferred the image outcomes that were produced within photoshop as all of my concepts so far have been of an industry standard and quality, which I want to keep consistent throughout my project. By having full control over the designs and creative direction of images this will be achieved. I also want this project to be a true representation of my skills and attributes, that I have been worked hard to perfect - by using a mobile app, I almost feel as though I am using someone else work, which I do not want to do. Experimenting further with blurring/glitch techniques, it will improve the consistency throughout my work and project overall allowing concepts to flow smoothly from one another.