BOOK OF ‘X’

Project Preview:

• The overall aesthetic and theme were distortion, broken, experimental and chaotic. The photos resulting from GAN training opened a field of photography that is unexpected to the photographer and unable to manipulate.
• My first step is to prepare photos with machine learning (GAN training). On top of what I had already, I trained more photos by using a specific color palette (mainly composed of black, white, and red) to include in my sequence. The purpose of this zine is less likely to describe a specific story or study concentration but a showcase of the styles of the pictures themselves. Therefore, I thought the best way to display photos is in a book format.
• The decision to make the zine into a physical and formal publication was initially an idea to show the juxtapose the content through the style of presentation. But through the working process, the idea of a “junk journal” started to appear. It was challenging to incline toward one between the two concepts, so I kept both.
• The title: “X” was for crediting the class itself and my thoughts for the photos. A fundamental reason for choosing machine learning results is that it is something completely new. And through artist studying Robbie Barrat in week 8, I was stunned by the outcome of trained photos and the ability of machines. ‘x’ stands for the unknown, the unexpected, and stable. In the book of distortion, the unknown is the concealed images, the unexpected is the results of images, and the stable is the style of images. And lastly, X-perimental.

• During user testing, I presented an idea of immersing the two solutions into one, which was building a junk-journal on top of a formal publication. In my opinion, in terms of the theme I wanted to showcase, that idea was the most convincing, but also fully dependent on the arriving time of publication.
• My original plan was to start wrecking the formal publication I had and make it into something fully organic and experimental. Grabbing some advice offered from peers, I should begin a “second part” in case this idea wouldn’t go through. Therefore, In advance of the book arrival, I made a mini-version of what the book will some-how look like. I change the layout and the sequence a little in terms of my material.
• Due to publication arrival unsuccessfulness, the original version which was suppose to showcase a formal phonebook stays in digital format. And the project will remain in two separate parts: same group of photo and same theme and key-words presenting in two opposing style as a photography book.

PART 1

PART 2: