The visual and dispositional style of “vaporwave” in connection with myself is what I intend on exploring by way of a photo book (click here to view). Vaporwave is a genre of music which is “defined by its appropriation of 1980s and 1990s mood music styles such as smooth jazz, elevator music, R&B, J-pop and lounge music” and which is “associated with an ambiguous or satirical take on consumer capitalism and technoculture.”[1] Vaporwave cover artwork and music videos incorporate “early internet imagery, late 1990s web design, glitch art, anime, 3D-rendered objects, and cyberpunk tropes.”[2] This visual aesthetic branched out into its own genre of net art in which artists create their own vaporwave-inspired designs and images with no necessary connection to a specific piece of music or album. This genre of net art is what I intend to learn how to create and execute for this project. I want to create a photo essay that is personal to me and unique, while incorporating this visual style that I connect with.
There will be several phases to my project, as follows: RESEARCH, EXPERIMENTATION, and FINAL CREATION. During the RESEARCH phase I will research more articles and closely examine examples from the different sub-genres and styles to be able to fully understand the essence and meaning of vaporwave. This will help me later in creating atmospherically and tonally accurate images. In the EXPERIMENTATION phase I will chose some images to attempt to replicate, as a form of learning through imitation (such as learning to draw by copying work made by the masters). This will require me to closely examine and understand what makes up the original image in order to accurately photograph my source photos and manipulate them in photoshop. This will give me the skills I need to then photograph and edit my own original images during the FINAL CREATION phase, which will be the images that become my photo essay.
[1, 2] Vaporwave, Wikipedia, Retrieved February 1, 2019
1. Research & Planning
I identified the following 5 categories of vaporwave edits: Plants, Text, People, Statues, and Misc. Note that this is not an exhaustive list of the differnt kinds of vaporwave edits out there, but these are what I followed for this project. I consulted my personal archive of saved vaporwave edits, picked some favourites, and compiled them into their respective categories as a sort of mood board to prepare for the EXPERIMENTATION phase.
The images featured above were NOT made by me, they were used as references. The notes were written by me.
2. Experimentation
Using the same philosophy as artists use when learning to draw, I picked specific reference images and set out to recreate them so that I may learn and experiment with the techniques used to create them to then apply in my own original images later. This process involved taking photographs then editing them in photoshop.
The Images
My Photos & Process
Test 1 © Elizabeth Frone
NOT MY IMAGE
Test 2 © Elizabeth Frone
NOT MY IMAGE
Test 3 © Elizabeth Frone
NOT MY IMAGE
Test 4 © Elizabeth Frone
NOT MY IMAGE
Test 5 © Elizabeth Frone
NOT MY IMAGE
Test 1 my photo
Test 2 my photo 1/3
Test 2 my photo 2/3
Test 2 my photo 3/3
Test 3 my photo process
Test 4 my photo
Test 5 my photo 1/3
Test 5 my photo 2/3
Test 5 my photo 3/3
3. Final Creation
The following are alternate versions of some images from the photo book.
© Elizabeth Frone
© Elizabeth Frone
© Elizabeth Frone
© Elizabeth Frone
© Elizabeth Frone
© Elizabeth Frone
© Elizabeth Frone
© Elizabeth Frone
REFERENCES
Dummy Mag. 2012. Comment: Vaporwave and the pop-art of the virtual plaza. July 12. Accessed February 1, 2019. https://www.dummymag.com/news/adam-harper-vaporwave/.
Encyclopedia Dramatica. n.d. Ｖａｐｏｒｗａｖｅ. Accessed February 1, 2019. https://encyclopediadramatica.rs/Vaporwave.
KnowYourMeme. n.d. Vaporwave. Accessed February 1, 2019. https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/cultures/vaporwave.
Wikipedia. n.d. Vaporwave. Accessed February 1, 2019. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vaporwave.
