Candidate Authentication Form

Project Proposal

Mindmap

This is a mindmap that we created to tackle different topics related to future. This is known as a Lotus Blossom mind map and is created by thinking of 8 things relating to future, then a further 8 things relating to those. This allowed me to explore various possibilities, such as looking into medicine, spacecraft, human nature and change.

Artist Research

Kyle Nutt

Kyle Nutt is a photographer and videographer who shoots a lot of different types of photography. However, he typically shoots with models. Some of these photographs utilise different types of light photography, usually in the form of portals. These portals were what I used for my shoot into the idea of “Dreams.” However, this shot below is one of my particular favorites.

This shot shows an astronaut stepping out of a doorway of light into what appears to be another planet. This was taken with the use of light photography, using a long light bar to create a doorway. This was also taken in a rocky desert to make the shot look it is on another planet. The smoke in the background that has been added in also adds to this look. The lighting placement manages to highlight the astronaut in an interesting way, splitting the light around them and creating a spot that contrasts the blinding light of the door.

Another picture I found was of this astronaut in the Great Salt Lake in Utah. This shot shows the astronaut centre frame with his body reflected in the red lake. This shot is based on the absurdity of the lake, making this shot seem otherworldly, therefore making the astronaut fit the theme. This shot is brought together by the ripples in the water that distort the space around the astronaut , thereby distorting the reflection. I also particularly like this shot because of the gradient of colouring in the water. The way the further back water has just as slight tint of red and moves forward to be fully red looks almost edited, despite being fully natural.

This would be an interesting idea to explore, however it would be difficult to find a location which creates as much intrigue and is as mysterious as this while fitting with the theme in a realistic travel distance.

Tapestry

Tapestry is a media production agency based in Soho, London. According to their website, “For over 50 years we have worked with global brands, agencies, photographers and publications to build a reputation of the highest quality.” Their focus is on technology and gaming is something that I personally enjoy and is also an ever-growing and evolving industry. The phrase “technology” encapsulates multiple different things, including medicine, computing, electronics or agriculture. However, I would like to focus on the more electronically based portion of technology, much like Tapestry does.

This is an image that was taken showing the functionality of the Playstation Virtual Reality. This picture shows somebody immersed in a virtual world, seeming almost as realistic as reality itself. This is shown by how they are looking past the headset and it is as if they are looking into the game itself. The game that is used for the promotion, Beat Saber, uses a neon colour palette with multiple world defying and physics defying graphics. This makes the world look much more vibrant and interesting, attracting the viewer. This image is taken from a slightly lower vantage point, although it is not enough to make any stylistic difference.

Client Description

The client for this project is a company known as Accu. This company is involved in the engineering, manufacture and sales of various engineering components and tools, such as screwdrivers, screws, nuts, bolts and wrenches. These are all made with a focus on quality, accessibility and speed of production and delivery. Accu pride themselves on their 750 million components sold, 4.8/5 customer rating, 24/7 customer support and fast worldwide delivery.

This is the page you see when you first go to the Accu website. It has a similar interface to Amazon, with a search bar, option for currency and location, sign in and checkout basket on the top of the screen. This easy to navigate page promotes the idea of simplicity, one of the company’s main tenets. The use of blue for the website theme feels trustworthy and secure, giving the customer confidence in the products and company.

Looking further down the page we can see more similarities to competitors such as Amazon and Screwfix, dividing the different products into sections for easier access. These are all showcased in a small picture along with the text to not only show that they have them, but to show the sheer variety of different things that they have. Putting them on white to match the background also puts more focus directly onto the items. This is also where the 24/7 Customer Service chat appears, shown by the icon in the bottom right.

Going down more shows the main slogan of the company: We’re Helping Build Tomorrow. This slogan has multiple meanings. The first meaning is the idea that they are helping build the future, helping engineers reach new heights and helping provide the materials to bring us closer to the future technology. The other meaning is linked to the delivery speed, showing that from when you order, you will be able to start building your project tomorrow because of the speed of delivery.

Researching Types of Electronics

For part of my project, I thought it would interesting to use some of the most futuristic technology that is openly available to see what advancements could be made in the electronics field. To do this, I asked ChatGPT. ChatGPT is an open source artificial intelligence created by the company OpenAI. This company is an U.S. based artificial intelligence (AI) research organization founded in December 2015, researching artificial intelligence with the goal of developing “safe and beneficial” artificial general intelligence, which it defines as “highly autonomous systems that outperform humans at most economically valuable work”.

I gave ChatGPT 3.5 the question “What developments do you think will be made in the next 20 years in the electronics field?” The response from ChatGPT was:

“While predicting specific developments in the electronics field over the next 20 years is challenging, several trends and potential advancements can be considered:

Quantum Computing: Progress in quantum computing may lead to the development of powerful computers capable of solving complex problems exponentially faster than current supercomputers.
Advanced AI Integration: Enhanced integration of artificial intelligence (AI) into various electronic devices, systems, and processes, enabling more intelligent and autonomous functionalities.
Flexible and Wearable Electronics: Continued advancements in flexible and wearable electronics, leading to the creation of innovative devices that seamlessly integrate with our daily lives.
5G and Beyond: Evolution beyond 5G networks, with the development and implementation of faster and more reliable communication technologies, enabling the Internet of Things (IoT) and other connected applications.
Neuromorphic Computing: Progress in neuromorphic computing, mimicking the structure and function of the human brain, which could result in more efficient and intelligent computing systems.
Biocompatible Electronics: The development of electronics that can seamlessly integrate with the human body, potentially leading to advancements in medical diagnostics, prosthetics, and human-machine interfaces.
Energy-Efficient Technologies: Continued focus on developing energy-efficient electronics to address environmental concerns and improve the sustainability of electronic devices.
Advancements in Semiconductor Technology: Innovations in semiconductor manufacturing processes, potentially leading to smaller, more powerful, and energy-efficient chips.
Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR): Further improvements in AR and VR technologies, with more immersive and realistic experiences across various applications, from gaming to education and healthcare.
Advanced Robotics: Development of more sophisticated and capable robots for various industries, including manufacturing, healthcare, and service sectors.

It’s important to note that these predictions are speculative, and the actual developments may be influenced by various factors, including research breakthroughs, societal needs, and economic considerations. Additionally, unexpected technological breakthroughs may lead to innovations that are currently unforeseen.”

There are certain sections in this that I would like to focus on in particular, due to those sections matching up better for the company we are shooting for. This was described previously on the page Future: Client Description and I will be exploring the concepts that I could use here.

Advanced Robotics

Advanced robotics are linked to the company through their love of seeing what their products are used to create. This came from their love of the Gravity Industries Jet Suit in particular. Because of this, they now feature a section on their website called “#BuildingWithAccu“, where they show what people are doing with the building materials they get from Accu. This shows that Accu cares about how their products are used and that they care about the development of robotics and engineering as a whole.

Different ways I can incorporate this into the project are:

Showing different products from different areas of technology, such as prosthetics, medical uses or other hardware such as computers
Showing what the future could hold for the company, such as being used in more advanced companies such as Tesla
Research experts and what they think are the most advanced robotics and how they can be adapted into everyday life as we become more integrated with technology

Overall, this could be a good theme to follow, looking into how Accu products can be used to create products that truly help with Building Tomorrow.

Augmented/Virtual Reality

Augmented reality is the concept of using technology and integrating it into the view of our current world while still maintaining the world as the base structure. However, virtual reality is the idea of using technology to transport us into an entirely different world based in a different reality being projected for us to control. This is the type of technology that was shown when I analysed the Tapestry on my Future: Artist Research page. Some examples of products that use augmented reality are things such as Snapchat filters, the new Apple Vision Pro or video games utilising the world like Pokemon Go. Some examples of products that use virtual reality are VR headsets such as the Meta Quest or the Valve Index. However, there are types of virtual reality used in jobs such as flight simulators for pilots.

This type of technology could be used in various different ways, for example:

Using virtual reality or augmented reality to map out sizes and specifications of buildings in comparison to the real world for easier visualisation of a final product
Using virtual reality for a more hands-on way of designing screws more accurately by being able to see in full detail in front of the designer

Overall, this would be an interesting theme to follow, but I don’t think it would be realistic to do in the allotted time.

These themes are interesting to follow, but I think that it would be best to follow this idea of #BuildingWithAccu. This could be used to create many different props that could be used to create more of a personal connection to the client, creating a more fitting final piece for the environment.

Secondary Research

Nerdforge

Nerdforge is made up of Norwegians Martina and Hansi, two artists and builders who create lots of different cool props and general works of art to decorate their studio and to also gift to other people. Some examples of this were when they combined an entire book series into one book, spraypainted a car for her younger brother and turned her workspace into a wizard’s study. These are a testament to their ability to create accurate and detailed designs with specialties in fine art, painting and overall creation with materials such as XPS foam and resin. However, because of my theme I will be looking into the video below.

In this video she is tasked with creating a cool looking PC case for a build that a tech youtuber is creating. For the theme, she decided to do a cyberpunk looking case. The use of the LED’s mixed with the dark spaces to look like the nightline of a cyberpunk city street really interested me and gave me some inspiration for what I wanted to do for this image. The main influence was the lighting, using neon pink/magenta with neon blue/cyan in combination with darkness to create a big contrast. This darkness will be created by the darker clothing that the model will be wearing, as experimented with in Future: Primary Research.

Game of Thrones

The idea for this came when I thought of the different things I could make with the idea of #BuildingWithAccu that I explored back in Future: Researching Types of Electronics. After I came to the conclusion that I could build something with parts that Accu would normally use, like nuts and screws. This is when I looked to what is probably the most famous and most recognisable prop in all of Game of Thrones.

This is the throne upon which the King of the Andals and the First Men sits. It is a very cool looking prop and I was thinking that I could build a miniature throne from various parts and use perspective and clever editing to make a model appear as if they were sat upon it, appearing as royalty. This could fit with the cyberpunk theme, but I was further incentivised during a trip to Accu, during which I discovered the existence of this bridge screw.

My idea for this was that it could be wielded as a sceptre that a traditional monarchy would use as a form of coronation, most commonly used in the British monarch and part of a collection known as the “Crown Jewels.” The orb that is also commonly used alongside the sceptre could be replaced with a CPU cooler I found among some computer parts at the college, mimicking the shape of the orb while staying with the theme of computers and technology. This cemented my final idea.

After discovering this, I was able to contact Accu and they allowed me to use these bridge screws for my project.

Primary Research

I decided to further explore the cyberpunk theme by practicing with some editing. I first decided to look into using neon pink and blue colours to reflect this. One way I mainly found that it was used was in the lights, with bring neon pinks and neon blues dominating with darker subjects. I did a small photoshoot with the model I was going to use for the main shoot to see how this light would look and how it would affect the model.

This was the first attempt at using a model to showcase the lighting on what they would look like sitting down. This lighting fit quite well, however I wanted the colours to be a little more neon as opposed to being more white. I have ordered a magenta colour gel to go over the light, but in the meantime I decided to alter the colour, hue and saturation of the reds to see what effect I could achieve with just a bit of editing.

As shown here, the colour looks a lot more like a neon pink by simply darkening, saturating and altering the hue to make it appear more neon. I also made the blue side slightly different with the same technique, but I like the natural blue more. However, I wanted to do this more practically, so I bought a pink colour that would pop more and be more neon. I also swapped out the blue for a clean sheet that was more vibrant and neon.

This is taken with the new blue and pink combination. As shown, the colour is much more vibrant and neon and it lights up the background more. However, I need to find a good flash combinations to blend the colours in the background to create more of a dark and purple colour to better suit the theme of the shoot. This is also the shot that I will be using to experiment with the editing of the image.

Image Editing: Layering and Blending

The main focus of this editing was not to change anything about the lighting or the model directly, but rather to create small additions. These additions were wiring on the head and a robotic looking eye. I decided to focus on the wiring on the head first, then the robotic eye.

I first took a macro photograph of a motherboard. This allowed me to get a clean picture with crisp focus to take some of the wiring off to use for the picture.

This is the section of wiring I decided to take off. It uses a number with a fuse and has a lot of wires on it.

I used the colour select to select the darker parts of the green so it would be easier to blend.

I then added this to my main image.

After sizing it and placing it, I used the “Screen” blend to blend it in and make it fit.

I then bent the wiring around his head with the warp transform to make it look better from the perspective.

For the eye, I edited the part of the motherboard I scanned into the model’s eye and used the “Quick Select” tool to select his eye, then inversed it to get rid of the parts outside.

I then used the curves and used the “Auto” command tool, filled in the brightest and darkest colours on the blue side of the face to blend the eye in better.

I then used “Lighten” to create a better texture and blend it into the natural eye better.

I used the Adobe Colour Wheel to find a complementary colour for the pink and blue in the picture. I then changed the eye to that colour by slightly saturating and hue shifting it. However, I felt like it didn’t fit very well and that is was too light. Because of this, I changed the colour

This is the colour I settled on. The orange doesn’t distract massively, but still stands out and goes with the other colours. This created the final image shown below.

Test shoot: How Clothes Affect Light

I decided to do a test shoot to figure out what clothes I wanted my models to be wearing. This could make or break the shoot because the light could affect the clothing differently, so I decided to do a shoot with a few different models wearing different clothes to decide what I wanted them to wear.

These are the positions that I used to get a feeling for how the different colours would look while keeping a constant so that I see how all the clothes are affected by light. I used hard split lighting with the right light being a blue gel and the left light being a magenta gel.

emily

First, I started off with the black clothing. For this I used Emily, who was wearing a simple black polyester tank top. The light seemed to be absorbed by the top quite well while also bouncing off of it a bit, creating a nice blend. This preserved the dark tones of the image while also being able to add the colour from the lights into the clothing. However, it looks a bit flat and doesn’t create a whole lot of depth because of the flatness of the clothing.

alice

For this next part I used Alice. She is wearing a dark grey polyester/cotton hoodie. The light bounced quite well again, but the dark patches were more prominent as they bent around the creases around the hoodie. This created a very cool effect where the dark spaces are maintained throughout the image and it looks amazing. However, the darkness that the black has is not as prevalent and is only formed by the folds in the hoodie. Because I will be using more fitted clothing for the shoot for the theme, the darkness created by the creases will not come into play.

jess

Finally, I took pictures of Jess, who I decided I am going to use for my final shoot. The light grey clothing reflects a lot more of the light, creating minimal dark spaces. This made it so that the shadows weren’t nearly as prevalent. However, throughout this shoot I discovered that I wanted to use her as my main model alongside Mike because of the way she seemed naturally good for the role judging by her poses and the way the light bounced off her hair. Both of these observations made me want her for the final piece.

Overall, This helped me decide that using black clothing would be ideal for the shoot. It maintains a good amount of darkness while still showing off the light.

Creating the Chair

I knew that I wanted to create a chair, and the most sensible resource for that seemed to be nuts. They were hexagonal and almost all nuts are that shape, making them easy to slot together into a sheet. I could then arrange these sheets to make a chair. For the project, I decided to buy a few packs of assorted stainless steel nuts, which would make the chair look more varied

My goal was to make the chair just a bit shorter than a litre water bottle, so I used a Tesco litre water for reference.

To begin, I decided how I wanted to make the sheets. This was by combining nuts together of the same size. An example is shown below.

These are the screws I would start off with. I would plan on using soldering to combine them, but I was using tin for my soldering and because the screws are stainless steel, they wouldn’t stay together. This meant I had to try using PVA, but it would stick hard enough. My solution was superglue, which stuck together perfectly without creating too much mess.

I would then place the screws like this, using a knife or other precise implement to guild the nuts together tightly. This meant that the pattern would be maintained without any small changes.

After gluing them together, this is how it turned out. It was very sturdy, so I knew it wouldn’t collapse under its own weight.

After this, I would make the sheets and combine them all together with superglue. After adding some longer screws on the back for the sword effect from the Iron Throne, the chair was complete. After shooting with the lighting for the shoot, the chair looked like this:

Future: Final Edits

First Shot

My first shot involved placing the male model onto the chair and adding the cybernetic eye.

This was the image of the chair I decided to use. I used this one because it was going to look very natural for a full body seated position image.

To start with, I cut out the model and placed him on the chair. However, this didn’t have much depth to it and it was quite obvious it was edited from the position of the right leg.

I added drop shadows to the bottom of his feet and added a small shadow behind his back leg for the effect of the light hitting it.

I then burned the shadows on the picture and slightly dodged the midtones to create a bigger contrast between the light and darkness.

I slightly cropped the image to make it more central. I was going to use the rule of thirds but I wasn’t able to because I didn’t have enough space.

To add the mechanical eye, I used the same process used in my test shoot. This created my final image shown below.

Second Shot

For the second shot, I decided to use the same image as the first shot but just swapped out the model.

I cut her out and placed her on the chair and it fit very seamlessly. This meant that I had to do no drop shadows to compensate for the light.

I used the “Selective Colour” tool to alter the magentas in the picture, making them slightly darked. This meant that it wasn’t as white and was more deep

I used the same process as I did in my test shoot, but instead applied one to each eye.

To create a cool looking effect, I used the “Hue & Saturation” adjustment to shift the left eye to be pink. This created a cool look of having the pink eye on the blue side and the blue eye on the pink side. This created my second final image, which is shown below.

Third Shot

For this shot, because it was from the waist up I could use a closer picture of the chair.

I cut out and placed the model on the chair, sizing them to the chair.

I then cropped the image to be a square format. This looked better because there wasn’t a lot of extra space on the side. I also used the “Selective Colour” tool to increase the blacks on the magentas, creating a more deep neon pink.

I then used the same technique shown in the second final image to create the matching eyes for this picture. This created my third final image shown below.

Evaluation

Throughout this project, I have been using some new materials, ideas and techniques to create my final pieces. These have included crafting my own props, reaching out to companies and overcoming different challenges.

Going chronologically, I started with my mindmap, using the Lotus Blossom method. This helped to generate general ideas about the future and what could link them. I planned to go across technological improvements along with possible prosthetics and AI. This was because of personal interest mainly, knowing that I would create something that someone else would like if it was also something I was interested in so I would want to put more effort into it.

Following this, I did research into different artists. Kyle Nutt was my main inspiration to start with, using a style of beautiful and strange location photography with themes of the future, such as the astronaut costume. However, I noted that it would be hard to realistically do this within this set time and in a good travel distance. The other artist I researched was Tapestry, who used some ideas of VR (virtual realist) in their work. This created a nice looking concept and I was particularly interested by the use of neon colours, which I carried into my final work.

Following this, I researched Accu directly. They used a sleek and sophisticated website, had dominant use of blue colours mixed with greens and oranges. This colour palette creates a sense of trustworthiness and security. The website reminded me of Amazon, very streamlined with search and filtering functions.

Still struggling to find a main theme, I decided to incorporate the use of some of the futuristic technology we have access to. I asked AI what developments in technology would be made in 20 years, and it gave me a few answers. However, I decided to focus on the idea of advanced robotics, and this led me to #BuildingWithAccu, a section on the website where people will build things with Accu products and show them off.

Following this line, I did some research on things I could build. I settled on something similar to the Iron Throne from Game of Thrones. My plan was to build a miniature version from nuts and bolts. The lighting was decided through the idea of cyberpunk influences after seeing a video by the Youtube channel Nerdforge of them building a neon city computer case. This incorporated the neon lighting from the Tapestry pictures.

Building the chair was very difficult. I started trying to weld the bolts together, but it wasn’t working because of the material of the bolts. However, I managed to find some superglue and, although slow, it was working. After about 3-4 weeks of building, I had finished it.

Finding models was easy, I was able to use Mike because by putting him in a turtleneck, he looked like a cyber king very convincingly. His stern expression also created some very nice shadows under his brow. However, I stumbled across a different model while experimenting with how light was affected by the clothing colour worn which I decided to use as a model as well. I used Jess because of the way the lighting bounced off her curly hair.

I had to match the lighting on the chair and the models when it came to my main shoot. To do this, I used the same lighting setup exactly and never moved the lights from when I was shooting start to end. I made sure nothing changed to ensure that it would be the same. However, I still had to figure out how to get the models on the chair in editing. I did this by shooting at similar angles both close up on the chair and on the models, shooting lots of pictures to make sure at least one of them would fit.

After this, the editing was fairly easy because of the practice and I was able to produce the final outcomes.

Overall, throughout this project I have been able to learn multiple different new things. I gained a better understanding of the studio and different lighting effects, utilising split lighting for my pictures to create the nice 50/50 for the pink and blue. I was able to experiment with making my own props, crafting the chair from nuts. I was also able to expand my ability to work with clients, being able to create professional emails and keep in contact informing them of how the project was going. This also led to a relationship where they felt comfortable lending me hundreds of pounds of equipment to use.

Some things I could further improve on is general time management. The edits were finished about 2-3 days before the end of the project when they could have been finished earlier. However, they were still finished in time. I also could have used more of my primary research in my finals. I didn’t end up using the motherboard layering, but that was because my main model was Jess. The motherboard layering wouldn’t have worked as well on her because of her hair.

This project was fun to do and I would be happy to work with more companies including Accu in the future.