Virtual Eye (2019)

Project Review The work I created for previous exhibition including `Faceless Portrait` (2017) and `Virtually Me` (2018) belong to a singular stream of ideas culminating in `Virtual Eye` (2019). These ideas became focussed around the concept that it is objects that create a portrait – a metaphorical description of the person. As we share on social media pictures of our lives and the objects that surround us, we create incidental portraits. The intention of this piece is to explore these portraits and move them from the incidental to the intentional. ‘Virtual Eye’ is a collaborative piece. Working with four people via Twitter and using photographs of objects they selected and shared, I curated a portrait of each person based upon four themes (home, work, hobbies and interests) producing a total of sixteen portraits. Each of the sets of four portraits were then combined within a virtual glass box in a digital 3D construct; one box per person with their portraits as large transparencies. This presents the portraits as individual pieces which interact with each other exploring the individual portraits and the complexity of their interaction with each other. As a continuation of the collaboration, each portrait was then reinterpreted as a musical soundtrack which is overlaid in the final video. `Virtual Eye’ does not simplify; it seeks to communicate the complexity of the individual and their relationships. It seeks to include the viewer in this conversation. At present, you can view the full 3D Digital Animation of `Virtual Eye‘ on YouTube https://youtu.be/LK29ln9KPJE with a soundtrack by Clive Whitburn. The full series of blogs relating to the development of Faceless Portrait, Virtually Me and Virtual Eye can be found on my website https://cliffcrawfordart.co.uk/category/studio/virtual-eye/